Friday Night Sew In

Thanks again to the wonderful Wendy ... did you have one of her lovely apple cream pastry goodies?  We had a bit of lamb done in the slow cooker with a glass of beer of course....

Yesterday was cold and windy... perfect for indoors and I had "The Good Wife" and "Chicago Fire" to catch up on..... I tell you... it is tough when it's cold in Queensland!!!!

... so a few more stars are done..... it's beginning to look like "MERRY CHRISTMAS"

... thought I would show you the size of these stars.....  (I thought they were littler!)

(61/2" ruler)

I had finished off the quilting from last week and wanted to play with my mini feathers... a 6" square quilted

this is a shiny stretchy fabric I have placed on double sided pellon ...

Now I can hear "Why?" and "What"  - I have no idea but I like doing them....

I cut and started to sew my Hello World fat quarter bundle.... 10" squares... 

... and that was Friday.... woke up to a goodly frost this morning and ice on the birdbath... queensland birds don't understand about ice skating poor things.... but it does mean it's going to be an outstanding day....

Righto, Gotto Go... whatever you do I hope it's a load of fun....

My big fright .....

Some progress with my swag of stars

I will be doing "Merry Christmas" and had a bit of extra linen so have done a couple of Gail Pan birdies

(The star swag pattern is by Nikki Tervo (Brandy Gully Designs)

.. and crochet edges have progressed too... I try and do a couple a day at least....

In my sewing/computer space I have a lovely big double window... lots of natural light and a great view of the bird feeder...

sometimes the birds are silly and fly into the window.... this week one flew extra hard ....

.. the bird flew off, I picked myself off the floor having thought my neighbour had fired off a shot at me!!!!
... and now the window is taped up well!

That's the view I have for when I am doing this ....

We have had some freezing mornings and beautiful days.... this was a sunset this week.. the view over the bird feeder.... (on the other side of the broken window!!!)

I wish I could pick up the colours like they really were ...

Righto, Gotto Go... still sewing .....

Progress

This last week has been one of those weeks... happy, creative, sad, busy, reflective, social .... etc....

I have made progress, albeit not that much on all sorts of different projects....

This rather fun mixture of blocks has been put together and now needs quilting....

(a friend asked me to do one in pink and brown, horses, dogs, flowers)

the needleturn for the star swag is going along nicely.....

I needed some mindless machine work so I have put together 30 of these 9 patch scrappy blocks...

.. they will eventually morph into these blocks....

.. and I have started to crochet around the edges of my soft and pretty blocks...

... so you can see I haven't been entirely idle... just not finished anything off.... 

Righto, Gotto Go.... chores to do....

Hope you have a  lovely weekend..

FNWF ... July

Thank you so much Cheryll for hosting FNWF last night.....

A cold damp day over this way yesterday ... perfect for stitching with friends and I was lucky enough to be spending the morning over at The Quilters Angel with a couple of friends... including Kris ... a great time to catch up .. and maybe a touch of retail therapy????

I handed over this lovely quilt top I made for them...

It's called Mystical Mountains and is the exact fabrics in the pattern.... they are just gorgeous in quality and design... I thought it was like jewels .... you can see it laying on my queen size bed that it is a great size too.....  kits are soon to be available at The Quilters Angel...

... are you a kit person or a make up your own person?  I'm a bit of both....

I continued working on my Christmas Stitcheries for my star swag and carried on with them in the evening.... there's a lot of stitching in these little pretties....

I found just the right fabric to make the background stars.. the backing will be the green which will just show on the edges of the stars....

... this collection called "Hello World" just grabbed my heart and squeezed it.... and then jumped into my bag.... just like that.... 

I simply adore the quirkiness of the designs and the mix of colours... just large squares for this quilt... 

(so much for only buying fabric to finish off projects)

On the machine this week I have been doing some applique... I rather like this bright pink and chocolate brown mix..

Righto, Gotto Go.... there is left over cake from yesterday.... time for a cuppa.... the sun has come out and it's a stunning day ....

Mini Quilt .....

Imagine my delight when this piece of art arrived in my post box today....

My secret sender is De... and I just love all the detail that is in this mini quilt....

such pretty fabrics and those buttons and special flower really add to it

beautiful stitching on an old doily and quilted with crosshatch to set it off.... perfect

De also spoilt me with some little extra goodies in there.... isn't that card a hoot....

.. the mini is up on the frame and it looks perfect ...  thank you so much De... I just love it ... very very much...

I am still enjoying collecting up mini quilts for my little stand.... 

The mini I put together used one of Michelle's drawings (with a slight adaption... she was a Quilting Angel and I changed it to a Stitching Angel)

.... I love all the detail Michelle adds in to her drawings

I quilted carefully around the edge of the stitchery and then some wiggles in the background and cross hatching in the border....

This mini quilt went to Melissa ..... hope she likes it as much as I enjoyed making it for her.....

I found out after I had sent it that it was supposed to be Inspirational words in embroidery.... maybe we can be inspired to be more angelic????

Righto, Gotto Go... I have some choccies to eat....

Today ....

I made one of these pot holders a while back in an Easter swap... I couldn't resist cutting a couple more out  and I got these done over the weekend..... for the present box...

They are a Tilda pattern and I think very sweet either as a teapot holder (which is what they were designed for)... or a pot holder in the kitchen or a mug rug for those of us who love our mug rugz....

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This is one of Hubz and my favourite meals in front of the TV....

(of course it is easy peasy scrummy yummy)

Roasted cherry tomatoes.... 

I punnet of ripe tomatoes (these were quite big ones so I halved them but I don't usually)

dried thyme to taste

salt and pepper to taste

a good glug of olive oil

roast for about 30 minutes....

... we like it best served with a lump of camembert cheese which has been melted in the oven for 5 minutes, some fresh crispy bread and chilli/garlic olives....

... and of course a glass of excellent home brew...

Today Hubz and I are celebrating an anniversary....

I looked up what 35 year gifts could be....

Traditional... Coral.... (forget that I like our reef!!)

Coral apparently has the power to prevent sterility.... not sure why that might be an issue after 35 years.... but still.. whatever blows your hair back...

Modern... Jade..... (I have some pretty green beads already)

Jade is associated with increased body strength and longevity...  if you've got this far you've had your fair portion of it already????

Gemstone .... Emerald..... they are pretty but pitifully I don't wear a lot of jewellery

The Egyptians buried emeralds with mummies... not a good sign thanks....

Gifts... Tropical cruise... holiday to a tropical island ... I wonder if the children will pick up on that one...

I think I will just serve peas with the yummy slow cooker dinner tonight..... (they look like pretty green beads?

Righto, Gotto Go..... time to sit back and dream of that cruise.....

Lucky me....

lucky for me ... the cold has come and I am ready....

I was given a bundle of flannelette scraps, mostly they were 10" by 5" scraps and I bought some matching for the backing.... I was amazed how far they went... 2 adult size scarves and a little one... for little visitors...

 

lucky for me... the postie came by

with a surprise bundle from Melody.... lots of pretty fabrics with beads and sequins... and a big bag of buttons.... isnt it fun getting something to play with.... thanks Mel...xx

.. and lucky for me when it is cold it's lovely to quilt....

... this is how I like to plan and think about how I am going to quilt... I roughly draw it out... in this case I stitched in the ditch around all the triangles to secure it all and then went diagonally across the triangles sewing the mid lines first and then feathes to fill in the spaces

My evening handwork is some Christmas stitcheries..... hopefully by december this will be a swag of stars!

Righto, Gotto Go.... I love winter.... slow cooker meals, soups, flannel pj's and ugg boots.... what's your favourite thing about winter???