A busy week.....

Another United Stitches block.... these are all designs by Rosalie Dekker and I have sewn them using Cottage Garden threads (Snapdragon)

I have quilted the twisted blocks quilt... it's quite a small one and I just felt like doing it..... I did an all over design with swirls and hooks and some curles in the border.....

the back is actually part of a doona cover, which I found some years ago new but just loved the dots....  I think it was perfect for this quilt....

…. and now it is in the binding queue....

I had a lovely day on Tuesday with a friend and sewed happily on the machine and got my Bloom blocks together...

Then today I couldn't resist but to carry on and put the borders on....

.. and make the binding..... I was pleased to have found some backing just the right colour in my stash....

… and you know where it is now… in the quilting queue....

Bloom is designed by Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet

Now the drawer is empty.... I wonder how long it will take to find something to put in there?????

… and the last of my United Stitches blocks.... it wasn't on purpose to do this one last but it is just right.....  

It has rained... well, it has poured....

we have discovered gutters that don't cope and drains that are blocked... and the grass has grown -it's amazing that from brown dirt within 10 days there is lawn again, so are the weeds... but it's so good to see green

Righto, Gotto Go.... after all that there is a fair bit of tidying that needs to be done in the sewing room

Friday Night....

A lovely double date with Friday Nighters at The Quilters Angel and FNWF hosted by Cheryll with cyber friends....

I didn't take sewing... I took gluing!!  I don't do a lot of EPP and usually I baste but I think there are 144 of these to make and so desperation got me gluing.... I think I got half done.... so another session is required....

A few chores in town this morning and then...….

Yup... a sewing machine is not the only power-tool I know how to use.....

I can only reach half the hedge... so the front is done... it looks like it got a mohawk.... 

and I only cut through one power cord and tripped all the power in the house...…lucky Hubz is very patient with me and found another extension cord ..... and rolled his eyes almost to the back of his head!!

I feel I have made an honest annual contribution to the garden.

 This is the second of United Stitches that I managed to finish this week.....

One more to go!!!

Our white Jacaranda is flowering beautifully... it usually flowers in October, and it did last year, a little.  The recent bit of rain has mixed up lots of trees I have noticed.

They are lovely delicate flowers, I love the blue Jacaranda, but I love this one too....

For my me-time sewing this coming week Bloom blocks are out....

Sitting here on a Saturday afternoon listening to the sounds of suburbia... lawn mowers, whipper snippers, leaf blowers.... so good to have had some rain.... hope it keeps coming

Righto, it's this time of day again..... I'm off to read what others got up to for FNWF......

have a lovely weekend...

In the sewing room ......

My 'me-time' machine sewing this week (well ok it was the weekend, which I spent most of in the sewing room) is this zippy bag.....

I kind of messed up with estimating the size to trim my stitching to and didn't take into account the lace on the zip ...

…. and don't ask me why the bright yellow zip... at the time I thought it was a good idea.....

I do like this perfume themed fabric though...… and the zippy bag will be useful....

In fact it is already in use... a new hand sewing project … hmmmmm

The week seems to have sped by …. time goes fast... life is busy and happy, but I still try and find some time every day for some of my own stitching...

I have also done the quilting on this baby quilt.....

a simple wiggle going over the seams... keeps it nice and soft and snuggly....

… and it is now in the queue for waiting to have the binding sewn down.... I can do it soon even if it is still hot since it is just small....

These small quilts I am making are going to Blankets of Love …. just in case anyone else feels like making a little quilt....

I have sewed my spotty blocks .... HST's, join, slash, turn, stitch ...

I borrowed this book from our library.....

… and this is my version …...

Happy to have that made up now….. it's been in a packet kitted up and waiting for a while.....

I pinned up one of my own quilts over the weekend, a postponement of a job meant I had a few free days to do one of my own....

I am not generally a heavy quilter but really wanted to make the applique stand out … and also stretch myself with a bit of 'free-form' quilting.... I do like rows and set shapes so doing whatever was a challenge....

This United Stitches block only needed one quarter of it more to stitch....

Although I aim for 15 minutes of me time sewing... it sometimes doesn't happen and sometimes it goes longer....  the point is to make time to do something for me...

Righto, Gotto Go..... coffee is required....

Have a lovely rest of the week, we had a lovely spot of rain last night and it is so much cooler today.... phew...

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......

January monthlies......

This month I have done this hand work for 1 Christmas Item A Month....

These are going to be little heart ornaments but I have decided to do the handsewing first then make the hearts later

Once they are prepared they don't take too much time to stitch up, so though I am not actually finishing an item each month I am making progress ...

Thanks to Narelle for hosting 1 Christmas Item A Month...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This month's WOOFA items were....

Garden Sunshine quilt....

I managed to get all the blocks together and sew the border on to make a flimsy.....

United Stitches.

These are the little hand-work blocks I am doing and this month I got 7 done.....

The other project I am working on is my tumblers … as leaders and enders so a bit of progress each month as I get any sewing done...

I have a nice pile of pairs … will still keep going and use up the light rose fabric which is going in between

Thanks to Cheryll for hosting WOOFA.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OPAM

As far as finished projects... there are lots of little things as a result of trying to do a bit of a clean up....

Loads of kitchen cloths.....

… a bunch of baby wash cloths....

… one more penguin jumper.....

3 little blue quilts.....

… a bunch of block boards.....

… and a little pink baby quilt....

Thanks to Kris for hosting OPAM.....

Righto, Gotto Go.... I'm going to sort out what's to be done for February.....