Time for Change

The time has finally come when I am able to move the contents of this blog over to my new blog.

I would be very happy if you will follow me over to Pins and Whiskers.
Sorry ... gremlins won't let me link ~ http://pinsandwhiskers.blogspot.com/

Same quilty stuff ... new place.

Colourful Friday ~ Flowers

Good Friday morning and welcome to another Colourful Friday with Robyn and the gang.
F L O W E R S ~~~ I thought I would go with some more unusual flowers around my home. Hope you enjoy them.

My daughter loves growing succulents and is very pleased when one comes into flower.

I love the name of this one ... 'Bird of Paradise' or 'Strelitzia'. I have a large clump in my garden and it never stops flowering.

How could I not share one of my roses ... Double Delight ... my mum's favourite.

I look forward to visiting all the colour flowers blooming today.

UFO Thursday

It's such a good feeling to have worked on a UFO. Since last Thursday I have continued to join pairs into 6's and have 4 groups now done and the backs pinned ready for hand stitching. Edited Thursday evening 7.30pm ... I now have 5 groups done ... 1 to go :)

My procrastination skills are excellent so I need all the motivation I can get ... thankyou to Sandy for UFO Thursdays.

While visiting around in blogland I've noticed that I am not always able to leave a comment so if you haven't heard from me lately it's for this reason. Pop up comment boxes don't seem to be a problem.

Colourful Friday ~ Sunsets

Colourful Friday is back to warm your cold wintery days or breeze through a warm summer one.


Our host Robyn at Daisy Quilts will have links to much more colour if you'd like to take a look.





I just had to share 2 sunset photos. The first is taken towards the East with the full moon rising and the pink warning of a cold day to follow the night.








My second photo is taken towards the West. I love how the sun's final rays mix with the clouds.



Thanks Robyn ... hope your Friday is full of colour.

UFO Thursday

Yay! Finally I have some progress on a UFO to share.

A certain log cabin quilt should have been on my bed 12 months ago and now here we are on the threshold of winter and still it remains in pieces. So I have committed myself to the month of June being log cabin month starting today.

This morning there were 18 pairs (like this photo) layed out on the spare bed.


Next step is to join 3 pairs into a group of 6. Below is a photo of the 1st group and the 2nd is almost finished.


Thankyou to our lovely host Sandy for UFO Thursday. I've missed quite a few Thursday's and hope today is the start of many for me. Sandy at Cookies and Cream Craft has a link for more UFO progress you might like to check out.

One Christmas Item with One Flower Wednesday

A good morning to you all on the very chilly morning. The sun is out but it's not helping with the freezing wind blowing.

I've finally sorted out centres and pathways for my 1/2" hexies. These 3 flowers have been waiting patiently and I can now show them with centres. I read somewhere quite a while back about attaching the pathway hexies to one side of each flower and they should all slot in together. If I make the 8 cream hexies and attach to the flowers as I go then I won't get tired of making heaps of cream hexies all at the end.


As today is the 25th here in Australia, it's time to share our One Christmas Item for the month of May.

Two more Bon Bons ready to fill with goodies and gift at Christmas. I thought I'd try a green stitchery this time and am really happy with the look.


Instead of doing a Mr Linky here I'm going to add a page at the top of my blog just to share photos of everyone's Christmas Items with links to each blog. If you could leave a comment here when you have posted and/or send me a pic in an email, I'll add our photos to the May Christmas Item Page.

Happy Christmas Sewing

FNSI and Fabric Buys

My results for Friday Night Sew-In. This will be for my One Christmas Item A Month when I get the bon bon made. I'm hoping to stitch another in green.


Before sitting down to stitch I cut into these sweeties and prepped some squares ready for centres for the 1/2" hexie flowers. The cream squares will make pathway hexies.

Lots to do before the end of the month ... I still need to add embelishments to my Stay At Home Robin projects and I am determined to work on a UFO.

Happy Sewing

Flowers in the Mail

Look what I found growing in my mailbox.


Geniene was most generous and sent extra blooms after she'd had a mishap with her hexie flowers. A funny story involving a load of washing although I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time.
Thankyou so much Geniene. They go perfectly in my garden and the butterfly centre is a special treat.

Yesterday was my local patchwork day and oh boy did my elbow give me curry last night from stitching this block. The deep heat was also good for the sinus :)


Try as I might my UFO's remain as is. I have laid one out on a bed ready to work on so just maybe I'll have some progress to share soon.

One Flower Wednesday

I managed to make two 1" hexie flowers this week.

It was our groups patchwork day today so I have some stitching to share next time.

Stitch...un-stitch...Stitch Again

Just when I had almost finished this little stitchery I realized that I was using the wrong varigated thread :(

So after carefully pulling each stitch out I set about re-stitching with the correct colour.

This sweet little stitchery is kindly shared each month by Paula as 'Home Sweet Home' BOM.

Friday Night Sew-In

It's on again ... Friday Night Sew-In is this Friday ... I'll be busy catching up on some stitcheries.

No Sew Zone

Things have been a little slow on the sewing front lately ... could be the cold weather creeping into my bones.

Eariler this week we lit our first fire for the winter.


Look who knows the best place to sleep away the day.



I did manage to make some cream hexies for pathways so perhaps by Wednesday I will have something to share.

Have an enjoyable weekend.

One Flower Wednesday

Winter is knocking on the door this morning .... brrrrr!

My 3rd 1/2" hexie flower. I managed to finish joining the petals last night with some difficultly ... the cat on my lap kept twitching every time the thread touched her and once she got a fright and almost fell off my lap of course using her claws a little to maintain her position.

April Catch-up

Computer issues continue to plague me so I am applying much patience and taking it very slowly. Just when I think I can comment on blogs or reply to your lovely comments there's another bump in the road. "Something" keeps throwing in extra spacing between paragraphs too so please excuse any gaps. :)

As well as the two 1/2" hexie flowers that I have previously posted about, I have a third almost complete. My May and June Inchy Swap flowers are finished and ready to be posted off although I might hang onto the June flowers for a little bit.

The first month of my "Because I Said So" BOM arrived and I'm very happy to report that both blocks are finished. I took it with me to our group patchwork day and sewed the fabric blocks ready to attach to the stitcheries.

Thankyou to those who kindly provided their thoughts on stitching before or after the blocks are joined. I've decided to complete the stitcheries first and then join the blocks. It's a little hard to see but I'm using a light purple for the stitchery and love the fabrics that have been provided with the BOM.

Month 2 has arrived so my plan is to complete blocks 3 and 4 by the end of May.

Block 1

Block 2

Blocks 1 and 2 for Month 1 are now safetly rolled in my block keeper and I'm ready to trace the stitcheries for Month 2.

Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Round 10 of our SAHRobin was to either embelish some more or ... quilt ready for adding further embelish such as beads, buttons etc.

I couldn't decide how to quilt the blue piece so I left it and quilted the tan piece first. Last week after much thought I kep it simple and stitched in the ditch around certain blocks.

For the tan piece I first quilted some straight lines to form a diamond pattern but didn't like the look of straight lines everywhere so .... some unsewing was performed. Then I decided it was a good time for some free motion quilting practice and used the applique hearts and embroidered flowers for a vine design.

A close-up of the hearts and flowers vine free motion quilting.

We've been having April Showers almost every day this month and there's a chill in the breeze lately ... time to make sure the woodbox is full.

One Flower Wednesday

My second 1/2" hexie flower came together a lot faster than the first. I seemed to be all thumbs at first but am slowly finding a rhythm with the smaller size.


You can see many more beautiful blooms by visiting Karen ... just click on the sidebar button for One Flower Wednesday :o)

One Xmas Item A Month

How did you go for the month of April? Did you manage to make something to tuck away until Christmas time? If time stretched too thin for you never mind ... there's always next month.

This little sweetie caught my eye some time ago when it came out in 'Australian Homespun'. A Melly and Me pattern and the perfect gift for a little girl. Dee Dee is my first soft toy and I'm very pleased with how she turned out.

This is the first of 4 soft toys I have in mind for christmas gifts. Now to find somewhere to store them safely.

I'll be popping around later to enjoy your christmas sewing.

We Shall Remember Them

Today is Anzac Day along with being Easter Monday

My One Xmas Item a Month will be posted tomorrow ...

I hope you don't mind.

Happy Easter

Wishing all a Happy and safe Easter

Please excuse me if I don't comment or reply to your lovely comments for a bit ... my failing computer can't handle it :(

One Flower Wednesday

My first 1/2" hexie flower from my "Nostalgia" Honey Bun. Not sure what fabric to go with for the centres so I'll make a few first and then see.




Wishing you all the rain or sunshine your garden needs to grow.

Friday Nights and Home Sweet Home

Gosh I'm just scraping in for Friday Night Sew-In ... tonight! (in Aus). I've just popped over to Heidi's and signed up so if you're like me and leaving it till the last minute head on over quickly.

Block 3 of 'Home Sweet Home' was posted by Paula on Wednesday my time so I got straight to it and finished the sweet letter 'M'. You can click on the button on my right sidebar to read more about this lovely little BOM.

My blogging, visiting and commenting has been limited by a failing computer ... suppose that means I should be getting more sewing done?

The Nuts and Bolts of Colourful Friday

Our brief from Robyn for todays Colourful Friday was to investigate hexagons in any colour.

Took some thinking for this one but then I came up with these. Some old and some newer but all with a job to do.

I'm looking forward to visiting all the colourful posts to see what sort of 'hexagons' everyone has found.

All my 'Brutus' blocks have been stitched and with pencil and paper I auditioned some layouts. I decided to stitch two 'fillers' to make a couple of blocks a little bigger.

Now that I have all the blocks sashed, I'd like to add a second sashing. There's a sort of avocado green in the floral fabric that I thought I might try and match ... or I was wondering if I should go with a cream ... or should I be looking at a darker colour?

I would very much appreciation your thoughts and ideas on sashing colours. While I'm in 'indecision' mode ... do you prefer to stitch and then sew sashings etc or do you sew first and stitch second?

Thankyou for visiting :)

Black and White Giveaway

To celebrate the opening of the new store Raggedy Station is having a most gorgeous giveaway. A black and white quilt is on my 'wish list' and these would go nicely with the fabric I have already collected.

Winners Announced!

It's time to announce the lucky winners from my Birthday post. Thankyou for all your lovely comments. :0) Three prizes ... three bowls ... three names. 'The Alpine Quilt' will be going to ........... Marg H. Chirpy Chic is going to find a new home with .......... Val The squares will wing their way to ............ Red Heads But wait! There's one more! Every comment from that post went into another bigger bowl and a name drawn out to become ...

Lucky winner number 4 ......... Jeanette (a surprise parcel)

Congratulations ladies! I'll be sending you an email asking for your postal addresses shortly. Talk about frustrating! Is anyone else having trouble with their spacing? I haven't noticed any other blogs all garbled like mine are but could sure use some advice.

My 3 B's

Grrrrrr! I'm having all sorts of trouble with my spacing in here ... can anyone help? B for Brutus Don't you love it when something happens without being planned? I've been stitching away on Brutus now for about 12 months and after 2 Brutus finishes in March I never imagined this last block would be finished so soon ... but here he is ... number 8 of 10 blocks as I didn't stitch them in order. Some may notice that I've changed him a little and left the ring of flowers off and added a square border. This was to make him the same size as an earlier block. Today I've cut sashing strips ready to add a floral border to each block. Then I'll have another think about the next step. B for Book

I've noticed a couple of other bloggers have also received their blog books ... mine arrived in the mail Friday. It's so great to sit down and browse through your very own memories in print ... highly recommended.

B is for BOM

I've always loved the idea of receiving a package in the mail with fabric and instructions for x number of months to create a quilt. So I took the plunge and Friday my first month's installment arrived. Now the question is ... will I keep up? ;-)

Off to add some sashings to Brutus.

OFW and Mail

Wednesday was town day but I took my hexagon 'tin' with me and made one of these blue flowers between appointments. Then made the other last night while watching the final of 'Farmer Wants A Wife' ... what can I say ... I'm a hopeless romantic. Follow my sidebar button to enjoy more beautiful blooms. Bags are one project I love to make and I can see some of these in my future ... although that could be the distant future. Closer in my future is my next hexagon project. My first honey bun arrived in the mail and is destined for 1/2" hexie flowers. Sadly no UFO progress to report for this UFO Thursday ... click on the sidebar button to see who has.

Finishes and Computer Hitches

Everything is going along nicely and then your computer won't start up ... oh no! Then you begin to realize how much 'stuff' you've got all over the place and then the OCD in me kicks in and then I start to hyperventilate .... well it wasn't that bad really ... I'm just being melodramatic :o)

I knew I had all the important things saved on 'sticks' but email access isn't the same when on a substitute computer. So I'm going to slowly convert my bloggy 'stuff' over to a new email that can be accessed from any computer easily (fingers crossed).

I've set up a second email address to receive any blog comments and will mostly reply from here as well. So if you receive a message from 'Pins and Whiskers' in your inbox it's me.

Before all this drama I managed to finish another Brutus and now have only one to go. Four of us in our patchwork group have been stitching along with Helen's Stitching Round the Block and last Wednesday we received our original blocks back. The girls have all worked their magic and I am thrilled to bits with my piece ... thankyou girls. Now to make it into ... ?

Thankyou for all your lovely birthday wishes and good luck!

Birthday Giveaway

Saturday meant it was time for a little ... or a lot ... of yummy chocolate mud cake for my birthday. So what better reason to have a giveaway?

All you need to do is leave a comment telling me which items you would like to win ... can be all 3 if you're super lucky. Then on Monday the 4th of April I'll pop all the names into corresponding hats and draw out the lucky winners.

As an avid reader of the 'Elm Creek' series, this book didn't have as much quilt content as I expected, but none the less I found it hard to put down. An enjoyable read. If you would like the chance to read 'The Alpine Quilt', just ask for "Book" in your comment.

Now that my little chicken is all finished he doesn't really suit my kitchen, so if you would like to give him or her a nice home please ask for "Chicken" in your comment.

These half square triangles were leftovers from my SIL quilt. I couldn't just throw them away but I know I'll never put them to use. If you would like to put them to good use then ask for "Squares" in your comment.

Have a great week!