It's Raining Again .....

so forgive the dark photography! This is the first project in the Cookies and Cream Christmas Club which I finished off yesterday afternoon. Each month we receive a new Christmas pattern and a little gift to help us get started. The above, a Gail Pan design, came with some lovely hand dyed embroidery thread to use in the project. I've already received project four so I'd better get my act together and catch up!

I had mowing and weeding on the agenda today but it has been raining heavily since late last night, so I guess with it being too yucky to do anything else, I might just get some sewing done today.

I heard that my puppies were very heroic last week and scared away two potential burglars. A neighbour saw two unsavoury characters enter my property and walk up the drive toward the house (one, very heavily drugged and swaying). Before they could get to the front verandah my pups appeared at the gate and barked and growled at them aggressively, scaring them and alerting the other neighbours. One man ran away but the other was too drug-addled and staggered onto the front lawn and tried to hold himself up on the front fence, but collapsed. So my neighbours called the police who arrived in force (8 of them no less) and got the unconscious man taken away in an ambulance. He had dumped his drug paraphanelia (syringes etc) on the lawn but there was nothing there they could charge him with and as they did not touch the house, could not prove intent to burgle either. I am so proud of my baby girls for being so clever and brave!

Dresden Plate Quilt Progress

I started putting together this on the weekend. It is made from a Moda Candy Bar and inspired by the free pattern that came with it, only I have added sashings. I still need to applique 8 half-plates for around the edges and piece them on and am thinking of piecing a star or something from the same fabrics I used in the sashings in each corner to tie it all together. I love Dresden Plates, they always look good.

I love a bit of hand applique and stitchery too, as it is something I can do while the pups are having a nap up against me and we can have some quiet snuggly together time.

Sweethearts Stitchery Quilt

I finally put together those Sweethearts stitcheries into a quilt. Although I loved the way The Birdhouse pattern put them together, I didn't have enough of the right fabrics, so I did my own thing and used a couple of Amelia charm square packs. I'm not terribly happy with it - I hoped the pinks would stand out more and make it a bit more girly. And I wish I hadn't used the black fabric in the charm pack, it really doesn't go with the rest.

As you can tell, I'm in a bit of a stitchery mood these days! I've got a few more on my to do list. First up, I was so taken with Tarnyia's Little Birdie stitcheries, I am just going to have to join in even though this block of the month is already up to block nine. I was also googling the other day and came across the most divine doggy stitcheries at Bobby Socks Quilt Company - these really gave me a giggle.

Christmas wreath quilt

I was rummaging through my stash and found these 1930s reproduction Christmas fabrics (the range was called Aunt Grace's Christmas) and decided to use these to finish off my Christmas wreath. I wish I had more of the fabric, I would have liked to keep going and make this bigger. But I refuse to buy more fabrics (except for occasional lapse!) so this little quilt is staying at a humble 26 1/2".

Stitcheries everywhere

This is the Rosalie Quinlan stitchery I blogged about previously. I've finished the stitching now and need to decide what to do with it. The original pattern has it stretched over a frame or canvas to create a simple hangable artwork, but I'd like to use it as the centrepiece of a small table quilt or wallhanging, or maybe even a gift bag.

And I've put the Leanne Beasley stitcheries into a little runner with gorgeous Portobello Market fabrics.

Some more stitcheries and ramblings

A couple of Leanne Beasley stitcheries I have been working on, from old issues of Homespun. They were a set of three and I haven't decided if I am going to do the third one or not. I've trimmed these quite ruthlessly so clearly I plan to piece them into something. I don't know what yet though.

I also received some goodies in the mail this week, including a Rosalie Quinlan Christmas stitchery in redwork which I started yesterday. It was quite expensive, but pre-printed on linen which saved me tracing what was quite a complex design. I'm looking forward to making it into a centrepiece or something for Christmas.

I also received a parcel from The Fat Quarter Shop which I had despaired of ever seeing. Their service has always been faultless and my last order, in early July was dispatched in 2 packages within a day of placing the order. One parcel arrived within a week and the other never showed up. I've been meaning to call the post office about it and never got around to it, and to my surprise it arrived today! It was just a few charm packs and things that were on sale. I wonder what stories that parcel could tell, where it has been on its travels. I live in an area with a lot of similar street names - lots of Aboriginal words starting with "B" - so I frequently get mail addressed to the same number in neighbouring streets and go around delivering them myself.

The pups and I spent a happy weekend in the garden, weeding and paving, getting our vegie patches ready for Spring. We were startled by an equally startled frog; tried to work up a level of murderousness to kill a snail but it looked at us too beguilingly so we just moved it to a plant we didn't care about; watched the antics of a Golden Wattlebird who was frolicking around the garden; and found an interesting stone that we like to think is an ancient Aboriginal flake tool. All in all, an exhausting but fun and productive weekend.

Brrrrrrr!

It's turned cold again so I've been spending a bit of time snuggled up warmly with some hand stitching lately. The above needlecase is from an old issue of Country Threads. And wouldn't you know it, I've just tidied up the house and put the magazine away so I can't tell you which issue or who designed it.

I've also been whipping up these tiny stitcheries which are for for a Birdhouse designed quilt called Sweethearts, which I came across while cleaning last week and I had forgotten I had. (Does everyone else have houses where craft goods are stashed in every conceivable place, so you're constanly coming across a pattern or fabric or half-finished project every time you open a cupboard or a drawer, and wonder who put them there?)

I used a variegated DMC thread in pinks and red. I only had 1 skein and I just had enough to finish these.