Friday Report - Flowerville & Baby G

Here we are at Friday and I thought I would do a status report on what I have accomplished so far this week...there is still the weekend to keep sewing which is something to look forward to.

First off...I found my hoop...in plain sight! I was sitting somewhere [unmentionable], with the door open and a clear view into my sewing room and wham, it hit me right between the eyes...how could I not have seen it before?

Can you spot it?

how about now?

brazenly perched on top of that yarn basket...just a fraction above eye level....as clear as a midsummer sky!

And there it will stay so I know where it is next time I need it!

Flowerville has progressed very nicely without that hoop, thank you very much!

I have been having some trouble with my satin stitch at night and so deviated from the pattern a little bit and filled the spaces in with chain stitch.  I think it looks alright.

I think I have also mixed up the colours a little but that is not such a big problem, is it?

I have made some progress on the Baby G Quilt as well.  All the square units are done and I am joining them up for the rows.

No progress has been made on the Brookfield baskets....but the weekend isn't over yet!

♥ How about you? have you progressed with your Design Board for the week?

♥ You can still link in with Design Board Monday...it is open until Sunday night.

♥ If you have been in the kitchen cooking up a storm instead, head on over to Cath@Home, for the link party and Giveaway....Friends Wanted!

Enjoy the weekend....and keep your needles threaded
Linking up with
Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts  
Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape
BOMs Away at What a Hoot
Making Mondays at Love, Laugh, Quilt
MCM at Cooking Up Quilts

DBM #4 - This & That

We have switched over to Daylight Saving in the south eastern states now but I haven't lived with daylight saving for most of my life. It is hard making the transition. I was so confused about the time yesterday because my body clock was telling me what time it should be and the wall clock was telling me I was wrong! With that in mind, it was 1am(ish) DLS time when I eventually climbed into bed not feeling at all sleepy....which means I was a 'late' riser this morning.  Just as well I have nowhere to go and no-one to see!

Except all of you, of course...are you joining me for Design Board Monday? I do hope so.

There is nothing new on  my design board today....just continuing with this and that...

I started block three of Flowerville on Friday night and I hope to complete that this week...it will be easy peasy...I am enjoying stitching it so much and the thread colours are so beautiful that I can't wait to see them stitched up.

I also finished 8 blocks of the Brookfield BOM so I will be prepping the next set of those to stitch...I will most likely get a start on stitching them as well...it is another one that I am enjoying...wool is a wonderful medium to work with...it is so forgiving ♥♥♥

And lastly, I need to keep moving with this little quilt that I am making...I don't have long to get it done and I have procrastinated over it for far too long.

Now it is your turn....link up and let us know what you are working on this week.

• link anything that you are working on this week or over the past week....needle and thread is all it takes! 
• Please add a link back to Bits 'n Bobs as part of your post (cut and paste the badge, if you like)
• Please make the effort to visit other link users and leave them a comment to make their day!
• Link will be open until Sunday 11/10/15

  I like to party too so I am Linking this post in at
BOMs Away at What a Hoot
Making Monday at Love, Laugh Quilt
Stitchery Link Party at Supermom, no Cape
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
and:

Scatterbrain with a side of Wild and Woolly

I am a little later than usual posting my FNWF post today because we are having a Wild and Woolly day today which has me on tenterhooks. I should be enjoying this burst of Summer heat we are having and I do love a good wild, gusty wind.....but the two together spell....EXTREME FIRE DANGER and there have been a number of fires around the area already which makes me very nervous considering our location. The photo below is today's image from the Fire Alert Website that I follow on days like this....nothing to worry about at the moment but matters can change very quickly.

All the blue edged white squares are reported fires the ones with a blue flame are low alert

 Back to the stitching, which is where my SCATTERBRAIN comes into effect.  As I predicted a couple of weeks ago, Block 2 for Flowerville arrived in the mail soon after but since I had my son visit for the weekend +, I have been a bit slack in picking up needle and thread again.

Last night I decided there was no more time to lose but get stuck into it.  Preparation of this block is easy because the design is already printed onto the background but it needs some stabilising so I wasted no time ironing on some whisperweft onto the back and then went in search of my favourite round embroidery frame.....nowhere to be found! I searched and searched each and every room in this house but for the life of me...I have no idea where it is. Even today I had another look but still couldn't find it. Not too much of a problem, although it bothers me, because in searching, I found my Sewline square snap frame which fortunately was just the right size.  Then for a needle.......looked everywhere for the needle I was using...'cos it was a good'un!

It took me awhile to realise I had left it in my pincushion next to my chair. The reason I put it in the pincushion in the first place, was so I knew where it was when I needed it again! Complete Scatterbrain!

Eventually I got around to stitching but I didn't get as much done as I would of liked and it doesn't make for great photo's just yet.

Linking in with Cheryl @ Gone Stitchin' for FNWF

Blog Newsy Bits

• The Design Wall Monday Link Party is going as well as I could of hoped....thanks to everyone who has participated so far! All you need is Needle and Thread to participate!
• Wednesday will see me start a Link Party over at Cath@Home....Link in your recipes....and be eligible for a monthly giveaway!

 Looking forward to seeing you at both!

DBM #3...at the Female Factory

Nothing on my Design Board today.....for me it will have to wait another day because I have had a very special visitor for the weekend. A gorgeous young man who I first met 27 years ago when they put this squawking little baby in my arms. He changed my life forever and it was so nice to have my boy, Red, over for his first visit to our new home.

So...no sewing has been done since Friday when he arrived but we did pay another visit to the Fossil Coast and yesterday we spent the day in Hobart Town where we visited the Cascade Female Factory. And this is as close as I got to anything quilty for the weekend.

clicking the picture will make it bigger and hopefully better to read

 I may be wrong, but I think I have seen the actual quilt at an exhibition that was touring the country last year. Unfortunately, no photo's were allowed at that exhibition so I my recollection is hazy. This quilt is quite different, being made out of metal squares but it did catch my eye the minute we walked through the entrance gate.

The rusted effect is how it is supposed to look, fitting in with the other aspects of this heritage site. A close up of one of the squares shows a lovely filigree metal cutout.

Just in case you are mystified by the name of Female Factory, as I was, it is not somewhere to manufacture items for women (actually, I could not imagine a reason at all for a female factory). It is in fact a Female Prison from the 1800s. This particular one has not been preserved very well and part of it is now re-developed into a Childcare centre and one of the yards has even been reclaimed from a tennis court built on the site in the 1920's. The walls are really all that are left... and the matron's cottage along one of the walls. I will be writing more about our weekend travels over at Cath@Home over the coming week.

You will still find the Link Party below and I am really keen to see what you will all be getting up to this week.

If you would like to party along.....

• link anything that you are working on this week or over the past week....needle and thread is all it takes!
• Please add a link back to Bits 'n Bobs as part of your post (cut and paste the badge, if you like)
• Please make the effort to visit other link users and leave them a comment to make their day!
• Link will be open until Sunday 4/10/15

 

Design Board Monday #2.....A new BOM

*If you are visiting through Val's Quilting Studio, please note that this Link Party is now closed, there is another one active at the moment HERE and you are welcome to link up*

 

Hello to you all and firstly, thank you so much for taking part in last weeks Link Party.....I am so appreciative and never in my wildest dreams did I expect to have 9 "guinea pigs"!  You are the best! Look out for this weeks Linky below.

I have been hinting about this BOM for awhile and now that I am eventually ready to start, I would like to share it with you all.

It was really my own indecision that kept me from starting this project earlier because the recommended threads were not part of the BOM and I couldn't decide if I wanted to use them or not....in the end, the heart won out and they arrived with the 2nd lot of BOM blocks....seems like time to get started on the 1st lot!

Lets back up the truck a bit to that visit I made to The Old Church closing down event way back in June...the day I met both Leonie Bateman and Sue Daley. I initially fell in love with Sue's quilt, "Lancaster" which was one of many on display but I also got a chance to look at Leonie's design...Brookfield which is soooo much nicer in real life.....no picture can do it justice.

I could only afford to get one of these quilts and two factors helped me make up my mind.....1) I already have two Sue Daley kits that are waiting to be sewn....'Marmalade' & 'Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows'; and 2) I really wanted to work with wool felt.

I got started with a couple of blocks on Friday, just to give me an idea of the process and then today I started the production line. The little basket template comes in so handy because it is so much easier to trace around a template rather than trace one through freezer paper.

 This production line was going to be a breeze. First off....tracing the design and ironing the freezer paper onto the felt squares.

 Then cutting out the baskets and adding some glue to the back of them.....using the bonus BOM gift, a Sue Daley sandpaper board, kept those felt bits nice and stable for a swipe of glue.

After that, the felt baskets were glued to the shirt fabric backing and I took them back to the ironing board to affix the whisperweft.

After that was done, I did something which I have never, ever done before......I stapled the applique to the backing fabric!! Because felt doesn't fray, a stabilising medium isn't necessary, and it would make it to hard to sew through as well, I imagine. That is why it is a good idea to staple the basket shapes to the background....extra insurance for less movement.

And this is what I will be setting my mind to for the week.....the first 8 basket blocks for "Brookfield" by Leonie Bateman Designs.

6 out of the 8

Now it's your turn.....

If you would like to party along.....

• link anything that you are working on this week or over the past week....needle and thread is all it takes!
• Please add a link back to Bits 'n Bobs as part of your post (cut and paste the badge, if you like)
• Please make the effort to visit other link users and leave them a comment to make their day!
• Link will be open until Sunday 27/9/15

  

Linking in to: 

BOMs Away at What a Hoot

Monday Makings at Love Laugh Quilt 

Main Crush Monday at Cookin Up Quilts

On Your Toes...it's time to stitch!

I have had such a lovely busy day today.....I started off getting various flower seeds and carrot seeds ready for germination, planted out my lettuce seedlings and got my strawberry plants into bigger pots. Then I headed indoors to get dinner in the slow cooker for later..and then I was free to get into the sewing room.

slow cooked Chilli Con Carne

I prepped some blocks for a BOM that I haven't revealed yet....but be prepared to stay in the dark a bit longer.....I expect to start stitching those over the weekend and I will showcase them in their own post because they really do deserve that. In the meantime...here is a teaser...

After tea time, I decided to continue stitching Dancing with Brolgas from the Australian Afternoon BOM. I had a few more ballet shoes to satin stitch so my birds could perform flawless pointe and perfect their arabesque and grand jetes.

All that is left is to stitch the audience who are sat there in raptured awe...

 and just as well....look what came in the post yesterday.

Looks like I will have to concentrate on Block 2 from A Country Tea Party now and no doubt Flowerville will probably arrive soon too....Australian Afternoon will have to be put away for awhile.

1. Thank you to Wendy at Sugarlane Designs for hosting us for FNSI.  I have just checked and there were 50 friends sewing last night.  Its going to be a fun and busy weekend visiting them all.
2. Kathy at Kathy's Quilts for hosting Slow Stitch Sunday
3.  Beth at Cooking Up Quilts for hosting Main Crush Monday
4. Super Mom - No Cape for hosting Stitchery Link Party 
5. A Quilting Reader's Garden for WIPs be Gone
6. Last but definitely not least....a thank you also to Lynette at What a Hoot for hosting BOMs Away.

My Blog Notes 

• I am hosting "Design Board Monday" Link Party at Bits 'n Bobs on  Mondays, would love to see you there so mark your calendar. It's open all week!
• The Link Up at Cath@Home is still open for another week......take a look and enter...because