puppy loving and knit purl knit

Last weekend was an action packed one...

Saturday spent with Elyte and Susan from Thimblestitch who was down from NSW.

It was lovely to catch up face to face with Susan as it has been two years since we last got together.

We exchanged small gifts.....

I made Susan a little zipper pouch with her favourite animal on it and Susan gifted me the most gorgeous mini hexie pin cushion. Needless to say it went straight to the sewing room!

some click clacking has been happening at the moment. I made two hats this week bringing the total to 5.

(one green one is missing from the photo)

 Sunday was another exciting day when we went to visit a Curly breeder to look into possible getting another furry friend.
The babies are only four weeks old at the moment so we have some time to decide whether to commit or not.
Twelve of these little babies greeted us.

It's hard to be impartial when you get to have a cuddle with these cuties.

I have some soul searching to do, it will be a big commitment. Wish Coffee could say whether he wants a companion or not? Another visit in a few weeks should decide.

have a great week

Marina

ufo update and bits and pieces

At the start of the year allpeoplequilt's.com had a ufo challenge for this year. I thought it would be great to play along from the side lines and perhaps make some progress on some ufo's.
You had to chose 12 projects, my list started in February.
Thought it was time to have a little stocktake.

1. little houses -July
2. Shirt Challenge (not really a ufo but added it to the list) started in January-top pieced borders to be done
3. Fig tree blocks 1/2 square triangles.
4. Sweet Stitches -April- no progress
5. Park Avenue Hexies June-most of quilting done, one border to do.completed in July 2015
6. stitcheries -March-2 stitcheries made up
7. hexie runner -Made up in April, completed 
8. spare park avenue hexies -May-no progress
9. Lisa Bonegan sew along -February-completed and quilted
10. second Lisa Bonegan sew along -top completed in February, some wool applique still to do, thento be quilted.
11. hexie scarves -June-finished x2
12. clamshells

So some progress done. This month it is the turn of my little houses and I am looking forward to working with these again. Fingers crossed I can tick some progress off on these by the end of the month.

New things have been happening here too. I am chomping at the bit to start a project from Irene's book but I need to hold off just a little bit more and finish some sewing commitements,
The main one is a quilt I said I would make for a work colleague's daughter.
Friday I decided to prep the remaining blocks and get to appliqueing the remaining leaves on block 1.
A photo all together to keep me enthused......
The blocks are around 20" and I will add some sashing and borders to pad it out a bit.
The lover right block is almost complete it just needs the centres on the pink flowers.
I am machine appliqueing the blocks. The design is from a homespun magazine.
After a little sewing time yesterday I have done most of another block, minus the leaves. They will be added after I have finished the other parts of the block. Ideally I would love to finish them all these holidays. Fingers crossed.

After running out of quilting thread that activity has halted this week and I have kept my hands busy with some crocheting..
A scarf for a friend

I made a start on last months Baltimore block..
Lots and lots of leaves to applique, I better get a wriggle on! I was very happy with how my flowers turned out. They are the best I have done so far, or maybe the busy fabric just compensates a bit more? either way it's a win!

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I am looking forward to catching up with some lovely crafty friends this week, gotta love the holidays!
Happy days

Marina

something a little different....

When I went to the Mill Rose bloggy get together the shop had some gorgeous scarves at the counter with the wool to make them.
A few of us brought a ball and I must admit it was the most expensive ball of yarn I have ever brought.
So the pattern and yarn came home with me and after a few false starts and un-doing I was going to chuck it in but I couldn't bear to waste the yarn as it is so gorgeous.
Friday in between cleaning and washing duties I decided to pick up the crochet hook and have one last go at it.
Eureka! I have been happily working on it all yesterday and am almost finished.
I really want to wear it tomorrow so my crochet hook and I will be spending some time together again.
I think another ball will be coming home with me next visit to Mill Rose in a different colour way, it really is lovely to work with and makes a nice change from fabric crafting.

Maisie decided to unleash her inner kitten and went a little crazy with the ball while I was trying to get a few rows done. She was undoing as I was trying to crochet a row. Maybe she should stick to quilt flimsies!
Sun is shining again today after a frosty start to the day.
Only one week to go!
happy days

marina

 ps. I haven't been totally neglecting other projects, I  chose to work on my novelty hexies this week and have stitched my second row of novelty hexies together and am working on filling in the green stepping stones.