What do we love? Contests and Giveaways.

Come see what Daffycat has done!!! She has been so clever to dye fabric and I think the offered results are all so pretty! I see Daffycat's icon on so many blogs - when does she have time to stitch or even dye???

Ok so I got you here with a tempting title. I am working up to offering a giveaway/pif/contest and will do so shortly. I am just waiting for a magic post number, a special date in my life, number of followers or something similar. I am still so new to this blogging world, but am enjoying it immensely.
How do we find the time to stitch?

TUSAL - April Update

As you can see - I did manage to find a wonderful container for my TUSAL - and after tipping the content of the little bowl from last month - I believe it ot have doubled in size. Of course, not having total access to computer does increase one's stitching time.

This month are threads added not only from the chookie quilt, but my ANZAC exchange, one or two mini stitched ornies and the stitching in the background which reads: She who dies with the most patterns; is not stitching fast enough! I so love the sentiment, that as soon as I finished it, I've started it again, on another piece of hand-dyed aida - using similar colours, from my recent stash aquirement of Stitches and Spice dyed cottons.

I am looking forward to finding out how full this bottle will become by next month - what a fun SAL.

For more information - check out http://dragonmyneedle.blogspot.com for more information or to join in the Totally Useless Stitch ALong

A.N.Z.A.C. Day

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will Remember Them.

LEST WE FORGET

A finish at midnight!

Starry Night - from the JCS 2008 Ornie issue. A finish for the finish of my holidays...

I'll have a finishing frenzy soon and finish a lot of my wee stitches into ornaments...

A sleepy sunday evening - a lovely finish to a great holiday break.

The school holidays are over - the weekend is nearly finished.... Harry and I enjoyed our days together, content to let John spend his time alone with his guitar!

The pictures on this post today were taken by Harry, on our drive in the hills day.

We spent an hour at Emerald lake, walking around trying to find good photos for him, these are just a few of them.
I collected Chookie Quilt from the quilt show - alas, it did not win any prizes, but with the quality of the other entrants, I'm not at all surprised. It has encouraged me however, to stitch another quilt and enter it again, after learning a bit more.

Time now to pick up my stitching again and prepare to head back to work after a relaxing 2 week break.

CHOOKIE QUILT - HOT OFF THE NEEDLE ! ! ! ! !

Here it is...hot off the needle.

Chookie Quilt in all it's glory! I'll have to iron it, but I think I will enter it in next weekend's quilt show. It's not perfect and the corners don't quite match up, but it's pretty funky to me!

Here is the little patch I stitched to the back of the quilt. I've not made it into a wall hanging, as it turns out to be just the right size to fit into my little car.

Join me in Happy Dancing!!!!

Nearly there......

Procrastinating right at the moment....I found a packet of machine needles at the supermarket this morning - and now the border, batting and backing are all on. I'm now top stitching around the shape of each chook. I promise - a photo really soon!!!!

Frustration! - Chookie Quilt style

Here I am, Easter Sunday afternoon and I've finally got up the gumption to cut into fabric and iron and pin and tack and get the top layer, the batting and the backing together......onto the sewing machine with the binding strip.......yes it is attached the right way.................tension is right....everything is going nicely, the seam in keeping relatively straight, I've done about 1/3 of the binding.....the machine is purring away: thwocka, thwocka, thwocka, thwocka, chunka, bink!

Oh no! I ran over a safety pin that I'd missed.....and the sewing machine needle broke!Never mind, I'll just reach into the case and grab a handy-dandy replacement needle....er... reach into the case.........
umm....where did I put the case?

I know I've seen it recently...the one that looks like all the other plastic cases, but importantly, this one has all my sewing machine accessories in it. Like, extra feet, bobbins and NEEDLES ! ! ! ! ! !

sigh....
I've now decided to put the quilt aside for the moment. I will spend this evenging organising all my sewing stuff into groups..aida/evenweave : chart to do next/later/pif : stitchery/quilting : floss dmc/anchor/varigated/hand dyed.
Perhaps if I concentrate on NOT looking for my handy-dandy little plastic case of sewing machine accessories, I will find it.If not, my stash should be somewhat organised and I can find a shop open early tuesday morning and finish the quilt then. I have until Wednesday to have it ready for the first show I've ever contemplated entering - no dramas!!!!!
(boy am I hanging out for SOMEBODY to move into this street that does some form of craft - I'd even tolerate a scrapbooker!!!!)

aaaaaaarrrrrrrrggghhhhhhh !!!!

there... I feel better now....
please feel free to resume your browsing....
:)

Murmurings of S.E.X. and S.A.B.L.E.

No photos right at the moment, 'cos I have limited internet while Martin figures out what is wrong with out network and why his computer no longer 'sees' my computer........sigh.
However, without the internet, I am getting a lot more stitching done....
I did pull out Papillion 2008 SAL out again this morning, only to discover that I've lost one of the skeins of colour - so I'll have to wait until tomorrow or monday or through the week to replace it. In the meantime I'm stitching on a couple of small aida projects.

I have been blessed with S.E.X recently and now I think I'm S.A.B.L.E. Firstly, one of my friends' mothers passed to me a box of aida and about 2doz charts and books, then 4 days later, my very good friend Karen decided to share with me, the results of her pruning her collection, of charts, floss and fabrics....
I did make a list of charts - about 85 of them and will most probably share them out and about through this blog, when I'm more internet stable. Karen also gave me a full set of DMC, several needle necessities, a big bag of Anchor, a quantity of hand-dyed varigated and lots and lots of hand-dyed aida in squares suitable for quilts and so much more.
Included in this bounty is the woolen batting for the chookie quilt, along with the backing fabric. If I'm quick and pull my finger out and get this finished before wednesday, I'll have a go and enter it into a local quilt show. Mind you, I've never got to this stage of a quilt before...it's quite daunting.
More pictures to follow as soon as I can.
Oh yes - I've found a new container for my orts for the totally useless SAL - certainly will try to get a picture of this in time for the new moon!

Chookie Quilt top - nearly finished

At least finished enough to show off. I still need to complete the sashing for the top and bottom - I ran out of strips - I ended up making a random length of each fabric used and am happy how they've turned out - and no duplication of pattern where they intersect. More luck than by design.

You can find the pattern here at http://www.fatcatpatterns.com/chickens.htm and lots more that I'd like to try to stitch. (repeat : I do not need another craft addiction, I do not need another craft addiction, I do NOT need another craft addiction......)

Oh yes...during a 2hour drive to see rellies today, the roadworks and delays made it a 3hour drive - and I nearly finished this sitting in the car! It took just another 20 minutes of stitching at the SIL's home to finish this trifle from My Aunt's Attic and put my initials to it. The mother of one of my friends, liked the banner I made for her son's birthday recently and decided that she'll never use her floss, fabric and books - and gifted them to me. Of course I had to do something to check how the fabric stitched. It's a lovely soft green aida that I think is 11 or 14 count. I will make this into something for the lady as a thank you. I used DMC 550, the skein itself a recent gift from a floss fairy.

Here it is, the first day of school holidays, and I have a finish!

I like to stitch on aida at night, generally sitting at my computer, under the downlight so I can sew and watch tv at the same time. Anyway, mostly these night time stitchings are small and freebies - as is this finish.

This is the January Pinkeep found on Maryse's blog - http://grillesdemaryse.canalblog.com/ - see down to the right hand side there...... and was a relatively quick stitch over a couple of nights. I use up scaps of Aida that I've obtained from who knows where. I'm not certain that this will end up as a pinkeep - more likely to be the cover of a needlebook - that's yet to be decided.

Today I hope to get a serious start on the sashing for the chookie quilt - after all I really need it finished before next friday if I'm to display it for easter!