The Weekend that was.....

I do love weekends.....

We went to a small country town about an hour away and had a really bad lunch at the pub.... haha, my chicken was so dry and overcooked but I lied and told them it was lovely....

Then a spent a few hours with a lovely lady called Lynne and she let me play on her long arm quilting machine and gave me so many ideas.... yes, I am looking at extending my quilting and getting one..... giving me sleepless nights I can tell you....  Such a lovely lady and so generous with her time and knowledge - so good to get that encouragement from someone in the same industry.  Nothing is definite yet.... but I am going to talk to a dealer! hmmmm

Other than that there is green coming though on my lawn - we have had some lovely rain - not heaps but enough to get some water in tanks and give the garden a good soak..... 

Some more work was done on the shadehouse - Hubz put up these trellises for a couple of climbers that have already started climbing!

…. and we also put wire on some for other lighter climbers (not so easy to see but there is mesh around the posts)

I am enjoying watching new growth happening on our plants - with the warmer weather and now a bit of rain

Joy is doing a series this month about 'Organising' our crafty things.... she has been giving me some ideas and I thought I would also share how I organise some of my things...

I have sets of drawers in my quilting room (where I pin my quilts) and on one end nails have been hammered in and I hang my rulers from there.....  In between the sets of drawers is a big space and that is used for storing all sorts of boards and rolls....

My most favourite storage solution is this cutlery holder which has been painted (not by me - this was a gift) 

I made dividers and now it stores my DMC threads.....  I have them in numerical order and by no means have an extensive collection but I do add to it when I need another colour for a project....

This is a really show off picture of my threads... these I use for quilting so I have built up a good selection of colours….. Hubz made me one of those boards with pegs to fit my drawer and they all sit in there - very easy and convenient to find the colour I need. 

Joy has all sorts of other ideas and also reading the comments I am finding great ideas.

On the crafting front I have pulled out my crochet …. this is a ripple blanket.  I made a big one some time ago and there was a fair bit of yarn left over so I am making a mini one with the leftovers.  There is not a lot of it left to do - it will be good to have another thing done and out the way... 

Righto, Gotto Go..... new week, lots happening, work to do, but first...… coffee....

Wednesday .............

This week on my sewing day with the girls I worked on some Blockheads blocks.... I was a few weeks behind and glad to catch up (more come tomorrow so the catch up feeling is being enjoyed today!!)

These are all 6" blocks....

 Then I worked on my HST/Pinwheels.....  they are in various stages but I am beginning to get a nice pile of ready made Pinwheels.....  

For a little piece this took me several evenings but my first of the United Stitches is done....

It's a sweet stitchery and will be 4" finished.....

Righto, Gotto Go.... work day and also I need to dig out Dutch Treat for this evening....

Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week.....

FNWF October

I finally got back into making sure I sew along with others - FNWF hosted by Cheryll….

I decided to take a short break from Dutch Treat (don't want to get RSI!)….  and started my United Stitches stitchery.  A friend and I are sewing this together but she is already on her 3rd one!  She is doing hers in the colours indicated on the card but I have decided to go one variegated and darker colour…..  Still another couple of evenings stitching in there for me...

I was given some 5" square scraps so I found some coordinating colours and am sewing them up into white to make lots of HST's....

I am using the method of right sides together (colour and a white) then sewing around all four edges...

 … then cutting it diagonally twice....

the two five inch pieces will create four 3" HST's after trimming..... (which I like to do to straighten it all up)

The blue is what I was given to start with... I found the others in my 'stash' 

… and bought a couple of metres of lovely Bella white to sew it all together....  not sure how I will lay out but I'm thinking pinwheels …. 

Very pleased we had an inch of rain yesterday and overnight.....  it's a start and looks like showers will be around today..... it's lovely to be damp and I hope lots of other places got some... especially our farmers who have been struggling.

  

Popping along HERE to go and visit the others to see what they made...… thanks Cheryll, it was great to be along again..... xx

Righto, Gotto Go..... Lost Trades event today to go to with friends..... wishing everyone a lovely relaxing and wet weekend.....

Busy .... busy .....

My annual bus trip to the Craft and Quilt Fair in Brisbane happened yesterday - I had a lovely time catching up with these two - Susan and Michelle.  Of course we bumped into a few other people here and there.

Ran out of time for looking at the quilts.... no pictures this time as the sign said so!  But they were so inspiring.

I spent quite a lot of time looking at stand up long arm quilting machines.... I am dreaming.  Lovely that they let you have a bit of a play …

Meanwhile back at home another 4 Dutch Treat blocks are completed..... oh my gosh I have 8 left to do!!! 

Over the weekend Hubz worked hard in our new shade house.... planted various climbers....  I couldn't resist buying a couple of frog ties from our local hardware... can you see them in there?

He also shopped, filled and hung a bunch of hanging baskets....  although it is still dry we are going to try and just get a few plants established.

… and while he was doing that I cut up my black and white scraps into various length strips...

I will work on it to make that quilt showing in the picture ….. actually I made a good start on that on Tuesday when sewing with the girls.

As you can see the basket is almost empty - just a couple of bigger pieces left in there....

… most of them are overflowing…. 

we also changed the plug (thank goodness for video link and plumber son to talk us though this)

 … and I killed a lizard! (not good)

Righto, Gotto Go, back to dreaming working …...

At last.....

I have finally finished off this wall quilt made with the little houses made from scraps in last years Rainbow Scrap challenge....

… and today whilst I went out to a birthday party Hubz hung it up for me....

...in our laundry area.... 

I felt the need for some 'art' in my laundry... so now we have it!

I have to admit I just love it and now wash day will be more cheerful!  (hmmmm) 

Michelle came visiting up this way this week and we had a lovely time visiting some of the quilty things happening over carnival time.... I didn't take pictures but Michelle has lots so please visit her HERE and HERE to see some of what we saw..... 

She was a little naughty and brought me this sweet gift.... lovely happy fabric and a binding/ribbon holder. Thanks my friend....

Sue has made some lovely fat quarter quilts, you can see one of them HERE  I have this small bundle of fat quarters which has been hiding in a cupboard so I have pulled them out, purchased some plain white and I'm ready to start a new quilt.... I think it will look lovely...

Another friend of mine was sorting her stash and discovered her United Stitcheries bundle.  It has two of each stitchery and the idea was sew one for you and one for a friend.... anyway we are going halves and sewing our own each.…. they are really sweet stitcheries and Sue has already done her first one in the same colours as the card.  I am going for a variegated thread and even found the fabrics I want to put it together with....

The stitchery blocks are only 4 1/2".  Rather gorgeous....

Some time ago I showed my African violet leaves.... and I am excited to announce that some roots are showing..... if you look at the one on the left you can see dinky little roots started.... 

A little bit exciting

I mentioned that I went to a birthday party today.  Kris took some lovely pictures of the occasion and shared them HERE  on her blog..

It was a lovely occasion and the cake was made by one of the party girls.... just magnificent

All those flowers made with butter icing …. gosh so clever and so beautiful....

It tasted good too!

Righto, Gotto Go... all that partying has tired me out!!

These are 3 Moda Blockheads blocks done recently..... they are all 6 1/2" square in size....

I have a couple from last week to catch up on … I might wait for the next lot and do them all together....

This is a free BOM from HERE

https://bearcreekquiltingcompany.com/moda-blockheads-2018/

This weekend we visited some of the competition gardens (I didn't take pictures!) but I also had a bit of time to sew so I put the borders in my hedgehog quilt..... 

… and made the binding.....

now to find some backing and wadding and add it to my 'waiting to be quilted' queue!!!  Hmmm.... that queue is a bit long....

This is a Melly and Me pattern and it all revolved around the cute tiny hedgehog fabric …..

Evenings I have been working on Dutch Treat and these are the latest 4 done..... 

12 more to go... I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!!

Righto, Gotto Go..... Spring Carnival this week - so much to see!

A finish... and some progress.....

I finally finished this small blanket which has been crocheted....

I'm not a skilled crocheter and I had to do a fair bit of pulling to manipulate it into shape... but it will be warm for someone....

I have another I started using up scraps from my Ripple blanket I did last year.... I need to relearn what I was doing but there isn't too much more on it to be done.

After a bit of a relapse I have started back on my Dutch Treat blocks ..... this one has been finished recently.... I am going to try and focus on them for a while in the evenings....

My Tuesday machine sewing saw my hedgehog blocks put together....  There is still more work to do on these, including borders....

I also managed to get the borders on all my Angel Story blocks..... now there are 320 2 1/2" blocks to cut and sew!!! 

Some time ago I showed some stitcheries that had been given to me years ago..... I sewed them onto some background and Hubz wanted to frame it...

 - so now another picture is up (and yes, I know the pictures are all wonky) ...…

Righto, Gotto Go ….. time to put my feet up and stitch a bit ….