Boys Story quilt finished!

I have been slowly stitching the binding on the Boys Story quilt and it is now finished and on Josh's bed ...

A Boys Story quilt - designed by Anni Downs

I used one of the stitcheries for the label

Here it is on my bed so you can see it better, with the Robot cushion

Needless to say, Josh loves it and I LOVE that I have finished it!

Thank you so much for all your kind and thoughtful expressions of sympathy in the recent loss of my precious mum.  Your comments and emails have warmed my heart and I am grateful for the friendship I have received. 

I am being very brave because I will post a photo of me!  Here is a favourite photo of myself and Mum, taken in May 2010.

 Blessings, Wendy

Almost a finish

The courier brought something very exciting yesterday ... my Boys Story quilt came home and it is now quilted!! I used Quilt Crazy (Sandra Bentley) in Tauranga and I love what she has done and, even better, Josh really loves it.  She has quilted lots of little designs throughout the quilt - dragons, dinosaurs, racing cars, trucks, trains, etc - so it has become like an eye-spy quilt, perfect for a boy.

Close up detail of some quilting

So just the binding to go and then it's finished.

On the sewing front, I haven't had time to do much this week, I got some flowers stitched on my hexie quilt ...

... and I started making the August Cookies & Cream Craft Christmas Club pattern.  I'm not sure if I am meant to show you the pattern yet so here is a glimpse of what I have done so far ...

Hmm, can you guess what it is? 

Happy stitching, Wendy

Vignette stitching

This week is racing by and I feel like I haven't had much time to read all your inspiring blogs!  Tonight we have my dear father-in-law's birthday dinner so perhaps after that I can have a blog catch-up!

In the weekend I completed the shoo-fly blocks and started the stitching of the Vignette block 4, so far I have finished the bird stitchery ...

The orchid posy in the top photo is for my father-in-law and while I was choosing that for him I found a cute heart for me ...

I think it will look perfect hanging beside my cross stitch one day!
I hope to 'see' you this evening, happy stitching, Wendy

A good day

Today was one of those days that felt good and I accomplished a lot!  I had my fire going, I got through lots of work and then, as my reward, I got some preparation work done for sewing ...


I have traced the pattern for block 4 of the Vignette Mystery quilt

The cutting is done for the 7 shoo fly blocks

I have also traced another robot to make this gorgeous cushion to go with the Boys Story quilt

I am hoping to get the shoo fly blocks made over the weekend so I will be all ready to start stitching next week ... we'll see!!

Barney loves the fire as much as I do so he has had a lazy inside day.  Here he is on Charlie's bean bag, he actually thinks it's his and will do his best to get her off when he wants to hop on, otherwise they look pretty cute together when they share! Happy sewing, Wendy

I should be working!!

Yes, Wednesday is usually one of my work days ... but ... I decided to finish the last block of the Boys Story quilt and one thing lead to another!!
Here is the last block ...

So that's when I got carried away and couldn't stop ...

It seemed a little thing to keep on and get all the blocks sewn together, but now it's almost 2 p.m. and I haven't even looked at work!  Oh well, it is a good feeling to get the quilt top done and I will just have to work twice as hard tomorrow!
I am undecided about how to quilt this, hand quilting or professionally quilted.  I haven't done this before but would so love to get this one finished for Josh, hmmm, decisions, decisions!
I enjoyed my 5 hours scrapbooking on Saturday and am now feeling more up to date, just have to finish off the pages and do the journalling.  It's quite hard to photograph scrapbook pages but here is a sampling of what I got done ...

And just when I don't really need any more distractions from work, these two came in the mail yesterday ...

Wow, three blocks in the Vignette quilt to make, that will keep me busy!  And I love the Sweet Sentiments book by Natalie Bird, there are some really nice gift ideas and smaller projects that I can easily see myself making.
Well, I must get organised now ready for Josh's soccer practice!  We don't get home until about 6:00p.m. but the wonderful thing about that is coming home to Paul cooking dinner!
Happy stitching, Wendy

Another block done ...

I had a productive Friday ... a little bit of housework, a little bit of paper work, and a whole lot of stitching!  I managed to finish the 6th block of the Boys Story quilt ...

This is another of my favourite blocks and now there is only one more block to go!  I really want to get this quilt top finished before I get back into the Vignette mystery quilt ... my Vignette magazine should arrive next week ... and then I know there will be lots of sewing!  I have also been ignoring my hexagons so would like to get back to them soon. 

Tomorrow I am having a change of pace, attending a five hour scrapbooking workshop.  This used to be my preferred craft, I have scrapbooked for at least ten years, but since last year quilting has really become my favourite thing to do.  However, I want to keep my albums up to date, hence the workshop.  If tomorrow is anything like today it will be very wet so perfect for being indoors!

By the way, thank you to everyone who commented about Charlie's owl diary, she loved reading your comments and she got 88%.  Didn't she do well!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, happy stitching, Wendy

Long weekend happenings

We have had a long, mostly wet, weekend - a great chance to get some sewing done.
I finished block 8 of the Boys Story quilt ...

This is Charlie's favourite cartoon strip because the boy gets zapped!!
I have also finished piecing together the table runner so now I am up to quilting it...

On Friday, husband Paul and I went to a garden centre and bought a Blush Babe apple tree and a Satsuma mandarin and Paul planted them straight away ... yum ... we can't wait to get our own fruit!

A productive weekend!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.
Happy stitching, Wendy

Some progress and something new

I had a good day stitching on Sunday afternoon and again on Monday night so this afternoon after work I was able to quickly sew together block 6 of the Boys Story quilt ...

I really like this little robot, I think he's pretty cute!  And this block was quite a quick one to do.  Now I am stitching an alien ...

And my something new ... well, I really love the look of table runners (I made two last year for furniture) and I wanted one for our dining room table ... so here is my start ...

It is a pattern from the Homespun magazine, Vol 12.3, by Heather Mulder Peterson.  Quite tricky sewing for me and then there is a little bit of applique to add.
Well, an alien is calling my name!
Happy sewing, Wendy.

Sightseeing and sewing

On Saturday the youth group travelled to Te Aroha, about a 1.5 hour drive, for a tramp up Mount Te Aroha which is 952m to the summit.  The group didn't go all the way to the summit, instead walking to a lower look-out about 45 minutes each way. 



Mt Te Aroha.  Image from http://www.kiwiphotographer.com/

I was lucky enough to enjoy a hot drink with a beautiful view with good conversation and get some sewing done while the kids tramped!! 


View from the cafe

After a swim in the hot pool and dinner of barbequed sausages with hot chips, we headed home.  It was a really nice outing, the kids had a ball!

On the sewing front, I have completed block 5 of the Boys Story quilt.

I am still unable to leave comments on most blogs but I am enjoying reading them!  I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend., Wendy

FNSI

Last night I got settled with a hot drink, this ...

... and my sewing for a perfect Friday Night Sew In!  Have I said how much I love having a fire?  It really makes me feel cheerful and cosy no matter the weather.
I decided to continue working on the Boys Story quilt so sewed away on block 5 ...

I had hoped to finish the block in the evening and get some hexagons done but the railway tracks seemed to take a lot of sewing!  I have one more track to sew, you can see my needle in place, and there is also a rocket ship to be appliqued on the right of the block.
Thanks Heidi for hosting FNSI!
Happy sewing, Wendy

Tuesday's treasure on Wednesday!

It's actually Wednesday already in NZ but I couldn't resist showing one of my treasures after seeing Rosie blog about her treasure! 

This beautiful shawl was made by my mother when I was pregnant with Charlotte, 15 years ago.   Mum's knitting is so fine and the wool is very soft.  I loved wrapping Charlotte in this and then Joshua when he was born.  The shawl is such a treasure and even more special now Mum is going blind with macular degeneration.  For more treasure's you can go to Melody here.
I have finished block 4 of the Boys Story quilt ...

I really love the comic strips in this quilt and so does Josh!!
I got more Sewline glue in the post yesterday so I am back into gluing and making more hexagon flowers.
Happy sewing, Wendy

It's Monday again!

Back to the weekly routine!  Kids off to school and I visit my parents each Monday morning, getting home about lunch time to get into some work.  Today is cold and blustery so I think I will light a fire once home in the afternoon - fire's are my favourite part of winter and make our home so cosy!!

Last week I finished stitching my first row of hexagon flowers together and started on my next twenty flowers - only completed two so far!

I also completed the applique for the fourth block of the Boys Story quilt, this week I will hopefully finishing sewing this block together.  I found the applique quite hard after not doing it for a couple of months - all those little pieces! 

Last week a new book arrived that I had ordered - Tis the Season by Natalie Bird - I don't know when I will find the time for this pattern but I think it is really nice so maybe I will get one of the smaller patterns made for Christmas!  I bought it from http://www.fionamarie.com/ and she also gave me this gorgeous waterlily pattern - thanks Fiona, I love it!

I hope you all have a marvellous Monday, perhaps with better weather than I'm having!
Happy stitching, Wendy

Boys Story block three and Vignette sewing

I managed to finish the Boys Story block three, this was a much smaller block than the first two so it went together pretty quickly.


Kite applique



Block 3

I have put this to the side for a while to get started on the Vignette mystery quilt blocks two and three.  I have managed to complete all the piecing so now I am up to the applique, then lots of tracing and lots of stitching.

Because I am using different fabrics from the magazine, I find it quite difficult choosing which fabric to use and where!  I do not have a lot of experience in this!  However I love the birds that I was able to fussy cut, here is one of them:

So I had a really productive weekend sewing and I love that I am now up to the hand stitching (well, once I do the tracing) so I can take it with me where I go!
Happy stitching, Wendy

Boys Story block two and crochet

I have finished block two!  I am really enjoying making this quilt, I love to take the appliqué with me and stitch when I have to wait somewhere, like waiting for Charlie's bus in the afternoon or visiting with the grandparents, thankfully I can stitch and talk! 

Boat applique

Block 2

I have started the appliqué for block three, this time a kite, and I am now using Silk thread, thank you to Nicky from Farm Girl Stitching for your helpful advice!!  The Silk thread is lovely to use and it does seem to disappear into the fabric.

I also dusted off the crochet hook last week and made some flowers to hide some holes in one of Charlie's tops, quite a cute result!

I had some difficulty photographing today as Barney, our cat, kept lying on the samples!

  

Happy stitching, Wendy