Easter weekend

 This is the other backing I have been making.  It is with all the leftovers from my Anthology quilt - there was much more than I thought.  I still need to add some of the light background to the borders to make it big enough ......  

I have finally decided on the size for my Dutch Treat blocks.... I cut at 6" for sewing and now I am trimming back to 5 1/2" .....  this block needed mending as I trimmed too small!!! grrrrr... 

Been making a nice pile of trimmings!  still lots more to go but there is no hurry as I still have heaps of blocks to do.....

I have put together another block for Gardeners Journal... Taking time to smell the roses and a mower.... haven't used one of those style for ages but they used to work a treat and give a good workout....

My frangipani's are flowering in the garden... this is my favourite and is a bolder pink than is showing in the picture....

I also love this cream one with the yellow centre

Righto, Gotta Go - I'm learning to quilt roses this weekend!! a little bit of a challenge

I hope you all have a wonderful, safe and happy Easter weekend 

A good day's work.....

Lovely needlecase from Cheryll in the post on Monday..... isn't she sweet? Such pretty embroidery. Thanks Chez.....xx

Fish update....

At my last post there were quite a few comments about my little baby fish.  Well it did survive okay.  We ended up having to empty the whole pond, repot plants, clean all the stones and bricks, get achy backs .... but the fish all survived okay.

It still looks a bit murky but we can see the fish - here you can see 12 ... different sizes and colours...

the teeniest baby stays separate most of the time.... I have labelled it in this picture (just above 'baby') as he/she is hard to spot but you can see the difference in size - I don't think it is 1" long.... 

Tuesdays I spend the 'ChooseDay' girls and is where my main machine sewing takes place for the week...

At the moment we are all working on our UFO's so doing different projects - of course we always have advice and opinions on each others work, lots of cups of tea and coffee and chat chat and a lot of sewing ...

I worked on making the last 4 rows of my Tags quilt and added them on...

So now it is a finished flimsy ..... it's very soft and pretty pretty

I had enough of one of the browns in the quilt to cut strips for the binding... I will need to buy some backing ...

Big thanks to the hosts of the No Fuss SAL (Tuesday girls) who got this going.... I love it

 Somehow I managed to cut quite a bit more than I needed.... these will be used - maybe even a little something on the backing....

Next up I put together a block for Gardeners Journal.  I have had the stitcheries done for a while.

Then I worked on the backing for my Shimacho quilt.  I have used up left over pieces of my Japanese fabrics for this ......  the outside is quite scrappy as you can see but not much will show - most of it is so my backing is big enough for pinning and gripping during quilting.

I had the blocks already made so it was just sashing and borders to add

I started working on the backing for another quilt... still a bit to do on that...

A good day's work....

Righto, Gotto Go... real work to do today......

Stitching away....

This week I worked on finishing the last of my tag stitcheries .....

they have been so much fun to sew with others in the No Fuss Stitch-a-long

I have been sewing my blocks together when I had a few rows of stitcheries done...

This is where I was up to last time....

Now I have laid out the last few rows and pinned them in order waiting for a sewing day to join them up.....

Evening sewing has also included getting a couple more Dutch Treat blocks done.... 

I've still got 40 something of them left to do....

Righto, Gotto Go..... Hubz is cleaning the outside fish tank and I want to make sure the new little baby one doesn't get suctioned out!

Have a lovely weekend

My flock......

..... of geese....

Left over fabrics can go a long way ......  I used backing fabric for the backgrounds and cut up all my left overs from the Anthology quilt.  It's taken a few sessions with the 'ChooseDay' girls to sew all these up.....  

It is a bit monotonous so I was glad to have company.  

I cut smaller pieces into coins and I will join them up with strips in between and add them to the sides.  It will still need wide borders to be big enough to back the quilt....

I think I like a flock of geese .... 

I used a 'no waste' method for the geese, which was nice and easy and certainly quick and eliminated a lot of trimming for me.  There are heaps of tutorials and video's but this page HERE is one I found useful. 

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I also started on the backing for my Shimacho  quilt.  A much more simple way of using up left over fabrics - some of which I had quite large pieces.

I will join up these blocks with sashing next time we get together

Evening hand sewing has seen a few more circles come together..... 

These are all the ones I have done so far..... putting them together made me realise some of the 'charms' are not quite straight....

so they are all being trimmed down to 4 1/2" squares..... 

Something rather satisfying about a bunch of pretty trims....

Something a bit different .....

My neighbour friend had a significant '0' birthday this weekend (a low number 0 mind you!) and I wanted to make her something a bit different but also special ........

For some reason in my mind covered coat hangers are one of those top luxury items! 

This is a napkin (not vintage but quite pretty) on top of some sort of shiny firm satin type fabric (I must find it and get some more) 

As you can see some pretty quilting which shows up so nicely on the shiny satin..... 

Some lace trim and satin bows .....

I'm happy with how these worked out - I must try and do more

I have been doing some prep work for projects

This is a needlecase from 2015 Stitchers Dream Day Out

designed by Bronwyn Hayes.  I started the stitchery on the day, finished it later and there it has sat with it's fabric

I also cut up yet more left over Japanese fabrics to make some blocks which will turn into my backing for the Shimocho quilt.... not so scrappy this time so it will be more of a double sided quilt. 

On Sunday Hubz and I drove inland to see some open gardens on farms, I snapped this picture when we sat under some willow trees for a cold drink (and cake).  Very flat land with black soil round there.

At home I have this little nursery happening in my kitchen.  When I transplanted little succulents into my glass bulbs some leaves dropped off...... so I laid them on the soil.. (the bigger one was already growing) ... can you see the tiny bits shooting off the end of the leaves? 

  

Very sweet - I have to be careful watering so not to shift them around.

Last night I appliqued my stitchery onto the background so it is all ready for machine sewing

Packed away waiting for a ChooseDay session

Righto, Gotto Go, I'm ready for a second coffee and some breakfast

Hope you all have a wonderful week

Holly Cottage

I've been co-hosting a Stitch-a-long with Raewyn, and we have been sewing Michelle's pattern (from her book) of the Holly Cottage quilt....

March is the month for sewing the borders on ....

I love all the different aspects in this pattern, there is applique, embroidery and piecing.  Just my kind of project....

I had bought the borders and binding all together, using a fat 1/8 pack of Anni Downs fabrics for the basis.  So I also made my binding up and it is now folded together with the wadding and backing waiting to be quilted... 

The aim is to have it done by Christmas!!!!!

My left over fabrics from Anthology have made up 5 lovely long strips of geese....

There are also some other pieces I am joining up - just small rectangles - all the scraps are being used

I added the final thin borders to my Shimacho quilt top.  I had used left over Japanese themed fabrics (there is still more to make the backing!!!) and a soft grey plain fabric.

I love the stained glass look it gave out in the sunshine...  and I love this pattern so I can see me using it with other scraps too

While I was out taking pictures I snapped my pretty little crocuses... they loved the rain we had last week.... 

So that is another flimsy finished ..... it has it's binding but I'm making up the backing with more Japanese fabrics (I had a goodly stash of them)

Righto, Gotto Go.... I've got a bit of quilting to do....