She's off again....

Hot on the heels of arriving home after my visit to Hawaii, I headed slightly south to Ruakaka to spend a couple of days sewing with a few friends.

This had been planned for a while - finding a weekend that suited us all was not easy. In the end we were able to take advantage of a long holiday weekend - I had 3 nights there and my friends had four.

It was just lovely - being able to sew all day and chat and laugh to our hearts' content was just wonderful. 

We took turns with the meals so that was not arduous. It was all delicious and would you believe it, this is the only food photo I took!

So what did I take and what did I do?

I took a few easy to pick up and put down projects; ones I didn't have to think too much about. 

I hadn't done anything further with the Scrappy Trip around the World project I started at Scrub Stitching in April, so that was an easy thing to pack.

I made a couple more blocks —

And I was itching to finish the last few blocks needed for my Four-patch fun. It's been a leader-ender project since last July (ish)..... I got to the 'impatient to make those last few blocks stage'. They had lost their leader-ender status and became hard out sewing. The cutting was already done and these didn't take long to put together —

Now I look forward to sewing all 144 blocks together (one day!).

My main goal for the weekend was to finish making my "On Williams Street" blocks. I've had them in the pipeline for about 3 years, and pull out the box from time to time. The fun part of this project is that each block is quilted in a different way, Quilt As You Go style...however I was determined to make ALL the blocks before I started looking at the quilting instructions.

They're quite cool blocks, a little time consuming to make, but there seems to be plenty of space for varied and imaginative quilting designs.

Finally they are all done so I can think about the next stage.

We went for the odd walk, I did a little hand sewing and that was about it :-) 

All too soon it was time to pack up and head for home. Roll on the next one!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

Sewing at Scrub Stitching

Since I've been home, there's not been a lot of sewing done.

After the first few weeks I had - 

A. Sewn a side seam for my DIL which was damaged by label removal

B. Sewn an air filter for a motorbike for the MOML

C. Re-hemmed some jeans for ED.

Better to focus on the sewing I achieved at Scrub Stitching - 

I took two 'new' projects to work on....totally allowable in my eyes as they were both scrappy ones, cut/prepared from scraps and stash.

As well as making the pouches shown in my previous post, I made good starts on the two projects - 

The first was a Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt. I did spend some time prior to Scrub Stitching cutting the strips for this and sorting them into piles. Once at SS and sewing, I just had to hope that I'd made the right decisions and that I was heading in the right direction with the prep work.

Hopefully once I've sewn them altogether and rearranged them, this quilt will make sense!

Nicely organised baggies. I impressed myself with my organisation prior to SS —

I also wanted to make a start on another impulse project. I started with a vague plan and a whole lot of strips thrown in a bag. I sewed until I decided I needed more space to lay this out and think. 

What is fun about this is the random sized strips that are used for the log cabin. When I have decided on a size for each quarter block I will just trim them all to the same size. 

I have a lot of strips hanging around which I've been saving for a 'rainy day' and this was a great way to start using them.

Looking at it now, I think I'll sew a couple more dark rounds and then decide on a size. 

I'm calling this Starry Log Cabin for now (haha original name!).

It was nice to have a couple of fancy new pouches to bring my projects home in.

I really had the urge to sew the other day so spent some happy time just sewing my current leader-ender project, 4-patch fun.. It's nice to sew up a bunch and then spend some more happy time rummaging for more reds to cut up!

Can you spy who is in the photo below, who was entertaining me while I took my photos this morning?

Yes, baby Olive (and her family) are here!! They were here when I arrived home from Australia so it's no wonder I haven't got a lot of extra stuff done!!

It's been wonderful to spend the time with them —

Yesterday she carried on the family tradition and helped Ganma feed the chooks —

Okay, time to go,

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn