Another mini sewing retreat & WOOFA challenge

I nominated my landscape quilt as my WOOFA challenge for the month and it was finished as you can see in this previous post

My friend and I enjoyed our last one day mini sewing retreat via Facetime so much so that we repeated it again.    First up Daphne finished off her stitchery that she was working on when we last Facetimed and  it now adorns the front of a small zip bag.

This time she was working on this cross stitch.   

And below can be seen a screen photo of her progress.   A few more Facetime sewing sessions ahead of us me thinks.  

Meanwhile  I worked on quilting some fabric for a snap top bag

Once the front and back were quilted I moved onto cutting up some green fabrics into 2 1/2" squares for a project that was to be started at the beginning of the year but for some reason was never saw the light of day.     More on that later.

I am trying to go scrappy but cannot just put my hand in  pull out the first piece and sew it to the last piece.    There has to be a certain amount of control as to where light, medium and dark are placed  to make me happy.    

Hubs and I did a walk along one of our local beaches during the week enjoying the lovely Spring weather. 

Don't forget to head on over to Cheryll's blog to see more WOOFA challenge projects.  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

My OMG for September

Was to create a handmade gift from these fabrics as part of Miss M's birthday present.

 First item made was a pyjama bag.    Front of the bag

Back of the bag.   It can sit on the bed or hang from the door.  

And of course every pyjama bag needs pyjamas inside but in this case a cool cotton nightie for those hot summer nights that we get.  

Thanks Patty for organising OMG.    More finished goals can be seen here.   

Linking with Put your Foot Down

                      Finished or not Finished Friday

                      TGIFF

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all 

Fall Blog Hop

Once again Carla has organised another fun blog hop.     Even though in the southern hemisphere we are entering into Spring it was fun to get out my Fall  - or autumn as we call it here - fabrics out and have a play with them.    I did have a few ideas to make for this but decided to go with a tablemat.

For more Fall loveliness just click on the links below.  

Monday, September 21st

Just Let Me Quilt

Websterquilt
VroomansQuilts
Karen's Korner
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
QuiltFabrication.com
Karrin’s Crazy World
Seams To Be Sew
The Joyful Quilter
Kathleen McMusing 

Tuesday, September 22nd

MooseStashQuilting
Quilting Gail
that fabric feeling
Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting
Kathy's Kwilts and More
Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
 Sew Many Yarns
Sunshine in the Attic
Becky’s adventures in quilting and travel
Food for Thought

Wednesday, September 23rd

Quiltscapes
Ms P Designs USA
Stitchin At Home
Just Because Quilts
beaquilter
Patchwork Breeze
Selinaquilts
Lily Patch Quilts
Not Afraid Of Color
Quilting & Learning: What a Combo!

Thursday, September 24th

Creatin' in the Sticks
Quilt Schmilt
Bumbleberry Stitches
Samelia’s Mum
Life in the Scrapatch
Storied Quilts
Songbird Designs
Quiltifications
Words & Stitches

for the love of geese

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

In and out of the sewing room

First up my friend and I enjoyed our mini stay at home sewing retreat via Facetime.     She had not done a retreat before and  enjoyed the experience so we have planned to do another one.    While we chatted I managed to make a good start on my landscape quilt.  As I wanted to get the binding on an early start was made in the sewing room when joining Wendy and the others for FNSI.

I am really pleased with the result and there are plans to start another one soon.   Daphne started a stitchery and made good progress during the day.   She even taught herself a new knot stitch.  She has plans to put the finished stitchery onto the front of a bag.

My walking companions and I walked the perimeter of  Narrabeen Lake - a distance of just over 8 kms.  We did it in 2 hours.   

Not far to go until we reach the parking area from where we started

I have been sitting outside in the sun most days after lunch and enjoying reading.    I have just finished reading Stone Country by Nicole Alexander but have to say that I did not enjoy  it as much as Cedar Tree.    Next book on the list  is The Mother in Law by Sally Hepworth - another Australian writer.

The girls - being my walking companions plus one other - and I enjoyed a coffee morning together.

While we sipped and chatted we planned out our next walk .    This one is going to be along the coastline between Curl Curl and Harbord.

The bees are busy in the garden at the moment buzzing around the lavender and daisies.

Off to the sewing room to work on a few projects - nothing big - a small snap top bag, a wallhanging as well fiddling with the placement of fabric for the next landscape quilt.  More on those later as they progress from ideas to reality.  

Linking with Finished or Not Finished Friday

                      Put Your Foot Down

                      TGIFF

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

That Didn't Last Long

That is the nice tidy couch in my sewing room.     In my last post I was starting to look at doing some landscape quilts and delving further into my stash of fabrics these were uncovered.   

I am now looking at fabrics in a different way.    The fabrics have been divided up into blue sky, rippled water, trees, grass, sand, shells, mountains, sunsets, rocks, seaweed etc.  

Cheryll reminded us that as this month is moving along  it is time to move a WOOFA project forward to the finish line.  While this project did not exist in reality it has been an idea in my mind for quite sometime.   Progress so far - the scene has been drawn and cut out

And the fabrics chosen placed on each section.  It was decided to keep it simple for my first effort and make the picture approx 11" x 9"  plus borders using just 5 fabrics. 

A lot of you-tube videos have been watched and there seems to be a few different ways of doing these quilts.    I have decided on cutting the fabrics a bit bigger , turning under the top edge and ironing it down so that there are no raw edges shown rather than gluing down the fabrics or using fusible webbing.    Just a personal preference.   I will experiment and try the other methods next time.   

My aim is to make a good start on this tomorrow as I am having a "craft day" with a friend via Facetime.  We are starting around 10 am with a break for lunch and will continue on until afternoon tea.  It is my friend's first "retreat" so I thought we would start off  "gently" rather than throw her in for a full session of a few days.    

While I have been toing and froing from the sewing room over the past few days our resident blue tongue lizard has been enjoying the lovely warm sunshine.    He watches me watching him and we both keep our distance.   

Linking with Finished or Not Friday

                     Put your foot down  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all 

Having a "me" day

One needs to have "me" day every so often especially when the calendar turns over another year so hubs  helped me celebrate the day with a champagne breakfast.   Being such a lovely warm morning breakfast was moved outside to enjoy the garden that is just blooming beautifully.   

Normally we celebrate our birthdays with a lunch at our favourite seafood restaurant but there was a fire there 6 months ago and it is still under renovation so I took matters into my own hands and cooked a seafood lunch consisting of salmon fillet, roasted sweet potato and broccoli with cheese sauce. 

This was followed by my favourite fruits of strawberries and blueberries topped with Greek yogurt. 

 

Needless to say after a big breakfast and a late lunch there will be very little dinner tonight.  

What better way to spend the day than in my sewing room having a play around with fabric.    I am investigating "landscape" quilts and not  being the least bit artistic I am needing all the help and hints that I can get therefore lots of you-tube videos on how to go about creating one have been looked at over the last few weeks.   Today bought me closer to a start with grabbing all these fabrics.

The fabrics are laid out in no particular order but they have been divided into a mountain scene and a beach scene.   Not sure which one I will do - maybe both - and the fabrics below were discarded as options although I am undecided about a couple of them.

No actual sewing happened but I did enjoy my day playing around in the sewing room, starting another Nicole Alexander book, relaxing, eating and receiving good wishes from family and friends via the phone, emails and texts.  

Now you can head on over to Cheryll's blog to see what other more productive crafters achieved last night for FNwF.    

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

OMG for September

This first of the month seems to roll around very quickly - even though most days are fairly repetitive -so time to nominate the project to be worked on this month.     Miss M has a 7th birthday early October and I always like to give her a handmade item along with her main gift.     So my goal for this month will be to turn these fabrics into something novel and wearable.   

We are having a run of lovely warmish spring like weather here at present so time to head down to the beach for a walk along the water's edge.  

This is as far as I ventured into the water.

It will be a while before I am fully submerged in the ocean as it still needs to be a lot warmer for me.  

Linking with Elm Street Quilts

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all