A Week of Finishes

I've been quite productive this week and have a couple of finishes to share.

This is the stitchery designed by Rosalie Quinlan that I started at Campania a fortnight ago.

I found the frame stashed in a cupboard and decided it would do nicely for this project.


All the fabrics are from Heather Mulder Peterson's range called Cottage Charm.

It was very warm yesterday and Oliver decided the cutting mat was a good place to sprawl out for a siesta!

During the week I attached the binding to this little quilt made from Simplicity scraps. Much as I love Simplicity, I find the pastel colours difficult to photograph well!

The back is pieced from random sized strips as I couldn't bear to cut into any of my bigger pieces.

A close-up of the back.

I also finished my gift and ornament for Chookyblue's Secret Santa Christmas Swap. (We are not supposed to show any sneak peeks so I will share after Christmas) and have the binding ready to stitch down on another Christmas quilt. Hope your week was productive too.

Shopping and Stitching

This is what happened last Sunday when I tried to take some pictures of my shopping from A Christmas Gathering.

A certain cat decided it looked like a good place for him to sit. Thanks Oliver!

On Monday (when Oliver was inside snoozing in his basket in my sewing room!) I snuck outside and was much more successful. Along with lots of ladies, I purchased a copy of Rosie's gorgeous new book.

Many of the projects are made from her own line of fabric, Grandmother's Flower Garden.
I took home a few fat 1/8'ths and a couple of larger pieces.



Also found these beauties to add to my wool stash.



Everyone recieved one of these lovely Christmas hearts as a gift. At the end of the day I was able to purchase some more and took home an extra one for me and two for my sister. Everyone also had a beautifully crafted name tag to wear made by the very talented Jo.



On Sunday I experimented with some quilting using a decorative stitch on my machine.



I think it looks quite cute and it was really easy to do.

This is the back of the little quilt which is pieced from scraps leftover from An Angel Story.

The top of An Angel Story is all finished. I haven't been able to get a decent picture of it yet ... hopefully soon.

Finally here is another block of Little Patchwork Village. Only 1 and a bit stitcheries left to do on this one.

I was too tired after work this week to do much on any of my many current projects. The eyes just wouldn't focus! Hopefully the weekend will be more productive.

More from A Christmas Gathering

As promised, I'm back again with a bit more about Saturday's Christmas Gathering at Campania. As it was October 31st part of the hall was adorned with lots of Halloween quilts and decorations. I think I am right when I say most of them belonged to Deidre from The Quilted Crow.

Although not really into Halloween myself, I did like this smiley cat block.

The next picture is to prove I did actually do some stitching ... I think my effort on the actual day consisted of the bird and the word 'never'! Parts of the design are supposed to be done in chain stitch but mine looked so disgusting I unpicked it and did it again in good old backstitch!

The remaining photos were taken on the stage where The Quilted Crow set up their shop with lots of tempting goodies. Rosalie's new fabric range Grandmother's Flower Garden is very pretty and was very popular.


This is a sample of a quilt designed by Monica Poole.

And finally some items made from the wool felt for which The Quilted Crow is famous. The girls are very clever and dye it all themselves.

Forgot to say yesterday that I met Lisa for the first time on Saturday. She has a really nice blog called Cubby House Crafts. Hope you are feeling better, Lisa.
Next time I'll show what I purchased on the day and a few other things I've been working on this weekend. Back to school tomorrow after two weeks sick leave. Bye for now.

A Christmas Gathering

Long time, no blog! After 3 weeks of sickness I am finally on the mend and ready to re-enter blogland. A HUGE incentive to get well was yesterday's Christmas Gathering at Campania hosted by the wonderful girls at The Quilted Crow. The guest designers were two of my favourites, Rosalie Quinlan and Leanne Beasley. I set off early to meet Cathy, Leanne and Meredith in Launceston ... it was great not to have to drive all the way. Thanks girls.

As usual, the old hall was beautifully decorated with stunning samples.

Leanne's projects for the day were her Precious Things Sewing and Needle Bags.

This is part of Rosalie's display ... all so cute.


Her projects were both beautiful stitcheries stretched around canvas frames. I chose to work on this one, Your Way Home. I will show my version soon ... forgot to take a photo of my progress!


This one is called Friends and Family.

Deidre Bond-Abel from The Quilted Crow has been very busy and had lots of projects to share. She is a big Halloween fan and made these Trick or Treat Back Packs.


Pink and red are my favourite colours and look stunning teamed with shirtings in this quilt called Christmas Wishes.



Gorgeous. I LOVE it and will make it one day!

Deidre's other Christmas project was a hanging heart called A Kiss Under the Mistletoe.

She also designed this cute little Punchneedle Purse.

This Christmas wallhanging is called Christmas Tidings and was designed be Leonie Bateman of The Quilted Crow. I really like the pinwheel borders.

Leonie's other project was a Punchneedle Pocket for storing your punchneedle and needle threader.

Back tomorrow with some more pictures from the Gathering and a little of my own stitching.

A Christmas Wish Update

Last weekend I finished the last block of A Christmas Wish by Gail Pan. It will be nice to have a new quilt for Christmas this year.

I haven't decided yet whether I'll finish the quilt as Gail did or do my own thing. Whatever I do this Judie Rothermel fabric that I found last Saturday at Picture Patchwork will feature. It goes nicely with both the red and green borders. When I got home, I discovered I already had a fat quarter of it in my red/green/shirtings box! It must have caught my eye on an earlier shopping trip too.

It is my day off today. So far I've been to the beach with Molly for a walk and swim and cooked some healthy stuff for the weekend. Should do some cleaning but time for stitching now.

Patchwork Village Cafe

This morning I finished the third stitchery block of Little Patchwork Village.

Daylight savings started in Tasmania last night and I was awake very early! Thought I might as well sit and stitch this delightful Cafe block.

Then I couldn't resist sewing the three completed blocks together. This will be the bottom row of the quilt.

It was nice to have some decent weather and to be able to take some pictures outside.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Some Recent Retail Therapy

This fantastic book now resides on my bookshelf. I loved volume 2 so much that when I saw this one at a heavily reduced price there was no question of leaving it in the shop!

These are my new favourite stitching scissors. They were very inexpensive but I love them because they're PINK! The fabric in the background will be used for ....

this new project. Not sure when I'll get to start this one ... have nearly collected all the bits and pieces I'll need.

Regular readers will know I love redwork and red and white fabrics, so it should be no surprise that Rouenneries is rapidly becoming my new favourite range.

Another 'couldn't resist' item was this scissor fabric.

A while ago I purchased a jelly roll of Baskets of Flowers by Mary Engelbreit. I should be able to make a decent sized quilt now I have these from the same range.

Must do some Secret Santa stitching over the weekend ... can't believe it's October already. Eeek!

Weekend Stitching

Over the weekend I found time to do some hand stitching. I completed block 2 of Little Patchwork Village by Rosalie Quinlan.

Love this tree house ....

and cute little birdie.

I also caught up with blocks 7 and 8 of A Christmas Wish by Gail Pan.

Just one more block to stitch for this project.

Hope you had time for some stitching too.

Brat Cat!

Yesterday I finished the top of a quilt for my sister's friends little boy. It is very windy today, so this is the best picture of a bad lot!

You can see the colours a bit better here. The squares and outer border were all cut from a stripy piece of fabric from Spotlight. There are pale blue spots on the white border.

It took a while to cut the squares as Oliver wanted to play too! Yes, he is under there somewhere!

He'd just pulled the fabric off the table. So helpful ... NOT!

In no particular order, here are some photos of my 'brat cat'. (If you're not into cats now would be a good time to click onto another blog!)

Time for a little rest after all that excitement.

I finally got the fabric up on the table again, but Oliver still wasn't quite ready for any cutting to begin. More 'brat' pictures ahead!

And a couple of 'cute shot's' to finish.

It's a wonder I get anything done at all!

Slack Blogger

The holidays are almost over and I have been such a slack blogger! Although there were no finishes (surprise, surprise!) I have actually done a lot of stitching. I was a bit naughty and started some new projects. Here is the first block of Little Patchwork Village by Rosalie Quinlan Designs.

I've also been working on this (can't say anymore at this stage!) ....

and this which will be a quilt for my sister's friend's little boy.


The Angel Story quilt I started in January is sew together except for the final border .... a job for tomorrow. Will try and get some pictures soon.

Last week Tali and I went on a road trip to Launceston. We stayed at the Grand Chancellor (don't you love last minute internet deals!) and spent a very nice afternoon with Cathy and Leanne .... it was nice to see them again and see some of their beautiful stitching up close. We also visited Pauline at Calico Crossroads in Exeter and went to the Launceston Quilt Exhibition. Leanne had a couple of her quilts on show ... they were my favourites. She is very good on the long arm quilting machine and I have entrusted my Truly Scrumptious to her capable hands. It is the first time I've had a quilt professionally quilted .... can't wait to see it.

Finally for local people, did you know Stitchery Doo has re-opened in Burnie? It is located next to the Baptist Church at the back of the same building it was in previously. (In a little arcade/alley thingy!) Christine has a very cute little shop with lots of lovely fabrics and patterns. She has made lovely samples of projects from this book. I was unable to resist and now have yet another project on my 'to do' list.



Anyway, I've raved on enough. Will be back soon with some pictures of a naughty cat!