Last week of February......

Summer is supposed to finish now.... hopefully cooling down lots.....

End of February is also a time I get spoilt......

Isn't this a fun panel?  and it arrived with some labels, buttons and a note pad....

As well as this gorgeous zippy pouch hand-made in Queensland (see the zip pulls) from Shez....

And then this lovely artist drawn card (of Frangipani's from my garden) with fabric and ribbon holders as well as a special Needleholder which will go immediately to my Sashiko work bag. Specially made and drawn by Michelle....

Both very special people to me and I love their thoughtful and beautifully made gifts.

There may have been cakes and flowers and dinner etc aswell....

Then of course lots of visits, calls and messages and I love hearing from special friends and family.

I worked on my Cuddle Hearts - I cut up a lot of my smaller pieces of flannel and sewed them up.  These Cuddle Hearts are in sets of 3 (I made 25 sets) go to the Premmie baby units at the hospital.  Mum keeps one on her and passes it to baby so he/she gets the smell of mum.  Rather a sweet idea and I was pleased to find a use for some of that flannel.

I concentrated on this next Caswell block, lots of little pieces to needleturn.  Marina had made a note in the pattern that she was leaving out some leaves in between the 2 birds at the top.  I agreed they weren't needed so left them out too...  

That is 8/30 blocks done!

Some rows have been added to the next KOGO crochet blanket.  I was given a bundle of different variegated left over balls of yarn.... I wasn't sure how it would look together but it's working out quite fun....  I'll keep going....

That's my week, 

Righto, Gotto Go.... out today ... Hope you have a lovely weekend....xx

Gifts ... and a quilt top

When I was sewing The Schoolgirl Sampler (THIS ONE) I joined in with a few others on Instagram and we sewed together.....

Ingrid was one of the others and a surprise arrived in the post from her....

Ingrid had asked casually which was my favourite block from the sampler and I had said the flying geese.... so she made a mini quilt from it with some of her beautiful fabrics...

she also included an assortment of fabrics (a couple of French Generals in there which have gone towards a future new project) and a gorgeous little pincushion in a glass container..... made with some Tilda fabric ...

Lovely surprise... thank you Ingrid....

A few weeks ago someone had been looking for a pattern which they were having trouble finding and I had it... had made it up a few years ago so I offered to pass it on.....

A parcel arrived as a thank you.....

a big bag of scraps.... (she knew I love making scrap quilts) mostly fairly large pieces

A lot of I Spy type fabrics... so my collection is restored...

I used a lot in this Disappearing 9 patch quilt top....

I kept the I Spy pictures in the corners of the 9 patch so they didn't get chopped up... and then used up various scraps for the other squares and plain blues for the centres to make up the corner stones

Something I noticed on a quilt that was sent to me for quilting which I thought was a good idea was stitching around the complete edge of the quilt to stablise it when there has been a lot of piecing (I don't do this when there is a solid border).

Not only stabilise but also helps stop those little pieces from coming undone, and holds the shape for when it comes to quilting time...

My lovely wounded ducks are happily settled onto their new wild geese mini quilt rug....

The new crochet blanket has started..... It is a wave pattern and I am having to concentrate at the moment (I hope I will get the hang of it and move a bit quicker after a few rows)

Righto, Gotto Go... I think I'll go and play some of those new fabric and scraps....

Birthday Week

My eldest son turned 40 on Sunday.... no major celebration as they are in UK still under lockdown but his siblings and us did manage a group video, and there was cake and fun to be had.

Then I had a birthday on Tuesday.... and had a lovely day sewing with friends... there was cake, and flowers, lots of phone calls and messages... and gifts...

Michelle sent me this lovely bag..... she always finds just the right fabrics and design for me to love....

and a gorgeous selection of hand made cards....

there were other bits and pieces to go in the bag... the M&M's didn't stay in the tin too long!  Gorgeous hand made card.

Shez sent me this lovely table topper....

with a sweet Christmas pattern and some of my favourite thread and a gorgeous handmade card..

I really do love a walk and paddle in the sea and sand in my toes...

I recieved a couple of mixed bunches of flowers and they play together so prettily...

.. and a bunch of whites and greens which are so pretty... the lilies are not yet opened so they will last well....

I have sortof been keeping up with the little embroideries from Crab Apple Hill

I have to admit the most fun of it is the banter and chat with a few others doing it too.... I am also learning a few new stitches - flystitch and feather stitch above are new ones for me.  I do love embroidery but am not very patient doing it.

My Hubz had a finish this week...

HMS Victory has been in progress a few years as he does not get a lot of time to play

fiddly work and a lot of fiddly details to do as well as the painting and tying of tiny knots etc...

I keep saying he would be better at embroidery than me as he is more patient but he is not interested... 

Righto, Gotto Go..... have a lovely weekend....

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....

Another Surprise!

Receiving this parcel made me laugh out loud......

Marina spoilt me .....

These are little suffy puffs - some of them fabrics I have just used in my sampler quilt....  I have a little hanger and am going to put it on there to display on my wall....

... and a beautifully sewn needlecase.  I do love a little needlecase to go in project bags (which you may have guessed I have a few!)

The "Make a Wish" hanger is already up in a little corner ....

Thank you Marina, you spoilt me .....

This is what I sewed up over the weekend.  All the blocks needed edging first and that took a long time and was really quite boring so I'm glad I had it where there was company....

There will be 9 blocks all the same and then just placed in different directions....

I used up quite a lot of Japanese inspired scraps for this quilt - so I'm happy with that....

Righto, Gotto Go... Tuesday means sewing day with the girls!