Friday Night with Friends

It's been a while, but I finally managed to join in with another Friday Night With Friends Sew-along.

I got on with my RSC blocks. This month is yellow.

Hmmm, the lighting here is not very good and the yellow looks rather washed out, but I assure you, I did make three yellow blocks.

I spread them all out on the design floor, to see what they would look like and to get an idea of how big this one will be once I add sashing strips, corner stones and borders. And of course, I need to add bodies. 

It will be a good size for a cot quilt. Maybe for a little girl.....

Perhaps I can get it finished in time to send it for Christmas??

I've enjoyed using up some scraps each month and have started to look about for another fun block to make for next year.

While I had all of the blocks out of the box....

Somebody thought she would try it on for size.

As there was still some of Friday evening left, I got on and put together the October I stitch block and prepared it for stitching this week.

Then I sat and worked a little on a Christmas Ornament.

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I had hoped to spend some time stitching today. And I did, just not as much time as I would like.

But I did manage to squeeze in enough time to make up my alternate RSC block.

And I put it together with it's friends.

And noticed for the first time, that I had laid out the blue one differently to the other colours....

It can stay that way.

This one will go to sleep now until January, when the RSC starts up again, I'll make more blocks for it next year.

*

And as promised, I have put together the first two rows of I stitch.

I'm very pleased with it so far.

As I said previously, I have taken off the border pieces, it was just a bit too scrappy.

I'm thinking it will still be a scrappy border, just larger pieces.

The September block is all stitched and awaiting the company of the October block.

Which is as I mentioned, all ready to go. 

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Well, gotta go, we're off out with friends this evening. 

curry night

 

Long weekend progress

Yesterday was a public holiday for some of us here in New Zealand.

Only those of us in South Canterbury though, it was our anniversary day.

Yay! No work, which meant an extra day at home with Tony and extra time to do some more slow stitching.

But first we got busy in the kitchen.

We made a bacon and egg pie and with the leftover pastry whipped up a quick Quiche Lorraine for our lunch.

Not the tidiest of pie crusts, that's what happens when I leave Tony in charge of that! LOL

I'm sure it will taste just fine.

Next up was Chocolate and walnut brownies.

This time the slightly overdone edges is down to me, I left it in the oven a little too long.

we have a not so gooey brownie.

But it does still taste great. Tony will be taking a slice each day in his lunchbox. I think he is enjoying having yummy slices in there each day.

We also put a beef curry into the slow cooker. It was delicious and the meat was very tender by the time we got around to eating dinner last night. And there are left overs for lunches. What could be better?

So once we had cleaned up in the kitchen we each wandered to our crafts. Tony did some painting in his room 'Red October' is coming along and the scale model is taking almost as long to build as a real submarine takes I'm sure! LOL

Meanwhile I got busy with some more slow stitching. I have another Christmas Ornament finished. One more and I'm up to date. Yay!

I'm almost up to date on Gail Pan's I Stitch project too.

Here is August

July

And June

September should hopefully be finished before bed time tonight. The long weekend, really did help me get caught up some more. 

I'll get the first two rows of I stitch sewn together soon and take a pic of them all.

They do look lovely.

I have made a change though. 

If you look here you'll see that there is supposed to be a border of circles on squares around the outside edge of the quilt top. I was never really happy with them. I'm not sure if it's my chosen method of making them, or my fabric choices, or what!!  But I wasn't happy with them. I noticed the other day, that another participant had posted on the FB group that she hadn't sewn them as she didn't like them. She had opted for a different border. Encouraged by some one else's rebellion, I sat down and un picked the border I had done so far. I'll revisit the border idea, once the rest of the project is complete. It does look so much better without those circles. Pictures next time.

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The storm that was supposed to hit New Zealand did arrive, but here in Timaru we were lucky and dodged the worst of it. It was good to have the excuse to stay indoors a sew though.

 

Slow Stitching...

Ten days since my last post, is that all? It feels much longer. 

I didn't get back to my purple quilting yet, it's still on the frame and I see it every day. I will get it done soon though I promise.

I have been doing some slow stitching. Still trying to catch up on my monthly Christmas ornament and my I stitch project. Having no lamp meant I fell behind. 

I have no new pictures of I stitch, but I promise I will show an update of that soon.

And as I'm sure you know well enough by now, the Christmas Ornaments are a secret as many of them will be gifted to readers of this blog! They are also the subject of a wee stitch along that Janice and I are doing. While I repeat pretty much the same project each month, she has been doing all sorts of Christmas items. Sometimes finishing UFOs that have been hidden away for years, and sometimes starting and finishing brand new projects. It has been fun seeing what she comes up with each month and I feel that we have been a very positive influence on each other. 

Thank you my friend.

So if I can't show off any sewing, what can I show off?

In my last post I showed some lovely yellow fabrics I had just purchased, they are to make a sunflower project. Well, a new project means a new box.

I fell in love with this bicycle as soon as I saw it.

All those yellow fabrics and their green and brown friends are settled snugly in there awaiting their turn. 

And while I was looking, I also spotted this beauty.

It had to come home with me too. Nothing has found a home in it yet, but I'm sure something will.

I am enjoying having my projects tucked away safely in pretty boxes.

Another thing to thank Janice for. LOL

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And because at last I can.

Cuddles with a grand child.

Grandad Tony and I have had lots of lovely cuddles with baby Torstein.

He is a very cuddly little boy and loves nothing more than to snuggle up on a willing grandparent and have a snooze.

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The weather is supposed to deteriorate back to winter today, with a whopper of a storm to hit parts of NZ over the next couple of days. So perfect weather for staying indoors snuggled in my favourite chair, with my needle in my hand and my super bright lamp to light my way as I stitch another catch up Christmas ornament. 

Sew that's what I'm going to do. 

 

Number 5 has arrived!

Sorry, I didn't mean to be gone so long. I wish I could say it is because I have been super busy and have achieved loads. But I haven't. 

That said, I do have one or two things to report.

A quick trip through to Geraldine last week and a visit to The Pin Tin, who were having a birthday sale!

Some of these look rather neutral in this pic, but I assure you, they are all bright yellows. Teamed up with a piece of brown and some green from stash. I feel a sunflower coming on.

On Sunday, while Tony was at work I got busy, spreading things out on the floor.

You remember my Purple Turning Twenty?

Belle thought she might help.

I managed to persuade her to leave everything alone and got it all loaded onto the frame.

I got it about two thirds of the way quilted, then for some reason developed tension issues, so I stopped and walked away. It may have been me who had tension issues rather than the machine, there is/was a lot going on. Issues at work and a jury summons for Monday morning...

Hopefully when I do get back to it, things will go smoothly once more.

The supervisor was with me of course. She does love to lay there on her tower, where she can oversee all that I'm doing or watch the birds in the blossom tree and of course have a wee snooze in the sunshine.

I couldn't resist getting a shot out of the other window too.

Spring is trying to be sprung.

There is news on the family front too. A school friend took this pic of my boy recently and posted it on Facebook. He was good enough to send me a copy.

Jiffy Jonathan had been helping his grandfather to remove a sizeable log from the harbour.

That could have done quite a lot of damage if they hadn't removed it.

It will make good firewood once it has dried out for a few months.

And last but not least at 4.30 this morning a little bundle decided to wake his mummy and daddy by beginning his journey into the world.

Torstein didn't keep us waiting, like his cousin Una did during the Zoom Stitch along.

He was born just two hours later at 6.30 am. 

Mummy and baby are doing great, but daddy had a snooze, he was exhausted! LOL

Grand child number 5 has arrived and I will be able to get my hands on this one.......

😍

 

Blogger Issues!

So finally I'm joining everyone else and today have experienced frustrations with new blogger.  Things really are not going as I planned. Even though I have tried to align my images and my typing to the centre, as I would normally do, things are just everywhere! What a mess, there is extra spacing, some things centrally aligned and some over to the left. I'm really not happy with this post.

Grumble over, lets get on with the fun stuff. 

                                                           

And here it is. Not the tidiest, but a cute wee star hiding the little hole in another black sweater.

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been able to begin catching up on my hand work now that my new light has arrived. Here is Junes instalment of Gail Pans I Stitch (Wish you well) project. July is in progress and will hopefully be completed over the next couple of days.

                                       

                            Hmm, it looks a bit of an odd shape here, but I assure you, it is straight. 

This morning I spent some time in my wee room, and after a major tidy up, (mask making is so untidy!) I pulled out my box of red and pink scraps and made up these lovely butterflies for the RSC

I do enjoy making these each month and couldn't resist pulling the others out of hibernation for a few moments to get a picture.

                                         

There are three of each colour all piled up together here. I'm going to have a very pretty quilt once I'm done.

               One last thing before lunch was to make up the single alternate RSC block.

                                                  

And get it's photo with it's friends.

I came across this pattern in July and decided to add it in to the mix, I won't complete it until the middle of next year, or who knows, I may decide to keep building for another year. 

Oh Dear, I've just done a preview, what an awful mess.

Try as I might, I cannot get things to align neatly.

So I'm just going to hit publish and hope for the best. 

I wonder if it's a browser issue?

I'm using Chrome, I haven't used explorer for years.