ChooseDay at the city......

I am so not a fan of the city - my stress levels run high with all the bustle .... I shop in outer suburbs as much as I can and avoid going into the capitals and bow down to the bravery of those ladies that drive in the cities - I do not feel at my age I need to conquer the fear.. but it is real.  

This cityscape I can cope with....

This is for My Small World …. block size is 12 x 11 (finished) and contains 91 pieces …. for those of you who are interested in statistics …. and diagnosing insanity.....

… the factory block was next....

… then a barn....

… and some housing development.... the bigger one is dreadfully dull (except the happy door) but I think it will be okay when they all go together.....  I struggled with Y seams in this one so I am definitely not doing another!

I caught up on a couple of Blockheads blocks...

this one is 12 1/2" square and required some concentration and patience!

and this one is 6 1/2" square

I am using 'scraps' from my baskets for both of these projects, and a couple of bigger pieces that needed to be used.

It was worthwhile spending so much time at the weekend preparing these....  I love it when I can just sit and sew....

Here at home we are making plans to paint the inside of our house.... who thought a 'white' would be so hard to choose???

We have settled on Breeze..... it will be lovely and fresh

The next part for My Small World is making a roof top with clamshell tiles.... they are 2" at their widest … thus far took me hours last night.....  they are sweet but I'm not tempted to do a clamshell quilt (yet) as much as I think they are wonderful.....

Righto, Gotto Go ….jobs to do, pictures to pack up....

have a lovely rest of the week

Weekend sewing ....

Over the weekend I put the triangles and strips together for my star quilt....  

It was made using left over Jelly Roll strips from Ocean Deep quilt (plus some extra strips) and of course background fabric 

It is the backing for Ocean Deep which I have shown before.... a double sided quilt.

I just need wadding and time to finish it off - I think it will be a lovely masculine quilt to have

Then I prepared sewing for ChooseDay.  I am working with scraps and make such a mess with them all over that I prefer to have them cut and ready for sewing

This is my little pile - on the Bottom are two BlockHeads blocks and in the packets are the little blocks for My Small World.  I had a few doors to hand sew so I got them done and put in the packets.

TV time has brought out the Dutch Treat blocks again....  this one was quite fiddly with those tiny little triangles ……

I also put in the last stitches of Sophie the Social Butterfly for my Angel Story quilt

Righto, Gotto Go... Monday looms....

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....