hello out there...

After spending some time today helping a fellow blogger sort out some technical issues it has spurred me to do a post.
Life has been very busy and draining emotionally over the past weeks and there has been little enthusiasm for crafting and blogging. I have been popping around to my favourite blogs now and then to see how you have all been keeping busy but forgive me for not commenting.

since my last post there have been some finishes to catch you up on so get ready there are going to be a lot of pics.

 the little girls of the world have been picked up from the quilters and the binding done.

 My sil's quilt- the same
both are just waiting for labels and will go to their new homes soon.

love a rolled up quilt!

The Sweet stitches December block made it to the stand for the 1st of December! Phew....

More little houses have joined the housing estate...so much for stopping at 12!

and drum roll please.....
My big finish for the year...
My down in the Garden quilt has been completed. Some gorgeous custom quilting has finished this off beyond my expectations. I love it so much that I have booked in Swan Lake for May next year to be quilted also.
Are you ready?

I just have to show some close ups of the spectacular quilting.

pattern by Leanne Beasley, quilted by Leanne Kauffman.

Hope I haven't bored you too much but I did warn you.
My Down in the Garden quilt is spending some time at my mum's place. She doesn't have a quilt for her bed at the moment so I told her to take it home for awhile to brighten up her bed.  I couldn't bare it to be folded up and put away and there isn't a place for me to hang it at the moment. I am hoping it will cheer her up a little.

Well it was lovely to catch up with you all and I hope to get back to normal blogging patterns soon.
If I don't post before Christmas I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a safe New Year!

cheers
Marina

hanging flimsies?

I have finally put my Christmas hangings and quilt away to be seen again later this year.
I love the hanger I bought for one of them but don't have anything that fits it so I decided to hang my Down in the Garden flimsie over it. I am enjoying being able to see it as it is. It had been living on the quilt rack but not in the most prominent position. It will inspire me to finish my Dresden's in the garden centre block too.

Here is a little sneak peek which will stay secret for a little bit longer.....

Did the best corners I have ever done, talk about finally getting the knack of it!

Hope you have a great weekend!

marina

a new treasure for Tuesday treasures

It's been awhile since I have played along with Tuesday treasures.
Melody is changing this from a weekly event to a monthly event and it just so happens I have a new treasure that I can share.
Before Christmas, Hub and I were out shopping and we came upon some wooden spinner decorations that when you light the candles underneath it spins a propellor which turns the centre decoration. Sorry for my poor description but the pics will clarify, anyhow.... before Christmas they were quite expensive and we thought we should just not get one, well... on the weekend I went shopping and as I was passing the shop that had the spinners I thought I would pop in and see if they were reduced. There were only a few left and most of them were slightly damaged, mind you they were still asking a decent price. There was one that was still in the box and was reduced from over $100 to only $50 and it hadn't been out of the box yet. I just couldn't leave it there. It's only made in China but it is not a bad quality
It is a little big but it was the nicest one there. Hub was delighted that I bought it, he even commented that he loved it and to leave it out for a bit! There you go..
Now for the pics.
Here we have the tower of Christmas-ness.

the nativity with the three kings bearing gifts

the shepherds and their flocks

Angels... (on the first and second tier)

 As it is a late addition to the Christmas decorating it will stay out and be enjoyed for a little while before being put away for next Christmas.
There has been some stitching happening too, the gift quilt seems to have taken precedence over other crafting. It needs to be finished by the end of March.
I have finished all the flower centres, leaves and chain stitch border.

Now I am up to the actual flowers, not so boring.
The white on white fabric has arrived so I have enough now for the dresden backgrounds!
I was panicking about not having enough of the pink plaid from this range but thank goodness I managed to find 1/2 metre from Quilt Fabric Delights in SA. It should be in the mail tomorrow! Phew thankyou QFD. I wanted to border the blocks with the pink plaid like I did in my DITG centre block. It's coming together perfectly.
Hope everyone in Aus is in a safe place and coping with the heat.
I am loving my air conditioner heaps!
Tomorrow am off to see the Hobbit at Gold class cinemas. Lovely!
Happy Stitching!

marina

something old, something new, ....

there has been some crafting happening here and on a variety of projects. Still need to do that ufo list but now there is one less item to put on it! Gotta be happy about that...

these minis got finished thanks to the ready made binding I bought on a recent trip to L'uccello. I had been dreading making the binding, just deciding on the fabric was stressing me out but it became easy peasy!

 Finished a new block for Once upon a time...

 I love the little castle on the clouds..

the grumpy giant..

naughty Jack sliding down with the goose...

the two dresden plates have multiplied to eight-thankfully that's the amount I need for the quilt. Don't know what I have done wrong but no two are the same size? Does anyone know why or had this problem? 

Just waiting on the white fabric to applique them onto.... 

this block will be the centre for my gift quilt. I will applique butterflies in the centre instead of the writing, as I did on my down in the garden quilt.

It's all traced and ready to go..

all the christmas decorations are away and now this treasure can take it's place on the mini hanger... doesn't it look gorgeous. Thanks again Fiona X

Now just for some fun.... we had friends over new year's eve and she made this cute plate of 'prawndeer'. There is a commercial on tv here where a lady is obsessed with prawns and she makes one too. We had a great giggle.

The mercury has risen dramatically today and we are in the mid 30's. Nowhere as bad as other places in Australia but still a hotsy one.

Hope you are all managing to stay cool if you're in the heat..

cheers

marina

happy dancing..

If you would like to imagine me happy dancing well it would be looking  a little like this!
Why may you ask....
Well this is why...

block 9

block 8

 Ta da!!! the whole top is done....

I would have been happy to have had one block done this break but was so excited to get the last block done. Thanks to our week away I got the stitching done for block 9. I was like a massive boulder rolling down the side of a hill. -That analogy is probably a little too close for comfort.
I am so excited.
I auditioned fabrics for the borders and as of last night I had the first round sewn on and the second pinned ready to go.

there is enough of the second border fabric to use as backing so there is no excuse for not getting it ready to quilt. Perhaps a trip to get some wadding is needed!
I am quite happy with the result and so glad it is done.

Before going away I also got two of these little cross stitcheries done. I think they were a freebie from The dandy hare blog,.
Last night I made them up into little pin cushion/scissor keeps to put in the gift box.

I finished a Christmas item for this month too but I am saving that for the 25th so I will actually have something to show this month.
Am loving the holidays and getting the time to spend crafty time.
Only two days of holidays left.....wonder what I can get done in that time?

cheers
marina

shopping with friends

I had a lovely shopping and lunch outing with Elyte, Anne, Annie and Robyn yesterday. Elyte had ordered me a 12" mini quilt frame and I got to pick it up yesterday. We arranged to meet and visited a couple of patchwork shops- Tranquility and Patchwork of Essendon. It was such a lovely day out- the mandatory excessive laughing and chatting took place and some retail therapy as well. I had such a great time meeting up with all of you!

I promised I would take a photo of my frame with something on it but the only one I had that would fit received some rather negative feedback from the man of the (dog)house, at first I thought he was hurtfully talking about the frame but no it was my handiwork that was being critiqued- how rude. It was promptly removed and may need to find a new home. Good old doily is standing in till I make my mini.

Elyte has already started her mini for the frame so I need to get a wriggle on and work out what I will make for my frame. For now this is what it looks like....

At Essendon Patchwork I was amazingly not tempted by any fabric but they had a lovely collection of little milk jugs. The price was too good to pass up so one came home with me as it was so pretty.  Robyn also shares my love of milk jugs but she was very good and didn't indulge. I quickly moved away from her in case her 'goodness' was catchy!

Last night I worked on my Down in the Garden. Doesn't look like much but it was constant stitching.

Better get thinking on that mini too!

Happy days!

marina

when in doubt.....

Make hexagons!!
But not before making a little progress on Block 8 of Down in the garden.  A little is better than none.

this week I couldn't focus on anything in particular so pulled out a stash of prepared hexies.  These flowers are multiplying nicely..

I picked up some novelty fabrics from Spotlight a little while ago especially to add to my collection of novelty flowers.

love these cheeky monkeys!

border filler for Park Avenue flower quilt

If anyone has some novelty fabrics in their stash and would like to swap some I have some of the woodland people, sock monkeys and racing car fabrics that I would be happy to swap. Just let me know..
Hope you find some crafting time on the weekend!
cheers
marina

titles....

It's so hard to think of a post title sometimes?
I feel a bit like Maisie in this photo lately. The next holidays can't arrive quickly enough.  I haven't been as crafty as I would like but last weekend I cut out all the bits for my block 7 of down in the garden and got it sewn up! I was so happy to have done it and quite happy with the arrangement too. As you know I tend to over think things sometimes and I have found that I could have 'colour themed' the blocks a little better instead of just randomly putting the colours. This happened with my boys story top too. If I had have just thought a bit more at the start it may have made fabric placement a little easier as ironically it is hard to be random sometimes!
Nevertheless here is block 7...

I had a lovely parcel arrive this week too.... Oddbjorg in Norway sent me my gift for winning her blogaversary giveaway.Her sewing is just so amazingly perfect. We have previously been swap partners and I was lucky to have received some beautifully made goodies the little zipped pocket is just gorgeous but then she popped all the little extras inside. Some beautiful lace and look at those gorgeous buttons and blue fabric too. Oddbjorg knows my favourite colour.The buttons are going to be perfect for a project I have waiting to make it's way to the top of the list and wouldn't you know it it also involves hexie flowers!

.Well must get off this computer as I need to go to Spotlight to get some bits to make a handle for my hexie purse as we have a very special outing this Sunday. Will fill you in then...
Last month I was early with my christmas Item and this month I will be a little late. I am going to try to finish quilting a tts hanging over the weekend so hopefully next week there will be a Christmas reveal.

Happy stitching
marina

catching up..

Having been busy stitching away and not much blogging happening here but today I will play catch up in showing you what I have been busy with.
I managed to finish my hexie purse for myself for Mother's day and I liked my gift very much. My quest to have things as perfect as I can takes over sometime and I had to redo my gumnut babies hexies as they didn't sit right with the direction these hexies sit. I also misjudged the way the pattern went and they were upside down anyway. I just couldn't live with that so had to unpick and redo. Call me obsessive, I'll take it. When you compare the two gumnut hexies you can see why they wouldn't have sat properly..Wish I was as obsessive with the sewing up part, it just isn't my forte or passion, just a necessary part of finishing an item. The frame is stitched on with linen thread and was by far the hardest part of putting it together. I don't think I got feeling back in my thumb and middle fingertips for a few days after.
I am so happy with the result though.

"I'm happy with where we ended up, aren't you?'
"oh yes just as long as that bee keeps his distance"

'I'm just glad I am not tilting!'

 I had a small stash of wool tartan that I have had for years, leftovers from a smocked dress. I thought it would be perfect for my purse lining. Couldn't throw these little babies away so they got a special spot to sit.

'we got a cosy spot here?'

the cross stitch sal item got finished too. Just needs a little stretching into shape and a press. I think it might look pretty framed-keep all my blue and white cross stitcheries company.

Before I even thought about any other distractions there was one job that had to be done-down in the garden.

Block 7 has all the stitcheries done and hopefully this weekend I can piece the block together. All the remaining stitcheries are traced and backed ready to go so no excuses!

 Block 8- bird stitchery started last night. I love the chain stitch but all those little flowers are going to try me a little-bit over them I think. Just need to stay focused and before I know it it will be finished.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend with lots of craftiness.
Marina