FNSI Results(ish)...

Friday Night Sew-In for May rolled around last night here in the Southern Hemisphere...an opportunity to get some more work done on my version of the Stitch-A-Long quilt, Anni Downes' Some Kind of Wonderful...I had actually done a heap of the applique work over the last week or so having granted the project box resident status on the kitchen table (aka next to the heater!) and while I still have some applique blocks to finish preparing and stitch down last night's focus was to press, iron stabiliser to the back of and draw stitchery portions of the designs for the blocks I have already appliqued...

There are 23 applique blocks in total and 16 are now residing in the block keeper, ironed and marked ready for embroidery...I'm happy with that effort...and the remaining 7 are all in various stages of the applique portion being prepared and/or started...

There really is way too much mess to even attempt to set up a photo shoot...so I'm not going to bother...

Thanks to the Hostesses with the Mostest Heidi & Bobbi for the nudge to get some stitchy time in...

Happy Stitching...

The Wheels on the Bus...

Went round and round for Monday group's annual shop hop...off we ventured today to the City of Greater Geelong...first Moorabool Street and two shops - Joy's Fabric Warehouse and Jiddi's Patch...then Pakington Street and A Little Different, a shop I've long wanted to visit, as well as being our lunch stop. While wandering the other shops in the street I found a gorgeous pair of boots in an interesting little shoe boutique...and left them behind along with their $275.00 price tag...*sigh*...then I spied a beautiful hoop pine and leadlight crystal cabinet in a shop window and wondered if I could fit it in the bus' cargo hold!!!  But as it was at least $1,000.00 it too was left behind...oh but it was lovely...no idea how it would have actually fitted in the house but hey, that's what window shopping is for...dreaming...lastly The Blanket Box in Newcomb.  I was fairly restrained all day, although there was almost public Happy Dancing when I found "The" bag pattern that I've been searching for without knowing exactly which pattern I wanted...you know, the one that matches the picture in your head!...happy happy me as it is also a You Sew Girl by Nicole Mallalieu pattern so I knew it was quality...

So what followed me home?...six fat eighths and two small scraps/bolt ends...very restrainted fabric buying...The Pattern!...some more of my favourite Auriful threads to add to the collection...and the most gorgeous buttons just because they are pretty (the two large ones have a vague maybe purpose)...

Now to go and play in the fabric emporium and decide just which fabrics are destined to be my new bag...

Happy Stitching...

Small Finishes...

A couple of small finishes this week...first up...one night after work this week the choice was the ironing or...

...make a fabric basket...no contest really...

Christmas Eve my mixer decided it would be a good idea to drop dead right while I was baking biscuits...good one mixer...so I inherited the mother's big version and with it came a cover that was a good 40 years old and well past its use by date...after pulling it apart to get a template and finding some cute Debbie Mumm fabric in the stash the big mixer now has new pyjamas...

No way to make a mixer cover photogenic really.

Yay! two more April OPAM finishes.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Happy Stitching... 

I'd Like...

...to show the candle mat I finished...but I can't...and I'd like to show the framed stitchery I finished...but nope can't show that either...secrets for a swap...

I can show kitchen towels made from hand towels picked up during Safeway (Woolworths for non-Victorians) grocery shopping and curtain fabric samples brought home from work (yay for chuck out pile!)...happy kitchen now has clean new hand towels...

Friday night I journeyed to Threadbear in Castlemaine for 6-Midnight and took P-faff for an outing, using the night to sandwich and quilt a small finished top into a table mat...I couldn't find anything in the fabric emporium that would do for binding so shopping for suitable was the first task of the evening.  I managed to get all the quilting done and the binding stitched on ready to handstitch before I called it a night.

The stitchery in the centre is an Ella & Skysie pattern, the rest I just made up...nothing flash or overly creative going on mind you, just 5" (finished) squares stitched together and quilted in straight lines but it did the trick.

Started over Easter (and finished the following weekend) this jigsaw...1,000 pieces and measuring 30cm x 42cm (12" x 14") finished...of course the drawcard was the quilty details...



Happy Stitching...

A Quilt Show...and a Quilt Shop...

YesterdaySaturday I went on strike...told the boss (that would be me) to naff off and ran away for the day...with GF Rosie (no blog) and had a wonderful time...setting off early (poor Rosie had to leave home in the dark to get to my place for exit time) for our first destination - the Monbulk Community Quilt Show organised by Karen of Mrs Martin's Quilt Shop...there in plenty of time for kick off we joined the already considerable queue waiting for the doors to open...it was a lovely morning standing outside in the fresh air and gave us time to have a little squiz at the plants on offer by the Monbulk footy club...inside and being in the first 100 through the door we scored a showbag each...full of lovely goodies...thank you Karen and the sponsors who generously donated...the hall was filled with lots of lovely quilty goodness...being a community show rather than by a group anyone could enter a quilt and there was a wonderful variety...including one by an 8 year old who was so inspired when she visited the show last time it was held she went home and started stitching away on her own first quilt to put in this time...isn't that wonderful...I've made a little slideshow of some of my favourites...it was very very hard to choose just one for the viewer's choice vote! (I've taken so long to finish this post the winner can now be seen here. Beautiful.)  Definitely a quilt show to put on the calendar for return visits.


For our $5.00 donation (all proceeds to Monbulk CFA) we got a good couple of hours entertainment...going around the quilts a couple of times, buying and enjoying Devonshire Tea, more quilt admiring, a good squiz at the wares on offer by the various stall holders in the community centre - a needle case pattern and a metre of white on white fabric (at $5.00 for the metre! cheap or what!!) followed me - then outside for plant purchases from the footy club (I picked up a lovely crepe myrtle for $4.00, Rosie came home with a crepe myrtle and two pots of herbs for the grand sum of $6.00!) and a bunch of tulips each from the CFA ($4.00 a bunch,what a bargain!) before setting out to Karen's shop, which is now at her house in Emerald, for a quick look see (after all she couldn't take everything to the hall for her stall)...where I picked up a felt pincushion pattern...before making our way to our lunch destintation - Warburton and The Patchwork Teahouse...to while away the afternoon...yummy lunch, a little browsing, I did some stitching (yes apparently I do sew!), some more browsing, afternoon tea, reading magazines, stitching, browsing, a little spending...ah, lovely!...

Thanks Rosie for a fun relaxing play day...

Happy Stitching...

Rosie's Mug Bag...

A finish I couldn't show until it had made its way to its recipient...

Rosie's Mug Bag...

...a present for GF Rosie (no blog)...finally yesterday I caught up with Rosie and could give it to her....please excuse the craptaculous photo which was snapped with my phone when I finished the making simply to text to someone, clearing away the sewing table debris wasn't part of the programme at that point...then I forgot to get a proper photo before I gave the giftee to Rose and then remembered after she went home that I was going to have it pose for a portrait...so the crappy phone pic it has to be...

Another finish for OPAM this month...best I slow down, that's three!

Happy Stitching...

FNSI...Bing Bong...

Can you say fail...fail...fail....fail...I failed miserably to stitch a stitch for Friday Night Sew-In...Bing Bong!...I managed a poor to average attempt at framing my Sewing Corner stitchery...

...down the street late afternoon I found a frame (a bargain at $5.95) that I liked but the mat was for a photo slightly smaller than the stitched area...into the newsagents for some heavy card paper stuff and the result...it kinda works...and for a total of less than $7.00 (didn't use all the $2.00 worth of card even with making a total mess of the first attempt)...it will do well enough anyway...now to decide if it is too big to go on the sewing room door, the frame has one of those stand thingys and a hanging thingy so there are options...so as a Friday Night Sew-In it was a bust but I did get an actual totally finished finish...

Hope your FNSI was way more productive than mine *sigh*...

Happy Stitching...