Hopping To It and a Pincushion or Two

Last post I was part way through my first block of Hop To It Quilt (by Edyta Sitar) and now, yaah, I've finished it :-)

It is needleturned and I really enjoyed working on it. I love the way the vase morphs into flower buds!

I've been sidetracked this week after finding this cute little pattern (below) on the Laundry Basket Quilts website (also by Edyta Sitar - do you see a common theme here; I LOVE her work!!)

I've also completed a block for a friend... I can't show you much but want to show off how I did the eye.... I discovered this stitch at a recent sewing machine class ----

One clever stitch - only takes about 30 seconds and voila! We have an eye.

Isn't it great!!



She just tosses the pins aside..doesn't even do anything helpful with them!



And finally - Now I've shown a photo of this cat before, pulling pins out of my work... I got a really good photo the other day.... note to self, put all pincushions out of reach!



 

I hope your week has started off well - to all my kiwi (New Zealand) friends, hope you are keeping warm and that any snow you may be getting gives you more joy than grief.

Happy stitching,

An update....

Yum- Cake Pops!!

Recently we gathered at my parent's place for a Mid-winter Christmas in July celebration. It poured with rain outside but we didn't care, the fire was stoked up and the gumboots left at the door. There was plenty to eat, and lots of laughs and fun---especially with a ten dollar gift we each had to take along.





Obligatory family photo --- Mum and Dad, myself and my two daughters. Unfortunately our son's plane was cancelled so he and his wife couldn't make it. For some reason, the MOML avoided the photo shoot.

All looking at different cameras!!

I thought you may be interested in the next generation of crafters. With no knitting or crocheting family members living very close, my nieces and friends are teaching themselves how to craft from the internet. So all you out there with fabulous tutorials for doing various things - thank you --these guys are loving it!!

JD with her crocheted masterpiece - cant
remember his name, but he does have one!

SE and Fr both knitting...she is making collars for the
neighbourhood cats and he is practising with circular needles.

Thought I had better show this photo so my own girls don't feel left out... ED made socks for Oscar when he was a puppy. He's outgrown them now.

 And while they were all knitting and crocheting, I was doing a bit of appliqué. Joanne (Threadhead blog)put out an invitation for people to join her in progressing through the Hop To It quilt. As I was just waiting for the book to arrive at my house (thanks bro') I said I would join in. I was too late for the June block but you can see I am making progress on the July one.
 It's an absolutely beautiful quilt and I am happy to be doing it...thanks Joanne for giving me the little push.

Now I'm not sure if you can tell what is going on in the photo below.... but I will give you a clue...it is something to do with the photo below it......

Yes, you are right, putting fresh shavings in the calf shed
in preparation for calving;

And just as well we did...the first has arrived!

So it's going to be heads down and tails up for a bit now - and grabbing a bit of stitching time when I can too!!  Hope you can as well :-)
Thank you for visiting, have a nice day,

A Winter Garden

Nothing speaks to me of a winter garden scene more than citrus trees laden with fruit. We are lucky here in Northland because citrus do well and our winter fruit eating is full of oranges and mandarins.
So what better place to display today's hexie-flowers than in the Orange Tree.

The flowers were made to fill this gap (below)- hopefully tonight they will be sewn in--yeehaa--my garden is getting bigger!!

114 flowers made and 106 joined!!

If you go to the One Flower Wednesday link you will get to see hexie-flowers in lots of different settings - it's always interesting to see what grows where around the world.
And while we are talking hexagons —
I have a sweet friend who knows I have a hexagon addiction problem. Look what she made me for my recent birthday :-)

Very cute!!! What a fun idea!!

Thank you Leeanne.

Isn't she clever - look at the puller on the zip!! - And look - a wee pincushion
and more little squares for my scrappy adventures :-)

That's it for Wednesday--thank you for visiting and Happy Sewing every-one.

Happy Me!

I was thinking today about the giving of quilts and handmade goodies and the love and time commitment that goes behind the gift. So it is with making a meal for someone.
Last night, for my birthday, I had a beautiful dinner cooked for me by my thoughtful YD and her other half. Aside from the buying of ingredients and the time spent in my kitchen {no Raewyns allowed :-)} was the giving up of their day to make this special meal for me.

It was yummy and it was fun!

Oh so good!! Course 2 of about 4!!

Caramelising the top of the Crème Brulee! 

Candles to blow out

Thank you guys - I'm still rolling around feeling full. A lovely dinner and a great evening.
(It was nice to sit and stitch whilst listening to all the kitchen noises!)