Catching up .....

... with friends....

Michelle took a road trip up the range and over the hills and into the country to where I live for a chat and a stitch.... and then when Kris finished work for the day she popped over too for some more chat  and giggles ....  what a lovely day it was

The two look like they are being naughty!!

I've also been catching up with the Splendid Sampler Blocks:

these are very sweet and fun to do as they are all so different.

Snug as a Bug designed by Amy Sinibaldi

Focal Point designed by Natalia Bonner

Friends Around the Square designed by Julie Karasek

My Tuesday continue to catch up with regular friends Christine and Lyn to do Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Blocks

Lady of the Lake

Laurel Wreath

Some of these blocks take a while and require reverse sewing .... and two done in a day seems a really impressive job!!!

I'm also catching up with a bit of Quilting.....

I am very lucky to have Toni's latest quilt to come play at my house for a bit .....  first of all I am going around all the applique in an invisible thread - it shows up the applique without showing up over the different colours .....

I have rellies that look like this..... seriously I do .... but without the necktie!

... and of course I am always catching up with some hand stitching...  This is Tutu Teddy from Michelle's Tea Time Teddy's group....

... lots of catching up yet I still feel I haven't caught up on all I want to do and all the people I want to see!!

Righto, Gotto Go.... more catching up to do!!!  I do hope you have a wonderful rest of the week

Stitching weekend.....

How lucky am I to have a fun group of ladies (The Quilters Angel Friday night bunch)  to go and spend the weekend with.... (well the days as I live so close so come home at night to spend some of the time with my Hubz)

We do laugh so much, eat so well and sew up a storm.  It is a small group and as such these weekends are also a time that we get to know each other better, have great discussions and support one another through various life happenings.... 

I went with a couple of projects in mind to make up .....

First was my first time using the Quick Curve Ruler and one of the Sew Kind of Wonderful patterns...

  

The ruler has a place to cut out the curve using the rotary cutter and then to square up the blocks after sewing the curves - WITH NO PINS!!

Very soon I had one of these......

and by the next morning I had this top....  I think they are so effective the way the blocks are put together....

.. then I started on my next lot of blocks and by Sunday morning I had a nice pile...

... only to discover and I had some with the little pin wheel triangles in the wrong place...

.. and most of the blocks with half correct and half incorrect...

It's all because I didn't READ properly  as to where to put joining lines to cut the diagonals.  

Something I have learnt and will live with... I will try and focus quilting on the white lines so maybe it will look like a design feature??????

No it can't be unpicked... the diagonal cuts are wrong and nothing will sort that out...

This makes me happy though.....

Righto, Gotto Go.....  a weekend away from everything means it's waiting to be done today!!

OMG (Organic, Modern, Graphic) ... .something new.....

I've never felt I am particularly artistic so when I saw this OMG quilt challenges on Facebook I decided this is a way I can stretch myself 'artistically'

We are given a picture chosen by Helen Godden (quilt artist extraordinaire) to use as inspiration.

The shapes need to be organic, no line piecing and the quilting should be a feature.

I have been choosing to do mine 4.5 x 6.5" to start off -  I may be brave enough to try bigger designs as I go along

This is my January piece

... and my February piece....

Just showing off the process I used - this was my first drawing which I made up from the picture.  I was really stuck and Helen suggested using the shapes and then putting them differently - and not to be frightened to overlap pieces

I chose to cut out the shapes so that I could then play with them into something I liked...

... add a bit of colour....

and then this is what I used to quilt and frame...

I am really finding this a challenging activity.  I'm not as happy with my second one, but I am learning.

Having never been a modern art follower/understander I find I am having a lot of fun... I will be creating a deep and meaningful story to all of these too!

I'd love your thoughts on modern art

Righto, Gotto Go... the challenge picture for March is out and I need to get my pencils sharpened!

FNWF, stitching, blocks, a brooch and olives....

Thanks Cheryll for having us over for .....

... which was also Friday night at The Quilters Angel with friends....

I worked on this little Tea Cup Teddy (Michelle Ridgway Designs)  - it's very cute

... the strangest thing happened... some of these fabrics jumped into my bag....

Continuing with blocks I have the fifth block in The Splendid Sampler - designed by Jen Kingwell ... very pretty and good practice to needleturn those tiny circles.

Happy Happy (11 pieces)

Tuesday brought the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler stitchers together and made these blocks...

Handy Andy (41 pieces)

Gulf Star (25 pieces)

We are now up to 107 blocks and a total of 3421 pieces....

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In our new to us garden there is an olive tree which is bearing nicely this year with fat olives.  I got some great recipes from friends and have started preserving some ....

For these ones Hubz clobbered them with a mallet and we got the pips out... not pretty and we won't bother again.... they have been soaked in brine for over a week and are now chilling out in some garlic, chilli and origanum olive oil.

There is another lot soaking at the moment (just slit down the sides of the olive this time)

Time will tell and I'll let you know, those who say they have done them tell me they won't buy commercial ones again

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Our local library held a social morning on Saturday in order to encourage people to use the library more (a lot of people are ordering books online or using ereaders and there are less people visiting)

Whilst the librarian did highlight a book we did a small craft - this sweet brooch which Marion from The Quilters Angel had prepared for us....

Next month they are going to show us how to fold the pages in a book to make a shape (not sure we will be as complicated as the one in this picture) but it sounds like fun...  I am not a huge reader but I do like a book on the go and it would be very sad if we started losing our libraries

Righto, Gotto Go... I have some sweet bugs to play with today....

Surprises and Sampler Blocks.....

Look what dear Marina sent to me this week....

an apron and teatowel

aren't they so fun? and Marina's hand stitching is so very neat and lovely

I love them - just exactly tickles my sense of humour - thank you so much Marina xx

(and I don't need any smartarse comments about changing the stitcheries around thank you very much!!)

Before I went away I caught up on homework for my blocks from Sylvia's Bridal Sampler

Grape Basket (20 pieces)

One of the group (Lyn) added an extra person so that this is us 3 who are making the quilt together.... it will be a lovely way to remember the three of us sewing blocks for it each week.

Friendship Block (17 pieces)

Rocky Road to Dublin (32 pieces)

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul (20 pieces)

Hands All Round - (37 pieces)

I seem to have Sampler Block fetish at the moment as I have also joined in with The Splendid Sampler ....

The blocks come out 2 each week and they started whilst I was away so I spent some time catching up... there was a bit of hand work too which was perfect whilst catching up on a couple of TV shows I had missed too!

 As usual I am counting the pieces!!!  (sad isn't it?????)

Hearts A Flutter designed by Pat Sloan (9 pieces)

Wings designed by Jane Davidson (48 pieces)

Lots of Love designed by Mellissa Corey (48 pieces)

As you can see for this one I am using some soft pretty romantic fabrics - they will be such different quilts

Righto, Gotto Go... there are now more blocks and more homework to be done!!!