FNSI...There was a Finish...

Friday Night Sew-In last night and I started out by sandwiching and pinning this top which has been waiting patiently for a few years...

now ready for hand quilting with quilting thread I bought last Sunday at a charity quilt-in in the local hall...

pretty huh!...as you can see from the difference in colour in the orange one, which I've been using during the week, the reels have probably been "on the shelf" for yonks but as they were only $4.50 each and the perfect colours for a couple of small tops that have been hanging about for ages I figured they'd be fine and I love the wooden spools so they are decorative too...

Moving that top off the tapestry stand where it had been residing revealed a small applique/stitchery hiding underneath...this was gifted to me as part of a swap a few years ago organised by Karen of Mrs Martin's Quilt Shop...so I decided to sandwich that one as well ...

ready for hand quilting...or maybe just binding...mmm....

sudden change of plans...

some sucky free motion machine quilting...

a bit of binding and...

done!...

A finish...not sure yet whether it will be a wallhanging, a little table decoration or even a Christmas mug rug...I'll worry about that in December, right now it's a finish on the board...wahoo!

Rosie visited yesterday afternoon and bought me a present from her recent trip to the NSW North Coast...

gorgeous fabric...I love it!!...thank you Rosie...we didn't end up stitching but instead went for a trip down the street to the local habby so Rosie could look for wool (she is getting a grandbubby, so exciting), 4ply in "non-baby" colours, five balls, was the goal...we found a lovely one and Rosie liked three of the non-traditional colours...one they had enough of, one only had two balls left and was discontinued and the last they were out of stock...so we took a drive up the highway to another habby about 1/2 hour away to check out their wool...yay! the out-of-stock colour was found...but only three balls of the discontinued one...so a phone call was made to my local shop and guess what?...both shops had the same dye lot...how lucky was that...the local shop put the two balls under the counter and we picked them up on the way back home for a cuppa...a very successful shopping trip...there was a gorgeous Mohair in variegated colours that I would have loved but maybe I should finish the sock before I go off on a knitting or crocheting tangent...goodness knows I've got enough stitchy UFO's I certainly don't need any more yarn based ones!!!  And speaking of the sock, yes there has been progress...

The orange quilting thread has been stitching all week on a little something that may even get finished by the end of the weekend...this may be too much like progress, I might need a lie down!


Happy Stitching...

Click Clack...

So while there wasn't much stitching going on here in May there was a week early on in the month where the knitting needles saw the light of day...Andrea & I spent a day in Kyneton catching up at the beginning of May and while we were there - in between the lunching and coffee-ing portions of the day - we visited A Stitch in Time in Piper Street.   Andrea was keen to check out their yarn selection - and for those who indulge in the yarn related craft activities it is well worth the visit - and I found some balls of knitting inspiration that immediately yelled at me that they wanted to come home and become...

A hat and scarf for me (the prototypes for practice and research)...

 and...

A hat and scarf for Mistea for her birthday...

I made mine up first to test the yarn and the pattern out.  The hat pattern comes from the ball band, the scarf I just knitted, after all it's only rib and the one on the ball band ends up being ridiculously long so I skipped that and just did what I wanted - I know, how surprising! me not following a pattern!...it's not only sewing patterns I don't follow...he he he.  I did mine twice...the first effort to see how far the yarn went and to work out how wide I wanted it...then I pulled that out and redid it with less stitches.  This yarn (Patons Wilderness) knits up very very quickly (well it would, the scarf is knitted on size 10 and the hat on size 6.5 needles, not exactly toothpicks!) each item only took about three hours and one 100g ball.  It is very warm and toasty (being 70% wool)...my hat and scarf have had test drive outings and performed very nicely.

At the Geelong Quilt-In Lara Downs had a stall and along with the most amazingly beautiful yarn and felt products she had a selection of scarf pins made from polished bamboo...I picked up this one to go with Mistea's...

I've had to wait to show 'coz after all birthday presents are supposed to be a secret until after the birthday event or at least the giving of the gift which has now taken place, so I'm counting these for June instead of May.

Happy stitching knitting...