Irene and FMQing

A quick little Hello to start the weekend with; hasn't the week flown by fast?! I've had a little sewing time, and completed month /row 4 of Goodnight Irene.
I am loving doing this so much - simple and straight forward; I've tried doing it as a Leader -Ender project, but once I pull it out, I'm hooked!
I've also added an extra block at the end of each row to make it a little wider.. now to decide whether it looks lopsided or not - do you think I should make it more balanced by having each row start and finish with a cross block or 16-patch?

This photo is a little dull, while it's not going to be a bright quilt, it's
definitely brighter than this photo shows!

Thank you Terry, once again, for hosting this sewalong, I am really enjoying it. To see the variety of quilts everyone is making, click *here*... Terry has put the link-up on her sidebar which I think is a brilliant idea as it doesn't get lost in amongst her posts!

I squeezed in a little free motion quilting this week. Amy, from Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures has started free motion quiltalong Mondays, designed to help us with our fmq-ing skills. At the start of the month she introduces a quilting design. The idea is we have the month to play with it and improve it. Last month was McTavishing which I was a bit slow to join up with.
This month's is a Scroll Flower —

Of course the first step is to get your tension right!! ...

...then you can play!

This was fun. You can see the scroll shape in the centre of the flower - then
a round of petals, then echo the petals once.
Then branch out and make another scroll...and so on.

This is my first attempt at it, I look forward to playing some more and mastering it fully :-) like not getting caught in a corner, keeping my petals nice and round, playing with variations and so on!
Amy gives very clear instructions and a video *here* on her blog, so visit her if you want to have a play too.

I've had such a lot of fun with my free motion quilting that when I had the opportunity, I decided to get myself an HQ Sweet Sixteen. How exciting!!

Nigel was the first one to have a play....

....But then I quilted my first quilt, Paintbox, on it - oh joy!

The Sweet 16s are a sit down machine with the machine facing you straight on; you still move the fabric around, just like you do with standard machine fmqing. There is a lot more room and other bells and whistles. I'm still mastering it, but am thoroughly enjoying it so far!! Here's to lots more adventures :-)
I have some sewing with friends planned for this weekend, so must get myself organised..... have a great weekend,
Happy sewing, and thank you for visiting,

Saturday Sewing

Aren't weekends lovely? The rhythm of the farm keeps on, no matter what day of the week it is but there is still a slight change of pace which indicates a bit of down time.
I spent Saturday morning working in the garden, a little bit of rain has made the soil friable and weeding is a pleasure, as is tidying up bushes and planning new plantings :-)
Then it was some sewing time, and I caught up with a few pieced  Pieces of Time blocks I was behind on. This quilt is one my online sewing group is doing as a BOM; one pieced and one applique block a month. We started at the beginning of last year so it is definitely a long-term process!! Nice to see some progress though! This is where I am at so far with the pieced blocks —

14 pieced blocks completed - yaay!

 Here's a slightly closer look at them all. The blocks finish at 7 1/2" so vary in their fiddliness!

I'm sure you can pick out the one I am going to re-do; however I will wait till all the blocks are done before doing this, in case, by some miracle it works after all!! (That blue is actually a fine stripe which I thought might read a bit lighter than it has).
Here is what we are aiming for - isn't it beautiful? —

Photo from Lori Smith's website,
From My Heart To Your Hands.

So my goal for the next little while is to catch up with the applique blocks. I am doing these by invisible machine applique and am still experimenting with this - freezer paper or washaway, which threads and getting my stitch right. Maybe I'm being too fussy, but I do need to sort myself out!! Any tips?

I also want to spread the word about another blog. Karen of karensquiltscrowscardinals has launched a pattern design company and is having a giveaway to celebrate. Karen has designed some gorgeous applique patterns and has posted some awesome tutorials on her blog over the last few months (or more). She has some free patterns available and the giveaway is a great one.
*Here* is the link for the giveaway post. The giveaway closes Monday so head on over for a look!

Daylight Saving ended last night so I'm feeling bright-eyed and bushy tailed... seems like another productive day may be in the pipeline :-)
Happy weekend stitching and thank you for visiting,

Bits and Bobs

There's been a few different things going on since last time I posted; first of all, the mailmen have done their duty and delivered some postcards. Linda, of SCRAPMASTER blog and I took part in a swap organised by Sheila. I've taken part in these before and it is always fun to see what ideas everyone comes up with. The theme for this swap was Spring, which is something I'm not dreaming of right now - I'm appreciating the (slightly) cooler weather that comes with Autumn on this side of the world. (Besides, Spring for me means lots of newborn calves and work which I'm definitely not ready for yet!).
However I did really appreciate and love the card sent by Linda - isn't it lovely? Thank you Linda :-)

Linda has edged her card with a decorative machine stitch - I hadn't
thought of doing that.

And here is the one I sent to her —

The Whangarei Patchworkers and Quilters Guild had their biennial exhibition last weekend. This great example of quilt bombing greeted us as we entered the carpark!

Great advertising! Isn't it cool - apparently this cover was borrowed from
another guild.
Thanks to Leeanne of Quiltmekiwi for sharing this photo with me :-)

I went along for a day as part of the The Country Yard - we had a booth set up so I didn't get to have a huge look at all the quilts. However there are the ones that were opposite our booth - a nice variety to gaze at in the quiet moments!

I just took the one photo of the rest of the quilts - this is the one I would have voted for viewer's choice if I'd been able to.

Flower Garden By Jeannette Monaghan.
Quilted by John Nielsen.
A Piece of Cake design.

Photos from the exhibition have been popping up on other local blogs this week. Here are some links if you would like to see what Northland, New Zealand quilters get up to —
Leeann from Quilt Whangarei (several posts)
Leeanne from quiltmekiwi
Ms Lottie from theslightlymadquiltlady
Susan from Kamo Lady

Many of you will know I love trying out new things. I've been spending my evenings this week stitching these leaves —

They are so cool to do, an adaptation of doing buttonhole stitch in a
circle.

I found the tutorial here on Karen's faeriesandfibres blog. This is a relatively new blog to me and it is so full of interesting quilty-ness and crafty-ness that I am enjoying my visits there.
Karen is currently celebrating her first blog anniversary - click here if you'd like to know more and would like to go in the draw for some fabulous prizes.
(Now you mustn't ask me about the new project I seem to be working on in the above photo, although if you visit Karen's blog, I'm sure you'll get some idea... I'm working on the premise that if I don't talk about it in blogland, it doesn't exist...gulp!!)

Ok, time to get off the computer and plant this rose bush I bought the other day :-)
Happy stitching and thank you for visiting,