A finish and some more quilting...

As you know I have been busy quilting since I completed the wedding dresses. 

I've been working a simple clamshell design on to my Ready Set Sew quilt top that I purchased as a kit from Jude last year.

The quilting is complete, the binding is on and closed and I went outside yesterday for a garden photo shoot.

Then I spotted the mistake! A few naughty words were uttered. Too late, it will have to stay that way.

I had fun taking photos over the fence and the deck rail.

On Joe's bench.

And of course Old Man Tree had to get involved.

He is flowering and scattering blossoms on the lawn. Those are not daisies. LOL

Goal #1 for November complete.

Not a goal for November but making great progress anyway is Flutterbys.

This was a panel that I quickly added borders to back in September.

I loaded it on to the frame yesterday and got started.

My studio was the place to be. The sun was in and out so it's wasn't terribly hot, but I was surrounded by nature, birds, bees and butterflies kept catching my eye as I worked.

I even found the perfect panto at Urban Elementz.

It's called Take Flight.

I am just over half way with the quilting on this one and was hoping to complete it today, but life, the dentist and a meeting at work got in the way.

I was able to get a few of my Windswept blocks made though. The pile is getting higher.

*

If you look at the tabs along the top of the page you will see that I have made a start on next years Chookshed Challenge.  Just a start and subject to change of course.

*

That's it, that is all of my news for now.

Back to work tomorrow.

November goals.

Here we are in the penultimate month for this year.

It has flown by. So what are my goals for November?

1)

I still have one Chookshed challenge to complete as it was pushed aside in favour of the wedding dresses.

I need to stitch and complete two final Christmas ornaments. I might get them both in, or I might stretch them out right up to Christmas. LOL

2)

Complete the Happily Ever After cross stitch for Joe and Lee.

I really don't have much left to do. On my version all of the lettering is done, most of the vine and I have made a start on adding the beads and flowers to the vine.

I've actually been doing some of that today.

3)

I need to complete the Ready Set Sew quilt.

It really shouldn't take long, the binding is on and I've made more than a start at closing it. I'm sure there is only about a quarter to go.

4)

I want to get back to my Wind Swept quilt blocks and make some great progress there.

5)

Finally I need to cut fabric and prepare paper pieces for my next EPP.

*

Like many of you I've also been thinking about what I might put on my Chookshed list for next year.

Hopefully there will be no wedding dresses. It depends who asks. LOL

Wedding photos.

There are no official photos yet, but I was able to get one or two shots with my phone.

The bride and her party got prepared at our house and the official photographer came to capture some of that too. Once everyone was dressed and ready to go we had a quick photoshoot outside under old man tree.

I love this shot of Lee and Charmaine.

The bride had a man or brother of honour in place of a maid.

Joe and Torstein both wore traditional Manx hunting tartan and looked very smart. Charmaine scattered flower petals along the aisle, Torstein was supposed to blow bubbles but got stage fright. LOL

He got over that during the ceremony and there were lots of bubbles.

I caught Joe and Tony doing kitchen duties.

Tony caught this shot while I was helping Lee with her veil.

That's it. 

The wedding is over and they are now Mr. and Mrs.

Acquisitions...

While I was taking a break after completing the quilting on ready set sew quilt I noticed that my pal Debbie had loaded a few items for sale on facebook. 

I may have purchased half of them. LOL

It was a beautiful day so I decided to walk down to her place to pick them up. There is an Anni Downs pattern and printed stitchery to go with it.

A felt needle case pattern.

Not one but two mini Kaffe kits.

These make cute zippered pouches.

A lovely quilt pattern.

And a bundle of Aida for cross stitching.

While I was there Debbie was digging in her project box and showing me what she must complete. She came across a bundle of precut eye spy fabrics that she was going to make in to a quilt, there were also a few charms of black and white fabrics.

And she threw those in to my bag too.

The eye spy pieces are all cut ready to make a post card quilt, I just need to add sashing fabric.

That was an unexpected and happy little shopping spree.

*

So as I mentioned above, I have completed the quilting on the ready set sew quilt. I was using my new Sure Stitch regulator. What a difference! It is so much better than my old regulator. Very happy with that acquisition.

The binding is on and half way closed. I'm hoping to get that finished today.

But I also need to make 3 dozen lemon muffins and go have my nails done.

We have friends coming for a BBQ this evening, so I had better do some preparations for that. Maybe a special dessert.

*

We had wedding rehearsals last night, it is the first time I have been to the venue, what a delightful place, I'll try to get lots of photos tomorrow. I saw a lion, a witch and a wardrobe and close by was Mr. Tumnus. I saw Alice and the queen of hearts as well as a whole bunch of other folks.

*

I'm off to find my apron.

October roundup and Some me time...

I made only one commitment for the month of October.

The wedding dresses.

Anything beyond those would be a bonus.

On October 9th a very exciting and tempting new toy arrived, but I was focused.

On Saturday Chooky held a special Cancer zoom. In order to gain an invite first we had to make a donation to a Cancer organisation. I chose Cancer Society NZ. As they were recently very supportive to our family.  

I was able to put the finishing touches to the wedding dresses. They are finished, done.

The bride came for one last try on and brought her flower girl along too. The girls who were on zoom at the time got to see them both in their dresses. A special preview peek. Jewels too!

Once Lee and Charmaine had left I was able to relax and get on with some me sewing. so out came my Blue lanterns.

It went from this...

To this.

A whole blue row and the beginnings of the next white row. Eleven blocks were added.

I also cut fabric and basted it onto the last few papers needed to complete the top.

There will be one more row of blue and a row of partial whites. Nearly finished.

While on zoom I went stash diving and showed the girls my ideas for the next one. We settled on Batiks. More about that another time.

We had a lovely day and between us raised just over $1000AUS. Chooky converted all the international amounts to Aus $$ to get the total.

Thank you Chooky for a great day.

Work got in the way of life for a day or two, as it does, but today is the first of 7 days off. I took annual leave over the weekend, for the wedding but the other days were rostered. It's nice when I can get a whole week off but only use two days of leave.

After a morning in the kitchen I set about finally playing with the upgrade that my lovely husband purchased for my quilting machine. It's been here since the 9th and installed and working since the 11th-12th October. 

A Grace Surestitch regulator. 

My old stitch regulator was a very basic model and I was having some bad issues with it. Fingers crossed all goes well with this wonderful upgrade. I was very happy with my efforts this morning. The 'Pacific' pantograph was still on the bed of the frame, so I just used that after loading some large off cuts of fabric and batting.

All went very well. In manual mode I was fine, the regulated stitches will take a bit of practice though. LOL

Buoyed on by my success I pulled out my 'Ready Set Sew' quilt that I purchased as a kit from Jude last year. It didn't take long to find backing and batting and to get them all loaded on to the frame.

I also loaded a new to me pantograph.

Some clamshells.

I've done a few rows and I'm very happy with how things are going.

So there you have it. October is over and I achieved my goal.

*

November goals will include the final Chookshed goal. Which for me is to complete some cross stitched Christmas ornaments.

Everyone else has completed their Chookshed challenge, the last one was scheduled for October, but I gave myself a pass to focus on the wedding dresses.

I might leave it at that. A nice easy goal and anything else will be a bonus.

*

The wedding is Saturday, three sleeps away. I'll be back with photos of the October goal after that.

Keep your fingers crossed for a beautiful day.