Another Busy Day in the Happy Room 🪡

So here I am, day two of my rostered days off, and though it’s only 2pm, it’s already been another busy day!

I had my chores done by 8.30, then I took myself into the happy room and got busy with the Fun Machine. It was still loaded with a quilting needle and red thread, so I set about adding some more quilting to Lest We Forget.

I’m happy with my progress, and all of the poppies are now quilted. I do still need to work on the leaves and add some final touches before binding this one. 

And I won at thread chicken! The bobbin was just about to run out when I cut the last thread. Talk about cutting it fine!

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Next, I set about cutting the sashing fabric for the memory quilt.

I got one piece sewn onto each block before calling time on that project for the day. It was time to head into town on an errand for Tony.

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I was home just in time for lunch, and while it was cooking I loaded a scrappy hexie quilt onto the frame.

After eating, I set to quilting a meander design. I quilted until the bobbin ran out.

Are you seeing a theme here? LOL.

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Now it’s time to sit in my comfy chair and stitch some more flowers onto the final Down in the Garden block. I made good progress yesterday and hope to get lots more done today.

And with that, I’m off to do some more stitching. 🪡

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Oops! I did it again.

 And here we are at my three days off. I do love this part of my roster. Three whole days to do my thing. Well mostly. The chores do get in the way.  I got busy early this morning and got todays chores done and out of the way.  Then it was time to play.  I got the last of the memory quilt blocks cut and laid them onto the fabric I plan to use for sashing strips. 

I wanted to check that none of them became invisible.  I think they will all be fine. Tomorrow's job will be cutting sashing strips. I have three pieces of each of these fabrics and there is more should I need them.

I left things there as I had to go out to see my chiropractor. 

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Once I got home it was time for some lunch, then I settled in to do some work on Down in the Garden. I spent most of the afternoon sewing up a storm, I'll show pictures soon. During a break to make and drink a cuppa I had a look at facebook marketplace and spied a bargain!

Two more grocery bags, filled to bursting with pretty fabrics.

Of course I made another donation to Sue's grandchildren's bank account. LOL

Again another mix of larger cuts, fat quarters and smaller pieces.

Two bags full.

And once again there were WIPs.

This one looks like fun.

After sorting through both bags, I put them onto my cutting table, ready to be put away another day. Picked up my needle and got back to my down in the garden. While I was out this morning, I called in to see one of ladies from my local club, she had the thread colour I had run out of.  It's a good match. I'm happy about that. The final word has been stitched and now it's back to the flowers.  I'll post an image soon.

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Sunday Progress.

Chooky had a zoom session this morning, so I settled in with my Down in the Garden stitchery. While we were chatting, I realised that I was going to run out of the charcoal brown thread used for the words.

(Once again, blogger has made my image weird. Hopefully if you click on it, you will see what I can see in real life).

Janice appeared quick as a flash with some of the right colour on a bobbin which she has promised to send to me. Thank you Janice.  

Yes, I know there is a shop in town that probably has it in stock, but this BOM kit is over ten years old and possibly the latest batch might be a different shade/dye lot. Hopefully Janices thread will be the perfect colour.

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Once the zoom session was over, I got on with a couple of chores then as there are no grandchildren visiting this week.  I wandered into my happy room and worked some more on the memory quilt. I've mentioned that most of the fabrics are polyesters. Very lightweight and floaty. I've been using a medium weight iron on interfacing to help stabilise them. I cut it to just over the required size and press it onto the fabrics, using a piece of baking paper to protect my iron from any issues the heat might cause.

So far, there have been no issues and I'm happy with how things are going.

The ladies name is Lynn and she attended Timaru Girls High school. Two old school shirts were in the bags of clothing I was given. I cut out the school logo and stuck them onto the plain black back taken from one of the shirts. Clearly, they are different ages so I will make sure they are well separated on the quilt. 

As a young lady at the school, she was in Kowhai House. (Koh-fy).

Kowhai is a pretty yellow flower that grows here in NZ. I went digging in my stash convinced I had a piece of Kowhai fabric but could only find this small piece.

I could make it bigger using some kiwiana off cuts in black, or I could try to find a fat quarter and cut a piece the size of the other blocks. Lynn later returned to work at the school, so it really does have to feature in the quilt. 

I might also have a look out for some Hockey fabric, as she was a lifelong fan of Girls High hockey teams. 

I don't have to make a decision today. I have a few more pieces to cut. The interfacing is already fused; they just need trimming.  

The next job will be to start laying the prepared pieces onto the fabric I purchased for the sashing strips. I want to be sure it is the right one, before I start cutting. But that is a job for another day.

 

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It's time to cook some dinner then I might get back to my stitching for a couple of hours. 

A very productive weekend.

Back to work tomorrow. 

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A Little Stitching and a Lot of Temptation

 After a busy few days at work, I finally have my weekend off. And it’s club week, so I packed up the easiest project to take along with me — my Down in the Garden stitchery. 🪡

If you remember, I left it here last time, having only just started. After the official meeting and the usual chat, I got stuck in and started stitching. I took a few breaks to have a look at what everyone else was working on, because that’s always part of the fun.

We broke for lunch, which naturally led to more chatting, but I was soon back to my stitching. I packed up a little early as we have a 60th birthday party to attend this evening, but I’m very happy with the progress I made.

While I was there, I also had a dig through the storage area. There was something I was sure I had seen in there before…

And yes! That big quilting hoop came home with me on loan. Sadly, there was no stand with it, but I’m going to have a play with the hoop before deciding whether I want to invest in a stand of my own.

I’ve been working on the Poppy / Lest We Forget quilt just in my hands, as my largest cross-stitch hoop wasn’t really up to the job. Well, I don’t think so anyway! 😆

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Every meeting has a Show and Tell, although it was a quiet one today with only six of us there, and just two people bringing things to show.

Raelene had this fabulous motorbike/blokes’ quilt that she made for her husband to take camping.

It’s backed with an old woollen blanket, and some of the squares are made from his old T-shirts. I love that idea — a proper camping quilt with a bit of his own history stitched into it.

Lynda brought along a rather more long-term project: 365 — a block a day.

And she had hand quilted it!

She said the quilting only took 3 months!  🪡

Oh, my goodness. That 365 is calling to me.

Naturally, I had a little look on Pinterest…

And now it’s calling even louder. 😂

Do I need another project?

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Probably best not to answer that question.

A Productive Couple of Days.

Back to work tomorrow, but my two days off have been busy! Yesterday I posted a list of projects I wanted to make some progress on this month, so let’s have a look and see how I’m doing so far…

(((But First A little Blogger grumble…

Before we get into the projects, I have a small Blogger-related rant. Because apparently my perfectly good photographs are not good enough for Blogger.

It has decided to squish, blur and generally make a mess of some of my images. 🙄 So, if a photograph looks a bit odd, it’s not the original image — Blogger has had a little fiddle with it.

The images are clickable, so if you want to see what I actually photographed, give them a click and you should get the proper version.

Honestly, Blogger. They were perfectly good pictures before you got involved…)))

Normal blogging content shall now resume..

1) Lest We Forget

No more of that big stitch hand quilting for now, but I did take it through to The Fun Machine, where I made a start on working some details into those big appliqué flowers.

It was all fun and games until the bobbin ran out. Never mind, it was almost time to stop anyway!

2) Down in the Garden

That almost-finished block is now complete. 

And I’ve made a start on the final block. This one has no pretty fabrics at all — it is entirely stitchery.

I’ve only made a start, but this one might keep me busy for a while longer! 

It feels good to finally be working on this last piece. I can almost see the finish line now.

3) The Memory Quilt

I started with a huge pile of fabric pieces that I had cut from clothing last week.

And over the two days I’ve made great progress. I’ve been cutting medium-weight interfacing, fusing it into place and then cutting the blocks.

I still have a few more fabrics to work with, and I also have some large offcuts tucked away in case I decide I need a few more pieces.

4) Christmas ornaments

Yep, I even made a start on those too!

No pictures though. They are always secret, remember? 😉

5) Load a quilt onto the frame

Well… I only had two days off! I had chores and grocery shopping to fit in as well as all the fun stuff. 😂

So, loading a quilt onto the frame didn’t happen this time.

Back to work for three days tomorrow, followed by a busy weekend off. Hopefully, though, I’ll manage to pick up some hand stitching in a quiet moment.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with my progress. Not everything on the list got done, but quite a few things moved forward — and that’s what counts. 

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