FNWF

 Yesterday was a fairly quiet day for me as Thursday evening I managed to roll my ankle while bringing in the washing, so sitting with the foot up was the order of the day!

Last night for FNWF I did blanket stitch around the leaf and heart shapes for the centre of the Schoolgirl Sampler quilt

Thursday afternoon I had very carefully ironed on what I thought was wash out applique paper, only to find when I re read the instructions it was bonding paper. So all the shapes had to be trimmed and ironed on and that is why I am doing blanket stitch!

I also finished the wasgij this week, another one is being sorted on the table.

Late yesterday afternoon I ventured into the sewing room and made two more blocks for the Schoolgirl Sampler a SAL I am doing with Fiona and two other friends, we are motivating each other via Instagram. These are blocks 8 & 9, I have to go back and do 7, it has small pieces!

A new Tomte has joined the family! How cute is he!

Thank you Cheryll for hosting us last night.

I am off to prepare for visitors for lunch, Adam, Beth and Beth's Mum and Dad and a friend of Adams are arriving in a while for a BBQ lunch, I got the meat out of the freezer and Adam tells me they will bring salads, so I can sit back and enjoy.

Happy stitching.

New Project ( X3)

 This was to be another year of getting UFO's finished but I have given in to temptation and am starting three new quilts! Oh dear!!

Ingrid came across this book and decided this would be a good sew along project, so we are sewing will Jill here in St Leonards and Fiona of  BubzRugz fame. Ingrid and I started this week, Jill has one block made and Fiona is awaiting the pattern book I think, no doubt we will all sew along at our own pace.

These are out of order, but not to worry, this is # 4

 this was #3 block

# 1 & 2

blocks 5 & 6

Block 6 remade to try and get the centre a little better.

These blocks finish at 4 inches and there are 72 of them plus a centre applique block.

Last January (I think) Ingrid and I had a look at these patterns and decided 2021 was the year to make this quilt, so this goes onto the to do list as well!

Then I was looking thru this book yesterday and decided to make the quilt with half square triangles, maybe this weekend, we will see!

These are some of the gifts I gave Ingrid this Christmas, we did our swap last weekend so I can show now! I saw this Halloween wall hanging on Instagram so copied it and made it for Ingrid, it will hang on the front door next Halloween.

I also made a table topper, I found a template so tried it out, Ingrid then wanted to try it out and made

It is now quilted and has a centre, I didn't take another photo of the near finished project, it just needs binding now.

I also made a little hanger using Barb Smith buttons, here is Ingrid off to the Quilt store!

Ingrid gave me lots of beautiful presents

Ready covered hexies, wooden stamps, a beautiful pincushion, a zipper pouch, stickers and tin

oops blogger has turned this around, a mug with balls of wool on it, a purple pumpkin (I need to make a stalk and some leaves for it) and a planner to organise all my projects!! It has lots of helpful hints, I need to start reading!

a beautiful stack of fabric to use in the Schoolgirl Sampler

a wallhanging showing Ingrid's love of small blocks!

A wall hanging showing my love of batiks!

And a Tomte wall hanging, how cute is that!! The quilting even has Tomte's in it! I can't put this one away yet!

I went out into the garden after lunch to dig up some spreading plants that hubby wanted to cut back, job done I noticed he had pruned a tree and left the prunings on the ground, quite normal around here, so I thought I would help and gathered up a wheel barrow load, then went back for a second. This tree has the end of a dead branch that sticks out at about head height...you can guess what I did!! I said to myself many times watch that branch and of course walked straight into it, I am not a happy camper! Needless to say the rest of the prunings are still where they landed and I have not emptied the wheelbarrow!! I have a fat eye lid and cheek bone! I think that end of branch has to come off - that will go onto the to do list.

I am off to have a cold drink and to eat some potato chips!!

Happy stitching.

Another Year Begins

 But before that gets away with me, a recap on the last few days. Adam and Beth and Hank came over for Christmas dinner, then stayed overnight and we had a pleasant lunch on the back deck,

followed by a game of Kubb, given to David for Christmas. The game had wooden cubs spaced at each end of the playing space and you had to throw a wooden dowel to knock over the cubes. There is a King in the middle that is the last piece to be knocked over.

Hank sat in the middle of the game!!

Beth in action!

We were eventually driven inside by the warm day and the mosquitos which seem to gather in large numbers around the fig tree.

Shane and Rilla arrived on the 28th after some confusion as to whether they would get over the border, as they had been at Merimbula for a holiday. Shane gave me the pelican picture on the right, a photo he took last time he was here, mounted on canvas. We had to rearrange my photo wall! 

We went to visit Ingrid and Nick at their holiday place and Shane took some photos of Jasper, he struck many obliging poses!

He is such a cute dog.

In between we chatted and snacked.

Posing for a timer photo! Shane gave us instructions, look at the camera, strain your eyes to that roof line on the right, when I say so look at the camera and smile!! I must add it took several photos to get us all looking in the right direction!

Shane and Rilla came geocaching with me on New Years Eve day, we looked for and found 4 caches including this one that was on top of a recently created Mount Drysdale, a heap created when the new by pass was made.

The view to the by pass

another two caches we found in a small bush reserve that had many of these grass trees.

Shane was given a mojito  mix for Christmas, he had to add a bottle of white rum, that brewed in the fridge and we had a taste New Years Eve. (Was very sweet to me) We had a monster dinner New years Eve cooked by Fiona (Rilla's Mum), some of us managed to see in the New Year and enjoy some fireworks nearby and around the bay

Sunday morning saw us cook up the left overs n the BBQ and enjoy another feast.

Scout getting some attention from Cathy, she manages to pick up many burrs in her ears and coat when going for a walk.

Scout trying to escape!

The obligatory group photo before the family all headed back to Melbourne to collect their cats from the cattery.

A little hand stitching had been happening here, but not a lot!

The great tennis ball stand off - belongs to Scout, Jasper has it, Scout is waiting patiently!

Scout having a snooze after her busy day.

Yesterday was Zoom catch up organised by Chooky 

I popped in for a visit for a little while and was enjoying catching up with everyone when I had a phone call from Shane, he and Rilla had left their house keys on the kitchen bench! So into the car I got and drove 45 mins to Corio, met the kids there, handed over the car keys and then headed back home. I was not much use for anything else after that so collapsed on the couch! 

Happy New Year to you all, I wish everyone a safe and happy year.

Happy stitching.

Merry Christmas

 Here it is Christmas Eve already! I am ready as I will ever be!!I had lots of messages to do yesterday and when I was out I found apricots for $4 a kg so of course I had to get some for jam. So this morning I have made jam and a boiled fruit cake - how is that for last minute!! 😄

also bubbling away this afternoon is a mix of orange juice, marmalade and mulled wine spices to go over the ham, it had another 10 mins to go and then it will be poured over the ham and into the oven. It smells pretty good at the moment.

Thank you to everyone for visiting and commenting on my blog, it is very much appreciated.