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

My week.....

A few more blocks added to Anthology quilt this week...

The clamshells at the bottom were hand sewn ....  can you see my sneaky bit of ego boosting fussy cutting????

and this is all of the completed ones together so far....

I also managed to finish off this Gardeners Journal block .....  lots of backstitching in that chair!

The binding on this Japanese blocks quilt is done now... and I have a finished UFO - yay, yay, yay...

Righto, Gotto Go... it's Fathers Day here and I have promised the father of my children I would practice my newly acquired cake decorating skills.... hmmmmm

This week's blocks.....

A few weeks ago I sewed my Japanese blocks together with the black sashing.....  these blocks have been on the go for a few years so I decided to use what I have and do something with them....

On Tuesday us girls managed 7 more blocks to our Quilt Anthology quilts.... 

This is where I am up to now....  these are not sewn together yet....

We have one for homework... my first attempt at clamshells - I chose to do it like needleturn and couldn't resist a little bit of fussy cutting!

I had fun with a bit of a different all over design on my quilt.... I used the shape of the cherry blossom as my inspiration....

... choosing a gold coloured thread so the blocks weren't affected and the black just softens slightly....

.. much easier to see the effect on the back...

My Dutch Treat quilt has had a bit of attention this week...

there is this large bird in a small tree....

and a flower of hexagons....

I have been tempted to join in with another SAL hosted by Helen, the Tuesday girls (Brisbane) are doing it as a group and opened it out to others.  A pattern by Leanne Beasley.

Since I love stitcheries, I love LB designs and I had a bunch of these pretty Tilda fabrics in my cupboard it was a no-brainer that I could join... especially with enablement from Helen, Susan and Shez!

Helen has opened up a blog for us to share and others are welcome to join... read HERE for information.

In between quilting I like to stretch so I stand at my work table and have been tracing out the stitcheries.  I wish I had thought to keep the fabric in one piece but hey ho we will manage....

Righto, Gotto Go - I have got behind in my scrappy baskets so I hope to spend a bit of time today catching up on those...

Bits and Bobs .....

Has been very chilly here... and I just happen to be housebound... so what could I do but sew a few blocks...

These are all 9" squares .......

Kurume kasuri tsunagi masumon
(Linked square pattern)
31 pieces

 I'm adding up the number of pieces I use as I go

Kurume kasuri masu tsunagi
(Linked squares)
53 pieces

 .... it's not hard... I just add up from the instructions in the book....

Kurume kasuri gakubuchi
(Frame)
21 pieces

 ... but you can count on the actual blocks if you feel like it...

Kurume kasuri masumon
(Kurume square pattern)
21 pieces

... I would appreciate you letting me know if I got any wrong...

Kurume kasuri sanju masu
(Triple squares)
33 pieces

These are going into my Scrappy Japanese block collection HERE.... trying to do a few a month but I have only done 19 since Feb 2012!!

I really like this block here in two colours...

There are only 53 pieces in the 9" square....

 I thought we could do a Kurume kasuri masu tsunagi exchange and each make 12 blocks (thats only 636 pieces) and send them to each other and swap colours and then send blocks to other people and then make things with them and then see what we come up with ..... anybody want to join in?

Perhaps it is not challenging enough?  I will try and find another block then.... there are still another 113 to choose from 

(PS... I'm sorry I won't be able to organise the exchange - I really can't understand what I have written so if there is anyone who does do let me know)

But the blocks are fun aren't they?  

This is what they look like all together

This is the second block of Scandanavian Rose (Rosalie Quinlan) that I have been stitching at night.... done lots... there has been so much sport on TV!!

.... and I never showed this finished giant pincushion I made for a shop sample ....
(can you believe someone stole their original sample from the shop!)

... lovely and big so no chance of the pins going through and stabbing you ...

... and so pretty to have sitting on the desk ....

it has 8 little pockets around the edge for bits and bobs, scissors, buttons and threads etc.

... so pretty with the lace and trims

(Quilters Angel has this pattern and some kits made up)

It was originally one of the projects from "Stitchers Dream Day Out" about five or six years ago and was designed by Debbie Magee from "Always Stitchin'"
Thanks Kris for letting me know

Righto, Gotto Go .... time for tea.....

Japanese Blocks ......

G'day

I have rather neglected my Japanese Blocks so I studiously worked on some this week:

#6 Yamato kasuri igeta (Yamato well curb)

#7 Yamato kasuri igeta juji (Yamato well curb cross)

#8 Meisen hana (Meisen silk flower)

#9 Kurume kasuri tofu mon (White square pattern)
as you can see I didn't use white!

I have added these to my page so if you are interested to see the others I have done so far they are HERE

I am enjoying the different textures and colours in these fabrics

....... that is 9 blocks out of a total of 132 done... only 113 to go......

All of this fabric was done by trading home felted blanket/fabric or it has been gifted to me... so these blocks are all very special .......  I rather like the old trading/barter system.....

Righto, Gotto Go.... I think I will choose the fabrics for the next group....