Lovely stitching, chocolates and a little progress

We had a lovely night of stitching on Wednesday night. Barbara had finished this very special little Easter bag. It is so gorgeous and you can get the pattern for free on the Red Brolly blog. 

 Sally had finished her Garden quilt. Doesn't it look wonderful?

 Sue very kindly brought along these tempting chocolates to share with us!

 I realised that I hadn't shown the progress on my "never ending" (it feels like that) BOMs. I have been plodding along with In My Garden. Here are some of the parts of block 8.

 Here are the carrots.

 These strawberries are on the last applique part of this block.

 March is nearly over so I have been trying to get the blocks done for the Some Kind of Wonderful quilt. Here is the house. I have the flowers prepared to applique so I might just make the deadline!

A finish and some progress

I am so pleased to show you My Garden BOM all finished. Even the label is sewn on! I stitched the binding and added the buttons on Friday and am pleased with the result. My quilting is "OK" and will do! I will be able to put it on the finished list.

 The buttons really add a lot to the finished stitcheries.

 I am plodding along with the Teahouse and have worn a finger out over the weekend stitching the lettering. Will add a picture of that soon.

 Last week I started block 7 of In my Garden and here is the potting shed.

 Yesterday I appliqued and stitched the tomatoes and stakes.

 I also headed into the sewing room and put together blocks 5 and 9 of Vignette and traced the stitching on the pieced border. There is so much stitching on this quilt.

Progress

I have actually finished another block of the Vignette quilt. This is block 4. The stitching has been done for ages but the putting together has been a stumbling block! Blocks 5 and 9 are partly done and I haven't even started last issue's blocks but if I keep stitching it will get done eventually. I now need to do a bit of tidying up at the stitchery seam.

 Here are blocks 2, 3 and 4 together. Block 1 is hanging up at Hobbysew.

 I also put together block 6 of In my Garden. It is a beautiful block with very small applique pieces!

 Here is proof that the quilting is happening on the My Garden quilt!

Slow progress and a wonderful quilt

Sorry about this picture! It is very hard to get a long skinny picture like this. This is my progress on the Vignette blocks 2 and 3. I decided to stitch it first on a long piece rather than joining it in the middle. There is a lot of stitching but I do enjoy it. A bit worried about stitching 4 of these though for the side borders of the quilt. It will look lovely. Thankfully there are 3 months between magazines!

I also managed to do the last block of the "My Garden BOM" and will leave the finishing till next month. Too much stitching, above, to do.

Paddy also picked up her wonderful owl quilt from Robyn. It is so beautiful and Robyn has done a great job of the quilting.

Robyn also showed us her beautiful needleturn applique that she is working on. It is a lovely quilt by Blackbird Designs. It is all so motivating and there aren't enough hours in the day!

New BOM has arrived

It was so exciting to get the mail on Monday and find the first block of "In my Garden" by Anni Downs.

Here are the lovely background fabrics and the applique and piecing fabrics. They are quite different to what I usually use but I can see how beautifully they work in this quilt. The kit came with some DMCs as well.

I did manage to get a little stitching done and finished this last, I think, block of the My Garden BOM.

A mistake!

How irritating! I traced this My Garden block onto the wrong side of the fabric! I know you probably can't see any difference but there is. I have done this once before with this fabric (gorgeous fabric by French General) and felt OK as that is going to be my quilt label. But to do it again was extremely frustrating. The little stitchery won't be wasted but I didn't feel like stitching it again.

Here it is half done for the second time.

Hope everyone else is having better luck with their stitching. I am trying to keep up with my BOMs as my new one from Anni Downs, In my Garden, appears to be on its way. Can't wait to see the fabrics.

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.

Wednesday Stitching

I had a lovely day yesterday as Fiona came to Canberra for a quick visit. It was lovely to spend the day stitching, shopping and chatting. We went to stitching at Hobbysew and then had lunch and shopped (just a bit)! We did spend some time planning the May stitching days as well. Fiona was stitching on this little canvas work scissor keeper. I had made this one a while ago but my kit had brighter colours. I do love these softer ones and may have to make another one.

Marilyn had finished her beautiful canvas stocking and it looks lovely. We really appreciated all the metallic threads she had used as they are a pain to work with.

I managed to add the borders to the 6th block of the My Garden BOM. I foundation pieced them and still managed to get a wonky strip! I think I do rush a bit.

I hope to (carefully) put the borders on the 7th block today.

Fiona is having a giveaway as she has been blogging for two years. You just need make a comment on her January 18th post to be in the draw. I'd best comment too! Just realised that 2 years must be coming up for me too!

Some stitching

It is hard to believe that Christmas is over but it is nice to have a few quiet days at home to get onto some stitching. I am busy at the moment preparing some projects for my classes in February. Not much to show yet but there will be soon. I am finding it hard to get motivated as I would rather be stitching on my other Vignette block. Here is the shorter one and I am about a third through the longer one. You will be pleased with me as I have almost made the 7 patchwork blocks (I am up to number 6).

I also finished stitching the 6th block in the My Garden BOM. Just needs its patchwork done and I will be up to date. Today is going to be hot so might be a good stitching day inside in the cool. It finally feels like summer here is Australia.

Some stitching and some show and tell

It was good to piece block 5 of My Garden while the fabrics were out and the stitching finished. The little antennae belong to a lovely butterfly button that I will add when the quilt is finished.

I also couldn't resist starting this lovely quilt in Vignette, the new magazine by Leanne Beasley. I have changed the thread colours to suit the fabrics I have bought.

Here is part of the first block.

We had a nice afternoon at class on Wednesday and Jenny had this lovely bag that she had bought a while ago in India. The work is beautiful and it is all chain stitch a little like the one I shared earlier. This time it isn't all filled in which would make it a bit easier.

Margaret as been busy and had stitched the canvas stocking from the Stitching day. Aren't her colours great?

Margaret has also finished her stitched pear decoration. It is great that they will be all ready for Christmas.

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!

Some stitching done...

So good to have had some time to be at home and stitch. I have completed the stitching on Leanne's lovely pocket from the Immerse stitching day. It now needs to be quilted, by hand, and then made up. I am determined to finish this project though I have a pile of bits that need finishing too. Must try and have a finishing off day soon.

The other day I sewed on the borders on this second block of "My Garden" which I stitched while on holidays.

As the fourth block will be coming soon, I have been stitching the third one and made it up yesterday so I am up to date on this BOM.  I haven't made up my block for September for the Gardener's Journal quilt yet!!! Perhaps today is the day.