Gifts ... and a quilt top

When I was sewing The Schoolgirl Sampler (THIS ONE) I joined in with a few others on Instagram and we sewed together.....

Ingrid was one of the others and a surprise arrived in the post from her....

Ingrid had asked casually which was my favourite block from the sampler and I had said the flying geese.... so she made a mini quilt from it with some of her beautiful fabrics...

she also included an assortment of fabrics (a couple of French Generals in there which have gone towards a future new project) and a gorgeous little pincushion in a glass container..... made with some Tilda fabric ...

Lovely surprise... thank you Ingrid....

A few weeks ago someone had been looking for a pattern which they were having trouble finding and I had it... had made it up a few years ago so I offered to pass it on.....

A parcel arrived as a thank you.....

a big bag of scraps.... (she knew I love making scrap quilts) mostly fairly large pieces

A lot of I Spy type fabrics... so my collection is restored...

I used a lot in this Disappearing 9 patch quilt top....

I kept the I Spy pictures in the corners of the 9 patch so they didn't get chopped up... and then used up various scraps for the other squares and plain blues for the centres to make up the corner stones

Something I noticed on a quilt that was sent to me for quilting which I thought was a good idea was stitching around the complete edge of the quilt to stablise it when there has been a lot of piecing (I don't do this when there is a solid border).

Not only stabilise but also helps stop those little pieces from coming undone, and holds the shape for when it comes to quilting time...

My lovely wounded ducks are happily settled onto their new wild geese mini quilt rug....

The new crochet blanket has started..... It is a wave pattern and I am having to concentrate at the moment (I hope I will get the hang of it and move a bit quicker after a few rows)

Righto, Gotto Go... I think I'll go and play some of those new fabric and scraps....

That week disappeared....

Another week gone by and we are just about at the end of March.....

Over the weekend I finished off the top of my Schoolgirl Sampler.....

I had done quite a few of the HST's for the border....

It is slightly different from the pattern as I was trying to use up fabric I already had

There was enough of the orange to make the binding as well.....  it's a good lap quilt size...

The little Field Journal embroideries have started again this year and I have done my first 4 ......

the blocks cut back to 4 1/2"

most of these ones were stitched in one evening....

.. they are very pretty and fun to sew....

I picked up the next four this week so have them waiting next to my chair now....

Awake in the early hours this morning.... maybe it's that very fat full moon????

Righto, Gotto Go... take care, keep safe... happy stitching....

Sewing Days

I had a couple of sewing days with friends this week.... On Tuesday morning I went to Quilt Club and continued with glueing and sewing half hexagons...

I have a nice little pile starting.....

On Wednesday I had a few girls around for some chat and stitch time....  it is a good time for me to catch up on machine sewing...

I had the last 12 blocks for Schoolgirl Sampler cut and ready for sewing...

a little bit of unpicking did have to happen....

obviously some blocks are easier than others....

... and then I sewed their sashings and corner stones and added them to the rest of the blocks....

now there is borders.... and lots of HST's to be made but I'm happy to have got this far with it.  So far I have used pieces of Tilda fabrics left from other projects.. purchased some plain grey for the sashing and the gold for the cornerstones....

Righto, Gotto Go..... all the playtime means there is now work to be done!!

Have a lovely rest of the week....

My sewing week

I have completed another block for Civil War Bride....  it seemed to take ages 3/20 done -  a way to go

some more machine sewing has happened and another 8 blocks for Schoolgirl Sampler 

I have put this away for now... hopefully I will be able to prepare a bunch for a sewing day later next week...

... and I started a new hand sewing project to take with me to my Tuesday Sewing group.... 

The picture next to it is the inspiration.  My blocks are not sewn together (sewing the same colour in pairs for the moment) but it gives an idea of how it will look.

I bought 3" hexagons and am cutting them in half for piecing.... I am not a fan of EPP usually but I fell in love with this pattern and these big pieces will (I hope) keep me entertained and easy to pick up and take with me...

So that has been my week.... busy and fun most of the time.... special thoughts are for my special friend Michelle..... 

Righto, Gotto Go.... time to sit with my feet up and a cuppa....

FNWF March

Thanks Cheryll for hosting FNWF .....  I do seem to focus more when I know we are sewing together...

I kindof had a FWD... (Friday Whole Day) and got through some of my School Girl Sampler blocks

The blocks are to finish at 4"....

I am using up Tilda scraps .....

some of them I really like... others not so much

then I put together a group, (some of which had been done before,) with their sashing and cornerstones

.. and added them to the other blocks.... 

 

Last night I hand sewed.  I am using a flecked fabric but the tracings are not easy to see at night....  it is going slow but I particularly wanted that fabric for this project.

Today I want to continue with Schoolgirl Sampler .... a couple more blocks are cut and waiting to be sewn....

Thanks again Chez... I am off over HERE to catch up on what the others did...

Have a lovely weekend.....xx

FNSI and coffee

Thanks to Wendy for hosting us all for 

It's always lovely to sew virtually with people from all over... there is also a facebook page and it's fun to pop in and chat with others for a while.... (not too much or no sewing gets done!!!)

I finished off Friday's little stitchery from Crab Apple Hill.....

.. and then I sewed the bee which finished off this needleturn block....  This is a quilt called From The Heart and a BOM I bought from The Quilters Angel.  Block 1 of 9 done .....

that pretty much took up Friday night...

My Thursday sewing was reasonably successful.... lovely having a couple of friends come over....

Machine's were buzzing, chins were wagging....

I put together all the blue and yellow blocks .... so now it is a quilt top and I have extra yellow for the binding..... I'm still not sure I like it....

These are the other little blocks done during the week..... even though they are small they still seem to take me quite a bit of time.  I am keeping up with one a day ... trying hard to avoid yet another UFO....

Very excited this week to pick up my next instalment of Field Journal.....

and little left over 4 patches have been made into a little quilt top.... pinned and ready for quilting now....

It is left overs from the wallhanging I have up in my sewing room....

I did also sew some of the Schoolgirl Sampler blocks together on Thursday.... adding sashing as I went along....

so as you can see I am halfway with the blocks... however there are lots of HST's to do still as well as the blocks so not halfway for the quilt....

Hubz got a new delivery of coffee beans this week - as you can see we have chosen some from the Congo

Here is the before and after roasting of the beans... you can see they expand a fair bit...

we have a little electric grinder and roasted beans are ground every few days so they are nice and fresh

.. kept stored in an airtight bottle....

These drip machines were popular in the 80's (I think)... and are back again in the shops... it is our choice of coffee machine and Hubz makes a lovely pot when he wakes up... so all I need to do is pour myself a cup....  I am happy to admit to being a coffee snob.

May seem a lot of trouble to get a good cup of coffee..... luckily it is Hubz' job not mine (he says I make rubbish coffee) so I have resigned myself to having my coffee made for me....  

Roasting of the beans is done in a Popcorn maker.... so no fancy equipment needed...

Righto, Gotto Go.....  time for a cup of coffee!!!

Love to special friends who are having it rough .... my love and thoughts are with you .... xx