Sunday 10 November 2024

Work, Work, Work.

But there has been time for some play too. 
I've made a few more blocks for the Windswept quilt top and made some progress on the Cross stitch project.
Happily Ever After has more than a few beads now.
The above image was taken on 3rd November and I've picked away here and there adding a few stitches and beads, then yesterday got to sit for a couple of hours and did quite a bit. The image below is where I left it at tea time yesterday evening.
The vines and beads continue on up above the word 'And'.
Then I will need to figure out how best to finish it. A frame with no glass or as a quilted wall hanger.
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The Flutterby Bunny that I was quilting just a few days ago has not progressed. Work and the garden have gotten in the way of that. Maybe I'll get back to it today. But first some more garden work. I have a few things to plant, some more broccoli seedlings, another pair of courgette as I lost the previous pair to a late frost and I also want to sow a few Buttercup squash seeds.  
Our green house is going well, the tomatoes are doing really well with lots of flowers and some fruit already set. Though they are still tiny. In the small greenhouses the chilli peppers and capsicum are also doing well.
The cauliflower I planted in Autumn are much slower that the broccoli planted at the same time, they were finished a while ago, but the Cauli are now ready, we have eaten two, another is in the fridge, one needs to be picked and brought in and yet another will be ready soon. I've made a lot of cauliflower cheese and discovered a new to me Cauliflower salad recipe. I might tweak it a little but will for sure be making it again. 
Right I'm off to work in the garden before it gets too hot. Yesterday we reached 27 C. Today looks to be cooler but I want to get it done early so I can relax and play with my needles.

Tuesday 5 November 2024

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.
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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.
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That's it, that is all of my news for now.
Back to work tomorrow.

Sunday 3 November 2024

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.
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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.

Friday 1 November 2024

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.
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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.
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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.
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I'm off to find my apron.

Wednesday 30 October 2024

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. 
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.
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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.
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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.

Sunday 20 October 2024

Acquisitions

Tony and I had a day out on Friday. We hopped in the car and headed to Christchurch. About a two hour drive away. We visited a few shops for a look about. He found some paint for his model and we visited a new to us store, Art and Frame, which stocks some beautiful giftwares as well as artwork, they have a framing service and also have a great cross stitch collection. I found a pattern to bring home.
This is the second in a series of three. I stitched one and gifted it as my swap at Baradine last year.  Now if I could just find the Christmas pattern....
I also treated myself to a new embroidery hoop. I read on a fb group that these Nurge hoops are the best there is at the moment.
The bride and flower girls dresses are progressing. 
Yesterday was club day, so my EPP progressed also. No pic, the holder upper is playing his game.
Jo the activities lady at work is a treasure, she always visits the big car boot sale on her way in to work on Sundays and this week she found treasure. 
Firstly a bag of fabric scraps for a dollar.
This piece was all sewn together in a very rough hand stitch, it's now a pile of pieces awaiting the attention of the iron. Also in the bag was this collection of pieces.
At the same table she found a bag of doilies and wondered if I could use them?
Yes please and thank you very much.
On another table Jo spotted this huge piece.
The label says eight meters! For a dollar!
What a score. I think it will be great for a few girly quilt backs.
Less than two weeks until the wedding. Tomorrow I'll be putting a zipper into Charmaine's flower girl dress.
That's my news, now I'm off to make Thai chicken curry. 

Sunday 13 October 2024

Progress.

The wedding dress was almost complete, then we discovered that the bodice is pretty tight!
Hmm, we measured again and yes we got it right, the bride is smaller than she was and according to the pattern she should fit in to the smaller size......?
I blame the pattern, it's not a recognised brand but one that was found and purchased from an internet designer/seller.
I'm going back up to the larger size bodice and will take it in, down to her size, a LOT if I have to.
That is a job for this coming week. Good thing we bought plenty of fabric.
Meanwhile Chooky had two zoom sessions yesterday, so out came my Blue Lanterns EPP.
I added the last blue piece on the previous row and almost a whole row of white blocks.
I'm very happy with how this is looking.
I think two more rows of blue should do it.
I'll get them on and see how it looks.
I'm the holder upper here by the way, my usual holder upper has a sore shoulder so he was demoted to photographer. Sigh, I had to ask him to talk lots of pictures so I could chose the best. LOL
He thought only one was enough. Pft!!
In other news, I've been baking
On the left, banana muffins for my colleagues and on the right keto chocolate muffins for Tony and I. The chocolate muffins now have a yummy chocolate ganache topping.
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In between zoom sessions yesterday we were busy in the garden. Our two mini greenhouses are now planted with capsicum and chilli peppers. There are also lettuce, raddish and spring onions in. Our potatoes have sprouted. More brocolli has been planted and two courgette. The cauli I planted in the Autumn is finally starting to look like it might heart up and produce a few heads. The winter brocolli is already finished, I got three flushes off that.
There is still a bit of space out there for something else, we'll have a think and plant something when we decide what.
Oh and I want to put some dwarf beans in somewhere too, probably in pots though.



 

Saturday 5 October 2024

Goal #1 achieved.

After two and a half days of continuous rain, which at times was quite heavy, we finally have some sunshine today. Everything is still soaking wet though and I wasn't going to step on to either of our lawns to try getting pretty outdoorsy shots of my latest finish, so instead I tried a shot over the deck railing but that wasn't quite right.
So I persuaded my holder upper to step outside and perform. First he took a bow. LOL
Actually I think he has spied a bug!
Then we got on with some photos. Still not the best but you get the idea.
I just had time to get a quick shot of the quilting....
He wasn't sticking around for more. 
Sigh, it's getting harder to find a good holder upper.
And finally a look at the binding and my label on the back.
Sorry these are not the best photos. 
As the holder upper scuttled back indoors I lingered to get some garden shots.
Old man tree is starting to get his leaves and the snowball bush is in full bloom already.
I think judging by the scent, that this version of snowball bush is actually a lilac, it smells beautiful.
And finally, taken on a rainy day while I was quilting the wedding cake tree is also getting it's greenery.
I've done some knitting in the evenings, prepared the pattern for the wedding dress, did I mention that the bride has dropped two dress sizes?  She seems to have levelled off now so on my next run of days off I'll start cutting.
That is if I get my days off, I went in to work on two of my three days off this week, not in my usual role but as the diversional therapist! I read the news paper and we had discussion group in the mornings and in the afternoon we played housie/bingo and some board games.
That was something different.

Wednesday 2 October 2024

October Goals.

In my last post I mentioned that I have a colleague wanting to purchase my Town Square quilt. That means I need to finish it for her.
It's been on the frame and is now quilted. I used a pantograph from Urban Elementz called Pacific.
It works well with the Maori designs on the fabrics used to make the top. The swirls and curves also soften all of the straight lines made by those squares.
I just need to trim and bind the quilt then it will be ready to go to it's new home.
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So, goals for October.

1) Finish the Town Square Quilt.

2) Make the brides dress.

3) Make the flower girls dress.

That's it. Anything else that I achieve this month will be a bonus.

Sorry Deana, no Chookshed Challenge for me this month.
All I have left there is to make some more Christmas ornaments anyway. I need two more and should easily get them done before Christmas. 
I'm off to cut satin and tulle. 

Monday 30 September 2024

September Roundup.

 Here we are at the end of another month.  Goodness this year is flying by so fast.
September started of well in my world, with three unexpected projects.
The floral sample fabrics even became a fully completed quilt.
The other two are still sat in the to be quilted pile. 
I came down with a chest infection following a bit of a head cold. That gave me time to sit with my EPP.
So my Blue Lanterns grew. They have grown more since I took this photo. And more fabrics have been purchased for them too.
I worked a little on the wedding sampler.
It hasn't changed since I took this image.
I fulfilled my Chookshed challenge by quilting a scrappy quilt.
Hmm, no cute photo shoot of the completed quilting, just this one with the holder uppers feet in artificial lights. It has since been donated to refugee resettlement here in town. 
I also attended a rulerwork class at club
That was fun.
Debbie and I visited the Ashburton embroiderer's guild exhibition and did a little shopping too.
Which meant I had to start a knitting project. LOL
Blogger still wants to turn my phot upside down. 
Never mind this wee scarf has grown a little since I took this photo.
A colleague is leaving to start another job soon and wanted to buy one of my quilts before she leaves, because she will no longer have the opportunity to win one in the raffle.
I've been working on Town Square.
It's finally been quilted and I hope to get the binding on tomorrow or Wednesday. 
I'll try to share more details about it's journey soon.
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So how does all of that stack up against my goals for the month?

1) The Chookshed Challenge.  Completed.

2) RSC Kiwis.  I pulled them all out of the box and decided that I have just enough for a cute wee quilt. I opted not to make more, but will try to get some sashing on and complete a quilt top with them some time soon. 

3) Cross stitch a Christmas ornament. Nope!

4) 15 mins a day hand work. I think I missed a day or two, but I can live with that.

5) Work on a scrap project.  See the Chookshed challenge.

6) Try a new recipe.  Oh yes, more than one. I really need to do a post about food soon. 
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I also measured the bride again yesterday. Her weight loss seems to have levelled off. I have 4 weeks to make the dress. 
EEK!
Four weeks till the wedding.
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And that was my September.
How did yours go?