Another FNSI for November

We had a second Friday Night Sew In this month so I settled into my comfy chair and continued on  with some stitcheries I'd started earlier in the week.

I have been back to working on Ruth's Quilt by Leanne Beasley. The stitcheries don't take very long to stitch and I've added another four to my pile.

Quite a few people from the stitchalong I joined have got their tops together so I took a few minutes to pull out my fabrics. I cut a few of the rectangles needed and sewed a few together - just to see how they would look.

I had started with a sweet fat quarter bundle I bought years ago.  I can see that maybe a couple of the blue-ish fabrics I've added to it aren't quite right so will have another hunt through my stash to see what else I can find.

Cute though :-)

Thank you to Wendy of Sugarlane Designs for hosting us on Friday night. Pop over to her blog *here* to see what others got up to on the night (and over the weekend).

Over the weekend I got back to focusing on my goal of completing three overdue cot quilts before the end of the year. I have made a start on the next one!
(Footnote...very tempted by this pattern - don't you think two little girls would LOVE these???)
I'd had a spare hour during the week so did all the cutting for the first block. I pulled it out on Sunday and whew, I wondered what I had taken on!!

Lots of pieces!! For just one block!!

However it came together pretty nicely —

Yaay, one block done :-)

The pattern is Dogs in Sweaters by Elizabeth Hartman.

The cot sized quilt needs four blocks. Below are the fabrics I'd imagined...I'm thinking of replacing the bottom blue; it seems washed out compared to the others - thoughts??

Each dog will have different fabrics for the ears and tail, but I think I'll keep the body fabric the same...

I have a home day today so I'm hoping to get a little more sewing done. Wish me luck!!

Happy stitches,

November FNSI

When I pulled out my Whimsical Woodland mystery stitchery block of the month the other night, I discovered I wasn't as up-to-date as I thought I was! Somehow, I'd missed stitching the month 7 block. So that has been my evening handwork this week. Last night, for Friday Night Sew In, I continued on —

I didn't get quite as far as I thought I might but the end is in sight —

This morning I tipped out the box and had a look at what I've done so far. I've this month's block to stitch but also a fair bit of piecing.

Here is the pile of fabrics I should have also been sewing up month-by-month. I see a Whimsical Woodland day at the sewing machine in my future!

This morning I also got the final borders on a cot quilt I started making last weekend.

There are several new(ish) babies around who haven't got their quilts yet. I'm detemined not to do any Christmas sewing or get (too) distracted until they are done.
There, I've put that in writing, let's see how well I do.
I started off really well. I surpassed myself with a clean, clear cutting table.

Ahh, we have a problem here...see the bonus triangles I made while I was making X blocks for the quilt? They very nearly sent me down another interesting path - so I quickly put them away and carried on with what I was supposed to be doing!

Anyway I have stayed focussed and here is the completed top —

I made a pink version of the same design earlier in the year (which you can see *here* - scroll down through the post to find it). I really like this pattern; Tic-Tac Who by Joanne of Canuck Quilter Designs; it's pretty straight forward to put together but the 'feature' block adds a bit of an extra sewing challenge as well as additional visual interest.

There are three options for this block; an owl, dog or duckling.

This is a very short post for me, so I thought I'd take the chance to pop in just one more photo.

Longer time readers may remember the Round Robin quilt representing our farm which was started Years Ago (2010) but which I only just finished last year (see the post *here*).
It thrills me to see the grandie-girls stop and ask about it - they spend ages working out who is who.

They recognise the animals they see around the farm and love that their daddy is in the quilt!

(I see I need to do some repairs to the button hole stitch here.)

Thank you to Wendy for hosting Friday Night Sew In..as this is a five-Friday month, there's another one next week too. Lucky us :-)

Happy stitches,

 

Auckland Festival of Quilts

Last weekend I left my calves in the trustworthy hands of my son-in-law and went down to Auckland for this year's Festival of Quilts.(Golly, it was nearly 2 weeks ago now!)
The Country Yard had a stand there again this year.....I worked at the shop on Thursday and by the time I got down to Auckland (with more supplies) Kerryn and Bernice had done a marvellous job of setting up our stand.

Friday morning - time for a quick team photo before I went off to play....

I met up with Linda and Julie and spent a lovely few hours in their company. Quilts and shopping. Fun :-)

On Saturday I worked on our stand and that was a good day too. Home that night, tired but full of quilty inspiration:-)

The photos are in no particular order and I apologise in advance if there are too many and that they're not all square, etc etc —
I actually thought this quilt was Best of Show, but discovered a day later it was Amateur Best of Show, rather than the penultimate.

Whilst the Hand Heals by Jenni Scott.
Using Yoko Saito's Traditional Pattern Lessons.
A lot of this quilt was completed while the maker had her wrist in plaster.

Who Am I to argue with the judges, but I didn't actually take a photo of the Best of Show.

I follow Esther Aliu's blog; she designs beautiful quilts which are always works of art. I started one years ago and didn't get very far but would love to finish it someday before starting another of her's.
Her designs often win awards, all around the world. Here are two by Jenny Henry —

Secret Garden

Red Delicious

It seemed that this year there were quite a few quilts in surprise fabrics (to me, at least). For example, below is a Dear Jane quilt in Kaffe Fasset fabrics. Quite a different look and quite pretty.

Dear Jane, by Margaret Reid.

Wendy Williams seems to be a popular Australlian designer here in New Zealand; there were a few of her quilts. 

Around the Garden by Rebecca Bishop

Sonya Prchal makes beautiful painted and then thread painted quilts. Her Cats is no exception.

Cats by Sonya Prchal

I was pleased to see a Foxley Village, designed by Natalie Bird. This was a BOM in last year's Australian Homespun magazine. The original was in Tilda fabrics, not sure what was used here. I've collected the patterns and fabrics for this and is another on my to-do list.

Foxley Village by Mary Metcalf.
There was no hand stitching in this version.

It was fun to see the Birds of a Feather quilt by Tish Brindle. I've often looked at these birds and thought I'd like to make some. They'd make a good swap or scrap challenge block.

Here are a few with a New Zealand flavour.

A truly unique Eye-spy by Ku Bailey

Neighbours by Dianne Dowd. NZ and Australian birds.
Helen Godden class using Lumiere paints and free motion quilting

Year of the Kiwi by Kathy Ronson.
Southern Hemisphere activities!

One of the more traditional looking quilts.

Little pieces of Yesteryear by Colleen Burr.

This hasn't photographed very well so I've shown a close-up photo too.

Bluebirds by Tracey Roberts

As usual, plenty of lovely quilting to look at —

Churn and Dash again by Judi Schon

Sue Flego's Just for Fun.
Her interpretation of a Sarah Fielke design

High Rise City.
Anne Joule makes beautiful EPP quilts from tie off-cuts. Most years she has
another one to exhibit.

This has got quite long!! But if you want to see even more quilts, pop over to Julie's post about the show.

Charlotte has also written about it in three interesting posts.

If you want to see what Linda bought - oh la la - head over *here* and *here*- it was exciting to be with her when she found this treasure :-)

Well done if you've got to the end! I hope you've enjoyed seeing the quilts.

Till next time, 

happy stitches