Angels All Around

Well here we are, another week. Firstly I want to thank everyone for your sweet comments on my Friendship Garden quilt. It's so nice to have quilting friends around the globe who share my love of quilting and stitching. DH tells me I'm not too good at sharing the new quilt... he's woken up three nights completely uncovered...
This weeks plans will probably change, but if I list them I have a better chance of at least accomplishing some of them, including trying to finish the machine quilting on the Country Life wall hanging. I'd really like to get that finished and on the wall, perhaps in the sewing room, still undecided.

As it's nearly August I think I need to work on my July blocks from Judy's quilt for an hour.. This is the progress so far:

Another 7 four patches need to be put together to complete the coloured blocks and then finish piecing the black and white blocks.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'd started a new stitchery series. I didn't think I'd be able to show it until it was finished as the recipient reads my blog, but I think even though that may be the case that perhaps the penny won't drop... well that's what I'm hoping. I just have one more to to stitch up, one waiting to have the tracing lines removed and I'll have the six needed to turn it into a little wall hanging, so here's three of the completed:

Once I have these little sweeties finished I can then get back to my Crab Apple Hill designs and my Australiana Red Work blocks, but I'm sure they'll be something else that catches my eye, calling to me to be made. I've decided although I'd like to get ufo's finished, I'm not going to stress over it, if something else comes along, and I'm sure it will, then that's ok. I don't want to die with the title "Most quilts Made", I'd rather leave this earth with others knowing that I enjoyed what I do, and if I leave them with ufo's then that's ok too.

I have a few ideas floating around my head for the PIF gifts that I need to stitch, so that's something else that I need to work on this week, if only making up my mind what the item will be.

Happy Stitching Everyone.

Introducing

After a couple of hundred hours of embroidering, 2 solid days and nights of quilting and a full day stitching down the binding and putting the label on I can now say that the quilt is finished. The embroidery isn't perfect, the quilting isn't perfect,but nothing in life is perfect, so to me it's perfect with it's faults. The setting I'm happy with as it's just as I imagined it. Thanks to everyone who gave suggestions for the name and helped me out of my "I can't think of a name" mode. They were all great and creative. I've decided to go with Wendy's suggestion of Friendship Garden, thanks Wendy, as that's what I think of when I look at this quilt. Margaret also gave a lovely line for the label that I used with an added word, thanks Margaret.

So this is how the label reads:

Friendship Garden

Made By: Linda xxxxx
Completed : 25th July 2007
Friends are the flowers that bloom in the garden of life.
Dedicated to Sharon, a friendship treasured.

I decided to follow Rose Marie's suggestion and start a quilting journal, so here's a little exert from that:
Each time I picked up needle and thread to stitch these blocks I was reminded of a friendship that is treasured even though we have never met. As I've stated before many of the best friendships are those that are formed even before we meet. I can vouch for this, as my "sweetie" and I were friends before we ever met one another.
Anyway I'm sure you're all wondering "When's she going to get to the photo" . By the time my "sweetie" got home from work all natural light had gone, so these aren't the best photo's, plus it was just too big for one person to hold up. So at long last here it is Friendship Garden.







The border, just to give you an idea of the colours, although they did show up a little pale.

Hubby doing his best to hold it up. And on the bed.

Happy Stitching.

Giveaway

The labels on and the quilts in the machine. So I've decided as I've finished the quilt that perhaps someone else might like to use the book. I'm sure Sharon, who gave it to me originally would appreciate that. The book not only has the quilt designs in it but it also has designs and patterns for bags, pincushions and cushions. So if you think you'd like this book and use it then leave a comment in this post and I'll draw a winner on the 1st of August. Please make sure you don't have your reply mail set to no reply.

What's In A Name

As I was putting the last of the quilting stitches into the Bronwyn Hayes quilt, I was trying to think of a name for it, and that's when I thought I'd ask you all for ideas.
Let me give you a little background, the designs come from the book "Flower Bed", all the blocks have flowers, all the setting fabrics are floral, except for one. The fabrics and the book were given to me in friendship. Here's a little reminder of some of the blocks.

I'm about to cut the binding fabric and hope to have it on tomorrow and if all goes well have it finished by tomorrow evening, ready for a photograph Thursday.

So let's hear your ideas for a name, I'm totally out of ideas.

Happy Stitching.

We Have A Flimsy

What a terrific feeling, I have the Bronwyn Hayes quilt ready to machine quilt. It took me most of last week to piece the blocks together and organise the borders and Friday saw me spending all day pinning it out ready for quilting. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I can have it on my bed. I must say, I'm really happy with it, and no, there's no photo today. You'll have to wait until all the quilting is done and the binding and label are on. Plus there's no way I can hold it up for a photo, far too heavy, and it's too big to fit all of it in a photo if it was on the floor. So I'll need to get hubby to do his wonderful hiding behind the quilt while I click, trick.
Saturday I received a lovely surprise from Carole over at Quilting adventures. A lovely parcel in my letter box greeted me after grocery shopping. What a sweetie she is, I commented the other day that she had crunchie bars (a lovely Aussie chocolate treat) so she parceled a couple up along with this gorgeous little fat quarter and a wonderful real of Essential Thread for me to test drive. The crunchie was a little warm after it's long trip, but 24 hours in the fridge brought them back to life and ready for a chocolate fix. Thank you Carole for the wonderful surprise, hubby has been told "Hands Off"....lol....

I also got all the things ready to take to church for the fair next weekend, as usual I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but I did manage to get a dozen note book covers, 12, purse tissue holders and half a dozen of these bags made, (thanks Margaret for the pattern) along with 8 sets of coasters, that I forgot to take a photo of, as well as the rabbit cushion that I showed a couple of weeks ago.




Saturday I started the first from the Elm Creek Quilts Sampler book, "The Quilter's Apprentice". Mel suggested the other day that I leave this book till last, otherwise I'd have trouble putting it down. Mel, you were right, I finished the first book Sunday afternoon. What a great story and I must admit I was surprised to find it set in today's time frame, for some reason I thought it was going to be set in the last century.

I've had 2 sign up for the pay it forward, so there's space for one more if anyone is interested.

Happy Stitching
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Edit: If your interesting in playing the Pay It Forward, Marne over at http://nanasquiltsandmore.blogspot.com/ is also playing and needs people to sign up so that it continues to flow.

Menu Plan Monday

Well what a terrible slack wife I was last week. I can assure you that hubby did not wither away to a shadow of himself, but my planning flew out the window completely, due to quilting. So having fessed up I'll carry most of last weeks menu through to this week.

Check out Laura at The Organizing Junkie for more weekly menus.
Monday :Italian Meatballs and spaghetti, garlic bread.
Tuesday: Marinated pork spareribs, potato salad, tossed salad and garlic bread.
Wednesday : Caramelized onion topped steaks with creamy horseradish sauce, baked potatoes, roasted sweet potato and beans.
Thursday: Homemade pizza,topped with cheese, ham, salami, diced onion, garlic, chili sauce, mushroom and olives.
Friday: Chicken Paprika, honeyed baby carrots, potatoes, broccoli and brussel sprouts.

Pay It Forward

I, like Darlene and many other bloggers have been reading about "pay it forward" on so many blogs and couldn't decide if I wanted to "play".
Today I decided that I'd join in on the fun and signed up with Darlene, so now it's my turn to Pay It Forward.

Here's how it works:
The first three people to join me will receive a handmade gift from me. I have 365 days to make and send it. It won't take me that long though. Now, each of you three must also put this on your blog and get three people each to sign up. Then you make your three people a handmade gift. Sounds like a load of fun doesn't it?

Vintage Designs Motherload

This site was posted to my Red Work group this morning and for those of you who enjoy doing vintage red work or embroidery grab yourself a cuppa and a meal, it will take hours to get through all of them. Really lovely patterns.
http://www.exceedinglycurious.com/ingalls/ingalls1/ingalls1.html
Enjoy.

Happy Stitching

Books, Barrows, Batting and Blocks

Books

Firstly I have to apologise to Paula (aka Sweet P) for not posting about the wonderful book that she gifted me with a couple of weeks ago. I'm really sorry Paula, I'm usually not that rude.
When I had posted several weeks ago about my frustration with my machine quilting she kindly offered this wonderful book.


So far I haven't had the opportunity to sit down undisturbed and read it through.
Next on the list are these two great books that were sent to me by a dear friend, who I know reads my blog. So you know who you are, and you already know how much I appreciate the gift. Not read yet.

I'm getting the idea that with both of these books i shouldn't have any excuses about bad quilting. Thank you ladies.

Next is the copy of Elm Creek. I've been reading several blogs who have mentioned what great books they are so decided that I needed to see how goo they really are. It arrived on Monday, again not read.

Lastly yesterday these arrived in my mail box.. it's so nice to have a familiar friend sitting in my home again. Again not read. I see a pattern here, plenty of reading material, but no time to read... I'll have to rectify that.

Barrows

I managed to finish another Crab Apple Hill block last night. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel with these blocks....

Batting

I want to buy a roll of batting and wanted to get your input on your favorite batting that you use. I've only used Warm and Natural since I've been here, but find it has an odd feel to it,I'm not fond of polyester. So I'm looking for your advice on cotton batting.

Blocks

Another UFO is about to bite the dust. I spent all day yesterday and a good part of Monday working on the layout of my Bronwyn Hayes blocks and piecing the in between blocks. Today I hope to have all the blocks stitched together and make a start on the borders. Have no idea if I have enough fabric for the backing, haven't thought that far yet, but if I don't it can wait a couple of weeks. So hopefully I'll at least have a flimsy to show you. Considering this is such a "girlie" quilt, I was really surprised to get the response from my "sweetie" that I did. He was suitably impressed, and when asked if he was worried about having such a feminine quilt on the bed, he just smiled and said no his eyes will be shut.... Men...



Happy Stitching.

Redwork and Rockers

Thank you to everyone for your kind words on my previous Australian Red work post, they were all very much appreciated and brought a smile to my face. Rose Marie has asked for more detail when I post about the blocks. So I'll try and do my best.

But first let me give you a little update on the rocker, several of you have asked for progress photo's. I'll be making a phone call today and how that phone call goes, will decide whether I replace the rattan in the seat and the back of the chair.

I discovered a new tool that was so helpful in stripping all that revolting shellac off the chair. I'm sure all you US ladies know about it, the dremel. What a wonderful little gadget. I did start with sand paper in hand and it didn't take too long for me to realise that I'd still be sanding this time next year. Then I remembered that "sweetie" had one in the cupboard, that I'd bought him last year. I must admit when I got it for him I wondered what on earth he'd want it for...lol... I managed to get the sanding done in no time, after using it I then set about to do a final sand by hand. Today saw the first coat of lacquer on all but 4 pieces, 2 of which need a little repair and of course the seat and the back, which still need a little extra sanding done on them. So here's some photo's for you. The first one is to show you that horrible shellac.

Aren't I mean giving you such a small photo? Can't give away too much.

Now for the 2 progress photo's. Hanging out on my front porch drying.



Yesterday "sweetie" and I did the rounds of the secondhand stores. How frustrating window shopping when you don't have the available funds to spend. Saw the most wonderful cedar chest that was about 4 foot long for $60. I do hope it's still there by the end of the month. It would look wonderful stripped back and re-done. Have you got the idea yet that I just love to restore old furniture?

Now to the Red work. I managed to finish another block last night. The Royal Bluebell.

The royal bluebell, is the floral emblem of Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory, my last home in Australia. In the Australian Capital Territory, the royal bluebell can be found in sub-alpine woodland. It is a legally protected plant throughout its occurrence in the wild.I have to admit I don't recall ever seeing this little beauty on any of our many picnics that the girls and I took in the National Parks.


So a little info for Rose Marie, Canberra has the Great Dividing Range, a mountain range that runs from north east of Melbourne and heads east to the New South Wales border. These mountains would often be snow capped in winder. Canberra is approx 3 hours North of the Snowy Mountains where the movie "The Man From Snow River" was filmed, although it usually doesn't snow in Canberra. The girls and I would often go to a river in summer that was only about 15 minutes drive away to swim that was fed from the melted snow. Very brisk in the first few weeks of summer. Temperature's in summer would often reach into the high 30's to low 40's which converts to between 96 - 105 F, and in winter they would range between -4 down to -13 which converts to 22 to -3F, with the most horrible winds off the mountains. Canberra sits in a valley like setting, with the Great Dividing range to one side and the mountains to the South Coast, which was only 2 1/2 hours drive away, on the other. Sydney was a 4 hour drive, one that I used to do at least every 2 months with my business. My mum lived in Victoria, (the next Stated down) and was about 5 hours drive away, which I did quite often. Driving distances to get anywhere was never looked upon in quite the same light as it is here. I have to giggle when I hear people complaining about driving 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour to get to wherever they are going. Distance never seemed to be a problem for Aussie drivers. We would often see the white tail and the red back spider, both of which are venomous. In the summer months it was common to see a variety of snakes either sun baking on the hot roads or in our backyards. We'd get the red bellied black snakes http://www.faunanet.gov.au/wos/factfile.cfm?Fact_ID=293 and the Eastern Brown http://www.usyd.edu.au/anaes/venom/snakebite.html#king and on one property that we lived in just a few miles out of Canberra we saw the death adder and the copperhead, information for both can be found on the last link.

Now I had one of these fellows http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/goanna.htm meet me at the front door of my home one day after shopping. He must have been at least 5 foot long..... I'm sure you can imagine my reaction. We had an array of birds and other animals, but I'll save some of those for another post.

Well I hope that was the sort of information you wanted Rose Marie.

Today's going to see some much needed housework, it seems to slip behind when I'm in the restoration mood, then into the sewing room to do my hour, on the hour a day quilt and hopefully I'll manage to get the items for the church finished.

As I'm waiting for "sweetie" to bring home more thread to do another block, I'll let you decide which block I'll do next. There's three choices, plants, birds or animals.

Happy Stitching.

Menu Plan Monday

Check out Laura at The Organizing Junkie for more weekly menus.

Monday :Italian Meatballs and spaghetti, garlic bread

Tuesday:Creamy Italian Chicken Fettuccine, tossed salad, garlic bread.

Wednesday : Caramelized onion topped steaks with creamy horseradish sauce, baked potatoes, roasted sweet potato and beans.

Thursday: Homemade hamburgers

Friday: Chicken and mushroom bake, honeyed baby carrots, potatoes, broccoli.

Australiana Redwork

Yesterday afternoon I decided it was time to make a start on my Australiana Red work blocks. I've been thinking about these for quite a while and as I'm currently in the process of applying for residency and then citizenship from this great land, I thought it only appropriate to start this red work project.
If you’ll indulge me just for a little while I’d like to give you a bit of background for this quilt. As many of you know, I’m from Australia, but that’s not my country of birth. I was born in New Zealand, known to all New Zealanders and most Aussies as the "Land of the Long White Cloud", a Maori name, and those who originate from there are given the nickname of Kiwi, the New Zealand flightless bird.
I moved to Australia, known to all Australians as "The Lucky Country" when I was 18 and just married. Just, as in married in the morning and in Australia the same afternoon. A few years later I gained citizenship and lived in the most amazing, and one of the most beautiful countries that I was privileged to call home for 29 and ½ years.
3 and ½ years ago I moved to the USA, most commonly known as "Land Of The Free, And The Home Of The Brave" to marry my wonderful husband.
As I pulled out the 25 traced designs, ideas ran through my head, perhaps including blocks that depict New Zealand in the centre, the Australian blocks surrounding those and then finishing with blocks from the USA.
I feel that I am extremely blessed to have called both New Zealand and Australia home and look forward to the day when I can say that the USA is my land of citizenship, my home, the country where God has called me to be.
So as I share these blocks with you, as they are stitched, I’d also like to give you some background information on each, just to give you a little look into the flora and fauna of these beautiful countries.
The first block is the Green Rosella, here it is in all it's splendor.

The Green Rosella is Australia's largest Rosella. It is a medium-sized parrot with a broad tail. The upper parts are dark, mottled green and black, in contrast with the yellow head, neck and under body. When flying the bright yellow body is very obvious. There are distinct blue cheek patches, a red band across the forehead, and blue shoulder patches. Females are slightly duller, while juveniles are mainly green. Their flight is strong and swift with only slight undulations. Also called the Tasmanian Rosella, or Yellow-bellied, Mountain or Green Parrot.






Happy Stitching.

Bags and Mags

Don't you just love it when another blogger is generous and puts up a tutorial ? Well as I was checking the updates of blogs yesterday I came across a new to me blog http://welshquilter.blogspot.com/. I'm sure many of you have seen Andrea's beautiful work. I noticed the lovely bag that she had written a tutorial for and thought , yeah some day, once I get all these UFOs done.. Ha.. that's not quite the way it panned out. As the day progressed I kept thinking of that lovely bag and it was just too much for me to continue to resist. Late afternoon I decided it was time to give in to the urge to give this bag a try. "Sweetie" came home early and we headed out the door for a BBQ with church friends. A few hours later we were home again, and back into the sewing room I went. I needed to stay up till 2am to wake sweetie up for work so it was the perfect time to see if I could get the bag completed. So here it is, just needs the lining hand stitched where it was turned and it'll be ready to use.

I've made progress on the machine quilting of the Country Life wall hanging, spent about 6 hours quilting it on Tuesday and about 5 the day before. Decided to give my shoulders a rest today, so I'll probably sit and stitch on the new project that I started last week. Can't show you any progress photo's of this one as the recipient reads my blog, but as soon as it reaches it's destination I'll share a few photo's.

I'm still waiting (but not patiently) for my first magazine from my subscription to arrive of Country Threads. It seems like ages ago that I ordered it and it's only coming from Canada. I'm sure if there was a slow boat from Canada, then that's where my magazine is, sitting on it.....

Another day of pouring rain., I think we've only had 4 or 5 days of sunshine since the start of summer. I really am ready for the rain to stop, but I shouldn't complain as it keeps the temps down, which I love. A balmy (but wet) 21c today.

Happy Stitching.

Those Ufo's

Seem to be growing. I was doing very well until Thursday evening, when Bren phoned me and asked if I'd seen Judy L's latest quilt for an hour quilt. No I hadn't, you're not going to tempt me are you? Of course she was, and she did, it's all Bren's fault, it has absolutely nothing to do with my lack of will power or ability to say no....
I'm hoping that this quilt will NOT turn into a ufo. I have all the pieces for the Carrie Nation block cut and pieced, just need to cut the rest of the fabrics later today.
I've made progress on my Country Life wall hanging. I spent most of Thursday machine quilting, and with a bit of luck I'll get the quilting finished this week and hopefully be able to report a finish soon.
We had wonderful weather this weekend,up in the low 90's, too good to spend all weekend inside, so I took the opportunity to get the sanding done on the rocking chair. I have all the old varnish removed except for one piece that needs a little repair first. So now it's down to the hand sanding, which I'm sure won't go quite as quickly and I'm considering replacing the rattan myself, if I can find somewhere to purchase replacement pieces.

At long last the large Crab Apple Hill block completed, only another 3 of the smaller ones to stitch and then it will be ready to put together.

Happy Stitching.

Menu Plan Monday

As I was chatting with Bren the other day on one of our daily phone calls she was telling me about Meal Plan Monday and how it helped with grocery shopping and trying to figure out what was for dinner. Now if you were to live here, you'd soon discover unless I had a huge brainwave, meal planning is left to the last minute. Usually around 3 pm I think "What on earth will I cook for dinner". This usually brings a total blank in thought, so it's put to the back of the brain for another hour or so, and then in complete desperation I have to rush to the freezer and pull out the closest item in there. So when Bren told me about it I thought, this is definitely what I need, plus it would mean a very happy "sweetie", knowing he'd get fed at an appropriate time.... I don't have a problem with breakfast or lunch so this will be dinners only.

So here's my first of the Menu Plan Monday's:

Monday: Marinated Pork Spare Ribs, Baked potato, beans, brussel sprouts for dh and fresh asparagus for me.

Tuesday: Home made pizza

Wednesday: Dinner with church group, will make and take along a pavlova.

Thursday: Grilled fillet steak, Aussie potato salad, Green salad, Corn on the cob.

Friday: Southern BBQ Chicken, Potato salad, Green salad Garlic Bread.

I shopped for these meals yesterday and what a relief knowing that we'll eat well this week. "Sweetie" is extremely happy.

UFO Challenge

It appears that I'm in good UFO company, as many of you have commented that you too have a long, or longer list than I posted yesterday. Nancy from my Red work group suggested a challenge. So here it is.
1. List your UFO's, if you haven't already done so.
2. Let me know you want to join the challenge by leaving a comment or link back here.
3. Number each ufo.
4. Draw a number from a hat, (no cheating) and make a start on completing it.
Let's give ourselves one month to finish each UFO pulled from the hat.

I've pulled #10, my Country Theme wall hanging. Wish me luck.

Happy Stitching.

Too Many UFO's

I've deiced that I have far too many ufo's. How did I come to this decision? I've been wandering around my sewing room these past few days trying to decide what to work on, and there's plenty to choose from. Not being able to decide, you guessed it, I worked on nothing, other than embroidery of course, and to top it all off I've started a new embroidery project. Can someone remind me please not to start any more projects, until I get some of these ufo's out of the way. I really don't want to die as the queen of ufo's. Hopefully though I'll be able to show you the new project finished very soon.
I pulled out my Crab Apple Hill embroidery the other night and worked on the larger block, I didn't think I was ever going to get to the other side of that wire fence, but now I can see the end in sight of that block, then I think there's only a couple more to do and then onto setting the blocks.
I've decided to be really brave and list my current list of ufo's and how much has or hasn't been done on them. So here goes:

1. Lasting Friendship quilt. Needs about 5 more blocks made to complete the top.

2. Winter Wonderland quilt (embroidered). 1 block stitched and about 9 more to do plus all the setting blocks.

3. Flowerbed Quilt, Bronwyn Hayes blocks (embroidered) 20 blocks completed, another 5 -6 to stitch. All the piecing fabrics purchased washed and pressed.

4. Ravishing Red quilt top. Top completed, just needs quilting and binding.

5. QOV quilt top, partially quilted.

6. Christmas tree wall hanging, approx 1/3 pieced.

7. Folded Star place mats, 2 completed, 6 more to finish.

8. Red and white Railroad Crossing quilt top, top completed, needs to be quilted. (Connie has agreed to quilt this one for me at the end of summer)

9. Australiana Redwork quilt, blocks have been traced for months.
10. Country themed wall hanging, partially quilted.

11. New project (started last night) 1 block almost complete, 5 more to stitch.

12. Angels in Disguise stitchery, 1/3 stitched.

I'm not sure if I feel any better getting that list out in the open or not, but there it is, plus I have all the half finished projects for the church fair that will soon be here. I'd better get back to those first and get them done so I can put my focus on some of the other projects. I really want to get my flower bed quilt done. I'm sick of stitching the blocks and want it on my bed, like last year......

This is my 75th post and I had hoped to have a nice little gift or two for a drawing, but as things have gotten out of control, I may just keep that for the 100th post, which I'm sure will sneak up on me just as quickly.

I hope you are all enjoying your 4th of July celebrations.

Happy Stitching.