Finally...some stitching and painting

We have had a busy time lately with parties and weddings and weekends away. It has been fun but has made it hard to get lots done at home. This week has been a little quieter and I managed to get the paints out to paint our special button for the stitching days. The stitching days will soon be here and I need to get stitching and get to writing the notes. The first day on the 14th is full and there are just a few places left on the 21st. 

 Here is a little secret glimpse of a bit of stitching on felt.

 As we have been in the car a lot lately, I just had to get a bit of stitching prepared and have managed to stitch the second block of "My Town", the Post Office.

I am also very please to show you my finished "Gardener's Journal" quilt! It is bound and the label is stitched on! 

Tis the Season blocks done and Gardener's journal is quilted

So excited to show you my first three blocks of Tis the Season. I am pleased they are ready in plenty of time though I really enjoyed stitching them. Using one colour is so easy. I am using red fabrics from my stash to piece this quilt. I have a large stash of reds and really didn't need to buy any more!

I also went to Robyn, my lovely quilter, to pick up my Gardener's journal quilt this week too. Now it needs a little hand quilting in the stitcheries and then binding and the label and it will be finished.

Gardener's Journal progress, My Garden block and a lovely quilt

I am so excited to finally show my top of the Gardener's Journal with the borders added. It has been great to share this journey with the Stitch-a-long girls.It is a bit wrinkled as I couldn't wait to take its photo to share. It is always a relief to get those last borders onto a quilt. I am going to have it quilted professionally so I feel like it is almost finished.

I also managed to get block 7 of the My Garden BOM finished for this month as well. Whew! I am up to date with my BOMs.

Thought I would share this lovely quilt that Shirley brought to show the Tuesday ladies. It is a class that Janet runs at Hobbysew and it used up lots of scrappy strips! Looks great, Shirley. Look carefully and you can see a star in the centre and then another pattern in the corners.

BOMs are up to date, almost

I finally had some time this weekend and forced myself to go into the sewing room and make these blocks up. Here is block I from the Gardener's Journal quilt I am doing with the Stitch-a-long girls. I put off the machining and it was really easy once I had chosen the fabrics. So nice to be up to date.

I also stitched on the borders and the little bird on this block of the My Garden BOM. This is October's block and I have stitched and prepared this month's too. Might get the borders done today!

A little finish and another Gardener's journal block done

It was so nice to have 2 quiet days at home this week and I managed, in between procrastinating, to make up this lovely little canvas work scissor keeper that I stitched while on holidays.

I also "forced" myself to cut the pieces and put together block F of the Gardener's Journal quilt that I am doing with the "Stitch-a-long" girls. Some of the seams are a bit wobbly but I blame the checky fabrics! I do think it is probably the dodgy sewer who tends to rush these things. This was the September block so it is just a little late.

Here is the block sewn onto the one that goes beside it.

Some progress...and a quilt finally hung!

I finally found time to hang my lovely "Your home or mine" quilt, a design by Lynette Anderson, (I have added that for Deb as I was unable to access your profile to send you an email) on the wall. I had my Leanne Beasley's Journey of a Quilter here and it was hard to take that one down. It is in the sewing room so I can still see it! This quilt does deserve to hang in pride of place in the entry and I am pleased with how it looks.

I am enjoying working on this "My Garden" block. I had to take my time with the satin stitch but am very pleased with the result.

My scarf is growing slowly too and is now 38" long! I thought it looked much longer than that. The pattern says to knit it 80" long! Luckily, I am short so mine won't need to be that long.

I did finish the weeding the garden block. I stitched her dress in pink instead of blue accidentally. I should take more care reading the instructions. I had finished the dress when I discovered my mistake so have decided to leave it pink.

A few things done on Thursday

I did manage to get a few things done yesterday. Mind you, the housework didn't get done but I have attacked the vacuuming this morning! I can't see much difference but at least I know it is done. I did manage to get a couple of the jobs on my list completed. I have finished Block H of the Gardener's Journal quilt so am up to date for this month. I hope to get the next one done too this month as I am away on holidays in August.

I also attacked the needleturn applique on Block 9 of the Crazy Christmas BOM. The little arms were very tricky!

I also traced some more of the Gardener's Journal stitcheries ready to take away with me. I know I have a few weeks left in this month but it was so lovely to have days at home. Days at home have been fairly few and far between lately. 

Block C of Gardeners Journal done!

I finally found some time to stitch together Block C. Luckily I had already stitched the house earlier which was a great help.  

Paddy and I are off to Sydney this afternoon and are going to the craft show tomorrow. My class girls were very excited as quite a few of them are going tomorrow as well. Can't wait to see all the stalls. I really don't need anything but you never know what you will find.
I managed to do a little more stitching on these little felt Christmas pictures from the lovely Quilt a gift book. Here they are. I really love the look of stitched felt.

Victoria and a little stitching

Just another view into the window of that lovely shop in Yarragon.

We drove home on Monday and stopped for a look over Lakes Entrance.

I did some stitching on the vegies from the Gardener's Journal. There was a lot of stitching on this block. I didn't read the instructions carefully and made the corn all yellow and then had to go over the stitches with green and that has made them a little wrinkly.

I also started some of the lovely decorations in the Bareroots book, Quilt a Gift, and really enjoyed working with felt again. 

What am I stitching?

We had a lovely quiet weekend and it was great to get a few things organised to stitch. We are heading away to visit dear friends in Victoria on the weekend and it is a long drive! Lots of time to stitch. I appliqued the carol singers onto the 8th Crazy Christmas block. There is plenty of stitching on this block to keep me busy.

I also started a canvas work project I have been wanting to do for a while. I do enjoy canvas work.

I traced and started the vegetables for the "Gardener's journal" Stitch-a-long.

Please excuse this blurry photo but here is the next block for the Stitch-a-long being organised on the ironing board. What a shame....I won't be able to do the ironing till this is sewn together.

Hope you all managed to get some time to stitch too.

Special invitation and some stitching

It was so lovely to receive this very special invitation to a dear friend's birthday celebration. It was tricky to get it all together again after opening the invitation but it looked something like this. Isn't it a special invitation?

I have been stitching on my "gardener's journal" stitcheries and have managed to finish two more. I am really enjoying stitching these lovely patterns. I must stop stitching and put the June block together. Here are the garden tools and....

here is resting in the garden. Now I need to do a little boring mending before I can do some more fun stitching.

Block A finished!

Managed to finish block A of the Gardener's Journal quilt this week which makes me up to date! What a good feeling. Now I can relax and stitch some more blocks for next month.

Must go and blog it on the Stitch-a-long blog.

A block finished and show and tell from last week

How exciting! I have finished the first block (G) of the stitchalong quilt, The Gardener's Journal. I am quite pleased with the colours as I have used fabrics from my stash that match the border that I ordered. It will be a very scrappy quilt but I don't mind that look. Started cutting and organising the May block this afternoon.

Last Wednesday, Joan brought in her wonderful dinosaur quilt. I shared the blocks with you earlier but here is   the quilt all together. There will be patterns for these blocks available at Hobbysew soon.

This is the pillowcase.

Michelle was having a lovely time stitching on her latest creation. She has handpainted the fabrics and the background and has fused the flowers on and is stitching around them with a naive backstitch. It's looking great, Michelle.

I do hope all the mums had a wonderful mother's day today. We went to our daughter's house for afternoon tea and had a lovely time. The kids bought me a charm for my Pandora bracelet. It is the eidelweiss one which is a lovely reminder of my Austrian heritage.

Charms, plates and a little stitching

I was thrilled to receive a few more charms for my Pandora charm  bracelet this Christmas. I wasn't buying any myself so have had to wait for Christmas to get some more. Hubby bought me the blue one, the gift and the basket (It is a picnic basket but he said it was a stitching one!) and the kids gave me the suitcase. They look lovely on my bracelet.

I packed away all the Christmas decorations and had to reorganise the dresser too. I really enjoyed having the Christmas plates etc on show here and they were useful too.

Over the last few weeks I have been slowly stitching the next block of Anni Downes'  "Gardener's Journal" quilt. This is the potting shed.

I have also decided to try and do one block of Lynette Anderson's Crazy Christmas BOM each month. Here is block 3 started.

I do need to attack my UFOs, especially the stitchery quilts which haven't been pieced yet. I keep waiting for a free day at home but they don't seem to happen very often! I should just get started one day and then may get motivated! Last year I promised not to start any more large projects and I failed. Can't promise that this year as I already have several BOMs started and a few more waiting in the stash. Still, it is such fun to start something new!