Two More Stitcheries for the SAL...

Two more 'Tis the Season Stitch-A-Long stitcheries have moved from the traced pile to the stitched pile...

The stitchy mojo is slowing edging back...but it is still a bit shy so I'm not looking directly at it or it might take fright again...

Happy Stitching...

Saturday in Lancefield...

Well I am plum tuckered...Rosie (no blog), Andrea & I had a lovely day out in Lancefield today...we started with stocking up on goodies at the monthly Farmer's Market, then lunch of the most delicious dumplings & spring roll from a stall put up by a Castlemaine restaurant (where follow up tastings will absolutely be taking place in the future) followed by cuppas at Mad Gallery (they make a very good coffee or hot chocolate) before moving on to the catalyst for our day out...A Patch of Lancefield's biennial quilt show...it's a small show but it's always nice to visit...a few pics of what we saw...

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We had a great day...good thing tomorrow is Sunday, I need it to recover as the germs are still making their presence felt...

Happy Stitching...

Quilt-In At Geelong...

Hello!  Anyone out there?  Wouldn't be surprised if the answering was a resounding NO given my complete lack of attendance lately...I've been sick, again...darn cold germs...*cough* *cough* *sneeze* *sniffle*....sorry about the strange spacing, blogger has gone mental again...

There has been precious little activity of the stitching kind going on the last couple of weeks but last Saturday I did attend a stitchy event with Rosie & Sue (no blogs)...gotta love a good Quilt-In...and Geelong Patchwork & Quilters Guild put on a beaut...

And welcome we certainly were!  A giftee at the door and into the hall...filled with tables of happy stitchers and shops lining the walls...and...I had the best time catching up with friends from Summer School...what a happy coincidence...and one of my blogging buddies Sheryl and I got to met and play quilt-in together...


The funniest part of the day to me was when one of the Geelong members, who was a physiotherapist in her former life, got up on stage and made everyone get up and exercise...properly!

My view of the stage...lots of waving arms...ha ha ha...and then the camera ran out of memory card...couldn't be bothered doing the clearing some space thing, so no more pictures of the day.

There were Lots of door prizes all lined up at the front of the stage...and surprisingly the number on the back of my name tag was called out!  The best part was winners got to choose their prize...what to pick? what to pick?...envelopes with vouchers, patterns, fat quarters and then I spied...

I was very excited...I think I scored one of the best prizes for the day...the local ladies told me that this is beautiful batting to work with...thank you Geelong Patchwork & Quilter's Guild and Geelong Blanket Company...


I did actually do something besides socialise, shop and win prizes...oh and eat the yummy yummy homemade tasty treats on the table...I cut out some 1/2" hexies once I borrowed a pair of scissors from Rosie...thanks Rosie, glad someone remembered all their equipment on the day!...and basted a few for Anna's Quilt, the second quilt from this year's Summer School...I've been watching Kerry's progress and getting itchy to make some progress on mine too...

Unfortunately I had a diary clash and had to leave before the guest speaker Margaret Rolfe  to attend a 21st afternoon tea in Eltham...I may have to do some research of where Margaret is speaking and catch one of her talks somewhere else...


It was well worth the two hour trip (well, I kind of cheated as I made that trip Friday night and stayed at my brother's for the night so really I had a 15 minute trip Saturday morning) to visit with the lovely ladies at Geelong...I hope I get to play there again...


Right, time to get ready to attend another stitchy event...a whole lot closer though, I only have to drive 20kms west to the next town to meet up with Rosie (no blog) and Andrea for a turn around the monthly Farmer's Market, a spot of lunch and a wander around the A Patch of Lancefield Biennial Quilt Show.  I always enjoy their show and am looking forward to a serve of the scones for afternoon tea, they are usually really really yummy!!  I've made room on the camera memory card so hopefully there will be some photos of inspiration to share.


Hope your weekend is stitchy...


Happy Stitching...

And the Award Goes To...

Well, it came to me!  Just before Easter my bloggy friend Grethe of A Quilt Lady fame passed this award on to ME!  How lovely of her...thank you Grethe big hugs...

Now the "rules" of the award were to pass to six blogs that had less than 100 followers...this has been my sticking point...each time I went "oh that lovely blog" more than 100 followers....and I've been a bit unsure as many people don't like awards...so I'm just going to give it to Everyone who drops by even if you have more than 100 followers because by the time I get through finding inspiration with under 100 followers the rest of the world has caught on...

And the other "rule" was 8 things about yourself...mmm, that I also found a bit difficult...I mean, I'm not that interesting...so, here we go:

1.  Australian

2.  Victorian

3.  Dog person, not cat person

4.  Work in admin (big yawn)
5.  Don't like the city
6.  Terry Pratchett is a fav author
7.  Marian Keyes is another fav author...
8.  Really bad at making decisions (now you'd never have guessed that one!)...

Now you really should go and visit with Grethe...


Happy Stitching...
(And big apologies to Grethe, this post has been languishing in draft for so long, I wasn't managing to hit the publish button)

And Sometimes It Just Doesn't Happen...

So at the beginning of last week my wall of projects for the week looked like this...

And at the end of the week...it looked like this...

What? You can't tell the difference??  Oh that would be because...Yep, exactly the same...not a stitch was stitched...not a needle needled...not a pin pinned...it was the week of the sewing room with no sewing...oh well, let's just put that one down to...couldn't be bothered and move right along...I'd better do better this week, if nothing else I need to get the project done for the Daylesford Craft Experience swap...that would be the small square of green fabric with the yellow floss...

Hope your week was more productive than mine - not too difficult, all you had to do really was pick up a needle, didn't even have to use it to achieve more than I did...ha ha ha

Happy Stitching...

The First Week of May...

On the board for this week were some repeats and a new addition...

Returning for repeat performances - Lullaby; 'Tis The Season - Elf and Chilly Penguin stitcheries; Happy Pails; Bumb'le Bee and introducing....my project for the upcoming Daylesford Craft Experience at the beginning of June...

This morning the board revealed...

*Lullaby has progressed...all four outer borders appliqued, two out of four sides of the second border appliqued...centre bird panel surrounded by triangles appliqued...definitely assisted by spending my time at 6-12 group on Friday night working away on this project...

*'Tis the Season...Elfin Sleigh stitchery done...

*Happy Pails...finished!! yay!!!...

*Bumb'le Bee...top left quadrant stitched together...I love how this medallion changes ever so slightly with every addition...

*Daylesford Craft Experience project...not started...I must trace the design on it so I can stitch it, it won't take long once that is done...

OK...not too shabby for the week...two large projects progressed...on track with the number of stitcheries due for 'Tis The Season, two done for May, have until end June for the next two...small project finished and off the board...DCE project decision made even if no actual stitching accomplished so I'm counting that...

What will I put up on the board this week?...I need a replacement small project UFO to take the place of the Happy Pails...sure that won't be too hard to find, the hard part will be which one to choose!!!

Hope your week was productive too...

Happy Stitching...

Sugar & Spice...

Happy Pails...the pattern was one of the offerings Jodie debuted at Daylesford Craft Experience last year...

and as Merrilyn put me on notice that I had to finish the project I started on that day and take it along this year *Yikes*...ta dah!...and with three weeks to spare!!

I'm only doing the two out of the "girl" set...skipped All Things Nice...oh and they are supposed to have handles...mine don't...and I constructed them slightly differently to the instructions - because I didn't take the time to read them but just roared away on the put together bit...but you know I generally just use patterns as a guideline and wander off on my own track so no surprise there really...they resemble the original pattern *LOL*...

There is also a "boy" set in the pattern...Slugs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails of course.

Happy stitching...

and to the mothers out there Happy Mother's Day...

Two SAL Stitcheries for May...

Two 'Tis The Season stitcheries for the Stitch-A-Long...I meant to stitch the Angel and Chilly Penquins following Chookyblue's stitchy plan but oops!...

The Elf swapped with the Penquin when I wasn't looking...cheeky Elf!...

7 down...6 to go...wahoo! passed the 1/2 way mark!!...

Happy stitching...

A Fortnight's Progress...

My plan was to note each week Sunday to Sunday on progress of the projects pinned to the design board...the first week I started the plan on a Wednesday so that one was short...Wednesday to Sunday...now I went and made the second week a fortnight!  Jindi & I went camping for Easter up the Kiewa River and came home on Monday so I figured, well, Sunday had come and gone so I might as well just keep on going until today...maybe this coming week I can get the actual plan up and running...

So, here is what the design wall looked like two Sundays ago...

Lullaby for applique; Just Darling panels to become?; 'Tis The Season Chilly Penquins stitchery; Happy Pails stitcheries waiting for pails; Bumb'le Bee medallion waiting for sashing hexies...very concerned about my fabric choices for those diamonds, this could be a disaster in the making...

And now, here is what it looks like this morning...

 Progress on each project...

Lullaby: hard to tell but applique pieces have been ironed and pinned and some have even been stitched down...

Just Darling Bucket Bag: completed!

'Tis the Season:  Angel stitchery completed, Elf stitchery started, Chilly Penguins was supposed to be stitched after Angel but I forgot to take it up to the river and started Elf instead...oops, a little detour along the Stitch-A-Long road but easily rectified...Elf is a June stitchery so I just figure I'm a bit ahead for June and I have all of May to get Chilly Penguins stitched...

Happy Pails: second stitchery stitched...there are actually three in the Sugar, Spice and All Things Nice set but the All Things Nice stitchery isn't speaking to me so I'm reducing the set of three to a pair...

Bumb'le Bee: now loving the whole look as the pink sashing hexies have pulled it all together, it matches the picture in my head when I first set out on this bright scrappy journey...there are still "internal" seams to stitch before sashing the whole medallion with a round of pink hexies and attaching it to the background fabric.  On a happy note while showing a friend the pattern etc in the project box yesterday I discovered I have already cut the background square...got to be happy about that!

So that is this week's fortnight's progress...now to decide what will be on the board for the coming week...

Happy Stitching...