Happy mail

This has been a week for happy mail,

My yearly print of my blog turned up in the mail, Jan thru June from my blof and July thru December for another persons blog....lovely but not what I ordered!!! Two emails to the blog 2 print people but no reply so far,  maybe I just send this on to the correct owner in Canada! !

I did get something else in the mail

Jo kindlynsent me this wasgij, I love these so am keen to get it started.

Also other good news

I finished this block, Nativity Star....yay!!!!!  I am happy with this one!!!

Off to do some more sewing.

Happy days.

Yesterday and today

The days are zipping by here...I have some good books from the library and they seem to soak up a lot of time somehow!! I have joined along with other bloggers to try and use scraps and yesterday I decided to try and make cotton reel blocks, straight forward I thought, but no, my reel ends came out the wrong way

And had to be unpicked and started again

The centres went together well, this months colour as you can see is purple.

I have now finished 5, but will post them on Saturday for the link up.

I got together another quarter of the foundation pieced block, once again the top corner is short, but hopefully within the seam line.

Today there were more tomatoes to gather so I got some chutney together, this smells so good as it is cooking, I hope it tastes ok!!

All ready for a label.

The tablet has decided this is a sideways photo for some reason, this ismas far as I have managed to get on the next lot of foundation piecing today. Hopefully the block will be done tomorrow.

We had amazing sky's when the Supervisor and I went for a walk yesterday

Happy sewing.

A hot finish

Well today was another hot day, the house warmed up despite the air con being on, I found it hard to settle to anything this morning, I started another star block and for some unknown reason started on row 8 instead of one, I thought I might have been able to work around it but had to do some unsewing instead....

doesn't look the best does it, but I managed to finish it

to discover I hadn't allowed  enough blue for the top corner, and maybe for the bottom blue seam...I have added a little bit to the top, not sure what to do about the bottom seam just yet.

Then I ignored the things I had to do on the table and made something completely different!! 

No 1 son works with children in a school two days a week and we had talked about weighted blankets to help children sit still and listen, so after looking at some tutorials I had a go,

sewing the vertical dividing lines onto the blanket

the plastic pellets go into each section, then they are sewn across

One weighted blanket!! I had to be careful all the pellets were away from the sewing line as if the needle hit one it would break!

I cut it a little short at the top but it is now secured with two rows of zigzag stitching, none of the pellets will becoming out.

We had a cool change come through this afternoon, the breeze from the south was wonderful.

Happy sewing.

PS. The supervisor now has a double who can stand in when he is other wise occupied!!

How cute is he?? Marina brought him back from The Netherlands for me, she found him in the Delft shop. It isn't easy to find ChowChow things, so I appreciate them a lot. Thank you very much Marina, you made my day!!

This and that

I am going on a retreat next week and though I should be organised and get things prepared to go, also I decided I should be doing things I have started and not finished, instead I have been dithering around for most of the day and now it is nearly dinner time I have fired up!!

Last night I finished the binding on the Minions quilt

I laid out the rows I have done for the Christmas row by row quilt challenge at Seachange and decided I am not happy with the green rows.....I think I can get away with the presents but not the baubles, they look like they are hanging in mid air!! Any thoughts?

I got out the hexagons, also another challenge and I can't find 4 blocks....no idea where they are!! I am now thinking as it is November I will be doing a table runner...maybe!!

I have finally trimmed the bear tea cup stitcheries, they are ready for their backing which is awaiting ironing! This pattern is by Michelle Ridgway.

two lots of fabric cut ready to make two more star blocks for the Celestial Stars quilt

stitcheries trimmed and sashings cut ready to put together...

but I keep on being distracted by the beautiful afternoon outside!

Think I will go sort some dinner and then get back into a dvd I started to watch last night, it is called Hinterland, and has got me quite involved!!

I nearly forgot, I found a photo of us on the Aussie Hero quilts blog, happy at the dinner last Saturday

Happy days.

FNWF update

I was sewing away last night and hubby was organising dinner, his night to cook, which means he orders in pizza, only to ring and find they had run out of gluten free bases!!  No pizza for me, so we decided to have fish and chips instead!! Meant I had to go and get it but at least I didn't have to cook. I did manage to get quite a lot done so I was a happy sewer!

some stitches were done on the hexie quilt

I made one more New Hexagon block, this project has been sadly neglected!

and the binding and hanging sleeve are on the wall hanging...just need to stitch down the sleeve edge. Wobbled off to bed at 11.15pm!!! Happy but tired!!

You can see what the other FNWF'ers did by visiting the lovely hostess Cheryll.

Today I have been to a UFO day at Port Arlington, soup and rolls were supplied for lunch and much chatting and sewing happened

Jill working on her clamshells carefully!!

Judy and Carleen sewing away

Barbara was working on her beautiful quilt...

with the most beautiful Japanese fabrics

it took me from 10.30 until 2pm to make this star block, not perfect but I am happy with it, it will go with the other Star blocks I have made...it is called the Pinwheel Star, there was quite a lot of unsewing today!!!

I also joined a challenge from the Gisborne Quilters ...we were given a country and had to come up with a quilt, could be from postcard to one meter square... the country I was given was Finland. So after much pondering I decided to draw in chalk on the purple fabric, paint in some areas and then free motion quilt...this represents the mountains and the Northern lights.

Happy sewing.

Day 2 part two

I have been very patient today, have not rushed the sewing or cutting, and finally just before lunch finished the star block

managed to get all the pieces the right way around

Yay it is finished! !!!

Then I started another block

I had lots of help choosing fabrics, and with a couple of interruptions, I finally finished at 6pm tonight.

this afternoon we had another go at some of the caches we couldn't find yesterday and had a 100% success rate. We had a look around the Anglican church

a beautiful old building, and next to it was a cork oak tree that is 130 years old

Such an amazing tree,

ladies gearing up this morning

Judy has finished this quilt today

this was a piece of fabric that was in a huge frame, now Marie is turning it into a cot quilt

another little sitting area in the house here

down the hall way

the library room

ward 3 with the billard table, now our ironing room and a place to lay out quilts

time for happy hour. ..cheers Carleen and Sue!!

Judy is now making these blocks for another quilt.

It is now movie time, so I'm off to get ready.

Happy sewing.