a day with friends.

 Another week has flown by. Yesterday I got to have a sit and sew with some wonderful crafty people at Mary's shop in Gisborne.

It seems like forever since I have gone to one of these get togethers thanks to covid and it was a fantastic day with my city girl friends. Lots of laughs and chatting and a super lunch made it a great day. Thankyou so much girls you replenish my happy reserves.

I brought home some small purchases and more importantly some inspiration-so stay turned.

I picked up the Heart quilt on wednesday and got it bound straight away. I took it to work on friday but the recipient didn't collect it so I am hoping they come in to work on Monday.

I am very happy with the final result. Here are some pics

I even managed to stitch a label.

After reading Chooky's blog post today celebrating her years of blogging it prompted me to check when my blogaversary might be.

  My first blog post was on the 18th of February 2009, I had few skills but learnt as I went along and was so excited to be joining Blogland.

 Blogging has allowed me to have made some amazing friends some long lasting and some fleeting but I wouldn't have missed it for quids. There have been lapses in blogging and even some times when I questioned whether I would even bother to continue. I must say that the blogging stalwarts like Chooky, Fiona Bubz rugz, Michelle from rag tag stitching, Sue kiwikids have inspired me to keep going and chronicle my crafting so thankyou girls...x

thankyou to all the lovely people who have crossed my path through blogging.

Valentines day.....

Wow where did the past month go?  Once it's back to work the days seem to just run away from me.

Some sewing has been getting done and some quilts that have made their way to the front of the queue.

Firstly I picked up my lovely May Gibbs quilt and the binding is all prepped ready to go. Seeing that we are having temps in the thirties I don't think it will be sewn on just yet.

I was inspired to make a comfort quilt for a parent that is going through some serious health issues. 

A fitting design to be sharing on Valentine's day.

I dipped into my tilda stash and my small stash of low volume fabrics. As I am trying to reduce my fabric stash this made sense to use what I had as they suited the project perfectly.

A good friend is going to become a grandmother and I have been debating what design quilt to make for the baby. The mum has some unusual taste leaning towards vintage so I thought Liberty Hexies would suit. As Hub and I were driving past The quilt shop in Eltham I decided to pop in and buy some background fabric as I didn't have anything in a generous quantity that would suit.

It was a very successful trip....

I got planning and cutting as soon as I got home and I definitely am happy with the result so far.

A few weeks ago mum asked me to drive her to Spotlight and while sticky beaking around in the $3 per metre shelves I found this beauty........

I have another farm quilt to make and this will be perfect for the backing. I just love it and the price certainly made it even more appealing.

Hoping to get the heart quilt back this week from the quilters so I can bind and gift it asap.

Happy sewing!!

Marina

boy it's been awhile...

Seems like such a long time between drinks... I have been contemplating blogging lately... like lots of others too I think. To Blog or not to Blog that is the question?
There have been lots of crafting shared and wonderful friendships made through blogging so I thought I did owe my blog some loyalty and at least another go at getting my blogging mojo up and running.
There has been crafting and socialising happening since last post and of course lots of time spent with my two furry boys.
Let's start there.... Billy has grown so much and is 6 months old now and just a fraction smaller than Coffee.
He is such a handsome boy and reasonably well behaved except for the usual puppy misdemeanours.

I have been spending a big part of the holidays trying to quilt Sweet William but once the hot weather kicked in it was way too hot to be quilting by hand so it was time to pick up my clamshells once again. Slow progress till a vist to Sue (kiwikid) and a motivation hit from seeing her completed clamshell quilt. I started mine around September last year and my shells accompanied me to Europe as my on the go project.
Well all that motivation and a bit of dedication has paid off as I only have two rows to go and it will done...I haven't decided whether to do borders or not but that can wait for now... I'm so happy with it's scrappiness.
Thanks Sue for the inspiration....

My next completed item was put together today. A baby quilt for a work colleague...
Some 1930's fabrics from a friend's stash and a lovely vintage fresh feel to a simple quilt is achieved.
This will be winging it's way next week to the wonderful Fiona of Bubz Rugz to work her quilting magic on..

some other bits and bobs before Christmas were a few gifties
some zipper pouches and a pincushion...

Just to share a little extra prettiness....a visit to our local St vinnies shop to get dog bedding led to me having a sticky beak in the doilies box.... found these two lovelies. When I think of the work that went into them I just can't leave them behind..

this design is one I have used often but just never quite get around to making the cup and saucer, so cute...

Well if you're still with me thanks for making it to the end of this post.
Hopefully I can keep it up..and get back into visiting more regularly too.
Happy new year to All!
cheers
Marina

all good things....

....must come to an end.
I have been trying to make the most of the last few days savouring the time to get things done, having fun in the sewing room and spending a crafty day with friends.
It has been quite a productive break and you can't complain about that.
Yesterday I spent the day with Liz (the village quilters) and Rosalie (Briar Rose). Mum came up too and we shared some laughs, stories and sewing. Liz and Rosalie brought some show and tell with them and we were gobsmacked at how beautiful their finishes were. Liz brought her (my new quilt) AAHH top that has been put together. It is amazing!! I tried to steal kidnap it but there was not much chance of that happening.
Rosalie brought her crazy quilt to show and it was breathtaking. So much detail and such beautiful stitching.
The photos do not do either of them justice but here is a peek They are absolutely stunning.

I didn't take a photo of what the girls were stitching but Rosalie and Liz were working on two gorgeous Teddlywinks quilts. Mum was appliqueing like a woman possessed. She has found her mojo and is working on a quilt for my cousins little girl. I will get pics of that soon.
I wasn't idle and pulled out a 'had to do' project that has been sitting around for too long. Not quite finished but I'll share the finished item when it's done.
I did manage to tick two big things off my holiday list.....
The boys story quilt has been completely finished. The binding went on last night. I am very happy to have this done and it can go to it's new home next week.

the back was pieced from the leftover fabrics... Quilted by Jemima's with a jigsaw design. I love the quilting. They used this design on the dr Seuss quilt I made for No 1 son.

Second tick off the list was to try to complete the top for this special quilt..
Well it's a big 'done' and I have the back to piece then it will be ready for quilting.
I ended up going for an off white background as the taupe seemed to dull the butterflies too much and I wanted it to be bright and cheery.

Well Phew if you're still here thanks for sticking with me through all my pics.
There are just a few more to share..... Our passionfruit vine is flowering and I think they are the most amazing flowers so I wanted to share a few.
this one reminds me of the plant on the Little Shop of Horrors.... Feed me Seymour.....

One last pic of my latest sweet william block..

thanks for getting through all those pics.. there are some more that can wait till next post.
Have a great weekend
Cheers
Marina

baby blocks and baskets

Well it has been back to normal here this last week.  Thankfully the week has flown but holidays seem like they are a distant memory.
I have been working on my stitcheries and I have only Miss Kitty to go. Then I will need to think about how to put them together. I have an idea but it just needs to translate to actions.
I do enjoy these stitcheries though..

 At the end of last week I put these baskets together...
I thought I was so clever that they pieced together so nicely, reasonable job of the points but somewhere along the line I have sewn a smidge too much in the seam allowance and these blocks will probably be smaller than the others when they are completed. I will plod along and see where it ends up.
After some consultation with some of my cheerleaders I am not going to worry about it and hopefully it will work out.
(fingers crossed)

Tomorrow I am off to Kilmore Quilter's Quilt in with Liz and Rosalie.
Which reminds me I need to pack some crafting to do while I am there.....
...After I have cleaned this messy house and done the hunting and gathering!

Hope you all have a crafty weekend
Marina

what a day

Yesterday I got to entertain the wonderful city girls at my home. We had a great time spent chatting, eating and laughing with a bit of retail therapy thrown in for good measure. What more could you ask for?

I got some tips for my needleturn applique and after confusing Elyte, I tried to help her with some stitching.

Funny how when you do something without thinking it can be so hard to show someone else how to do it.

I took the girls to Jemima's patchwork shop, a shop run from home in Craigieburn. Can you believe that none of them had ever been before.....Some silly person didn't check their Tuesday opening hours and when we arrived the shop wasn't officially open but Shirley and Veronica were very accomodating and the girls and I got to do some spending. It's a great shop and has a wide variety of fabrics, something for everyone really.

I did notice that there was a big assortment of batiks that had multiplied since my last visit. I have found a fondness for them since making my aussie flag quilt. 

I'm afraid I didn't take pics of our get together I was too busy making cups of tea, stitching and chatting. Elyte was official photographer of the day so hopefully she will post pics soon.

the girls all commented that our get together was a therapy session, how appropriate that they come to the asylum...

thanks girls for a wonderful day!

It hasn't been all laughing and cups of tea all the time here...

The signature quilt is complete!! I finished stitching the binding and sleeve down this morning.

Hooray!

not a bad effort - started on the 12/9/14 completed on the 1/10/14. I think this is almost a personal best. I think it will come close to my aussie flag quilt.

hand quilted with crochet cotton( to speed up the process a little bit.)

 the left overs pieced into the back,

 I was very happy with how neat the quilting turned out, not many zig zaggy stitches on the back either. Wish I could channel that  permanently.

My third sweet William applique got done too.
I am using scraps from my flowers where I can. These are favourite scraps from a quilt I made some time ago. I have held onto them for ages, nice for them to resurface. I have cut out the two baskets for block 2 and 3. Hopefully they will get done soon.

...But a new project has taken priority... I forgot that I had promised to make a baby quilt for a friend who is about to become a grandmother for the third time. 

I picked up some fabrics from Jemima's yesterday to go with the stitcheries I have selected.

Was going great guns with the first stitchery when I ran out of thread. Typical!

Off to get some this afternoon so it doesn't hold up proceedings.

Will show you my fabrics and hopefully a finished stitchery next post.

Happy days!

Marina

some photos to share.

 Woke up and thought omg, is it really holidays?

 Get that sugar level up.... and get ready to go.....YES it is holidays

Are you going to sew all day? Pleeaaase...

 woo hoo I love holidays.....

the sun is shining a nice walk is in order...

A swim for someone... come on throw the ball!

Back to some sewing.....

My little houses have been calling me....
I was a little enthusiastic putting the borders on I need to make another lot of little houses for the bottom row that doesn't require sashings with corner stones at the bottom. Prefer to make new houses than un sew. This will make a total of 64 houses. A lovely little hanging.

A start has been made on this quilting too... It is progressing quite quickly which I am very happy about.

I am meeting up with the recipient again on thursday. Wonder if I can out do myself and get it done by then?
No pressure....
Sun is shining here in Melbourne and we are expecting a top of 24. Lovely weather!
Have I mentioned I love Holidays?
Happy sewing..
Marina

Getting by with some help

..... from my friends....
Wondering how that Signature quilt is going?
Well it is going fine... with some help from my friends  Jacky and Jo the main part of the top was together last night with just the borders to be done this morning. After a 5 o'clock wake up I started to sew the borders on and they were done in plenty of time.
The top was presented at the farewell function this afternoon and it was very well received by the recipient and other staff that had signed squares. But she won't be able to keep it just yet as I still need to quilt it. That's my job over the next few weeks.
So many thanks to my lovely sewing elves for their help, couldn't have done it without you!
Now would you like to see the top...
I am hoping you do...

The pics were taken quite early this morning.

 Now the big question "do I like Kaffe Fassett now?"
Answer- I love this quilt, don't think there is one for me in the future but I love the effect of this one.

A very exciting arrival this week too... This beautiful Janome Memory craft 3000 machine.
Is'nt she lovely? She sews so beautifully too and there are some gorgeous stitches that I can try too when I am feeling a little adventurous. This was a generous gift from a friend.

 I tried it out when I made this block today.
It's in the hands of Australia Post on it's way to a crafty friend somewhere.....

Well I feel like I have used my holiday Sewing mojo all up-hope there is some left for the holidays?
I am hoping to spend some time with sweet William I  need the comfort of a project without such a drastic deadline, but I'll still have to spend quite a bit more time with Kaffe Fassett.
Hope your week is going well.
Marina

blocks ahoy!

after a couple of marathon sewing and cutting sessions the fat quarters from the previous post havebecome this lovely pile of signature blocks ready to go tomorrow to be signed. 110 in all.

That little tin next to the blocks has all the off cut  triangles. As the recipient of this quilt is also a quilter I think it only fitting she get these triangles so that she can make something with them. They have come together quite quickly but I did have some support on call in case it got too much for me.
I have cut borders also and Fingers crossed we will be putting the top together tuesday night.

 Last night I delivered a special quilt for one of my great nieces. I had picked it up from the quilter friday and got the binding done yesterday at craft group. I forgot to take a pic of the finished quilt but it was very well received. Her two older sisters have also received a quilt and I got to see how well loved they are first hand.
It is so satisfying seeing a well loved quilt! My niece was concerned as to whether the quilts could wear and what happens if they wear. I replied that they will get a new one!
(this was the top before quilting)

hope you have had a crafty weekend too!
cheers
marina