Turtle Tuesday

Yesterday Teresa and Helen guessed what my little hemisphere of hexagons would become ... Anni Downs' Turtle Pincushion.

Teresa and Helen and their other Tuesday stitching friends were making their turtles today so I decided I would sew up mine today as well.

Turtle Pincushion designed by Anni Downs

This is a great design to make. The only thing I didn't like was turning the tail piece. A bit fiddly but worth the effort.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Presents

On Saturday night we went to Sydney with our friends Lynell and Darren, so that they could give a wedding present to Michael and Peta.  What a fabulous gift Lynell has made for the newlyweds.

Darren taking the photograph is reflected in the bottom left-hand corner.

Lynell with Michael and Peta

The colours in the first photo are more accurate.  Lynell based the design on the wedding invitations, which were black, teal and lime green.  The orange is for Peta's hair and the black embossed frame is also taken from the invitations which had black embossed/flock paper.

The second version of the jumper is a much better fit, so I was happy about that.

Yesterday was the birthday of one of our on-line group and it was my turn to make her present.  This year's theme is "Eat, Grow, Cook".  I chose one element of the theme, "Cook", and made Christine Book's recipe folder using some lovely yellow Mary Engelbreit fabric.

Photo from here

Our on-line group has been running a recipe collection so I printed them all to add to the folder.

My pile of little hexagons is taking shape

 

and I've cut out a second lot using all Fig Tree fabrics.  The Olympics will provide lots of stitching time.  I wonder what this cute little shape will become?

Version 2

Version 2 of Michael's jumper was finished last week.  We're seeing him next Saturday so here's hoping this jumper fits much better than the last one.

Version 1 showing the true colour.

Version 2 - having trouble photographing the jumper to show the colour correctly.

We went to a wedding on Saturday.  The bride and groom love hotted up cars.

The groom with his car..

The bride and groom cutting the cake - the bride and groom on the cake are holding onto a steering wheel.

This cute little guy is the bride and groom's 8 month old son.  He is such a sweetie.

Had a lovely day out with my friend Barbara yesterday.  We had a wander around some shops before lunch and then we went to see "Snow White and the Huntsman".  Definitely not my usual sort of movie and I'm still not sure if I liked it or not.  No shoes for me but one pair of boots and one pair of shoes for Barbara.  Tomorrow we are going to see "Brave" - more my style of movie, I think.

Some Blocks

This week I've been working on my Hunky Dory Spin blocks.

Two more blocks to sew together then comes the part of quiltmaking I dislike the most - deciding which block goes where.

While reading some blogs I came across a quilt called "Love ... Mamie" on Melanie's blog.  It is a lovely 9 Patch quilt made using a method I hadn't come across before - it is all explained on this blog.  This morning I had a go at making the smaller nine patch block - it's a great way of making 2 x 3" nine patches out of 2 x 4-1/2" squares of fabric and works well for nine patches that are made using only 2 fabrics in the blocks but many different fabrics for the whole quilt (if you get what I mean).

Diann and I have been discussing out Sylvia's Bridal Sampler progress, or rather, lack of progress.  I think we've made one lonely block this year.  We've decided to make all the blocks from the book that do not require templates or foundation piecing and then we'll make a decision about whether we want to make any more or call it quits.  Some of these blocks have lots of tiny pieces of fabric.  Yesterday I made 3 blocks:

Arizona

Aunt Sukey's Choice

Barrister's Block - not at all happy with fabric choice or my piecing in this block.

John and I are going to a wedding on Saturday - I hope our lovely sunny weather stays around, although it disappeared for a while yesterday morning.

Lots of Little Pieces

A couple of Saturdays ago I was looking for something different to do/start and this is what eventuated:

265 x 1/2" hexagons in 265 different fabrics, many of which came from the scrap drawer.  These will form a secret project for later this year.  I've started sewing them together.  These hexies are so very cute.  I've also cut out some much larger hexagons in preparation for starting Candied Hexagons one day.

My temp assignment finished last Friday so this week I've been a lady of leisure (again).  On Monday Karen and I went for a drive to Penrith to drop off her sewing machine for a service.  We visited a couple of shops in Penrith then Logan's in Leichhardt and Quiltsmith in Annandale.  We will go back to Penrith late next week to collect the machine and I think Material Obsession is on the itinerary for that day.

Bathrobes

In February I machine embroidered some bathrobes for the bridal party.  We recently received the photographs from the wedding photographers and there were a couple of candid photos of the girls in their bathrobes.

Elizabeth

Wendy

Jennifer

 LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this photo of Mum with my girls.

It's Peg's Fault Too ...

... because that Sunday morning she told me I was allowed to buy two pairs of shoes and one handbag.  Only problem was she gave me a spending limit of $25!

Hey Helen, Jenny, Teresa ...

Look what I have! Elizabeth went shopping for me last week.

Last Monday Night

After Michael's 30th birthday dinner, we went back to Michael and Peta's home for cups of tea and cake.  At the end of the evening when we were getting ready to leave, Elizabeth and Matt told us they have decided to marry and would like it to happen this year.

To say we are beyond excited is an understatement!

A Couple of Celebrations

It's been party party party the last few days.  On Saturday my friend Karen turned 60 and I was invited to her family celebration.  You can tell we're getting older as it was a lunch-time event, not night-time :)  It was such a lovely afternoon.  The kids had a great time on the jumping castle (including the birthday girl).

Karen cutting her birthday cake

On Monday our baby boy turned 30.

Michael with his Grandad

On Monday night we all went out for dinner - delicious food at a restaurant in Newtown called Bloodwood.

John decorated Michael's zombie birthday cake.  It looked pretty fierce.

Walking back to the car from the restaurant we came across this unusually decorated light pole.

And Peta noticed this jacket in the window of the Button Shop - she thought I could whip it up for her birthday in early August in colours to match her wedding dress.

Last night it was my turn to host the stitching girls so I decided to make a cake for Karen - this design is from the 1980 Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book.

The girls thought it was a hoot!