Lovely mail

Clare from Craft Lady in Kiwiland and I had a little swap, making each other pincushions.  The one I made Clare is here, and on Friday the cushion Clare made for me arrived in the mail.

Isn't it amazing?  Clare's stitching is beautiful and I love the mini embroidery threads and scissors that she has stitched.  Thank you so much Clare, I LOVE it!

What's been in my hoop this week?

I posted my Great Global Christmas swap gift this week so I put my other Christmas sewing to one side and have been stitching away on blocks 5 and 9 of the Vignette quilt. These blocks seem to have been a work in progress for a long time but perhaps that's because I keep getting side tracked with other projects!  I am determined to finish these before returning to Christmas stitching.  I had better get a move on!!

Happy stitching, Wendy

A finish and a busy weekend

Today I got some buttons and ribbon so I was able to finish the owl softie, so now he has eyes, a beak and a ribbon around his neck ...

Octavius the Owl - Jhoanna Aranez of One Red Robin in Homespun Magazine Vol 9.10

 

I love his cute little tail!

This little owl is for a colleague who is pregnant and her baby shower is next week.  I loved making this pattern and I like the effect of his quilted tummy.  I actually made it at 70% of the original size, I seem to have a thing for slightly smaller dolls and softies!  He is about 9" tall.  I think I will end up making more of these as both children have fallen in love with him and would like one!

I had a busy but lovely weekend.  On Saturday I travelled with some of my family to Raetihi to visit with my aunt.  After a three hour drive we arrived, such beautiful scenery that is so different to Hamilton.

Mount Ruapehu

Mount Ruapehu with the smaller Mount Ngauruhoe

Isn't it beautiful, there is something majestic about snowy mountains!  We had a lovely visit with my aunt and she loved the pincushion I made her.  I had a chance to look at her quilts and talk 'quilting' with her and we all enjoyed walking through her beautiful garden and through the little Raetihi village.  Dad enjoyed the day and it was a nice chance to hear some more family history.

On Sunday my husband and I headed in a different direction to Thames which is in the Hauraki gulf ...

So I travelled about 690 km this weekend, but with such lovely scenery and such nice times catching up with family, it was worth it!

Happy stitching, Wendy

FNSI results

This is a quick post to show my FNSI results ...

Please excuse the poor photo and poor lighting, I have just returned from Raetihi where I had a wonderful day with family, so I have taken a quick photo to show my Friday results - which is this cute little owl.  I need to purchase some buttons for his eyes (I have pinned the eyes in place at the moment to help choose the button colour) so I hope to complete him in the beginning of the week.  I will be back then and also share some photos of my outing today.

Happy stitching, Wendy

A pincushion finish!

I can finally show a finish tonight!  I have made a couple of pincushions as gifts, one is for Clare at Craftlady in Kiwiland.  Clare was lovely enough to offer to make me something so I suggested we did a swap instead so I could also make her a gift and we decided on pincushions.  The one I made her has arrived safely so I can show you ...

Petit Amour Pincushions - Lisa Pyke of Cubby House Crafts in the Homespun Magazine Vol 12.9

The back view with a little pocket for scissors.

I made a second one for an aunt as I am visiting her this Saturday.  As many of you know my mother died in August so my family have been trying to do more with Dad, who of course is lonely after losing his wife of 51 years.  So, my aunt is Dad's half sister and she lives in Raetihi which is about a three hour drive from where we are in Hamilton and we have only made the trip once in very sad circumstances when my aunt's husband died.  I am really looking forward to the day for a number of reasons:  it will be a lovely day for Dad; four of my family are going - Dad, my eldest sister and her husband, and me which means I get to 'wag' (i.e. have a day off!!), and my aunt is the only member in my close family or extended family who loves to quilt!!  To be honest, I think that is the point I am most excited about!!  I am looking forward to seeing what she is working on and I hope she will love her new pincushion.

Wow, two posts in two days, that's pretty good for me!

Happy stitching, Wendy

Tuesday's treasure

I have a new treasure to show today ...

Isn't it lovely?  I popped into one of my favourite shops yesterday to find a little gift for a friend and this nativity was the first thing I saw when I walked in.  I do have one nativity set but I had wanted another, I love Christmas and all the decorating but I also want to balance that with remembering the Messiah's birth.  I wandered through the rest of the shop and found something for my friend but then I was drawn back to this.  It came home with me and I do love it.

Don't forget to pop over to Melody's blog to enjoy other lovely treasures.

Happy stitching, Wendy

Happy Birthday Josh

It's Sunday evening, I have a cute little cat curled beside me on the couch, the house is peaceful, and I have just finished one of my little sewing projects ... sounds like a pretty nice evening!!

This week we celebrated my son's 12th birthday.  Josh was actually 12 on the 3rd November but we chose to have a little party yesterday, very low key, just three friends for afternoon tea then Paul (husband) took them all to Megazone so they could have fun shooting each other.  Josh still loves Lego so his cake choice was easy, and not too hard to make ... a giant Lego cake ...

Happy birthday Josh!

The cake idea came from a Donna Hay kids magazine and is just slabs of cake with marshmallows on ...

Here is the cake in progress of being iced.

I must say my icing is pretty rough, I think I need to invest in a palette knife to get a better finish!  At least it tasted yummy and Josh was happy with it.

Barney enjoyed playing with (shredding) the wrapping paper.  He is a feisty puss!

I was thrilled to receive lovely mail on Friday ... I just had to make a cup of tea and flick through them straight away ...

Two new magazines in one day is all it takes to get me excited!  The latest Homespun magazine and Mollie Makes which Fiona Marie has made possible to buy in NZ.

And on the sewing front this week I am feeling pretty good.  I have finished my Great Global Christmas swap project, I am just waiting for some bells to add then I can post it all the way to America.  And I finished another little swap project and a gift.  Unfortunately I cannot post photos yet in case my swap partners read my blog.

My next project is a baby gift for a work colleague and I have found the perfect pattern, an owl softie from an old Homespun magazine so I hope to start this week.

So that was my week ... and now I can just imagine being comfy in bed reading Mollie Makes, so if you will excuse me ...

Happy stitching, Wendy

Sew Along progress

It has been another busy week but on Friday and Saturday I made time to finish my Tilda angel, she finally has clothes!

I have really enjoyed this sew along, it was very manageable just concentrating on one task each week and I love how the angel turned out.  I want to give a big thank you to Lisa for her tutorials and her encouragement along the way.

My second Sew Along is the Christmas banner and this week I stocked up on more thread and more quilter's muslin so was able to finish the Christmas tree stitchery from the previous week and I also completed the 6th stitchery ...

These are the two I finished this week.  I really like the angel, isn't she cute.  I have one more stitchery to do then next Saturday we get the finishing instructions.  That is never my favourite part as I definitely prefer the hand stitching.

I have also made progress with my swap sewing, having completed the stitchery and today I cut out the border fabrics so just a bit more sewing to go.  No photos though!

We had a late night last night for Guy Fawkes, it seems a rather strange tradition to commemorate the capture and killing of those behind the 'gunpowder plot' in 1605.  These days it's really just an excuse to enjoy a bonfire and fireworks which is exactly what we did ...

Almost as impressive as the Rugby World Cup opening ... yeah right!

Yesterday and today, it feels like an icy blast is here, not exactly spring weather.  In fact, I lighted the fire today when we came home from church.  All set for a relaxing afternoon after the late night.  I'm hoping it will start feeling like spring again this week.

Well, that was a long blog post!  I'm going to catch up on some blog visiting now.

Happy stitching, Wendy.