a few bits and pieces.....

I have had my blocks for Road Trip cut out and packed together for a while now.... (I take photographs for reference when I plan them) so my metimesewing at the machine has been working on these blocks this last week or so....

The fabrics are all flannels...

It's a great theme with all the postcards...

I do like a mixture of handwork and machine piecing....

The blocks don't take too long once all the pieces are cut ….

.. and now all the blocks are done....

Helen has hosted this No Fuss Stitchalong …..  it's always fun to see how others do theirs and the different fabrics chosen...

Being a passenger in a car has resulted in another penguin jumper... now there are 4.  I will keep going as I have a healthy stash of wool for them....

… and evening stitching has resulted in another block for Wings....  bird on a branch....

Righto, Gotto Go..... the day is started and there is heaps to get done....

FNSI February

This Friday was 

hosted by Wendy.... thanks so much

I worked on a postcard …… still got the border to do ….

on Friday waiting at my front door from the postie was a surprise from Sue.... she had seen my lovely Hoya and found a pretty white one so she sent it up to me....  It was so well wrapped that no damage was done at all.... 

Thanks so much... it's going to look gorgeous with my other one.....

During the week I did get another postcard done ….. 

… and I pulled out these figurines to adorn a tallboy dresser....

the detail in them is wonderful.... so beautifully painted

…. even the seam lines at the back of the jacket....

.. they are all damaged … this one has had a thyroidectomy and lost his little nest in his hand...

I'm sure there is some significance about holding a nest... any ideas?

Just look at that clothing … such pretty fabric....

not sure I could cope with the romance of that era... but it is lovely to look at....

Righto, Gotto Go..... coffee is brewing.... then I'll have a wander over HERE and read what others sewed last night....

FNSI and more.....

Thank you Wendy for hosting FNSI last night....  I took out Flowerville to work on.....

Here it is at the start....

… and this is how I ended the evening.... (I'm a slow stitcher… this was a few hours work)

… well not quite as I wanted to quickly finish this postcard.... I just had one long side of border to stitch....

This is my first stitchery for this years No Fuss Stitchalong 

During the week I take 'smoko' breaks from my quilting work and usually spend it sewing for me....

I had some help from my animal friends to glue down ric-rac onto my stitchery.... 

…. and another day I sewed it all together.....

… my new peg bag/apron....

 Made with a dishtowel folded up and then added on the  black webbing....

This is the sad bag it is replacing..... 

…. it wasn't always sad... I found a picture of it when it was brand new and happy....

Righto, Gotto Go..... I want to arrange my Granny Squares this weekend.... so that I can have them in nice piles to add sashing next week....

… but first I will be off HERE to see what the other FNSI'ers got up to....

A good day's work.....

Lovely needlecase from Cheryll in the post on Monday..... isn't she sweet? Such pretty embroidery. Thanks Chez.....xx

Fish update....

At my last post there were quite a few comments about my little baby fish.  Well it did survive okay.  We ended up having to empty the whole pond, repot plants, clean all the stones and bricks, get achy backs .... but the fish all survived okay.

It still looks a bit murky but we can see the fish - here you can see 12 ... different sizes and colours...

the teeniest baby stays separate most of the time.... I have labelled it in this picture (just above 'baby') as he/she is hard to spot but you can see the difference in size - I don't think it is 1" long.... 

Tuesdays I spend the 'ChooseDay' girls and is where my main machine sewing takes place for the week...

At the moment we are all working on our UFO's so doing different projects - of course we always have advice and opinions on each others work, lots of cups of tea and coffee and chat chat and a lot of sewing ...

I worked on making the last 4 rows of my Tags quilt and added them on...

So now it is a finished flimsy ..... it's very soft and pretty pretty

I had enough of one of the browns in the quilt to cut strips for the binding... I will need to buy some backing ...

Big thanks to the hosts of the No Fuss SAL (Tuesday girls) who got this going.... I love it

 Somehow I managed to cut quite a bit more than I needed.... these will be used - maybe even a little something on the backing....

Next up I put together a block for Gardeners Journal.  I have had the stitcheries done for a while.

Then I worked on the backing for my Shimacho quilt.  I have used up left over pieces of my Japanese fabrics for this ......  the outside is quite scrappy as you can see but not much will show - most of it is so my backing is big enough for pinning and gripping during quilting.

I had the blocks already made so it was just sashing and borders to add

I started working on the backing for another quilt... still a bit to do on that...

A good day's work....

Righto, Gotto Go... real work to do today......

Stitching away....

This week I worked on finishing the last of my tag stitcheries .....

they have been so much fun to sew with others in the No Fuss Stitch-a-long

I have been sewing my blocks together when I had a few rows of stitcheries done...

This is where I was up to last time....

Now I have laid out the last few rows and pinned them in order waiting for a sewing day to join them up.....

Evening sewing has also included getting a couple more Dutch Treat blocks done.... 

I've still got 40 something of them left to do....

Righto, Gotto Go..... Hubz is cleaning the outside fish tank and I want to make sure the new little baby one doesn't get suctioned out!

Have a lovely weekend

Prettiness ...............

There are not a lot of things I really really really want but I do love these chairs and have heard lots of good reports about them.....

So this is what I got from Hubz...... 

I don't think he knew it was going to have a secret stash hiding place!!! haha

I do admit so far so good - it is my main quilting chair and nice and firm for the legs and that short back is supporting the small of my back well..... and it rolls so nicely - I can zoom around the room!

I was also gifted this lovely set of creams from Marion and Steph at The Quilters Angel - very sweet of them.

The creams are just lovely and feel very silky and not at all oily - and a perfect size to have in the handbag, sewing bag and by my chair..... 

... well I have put the creams in a special place and the lovely little bag has found another use!

These clever little bags with see through are great to know what is or is not in there....

I've continued with sewing up some tags for the No Fuss SAL - Living the Dream 

They really are fun and pretty.....

On Tuesday with the ChooseDay girls I sewed up some more of the tags I had done into strips and joined them together ....

There is still a few rows to do - the quilt is much bigger than I thought it would be and I just love it....