A change of pace.......

Widget has stayed for a few days this week which means less time on the sewing machine for me and more time playing snap.... and battleships.... and doing together baking...

Firstly was biscotti or almond bread.  Some years ago Christine shared her recipe and since then I have made this every Christmas.   It's a favourite here.....

Then I made up a recipe I haven't made for many years... this is Condensed Milk biscuits and it makes up over 10 dozen so it's great when you want a big batch.  Was great to have Widget to help with all that rolling and pressing with a fork.... 

Today saw date and pecan nut loaves.... this is my all time favourite.  Best after a couple of days with a good layer of proper butter.... 

…. and fruit cake... I did a double batch so I could keep one cake for us and use one for Christmas festivities where you 'bring a plate' …. 

There hasn't been much baking this year... I rather enjoyed it

This week there were visits from Mr Postie with ornaments

Michelle sent this gorgeous card drawn and coloured by herself and a special ornament -

… and an angel from Susan who is amazing in her creations of different angels... I have a few of hers

 I haven't put up a tree this year but this little pot plant is doing a great job holding up my lovely ornie gifts....

Not much sewing has been done but the evenings have meant some hand stitching.  I have appliqued down the Dresden plate and now my house stitchery is pinned ready for stitching....

… and the last of the rows of elongated hexagons have been appliqued down 

The next step there is butterflies for each corner

Righto, Gotto Go.... feet up, a cuppa, and some hand stitching …….

A new relation....

One of my nephews living in New Zealand recently became a dad to a baby girl..... I had this quilt in my cupboard which I made because I loved the fabric and I loved the pattern …. so I sent it over to them.

It's such a sweet pattern and I think I want to make it again..... just in case of another relation arriving one day!

We went for our drive on this brand new road... there were quite a few other cars doing just the same... all going in the same direction!  It was quite fun but really a road is a road is a road.... this is only part of a large new bypass and even this part will make some of Hubz work trips a bit shorter..

Since I can knit in the car without looking at what I am doing I stitched along and made another scrubby cloth....

This week I have carried on with doing my elongated hexagons/lozenge's/coffins - only one more side to do then I can play with some butterflies

Although I wanted 'random' placement.... they do need to be a bit organised so this is my genius idea of how to keep the lines...

I use double sided tape on my large portable board

here are all 4 staying in place on the upright board … this was before I sewed the pieces together into lines.

It works well except that the double sided tape is really good and I battled to get my pieces off and then the card was sticky on the back....  there must be an easier way so let me know if you have a different genius idea please.

The last few stitches on my Flowerville block have been done and on Tuesday with the girls I made the Dresden circle.

Now it needs the stitchery cut and appliqued on to the dresdens ….

These rail fence blocks were all sewn together... didn't take long at all as I had already planned how they would go...

It's a small lap quilt size …. I think I will keep it that way with some brown binding...

Then I started playing with my chopped up French General jelly roll.....

I have had this fabric and the plan in a container for a few years now knowing this is what I wanted to do.

I hope I can find a bit more of that plain colour to add sashing in between - I would like the granny squares 'floating'...  I thought I bought plenty but it's amazing how many little blocks I needed.  I did think of cutting triangles and working it that way but then there is no room for fudging (and I often need a bit of fudging)

Righto, Gotto Go... still got a few work quilts to get done before Christmas break....

Have a lovely rest of the week

FNWF

Lovely to take part in FNWF again …. Last one this year and thanks Cheryll for hosting us each month...x

I continued with my latest block of Flowerville…  the leaves and the bird got sewed!! that's all...

but in the afternoon I had managed to sew down one row of elongated hexagons.... only 3 more to go!

This weekend I am tracing a few fun applique pieces to make some pillowcases... 

and will continue with Flowerville and sew those last few flowers.... 

I hope you are having a lovely weekend, whatever you may be doing

Righto, Gotto Go.... we are going for a little drive - over the last year or more a huge new road has been worked on and a portion of it opened yesterday... so we want to try it out.

But first I will pop over HERE to see what others got up to for FNWF.

Hoya, hoya......

We have a Hoya plant...

Here it is outside our bedroom

Looking closer there are lots of these tendrils growing madly ….. it's gone crazy

I just love these waxy flowers and leaves.... and discovered that at night there is the most gorgeous scent from them … now I love them even more.... 

Anyway we decided it needed a new home so that it could grow it's tendrils madly so we moved it to our new shade house area... 

Hubz put up lots of wires for all those tendrils to grow on....  

It seems very happy in its new place and I see lots more buds happening... we will be having sweet smells for quite some time.

I am trying to strike some of the tendrils... and will look out for another colour - I fancy the cream one.

I went shopping yesterday.... I found this lovely teal with a white spot to border my new quilt tops... and some of that lime green (actually its more baby poo green) for the binding.... I will use those on both quilts.

I also got a bit more grey to finish the borders on the grey one 

.. and got the backing too... I just love that black and grey but there wasn't enough for two quilts so I got the blue for one... 

My fun citrus colour strips have been sewn together, pressed, and cut again to make 6" blocks.  This is how I will put it together... then I will need to go shopping again to get something for a border for that one too!

The only thing with stash busting...is there is still a need to shop to finish off things...

I dug in the cupboard and this is the next bundle of stash to be used.... one of the older French General jelly rolls

Bush Christmas is a fun market held at this time each year.  The exhibitors are artisans from 'the bush' and I am always amazed at what they put together.

I went for the food!   There is the most amazing Honey Mustard salad dressing (I always buy this when I go), some marmalade, mustard, Moroccan seasoning and a bit of pecan brittle which is Hubz's favourite treat.  They are all just delicious and great to support the ladies from the bush who have had such a rough year....

Righto, Gotto Go.... It is FNSI and I will be double dating with the Friday sewing girls.  Better go and get something together to take!

Sewing up a storm.....

…. though at the moment I would prefer a rain storm...

Some time ago Sue showed her fat quarter friendly quilt on her blog and I just loved it so I have copied the idea...  (HERE is Sue's that inspired me)

I had 12 coordinated fat quarters so I chopped them up.  3 sets of both 6 1/2" square and 6 1/2 x 12 1/2" rectangles from each fat quarter.  I cut the sashing at 2 1/2".

Great for nice bold prints.

In this one I used a light grey - but ran out so I need to get a little more to finish off the border.

This one is done in white... it does make it nice just having that border...  then I think I want another wide border - but that will depend on me finding just the right fabric for it....

here you can see the difference in colours of the sashing....

Then I found another bundle of 1/4m's so I cut up lots of strips.... the plain colours in these have bling and are quite different.  I am planning a rail fence style quilt with these. 

I am trying to use up some of the fabrics I collected up years ago and make them up into quick and easy quilts....  

I have a pile of EPP elongated hexagons that I am basting for Michelle's Wings and Pretty things quilt …. yes, I use the old way of stitching them - I did do one of these with glue but it took me just as long and I got sticky all over me and they are a pain to get out again - besides I am not in a hurry.  Saying that I have used glue sometimes when it suits me.... like with curves on rounded Dresden plate..  do you glue or stitch?

Sunday was a road trip day … out for a country drive and a light lunch at a country café.... I had a bit of knitting to do and got yet another washcloth finished... 

Wishing you a lovely week.... this time of year can be so crazy busy 

Hello December.....

Hard to believe we are in the last month of 2018 - it seems to have gone so quick.

Early this week I caught up on Blockheads

these two blocks are 6 1/2" (I suck at fussy cutting!! haha)

This one was too small (problem with my printing) so I had to add those borders.... 

This next block is a big one - 18 1/2"  

Of course now another is out so I am behind again!  

I finished with my green bali strips.... this is what the quilt top has ended up looking like.... I'm quite pleased with it …. 

(made with a Jelly Roll and a couple of metres of the grey)

I still had a good amount of the grey so I have made up the binding.... now to find some backing and put it in the queue....

Kris came over for a play date and brought me this most mischievous moose....  I love it... thanks so much Kris....  

End of month is OPAM time..... my finishes this month are:

Ruths quilt by Leanne Beasley... this also counts towards Finishing Stitches since it was a UFO at the beginning of the year...

I made up a shopping bag for myself.... it's a good size

and my in the car projects are these two wash cloths...

Righto, Gotto Go.... have a lovely weekend... keep safe ….