A small finish and some pets.

After some lovely weather (fairly) recently when we were able to prune and plant trees and dig gardens, it's now definitely turned cooler and inside is the place to be.

Oh to be a small furry creature with not a care in the world!

One of my inside 'jobs' was to have a good sort-out of my 'cave'. This seems to be a fairly regular occurance for me, but this time I really dug deep. I cleaned out all sorts of things - including getting rid of paperwork leftover from when I gave up work nearly 4 years ago - I figured if no-one had chased me for it already, it was pretty irrelevant (hopefully no-one from the MOE is reading this!), so that felt good, and created more room for quilting projects!!

And I found this project. I did the stitchery a few years ago, bought the Moda pre-cuts (2 1/2" squares) then stowed it all away.

Now it has seen the light of day and I'm pleased to say I have completed it!!

 I'm never quite sure what quilting to do on a stitchery - how to enhance it without detracting it by putting stitching all over it - especially this one which is relatively big. I settled on using invisible thread and stitching along the running stitch lines, around some of the objects (house, birdhouses and hearts), and along the bottom of the garden. The a-b-c section is mostly untouched because I didn't really know what to do with it!

 I also experimented with the fancy stitches on my machine by using a faux hand-quilting stitch... there is invisible thread in the top and normal thread in the bobbin. By loosening the top tension, the bobbin thread comes through to the top. The photo doesn't show the effect very well but I think it is quite a nice finish.

Arty shot in the sunshine.

[The design is by Gail Pan and was in Australian Homespun magazine number 58.]

Lately at nights I have been sewing my hexie-flowers together. It's been rather delicate as I had to make skeleton joins (that is, just enough seams sewn to keep the flowers in position). This was because I needed to clear it off the bed it was arranged on when ED came up to visit (but I'll forgive her). Imagine my horror when I came home one day to find Katie had taken it's protecting cloth off it and nudged it off the box it was on - then settled down for a good sleep!! I had visions of seams pulled apart and bits of hexagons everywhere- luckily she hadn't wriggled too much and it was still intact!

Katie-cat in the Flowerbed.

Later I have a very exciting thing to do---load EQ7 onto my computer. It arrived yesterday and I am looking forward to having a good play :-)
Happy sewing everyone - hope your day is going well!!

Late for Wednesday!!

Well here in New Zealand time I am late for One Flower Wednesday but if I am quick I might be eligible for other parts of the world!!
Just one flower to show that I made yesterday (Wednesday!)...as you can see, along with other things, a bit of book reading got in the way. I was stitching and reading at the same time which means slow progress on both fronts!

 (My latest book is a Jodi Piccoult one which I am thoroughly enjoying.)
The blue in this flower makes my quilt into a (slightly) recycled one, as the fabric is cut from an old skirt of Mum's.

However I have been doing a bit of joining, I bought these ones away with me to my parents to join and this is how far I've got... A few more whites and then they will be ready to insert in the larger block of joined ones back up home.

I had a trip down memory lane when I arrived at Mum and Dad's the other night--- this is possibly my first ever bit of embroidery that I did. I decorated two pillowcases as a gift for my parents YEARS ago (I think I was still at school then?). They've obviously been kept as special ones as the stitching has stayed intact!

Dad remembers mowing around this tree (Liquid Amber) as a schoolboy.... today he instructed the arborist how much to cut out....which made some good 'daring arborist' photos!!

I hope everyone's week is going well; happy stitching everyone, and thank you for visiting :-)
Raewyn

Scrappy Sue

Sunbonnet Sue has taken on a new look to make a star appearance in my scrappy quilt.

 Sewing the 2 inch squares together was last year's Leader and Ender project; lately I have been sewing the skirts for Scrappy Sue as my Leader and Enders so here finally is the first complete Sue.

  Nice big pieces so the needleturning goes quite quickly - she is about 8 inches tall. Last night I added the stem and leaf - she needs a Yo-Yo flower but the button I have pinned on looks quite cute.
(Sorry the lighting in the photos is not right - first it was 'dusk' light, then early morning glare from a lightbulb!)

And while I am talking scraps :-) I didn't realise how effective flying geese made out of leftover Half Square Triangles were...

...very cute.. I feel another addiction coming on!!

Hope everyone's projects are going well,
thanks for visiting, have a great day!!