In The Pink...

The pink round of the hexie quilt that is...this is the last full circle of hexies...

The next step is to fill the corners out - two flowers in each corner to square up and bordered all around with half flowers completes the hexie portion of the centre of the quilt...the full flowers are underway, a scrappy mix of pink and green fabrics, the hexies are covered ready for stitching...

I have to say I'm not looking forward to the step after finalising the hexies...lots and lots of 1" diamonds and 1" triangles papers to be covered to fill in all those gaps in between the flowers...oh and the decision made on just what is going to go in the very centre...the first round of flowers go around a lovely toile picture or similar and I can't settle on a definite...oh well it will be ages before that becomes a problem...first of all there will be all those diamonds and triangles to cover!

*Edit:  thank you for the get well wishes...people power won and the cold germs finally took notice and seem to have vacated the building... :)

Hope your weekend is stitchy...

Happy Stitching...

Friday Night Sew-In...the Extended Version...

Friday Night Sew-In for June and because the cold germs still haven't finished moving house (hurry up already!) I took the path of least resistance and kept on with the hexie garden building...

The night started out like this...

lots of hexie flower "seeds" and a small pile of "flower heads"

and now the flowers have grown to this...

less "seeds" and more "flower heads"...getting there...

I flagged at 10pm Friday night (thanks cold germs very much) so I have "cheated" just a bit and used the "itistillFridaynightsomewhereintheworldextrasew-intime" and now I'm going with "itsSaturdaysomewhereintheworldputtinguptheblogposttime" and got in some extra stitchy time in between work events yesterday.

Thanks to the fabulous Hostesses Heidi & Bobbi for hosting once again.

Sit & sew at the hall today wit Kilmore Quilters and Rosie is coming across today to play...yay! play day :)  The hexie flowers have indicated a reluctance to leave the house so better go find something to sew so I don't just do the sit part!

Hope your Sunday (or Saturday in the other hemisphere) is stitchy...

Happy Stitching...

When Life Gives You Cold Germs...Make...

Hexies!!!!  Yep, when the brain cells are fried from too many cold germs taking up residence and having a Huge Party despite repeated requests to move on, hexies are just the right amount of easy without thinking that can be coped with...so now my "Summer School hexie quilt whose name refuses to stay lodged in my brain" has progressed and I have two rounds of hexie flowers...

 From this... (the colours are right in this pic)

 

to...

this...

(dreadful lack of good lighting today, very washed out colours)

...the pink hexies sitting around the outer all by themselves aren't anti-social...they are posing...they will be the centres of the next round...all the remaining flowers will have this plain pink centre (and all those hexies are ready to roll)...

Having now figured out just what my plan was ... and writing it down a little better ... and saving a back up, which means I told a friend of mine who doesn't forget anything quilt related! ... I am ready to go with the next round of hexie flowers and also to prepare the diamonds and triangles that are the web holding it all together...

Happy stitching...

Desperately Seeking...

A quilty friend is hunting high and low for a copy of a pattern last seen in 2002...another friend put the call out on Squilters (Aust/NZ yahoo list) but no bites yet so I thought, hey, let's ask Blogland, after all you never do know...

Here is her plea...

Good afternoon everyone,

I am hoping somebody out there will be able to help me. I am in search for a pattern that is no longer in print, what I am keeping my fingers crossed for is that one of you wonderful, wonderful ladies, or your quilting friends will have a copy that I could buy from you, or at least pay for a copy to be taken. ( I know that it is not the  thing to do, to make copies, but this pattern is no longer available and as far as I can find out the company is no longer in business). The pattern is 'EYE CANDY' and was produced by CRAFTCO. (It was available very early on-2002! from Quiltsmith in NSW ).  I saw it in an old [Australian] Patchwork and Quilting magazine.

Thankyou all in anticipation.

If anyone has a copy, or knows of a copy, please email me at jindiscottage(at)gmail(dot)com and I can put you in touch with each other.

Happy stitching...

A Pincushion and A Couple of Hexies...

Saturday afternoon Rosie came over for a play day...such fun!...a quick reorganisation of the sewing tables and we had both our sewing machines set up and ready for go...and off Rosie went...and I sat there and fluffed about...I made the pocket for the satchel bag - and by making the pocket I mean I cut a square and a rectangle and stitched them together with a zip to create a flat six" square, not exactly rocket science or great and wonderous achievement...and then...I sat for a while and pondered and wondered and looked around the room at all the projects that could be worked on and then I spied the felt stash box and made a pincushion...well a pincushion corpse as I then realised - no polyfill...I am nothing if not under-productive!...with the attainment of polyfill after the Spotty stop on Sunday the corpse became...

a square pincushion...using handmade felt generously "donated" by the maker Fiona, which was a dream to sew...the pattern taken from Hokey Pokey Pincushion by The Birdhouse which I bought for the applique version but was too lazy to deal with on Saturday so I went for the path of least resistance (how unusal...not!)...it has a pouch of crushed walnuts surrounded by the polyfill stuffing. I bought the crushed walnut shells at The Home Patch in Bathurst for one of Anni's designs but it is a big enough bag for a few goes.

So that's another little finish for OPAM this month...and while I was moving things around on the cutting table I once again came upon these two little hexie coasters that I made either at the end or last month or the beginning of this month - anyway, weeks ago - and just seem to keep forgetting to acknowledge....

so there they are (they can be counted in May) and they will now go and join a couple of other things that I really must post off to the recipient they are intended for.  But those things have been sitting on the bookcase shelf for so long now that I think I've just become blind to them and their need to make it to the post office.

Happy Stitching...

Bloggers, Tea Cosies and Finishes....

I had a fabulous outing today yesterday...a bloggy catch up meet organised in concert with the lovely Melody (The House On The Side of the Hill) held at Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, a gorgeous Queen Anne mansion built in 1899...I arrived to find Melody, Mistea, Simone (Quilts n Cats), Marina (Maisie and the Boys), Elyte (Tea, Fabric & Other Things) and Christine (MacDonald's Patch) settled in the cafe for the first order of the day...lunch!...I had the chicken and mushroom pie with salad followed by the lemon meringue pie and it was all yum!...food and chatter what's not to love...and during the coffee and desert portion Mistea's mum came in and joined us, always good to catch up with T's Mum as well...and you know, we were all having such a lovely time chatting and eating we all forgot to take foodie photos until the table was nothing more than empty plates and cups, not at all photogenic *LOL*...

The Homestead is also the City of Darebin public art gallery and the reason we chose to visit today was to take a look at the Tea Cosy Exhibition...

"Teacosy Tales

2 May – 27 May
Every teacosy has a tale to tell…textile artists, community crafters and teacosy enthusiasts join together in tribute to a treasured domestic icon! Curated by Marg Lanne and Maryanne Noonan, the annual teacosy exhibition is a vibrant display of handcrafted, beautifully embroidered teacosies with all proceeds donated to Cancer Council Victoria."

(source: Bundoora Homestead Arts Centre

Such a fun idea for an exhibition.  An initiative to raise funds as part of the Cancer Council's Biggest Morning Tea all the tea cosies were for sale - a condition of entry into the exhibition.

And this was Mistea's entry...Rumpelstiltkskin(oops! was reading a review of that new Once Upon A Time show focused on that character!) Rapunzel...cool huh...

After visiting with the tea cosies we wandered upstairs to check out the Melrose Art Pottery exhibition (photos not permitted upstairs)...two exhibitions for the price of one!...and given that the price was free, fabulous value for money *LOL*...

I couldn't resist taking photos of the quilting patterns pressed ceiling details...

 and the lovely applique ideas leadlight windows...

leadlight door detail

and how is this for a skylight...just fabulous...

And the finish?...the outing was also the debut of the prototype satchel bag (pattern: Large Tote and Satchel, You Sew Girl by Nicole Mallalieu) finally finished this yesterday morning...a slow process being worked on in very short bursts spaced quite far apart over the last couple of weeks...

There are a few "issues" as I tried a couple of different products for the first time - as well as using a new pattern.  Figured might as well put all the "tries" into one effort *LOL*.  The iron on vinyl that I used for the flap is awesome and I love it but it has ended up a bit crinkly due to being "over worked" because I turned the flap, then the bag had to be turned through etc, a time or two too many.  I also used a very very stiff bag interfacing and while I love the structure it gives to the bag...it stands up very well without external support....boy oh boy was it hard to turn...I had to use forceps to turn the tabs/strap supports...

A quick stop at Spotlight on the way home for poly fill and just like last weekend at Bendigo I met up with a friend I haven't seen in a long time....a friend from my previous working life, it was great to see K and her family...it's been a funny year, the universe keeps putting lovely people I haven't seen in a long time back in my path...I'm not complaining :)...so that poly fill, it was a need but I flagged last night (didn't even finish this post!) and it wasn't dealt with...maybe later today...

Have a great week, hope it is stitchy...


Happy Stitching...

Squishy Mail...

The mail box had something much more fun than window faced envelopes today...a squishy envelope!...yay!!!!  The lovely Fiona of Bugz Rugz fame had a little giveaway recently of some gorgeous quilt-as-you go hexie needle books she had stitched and most uncharacteristically I won one!  So this squishy envelope arrives and I think "oh yay the needlebook...gee it must be larger than it looked on the screen as this envelope is quite squishy"...but no, it isn't that the needlebook is larger than I imagined it was but because, oh my goodness, Fiona was most generous and the envelope contained...

all this!...

the gorgeous needlebook...I love the fabric Fiona has used (and I was secretly hoping she'd choose one of the birdie design ones for me)...Fiona also made the fabulous selvedge bookmark...the quilt label was immediately earmarked for my Some Kind of Wonderful quilt...a skein of floss in a lovely shade of my favourite blue, a cute little quilt hanger, hot chocolate mix and a yummy herbal tea...Fiona you left me gobsmacked, here I was happy to have won a needlebook and you have been so generous...thank you so much, I love each and every item.

Happy Stitching...