Friday Night and Saturday night Sew In

Friday night this week was Friday Night Sew In  - I was happy to join in and spend the evening with like minded crafters from around the globe.
It had been a busy week and I hadn't had a chance to prep anything for my evenings in my comfy chair so I've been knitting some more dishclothes. I had made some last year from cotton yarn that had been sitting around for a while. I wanted to keep knitting until I used it all up.

They don't look too bad......in this photo —

Nor in this photo —

But in this photo you see that I have created probably the ugliest dishcloth ever created 😔

Haha as I ran out of one cotton I added another and just kept on knitting until the end.

Definitely not one for the gift box, however I am sure my kitchen bench is not going to mind being wiped down by an ugly cloth!

On the positive side, this is all I have left from four skeins of the cotton yarn.

I knitted all of these cloths with two strands of yarn using *this pattern* which I found in Ravelry.

On Saturday I made sure I did some preparation so that I had something to do in the evening! 
I'm back to working on the Sip Tea and EPP mystery project that was run on Instagram in January. No longer a mystery, it's a lovely little sewing folder. 

This was how far I'd got —

After machine sewing it together yesterday afternoon, last night I sewed the opening up and attached the rosette.

There are a few more decorative features to add so I will continue on with it tonight.
(This was a free sewalong designed by @stitchingnotes and @nordiccrafter (on Instagram). They now have a detailed pattern available which I ended up purchasing to save back and forthing between all the posts. It's available *here* or *here*.)

Thank you Wendy for hosting us this weekend ♥

I have a bit of time left this afternoon before the evening rolls in so I hope to cut some Bear and Popstar blocks for the week's sewing. 

We have had a heavy rain warning for today/tonight but so far no rain has come although there has been a lot of wind. We really need a decent rain so we are hoping something will happen.
I've been starting my dinner prep a bit early so that I can cook up a pot of apples while the meal cooks. A bottle of stewed fruit a night keeps up with the windfalls and makes it less of a task for me.

So with all that in mind,

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Sewing away....

It looks like I've had my pedal to the metal when I go through these photos but I haven't really. Most of these projects are ones I have been working on for a while that are slowly coming together.
After our frosty week last week, the temperatures warmed up a lot but that was because we were having massive amounts of rain instead. A lot of the country suffered some pretty bad flooding - we had much more rain than we needed but didn't suffer the flooding that we thought we might.
 So why am I mentioning the weather yet again? Well it was the perfect excuse to spend some time sewing this weekend. I thought I was going to be partying up large with Chooky in her Chookshed Birthday Party but by the time I got my machine threaded, her party was nearly over. Nice that we had a long weekend (NZ 'celebrated' the Queen's Birthday on Monday) so I could carry on with my own little sewing party then :-)
I had a little handwork to do and finished the sheep block of the Barnyard quilt I've been making for The Country Yard this year —

And inserted it in the gap I had in the quilt top. It's got a nice mix of fiddly and simple blocks and has been a fun make.
The weather's too dodgy to get a decent photo - the colours are a little washed out/off in this but you get the general idea of it.

I also finished the last couple of EPP stars I needed to make for border 5 of Evandale.

It feels like I've been working on this one forever but once I settle and focus on it, it sews up relatively quickly.

There's one more border to do...it's a real scrap buster; it's the same as border two with the small EPP diamonds.

After getting these two tops under my belt, I switched to my latest baby quilt.
When my back was turned, Timmie managed to totally upset my tidy and carefully counted pile of cutting —

But I did manage to salvage the pieces and got a little sewing done on the next blocks.
When Piglet gets a mouth, I'll show the top properly :-)

In April I worked on my Omigosh! quilt as part of a 'List of 12' UFO-busting some friends and I are doing. The number drawn out in May saw me working on my Life is Beautiful project. Hardly UFO busting, but I managed two more blocks this month —

(Again please excuse the washed out photos).

There are 32 stitcheries altogether, I've done 19 so far.

Whew, like I say, it seems like a lot, but I have been working on all of these for a while!
It's cooling off so I'm away to fill up the wheelbarrow with some more firewood.

Happy stitches,

 

I have succumbed!

I'm not quite sure how it came about (!!) but I have signed up for the One Flower Wednesday!
It's so exciting! All I need to do is make one hexie flower every Wednesday and show it. By the end of - whenever- I will have enough for a real garden, rather than a window box, and we will all marvel at the quilt that started off as a One Flower Wednesday 'challenge'.
I have decided to make my hexie flowers the same way I am doing my klosjes, English Paper Piecing using the Sewline Glue Pen and light card, with the sides 1 inch long.
I had thoughts of using this as a chance to build on my long-standing EPP UFO project (below) but I now think I will keep these two projects separate.

 

So here's this week's bloom. Sweet and cheerful, I hope, for a lovely sunny day.