March Monthlies.....

A quick run through of this months stitching....  I have to admit to being a little feverish about sewing …. at home avoiding getting feverish with germs...

WOOFA

Postcards quilt ….  this quilt was completely finished this month... yay... 

and I wanted to get the FRIENDSHIP stitchery all stitched and will make it into something soon for my sewing room

SCRAPPY TUMBLERS were an ongoing leaders and enders project... this middle sized top was made

and a few little baby sized quilts sewn, quilted and bound... and sent off

There were a few other completed projects - new but small which are done... little quilts...

the other WOOFA project I had to work on was piecing this BLACK and WHITE and Green .....Scrap quilt

all ready and waiting with it's binding now....

SUNDAY STITCHERS CHALLENGE

this month was 

#1 WINGS and PRETTY THINGS quilt top

and another finished project was this QUILT from the Binding Queue

which is now up and hanging in a spare room

The other finish I had this month is a little needlebook...

the stitchery is one from the above quilt

Between WOOFA and the Sunday Stitchers I am getting quite a few UFO's done... woohoo

Righto, Gotto Go... must sort out what is next 

Keep safe, keep smiling and keep sewing....

A quilting idea....

This morning Hubz says "if we have to do total lockdown for 4 weeks have we got plenty of board games to play?"  Doesn't he know how much sewing I am planning to do????? Board games! I have plenty of chores I can get him to do.... haha.. maybe I will have to play with him a little bit.

He is still going to the office some days but doing more at home at the moment.

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Lots of people comment about wanting to do free motion quilting.....

I thought I would share this pretty little design that is really quite easy to do as it uses markings, but it's okay to not go on the lines (in fact it is encouraged!)

I used it on this baby quilt (oh my gosh aren't those little giraffes just adorable?)

Firstly draw loops.... this is a great doodle design.... I like the water dissolvable blue pens for this...

Then start sewing on one side... don't go onto the opposite side of the line... just one side first....

I stitched about 1/8" on each side so you get sortof 1/4" curls

As you can see here, if you misjudge a curl don't worry too much about it.... just keep going on the one side....  

... when you have the little ends of the curl you do go around to both sides of it as shown here

it will eventually start turning to the other side just by following the curls....

  when you are back at the beginning where you started they should all be done.....

then give it a good spray 

(I add 1tsp bicarb to 500ml of water - I don't know the science of it but it works well as sometimes the blue can be a bit stubborn - do not iron the blue) 

...and there you have it.... I think it's very pretty and adds a lovely bit of texture and design 

If you are a bit unsure just play on some paper... use two different colour pencils so that you can see how it all works....

 This is the front of the baby quilt. …. you can see how it looks on a pieced design...

Both these baby quilts are now bound ...

and I have a lovely bundle to post off ...

I have started putting my circles out.... such a lot of different colours so it will be very random.  I am basically just adding as they come out the box but trying not too have two that are too similar together..... 

… the leader and ender pineapple blocks are starting to grow.... as you can see I am doing a layer at a time for all the blocks as opposed to finishing each block.... this way works best for me so I don't get mixed up with the colours and sizes...

and another sweet Field Journal stitchery is done...

Righto, Gotto Go... today this is under my needle.... a lot of careful stitching which won't even show (I have worked around the top of that line)  but I hope will highlight the embroidery...

I notice a lot of happy dogs being taken for walks,  now a lot of people are at home they are getting their daily exercise just walking around the neighbourhood.  Good to see.

Keep safe, keep smiling, and keep stitching...

Sewing away.....

We are all being affected by this virus one way or another - not good and very stressful and worrying.  Lots of loving thoughts.

I am still amazed at how many people are not taking things seriously.  My DIL family are all sick with the virus and isolated at their home (in UK) .  My daughter and her partner have been put of work.  Other daughter is in self isolation due to a spiked temperature and work cut back to 40%.  Hubz working from home.  Lots of changes and this is still early days.

Hold in there everyone... we will get through this but please take care … stay at home and get some of those projects done.

I have stitched some more snowmen for my Bunny Hill snowhearts ….

They don't take long to stitch once the prep work is done...

I am putting in some sparkly fabric in them all.... and the background fabric has a bit of bling too....

This is where I am up to so far.... when all 12 are stitched I will sew up and stuff the hearts

Another block of Field Journal has been done... I learnt a new stitch for the leaves... fishbone stitch... The flower petals were done with two lazy daisy stitches

The little stitchery I showed last post has been made up into a needleholder….

some pockets and a felt flap inside....  I hope it will be useful to the recipient...

Black and White with Green quilt is done.... I bet you are wondering how I came up with that name????

There was enough of the green to make the binding so that is done and now it is waiting in the Quilting Queue... though I will need to hunt down a backing...

I stitched down the binding of these 3 little quilts this week... they are less than a metre so don't take too long to do... nor are they too warm on my lap...

the little bear ones are panels... and I have more of them so there will be more little quilts like that..

Righto, Gotto Go..... time for some cooking.... pork wrapped in proscuito with pumpkin mash.... we are eating low carb and having fun with different recipes...

Keep safe, keep stitching and keep smiling....

Keeping positive....

Avoiding the death glare after an allergy sneeze seems to be the daily challenge...

I do hope you all are keeping okay, I do realise most of us will get through this but it is a scary and challenging time for us all, and self isolation can be very hard for some.... take care, wash hands well and avoid close contact as much as possible....

This week I have been focussing on my scraps....

Now I have moved on from sewing tumblers together (I gave a big box to a friend - not sure it was being generous or offloading a problem!!)

For ages I have wanted to do a pineapple quilt and a couple of years ago I ordered a book and speciality ruler....

This will be my new leaders and enders project but I made up one block for a trial. 

For the moment I am going to limit to using my teal, purple and pink strips scraps for these.... 

I also hand sewed down the binding on a couple of little quilts made from tumblers...

I am getting a nice little pile of these to be sent away.... 

Another long awaited one is my black and white scraps, I sewed lots and lots of strips together and then knew I wanted to add curved stitching with this piece of green meterage I had.... I just wasn't sure how I was going to put it together... 

Well, I have made up my mind.. these blocks are cut at 12 1/2" square and I will have enough for 16 then add borders....  a bit different and I feel a bit challenged to the improvising method of sewing.  I do like a pattern to follow!!! 

A little bit of hand stitching at night …..

I am sure many of you are a bit like me and staying at home more just means more stitching time....  I am trying to keep positive and also link up with friends in different ways.... luckily for us with technology it is a bit easier these days...

Keep well friends, keep stitching and keep washing hands....

Righto, Gotto Go... I am going to make that stitchery into a little something today....