Monday, February 19, 2018

A visit, some handstitching, prep work and a flashback.....


A couple of weeks ago Janice visited Toowoomba..... we have been bloggy friends for a long time but never met.  It was lovely to go out for a meal with them and Kris, our other halves and also Chookyblue's Fairy girl ....

I got this snap of the 3 of us bloggers...


It was a lovely evening with wonderful food (thank you so much Janice .... and Mick)  Janice and Mick do lots of interesting trips... I love reading what they get up to....

(This is old news but somehow my photo got tangled up in the recesses of technology and I had to hunt for it!!!)

My weekend started with Friday night stitchers  where I continued with my Flowerville stitching .... I'm not so neat at my chain stitching but I expect it will improve as there is quite a bit in it...



As I have finished all the blocks for my 4" x 5" Anthology quilt on Saturday I chopped up the left over fabrics and some backing.... I will do a bit of pieced rows for the back... as always there was more than expected left over.  All ready now for the next Tuesday sewing day.....


This next weekend is a Friday Night stitchers retreat weekend..... again I have lots of Japanese fabrics left over from when I was doing Japanese themed blocks 

This is the top I made (still not quilted!!)


Anyway I found some lovely soft grey and I chopped up lots of the scraps up and got all the pieces ready to sew..... Shimacho Quilt coming up!


Handsewing in the evenings was some more circles..... I am gathering these around cardboard then a quick starch and press and this makes it so easy to needleturn down (I guess that it's not strictly needleturn if it's already turned?????)


My special treadle machine project had drawn to a halt since I needed to do a whole lot of cutting of diamonds... so on Sunday I did that .....

I am going to need to spread it all out to get colours right.... so one day I will take over the design boards for that....



The little tags are another lovely gentle hand stitching project.... these two got finished since we still had hot weather and it was nice to sit quietly in the afternoon with the TV on....


So I am progressing on a number of projects .... these little 6" canvasses were done some years ago.... I was learning applique and quilting at the time and had been over to walk in some of the lovely forests in NZ (almost 10 years ago)





They were fun to do and one day I want to do more similar work ....  I do need to learn to attach them to the canvases a bit better... these are very lumpy!

Righto, Gotto Go... Monday is here and there is work to do.....

I do hope you have lovely weeks


22 comments:

WoolenSails said...

You really get a lot done with the different projects, I tend to start and never finish, so i have to break that bad habit;)

Debbie

Queen Of The Armchair aka Dzintra Stitcheries said...

So much going on Fiona....always good to see what you are up to! What a lovely visit you had!

Jeanette said...

Beautiful projects, Can't wait to see the shimacho quilt. Hugs,xx

Jennifer said...

Lots of chopping up......love those leaves, our memories of New Zealand are of lots and lots of green!

kiwikid said...

Love your circles Fiona! I reckon it is still needleturn! Wonderful to meet up with blogging friends..boy you have done a lot of cutting up, now you can do lots of sewing back together!! Your stitcheries are very pretty and love the NZ blocks.

Jane said...

looks like you've spent a lot of time cutting fabric this week

Anonymous said...

Hi Fiona lots of beautiful work you have done my friend and so good you caught up with Janice and fairy girl ,always nice to spend time with friends ,hope you have a lovely day xx

Michelle Ridgway said...

Love all you have been up to....such beautiful projects! A very nice catchup you had x

Karen S said...

It looks like most of your work over the last few days has been preparation.
That makes sense when you have events coming up and need to be organised.
There seem to be lots of plans to use left over fabrics, too.
Glad to see some stitching sneaking in.

Kris Meares - Tag Along Teddies said...

Our dinner with Janice & Mick seems like ages ago ... Where is the year getting to!! Lots of variety in your stitchy projects as usual ... Always interesting to see what you've been up to. Looking forward to catching up on Saturday at the retreat ... Should have two Butterfly Garden blocks to work on ... Between chatting! :0) Bear Hugs! KRIS xx

Chantal said...

Love your leaves project. Very inspiring and gorgeous machine sewing on those leaves. Love your tags stitcheries too. How big are they? And yes, it is still considered needle turning. Once it is all done, no one will be able to tell it was starched. :^D Enjoy! ;^)

Julierose said...

Lovely work on all of your projects, Fiona (that is my granddaughter's name, too ;))) ), but i especially am delighted by those circles..hugs, Julierose

Louise said...

Oh, those green leaves and ferny bits are so pretty! So that's canvas as the background? Interesting! I've never seen that before. Glad you had a nice visit with your bloggy friends, and a bit of wine with your Friday night stitching. I think you've invented a variation of needle turn applique, "cardboard turn applique." It's the latest rage!

marina said...

Lovely to have a catch up with blogging friends.
So much loveliness in your post!
You are such a dynamo.
Are you using a particular range for your diamonds....there are some gorgeous fabrics there!

Joy from Days Filled With Joy said...

You are working on so many lovely things! Lots of cutting done, that is always a big help! And so glad you had a good time with other bloggers... one day it will be my turn to catch up :) xx

Narelle said...

Lots of gorgeous projects on the go ... your needleturn is my kind of needleturn 😁

Maria said...

You have been very busy working on many different projects..
Look forward to seeing the Anthology Quilt put together..

Chrissie said...

So many lovely projects lots of yumminess xcx

Lin said...

Your little samplers are gorgeous. Such a lot of beautiful projects. xx

Janice said...

It was lovely to catch up with you all the other week. Hopefully we can do it again one day. You're well and truly organised now to work on your next projects. I'm looking forward to seeing them progress.

Raewyn said...

Interesting post Fiona and nice to see the splash of Kiwiana at the end. So cool to meet with bloggy friends :-)

Allie-oops Designs said...

Wow some gorgeous projects!! How in the world do you keep all those projects sorted - love those leafy projects!

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