First week of June.....

This week I was determined to catch up on a few things....

Last month I only managed to do the cutting of fabric for RSC oranges...

..... so I sewed some little orange buttons.....

... and this months light blue/green buttons which I mistakenly took as teal.... 

Then  I built the orange house....

... and the teal house....

These are all the houses so far  - not sewn together...

hand work in the evening was mostly more little tarts..

Back to machine sewing and I did the teal block for QAYG project....

... and the orange block....

There was a fair bit of reverse sewing done for those blocks... every single time I get the little HST's the wrong way in part of it.... EVERY time!

These and the previous month's one all still need quilting

... then I got distracted.......

I have loved this quilt for ages and when I saw a kit on a destash page for less than half the price of new I snatched it up.  Lovely low volume backgrounds and liberty lawn.  Some of it was already cut so I have been cutting it all up ready for sewing.

I still have some monthly projects to do....

• Tea cup critters (new one is out and I have to sew up the last 2 months)
• Gossip in the Garden next block
• Quilting on the QAYG blocks
• KK Drama - 2 months of blocks

I hope this weekend I will make some headway into them..... unless I get distracted some more!

Righto, Gotto Go..... I just want to finish cutting some pieces for that newest distraction then I can put it out of sight!

Have a lovely weekend.... xx

June FNWF

Friday Night saw me continuing with my Civil War Bride.... finally onto the last bits of the side borders...

The ends are left incomplete as when the top and bottom go on the applique vine will join up...

I am having a few days quiet at home with a bit of a chest infection - good time to do some catch up sewing...

Yesterday I trimmed and fudged and added the side borders to the blocks....

I love it and am excited to do the other borders... but I must catch up on other stuff first!

I also sewed up the edges for the Santa stitchery....  it's pinned on some backing now and ready for some quilting....

Then I did lots of cutting for blocks which I want to sew today.....  tiny little buttons, large houses... 

Have a happy Sunday....

Thanks to Cheryll for hosting FNWF .....

End of May

Well it's now 'officially' winter here since it is June - this year we have already had lots of cold nights and frosts.

On Saturday I went to Embroidery Guild (Saturdays meet once a month) and continued with my whitework....

Finished the last heart and started with the heart fillers.  I have been borrowing Hubby's light/magnifyer to do this and it has helped a lot and I have ordered my own....

Quilt Group was in a big cold hall so I took along a quilt to sew down the binding..... meant I could have the rest of it on my lap.....

Work is continuing with the side borders for Civil War Bride.... I'm on the last flowers - they need centres and then there is some embroidered legs to do....

A few more tarts have been done..... I still have quite a lot of these to go....

I found a Poinsettia flower to go on my Santa's hat.... It is just ironed on.  I still need to do piecing to go around the edges of this....

So progress has been made on several things..... 

The new colour for Scrap challenge is dark/bright blues - I haven't sewn my Orange's yet (they are prepped up) from last month! A bit of catch up needed there...

Righto, Gotto Go....  a bit of tidy up then go and sort through the blues....

Have a lovely rest of the week.....

Last week of May

This time of year is stunning.... cool/cold nights and glorious days

Late afternoon yesterday we went for a stroll around a nearby park....

Love this spiky grass - in real it is like one of those optical illusions with the round bally of soft spikes

a lovely outlook - it was a clear day and we could see the Bunya mountains in the distance....

One of the silver wattles is full of buds.... I found a few of these earely lovely yellow balls - it will be covered soon...

The grevillea's are in bud - we will go back in a couple of weeks....

There is such an assortment of the grevillea's....

This hibiscus has huge double flowers - very striking...

Kanagaroo paw... only a few with flowers...

... another grevillea version....

We found one little flannel flower - never seen it there before..... the petals are so soft..

... and another grevillea about to blossom

This week at home I finished the stitching on this Santa - which has been around for a long time.  Marina sent me the pattern ages ago and now I need to choose fabrics and finish it off to be a mini quilt ....

I continued with more tarts at stitching with the girls .... and a couple of evenings....

The Sashiko piece is finished.... I do like the look and am learning a bit more each time.

I'm not sure what I will do with this piece .....

I had a quiet morning tis week and cut and sewed 12 more blocks for the old shirts quilt - I have enough now to make a 63" square quilt.... next part is sewing all the blocks together of course...

Some more progress has been made on my Whitework......  I am speeding up - it took me about 2 hours to do one heart yesterday at Guild!!!

Righto, Gotto Go.... an out day today and I need another coffee before I go....

Have a lovely weekend...

Second week of May

It's been a busy week and one of sewing a variety of things... often just finishing off

Last time I mentioned a workshop at Embroidery Guild.... one of the members kindly introduced those of us who wanted to learn to some Ukranian Whitework....

This is what I managed in the 3 hours I was there!!!!

I have done a little bit more since being home but it is slow going - the tutor did say I would 'get my eye in' and it would go a bit quicker.....

I'm planning to sit quietly with a light and magnifier and try and do a bit more today - it is definitely not the sort of thing I can do with any other distractions....

At sewing with the girls on Tuesday I made up a few 'tarts'.....

I am finding these fiddly diddly and not getting nice round curves.... 

I made up a beanie as requested.....  this is quite a nice looking pattern with a bit of a slouch...

I made up a smaller one that fits closer to the skull as well....

These are made in the Zimbabwe flag colours (that centre is a strong green though here it looks teal) .... you can see the difference in size here....

These little stitcheries for the inside of Dresden plates (Gossip in the Garden) were completed....

They really don't take too long....

I did quilt up a couple of my own quilts.... I have two of these same ones (as there was enough fabric in my fat quarter pack to make up 2)

I did a simple ribbon all over... nice and soft and doesn't take away from the lovely shadowed stars....

gorgeous cornflower blue spot backing....

\

Joy has a sweet free BOM going and I have caught up on the stitcheries but still need to make up the blocks....

I can generally get one done in an evening....

Craft Alive was here in Toowoomba this week and some pretty French General fabrics fell in my basket.....

I was helping a friend at her stall but did manage to catch up for coffee with some friends from Brisbane (forgot the photo!)

My favourite there was an exhibition by a couple of textile artists.... amazing - again no photo's (bad bad blogger me).

I had a chat to a stall holder selling beautiful threads and mentioned I mostly do backstitch.... well did she go off at me for cheating and I should be doing her lessons of 5 stitches and not do backstitch... blah blah blah.... I found it very very hard not to be rude to her.  I like backstitch!

Last night was FNSI hosted by Wendy....  I worked on some Sashiko (L plates on)

I want to do a quilt with Sashiko blocks and practicing the motion with some smaller ready marked pieces I have had for a while.  I am using these DMC 5 threads.

Any tips are welcome .....

Righto, Gotto Go -  have a lovely weekend everyone.... the sun is out, the temperature is cool, my stitching awaits....

xxx