Friday Night With Friends

Last  night I joined in with Friday Night With Friends. I finished the little cross stitch above a while ago. There is a little silver crook to be stitched next to the shepherd's hand after I wash it. It is a set of four small Christmas designs from Shepherd's Bush.

 They each measure just two and a half inches square when finished.

I started this one last night.

If you would like to see what everyone else got up to last night, or to sign up click here.

A Sewing Day In

Saturday saw the Cassilis Quilters meet at my house. Linda at The Plough Inn takes a well deserved rest during January.

Susan had show and tell...

and did a little quilting on her mini.

Julie finished a long term project by machine quilting her Christmas tree. 

 She's already for Christmas 2015 now.

Kylie finished binding a quilt.

Lea was doing some secret stitching, so I can't show you a photo of her project...sorry. This despite her recent eye surgery. You've got to admire that women's commitment to her craft!

My quilt frame doesn't have a small turning circle, so I left it in the family room while we stitched in the lounge room. I started a new project.

This will be a tooth fairy pillow for my niece. I ordered a little star to go on the end of her wand today. Just waiting for the postman to deliver it to my letterbox. The little white dots are tiny seed beads, hard to tell in the photo.

I've made good progress on my assessment task for the course I am studying this year. So my reward is to sit at my quilting frame tonight and do a little more hand quilting on Toes In The Sand while watching the Australians play well in the Australian Open.

Remember me?

So, it was early October the last time I posted. I will try and catch you up with photos rather than lots and lots of words. 

So here goes...

Back in October I went on a retreat and made this backpack...

 First time I've used grommets to make those holes for the straps. Very nerve racking cutting the holes, but it they went together just fine.

...and also started a couple of Christmas table runners.

I have completed five in total. These will be gifts for family and work mates. So I did have a couple of finishes for November and will add them to my tally. Three finished in December too, so I can tick a some finishes off for December now; including this cross-stitch.

My hand quilting frame finally arrived and last weekend it went from raw timber...

 to a coat of stain and sealer. Just a light sand and one more coat of sealer and I will be ready to build it. I just can't see that happening before Christmas.

Last Friday the Cassilis Quilters got together and I was so lucky to receive these beautiful gifts. A lovely cross stitch pin cushion from Susan...

 and a measuring tape in this super cute felt cover from Lea. 

they're just gorgeous!!

Thanks so much.

There will be a few changes for me in 2015. Starting a new job when school resumes next year. Sadly saying goodbye to colleagues in my present job this week. I've also started a course, so my sewing time is being eaten into a little bit with study and assignments. Looking forward to the holidays when I can do more of both in the New Year.

I'm also looking forward to spending Christmas Day with my brother and his family for the first time in thirteen years! So it's a pretty special one for us.

Wishing you all a safe and relaxing holiday and a very merry Christmas with your family and friends.

FNSI

What is it with me and Christmas cross stitches? I have so many to hang on my walls each year already.

I purchased three more projects at the Darling Harbour Quilt show in 2013. I have completed one, its even framed. See....

 

 

So when it was time to start something new, I didn't go with a pattern in stock, rather one on loan from a friend. I worked on this during Friday Night Sew In last night.

 

Progress has been a bit slow due to the fact that I have stitched two rows of words in green instead of blue.....twice. I love sewing, but reverse sewing is the pits. I felt like such an idiot the second time.

 

Hope you are enjoying the weather, wherever you are.

It's Spring here, and the days are just beautiful!

 

 

 

First project for 2014

I stitched this little project on the way to the beach. I always enjoy making Christmassy projects in January. More time to relax and enjoy.

I have also been working on the third side of the hexagon border of my EPP Violet quilt. Nice to work on this project again. Up to row fourteen of twenty four. 

Can I just add, this is my first post created on my new iPad. A Christmas gift from Mr Stitch. I've had a few technical problems getting used to uploading photos etc. Thought the teenagers would be able to help. However, they were no use to me and I'm proud to say I displayed uncharacteristic patience with technology and worked to out myself!!

So nice to sit in the comfort of a lounge chair while blogging rather than an office chair in front of the computer. How lazy do I sound?

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and project filled 2014.

 

On Sunday I took an excited car load of teenagers to Sydney. During this school holidays, they are heading off to South Korea with their Principal and one other teacher for ten days. First stop Seoul for some sightseeing, then a flight to Jeju Island. Next a two hour ferry ride to Chuja Island where they will stay with host families from a school of just 37 students for about four nights. Our local high school has been participating in a student exchange program with students from South Korea for about 6 years now. We have hosted three students in our home so far and it has been such a wonderful experience. Yesterday our youngest son flew out on his adventure.

Here he is with a few of the girls..

 

 ...and a few guys. Eight in total.
 

They washed cars to raise money for their team shirts, it was easier to identify each other in a busy airport.

 

A few of the mums are of a quilting disposition. I suggested that as the children were catching an early flight, we could 'patchwork shop hop' our way home. After all, we would be at least a little sad to wave our children good bye and perhaps some retail therapy would cheer us up.

 

I just have to digress here and say that getting him packed up to go was much more stressful than actually waving him off to visit another country far, far away from his mother. An example of what I mean? Well, I could sworn I spoke English when I said "Go and pack your bag, you fly out tomorrow." Some how was interpreted as "Go to you room, sit on your bed with you iPad and chat to your  friends on Facebook for AT LEAST an hour." While the girls in the photo have sent their mothers detailed messages and photos of the trip so far. I  discovered he had unfriended my on Facebook AGAIN. The message I finally received when accepting my friend request?...'Hi Mum'. That's it. Mothers of boys out there, I know you feel my pain.

 

Anyway...back to the shopping.

 

With TomTom securely attached to my windscreen, we navigated our way through the city on our own adventure.

First stop...Quiltsmith. They have SO much fabric!! My friends Sandra and Mandy (no blogs for these ladies) made some lovely fabric purchases. Just a new thimble for me.

Next stop...and this is where Kevin will be jealous...Material Obsession. (Check out Kevin's blog as he starts his own Soul Searching journey.)

 

When we pulled up out the front of the shop, we were greated with this wonderful sign !!!

 

 

I purchased wadding for my current Star Flannel Quilt project. Backing for my next flannel project. Yes, there will be another one after the Star Quilt...not sure what it will be and not untill next Winter. But I couldn't resist the lovely Woolies flannel MO stock when it is half price. I am becoming a bit addicted to flannel fabric.

 



I'm not sure why I needed this fabric other than it caught my eye on my last visit and it was now half price.

Finally...

 

 ...bags of scraps were just $3. So I got one of those.

On my to do list this holidays...sort my fabric into one central location so I can start making some scrappy projects from this book...

 

 

...and another I am anxiously waiting to arrive in my letter box any day now. I am in my collecting phase at the moment.

 

It was very inspiring to see the quilts hanging downstairs in this shop and those made by the peope who were attending a class while we were there. You can see them on the Material Obsession blog here.

 

All of this shopping made us a bit hungry so back in the car. 'Sat Nav' programmed and we headed for Killara where there is a lovely cafe next door to the Crewel Gobelin.

This store is under new ownership. The lovely helpful ladies who used to own it have been replaced by equally lovely helpful staff. No patchwork fabric here. Just lots and lots of embroidery thread, linen, aida, embroidery and cross stitch patterns.

A couple of new (little) projects and some linen for projects already on my to do list.

Even though I was weary from my big day, I couldn't resist starting this one last night. Forty count linen, definitley need my glasses for this one.

 

To finish off (sorry, should have warned you this post was long) an update on my Star Flannel Quilt. Hopefully finished tonight and ready to quilt tomorrow now that I have wadding.

 

Bye for now.



A Finish For June

Here is the birth sampler I stitched for my niece, to celebrate her Christening last weekend. I collected it from the framers last Wednesday, just in time for the weekend's celebrations.

We flew to Melbourne last weekend for the Christening. I could have sworn my boarding pass indicated that we were flying to Melbourne, but it felt more like Antarctica while we waited for the shuttle bus to take us to the car hire venue.

Here is DS No. 2 waiting at the airport, it really was that cold. Believe it or not, he could see his phone well enough through his beannie to text his friends while waiting for the shuttle bus. And no....the weather did not improve...at all. It was FREEZING!!

Anyway...I have an OPAM finish for June. Have more to show you, but I have to stitch a gift for an expectant mum tonight. Will blog more later in the week.

Two OPAM Finishes For May

Sorry to bore you with photos of projects you have seen, but I just dropped my latest birth sampler into the framers and to my surprise there were two projects for me to collect.

After all of the sewing I did during April, my OPAM tally totalled a pathetic 1 completed project!!

So now I have doubled my tally for April and May's tally stands at 2. Yay!!

The Three Bears...a slightly different version

Once upon a time there was a little cottage built deep in the woods.

Birds would often visit the family that lived there and tweet little birdy songs and flowers grew all around.

In this cottage lived a  family of bears who LOVED to eat porridge and walk in the woods. This particular morning they decided to combine these activities and take their porridge with them.

 Why? I hear you ask.

 Because they read their star guide that morning and it predicted that they would be visited by a short blonde stranger who would eat them out of house and home.

Surprisingly the short blonde stranger went by the name of Goldilocks and she LOVED to pick flowers. When she arrived at the cottage of the three bears she knocked on the door. Nobody answered, but the rude little girl walked right in anyway and started looking for food. 

All she could find was the chocolate that Mumma bear had stashed away to savour while she sewed late into the night when Baby Bear was asleep and Poppa Bear was on night shift.

Tired AND only slightly nourished, she looked for a place to rest.

The house did not contain a single chair, but it did have three beds with some really nice patchwork quilts lovingly stitched by Mumma Bear. After trying all of the beds, she discovered that the wee little baby bed was 'just right'...and ...well....you know the rest of the story.

TaDaaaa...I have finally finished my nieces birth sampler.

 (The surname in the middle has been stitched, but I took the photo before the light vanished on me this afternoon)

I had to do a little reverse sewing on the border this afternoon when I realised the leaves on the upper side of the vine in the bottom left hand corner were pointing the wrong way. I only noticed that recently.

Oh well, at least I picked it up BEFORE it was framed.

Friday Night With Friends Plus A Quick Catch Up

It's been a while since my last post. So.... a quick catch up and then my FNWF projects.

Son No. 3 and I had a lovely time meeting our nephew/cousin. We flew to Melbourne for the Easter weekend to spend time with my SIL and the children while my brother attended a wedding in Brisbane.

They moved back to Australia last October. So nice to have them just a short flight away.

If you help make the muffins, you are DEFINITELY allowed to lick the beaters. Licking the beaters is the whole point of cooking, right?

Despite the very cool weather, we had lots of fun. 

Now to FNWF....

My new flannel scrap quilt was a nice portable project to take to Melbourne.

I have been trying to get one hexagon flower in my flannel scraps completed each day as I will be visiting a friend next weekend and she will be taking us to some quilt shops near her home where I hope to buy more fabric for background/borders etc. 

Last night I completed the one in the middle of the top row.

So far I have six flowers completed. 

The hexagon papers are 2 and a half inches so the flowers are VERY BIG!! My embroidery scissors fit inside one hexagon. Sew six together and you almost have a knee rug!!I need to have as many completed as possible so I can figure out what I will do with them. Not really sure yet...just ideas floating around in my head. 

Once I ticked that off my list, I went back to work on the birth sampler for my niece...

Do you find that once everyone is in bed, you enjoy the peace that reigns over the house and just keep sewing until OMG it's 1.15am?

 I have almost finished the leaves of the border...

Then I can go back and finish the flowers. You will have to check back to see what goes into the middle. I will have to push on with this as we now have a date for the Christening mid June. I will need time for it to be framed. So, I hope to finish it over the next 2-3 weeks.

Hope you enjoyed our FNWF.