Finished twice!

A project I considered Half Done and one I wanted to complete properly this year was my 2010 Mystery Stitchery, completed through The Country Yard way back then.
I re-discovered it recently when the elder twins were building a hut —

I realised how little quilting it had on it and decided if it was going to live for more huts and general wear and tear, it would be best if I added some more to it.

It was quilted around the sashing of the stitchery blocks and and in about 6 other ditches. A bit baggy in places :-(

I decided I wasn't going to quilt it to death, but I do like my stitcheries to have at last a little quilting in them —

I had a bit of a play adding in some steam or ribbons, etc.

I should include a photo of how these blocks were before —

There are a couple more photos of these on my previous post. When I wrote that post I was asked where the proverb designs came from. After a bit of hunting and remembering, I found them *here*. The site is slightly updated from years ago when we accessed them for The Country Yard but you should be able to get them ok.

I stitched in a lot more ditches. The flying geese got a wee touch of free play —

I did some very simple border feathers —

I had a flashback to 2012 and the Diane Gaudynski feathers I learnt then.

Finished with a label (nothing flash!) —

Funny that this quilt never got a name - it was always just The Mystery Stitchery!

A quick photo shoot of the new and improved twice finished quilt!

Ta-Da! My first PHD finish for the year.

Read more about the PHD project *here*.
EDIT - I'm linking up to Gail's PHD progress report *here*.

I mentioned in my last post that we had the elder girls here. They stayed for a couple of nights while their Dad and YD were otherwise occupied......

The Grand Result? One big little baby boy ♥

Unfortunately for you, you're seeing more of me than he in the photo below but rest assured that he is a beautiful bonny fellow. The spitting image of his father.

One happy Ganma and newborn Odie ♥

As can be expected we're all as pleased and proud as punch!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

A little handwork

Friday Night With Friends came around very quickly for me and passed again just as quickly! By the time I got home and we'd settled after dinner, there wasn't much time for much handwork.
One of my PHD goals for the year is to put some more quilting on a quilt I finished years (10 in fact) ago.
I'd done some quilting on it on Thursday and spent Friday evening knotting and burying the threads

There weren't many to bury (I haven't finished with the new quilting yet) so I then pulled out these two blocks and added a bit of stitchery to them.
The geese needed their eyes —

And the wagon wheels needed completing —

These are blocks six and seven from my Foxley village BOM (Homespun magazine). They were nice and quick to do but I see block eight will be a bit more involved. Foxley Village didn't make it to any of my official lists this year but I'm going to quietly add it to my WOOFA list - I've realised nothing on either of my lists has hand stitching for the evenings which is quite a gap - some days that's all the stitching and sewing I get to do.

Thank you Cheryll for inviting us along for Friday Night with Friends. You can visit her blog *here.*

It's been a busy weekend. We have the two older girls and their two dogs staying so there's not been many chances to escape to The Palace. (The girls are doing homework at the moment so I've sneaked away!)

Two photos from the weekend; cooling off in the stream in the bush down the farm :-) One of my favourite spots at this time of the year.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Sewing in the heat

I spent time in the weekend doing some 'odds and sods' sewing —

A zip installed in a cushion for YD so she can wash it, and a new head rest
for a carseat after the original had an unfortunate accident.

As well as the above there was a bit of mending and altering a new pair of farm overalls for the MOML. Not terribly enthralling but it felt good to get those chores out of the way :-)

When Monday came, I was more than happy to focus on some of the other sewing goals I have. It was easy to decide what to do for this month's One Monthly Goal with Patty Of Elm Street Quilts.

Yes, quilt and finish the baby quilt I assembled for last month's goal.

To see what others are working on, or to sign up yourself, visit Patty's blog *here*.

Getting that thinking out of the way, I then moved on with The Sopwell Ladies Basket Society Quilt.

I have been slowly chipping away at this. My design wall has been gradually filling up with the small blocks and the planning of what fabrics to use where —

Completed block 5 and planning of block 6!

To the sewing machine with invisible thread and zigzag —

Units assembled and ready to join —

(For the purposes of my 350 block project I'll be counting this as 5 blocks,
even though the pattern calls it One Block!)

Block 6 complete —

Yaay - great to be making progress on this - even though it's not on any of my official lists for this year, hehe!
(As for my blog title, all my sewing is being done under a fan at the moment - it's been Very Hot!)

EDIT - I'm just popping back to link up to Dione at Clever Chameleon Quilting. She does a weekly link up for us to show the progress we're making on our projects. Her latest post is a fun wee commentary on what she's been up to. Visit her *here*.

'til next time,

happy stitches,