a bit of this and a bit of that

A friend Marina was doing a clean up and mentioned she had some French General fabrics ready to leave her home..... I do love love FG but don't have much so I put my hand up and this beautiful bunch of fabrics came.... I don't think there are any there that I have so it is a wonderful addition to my stash - and I have a project in mind I am longing to start with them.  Thank you so much Marina.

There was also some patterns she was rehoming and I asked for this Christmas one.  I love KS patterns and I remember lusting over this little mini when Marina made it..... so it snuggled in with the fabric... 

I finished off the February stars after doing most of the stitching on Wednesday....

I found there was enough fabric to cut 2 of each colour so I am sewing doppelgangers .....

this picture is the 8 different fabrics sewn into stars so far.... 4 more to go then the borders.  These are not sewn together so no need to be concerned about the one facing the wrong way... 

Sometimes all a busy quilt top needs is some texture and I love this watery ripple effect ....

I have been continuing with the birdhouses.... not getting to one a day but loving them

My cast on stitch flower is a bit mangled.... but I tried!

some of them are simpler (but still sweet) than others...

In the dark colour it's hard to see but this is a bullion rose (also not very good but I tried)

And I made up the first three into the little tags I want them all to become - sewed with some wadding and backing and cut to shape, blanket stitch around the edge and a piece of silk ribbon to tie (I have no idea why I have a selection of silk ribbon but I do) .  I think they will be sweet little Christmas ornaments.

This months scrap colour is teal .... so I have done a couple of teal scrappy fish.  there is not a lot of teal in my scraps so little variety but they are done.  I am not sewing them into blocks until later so I can spread out the colours as in this pattern the blocks cross over - the face of one fish may touch the tail or side  of another fish.

Another parcel arrived in the post from Maureen - she had seen the little snap purse I made with that quilted type fabric and mentioned she had some cream and would I like it....  I haven't found the cream one before so very pleased to have a piece and now she is going to help with some ideas on what to sew on it besides the daisies and french knots.  I'm not very imaginative - probably should get myself an embroidery stitches book.  Any recommendations?

I sewed the tree, grass and horizontal fence post at sewing on Tuesday and now have the other fence posts and other bits ready for sewing up this week.  this is the last block for From the Heart before tackling the border applique.

Righto, Gotto Go.... I have set up my new stitchery for tracing so that is this mornings entertainment sorted....

Hope you have a lovely week... catch up soon...xx

At last.....

I have finally finished off this wall quilt made with the little houses made from scraps in last years Rainbow Scrap challenge....

… and today whilst I went out to a birthday party Hubz hung it up for me....

...in our laundry area.... 

I felt the need for some 'art' in my laundry... so now we have it!

I have to admit I just love it and now wash day will be more cheerful!  (hmmmm) 

Michelle came visiting up this way this week and we had a lovely time visiting some of the quilty things happening over carnival time.... I didn't take pictures but Michelle has lots so please visit her HERE and HERE to see some of what we saw..... 

She was a little naughty and brought me this sweet gift.... lovely happy fabric and a binding/ribbon holder. Thanks my friend....

Sue has made some lovely fat quarter quilts, you can see one of them HERE  I have this small bundle of fat quarters which has been hiding in a cupboard so I have pulled them out, purchased some plain white and I'm ready to start a new quilt.... I think it will look lovely...

Another friend of mine was sorting her stash and discovered her United Stitcheries bundle.  It has two of each stitchery and the idea was sew one for you and one for a friend.... anyway we are going halves and sewing our own each.…. they are really sweet stitcheries and Sue has already done her first one in the same colours as the card.  I am going for a variegated thread and even found the fabrics I want to put it together with....

The stitchery blocks are only 4 1/2".  Rather gorgeous....

Some time ago I showed my African violet leaves.... and I am excited to announce that some roots are showing..... if you look at the one on the left you can see dinky little roots started.... 

A little bit exciting

I mentioned that I went to a birthday party today.  Kris took some lovely pictures of the occasion and shared them HERE  on her blog..

It was a lovely occasion and the cake was made by one of the party girls.... just magnificent

All those flowers made with butter icing …. gosh so clever and so beautiful....

It tasted good too!

Righto, Gotto Go... all that partying has tired me out!!

... the weekend that was ...

Weeks and weekends are going too fast.... doing too much? getting old?  what is it to make time just spin by?

I finished off my last scrap baskets.... black and white, pink and brown....

... and here all 12 of my baskets fit in the bookcase....  I hope they don't just gather dust.  I need to sort out a little box of scraps and put them in their special places now....

The baskets are quite big so I doubt if they will ever fill (in fact some are almost empty) but it will be useful to have them sorted in their colourways.... I adore scrappy projects.

I stitched another little block towards my Gardeners Journal quilt that I am sewing with Michelle....

... and took up my Dutch Treat which has been a little bit ignored lately...

...out and about I came across this counter top....  that could match my Dutch Treat blocks?

Ages ago I made up this quilt top and quilted it... but never got round to finishing it off.

With the weather warming up but evenings still cool we like a light quilt on our bed and this one is the one... so I need to finish off this binding...

This weekend we had a Lost Trades Fair at our local Cobb and Co Museum.  Hubz wanted to go and I reluctantly tagged along...

Gosh I loved it.... 

This wonderful character was making little stools that twisted to adjust the height 

.. this is one of his finished stools.... so beautifully done...

... candle making with real bees wax....

... here he is making pieces for restoration of buildings....

... like this to include into an ornate ceiling....

... another stall for fixing heritage buildings but using an age old method of lime.... fascinating...

... of course lace making.... I just cannot keep up with the movements these ladies do for this....

this guy makes chairs, completely by hand..... so interesting.. he chatted the whole time while he worked...

... this is what he was making.... all by hand... so so clever...

... making wooden spoons ... you can see some of them hanging on a bar behind him...

... and another character making wooden buckets.... just gorgeous and I would have loved one of these.

They were quite expensive but would last a lifetime.... if I was 20 years younger I probably would have ...

But I did make some purchases......  I do love honey and wanted to try it creamed.... Hubz uses honey in some of his homebrew too...

All in all a very interesting few hours ......

Righto, Gotto Go.... Monday jobs are calling... hope you have a wonderful week ...

The weekend....

Widget came to stay - and we watched the footy finals together.....

His team lost!!!!!

He lost a bet with his mom so he asked me for $5 to pay his bet.... sure I said....

... you gotta work for it.....

.... he had guidance from the trusted manservant and we have the beginnings of a new hedge....

This gorgeous little kingfisher hit our window and was very dazed....

... some other pesky territorial birds were teasing it so we moved it to a safer spot till it felt better and flew away....

Today was an unexpected free day so I spent it sewing .... of course!

I built my village of little pink beach houses.....

.. then I started placing fabrics to see what they would look like with the stitcheries... then I thought I would sew a few together.... and we have the beginnings of a quilt.....

... I wanted to catch up on my scrappy baskets so I patched and prepared the last 3 colours..... I still have to make them up but the day is finishing and my trusted manservant needs me to be a trusted maidservant and have food for him when he gets in from work..... sigh....

We have had an inch of very very welcome rain.....  it's drizzling again now and I hope there will be a bit more...

Another picture of this beauty... such a lovely colour....

Righto, Gotto Go....... time to forage for food....