Thursday Day 4

Well here it is Day 4 and I wish there were so many more to come but there are only 6 days left (not including weekends)
Here are two pics of my Life is Beautiful top and my Heart and Home quilt top. The H & H was yesterday delivered to the quilters. In eight weeks I will have my lovely home again. I am so excited about it being finished!
Here is LIB with the border.  Spot the fur ball princess deciding to walk across the top as I took the photo.

and here is the H & H quilt

Have also done some of these.....

cream hexies to go around my flowers....

1 baby blanket finished, one quilted and one basted to quilt.

This one is on a flannelet fabric it is quite thick, as thick as blanketing but softer. It is lovely to touch. It is backed in a cotton and I hand stitched some pearl cotton around the border and around the bunny just to hold it together. Sweet I think.

My list should be going down nicely.
Note to self make sure items are not covered in dust before photographing. To prove that I dust occasionally Last week I vacuumed  my teddy collection, I won't confess when the last time I did it was but .....my wool embroidered bear was a sickly grey colour before I vacuumed, but now looks like this...I think he enjoyed the freshen up.

Bye for now
Marina

Mother's day well spent

Saturday night the football put an end to my tv viewing so it was retreat to the Sewing Machine!
No 2 son was out at a party so I got the job of picking him up-more late night sewing time without criticism for staying up late sewing!
The borders for the Heart and Home block have been quite a challenge. All the piecing (and unpicking)! Sunday afternoon after lunch, after a big walk with my four leggers.........it was me time. So out with the machine again and sew, sew, sew, unpick, sew, sew, press seams..... I just wanted my angles to match up so perfectly.
And voila.....
Borders done, well almost done. They have to be sewn onto the quilt top and then there is another small row of background fabric...so Technically......

I love this fabric just so much that I couldn't bear to throw the corners away from the different angled sections of the blocks so as I was sewing the squares I ran another seam so that the corners would be stitched together when I cut the corners off. I ended up with a lot of these....

I just love them, don't know what I will do with them but I love them anyway. The green and cream ones are 2". And no it doesn't make me want to make  minute squares to go on a minute quilt.

Now that the borders are technically, almost finished....
I can start this without any guilty feelings at all.
And here is my first block of my Boys story quilt.

What a great weekend it was...
Hope you all had as much crafty time as I did.
cheers
Marina.

A slow week......

It seems like this week has just dragged on forever......
Last Sunday I had hoped to finish my last border for the Heart and Home, little did I know how tedious and time consuming it would be. I only managed to finish the small heart pieces in the border!
They turned out quite nicely though.

My next sewing day will be earmarked for the next step in the border.

This week I received a lovely package in the mail from Lorraine at the Balancing Kiwi. Lorraine makes beautiful crocheted flower brooches so we swapped some crocheted flowers. I forgot to photograph mine, but they were just plain roses in a few different cottons and wools. Lorraine sent me a beautiful garden of flowers. They are so lovely. Our next swap is going to be Pot holders but she is way ahead on me with this one. I have to get a move on!
Here are the lovely flowers.....

Isn't this the cutest bunch of violets.
All the baby quilt stitcheries are done except one. I have run out of cotton on the last one! Murphy's law. I will just have to hunt up the Madeira cotton from Jemimas this week.
I have been plodding along with my April block of the Sweet Nostalgia bom.
I made a start on some of my favourite parts of the picture.

The grey bunny is a little light in colour. Not sure if I should've made him darker? What do you guys think?. I will go back to Dorothy's original and have another look at her colour selection.
Unfortunately I won't be making it to the quilt convention or the big sale I was so looking forward to. Oh well there is always next time!
Have a lovely weekend.
Marina

from that to this

Last Saturday I had the bestest sewing day. I was determined to get most of my Heart and Home top put together and boy what a day it was. I am just missing the outer pieced border which will be a job for the upcoming holidays. Talk about concentrating!
But I am so happy with the results. I just love it.

Now for that final border........
Have a lovely weekend.
Marina

But they followed me home!

Two days at work then five days off, two days at work then three days off......
What a great ease back into the work routine.
Today was my usual day off and after the last minute school stationery grab for no 3 son and some hunting and gathering for the weekly shop the rest of the day was mine.
I wanted to pop over to Jemima's to see if I could get a few more fabrics for my Boy's story quilt. I have traced some of the first blocks to get them ready to start in a few months (if I can wait that long). I took my original four purchases and then Veronica helped to select some more to go with them. I was only going to get three or four fabrics to add to the stash but she brought out some great fabrics that were just perfect and there's no point in waiting and starting all over again in a few weeks time is there? So..... I ended up with 7 fabrics (on top of the originals).

Here is the actual pattern from the book I am going to do.


Earlier this month I received my pattern 5 of the Heart and home bom instead of pattern 4 . I have been busting to get pattern 5 as it has the directions for the first borders. I have prepared all the applique but not done the pieced school house blocks. Will wait till I have done pattern 4 I think.


I have also prepared a few more Life is Beautiful blocks ready to stitch...
Off to craft group tomorrow! Good to catch up with the girls!
Have a great weekend
Cheers
Marina

I'll have a day of my own, that no one else can share.....

All our sorrows, we'll leave, far behind us there.....

Sorry just having a Seekers moment (you can click on Seekers to hear the song) . I was listening to their record the other day. If you like Judith Durham's voice you have to watch this .
It was filmed this year I think, and her voice is still just so amazing.
On Sunday I had the most laziest, non productive (as far as housework goes) day that I could ever have dreamed of! DH spent the whole day out and the children were allowed to fend for themselves.
I had a mission to tackle my Heart and Home block 1. Block 2 is due out any day and I needed all my concentrating skills to cut and piece this block. I was so careful when cutting but I still found I made mistakes. Talk about stressful. Luckily the fabric sent is generous and the errors needed trimming not recutting.
And here is the result
From this

To this......

I am so happy with it and I still managed to add a little personal touch. Instead of using the printed fabric for the flowers at the base of the house I chanelled some Leanne Beasley flowers and embroidered those instead. I love her flowers and had plenty of practice from doing Leanne's House and a Quilter's journey quilts.

I can now look forward to this weeks mail and there will also be the new Tisket Tasket block and before I know it the Summer Nostalgia block will be out too....
cheers
Marina

Hooray it's holi-holi-days!!

Here are my first lot of completed Stitchers angel swap goodies ready to be bundled up and sent across the sea. I had wanted to put the yo yo's in a garland on the pincushion but they didn't look very good so I made a small spray instead. I may send the goodies in a few different parcels so that Kymberly will have a few packages to look forward to . There are still a few more projects to go too. I am going to make a sewing machine mat with the charm pack I bought last week. It is cut out ready to go. I am going to use Narelle's one that she made for me as a guide-with her permission of course.

I have been looking for a new bom project since finishing my girls day out bom and came upon this pattern on Diane's country rose website. I have seen it advertised in a few of the quilting magazines too and it looks just gorgeous. I am going to give them a call tomorrow to find out some more. How cute is it... . I am hoping that I will be able to make it in the same colour combo.

Craft group again tomorrow-that just seems to have come around so quickly.
Then we roll into two weeks of holidays! Woo hoo!
The year just seems to be flying.
Have a great weekend.
Marina