My quilting thoughts and inspirations sprinkled with a glimpse of life down on the farm

Sunday, October 4, 2015

FNWF and Saturday sewing

Friday night was the monthly FNWF sewalong night with other crafters from around the globe. I was happy to setttle into my stitching chair and carry on with my latest/current stitchery project.
July Calendar Bears. One more night's stitching and this block should be done.
These designs are by Michelle Ridgeway and they are appearing in this year's Country Threads magazines. I sewed my first 3 together the other day, aren't they delightful?! 
(Excuse the wonky photo!!)
Cheryll has a link up on her blog *here* if you want to pop along and have a peek at what other crafters got up to on their Friday night. Thank you again Cheryll for hosting us all :-)

Saturday was a wet day in Northland so after super efficient calf feeding and farm chores, I settled into a good day's sewing in The Palace. (I was so focussed I was thinking of changing its name to the Headquarters.)
And  I made some good progress in my French General Around the World quilt.
Officially halfway there now!!
 It's taken me a while to work out the most efficient way to sew this together... I started off by sewing strip sets eg A-B-A but that got a little confusing, and hunting though the piles for the right combination got time consuming. So then I just sewed pairs of strips together eg A-B and laid each row out on the floor beside the machine and was up and down for each seam. Finally I realised that the easiest way was to pin the squares (and pairs of fabric) together in half-rows and sew one seam after another until each piece is sewn, then join the two halves together..sorry if that doesn't make sense but it works well for me!
And you can see that the rows got longer and longer as I progressed through
the quilt! I'm going backwards now, the rows will get shorter and shorter!!
A better look at the fabrics.
 And now it's Sunday morning and we have a beautiful spring day out there. I think I'll spend the morning outside - the garden's been a bit neglected lately - and then have some inside time this afternoon.
EDIT where would we be without our dear blogging friends? Special thanks to Sunny who found some pretty glaring errors in my half-quilt top!! So obvious once you know they are there :-)
Now all fixed and I'm back on track!
Unpick the offending row that was upside-down-inside-out-back-to-front
Looking a bit better now.
Hope your weekend's going great :-)
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27 comments:

  1. sunnyOctober 4, 2015 at 9:56 AM

    I love the fabrics in your Around the World. I see a little mistake though, in the 3rd row down on the right side. I've never done this pattern, so I can only imagine how difficult it is to keep it all straight!!!

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  2. Linda @ kokaquiltsOctober 4, 2015 at 11:10 AM

    I do love your colour combo! Yes I can see it would get quite confusing, I made one years ago like that,and got quite muddled! While it's a bit different, I find Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy version a lot easier!

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  3. retdairyqueenOctober 4, 2015 at 12:05 PM

    Iam doing the calendar bears too Very cute
    Loving your round the world quilt

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  4. Mystic QuilterOctober 4, 2015 at 3:38 PM

    Beautiful French General fabrics, your setting really shows them off!

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  5. Karen SOctober 4, 2015 at 5:11 PM

    Your calendar bears are looking great sewn together. And I love the progress on your quilt. Most impressed with Sunny picking up on the small hiccup.

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  6. AnonymousOctober 4, 2015 at 5:35 PM

    Hi Raewyn,boy i sure do love your work,you are amazing my friend and i hope you have a lovely sunday xx

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  7. Janet O.October 4, 2015 at 6:27 PM

    Very cute Calendar bears. You do great stitching!
    Oh, I love the quilt top. That is a beautiful fabric combination. Good thing that boo-boo was caught by your reader!

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  8. margaretOctober 4, 2015 at 6:46 PM

    seemed strange to see a snowman for july then the penny dropped of course that is your winter. Loving the bears. Immaculate quilt all those squares joined together perfectly

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  9. FlickenstichlerinOctober 4, 2015 at 7:11 PM

    Dear Raewyn,
    what a great progress, love the projects you were working on.
    Greetings,
    Sylvia

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  10. CathOctober 4, 2015 at 10:04 PM

    fabulous projects Raewyn! I really love the teddies!

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  11. KERYN BOctober 4, 2015 at 11:05 PM

    Raewyn the quilt is just amazing, love the fabric. Your little bears are super sweet.

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  12. Peg - Happy In QuiltingOctober 4, 2015 at 11:07 PM

    Fantastic quilt Raewyn... Amazing stitching xxx

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  13. SusanOctober 5, 2015 at 11:04 AM

    love how this is turning out. FG must be the most versatile range. Good spotting Sunny....phew!

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  14. wish2stitchOctober 5, 2015 at 2:37 PM

    Your FG quilt is looking lovely. I really like the on point design.

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  15. LeeanneOctober 5, 2015 at 3:12 PM

    More pretty calendar bears. French general round the world is very effective,,, yippie for the save from Sunny!

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  16. LinOctober 5, 2015 at 7:41 PM

    Great (half a ) quilt top - couldn't resist going back to look for the errors! I love those fabrics. xx

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  17. Michelle RidgwayOctober 5, 2015 at 8:24 PM

    The Bears are looking great. Your FG quilt is amazing xx

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  18. The Sloan PatchOctober 5, 2015 at 10:00 PM

    Lovely stitching...I can't see any errors in the quilt!!!

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  19. louleeOctober 6, 2015 at 4:53 AM

    I've always loved this pattern, no matter what colour I see it in. It really suits your choices.

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  20. Quiltpassion.blogspot.comOctober 6, 2015 at 7:46 AM

    The July bear and snowman are lovely! And what a beautiful Trip Around the World. When you mentioned the errors I found the too, fortunately you could fix it!
    Happy week, love, Cisca

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  21. FionaOctober 6, 2015 at 12:41 PM

    your bears are looking lovely ... and I love that top.. .glad you got it sorted before you went further... funny how looking at something so much hides things.... it took me a while to find what the problem was though I could see something was out....

    Hugz

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  22. WendyOctober 7, 2015 at 7:24 AM

    Gorgeous bears and you new quilt top is looking beautiful, such a lot of stitching!! I loved the post about your afternoon walk near the kowhai, we have lots to be thankful for in NZ!

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  23. Patty October 8, 2015 at 11:56 PM

    This looks amazing! Can't wait to see the finish.

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  24. Linda in Arkansas October 9, 2015 at 5:03 AM

    Oh that quilt looks like so much fun. I didn't notice the mistake - glad Sunny did. I hate when that happens, but so thankful someone points it out. Now that you are making shorter rows - you know you are half way done and each row will go quicker. Yay!

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  25. kiwikidOctober 11, 2015 at 3:12 AM

    Beautiful stitchery Raewyn, didn't notice the mistake either...was too busy going Wow!!!! Boy that takes some work getting it all in the right place!

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  26. BillieBee (billiemick)October 13, 2015 at 5:04 AM

    What a gorgeous quilt!

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  27. KerryOctober 14, 2015 at 5:40 AM

    Hi Raewyn am loving the colours in your Trip Around the World and look forward to seeing it finished, and I didnt see the mistake either too busy admiring the colour way. xxx

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