~Chookshed's Birthday Sewing Party~

Here I am blogging my sewing from Chookyblue's Birthday Party

I did a little stitching from a project at Girls Day in the Country 2016

I did piece a quilt backing which took me all weekend as I was just going to do a plain white one instead but decided against it

After all that cutting and measuring and ironing it finally is finished!!!

Many Happy Returns to The Chookshed and hope there's many, many more Sewing Weekends!!!

~OPAM...One Project A Month

OPAM here once again

This time I have a little Pin Cushion

Stitchery designed by Bonnie Sullivan for Girls Day In The Country 

We were each given a pattern and could make anything we like out of it for a Swap and this was my contribution

My poor old Heat Bag had developed a hole so a new Parisian inspired cover was made for it

3 little handy bags

One of which came in handy for the Pin Cushion

And finally a little Needlebook which was part of a Kit for GDITC

I decided to put a cross on the thread part of the bobbin

page in 'Needlebook'

and a little signature and date on the back of the Needlebook

Thank to Sweet Peg and Kris for hosting OPAM again this month!!!

OPAM (One Project A Month) April

Just a small project for OPAM this month......this Stitchery will help make up our annual Raffle Quilt for my Needlework Group later in the year.

Thank you for hosting this once again Peg and Kris!!!

Happy Stitching......Dzintra xo

OPAM (One Project A Month).....March 2015

One small item for OPAM this month for the Girls Day in the Country (GDIC) Swap

A little stitchery was provided for us, by Lynette Anderson,  to stitch up and turn into something 

 

I used a tea towel......added a piece of linen and put the stitchery on to it and added some ric rac.

Tutorial for the towel can be found
at Jenni at Elefantz

Thank you Jenni!!!

Only thing is I called it a Stitching Towel.......
a towel one can take with them to lay on the table to protect their work from any sticky marks etc that may be on the table

The back

Kate was the one who received this Swap gift........so pleased it went to a fellow Blogger!!!

Thank you so much Peg and Kris for hosting OPAM!!!

~My Gift To Sarah in FIS....Friends in Stitching~

I became a member of FIS this year and there are 2 compulsory swaps involved with this fabulous on-line Stitching Group...

One is a birthday swap and the other is Christmas

Above are the fabrics I have had here for ages just waiting for the right project

Putting them together

It took me about a week to decide what to make for my Partner Sarah

Part of Sarah's brief was that she liked red and she liked sewing bits and bobs

The gift had to include one of a choice of 2 verses and a button

I chose the above verse and some rusty buttons to make the popular bag going round Blogland at the moment......Natalie Bird's  'True Friend's Tote Bag'

I went out the back to photograph the bag amongst some greenery seeing I'd never done that before and ended up putting it on our red car 'Ruby Tuesday' and I thought looks great so went with that!!!

I tucked in a little 'prim' felt pin holder

some red pegs

and seeing Sarah is an avid quilter an 'I Love Quilts' brooch by Theodora Cleave

All bundled up with a block of chocolate also

wrapped up......

and the card!!!

I have thoroughly enjoyed making my first swap gift for a lovely gal and look forward to the next one!!!

Hope you had a good one Sarah!!!

~Needlework Group Projects~

Here are a couple of projects from my Needlework Group run by Fiona and assisted by Shirley

The first is a Baskets of Flowers zippered pouch in beige/red 

and another in green and brown

For a tutorial very similar to these go over here

An appliqued tea towel

Scissor Keep

and finally this bag with stitchery

I swear I have enough projects to last me forever but I can't help collecting them

And yes, I will get around to doing them!!!

This weekend there is an Airing of the Quilts up in historic Braidwood, the first town to be listed on the New South Wales Register 

And have fun gals to the ones going to Hatched and Patched at Bathurst for a blog meet......one of these days I will hopefully get there....

Happy Weekend....Dzintra xo

~A Gardener's Journal......Block I~

Wow how excited am I

Block I is now complete and all I have to do now is join it to Block H and then onto the rest of the quilt top!!!!!!!

3 lovely gals standing alone

framed by florals and paisleys

Birds in the Tree......I loved doing this one

and now surrounded by more florals and paisleys

Joined together

I had cut out a blue paisley for the inner border but not sure whether to use it?

Close up

Originally I thought I would use a red border

but not sure now

I'll put it all together and then I'll be back to show you and see what you think

Thank you so much Chooky and the Stitch-a-long gang for continued encouragement......I am loving doing this quilt

I did get a bit more of chance this week to work on this as I put a chisel through the top part of my hand whilst doing some work at my local theatre which necessitated 'glueing' instead of stitching

Luckily there was a Doctor in the House

Then a tenanus shot and then I had to lay low for a while whilst Hubby took over caring duties

Luckily the injured hand was the 'holding hand' so it worked out well and I got some respite to boot

So now I'm off to play with the borders......Dzintra

~Saturday Afternoon...Soup... and my Bag~

It's a cool Saturday afternoon here on the South Coast...

perfect for a warming, healthy delicious soup!!!

This one is Lemon and Broccoli Soup by Donna Hay...

simply delicious...

full of goodness...and so very mooorish!!!

Recipe can be found over here

Meanwhile I've been working on my 'No Place Like Home Bag'...and I'm nearly there!!!

I just love my new coming-together bag!!!

Pattern by Anni Downes

If you get a chance do try out this recipe...I'm sure you won't be disappointed...

Bon Appetit...Dzintra

~Progress of Bag~

A quick update here....

When I went to the Blogmeet at the Craft Show I had in mind that if I bought a kit I wanted to come home and start it as soon as possible!

Not having done much hand quilting I really wanted to give this a go...

All the strips are sewn together and I thought that I would use the Americana thread above to quilt as I remember that I was told it was for hand quilting due to the fact that it would go through the fabric nice and easy...

and it sure did!!!

The kit......surprise, surprise by Anni Downes of Hatched and Patched!

All cut and ready to be sewn together...

Then I started photographing from all angles...stitchery on top of the pile of fabric...

Fabric chain-pieced together...

I have only done this once before!

I thought it looked nice hanging up......for a moment!!!

Unpressed...

Pressed...

the reverse side...

with the thread and needlecase all set to quilt...

Imagining what it will look like all finished!!!

And I'm soooo happy about how it's starting to look!!!