First Week of November ...

Oh my gosh, we are seriously on the countdown to Christmas now!!!  This year has gone so fast...

The air is very smokey where I live, no fires threatening near our home but there are lots around.... I think they said 84 fires in Queensland this week.... our firemen and women are doing such good work and a lot of people have lost homes and had to evacuate...  hoping for some rain this weekend...

As per usual a few different things being sewn here.....

Some unfinished blocks were handed in to Community Quilting - needleturn applique.  I was asked if I could make another the same as one triangle block - no pattern so I had to trace off and there was lots of available fabrics...

The top one was what I was given and the bottom is what I managed to make.... reasonably similar... Now the next person is adding stem stitch to highlight bits... and hopefully sometime soon we will see what they make with it all

I also brought a couple of community quilts to quilt - only took a picture of one but I did big loose designs on them - next person is doing the binding....

One of my own quilts is on the frame now - Gossip in the Garden and I am doing quite heavy quilting on it so it's taking a while - but it's great fun....

I always love the look of those bubbles so I gave it a try.... 

Slowly adding a few stitches on my table- runner.... 

here is the progress this week!

The Sashiko style blocks are a bit quicker ......

not much crochet was done this week but I did sew ends in so these 7 have been added to the KOGO pile.....

I did work a bit on The Avenue... finished sewing down the trunks and started putting them in lines.... then I noticed one was being obstructive so I had to do a bit of unsewing and resewing!   I still looooooove it though!

That's about if for my crafting this week.... a rugby game was watched, hunting and gathering done and a couple of social outings .... 

Righto, Gotto Go - I'm out all day and need to get ready.... coffee first...

Have a lovely weekend.....xx

Last week of October....

A quick note to Kathleen who kindly leaves regular comments..... I don't have your email and no details on your profile so I can't answer you - I do really appreciate your kind words though..... 

Officially October is still Spring here in Australia, but this week has definitely been Summer and so I have stayed indoors with the aircon on and done lots of sewing.... (been up to 34 and tomorrow is predicted to be 19!)

I finished off putting the oriental blocks together so now it is a quilt top.... this is one for Community Quilting so I took it in on Tuesday together with the ready made binding.... 

Quite an effective way to use 10" squares and I will do it again sometime.....

I also took in my version of Convergence for Show and Tell.  I did the quilting and binding on Monday....

I used a thread which has just a subtle bit of sparkle, can't see it in the photograph but it does twinkle...

On Tuesday at Quilt Group I started the applique of tree trunks.... 

I picked up a couple of quilts to do all over quilting on as well as a small bit of needleturn that needs doing - (donated blocks that were unfinished)

On Wednesday I went to meet up with a friend and pick up an order..... look at this gorgeous baby Joey which is a gift for a special little man.... so well made .... he is made with fabric that has lots of different Ausi animals/birds.

Over the week I finished off all these bowl cosy gifts... that's 13 altogether..... I am bowled out now!

This all makes for quite a busy week in the sewing room.... 

I hope you have all had a lovely week....

FNSI October

Wendy hosted FNSI this week - a fair bit of activity on the FB page during the evening....

I started in the morning looking at my Convergence quilt... 

I popped over to The Quilters Angel as I needed the sticky paper stuff ..... then got to playing.....

... and this is what I have ended up with.......

- it's pinned and ready for quilting now...... I am happy with it.... (the silhouettes are from a different pattern - I just enlarge the bottle tree)....  'Straya Sunset .....

In the evening I carried on with some hand sewing.... gosh this one is going to take me decades!!!!

this is where I was at the start of the evening.....

I finished off those green leaves and have started on the orange flower....

Yesterday I went to Community Quilting at club..... and started sewing up blocks for a quilt made from donated fabric....  I had previously cut it all so it was just a matter of sit and sew the edges....

When I came home I spread them up on the design wall and I hope to get the sashing and borders on today

Righto, Gotto Go..... 

Enjoy your Sunday......

3rd week of October

Good morning.... I hope you have had a good week....

Some more Sashiko style blocks have been stitched here.....  I am enjoying them so much - the marking of grids not so much - funny how something like that really gets inside my head and it takes me ages to work out where the lines go (even when I have already done it a few times!)

I finished up this sweet Christmas wallhanging.... the borders were added and I have done a little decorative hand quilting around the edge of the cream and on the red....

On Tuesday at Quilt club one of the members ran through doing a Convergence Quilt (Ricky Timms) - this is my effort which I want to still to work on

It is a fun method and now I have a better idea of how it all happens I wouldn't mind trying a quilt using 4 blocks the same....

Machine sewing day here with friends resulted in some of the tops of my trees for The Avenue being done....

I was happy to see my dodgy curved seams are not very noticeable once the sides are added....

Now I have 24 tree trunks to hand applique on.....

I did a couple more KOGO blocks this week - a friend who is an excellent crocheter helped sort out why my blocks are turning into windmills..... my new pattern (on the left) is a better square so that is what I will do now.....

I have also been making a few microwave bowl cosies for gifts..... they are easy but a bit of a process so I do a bit... then get distracted and go back and do more... etc etc....

Righto Gotto Go..... I have grid lines to trace, quilting to mark up, bowl cosies to sew...... tonight is FNSI and I will do a bit more on my embroidered table runner....

Have a lovely lovely weekend.....xx

2nd Week of October

It has been a pleasantly busy week with sewing days .....

At the weekend I spent a day at a friends and did the tracing to start a new child quilt...... it is one I have had a kit of for a long time......

I miscalculated just how long tracing and cutting would take and just how much sticky paper stuff it would need.

There is no picture or indication of which fabrics go where with the kit and there weren't enough fabrics for some bits so I had to have a dig in my healthy stash..... a bit annoying but I guess that's what happens when you buy a kit at a good price off a destash which someone bought years before!

Nevertheless - I will enjoy doing it.... I will machine buttonhole stitch around the applique but the plan is to get all the blocks prepared first ..... I need more sticky paper stuff before any more happens

Tuesday at Quilt club I took another new project.... Sashiko 365 (no I won't be doing one a day but that is how many blocks there are)

Blocks are cut at 4 1/2".... My first job for it all was to go around all those edges to avoid fraying.  And then I need to mark grids for each block.  I am not doing it traditional as you may have noticed but got a linen colour I loved and that big hank of thread I was given by a friend....

Wednesday I went on the bus to Brisbane for the Quilt Show...... a lovely day was had with my friend Michelle - we spent hours drooling over the extraordinary quilts and raced around the shops so that we had time to sit and chat a bit..... a lovely day.... sorry - I neglected pictures!!!

Michelle gifted me some of her beautifully done eco-dyed card and bookmark...

It really is gorgeous - I will frame the card..... I know she had a witches pot brewing on her veranda for hours to make these.... love them - thank you

I also got gifted an early Christmas decoration which made me laugh out loud.... I am always such a grumpy grinch about Christmas and Michelle found me a grinch with a patchwork sack!  How perfect!

Thursday was Embroidery Guild day and I sewed one and a half leaves!

This is part of a tablerunner - Field Journal left me with a very healthy stash of Cottage Garden Threads and I thought this would be a good way to improve my embroidery as well as use up some of the threads....

Evening times has been the calming repetition of backstitching a picture on one colour thread...  I will always love this style I think....

Another pattern and preprint I bought years ago - I need to go and dig for a sweet Christmas fabric to border it and make into a wall hanging...

A few more crochet blocks are done... still need to thread the ends in....

.... and that has been my week!

I hope you all have a lovely lovely weekend.....

Righto, Gotto Go... thread those ends in and do a bit of a tidy up (not the house - the sewing room!)

First week of October.....

Already October - goodness, September seemed to roll by extra fast....

I am pleased to say I have finished the top for Gossip in the Garden... such a fun quilt which I have been sewing along with Michelle.....

I used fabrics from my Tilda scrap box and mainly only needed to add background fabrics.   There is so much to each little block, some applique, some embroidery, some piecing..... it has it all!

Cutting and sorting for the border took a fair bit of manipulating... and mitred corners!!! (easier than I thought)

I also finished this panel of Sashiko.  It is hard to see but I have used two different (but coordinating) variegated threads

Now I have two... and not sure what to do with them ..... but they were fun to sew!

Some more crochet squares have been hooked....

and some pinning and sewing done.... (these are what I was sewing at the sewing retreat day)

I need 72 of these little 3 1/2" squares..... the coloured parts of liberty lawn and really quite fine to sew 

They will be very pretty once all done....

So that is the sewing for the week recorded...... 

I hope you have a lovely weekend....