FNWFaF.... Friday Night With Friends and Family.....

Thank you so much Cheryll for having us for FNWF

I achieved the numbers 5,6 and 7 on my stitchery

my daughter and young widget came for the night so I didn't do much stitching

Boys Story got it's first use.....

Isn't this just the reason we make quilts?

today we had a day out to watch him at the footy end of season carnival

here he is off on a run with the ball

a bit of a road trip so I got this wash cloth finished (I can knit in the car)

My daughter went home with this quilt under her arm.....

My Favourite Things made in a Stitch Along 

... such a pleasure that she fell in love with one of the quilts and wants it on her bed ....

(this is the back of the quilt)

As she left I said "Now, be nice to my quilt.....!" Hubz had such a laugh at me.... he says I think of the quilts I make as children!!! haha....

On Friday I stopped off at the roadside to take a picture of what I thought was a fun skyscape

A nearby plover started swearing at me and I noticed a couple of little chicks going into the grasss 

mum and dad plover got very aggresive.... this was an accidental picture as I raced back to the car being wildly swooped by the plovers....

they were on guard when I passed that way later in the afternoon on the way home... and they swore at me again but I didn't try and leave the car this time

Righto, Gotto Go... I'm off over HERE to see what others got up to .....

Gift Happy and Scrap Happy.....

 Tracey at Mistea Crafts is a wonderful knitter ... of socks ... and mitts .... and lots of other wonderful things ... as well as doing wonderful crochet.... sortof patchwork but with yarn! On top of that she can sew too!

I was so lucky to be the winner of a pair of "hand made by Tracey" mitts and they arrived this week...

 ..... aren't they just beautifully done... there is no seam in there for sewing up.... all done in one piece with the prettiest pattern .... and look at the pretty coaster that came with it.....

Well Spring arrived earlier this week then scurried away so it has been cold again the last few days so the mitts were put to use straight away..... and so was the coaster with a mug of coffee ....

I love that I can continue stitching and keep my hands warm... Thank you so much Tracey.... I love them...

I got another 16 scrappy blocks sewn .....

each block is made up of 29 pieces ....

so that means I sewed together 464 pieces....

Now I have 43 completed blocks...

which is 1247 pieces....

? impressed?

..... i am .....

I think I want 64 blocks altogether (undecided about finished size), which would be 1856 pieces .... I want a big scrappy quilt ....

There seems to be differences in the definition of scrappy... mine are any scrap, any colour and from my 'left overs' and pieces passed on to me - small pieces 

Other 'scrap quilts' I have seen appear to be bought lengths of fabric, or obviously fairly large coordinated pieces (fat quarter sizes) ....  but considered scrappy because of the style rather than the look....

How do you define scrappy?

A bit of fun ......

A friend of mine ran out of time to sew a quilt she had been planning (well she is renovating the house!) so I did it for her...

The quilt top was a length of fun fabric and I added the red borders....

... some large meandering to keep the quilt very soft and snuggly ... with a double wriggle around the edge...   

I love the binding chosen to finish it off....

She paid in gin, salmon (which is my most favourite meal) and chocolates .... gotta love the barter system!

The layer cake and plain fabric for the stars stitch along has been cut and the lines for the corners marked ready for sewing ....

... they have been put away for later in my latest favourite storage packaging... the cheap plastic stationery envelopes....

Righto, Gotto Go... fresh Tasmanian salmon to cook.....

.... and Spring to enjoy ....

Sew-a-long .....

Terry is hosting a Charming Stars sew-along....  it needs 3 charm packs (plus 2 squares) and some contrast colour so I am using up a layer cake (Papillon) I bought quite some time ago.... and have purchased a soft ivory (Bella Solid) to use for the stars.....

A range of these colours and the ivory at the bottom of the pile

The pattern is from Moda Bake Shop HERE

you can read more about it HERE ..... it's fun to sew a quilt with others and even with the same pattern all the quilts look so different..... (there is still time to join... just let Terry know) 

I still haven't finished my scrappy stars (which are made wrong so they are scrappy boxes) from Terry's sew-a-long over 2 years ago...... let's hope I make better progress this time.... but I did do some more work on them this week....

There is something masochistically satisfying about trimming up a huge pile of HST squares....

I hope I will have a bundle of finished squares by the end of the weekend

A quilt group I attend is making place mats to be given out with the local Meals on Wheels programme.  I had some left over spotty pieces which I used to practice some free motion and bound them in black.... I think they will be happy for someone....

Righto, Gotto Go... scrappy blocks to make!!!

A pretty flimsy....

My bluebirds blocks have made it into a flimsy this week

... just delightful little stitcheries .... they are in months with Australian celebrations so we have:-

Australia Day (January)

Valentines Day (Feb)

Easter (March) though it is often in April

Anzac Day - April

Mothers Day - May

Queens Birthday - June 

Winter - July

Friendship Day - August (to be honest I didn't know about this one!)

Wattle Day - September

Halloween - October

Melbourne Cup - November

Christmas - December

I am thinking about how to do the quilting... I don't want to stitch over the embroidered parts .....

(designed by Christine)

I stitched up the little extra bluebird pattern for a label

  

.... meanwhile my dog made a good subject for a bit of fun ....

.... Righto, Gotto Go....  have a lovely rest of the week...

Boys Story .....

 Hubz has been out of town for a few days and so I have taken advantage of the empty house, the wet weather and the fact that I can easily live on a pot of chicken soup and plenty of tea - and the occasional piece of french toast with lashings of maple syrup

It has taken me a while to finally get this very cute quilt quilted and bound..... 

I found it hard to think of how I wanted to quilt it..... finally I decided on quite big swirls in the main piecing, in the ditch and just around the edge of the pictures in the applique blocks, and just around the squares in the little cartoon stitcheries....

Soooooo much fun doing the different blocks .... I just loved every part of this quilt, the pictures are funny and the detail is amazing ....

Should you wish to look at more detail of this quilt just follow THIS LINK.... I know you will be surprised but I did blog lots about it as I went along.... and the link should pick up all the relevant posts...

Boys Story is designed by Anni Downs - as always her book has a number of delightful projects .... I know I will be using it again

Righto, Gotto Go..... a cuppa to celebrate methinks.... (and later maybe a beer to celebrate) ...  

Bitsa This and Bitsa That.....

I did some large swirls on my Boys Story quilt.... since it has a flannel back I didn't want to do too tight quilting and these swirls reminded me of winds and seas and they help sailboats and kites and things....

It has kept the quilt soft and snuggly..... now the binding.....

My bloggy friend Keryn was selling some of her delightful Christmas creations off her blog shop HERE .....  I could not resist....

These are pompom ones .... look at those faces!

,..... my larger Santa arrived with a mate to keep him company on the trip over....  these two are weighted and sit nicely....

... Santa can sit and his arms and legs change position... this is sitting waiting... (and maybe needing to pee...)

.. this is just chillin'..... (and maybe a bit of flirting!)

... and this is yoga pose.... (and maybe some UMMMMMMMM sounds)

These are going to make a lovely addition to my home made decorations..... they are adorable...

Long long ago I did the stitcheries for Bluebirds, designed by my friend Christine....

I have added the peepers on the sides ....

... here they all are waiting for me to get on and make the sashing....  they really are delightful pictures...

.... but they will have to wait since I am finishing off some secret projects .....

... which may, or may not involve this little friendly stitchery .... designed by Bronwyn Hayes at Red Brolly

Righto, Gotto Go..... spots to quilt, binding to sew, shirts to slice up.....

It's supposed to be a wet cold weekend here ... ...I might need to stay indoors...