FNWF ... and more....

TaDa…. the crochet blanket all done.....

 I love the colours …..

… and I learnt a new pretty picot edge....

all folded and put away hoping for hand delivery to eldest daughter next year....

This is made from a kit bought from Wool Warehouse (UK) with a pattern by Attic24 who also has wonderful tutorials on her blog.  This one is Cosy Stripe Blanket.

I played with the Christmas fabrics I had bought and made a Bondi Top with it

The little red stripe is the back bodice..... 

These are my favourite tops...… cool and comfortable....

Double date with FNWF and sewing at The Quilters Angel and I started a new United Stitchers block..... this is how far I got in the evening.... satin stitch takes me aaaaaagggeeesssss…. 

This little 12" square mini in quilted...

… and binding done so it is hanging up now on the stand..... 

fits just right... thanks for the gift Michelle....

Righto, Gotto Go... a new week … I will be doing a mixture of sewing, quilting, child minding ….. it will be busy....

Hope you have a lovely week.....

Getting on with it.....

This is the 82nd panel of the Welcome Wall which is at the Maritime Museum in Sydney

… and Hubz and I are inscribed on it.....

The Welcome Wall is for immigrants to Australia, a sizeable donation to the museum and you can get an inscription.  Both Hubz and I are the first in our respective families to have immigrated here (2002 from Zimbabwe) and we felt this was important for us.

The unveiling was last week, unfortunately we were not able to attend but hopefully one day we will get to go and see it in real life.  A kind staff member sent us a picture of the panel and I enlarged it to find us....

Hasn't always been easy, but we have a home, an income, friends and family ….. lucky there are lovely people in all parts of the world... one just has to find them....

This weeks little stitchery is a lighthouse.... I am plugging slowly at these.. there is still lots more...  preprinted which makes a huge difference.... 

.. and I have been working on quilting this little mini quilt... so I can have it up on my frame for this Christmas....

The crochet blanket is finally done.... in spite of the heat I was tired of having the big bag of yarn lying around the lounge so I have worked on it in the evenings.....  It is just dripping off some excess water from a rinse (I may have spilt a Marguerita on it during its creation)

This mini is going to replace it in the lounge as I have decided I would like to 'practice' hand quilting.  The blue painters tape will be my guideline.....

This one is quilted and the binding stitched on....  some hand stitching to be done....

… and I have some Christmas fabric to play with..... my favourite store The Quilters Angel has 50% off all Christmas so it's crazy not to take advantage of it....  lovely quality fabric...

… and I am going to learn something new this month.... photograph printing on to fabric.....

Tips anyone?????

Righto, Gotto Go..... that blanket needs to put out nice and flat and the Christmas fabric is calling out to be cut!!

Have a lovely day... keep warm if you live there, keep cool if you live here....  fires, wind, smoke, dust and heat will keep me indoors ... lucky I sew!

A lovely weekend....

Last week I wanted to work on getting a few things that need finishing....

Over the year I have joined Jane with a sampler.... I did my blocks half size so mine is a mini quilt.  We started with a block that had one piece and ended with a block made of 12 pieces....  

So last week I added the sashing... and I have pinned it ready for quilting....

Whilst clearing a drawer I found a couple of flat (cheap) artist canvases so I used up some scrap wadding and a bit of bias binding and made a couple of block boards....

It is clear my gluing skills are limited.... but the boards will still work fine...

I have a mounting pile of 'stitcheries' which I have done over the years... every now and then I try and find something to do with one.... 

This is last weeks effort... the quote makes me smile and this is mounted also on an artist's canvas

(stitchery design by Michelle May of Raspberry Rabbits)

Then I pinned this mini quilt …. (pattern from Quirky Little Quilts by Sheryl Johnson)

.. and this mini quilt ….. (gifted to me by my friend Michelle)

  

and also this small quilt (40 x 46")

I fell in love with the delightful stitcheries all over again.....

it was so much fun making this one with different parts to it....

In my Garden Quilt by Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse...

There is embroidery, applique, piecing, hexagons …. so much to love in it....

Then a pile of bindings needed to be prepared too..... 

This weekend went so fast...

On Saturday we had Hubz work Christmas party, they don't do a 'party' always so it was fun to go off to a country pub and have a lovely meal.... not too late and a fun evening...

It was The Quilters Angel retreat time and of course I missed the Saturday but spent the whole day Sunday sewing.... (well maybe a bit of chatting too)….

I worked on my Bloom blocks doing the blanket stitch by machine.  I got all the beige, green and half the pink done.....

Righto, Gotto Go...  you can see I have created a few things to do... so I better go and get some done!  I'm having to resist the urge to make another In My Garden quilt... !!!

Christmas quilt.....

I bought this pattern quite a few years ago (the copyright is 2011) and I love that it is quite different to others I have seen.  The instructions and pictures are hand done rather than typed out and it just feels fun and personal.

The pattern is by Vivian Robinson (Viv's Creations) who I understand sadly passed away some years ago.... for a while her family continued making her patterns available which is how I got a couple but I haven't seen any others around for a while.  It is called Merry Little Christmas

I hope Viv would approve my version of her pattern....

As previously said I did simple quilting around the applique and stitching as well as the borders and then some wriggles in the grey sashing....

Although it's simple to look at I do find going around applique needs concentration and time....

I had done the 'stitchery' by machine … like free motion quilting but only on the top fabric....  I like the scruffy casual look it has made.... and it goes well with the raw edge applique.

A sleeve on the back... and now I need to ask Hubz to look in his shed for a bit of dowling to put in it

The quilt measures 57" x 50" so it's quite big for a wallhanging...

I do love it and look forward to finding just the right spot to hang it up soon....

There is a pillow pattern with the quilt which I would like to do also... but not for this year!

Righto, Gotto Go.....   I am working on the quilting on my Postcards quilt..... 

Flannel on top..... flannel on back....

not the best choice for this weather …. doing a meander over it and ditch stitch the postcards.....  all it needs

Christmas is on the way.......

My first Christmas decorations for this year are here!!!

Isn't this the cutest fat little robin made out of a handprint …..

it may have taken a little while to fly here... but no good posting it could have got broken.... personal delivery was wonderful

… and arrived with a personally picked out angel …..

Since it reminded me of Christmas I started quilting my Christmas quilt..... 

The pictures are so fun that I decided to just outline them and ditch the sides, then some wriggly lines in the grey …. only a few swirls in one area which had a big empty space....

…. the quilting is seen better from the back....  

… and some hand stitching has meant another block for United Stitches has been done... still heaps more....

I am trying to do a bit of my crochet blanket each day.... there are not a lot of rows more to do but it's too warm to have it on my lap for very long.....

Sounds like fires are getting under control, they have been awful.  Some rain has happened (not here but other places that need it badly).  Smoke and dust is still bad.  Thinking of everyone affected.

Righto, Gotto Go... I'm going to get that binding ready for the Christmas quilt so I can sew it down in the evening.