Hand- stitching.....

I haven't really done any machine stitching of my own this week.... been happily quilting though ....

In the meantime I am still doing some hand stitching ....

this sunflower is done for Field Journal ,,,,,,

... and all the May stitcheries for Wish You Well are done....

..and I am slowly working through my crochet blocks adding dark borders....

(these are not true colours at all... that is a dark mustard with navy blue)

I was gifted this gorgeous new mug this week.....

Righto, Gotto Go.....  the sun is shining, the lawn is being mown, there is coffee to be had in a pretty new mug!

A swap and February Plans....

I joined a swap with Jane from Loopy's place.  She (via f/b Get Creative with Loopy) has an accent on mental health and one of the many things to help is creating.... and giving..... so she offered it out and although most are from the UK there was someone happy to send over to me....

I don't participate in a lot of swaps these days, but felt this was a fun one and didn't require a huge project.

Louisa sent me this gorgeous piece of hoop art.... it is so clever.....

she didn't make the card but it is hand made and just perfect too....

I think this guy has a little bit of a mischievous expression

It was a fun swap...... I sent over a little zippy purse thinking it might be useful for things like crochet hooks...

A pattern by Natalie Bird and one I have used before... lovely sentiment....

There was also a fabric origami butterfly magnet but I forgot to take it's picture.....

My main plan this month is to get back into the routine of having at least 15 minutes of me time on the sewing machine each day.  I hand sew practically every evening but machine sewing often seems to be overtaken ….

I have already started making the blocks for my Twisted blocks quilt..... and want to get this top together..... 

They are lovely bright happy spotty fabrics which I have teamed up with some white....

I have two zippy bags to be done……  work has started on these....

Tumblers will continue as leaders and enders....

United Stitches will continue to be my main hand sewing at night.....  I would like to have finished all the stitcheries by month-end....

prepare 3 more Happy Hearts snowmen.....

quilt and bind this little quilt..... only 22" square so not too ambitious....

To end off some of the quilting I have been doing lately....

This is the back of quilts

Busy, busy... just how I love it.... (if it's sewing related!)

Righto, gotto go.... I think I can fit in 15 minutes of my own quilting today and do that little baby quilt.....

Have a lovely weekend......

year end.......

Wishing you all a wonderful 2020..... may it be full of stitching..... and other stuff that you like....

Yesterday I went and bought cold meats, cheeses and pickles for us to snack on at NYE....  we seldom sit up till midnight, preferring just to get to sleep when we feel ready..... boring ….

This week I quilted up this little quilt (the top was given to me) …...

… and this Chevron quilt top that I made a few years ago.... I did leaves in all the whites and lines in the colour… fairly heavy quilting but it gives a nice texture and is not too stiff....  will be even nicer after a wash....

My hand quilting is done, this is a smallish lap quilt size and I did make myself do a bit each day so it would get done....  some ovals in the blank squares to copy applique'd stitcheries

.. and some orange peels in the corners and wavy lines in the borders...

 mostly very simple but it holds it all and gives a nice soft feel....

I now have a binding queue starting... the binding has been sewn on by machine and I will hand sew when it is cool enough to be prepared to have a quilt on my lap! (my postcards quilt is also there)

Today I am pinning work quilts in preparation for next year..... well one of them needed to be finished before I could pin it ------ YOU know who you are!!!.... haha.... just a bit of blanket stitching around stars....  I thought it was a bit funny that it got posted to me not quite done....

.. and another United Stitches block done.....  you will still be seeing these around for a while...

I have updated my WOOFA list on the side bar to reflect my long UFO list.  Cheryll is hosting a bit of motivation to work on unfinished projects, and maybe even finish them!!  You can read about it HERE.

Thanks Chez..... great idea....

Righto, Gotto Go..... ALL THE VERY BEST FOR 2020 .....

Phew......

We survived.....

It's been a bit like that this year

Just before Christmas I received lovely post with ornaments

From Susan

From Jeanette ….

and from Karen …. and extra card from Raewyn...

Thank you I just love them

My tree looked lovely with only hand made ornaments on it.... and so many memories and thoughts go with them.... 

I did make some and sent them off... I only took this picture of the backs!

….. but I have 'stolen' this one from Michelle's blog...

I used some glitter cork fabric on some, and some glitter felt on others and some sweet Tilda angels....  some raw edge applique and pinking sheers and finished off with hemp twine.....  a real mix of textures....

WE had a quiet Christmas but I had a good giggle at my mug with mugshots... (Hubz and I got one each.... the motley crew making silly faces)

… and up to date pictures of the grandchildren.....  As most of you know they live far away (bar 1) so having these is very precious to me.....

I have continued with my hand quilting, and the last couple of days done some machine quilting of my own......

Handstitching has continued …. as always.... and this sweet butterfly is done....

… and this one which is very apt for the end of one year and the beginning of the next....

This last couple of days I have been doing some sorting and updated my pages (at the top of my blog page) for UFO's and the Quilting Queue... both very long.  

I always make great progress on my UFO's which usually results in increased quilting queue... and then of course I start a whole lot more to be UFO's for the following year.... that's the way it works in this house....

Wishing you and yours all the best, and may we have a wonderful year full of blogging friendship.....

Getting on with it.....

This is the 82nd panel of the Welcome Wall which is at the Maritime Museum in Sydney

… and Hubz and I are inscribed on it.....

The Welcome Wall is for immigrants to Australia, a sizeable donation to the museum and you can get an inscription.  Both Hubz and I are the first in our respective families to have immigrated here (2002 from Zimbabwe) and we felt this was important for us.

The unveiling was last week, unfortunately we were not able to attend but hopefully one day we will get to go and see it in real life.  A kind staff member sent us a picture of the panel and I enlarged it to find us....

Hasn't always been easy, but we have a home, an income, friends and family ….. lucky there are lovely people in all parts of the world... one just has to find them....

This weeks little stitchery is a lighthouse.... I am plugging slowly at these.. there is still lots more...  preprinted which makes a huge difference.... 

.. and I have been working on quilting this little mini quilt... so I can have it up on my frame for this Christmas....

The crochet blanket is finally done.... in spite of the heat I was tired of having the big bag of yarn lying around the lounge so I have worked on it in the evenings.....  It is just dripping off some excess water from a rinse (I may have spilt a Marguerita on it during its creation)

This mini is going to replace it in the lounge as I have decided I would like to 'practice' hand quilting.  The blue painters tape will be my guideline.....

This one is quilted and the binding stitched on....  some hand stitching to be done....

… and I have some Christmas fabric to play with..... my favourite store The Quilters Angel has 50% off all Christmas so it's crazy not to take advantage of it....  lovely quality fabric...

… and I am going to learn something new this month.... photograph printing on to fabric.....

Tips anyone?????

Righto, Gotto Go..... that blanket needs to put out nice and flat and the Christmas fabric is calling out to be cut!!

Have a lovely day... keep warm if you live there, keep cool if you live here....  fires, wind, smoke, dust and heat will keep me indoors ... lucky I sew!