Flashback Friday

Sandra from mmmquilts has a throwback Thursday post on the first Thursday of every month. It's to showcase quilts we made in our pre-blogging days. I've always been interested but thought that all my quilts have been made since I started blogging.
But I was wrong!
It all started with a bit of hutch making the other day.
I had two girls over for a few hours. After a bit of baking —

Hehe don't you love how they've arrange the biscuits!

— they got busy playing. Which morphed into Hutch building.

Not hut building. They have pet rabbits so hutches make a lot more sense to them. Of course Ganma was asked to get more quilts as there was too much daylight showing. Apparently the rabbits couldn't eat their fruit with too much light.

In the blurry photo above you see a blue and white quilt.
It's one I'd not seen for a while so I hunted through my blog to find out when I'd made it.

It wasn't here. So here it is.

This quilt was a Mystery Stitchery project we did at The Country Yard when I first started working there. The stitcheries were some out of copyright ones, and we put it together with the blocks. From memory, we discussed ideas at work, then I came home, made the blocks and wrote the instructions. I've found them on the PC this afternoon and that's the only way I know it was made in 2010!
It's waited all this time for a label!! Guess what I'll do with it next?!
Here are some closeups of some of the stitchery blocks—

What intrigues me with this quilt is the lack of quilting!! I've ditch stitched around the sashing of the stitchery blocks and that's it! I'm thinking it would be quite good to come back to it and add a bit more!

Sandra is not running Throwback Thursday this month; instead Andree of quiltinglearningcombo blog is hosting it. So I'll head over there soon and link up.
And I've named this post Flashback Friday as it's Friday here today!

Tonight is Friday Night with Friends with Cheryll of stitchingcubbyhole. I may see you there :-)

'til next time,

happy stitching,

Whimsical Woodland catch up and the odd finish

As I put the last few stitches into Block four of Whimsical Woodland the other night, I realised that I hadn't shared about it on my blog for a while... not since I'd finished the first block actually...whoops!
Whimsical Woodland is the current mystery stitchery being run by The Country Yard (where I work). Each year we do a mystery stitchery project and this time I decided to take part as a customer not a staffer.
Here are the first four blocks —

Yesterday morning before breakfast (and work), instead of catching up on my blog reading, I had the urge to do some piecing. We were to put 2" squares around the outside of the first three.

And here's block 4 —

Aren't they looking lovely? Cant wait to see what else is in store for us :-)
(The fabric range is Edyta Sitar's Crystal Farm).

I also have two finishes to share - more projects that have been sitting on my camera waiting for attention.
A Holly Cottage Christmas, a design by Michelle Ridgeway.  I took part in a stitchalong for this one which was a great motivator. I  loved making this, the combination of the applique and the stitchery made it an enjoyable project.

For the quilting I did fill in the applique blocks and crosshatched the squares.

And feathered the borders, treating both borders as one. It's hard to tell in the photo but there are two red borders in the photo below.

It was also to be a shop sample so as soon as it was finished I needed to get it in there and hung for display. So I didn't get a chance to roam the farm for a photo shoot session!

Back in February two friends and I went on retreat. We started a little project by Lisa of fig 'n' berry creations.
Here is the finished pouch —

We decided to change the outer fabric supplied in the kit as we found some lovely Liberty fabric while on retreat....it was a good excuse to buy this fabric which we usually avoid because of the price!
OK gotta go... I  can hear the MOML has finished milking so I'd better get organised for breakfast and off to work I go :-)

Happy stitches,

 

My Friday Mystery

Give us a Churndash —

Give us a Butterfly —

How about some Flying Geese —

From time to time this year I have mentioned a Fabulous Friday mystery project that I was leading through my local quilt shop, The Country Yard. I realised recently that I hadn't shared the final quilt so thought it time for a catch up :-)

The ladies participating were given a piece of the proposed border fabric and a couple of Fat Eights to get them started on a colour scheme (the cost to join included the balance of the border fabric).

Each meeting they were given a set of instructions for a block ... they had to show this block before they could get the next set of instructions.

Being a complete mystery I tried to keep them on their toes and there was plenty of guessing going on as to what the finished quilt would look like.

After making the larger block below, many were sure it was going to be a medallion style quilt —

But then they received instructions to make this block below which was also a big one —

Finally however, reveal day came and I gave out the finishing instructions.  I had my quilt top ready to share —

Friday's Garden, the Fabulous Friday Mystery quilt.

A month later we had a Show and Tell day - how exciting to see all the wonderful creations! —

I think we had about 11 completed quilt tops turn up for this. So much fun for every one to see what fabrics others had used and how different they all looked.

My photos don't really do the ladies' work justice; some had added extra embroidery or fussy cutting. Two had quilted theirs' already in a Quilt-As -You -Go manner. They all looked fantastic!

The one below has just been finished. This sewer opted not to use the supplied border fabric.

I had also made a scrappy brown version, as a way of testing my instructions... I loved diving into all my fabrics and finding all the different shades of brown!

Both my quilts are largely unquilted (in other words, I've started them but that's about it!)..... between July and October life on the farm rules and very little other major things (like quilting) can happen.

My Friday's Garden in it's semi-quilted state.

I had a huge amount of fun with this project; it was very rewarding to see the enjoyment of those taking part, and so fun also to see the finished quilts.
*This link* takes you to the gallery which shows some of the completed blocks. We haven't had a chance to upload the individual quilt top photos yet.

'til next time,

happy creating,

Blocks and family time

It's been a case of "Blink and you miss it!". I can't believe that the month is nearly gone ... high time I posted a quick update on what I've been up to lately.
Not much, it seems — the month is ending quietly, with just one finish (which I shared *here*) and a few blocks made. There's also been some secret sewing going on but that sort of project makes for an empty post, doesn't it?!
I've come to terms with the fact that I won't finish my OMG (One Monthly Goal) this month - it felt like a realistic goal at the time, but oh well it's just not going to happen. Now that I have the 'forgotten' box out and in a prominent place, I like to think that I'll be able to work on it in the not too distant future!

Last post I mentioned the Fabulous Friday mystery quilt I am doing with my LQS... the first clue was Churndashes and you can click *here* to see The Country Yard's gallery of all those fabulous blocks - it was very exciting seeing everyone's finished blocks when they brought them in for 'checking' the other Friday.
The next clue was for these flying geese.... here are my 'proper' blocks —

One row of Geese is on the shop wall, there should be four rows  :-)

and another set in some scrappy browns as well —

The next 'show and tell' day is this Friday; I cant wait to see what everyone has done.
For those who have done their homework, below may be a sneaky peek of the next block —

(You'll see on Friday!)

I surprised myself when I counted up this month's leader and ender scrappy 9-patches. The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour for this month was purple, and I managed a few plus completed some of the brown ones leftover from last month.

.

I don't think I've shared what these 9-patches are for...two fairly ambitious projects... the larger ones (3" finished size) are for Leesa Seigele's Ring Cycles quilt and the small 1½"finished ones for Sue Garmen's Omigosh quilt ... both beautiful projects but very much long term ones! (And hopefully good scrap busters!)

I'm hoping you all had a wonderful Easter? For our family it was a time of celebration as a niece got married. Of course with that came the gathering together of lots of family. It was a beautiful wedding and a second highlight (for some of us) was the arrival on NZ soil of our two wee grand-daughters.
Family photos follow, so feel free to stop reading here :-) —

First party dress

All tuckered out

The rest of us in our party clothes too. Hubby and I with our kiddies
 and grand kiddies.

Kaliah and Saydee and their Mummy.

With Great Granny. The girls are 8 months old now.

Just another family shot but think hubby was busy yakking and cooking
brunch on the BBQ! 

I feel caught up now,

'till next time,

happy stitching :-)

Progress - it's a flimsy!

I've been really disciplined this week and am pleased to announce that I now have a flimsy :-)

This was the last round for our Tuesday Medallion Mystery (that I'm doing with The Country Yard), There were, of course, several rules for it, I think I've met them! I went for this foundation pieced border.....

The last side of the border - pieces ready to join - yaay!

The borders were quite a size!

Silly shot of the day, dancing borders.

Adjustments needed - off with the 1" border from the last round, and on with a
wider border - not sure if that's legal or not, but it's done now!

Foundation pieces all joined and edge stitched. I took the papers out, up to an inch
from  the curved edge - to maintain stability of the biased edges.
(Time to vacuum the floor!!)

Sewing on a bias strip which will act as piping. Flip the bias strip to the back and
press and baste in place.

Lie the top on the floor, check it's square and pin it down.
(At this stage I thought it looked quite ok like it was and wondered why I needed
the last border!)

Lie the last border on top (which was joined like a picture frame, I forgot to take
 a photo of that stage).
Measure, adjust, pin, re-measure, re-adjust, re-pin (and so on) until it's all square
and sitting straight.

Stitch in the ditch of piping to attach last border to quilt top.

Completed top, another one to add to the quilting pile :-)

I really didn't know if this border was going to work or not — after I sewed it on and pinned it up on the wall, I didn't (couldn't!) look at it for about 5 minutes. I hoped I would get a 'yes' moment when I finally did look at the full top - phew, I am happy with it...and pleased it is done, it was a really fun project to do. I'd love to get straight into the quilting but there are a few other projects I really need to get on with first....sigh!

For now I need to get the vacuum cleaner out as my Palace floor is a bit of a mess... a bit of other housework wouldn't go amiss either...!

Thank you for visiting, 

happy creating,