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.