.... and August begins

It's been a busy week with one thing and another...... and now we enter August....

The last 2 Tuesleydale / Wensleydale blocks have been done.... 1 have 60 and soon I'll plan how they go together... when my design wall is free.....

At the moment it has a Parliament of Owls all over it.... I made the 10 small owls earlier this week... I have included a large one so you can see the size difference....

Earlier this year I was given a roll of braid quilt Foundation Paper Piecing, so I have started that.  I cut up a partial Jelly Roll into the required size and will just continue until such time as I run out of pieces then decide on the sizes.  It is cumbersome and not the easiest way to do braids but of course it ends up straight and accurate and a good one for my social sewing days....

I wonder if you have seen Marina's snow globes.....  well I fell immediately in love with them and I happened to have the same preprinted panel as she is using so I asked if I could copy her idea.....  and so I have started stitching them (replacing the evening table runner stitching)  I am using a variegated Cottage Garden thread (which I had already) which makes it easy for me not to have to decide what colours go where....

Trail Mix is a big quilt and the largest I can fit on my frame .... I am slowly doing an all over design on it..... just love the scrappiness of this one....

This weekend I want to spend a couple of days quietly at home.....

Righto Gotto Go... that quilting is not going to do itself!!!

Sorting... sorting....

Pies and Tarts are coming with me when I go out for sewing days on Tuesdays..... over the last couple of weeks I have managed 3 pies and 2 tarts.   I will need to forage for backgrounds to applique them on.

I have finished off this little mini quilt... which has been ongoing for several years.  

It is 13" square and has foundation paper piecing, embroidery and free motion quilting....

and this week I am in to my foundation piecing ..... Abstract Elephant is proving to be completely addictive....

I did finish up the quilting on this little panel.... I wrote 'love' and drew little hearts, stars etc in between all the loves...

It is backed with some lovely soft flannel..... 

This week is going to be a hand sewing down the binding week....  I have 3 quilts that need to be finished off.

Righto, Gotto Go .... the next section of my elephant is calling out to me!  But first coffee!

Have a lovely rest of the week ...

Spoke too soon!

Having finished the big half hexagon Urban City quilt top, made it's binding and found a backing - it's now put away for another day....

and vowing never to do another EPP project someone posted their pies and tarts quilt and I remembered a box ......

I won a starter pack some time ago  ... lots of pieces already cut out and basted, plenty of templates and even quite a few bases to applique the pies onto...

I have a lovely range of reproduction pieces to add to this - at least it is not all EPP - there is also applique and machine piecing... so this will be my main pick up and go project for a while...

My crazy dots quilt is all put together now....

and I got some green to use as binding.... it's all ready with it.... haven't sorted a backing yet...

I did a bit of mini quilting this week....

And have done 17 sections of 97 sections for Elephant Abstraction by Violet Craft... one I've been wanting to do for ages...

It is all Foundation Paper Piecing - lots of preparatory work, lots of pieces all over the place, lots of mess, lots of pressing, lots of removing papers....

But I was having so much fun ......  this is the elephant trunk .... you can see it is beginning to turn at the end so you don't see the snout yet.  This part is 1.4m long .

I would like to get the next section at least prepared this week... it will be a slow project since I can't keep to one thing at a time and this one needs me to concentrate.  I already had to throw 2 made sections away as I had cut them on the wrong line!

Righto, Gotto Go.... time for a cuppa..... hope you are having a relaxing weekend.... xx

Gone...... just disappeared

It feels like the last 10 days just disappeared.... but they were fun...

Lovely Easter here with noisy boys and lots of chocolate eggs.... I needed a few days after to recover from the miseries at an empty house.... I don't think one ever gets used to the feeling of family leaving...

I have done a couple more dishcloths as my in the car knitting 

Solace was found in the sewing room.... practicing for a project with friends .... foundation paper piecing....

... and while the paper piecing was in my head I did some of my elephant blocks....  I am enjoying these and need to have a quiet morning or 3 to prepare a bunch more...

Hubz and I decided to try cooking up our own Pastrami using corned beef..... it was pretty good and made a wonderful Pastrami sandwich.... easy recipe but I'm not sure if it tastes how it really should.  Anybody do their own? 

One of the benefits of Easter Hunt at our house was little finds that were missed when we were watering the pots!!! haha

The last few evenings I have been working on this block for Civil War Bride.... a few of the leaves go over to the next block so they are not fully stitched down...

I started my baby giraffe's..... I think it will be pretty cute and I am happy with the light grey dot background

Righto, Gotto Go, I still have a special Easter biscuit I am finding it hard to actually eat since it is so cute and pretty!

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.... it's another long weekend here in Australia as we remember our Anzac's on Monday.... xx

FNSI for March

Friday Night was Sew In night with friends .... thank you Wendy for hosting us

I did a whole day Friday Sew In....

First I finished off my stars for March.... they were mostly done so this didn't take long....

Then I sewed my Scrappy Yellow Fish, the pieces were all cut so just the sewing and chopping to shape ... which didn't take too long

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Then finally worked on the last few blocks for last years National Museum BOM....  these took the rest of the day!

All the blocks are made but I still have the QAYG quilting to do on 7 of the blocks...

... and I will need to go shopping for some sashing

In the evening I did some stitching on my little cottage

This weekend we finally decided on a spot and hung up this little piece of art (foundation paper piecing)

It's in a little passageway corner and the dried flowers/sticks etc seem to match with the orange and the green in the wallhanging...

Righto, Gotto Go.... I want to get some of those blocks quilted and I have rather large scrap pieces to chop chop chop and sort

Have a lovely rest of the weekend and a happy week ahead....xx

FNWF and OPAM and WOOFA

My two OPAM finishes last month were quilts.... 

Dutch Treat (reverse applique)

Mama Tembu (international sisters block)

The tops had been made some time ago so have been in the finishing queue - therefore also fit into WOOFA projects (hosted by Cheryll) for January.

Thank you Cheryll for having us virtually for FNWF .....

I did some quilting on this Safari quilt I made some time ago.... It is a lap size and made up to look like snapshots.  Big seed pod type shapes in the quilting.

Over the weekend I will make the binding and attach back and front by machine - I usually hand sew down but not this time...

I have a couple of hand sewing things I am working on.... this is the first of the little neighbourhood houses for February done. 

Keeping going with this little piece - Just filling in this fabric with some lazy daisy flowers and french knots... then I will make it into a little snap bag.

Once the binding is done for the Safari Snapshots I will be starting this one......  my Elephant ... so far I have prepared some of the papers for foundation piecing..... there will be quite a lot of work to do and not much to see for a while as there are almost 100 blocks to make before they get put together to make it up....  the pattern has been so well done and is easy to follow with what colour goes where.  The other bonus is using these solids there is not a problem with wrong side and right side... ( I often get that mixed up with the sewing in reverse of foundation piecing)

On Thursday I made up these masks for a friend.  I like the 3D mask from See Kate Sew and have added little strips inside for the nose.  So far the only ones I have had success with not fogging up glasses.  

Righto, Gotto Go, after my coffee I will get sewing that binding...

Hope you all have a lovely weekend....