FNWF....

So last Friday was stitching with friends...

.. lots of cyber friends and quite a lot of real friends...

.. I forgot photo's so you will have to take my word for it...... 

(I have witnesses!!!)

Thanks Cheryll..... I had some amazing pavlova...

.. you have to take my word for it ..

... but I have witnesses ....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the morning I basted hexagons...

I do them the old way of sewing them in all the way through the cardboard - 

I can see why people get hooked on these... very calming and peaceful.... 

... and in the evening I sewed some together - I'm trying to make a piece of fabric to cut up and sew!!! .....

See my sweet little hexie box.... I got these gorgeous melt in my mouth chocs for Christmas.... Champagne truffles

... who would have thought.... 

they were wonderful... and the little box is perfect 

Mr Postie dropped by with a Valentines postcard from Dawn (no blog) in Canada..

... isn't it sweet with the little bits of bling on the sides of the hearts....

(I forgot to take pics of what I sent... sigh)

over the weekend I have been working on another cushion for a quilting challenge..... started off with a bit of applique....

 

Righto, Gotto Go..... there's a train to play with....

Times Gone By ...

I'm so pleased with how this sampler is coming together

My next section has been the embroidery (cross stitch, satin stitch and double detached chain) and foundation pieced baskets....

...it's getting more and more difficult to photograph this nicely as it is quite long now....

I am on the last section now... (I know I am going to miss doing this)... it is more 1/2" hexagons and some embroidered daisies around the edge....

This is a pattern by Helen from Hugs 'n Kisses and was passed on to me by Marina .... I wonder if she knew just how many hours of happy entertainment she was giving me...

My sewing machine has not been idle.... we have been doing some secret stuff quilting....

Righto, Gotto Go..... I have a full sewing day with friends ahead.... wonderful.....

Cheryll is hosting FNWF ... sign ups HERE

stitch the night away with cyber friends ... and real flesh ones too

... been quilting....

This quilt top has been waiting around for a while to be finished....

Most of the fabrics were from mens shirts (the black and white was a matching piece of fabric) ... all from the op shops....

I teamed it up with some proper purchased maroon fabric and made up the top... very simple blocks - just a rectangle with sides added on to make it square and placed next to each other facing different directions - effective and easy to do...

finished off with a plain black binding

For the quilting I stitched in the ditch around all the blocks and sashing and then quilted a free form hooked scroll in the blocks....

.. the backing was from a $6 doona cover (I got 2 quilt backings out of that) - I loved the bold design on it....

When I first started quilting I was really struggling to pay for nice new fabrics but I knew I wanted to sew and experiment particularly with quilting so I bought quite a few bits from op shops... its a great way to make up reasonably cheap quilts for practice ....

This week I have made a start with the handwork for the Stitch-A-Long ..... 

the blanket stitch borders are quite fun to do and then I am going to needleturn the little appliques in the middle...

Righto, Gotto Go..... I am really looking forward to a cup of tea and a good sleep

New and Old ....

A friend of mine bought some napkins at the op shop and gifted them to me for the linen

(it's a lovely piece of fabric and will be great for stitcheries)

It's a bit sad seeing someones hand work being donated and sold for very little... however that is my gain in this case... you can see all the handstitching around the edges (there are 10 napkins)

The little design is needleturned and embroidered.... with tiny wee stitches

what do you see in the design.. a reindeer, an acorn....?

I hope I never find out that someone has taken work I have spent hours over and chopped it up....

 I think I can make little decorations with the little designs though....

Over Christmas time there were some quiet periods that I did some hand sewing and now I have finished this redwork snowmen.....  I used a roll of Valdani thread which I found last year.. lovely variegation ..

need to find some nice fabric for a border

Terry is hosting another stitchalong.... (last year I joined in for the Charming Stars) and this year it is scrappy snowballs...

I found some coordinating fabrics in my secret hoarding place... (I think I bought these off someone destashing 4 years ago)  the amount of fabric in there is almost the equivalent of a jelly roll so I am going to use them....

And just to make it more fun I am going to stitch Michelles alphabet bears in the centre of the snowballs....  my quilt already has a name.... "Sweetpea"

It's going to be such fun I think...

Today I noticed a tree just covered in butterflies.... they were just everywhere... hundreds of them...

I am reliably informed this is a Blue Tiger... such a pleasure having these racing all over the garden

...Righto, Gotto Go... weather is a bit cooler and I am quilting (well, when I am not butterfly watching!)...

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, Queensland has elections and I have a young widget staying over 

Goals for the year????? ....

I do try and start the year with some planned projects...  

Stitch-A-Long

.. one of these this year is Natures Journey by Anni Downs and this Stitch-A-Long is being hosted by Chookyblue (aided and abetted by Susan).....

For January, whilst we waited for the book to be released, we stitched up a lovely free stitchery made available on Anni's blog HERE and made up something with it...

My stitchery (which as you know was spoilt with thread bleeding and restored with tea) has been made up into a small hanging 

I luckily had the little hanger in my cupboard which was just the right size.....

My pattern arrived last week for Natures Journey... it's going to be fun with lots of little applique blocks and I had some French General fabrics 'hoarding' in the cupboard and they have been informed their time is now.....

Christmas Projects

Another of my 'planned' projects is to keep up with Christmas sewing by participating in Christmas Through The Year  (CTTY) hosted by  Anthea (this months linky post is HERE) and 1 Christmas Item A Month hosted by Narelle.... ideally I will do a gift AND a Christmas themed item each month, but either way I expect to be thoroughly motivated by what other people make and share ....

So my little hanger will count as one... and the other stitchery I did when I thought I had messed up the first one.. has been framed in a simple frame 

I have a few Christmas stitcheries made up that are now hanging around UFO's... so I hope to get on top of those by participating in these fun blog activities.

Anyone can join either of these Christmas bloggy fun acitivities....

OPAM

Another fun bloggy thing I love participating in is OPAM... which is hosted jointly by Kris and Peg.... the goal is to try and finish at least one thing a month....no pressure, no competitiveness, just fun and motivation.... Sign Ups finish on February 1st... read up and sign up HERE or HERE if you'd like to know more about it....

Righto, Gotto Go... off to dig the next project out....

FNSI and Little hexagons.....

Last night.....

 Wendy hosted FNSI ...... luckily for me it also co-incided with a sewing group at The Quilters Angel... hosted by Marion... with friends... and snacks.... and cake... and wine for those who would like a small indulgement of an evening ..... 

.... Some days previously .......

every now and then I have done a few hexagons to use in a project and these are the ones I have done recently

they are 1/2" little itsy bitsy things...

to keep them all in the order I wanted I used this little trick I picked up from somewhere on the web....

some two sided tape stuck to a bit of fabric.....

... peel off the top and add the hexies in the order I want....

.. and there we go.. they are not moving until I'm ready to sew them together....

These are for the next bit of my Times Gone By sampler 

(Helen from Hugs and Kisses)

these are the parts I've done this week

I did change the wording so there was less to write

(the recommendation was all the blurb about dates and who sewed it and where you are from etc...  but I'm lazy about sewing writing.... hmmmmm)

... and here they are all added on to the blocks so far

(this is 12 1/2" wide)

here it is closer to see the detail a bit easier

top half.....

... and the bottom....

.... back to present day.....

.... this is what I worked on last night .... the next section for the sampler ....

I had foundation pieced these little 3 1/2" baskets in the morning and they needed their little handles sewn on.....

.. and then I started on this 12 1/2" strip of cross stitch .....

...  of course you can't go into a shop to sew and not shop... so I got some larger hexagons to play with.....

... Righto, Gotto Go.... we have a long weekend here in Australia... it is Australia Day on Monday... so lamb on the BBQ, beer in the fridge....  The Quilters Angel have a 20% sale on all weekend.... I wonder if I should op around?  - for moral support of course

Free Motion Quilting

Another of the goals I have set myself this year is to focus more on my Free Motion Quilting ... 

.. and as such I am going to participate as much as possible in the Free Motion Quilting Challenge hosted by  Darlene at QuiltShopGal.....

... HERE is the link to her blog where there is lots of useful information and HERE is the link to the January challenge and linky party..... 

the great thing is that there is no pressure to join in every month.. but when you can ... 

This months challenge is a pillow with a quilted heart motif...

I started by drawing on my top fabric...

then filled in the heart with sortof symmetrical feathers....

... looks better without the pen but I didn't like the funny feather in the centre of the right hand one so I unpicked (I do not like unpicking so it has to really bug me to do that!!)

... a few new stitches and like this is much better....

.. then I outlined the heart with little circles....

... and finally a wavy cross hatch.... 

I wasn't too sure about the wavy crosshatch but the heart shows up fine now it's made up into a pillow

 I finished off the back with a simple envelope

I do far prefer to make something for a fmq challenge... so I'm pleased to have practiced and created a new cushion for myself....

Thanks to QuiltShopGal for finding wonderful tutors and making this a fun and useful challenge

Righto, Gotto Go..... I'm off to read the other posts in the linky party and see what they have come up with