Sunday 26 August 2012

A day late and a finish!

Thanks to the football last night I dragged out my sewing machine and made an attempt to finish my stitched hearts. Technically the hearts were finished last night, still in time for the 25th deadline for the Christmas finishes and the ribbons were completed this morning. Hooray! So you can tick me off for a finish now Narelle instead of a half finish.


Now for the finish....
Friday night I put the final quilting stitches into my Boys story quilt while waiting for the boys to get home from a party. I just love staying up late and sewing but I have to have a sleep in the next morning.
Yesterday afternoon I popped over to Jemima's shop to buy some binding.
Found some lovely fabric to frame the quilt. I sewed the binding on last night and put in another night shift to hand sew the binding down. The lord of the rings kept me company both nights. Love those movies and thank god they are so looong!(have the extended versions too)
Well here are the pics...



















My next quilting project is my Down in the garden. I have the top, the batting and the backing! All right to go. Think I will save this one for Quiltober this year.
Happy days!!

Marina

Thursday 23 August 2012

more flowers and some stitching....

Some more flowers have bloomed in the past week.




These stitcheries will make up into little Christmas hearts. They are from a sweet little book by Rosalie Quinlan that I picked up at the craft show. These may have to count as my Christmas items for the month.

very sweet and there is one other that isn't finished yet.
not too much else happening, how boring!
Hopefully some crafting on the weekend.
cheers
marina

Thursday 16 August 2012

flowers growing...

some new flowers have been growing in my garden..


















lots of lovely new novelty hexies. Some of the fabrics from lovely bloggy friends,others from travels.
I seriously need to start thinking about putting them together in some way?
Not sure whether to join them with a contrasting pathway or appliqued on plain backgrounds then joined with sashings. I have 35 so far. Slowly growing.
Craft group this Saturday so looking forward to catching up with the girls.
Hope you all have a great weekend
marina

Monday 13 August 2012

inspired by friends..

Saturday afternoon I met with some friends for a sewing afternoon-Elyte, Anne and Robyn.
When I got home there was a boring night ahead with the Collingwood game firmly on other people's agenda. Well I'd sooner have my toe nails pulled out one by one, or even rather watch the olympics! so I exiled myself in the kitchen and pulled out some Christmas fabrics to complete some secret swapping business.
I managed to finish two more items which just leaves the Postcard and that is well in hand!
Here are some sneak peaks as that is all I can share for the moment..

I have loved working with colours that are a little different. When I showed hub he said 'What are they for?' I replied that they were for a Christmas swap to which he replied 'why aren't they red and white? Aren't they colours you should use for Christmas things?'
Yeah no worries Eddie the expert!
Don't know why I bother!
Hope you have a great week..... looking forward to Craft group at the end of the week.

cheers
marina

Friday 10 August 2012

Friday again...

The sunshine evident in my last post is sorely lacking this week as we have had a very cold and miserable week weather wise. Hail yesterday and lots of rain!
The most I have to post about is an update on my Swan Lake progress.
My quilting of Boys story has come to a halt as I have run out of quilting thread. Maybe I need to be on holidays again to get my creative mojo happening?
I am sure my boss would love to give me extra time off to do my crafting?
I have 20 new flowers to add to my stash, they do look pretty together. Total of 61


.... two borders of dollies completed..



I am happy I chose to applique with Silk thread as it blends well with the fabrics.

Tonight I have been relegated to the lounge room as No 2 son has an old school friend over. He used to accompany her on guitar when she would sing at school concerts.  I am so enjoying hearing her angelic voice and it's great that he has taken out his guitar, a bit of a rarity these days. I always loved it when they performed together. A reunion concert....
So I will sit here happily listening...

Have a lovely weekend!
Marina

ps. Loved Barry Humphries last week! Especially Dame Edna. What a cracker.
The audience had to promise to go to his concert again when he performed his next farewell concert, I think he is going to do a John Farnham!
I'll be there happily.
X

Friday 3 August 2012

just me and the boys...

Couldn't wait to have my day off today. Sometimes you just need the day off more than others.
No hunting and gathering on the list today. The sun was shining so after a little sleep in I got stuck into the washing.  The sooner it gets out the quicker it will dry.
I thought it would also be a lovely day to get my sadly neglected boys out for a lovely run. Just 10 minutes drive there is a beautiful reservoir and park. I hardly ever encounter another person there, even when there are cars in the car park. I took them to a more remote part and let them off the lead to have a good run.
They loved it. Coffee was amazingly well behaved and Monty decided that a dog of his age is perfectly entitled to play deaf when I called him, he was even cheeky enough to ignore my visual commands. All that obedience training was a bit wasted wasn't it lol.
 Poor Monty is starting to show his 11 1/2 years. He has old dog gait and was struggling at times to keep up. I usually give them a swim in the overflow lakes but I am sure he wouldn't be able to walk tomorrow if he had so poor Coffee had to miss out on a swim too.
This is the view of the City skyline from where we were walking. Beautiful and clear. I hope it stays a rarely visited place so I can have it all to myself!
I have been crafting too.... 6 new hexie flowers for my Swan Lake stash and some appliqueing on my dolly border.
Tomorrow I am off with No 1 son to see Barry Humphries Farewell show in the city.
I am a bit of a Dame Edna fan so am looking forward to it.
Barry Humphries is such an intelligent man and clever comedian.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend Possums...
marina

Wednesday 1 August 2012

swap goodies...a finish...bits of heaven

Today I received a wonderful surprise in the mail. My purse swap package arrived from Leanne from Daisy and Jack. I was expecting to wait for a few weeks for my goodies to arrive especially if they were from overseas, but it only had a small trip from NSW. My package left for the UK on Monday. Fingers crossed they will arrive quick smart.
Here is my beautiful purse. It is so modern and funky! I didn't want to be specific about what I wanted as I was happy to have something a little different and for it to be a surprise. The extras included were some fabric magnetic buttons and a gorgeous hexie needlebook.  The purse has beautiful accent stitching bottom and near the frame. Lovely! Thanks so much Leanne.























This is the purse I sent to ..... I put some goodies too, a pin cushion and some sweeties. Can't wait till they get there.












there has been a finish too this week....
Now that wasn't so bad was it! What was all the procrastinating about?


Now for the little bits of heaven....
today at work we had a fair day. I got to operate the Fairy Floss machine!! Woo hoo.. Now is that like putting the inmates in charge of the asylum, I ask you.  It was great fun and of course I had to taste lots some. There were some incriminating photos too as I had threatened to just stick my head in the machine and keep my mouth open. I think I have found my calling... Now don't judge it is fat free you know.
Hope your week is going swimmingly!
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...