Showing posts with label A Gardener's Journal Stitch-A-Long. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A Gardener's Journal Stitch-A-Long. Show all posts

Sunday, 6 March 2011

It's A Top...A GJ Top...

Ta Dah!  A Gardener's Journal has borders and is now officially a completed quilt top!  Wahoo!! Happy Dancing...


Very happy to have it to this stage...yes, I know, the quilting and binding is supposed to be tackled straight away and the quilt finished by now but let's be honest here...it isn't going to happen so why pretend...

Preparation is underway for the next Stitch-A-Long, 'Tis The Season, which started on the first of this month...I've cut out the background squares and strips for the block borders and started tracing the stitchery designs on...like A Gardener's Journal I want to get all the blocks prepared up to the border stage so that I can just keep on going each month without having to stop to cut and trace...

Working away on my year long Christmas swap, the first part of which has to be mailed out by the end of this month and I still haven't finished up the stocking let alone any pressies to put in it and it has to be sent with the January, February and March gifties in the stocking...so the Stitch-A-Long will have to go on the back burner for this week while I get up to speed with my swap committment...

Happy Stitching...

Saturday, 26 February 2011

GJ Progress...

Done!  Well, all the blocks that is...the last four blocks constructed over the 24 hours since lunchtime yesterday...yay!...happy dancing!!!!

Now this afternoon I need to wash the border fabrics, which should dry quickly enough today to be ironed and dealt with tonight...

Happy Stitching

Sunday, 13 February 2011

Sunday Sitting and Sewing...

Today LQG had a sit and sew day as an unofficial start to the year...the first official gatherings for the year being this coming Wednesday night and the following Tuesday morning...and what a great start...22 members turned out (well 20 members and two future members) to the local Memorial Hall for a day of stitching and chatting...

And did I do anything other than talking and drinking coffee?  Well, yes I did...not great and wonderous but a little bit of this and a little bit of that...a bit here and there all adds up...



Caddy - binding handsewing done...pincushion - opening stitched closed...a bit of stitchery...and a pile of hexies towards Bumb'le Bee...and of course, I had to take a "tour" and check out what everyone else was doing and have a bit of a chat here and there...all in all a relaxing day with a few little ticks on projects...

In A Gardeners Journal Stitch-A-Long News...

Those ladies finally made it to the Flower Show...

And now the apples are ripening in the orchard....

very excited...once those apples are ripe I can build the blocks...

Hope your weekend has been stitchy and productive...back to the apples for me...

Happy Stitching...

Saturday, 11 December 2010

Still Stitching on GJ...

After spending a couple of months in stitchy wilderness A Gardener's Journal has emerged back into the light...


Only the stitcheries...there has been no block construction action going on...Resting in the Garden, the Birdhouse and the Row of Flowers stitcheries belong to Block F which was apparently going to happen in September...it didn't, oh well...the lawnmower to Block B which was slated for October...and Ladybird to Block E, hey! that's December's block, that would be this month! wahoo!!...oh what's that?...September, October and November come Before December...bugger!...thinking I'll just keep on with the stitcheries and worry about the block construction once they are done...

In other stitchy news, last weekend this little top came into being...



It's going to be a table centre...made from a Pure by Moda charm pack...now to actually sandwich it up and quilt it...before Christmas next year!


Happy stitching...

Sunday, 14 November 2010

What Happened to Last Week?...

I seem to have lost a week somewhere…bugger!...there are some things I just never find…you might need a coffee and a pillow…this has turned out to be looonnngggg!!!

Well, it seems that Herself managed to tell you all about Her Adventures in Ballarat and Mildura but not mine…darn dog!...

Now there really was a good reason for going to Mildura (head north from home) via Ballarat (head west)… I really really wanted to go Ballaarat Quilters Quilt-In. I’m so glad I did…it was a great day out…good company in Mistea and Ms R, together with four other ladies from my local sewing groups who also made the trek, so I had quite a social day thank you very much…the guest talker was Jodie from Ric Rac who had the room laughing along with her and her stories…there were a good selection of shops, lovely quilts hung on the walls to admire…and…

…I even managed to sew!  I know, amazing!!!  I started the day by attempting to continue work on my Chooky Blue Secret Santa project…I failed…big time…it just wasn’t happening for me…so I moved on to finishing the hand quilting lines on my Leanne's House project from Immerse Yourself In Stitching and finished that part of the project…yay!...and then yesterday (skipping right ahead)…I finished the whole project…

Sticher's Keeper
Very happy with how it turned out…it doesn’t fit my ruler for travelling as I had kind of hoped it would but never mind that, it will still be a most useful addition to the collection of “carry things about receptacles”…

So back to Ballarat…once the quilting lines were done I couldn’t go any further as the next step required P-faff’s involvement soooo I proceeded to flick through the latest issue of Homespun and found a project that would take care of a couple of swap inclusions and that meant I had to shop…right there at the Quilt-In from Sovereign Needlework I found the most gorgeous wool felt and some Threadworx embroidery floss to match…Mistea donated some paper from the part of her photocopy that she didn’t need, thank you Mistea, and with a sense of obsession templates were made and the project begun…I am in lurve with wool felt…seriously… well, all know the acrylic stuff is horrible…the wool blends are OK a definite improvement on acrylic…but pure wool….iss...Bliss….simply gorgeous stuff to work with…

A sneaky peek...
Oh, and the reason why I had a copy of the latest Homespun with me…’coz I was skiteing…just a little bit ‘coz it’s not like I’m a big time designer with a project in there or anything but my little flower doily made it to the mail bag page…I was very excited…

I found me in here!...

...in the Mailbag section...

Earlier in the year when I put the finished project on my blog I received an email from the editor asking me to submit it to the mailbag…so I did…and then I thought it would never appear…and now it has…and they used my very own words as well…I was sure that if it ever did appear the words would be heavily edited to make sense but no…OK skite ends…but I just had to you know…

Mildura was lovely of course but the purpose of the trip wasn’t crafty though I did keep going with the swap project I had started at Ballarat and had coffee with a quilty friend who has relocated there.  I tried a little hopping for Jeannet's Pincushion Swap on International Pincushion Day but it really didn’t work out and as I managed to lose this week in the debris of my world I’m hoping today to get to visit all 152 blogs…oh that would be 151 ‘coz I don’t have to visit my own, well, that makes it easier *LOL*…and see all the wonderful pincushions that were made…thank you to the lovely swappers who visited my blog last week and left a comment…most of you were no reply so I couldn’t answer but I hope to get around and leave comments on your blogs…it was a fun swap and if Jeannet holds it again in the future I’d be putting it on the list to have another play…

Oh, in a lovely surprise…a friend came back from two months in the United Kingdom (*sigh* wouldn’t that be wonderful) on Monday and along with the lovely china thimble from the Royal Yacht Brittania that I asked her to pick me up if she managed to get there…(I had regretted from the day that I didn’t buy it when I was there, the design is the beautiful embroidery in the Queen’s bedroom on the yacht)…she also bought me back the V&A Quilt 2011 Calendar…a beautiful hand embroidered bookmark from the The Lost Garden of Heligan and a postcard of the amazing tapestry “The Hunter” from Montacute House, Somerset

Presents from the UK...
Had a lovely night Friday stitching with some sewing group friends…thank you Andrea for hosting…and tah dah…the last hexagon diamond for the centre of Bumb’le Bee…wahoo! now only 162 sashing and seven feature hexies to baste so that the medallion can be assembled *sigh*…

All laid out on the "sashing" fabric...mmm, has promise...
I also managed to finish up a Gardener’s Journal stitchery for the Stitch-A-Long…

Chirp, chirp, little birdies...
...it’s from the September block…oops! slightly behind yet again…I completely lost my GJ mojo there for a couple of months, I can feel it creeping back ever so quietly…

This weekend I’m working on the latest incarnation of my Chooky Blue Secret Santa swap project...the original one failed so miserably I took the hint from the Universe and moved right along.  After much anguish (read: couldn’t make up my mind for the life of me) have finally settled on something else…

Another sneaky peek...
which has to be in the mail between the 19th and 25th of this month which only gives me a week or so!!!…so while LG is doing his thing making the clothes dizzy and as the weather is not clement enough to want to put a toe outside, my plan for the rest of Sunday is was to stitch and blog hop……instead I've spent most of the day fighting with the internet connection thingy convincing blogging platforms that uploading photos is a part of the plan...sheesh!...have almost finished the stitchery part of the exercise though in the parts where I was waiting, waiting, waiting...

Hope your weekend is a good one…
Happy Stitching…

Sunday, 22 August 2010

D = Done...


Block D of A Gardener's Journal...the block Chief Motivator of the GJ Stitch-A-Long, Chookyblue, nominated for the month of August...


Drum Roll please....Ta Dah!...


...not only within the specified month but before the month ran out of days....it's an August miracle!! (ha ha ha)

This block went together like a dream...no unsewing...no what the?...nothing...just sew and iron...easy peasy...hope the rest of the blocks have taken notes from this one on how to behave!

Happy stitching...


Saturday, 21 August 2010

Friday Night was Sew-In...

and I almost missed it...I got in just in time...meaning no time for preparation, so I went with continuing A Gardner's Journal for the Stitch-A-Long...the second stitchery for the August block, Block D...


OK, I admit it...I didn't do ALL the stitchery last night...it was already half done and I finished it off today, but Friday Night Sew-In certainly contributed to getting it done. Next step is to construct the block...I had a bit of a calendar challenge on Friday and thought that it was the end of August already and I was in danger of being behind again...but nope, that would be Next Week so crisis averted...I don't have an OPAM finish for August either...better get my skates on...

Thanks again to Heidi and Bobbi for again hosting Friday Night Sew-In.

Happy Stitching...

Saturday, 7 August 2010

A Bit of This...A Bit of That...




Where does the week go...oh yeah, work stuff and the like...not a lot of achieving to report stitchy wise...


Friday morning (my day off - yay!) our local quilting group hosted an interesting talk by the Quilters World Travelling School Bus...I figured that was 2 1/2 to 3 hours of uninterrupted stitchy time while I listened (I was the only one sewing but that didn't stop me...I was sitting at the back and the chair next to me was vacant so I had a "table" as well - he he he)...so...

A bit of this...

the vegie patch is growing...one of the two stitcheries for the August block for the A Gardener's Journal Stitch-A-Long.

And seeing the light of day again...a couple of my Karen Cunningham quilts in progress from Summer School in Wodonga...

From 2009...a bit of this...



the centre of Yorkshire Dales...don't get too excited it was only a little bit, all except one diamond and the three circley shapes (technical term there, circley shapes) were already appliqued on...and one of the circley shapes still isn't *LOL*


Today a very pleasant day was had at the VicQuilters Winter Gathering & AGM held in the Box Hill Town Hall, a lovely art deco building.  Very relaxing it was to sit with good company, listen to an interesting speaker and look at her beautiful quilts and stitch on...


from 2010...



some more towards the hexagon centre medallion for Bum'bel-bee.  Again, don't get too excited...not only were the hexagons already tacked over the papers but both hexagon diamonds were already in the throes of construction and the green one...the little seams? well, they aren't all stitched together.


As you can see I'm back to my usual slow, distracted, jumping all over the place and getting nowhere fast self so GF Ms K can I please be readmitted to the non-achievers table? Ha ha ha, as if I'd ever make it across to the room to the over achievers for more than 10 seconds (or want to for that matter!)...


Happy Stitching...

Tuesday, 3 August 2010

At last...I'm on track with the A Gardener's Journal Stitch-A-Long timetable...wahoo!!!

The tradies finished the fence and packed up their tools on the biggest stitchery, the house...so finally...Block C for June...

Block C - A Gardener's Journal
and...

Block H for July...

Block H - A Gardener's Journal
and they were completed with an hour to go before August kicked in!  Yay!!!

Hoping to keep on track each month now...well, you gotta have hope, doesn't mean it will actually happen...but it is a theory....about half way through the first stitchery for the August block (helped by actually making it to Monday sewing group for a couple of hours for a change yesterday morning), which only has two stitcheries...after the house block all the rest are downhill...good strategy employed there by the Chief Motivator Chookyblue.

And what do we have here?  A pile of ponchettes...

A pile of ponchettes waiting for binding
...production line sewing *LOL*...ready for their binding.  Only snag in that plan is that I haven't made it yet...and I was over the production line at this point so moved on to sitting on the couch and hand stitching.

Hope your weekend was productive...

Happy Stitching....

Saturday, 31 July 2010

Watch This Space!...

Why?  Because there is a chance of two more A Gardener's Journal blocks by the end of the day...meaning I'll have caught up to the timetable in the Stitch-A-Long.

The tradies have finally packed up their tools, the fence is finished and so is the house stitchery.
Wahoo!!  Put the final stitches in the fence yesterday morning before work...June stitcheries tick!...
and...last night was the night for one of my quilting groups and after a couple of obsessive, "I WILL get this finished before I do anything else!" hours...the garden tools collection was completed...
add a tick for July stitcheries as well.

Hoping to get the two blocks together later today and add two more to the group tally by July's end and two more letters after my name! Yay!!!!
That is, right after I come back from a trip up the highway to collect my new sewing machine that I accidentally put on lay-by a few weeks ago when I took P-faff to be serviced and discovered that, apparently, P-faff needed a sibling...that was yesterday's plan until work intervened and put a crimp in my stitchy related plans.  Right, stop procrastinating and get on the road and up the highway...

Until next time...

Happy stitching...

Monday, 19 July 2010

Certificate of Occupancy Issued...Landscaper Undertaking Works...

The house is built!  Certificate of Occupancy has been issued and the landscaper is now undertaking garden beautification works...Wahoo!



The fencer is lined up to put the fence up as soon as the landscaper is finished.

Happy stitching!

Wednesday, 14 July 2010

Give Me An "A"...

Block A of A Gardener's Journal that is...
That makes me caught up to May in the Stitch-A-Long.

Block C (scheduled for June - oops! kinda missed that deaadline as well) is underway...

 Dog has a house and a pretty rose wreath

 Building continues...
And when I got bored building the house I digressed to Block H scheduled for July.  Hey!  This one has actually been started in the right month - progress!...

 Stitcheries for Block H - a good start made

OK, back to building that house...
Happy Stitching...