When ChooseDay becomes Tuesday .......

This week Helen and Nor made a road trip from Brisbane to do a quilt drop off..... of course I took advantage of that to have some lovely chat time and maybe a bit of chuckling …

There is a fun Danish Flower Art shop just 10 minutes from my place so we went up there for a peak and a bit of lunch, maybe scones don't count as lunch but it was that time of day...

(Thank you for the picture Helen)

Lovely to see you both and thanks for letting me drag along on your road trip day.....

I needleturned 5 little arched doors for "My Small World"... these blocks are 2" finished so a little bit fiddly to sew....  I managed to find little pictures for some of them to fussy cut ...

Slowly trying to do a clean up in some rooms prior to painting.  I lost this stitchery for a few years... but I found it nicely kept between two boards to keep it flat (I had specially got them to act as block keepers but forgot!!!) 

I plan to make it into a sewing machine cover

but in the meantime I'm very pleased to have found it - took me ages to stitch!

Righto, Gotto Go... my job is playtime lucky me.....  I'm quilting roses this week...…

Sunday at retreat.....

I arrived on Sunday to find my workspace had been sabotaged....  

look at that mess under my table!!! pfffftt…. some people cannot be trusted! (you know who you are)

It was quite funny really and a result of me complaining about the mess in my neighbours area and how clean and tidy mine was.....

On Sunday I carried on working with my Safari quilt and got it all together....

I love the zig zag pieces which are quite tribal

It was hard to photograph the colours to how they really are....

… it's not as bland as this.... I was especially delighted with my border fabric... it just brings out all the other colours.  I will bind in the green sashing fabric...

This pattern was made to show off some NZ fabrics and is called Kiwi visions by Mary Metcalf designs.

I had made up triangles from the left over (plus extra) strips from Ocean Deep and this morning I couldn't resist having a play with them.... 

I love this aeroplane propeller look.... must keep that in mind....

.. but this is what is happening to the triangles this time...

I have beige background to join it all together... but I need to have a bit of a think to make it the right size...

Both this pattern and Ocean Deep are from a book called New Ways with Jelly Rolls by Pam and Nicky Lintott…. they have done a number of jelly roll books and I am constantly amazed at how people come up with the ideas they do..... There are other quilts in there that I am looking forward to making too.

My handsewing lately has been another block for Angel Story...… meet Dimity the Dreamer.....

I really must get back to Dutch Treat this week....

Righto, Gotto Go..... some quilting work to do after playing all weekend.....

Retreat sewing ....

I am so lucky to be part of a group that has regular sewing retreats - they are held just down the road and I go for the days... and lovely full days of sewing they are... with a good mix of yummy food, great company and the odd chocolate, and maybe cake …..

I took Ocean Deep to work on the Friday …. I had done the pieced strips and it really was just adding the other strips on....  I really love this ….

Only part of the jelly roll was used and the rest have been pieced into strips (with a dozen extra strips) and also cut into triangles to be sewn into something different

Saturdays sewing consisted of using a Quick Curve ruler to make this runner.  I'm delighted with it.  The grey has subtle bits of shiny silver in it.  It is about 18" x 54" so quite big and I'm looking forward to having some fun quilting it.

The pattern for this is a freebie from Sew Kind of Wonderful.  Of course you need the special ruler but I did this from start to finish in a morning.

We had such a beautiful day, even if it started a bit chilly … and the grounds where we are look lovely …

For the afternoon I started sewing the slashes and sashing on my Safari quilt which I had cut and prepared some time ago.....

I'm hoping to get this together tomorrow …..

Righto, Gotto Go... need to get some sleep.  Hope you are all having a lovely weekend ….

Blocks and blocks......

The latest Blockhead block is a huge one 24 1/2" altogether.... It's more like a 9 patch.  As such I didn't really have 'scraps' to go in the corner squares but I found a fat quarter of this pretty garden scene which I hadn't been able to decide what to do with.... and it was in the pastels I am using for this quilt...

Jane from Loopy's Place put out a calender last year with crafts to encourage people to try a bunch of different things..... This pincushion is from June.  I made it with my old blanket 'felt' - it is proper wool and although a bit thick from the commercial one it is lovely to sew with 

I have finished up the little leaves for "My Small World" - all the 5 blocks are done now.....

Passenger in the car time is with a bit of knitting.... I like to stick to very simple and plain so I can watch where we are going with only glances down.... (or I get sick!)  I received a bunch of cotton yarn a while ago and am slowly going through it.... Another wash cloth done.  The knitted wash cloths was another craft in Jane's calender.

Many many years ago Pears soap was such a treat for me, it was hard to get and quite expensive.   I found some in a supermarket (not expensive at all) - brought back memories....   These days mostly gels and liquid soap seem to be used in my house.

ChooseDay stitching saw another 2 strips made for my Ocean Deep Quilt made from an Indigo jelly roll.  I need to cut strips of the plain blue now to go in between.... and work on the back - it will be reversible...

I also pieced some more for My Small World.... the longer arrows are 4 1/2" so they are quite sweet 

.. and far too many flying geese for comfort... especially those small ones.... the finished blocks are 4 1/2" square.... and there is a roof top there (upside down!)

Most of the time with these is sorting through the scraps - press, cut etc but lots of those little pieces are being used....

Altogether quite a satisfactory sewing time.... I haven't forgotten Dutch Treat, Angel Story and my circles.... they are just sitting in the side lines for a while.... hmmmm

An update....

I forgot to show that I had finished my 4 scrappy place mats and 2 mug rugs.

These are made from strips I had left over when I prepared an African theme quilt which I am planning to sew up at retreat next weekend...  It's always great to use up every last piece.

My 'sewing' time this weekend was just organising stuff really - and sorting

I have this bag of arbitrary stitcheries I have done over the years and was trying to think of some things to make with them

I found some other precious stitcheries with them

Many years ago when we lived in Zimbabwe I did many years of work with HIV/AIDS education and care.  The organisation I worked for had a sister organisation providing skills for financial independence to women affected by HIV/AIDS, many of them infected by the virus.  One of their main income generating projects was doing embroideries and I was gifted a whole lot of them. 

This one especially meaningful as it was a thank you gift from the women

I had a lot of other ones but they were used in quilts for the eldest grandsons... but I kept a few of my favourites.

Here are a bunch of guineafowl....

… and a pair of giraffe....

The Tenda bus service - chockoblock full ....

When the women knew I was coming to live in Australia they sewed this one for me....

I do want to make things with them - probably wallhangings or cushions.  What would you do? - I need ideas

This embroidery was not done by the same women but I found it amongst my mums things. 

It is quite a small one and so that and these other two have been taken out to make up some needlecases

Most of today I just had my scrap baskets out and tipped over!

My African violet usually lives outside but we brought it indoors to protect it from the cold and it is so happy in this sunny spot.... It might have to live here permanently...

Handstitching lately has been doing a stitchery I can't show just yet - but it has taken much longer than I thought..... the main bit is done so I got onto some more blocks for My Small World.  They are taking up time too .. the finished block is 4 1/2" so those leaves are quite little and there are 5 to do altogether....

Righto, Gotto Go, I think a cup of coffee and a bit of handsewing is called for - I've been on my feet all day....

Safari time......

I started off ChooseDay by laying out my safari photograph blocks....

I was lucky enough to inherit this fabric from someone cleaning out some 'samples' some years ago

 It didn't take too long to sew up the rows and then the rows all together...

I'm really happy with that 'grassy savanna' look background fabric

(It's leftover backing from another quilt)

It's roughly 54" square 

… now it's gone to sit with the other "When I grow up I want to be a quilt" pile that I have....

There were a few blocks left over so I sewed them together too...

Then I started on another quilt made with an indigo jelly roll... the photograph doesn't show up well but I got these two strips done... 

Groups of 4 strips are sewn together then cut into triangles then sewn together at an angle to get the up/down look

I did have to fiddle around a little and do a bit of unpicking.... there is two more strips like this to do then joining up with background...

The backing is pieced with the left over strips from the Jelly Roll

Today I have young Widget but in between baking and football (me and balls are NOT a good mix!) I quilted the little mat - a stipple always gives a nice bit of texture....

…. now he has his own mat he can use here....

He decided he likes T bone steak so we have got some of that to go with chips and veges so his new mat can be used tonight.... 

Hubz bought me a new laptop thing and I am trying to move things over etc etc …. I seem to have messed up moving Feedly and lost a bunch of posts I haven't read and commented..... first world problem but it makes me realise how little I like changing my habits....  I hope I don't lose touch with the blogs I love to read....

Righto, Gotto Go... Time for a cuppa before a rousing game of UNO.....