The Colour Orange

There is nothing wrong with the colour Orange - look what I found on my walk around the farmyard this morning......

It's a beautiful colour isn't it?

SO, WHY have I been so scared to start on my border for my hexie-garden?--read on--
With a lot of help from my friends, I selected a border fabric for my hexie-quilt several months ago. After much trial and error, we decided this (below) really was the best fabric - it made my quilt top and all the flowers SING! 

And the little flowers on it suited my hexie-flowers really well.

AND I bought metres of it - enough for a backing too!

BUT I have been so scared to use it!!

I'm just not usually an 'orange' person (for evidence, look at my other blog posts - it's not really a colour you see very often!) and using it seemed to be quite a bold move...

But today I'm being brave - One Flower Wednesday has come around and I need to move along on this project....

I had a sugar-fix and a strong coffee, took a deep breathe and --CUT--

Ahh - I've made a start; I've prepped my first hexie for the border!

This feels good, I'm over my hurdle and raring to go!!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Thinking about Christmas!

My favourite ever quilt shop (aka 'my local') held its annual Christmas launch yesterday.

We had a busy week finishing projects and samples for the launch but we had a lovely morning which made the effort worthwhile.
The Man of the House made sure all the displays weren't just about quilting -

But can you see the quilts on the back - And The Flag, of course.

It means I can now show you a couple of the projects I have completed recently. My stitchery is now a cushion which I really enjoyed working on -

---cute covered buttons. The woollen felt was lovely to work with---

And I have a new man in my life - 

He's very mischievous but if he gets too cheeky, he's small enough to shut in a drawer!!
He was also fun to make :-). This was an Indygo Junction pattern but I'm sure I made a Yo-Yo toy (a clown?) years ago so I must have a pattern for that somewhere - it would be fun to hunt it out.

 Last night we blobbed in front of the TV watching the All Blacks (win) then the Warriors (win) - a good night's entertainment... (plus I got a few more hexie-flowers joined)...coupled with the start of Daylight Saving for us here in New Zealand, it makes for a slow day today :-) maybe a few more hexies will get joined after posting this!
Have a great day everyone and happy stitching,

My Town - a start

I've just posted over at the My Town BOM Stitch-a-long blog site but decided I may as share here as well :-)
I'm very pleased with myself as I have just finished my first block of the My Town BOM which the Australian Homespun mag is running this year.
The Corner Store designed by Melanie Hurston was my starting point for this project.

I machine-buttonhole stitched it. The stitcheries were through several layers of vlisofix so a sharp needle was needed [:-)] but I did enjoy doing this block.

I'm not sure which block I will start next (I'm quite behind on these!!) - maybe I will just close my eyes and see which one comes to hand first!
happy stitching everyone,