OPAM time....

Thanks always to Kris who keeps up the OPAM tally for us... I have 25 finishes 

Safari Snaps was a finish this month....

and so were the 21 Bird House Tags...

I made myself a sewing tray and thread catcher....

And this week I finished off this baby quilt....

I did these sweet stitcheries (designed by Michelle) in 2015 and put the top together....

Finally got to quilting it in December last year....

... and this week sewed the binding on and hand sewn down at Sewing Day....

the backing is rather delicious I think....

This trough was once a worm farm, then a compost heap and now has graduated to a herb garden (with a few lettuce and rocket to fill spaces for now)

I have started this sweet baby quilt, I bought the pattern a few years ago and am finally doing it.... at the moment going through all the colours and cutting up the little pieces.... a big painstaking...

I saw Jennifer's lovely knitting and got enthused, I don't have one hand made jumper and I need an easy carry project later this year..... nothing like a bit of preplanning!  Delicious colour wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills....

Fits perfectly in my drawstring bag - a gift from Michelle....

This picture is a wierd colour, I took it off our TV.  Hubz has been keeping an eye on this Bald Eagle in Canada, yesterday it was protecting bubs from the snow but late afternoon her Hubby came by and we could see a second egg (which apparently they don't expect to hatch)....  Youngster has grown lots of course.

Technology is wonderful for this sort of thing, we also watch the birds and flowers in his brothers garden and a number of waterholes in Africa.

I have made a decision about what to do with the rest of Terra Australis.  Found this free pattern on the internet and I have bought some creamish grunge to be a contrast.  It is a good jelly roll pattern too.  If I don't have enough of the fabric it will be an easy one to add a couple of plains to.

A good month, I am getting through some of the quilt tops I have, but also making new ones!!!  

Righto, Gotto Go, some more giraffe blocks to cut and perhaps I can make a start on Puzzle Box chopping...  I should be nice and bake a cake though..... Hubz has a birthday tomorrow....   hmmmmm

Ta Da.... please meet "Sweet Pea"

Ta Da is what we say when we have finished the planned part of a project we took to retreat...

As you know I have been stitching Michelles Bear Hugs alphabet series for quite some time now....

I put the corners on the snowball blocks of the last of the letters I had finished, and joined them all to the 9 patch blocks 

Terri hosted a scrappy StitchALong earlier and I chose to place mine according to Cindy's (at Hyacinth Quilt Designs) tutorial HERE but filling in the snowball blocks with the stitcheries (detailed pictures of most of them can be found in THESE posts)

the colour is not showing well in the pictures really..

I had to make a quick trip to the Quilters Angel for some border fabrics...

... I love it when you find the last of a bolt with just enough of the colours that match just perfectly....

I love this quilt top... it is so pretty. I'm really sorty the colours aren't showing up so well - it is much prettier in real

This quilt is called "Sweet Pea" 

(the fabric in the scrappy blocks is full of Sweet Pea's and it sounds like a good name for a Bear)

This is the view from the little porch on the cottage where we sewed... since we had some very cold weather the door wasn't open too much to look out....

there are 3 little cottages in a row... one for sewing, one for eating and one for sleeping

We are very lucky to get these facilities as they are not generally rented out... 

Here is someone some of you may know - Kris from Tag Along Teddies who assists Peg in OPAM...

(that's the naughty corner!!)

One of the ladies has a daughter who is learning cake decorating and she made us this special one..... it was so pretty... and delicious....

... I enjoyed these paper napkins....

Righto, Gotto Go..... I still feel like I am catching up on those house chores after being out for the weekend!

Piecing and Stitching.....

This week on the machine I am doing big loopy feathers

Week 2 of Sylvia's Bridal Sampler with the girls ended with this

we wanted hand stitching blocks to take to Quilt Group ..  hexagons and tumbling blocks

we all had homework to do and I sat with mine last night....

hmmmm... some reversing to be done today

Dzintra is also making this quilt and we are going to encourage each other ... woohoo.... anyone else?

the alphabet bears are going well

most of them are done but for the odd little pieces to be finished off....

... these are a Michelle Ridgeway set of designs ...

Righto, Gotta Go... need to have a serious conversation with my unpicker.... hmmmmm

FNWF and FMQ challenge...

Thanks Cheryll for letting us use your place for FNWF whilst you are away sitting by the seaside!!!  Tough gig for you!  I see you still got lots of sewing done...

This is how I started the evening.... with a quilt on my lap (cos its a bit chilly here) and binding clips into the green binding... and little Miss T needs her Teacup stitched....

Now we go back a few days....

As you know I am doing the Free Motion Quilting Challenge hosted by Darlene at QuiltShopGal...

and THIS MONTH our guest tutor is Diane Gaudynski. (who's quilting adventures I have followed for some time)

I chose to do Option 3 which is from her book Quilt Savvy ... which I duly ordered and had to wait for it's arrival.

In the meantime I knew that I wanted to use one of my recently purchased Hungarian embroidered doilies so I made my quilt sandwich and sewed the doily on carefully around the edges of the embroidery

There are just amazing colours and work in this doily... my background is a pale sage green which just disappears in a picture with those colours in the embroidery

... once the book arrived I sewed the spines for my feathers leaving Diane's little earbud shape at the end... I did draw out a basic shape with the dissolvable blue pen for guidelines

.. this is the picture from the book which I was using as my inspiration... love the feathers and her Diane-shiko stitch at the base.

... after quite a few hours this is the stitching I had.... feathers, echo quilting, diane-shiko and mini-stippling in the centre

doing the feathers this way with a space inbetween and echo around the outside was new to me... they are not all symmetrical by any means but close enough

.. as you saw I did the binding last night and this morning I stuffed the cushion and ta-da....

(the colour is still not right)

... just a simple envelope back with a pale green polka dot ...

... looks good on the recliner...

I love upcycling old doilies ..

Thank you Diane for your tutorial and thank you to Darlene for these challenges... it's lucky you left June open for a bit longer as I really battled with time this month getting the book here... now onto July's challenge...

These challenges can be joined anytime and for people of any level so if anyone else wants to practice, practice, practice this is the way to do it.  I am getting a nice selection of cushions made... I may have Christmas sorted?????

It was still reasonably early in the night when I had finished the binding - so Miss T got her duck egg blue polca dot teacup sewn...

... and I still had time for a bit of red thread....

Righto, Gotto Go... I love weekends... and a cold frosty start means an amazing sunny day and I've got some blog visits to make..... 

“Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being.” 
― Albert Schweitzer

Newness......

Gotta love little Miss Q on her Quilt... 

Alphabet bears by Michelle Ridgeway

.. and gotta love a new quilt to make....

... and gotta love friends who want to make the same quilt...

... only Madame C has the book till Madame L and mine arrive but I did make these block holders in preparation....

(tutorial  HERE though I used an all purpose craft glue... I found my hot glue gun was very gluggy and didnt' stick well at all - could be a user fault!!!)  and I also had some corflute (instead of the foam board) from a sign which I repurposed ...

.. so we started with a block that we thought would be easy and no templates needed (since we are waiting for our books to arrive)

Chimneys and Cornerstones - 16 pieces

....these are all 6" blocks....

... there was a bit of reverse sewing required from time to time....

Chinese Coin - 17 pieces

I love how they look so different in our chosen colourways...

Madame L is using the purples and greys and Madame C is doing the pastels

Children's Delight - 12 pieces

.. the board certainly makes it nice and easy to lay out the block ...

I am using up scraps in civil war reproduction fabrics that I have from previous projects for the moment since only smaller pieces are needed - have purchased some backgrounds and I will need sashing

Ribbon Star - 17 pieces

this next one was supposed to be foundation paper pieced but was simpler just to cut and sew....

Bright Hopes - 5 pieces

here on my first 5 blocks.... there are only 140 of them.....

... not bad for a days work.... 

I am hoping that sewing with the other two will make sure I keep up with the blocks making and don't end up with yet another half finished project in the cupboard ...

Righto, Gotto Go... prep work for next weeks sewing to do... it will be blocks with a bit of English Paper Piecing so we can take handwork to Quilt Club ...