A Gift for Annie

Annie, one of my Material Girls friends, had a birthday recently. She had requested spots, stripes and checks ... this is what I came up with. The stitchery is by Annie Bird and can be found in her book, From the Heart. I used scraps from my hexie fabrics for the border. This was a hard one to part with ... it looked very nice in my sewing room.

I used a cheery red spot for the back.

Lots of sewing happened this weekend. Unfortunately I can't show any of it yet but as Christmas seems to be approaching rapidly it won't be too long until all can be revealed. Oliver was oh so helpful (NOT!) when I was trying to cut fabric.

 I have discovered another use for binding clips. They are really good for keeping fabric pieces for a block together until you are ready to sew them.

Anyway, have a good week. Hope you find time to be creative.

A Few More Hexies

Oh, dear ... I've been a slack blogger again lately. After a day at work, all I want to do is put on my pyjamas and curl up in a comfy chair in front of the telly. Some nights I manage a bit of hand stitching before nodding off but not always. Anyway enough moaning, below is the latest batch of hexies I've managed to produce.

Fabrics include Sweet Broderie by Rosalie Quinlan,

several Tanya Whelan lines,

Bliss by Bonnie and Camille ...

and a few fabrics from Quiltsoup.

My box of prepared hexagons is nearly empty so it's time to get out the glue pen and stick down some more. Bye for now.

A Day at the Park

A Day at the Park is the third project from the Fig Tree Club.

It features Strawberry Fields ... my current Fig Tree favourite.

I really love all the spots, ginghams and prints in this range.

 Isn't this adorable?

 Consisting of charm squares and borders the top went together quite quickly. Well, in less than a week which is quick for me!

 Now I am waiting for some backing fabric to arrive so the quilting can commence.

Hope your weekend was a good one with lots of time for stitching.

Simple Pleasures - Finished

This afternoon it was fine and still and not too sunny so I grabbed a few finished items and works in progress and headed outside to take some photos. 

After what seems forever, Simple Pleasures is finally finished.

 I quilted a 1/4 inch each side of the block seams ...

and echo quilted the triangles in the border.

 In case you hadn't guessed it's a Hatched and Patched design by Anni Downs. Her stitcheries are so distinctive.

 

For this quilt I used a range of fabrics by Heather Mulder Peterson called Cottage Charm.

Several years ago by local Spotlight had this range on it's shelves and I bought up big!

Here's a closer look at the quilting in the border ... simple but effective.

 And to finish a shot of the backing. I'm not usually a fan of yellow but this buttery print jumped out shouting 'pick me' when I was auditioning fabric for the backing.

I'll be back soon with some of the other projects that got photographed today.

Partridge in a Pear Tree Pillow

This is a gift I made for Bec for her birthday. We both belong to Friends in Stitching and I had the pleasure of making her birthday gift. We had to make something beginning with the first letter of the town we live in. For me that is Penguin so I made a pink Partridge in a Pear Tree Pillow

 The stitchery is from Tis the Season by Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse. The fabrics are by Holly Holderman of Lakehouse Drygoods. I love the red spots on the pink background.

I also gave Bec a pattern, some pastel pens and a pink shopping pad and pencil.

I hope everyone had a good weekend with plenty of sewing time. I've been working away on some 'secret' projects. Unfortunately that means I can't share yet as some of the recipients read my blog.

Prizes and Pretties

Recently, I was fortunate to win not one, but two blog giveaways.

Firstly at The Quilted Crow Girls I received a pair of pincushion patterns. 

Aren't they cute. Thanks Leonie and Deidre.

Then over at New Zealand blog Farm Girl Stitching I was the lucky recipient of 3 charm packs ...

and some  yummy Riley Blake fat quarters. 

Thanks Nicky. They are all fabrics I would choose myself so I was very excited to add these to my stash.

As for sewing news, I have been quilting Simple Pleasures

... I only have to sew down the binding and it will be finished.

I've also completed my shoo fly blocks 

that will become the border of my Vignette Mystery quilt.

 

Can you tell I used three fabrics for some blocks? 

They are the ones with the 'daisyish' stripe.

I am still working away on my hexies. If the weather co-operates I'll post some pictures of the latest ones over the weekend.

Hexagons

Ok, so I finally got the camera out and took some hexie pictures. Hope you like them as much as I do. They are all my favourites!

 

 

Now I have the 'hexie bug' again there should be more pictures soon ... when I counted my pile yesterday there were 103 finished.

Bear Pillow

I've been very slack with my blogging the last few weeks ... it seems the more time I have the less I do! Anyway, below is a pillow I made for one of the Material Girls who had a birthday recently.

 The birthday girl expressed a preference for something burgundy and cream and this is what I came up with.

 The stitchery is from Sweet Sentiments, a lovely book by Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse.

I am feeling really lazy this week! With little motivation for much else I've rediscovered my hexies ... they are great to do while watching TV (in your pyjamas!)

Gardener's Journal

Thank you for all the lovely comments re my Rouenneries quilt in the last post. It seems like lots of you love it as much as I do.

 In the evenings I have been working on some stitcheries for Anni Downs A Gardener's Journal quilt.I plan to use

 Patisserie and other complementary fabrics from my Figtree stash.

I am choosing the stitchery colours as I go. I find this much quicker than constantly looking at a chart. It also makes the quilt slightly more unique.

I started with the biggest stitchery:

 No Place Like Home

 

which seemed to take forever!

The next few were smaller and much quicker:

Flower Basket

 Weather Vane

 

Dog House 

(my favourite, so far)

It is great to be on holidays ... I am slowly recovering from a very busy term. The Eisteddfod last week was very rewarding with my students achieving lots of first and second prizes in individual and choral sections ... more importantly they did their best and had lots of fun.