OPAM and hand sewing....

Hard to believe another month has gone by... but there you go.... the 31st is Hubz birthday and this year he has asked for a roast beef... with sides including Yorkshire puddings..... we bought raspberry cheesecake and vanilla ice-cream for dessert.....  no diet for me tomorrow....

I have 3 small finishes for this month...

my knitted washcloth...

my Christmas ornament mitten..... 

… and my little framed stitchery….. 

we have had some very welcome rain.... green shoots are showing through our lawn.... it amazes me that there are any roots there at all - it was so brown and crisp.... 

… within a few days this tree had put out new leaves having been so stressed for so long.... 

I finished off another mouse this week.... by her expression she is wondering why she has been trying to sew with that huge crowbar of a needle.... please find her favourite fine ones.....

The hand applique blocks for Les Courtiers have been done....  

… so now all the blocks for Part 1 are done... next week a heap of flying geese and square in a square blocks to do.... 

I am running late for my postcards for this month..... but 2 of the 4 are done.... 

Righto, Gotto Go... back to work on the other postcards....

MId-week ......

My fun stitchery (designed by Shez) is now set in its frame....

It is in the sewing room.... so when I get lost quilting I can see where I am and find my way back to reality!

ChooseDay sewing started off with a new project....

This is a kit I bought off a destashing site some years ago.... I loved the colours and the beautiful French General fabrics.  It is called Les Courtiers.

some of the fussy cut scenes make up some blocks 

… and pretty floral border fabric for others.... 

… and also birds, with flowers and vines..... 

I think I am going to enjoy this one …. this is only the first part of 5.... 

You can see these blocks were reasonably simple, there are some more that need some needleturn so I going to work on those in the evenings....

Once they were done I started ANOTHER new project

Finally I am starting on some mini-quilts (I have been wanting to work on mini quilts and try and improve my accuracy in tiny piecing)

A quiltalong has been started working from this lovely little book by Sheryl Johnson from Temecula Quilt Company  (which I purchased last year and this was a great motivation to use it)  This week we made 3 shoo fly blocks (they will be 3" finished)

I was quite pleased with the accuracy.  The fabric was starched very well, basically drenched in spray starch.  Also I used finer thread top and bobbin and a smaller size needle and pinned carefully ...

I'm still on the look out for any tips for accurate mini piecing if you have...… please.....

… and finally the One Block Wednesday blocks for this week (my fabric is all cut now so just need to sit and sew these)

My One Christmas Item for this month is another mitten ornament

Here are the 3 I have done this year

Righto, Gotto Go....  time for a cuppa…..

I hope the rest of your week goes well....x

Hand stitching.....

This week I got a lovely parcel from Shez...…. 

The pattern she designed for a Stitching weekend she attended recently....

I love the saying so I traced and stitched this one up and I'll put it in a frame.... we all go down the rabbit hole occasionally????? 

Well done Shez, I do admire brave people who have not designed before just having a go and standing up in a crowd to present it.....  

I am looking forward to doing some of the table runners - need to search out some fabrics for them.

Shez had some extra patterns that she is selling... real bargains too as they include some fabric to trace and thread as well as the table runners patterns..... see HERE

I do finally have a finish this month... another washcloth!  I keep my knitting for trips in the car - sometimes only a row gets done.… I am onto some balls of navy cotton now 

My latest Mouse is stitched..... this expression can only be "Happy Place"...... 

We have had a bit more rain on Friday .... and the little bit of front lawn actually needs mowing.  Normally in summer mowing needs to be done on a weekly basis - I think this is the first mowing it has had since early December.  The rest of the grass has not recovered yet.

Righto, Gotto Go.... while the mower is going outside I am going to cut up some more pieces for One Block Wednesday blocks....

Have a lovely rest of the weekend.....xx

 

ChooseDay

I really don't like not completing something I have set out to do.... but sometimes a change of mind needs to be made...

I have decided not to finish off the rest of the Block heads blocks but instead sewed together the blocks I have

This one is 54" x 42"

This one is 48" x 42"

I have two spare blocks... at some stage they will become something!

I am happy with the two smaller quilts - they are a bit bitty but also a bit pretty and can become useful lap quilts.

Most of the first one was already together and the second one was not too much to do as there are a few big blocks.

I then started to sew together blocks using the stitched postcards and flannel fabrics...

#1

#2

#3 

#4

… and now the first row is all together (there are 5 rows to be done) 

I am enjoying the scrappy style of this one.....

Now I need to pull out the next couple of stitcheries to be done for this month.....

One Block Wednesday (done on Tuesday) blocks are done for this week.....

and I have appliqued the stitchery onto the Dresden plate blades....

This is where I am at with these blocks...… 3 more to go …. 

I think I need to watch more TV - I don't seem to be getting much of my handsewing done... I am working on another mouse at the moment but she needs a few more evenings work...

Today I went to a stitching morning ….

This is my efforts for it!!!  From one end of the shrubs to the other end is 1 1/2" so you can see not that much.... but it is single thread and there are a lot of little knots (you can count them if you like).  I have a bit of homework on this one... (several of us are working on the same project so I need to catch up with those that go faster than me)

Righto, Gotto Go... I need to pull out postcards and the next Flowerville stitchery and put them in a place so I remember to work on them.....

Friday Night Sew-In

Thanks Wendy for hosting FNSI - I wonder if you managed to stay awake and do some sewing after your trip away?

I started with some lovely gentle stitching on pretty Tilda fabrics.....

… and appliqued down the little dresden plate circle to the background fabric.....

 .. then I finished off the ironing mouse.... she has a little bit of a guilty expression on her face....

maybe because she is ironing fabric when there is all that laundry on the bed to be sorted out!!!!

I use one of our 'guest' rooms for ironing.  There is a nice big bed to store the clean laundry but most of all it makes me move around to go and get my pressing/ironing done when I am sewing.

I have a couple of pictures in there which I love.... these are painted on cloth and from Uganda (where I visited many years ago) This picture depicted peace in spite of differences.

The crane is the national bird.  the mountain at the back represents the Ruwenzori Range which is supposedly one source of the Nile.  Also behind the top crane is a circle (very faded now) but it did have a representation.  The cranes are looking together... the artist I bought it from said they are looking in hope (he was a survivor of the Idi Amin terrible massacres)

This morning I pinned on the Flowerville stitchery to the dresden circle to stitch down tonight.

We had a nice bit or rain last evening …. 37mls and today is overcast so hopefully that wet can spend some time soaking into the ground.  Of course more would be greatly appreciated.

It's so nice to be cooler though... and damp

Righto, Gotto Go.... perhaps I should start by putting laundry away....