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.