Friday Night Sew In.... and a Present...

Last night was Friday Night Sew In as hosted by Heidi from Handmade by Heidi. There are currently 54 bloggers on her list to visit to see what beauties were being worked on Friday night.

I was doing my favourite thing, stitchery, especially redwork stitchery, on my February - 1 Christmas Item A Month - a cushion by Natalie Bird. Anthea from Hibiscus Stitches wowed us with her version of this Happy Christmas Cushion in January so now I think there is a few more versions in progress.

I have been looking for a special pattern to use some of my special fabric brought in Ballarat last November & this pattern is perfect to show off my tiny red& white robins on grey background.

I did my hexies in a red & white Christmas print & white tone on tone, along with my red robins on grey. In the middle panel I used white Christmas words on grey. This is where the little stitcheries will end up when finished & attached by scary needleturn.

The cameras has washed the greys out a bit but you can see it is quite pretty. I can't wait to get it finished. There are only three stitcheries to go & the night is young (only 9.17pm here in WA).

On the home front now that little Brunnie is gone, Hun has realised that my bed is open for kitty occupation and is taking advantage of it. We have had a week of visits at various hours of the night, which wouldn't be my choosen way to continue my single cat parenthood but things are evolving. Last night the nocturnal visits were limited to one at bed time & one early this morning.

 

 

Hun's not as photogenic as his brother but he is enjoying the attention even when I wake him up to try to photograph him. Now to the present, that I expect was from Master Hun-bun as a thank you & to show his joy in snuggling with muma. When I pulled back the doona to hop in last night, this was waiting for me....

 

OMG - he is deceased & only about 5cms long but Hun-Bun - please no presents in the bed! It is the flash that makes it look like I have bright orange sheets, they are actually pale pink.

 

Happy stitching
Tracee xx

 

FNSI - Mini Madness!

Hi all

Last night was the Friday Night Sew In for this month. I used this time to do some minimal quilting & then the borders of my Christmas Mini Swap pressie.

 

I think it turned out quite a treat & here it is on my special 'Merry Christmas' mini stand.

This is one of Nancy Halverson for Art To Heart designs from her Be Attitudes applique quilt. I love Nancy's design & fabric. Most of the fabrics used are Nancy's designs too. I have gathered little bits over the years as I find them from her Star of Wonder & Angels Amongst Us ranges so this is the first thing I have made with them.

 

My last task to finish this last night was just a touch of blusher to give Santa rosie cheeks. I hope he like mineral makeup?

Now I wonder whose place he will be winging his way to on Monday? I'll give you a hint - he's travelling East. Considering I live about 3 kilometres from the Indian Ocean on the West Coast that doesn't rule many of you out..... Oh well, I guess everyone who hasn't yet received their mini is watching for our friend, the postie.

 

I am one person who is not watching for the postie. My mini arrived nice & early on Thursday. I held off opening it until today. My partner for this swap is Marie from Life On The Block here in rural WA. We haven't met before so yippee a new blog to read.

 

Look at my lovely wrapping....

 

 

And yes, that Partride in a Pear Tree is fabric - yah!

 

 

Marie included a great shopping list - she must have sensed my love for lists..... Today I have made a sewing list, a Christmas list, a blog post list, a jobs for over the Christmas break list & a cleaning / chores list - see, I said I loved them! Loving that backing fabric too...

 

 

And here it is & that gorgeous pressies fabric is on the front as well as the back.

 

 

The stitchery presents & Christmas tree have gorgeous sparkly little beads on them too. A bit of Chrissie bling..

 

 

Here it is all set up for Christmas display...

 

 

Thank you Marie, it's a beautiful mini & I will love displaying it for Christmas!

 

Thanks to Cheryll from Gone Stitchin, who is a brilliant swap mama & has hosted 4 wonderful mini swaps this year. I hope we are on again for next year Chez!

 

It was another successful Friday Night Sew In too. If you go to Heidi's blog Handmade by Heidi, you can link through to 115 blogs whose creators were taking part, many from Aussie too.

 

 

Now I am going to attempt to take my washing machine apart. Get the washing machine guy on speed dial I hear you say! Maybe... I googled the error message so have a few things to check first to get it spinning & draining again, then maybe I will ring the wm guy.....

 

Happy sewing.

Tracee xx

FNSI - Little Things

Last night I had a Friday Night Sew In along with many of you worldwide. It was a great Friday night for a sew in in Perth. The weather was stormy, the temperature had dropped dramatically & the rain was falling. A night in front of the TV watching the AFL footy semi-final, then 2 ABC police & forensics programmes while stitching was perfect.

For once there was no stitchery happening, just lots of little things coming together. I made these hexies on Thursday night.

And Friday night sewed them together. Little Brun helped by supervising which fabrics to put in what order.

Next it was cut up lots of little squares.

That orange circle is the large size clover yo-yo maker. And by bed time I had 15 lovely little yo-yos made.

Another 10 were made during the second semi-final footy game today so only 5 more to make. The yo-yo maker certainly makes it easy.

To see what everyone else did on their FNSI, go to Heidi's blog, Handmade by Heidi, where there are 127 bloggers signed up for last nights sew in. It's a great way to find new blogs & bloggers whose work we can ohhh & ahhh over.

Happy stitching

Tracee xx

FNSI My Friday Night Sew In

While watching the footy (bah humbug Dockers!) I finished my house block for the SKOW stitch a long, only 3 more blocks to finish by the end of the month to be up to date.... It's a little boring compared to most of the other blocks. I love how some stitchers were clever enough to use fabric for the lawn with small flowers on it, they look great.

Then I started stitching the first part of Val Laird's Lilac Love Trio Set, except mine is raspberry love...

Once the footy finished, I jumped into bed with a cup of tea, slice of marble cake, little Brun & the DVDs of the 2nd series of the Eagle, a Danish crime show. My craft item was my knitting, a hoody for the beautiful baby girl I will meet in June.

Knitting & TV with subtitles obviously don't mix when you are staring out on a pattern. I started this project while watching the first series of DVD's and as I had mixed up a row somewhere, started out last night by undoing about 8 rows. Now I have the 4 row pattern in my head & it is going much more smoothly. I'm sure I miss 30% of the dialogue though but am still loving this series. Two episodes, followed by a bit of a read & it was lights out.

Happy stitching
Tracee xx

FNSI & The Name Game Swap Quilt For Me!

It was great to get back in to Friday night sewing. Our recent heat waves in Perth & lack of Footy to watch on TV has meant my favourite sewing night has been quite unproductive over summer. That is all about to change & this is what I got up to last Friday;

Tacking ready to needleturn applique around my house block for the Some Kind Of Wonderful Quilt stitch a long,

Cutting & pinning ready for sewing on a secret project,

Sewing the start of a hoot of a bag for a little friend,

I also received my Name Game Swap Quilt from Bea Lea in North Carolina. Imagine having to make up a quilt depicting Quilt Kitty Loves Life, sounds complicated to me. Bea did a beautiful job & much to my delight showed my furboys in it. It is simply purrrfect and received top marks from all 3 judges here at Quilt Kittyville. Brutus particularly liked the quilted fish in the border.

This is what I put on my details form

I want it to have the name Quilt Kitty Loves Life but if it suits they can add the names of the Board of Directors - Tracee (CEO), Brutus (Head Gray & CFO - approves all fabric purchases), Honey (Head Ginger & Quality Control - approves all products made).

so poor Bea was trawling through my blog trying to see what colour the Tracee cat is. In future I should be clearer & put I am CEO & Human Cat Wrangler to make it clearer.

Lucky Bea received her quilt from our delightful Melody from The House On The Side Of The Hill. If you click on Bea's name above you can go to her blog & see Melody's sweet quilt too. Bea is an amazing quilter, lots of complicated piecing, a published designer, a Long Arm Quilter & has won International Awards.

So that's the end of another great swap thanks to Anorina from Samelia's Mum so now it's on to planning my Friends With Benefits project & then get moving on my Christmas Angel Swap projects. So many projects so little time. As all good finance people do, I've called in another of my best friends 'Excel' & started a spreadsheet to keep me on target.

Happy stitching
Tracee xx