Tuesday 31 May 2011

tuesday treasures...


Sometimes I can't think of a treasure for Tuesdays, but the other day I found an old photo album that had my old swap cards in it. I used to love collecting swap cards. Those that had dogs, cats or horses were especially cherished. I used to dream of all the lovely dogs I would love to own and could only wish longingly for a pony!
Those days seem so long ago...
I thought I would share some pics of my cards. I did have many more but with time and a little sister many disappeared.






Astro boy was one of my favourites.

these two are very well worn.

well after all those pics....
May even have join a teddy bear's picnic this week...
Will reveal my additions to my hexie top later this week.
cheers
Marina

Friday 27 May 2011

The postman cometh!

The postman was most welcome today!
He brought me two lovely surprises. The first was the lovely table topper that I won on Peg's blog. I admire the lovely quilts and throws that she makes so much and was tickled pink to have won. As it happened as it arrived I had just cleared the table and was looking for a doilie to put on it. Now that is what I call timing!

Isn't is just wonderful.
The second delivery was my May hexies from the hexie flower swap from Joanne. They are two beautiful flowers and I think they are in Civil war reproduction fabrics.
More wonderfulness!!

At the start of last week I received the next pattern for Times gone by bom.
I have it all ready to start appliqueing and stitching. Instead of needleturn applique I am using wools again. I replaced the needleturn in the first block with wools as well. I enjoy working with the wools and am trying to use them where I can. I think they fit in well with this bom.


I think I will work on this at craft group tomorrow.
Hope you all have a crafty weekend.
cheers
Marina

Wednesday 25 May 2011

25th!

Well I had hoped to show a quilted 'tis the season top but that didn't quite get there. It is all basted and ready to quilt so this week it will get started.
Instead for my Christmas finish for May I completed two stitcheries into little wall hangings.
Over the weekend the weather was very conducive to craftiness as it rained quite a bit and was chilly!
When I can't decide what to do I turn to hexie flowers. I have made my June swap flowers and made some cream path flowers for my scrappy garden.I also made some flowers for my own garden. I should be able to make two rows soon.  Sometimes your scraps can invite you to use them.

Monday morning the postie brought a special parcel from an overseas friend. Els in the Netherlands and I were swap partners in my first swap that I took part in. We keep in touch and send goodies for Birthdays and Christmas. Els sent me a parcel for my birthday next month. It got here quicker than she had anticipated so just in case it did arrive early she included a little note on the parcels.....

 I am terrible at waiting to open things so I have to put them away to wait.......... I promise I will be good!

I managed to make two milk jug doilies last week too. I haven't made any for awhile and I really enjoyed them. I plan to make a couple more to put away for gifts. They are a nice distraction from stitching. It was fun looking for the beads to put on the edges too. The first one has shell flowers. Just pretties it up a little bit. The second one has some  hand made beads the my aunt brought me from Indonesia a few years ago. I forgot to press them before snapping away.


Hope you are having a lovely week so far...
cheers
Marina

Thursday 19 May 2011

sending goodies around the place

Yesterday I made a trip to the post office to send some goodies to their new homes.
Betty Boop left for Bev's place in WA and this felted pincushion is on it's way to Janet in the Yukon.
As soon as I read that Janet wanted a garden theme the thought popped into my head. to make a wheelbarrow and bunny and they fitted in the available space perfectly.
Jaqueline added the gorgeous violets and Sue, the bluebirds nesting in the branches. It's great to add to the loveliness!


Now to wait for mine to return home.....
My May hexies arrived at Jane's house. My next month's hexies are to be in blues and reds. That should be fun as I have a decent stash of these colours.
In the meantime I am enjoying making a few milk jug doilies that I will add as my christmas finishes. They will be good additions to the gift list.
Roll on Weekend!

Marina

Tuesday 17 May 2011

borders done and dusted!

After some telephoning yesterday Lyn's needlework no longer had the glace fabric I needed, they had forgotten to take it off their website. Bummer!
I thought I would try where I had bought the previous glace dessert roll, Jemimas. I thought I had bought the last one but they had another one! Lucky me. I zipped round after work and picked it up. I couldn't wait till after tea to cut and sew the borders on. Now it just needs to be quilted. I have backing and wadding to do this so that is the next job on my list.
I also started the binding for my Tisket Tasket quilt that I finished quilting on the weekend. That should be done this week. Woo Hoo!

I also had to finish some hexie flowers for my swap partner this month. She likes modern fabrics, which I must admit are not fabrics I use or would know to buy so I hope these will look modern enough. I couldn't resist fussy cutting the hexagons in the pattern. I think I need to make myself some for my scrappy garden.
Have a lovely week.
Marina

Monday 16 May 2011

and Betty is going to.......

Bev C's house at Kainga Happenings!!
I have emailed Bev for her mailing address and Betty will be on her way asap!
Some good news on the Glace front. I receive newsletters from a couple of patchwork shops and just happened to receive one on Sunday from Lyn's fine needlework. I thought I may as well check if she had some of my fabric and after all the disappointment of my intensive googling the night before to try and find the fabric, they had some showing as available!!! I will call today to make sure and then it will be a done deal!
Talk about happy!
And the moral is...sometimes you just need to step back, not stress and things happen on their own.
Have a great week
Marina

Saturday 14 May 2011

Oops! Oh no....

This week I had a ball putting together the top for the 'Tis the season hanging. Yesterday I went to Jemima's to buy border fabric so I could finish the top altogether. I bought a Glace pre cut (honey bun I think) that had just the tonal fabrics from the range. I would be able to get the borders out but I would have to be very precise and careful. Well that should have told me that I was doomed to fail, but being a half full type of girl, no worries!
Yeah, right...
I did the first border fine and then the second border... You betcha I stuffed it up. I was frantic now- my side border would have three pieces sewn together to make a border. I googled till I was googled out and replacement fabric is out of the question as it is an old range and the chances of finding it are 'Buckley's or none'.
So what to do... Do I sew them the way they are, get a different red fabric or keep trying to get the red tonal fabric that I really want to use, or finally add some embellishment to cover the errors (thanks for the idea mum)? 
I am going to take it all to Mum's to get her opinion but I know I need to be happy with the result, especially after all that work..
Any suggestions would be welcome or if you know of anyone who has perhaps 7inches of the red tonal Glace fabric?
Here is the top so far.....

see how perfect the red fabric looks, 

this has to be my favourite stitchery block



On a less disastrous note... I made this little door hanger for a friend at work who is leaving us. It just needs a little stuffing.  It's from the Quilt a gift book that Carine sent me in exchange for a Boys story quilt book. It has some lovely designs in it. I used some of my vintage shell buttons for the corners.



For the past two weeks I have been also trying to hand quilt my Tisket Tasket Top and I am down to the last block and then I will just machine quilt around the border. It will be a relief to cross this off the list .

This arrived in the mail yesterday and I have put my thinking cap to decide what my addition to Janet's garden themed pincushion will be. I think I have just the thing!

Boy talk about lots of pics.. 
Just one last sneak peak at something I am making. Not too many clues at the moment. Someone may be peaking! I have been having issues with my stitching at the moment, the stitches seem to be huge and I had big issues with the curves on this stitchery. I had to unpick them all and redo them. Much better second time around. Some of my 'tis the season stitcheries had stitches that seemed to be doing their own thing. Luckily they don't look too bad.


Hope you all have a lovely weekend...
I am off to make some hexies for my May swap partner.
Second finals of Eurovision tonight and the Finals tomorrow. Am I the only sad person watching?
My children seem to think so!

Cheers
Marina
ps I have reinstated any lost comments for the Betty boop fabric. I will draw it tomorrow as there are a few people who would like to give it a new home. If you are interested leave a comment on the previous post and I will draw a new home tomorrow.



Thursday 12 May 2011

looking for a new home....

I have two pieces of Betty Boop fabric that are looking for a new home.
I bought them a long time ago as a gift but they boomeranged back to me and I don't think I will use them as I am not that into Betty Boop. They are about a half yard each.
Anyone interested?
If you are just leave a comment and if there is more than one comment I will pick them out of a hat on sunday.

On the craft side of things I have finished all my 'Tis the season stitcheries and put the top together! Can you believe it? I just need to buy some fabric for the borders-a job on my list for tomorrow.  I really love the Glace fabrics and hope my local patchwork shop has some on the bolt. Once the borders are done I will take a pic! If I work hard I may get it done by the 25th. Now I would be very happy to claim that as my Christmas item for May. It would definitely make up for last month when I didn't get one done.
Cheers
Marina

Wednesday 4 May 2011

some more blocks and a pincushion

On Monday Sue's wool base arrived from Janet in Canada. She stitched a fantastic mountain goat looking over a cliff down on a trout jumping. It looked fantastic but how was I going to add to it. I scoured Sue's blog looking for hints on things she liked, when I suddenly looked at her blog name 'Charlotte's cottage'-that's it I thought!
I would add a little cottage to the base and then there was just a little gap that needed filling so what better than a little ray of sunshine on her cottage!
I am quite happy with the result, I hope Sue likes it too. Now it will be off to America to Jacqueline then it will make it's final trip home to Sue in Western Australia.


On Sunday I thought I would work on the borders for the next three Tis the season blocks. Now I make no secret that I don't like cutting and sewing up blocks, my favourite part is the stitcheries and hand sewing. I thought while I was cutting strips for three blocks I may as well cut strips for all the blocks. I now have them all ready for when I finish the next lots of stitcheries. Happy days!
so here are the next three...




It's half way through the week already....... Roll on the weekend.
Cheers
Marina

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Tuesday Treasures...

I haven't joined in Tuesday Treasures for a little while but Melody has suggested we post pics of our Treasures being our pets. Well you don't have to tell me twice. I love to post pics of my pets.
 The photos won't arrange in the order that I want, but here we go...
Monty and coffee doing what they do best! Swimming and retrieving.

Coffee at his one and only Royal Show adventure. well I think he is gorgeous!


Monty always at home in the water
Of course there is Maisie the Princess Horizontal.

This is Jack, my super boy (no longer with us)

this is an old photo of Jack, Monty (when he was young) and my super girl Peggy (no longer with us)
I just love all my four leggers and there are a few that I haven't pictured here that left us some time ago.
Pop over to Melody's to check out who else is having a pet brag!
You don't have to ask me twice.lol
cheers
Marina



Time is flying....

 Seems like my blog has become a little neglected again, this doesn't mean a lack of crafting though. Progress has been achieved on most...