Design Board Monday - On hiatus in London

Just so you know...I am back in England for a, possibly, extended visit. I only have access to my blog via my iPad which is not easy for me to blog on so I will be posting short snippets of progress on projects I have brought with me via my blogging Facebook profile....see side bar for link.
You could always "like" my profile to keep connected.

Design Board Monday # 37- Mid Winter Gathering

Oh dear! I am really slacking off with Design Board Monday but as to why will be revealed next week.....WARNING: it may not be good news for DBM!

Last time I posted I showed a whole lot of projects that I was working on for the month of June.....so far I have completed the needleturn stitching on "Marmalade", completed stitching the baskets for "Brookfield", Blanket stitched most of the design for "Spring Bouquet"....and...stitched the sashiko stitches for "Sashiko and Butterflies"....that's a lot of stitching....for me!

3 out of 4 progress pieces

 It didn't end there because this past weekend I was fortunate enough to partake in a Stitching Day, organised by Leonie Bateman of The Quilted Crow.  The "Mid Winter Gathering" was held in the Hobart suburb of Lindisfarne and Leonie set up in a lovely old church community hall. She had her beautiful quilts on display and also had a pop-up shop available to anyone wanting to call in. It was just the weather for it too as you can see from this dodgy pic I took of Mt Wellington the day before.

We all got a gift on arriving. Four free patterns, all designed by Leonie and a pattern kit for a gorgeous little wheat bag which we all got to work on for the day with Leonie to instruct every step and give us hints along the way.

We stopped work for a scrumptious lunch and a wonderful "ooh & aah" show-and-tell session from some very talented ladies attending the Gathering.

The afternoon was spent stitching some more......I was sat with three familiar faces from my Friday Post Office group but also met some lovely new faces and even a "gentleman quilter" sharing my table! I also stopped to chat to a couple of ladies from my neck of the woods and found out where they meet up to sew once a month.....I have plans to tag along and join them at some stage.

There was no way I was coming home without giving my credit card a workout......so I purchased a couple of fabric kits to accompany two of the gifted patterns and purchased another one of Leonie's pattern designs that I just loved.

And now that all important question?

What do you have to share for this week?

• Link will be open until this coming Sunday.
• 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 (why not get the button code from the side bar to paste into your post). This will help your readers finding the Link Up if they want to participate as well.
• Please make the effort to visit other link users and leave them a comment. Leaving me a comment after linking up will help me know that you have been by and linked up. 
• Other Link Parties are more than welcome to link up too! Please NO Sales, Endorsement or Promotional Posts....they will be deleted.

Link Below

Linking up with:

• Podunk Pickins
• Monday Making
• Main Crush Monday
• Slow Sunday Stitching 
• What a Hoot Quilts
• Stitchery Link Party 
• Moving it Forward Monday

Design Board Monday # 36- Weather for Ducks

There seems to have been a deluge of water everywhere at the moment....no sooner had we watched scenes of the Seine in Paris break it's banks than we were worrying about our children in QLD as severe weather and flooding were predicted there late last week (fortunately, they all coped) but the weather moved down the Eastern Seaboard hitting Sydney hard and eventually it has reached us here in Tasmania. While the fierceness of the rain has diminished, we have had enough rain to make our two top dams overflow creating a river through the fields between dams and our smaller and lowest dam is overflowing into the creek...a very swollen creek. We are not in any danger here but I believe other places in Tasmania have not fared so well. This makes it all perfect weather for ducks.....although, I haven't seen any about! but as for me....I have lots on the go to keep me in the warm and dry.

With the Flowerville stitching complete and only one block left on A Country Tea Party, it was time to turn my thoughts to what will follow. Oh my, the choices! Last week I showed you one BOM kit that I decided to start and I prepped block one for that. It is called Marmalade by Sue Daley. I am doing all the applique bit with needleturn.

I bought this kit for my birthday a couple of years ago and then I remembered one I had bought for my birthday a year earlier....maybe it was time to get started on that too! So I prepped block one for Spring Bouquet. One thing I love about this kit is that all the shapes are pre-cut so it is just a case of placing them on the background, ironing down.....and then.....sew! I am doing this one in blanketstitch by hand.

I also prepped another month's worth of blocks for Brookfield by Leonie Bateman. Leonie is hosting a Mid Winter Gathering...stitching day this month which I really want to attend.....CLICK HERE to find out more.

And on top of that, I received a parcel in the mail......I always said I would never get on the Sashiko bandwagon....it never appealed...until......I saw this!

I saw it on Pinterest and just fell in love so ordered it directly from Sylvia Pippen Designs in the US. It is called Sashiko & Butterflies. It was a very reasonable price for the kit considering the USD/AUD currency rate at the moment.

So as you can see, it may be Weather for Ducks outdoors but indoors it is Weather for Stitching!

How are you coping with the weather where you live.....is it sunny, windy, raining??

What do you have to share for this week?

• Link will be open until this coming Sunday.
• 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 (why not get the button code from the side bar to paste into your post). This will help your readers finding the Link Up if they want to participate as well.
• Please make the effort to visit other link users and leave them a comment. Leaving me a comment after linking up will help me know that you have been by and linked up. 
• Other Link Parties are more than welcome to link up too! Please NO Sales, Endorsement or Promotional Posts....they will be deleted.

Link Below

Also linking with:

• Podunk Pickins
• Monday Making
• Main Crush Monday
• Slow Sunday Stitching 
• Stitchery Link Party 
• Moving it Forward Monday

No Design Board Monday Today!

Now I know it is Monday today and I should of had a post all ready to go but I didn't and I haven't had a chance today.... and to top it all off, my computer is being so S.L.O.W.....so I am here to let you know that there won't be a linky this week.

I am nearing the end of stitching Flowerville and so I have been looking at my Projects-in-Waiting and I have just about decided on starting this Sue Daley BOM kit that I bought a couple of years ago.

I also picked up the frames that I had on Layby last Friday and so I have been playing with these greeting cards that I collected on my UK trip. They are from The Country Set by Wrensdale Designs.

I am framing them the same way as I did these ones but using a cranberry textured cardstock as a frame. I will show you how they turned out sometime soon.

Have a terrific week and keep your needles threaded!!!

 

Design Board Monday #35 - Inclement Weather

It has been wet, cold and plain miserable here today but I have made the most of it....stitching happily in front of the fire with my furry companions softly snoring on a blanket near by.

Here is what I continued stitching today.....A Country Tea Party...Block 8

I made a slight change and stitched a row of tiny chain stitch for the cream in the cake....

 I still have a few sites to visit from last week but once again I am asking:

What do you have to share for this week?

• Link will be open until this coming Sunday.
• 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 (why not get the button code from the side bar to paste into your post). This will help your readers finding the Link Up if they want to participate as well.
• Please make the effort to visit other link users and leave them a comment. Leaving me a comment after linking up will help me know that you have been by and linked up. 
• Other Link Parties are more than welcome to link up too! Please NO Sales, Endorsement or Promotional Posts....they will be deleted.

Link Below

Also Linking with:

• Podunk Pickins
• Monday Making
• Main Crush Monday
• Slow Sunday Stitching 
• Stitchery Link Party 
• Moving it Forward Monday

A Tidy Up

I am taking a break on my Cath@Home blog and to be truthful, I had thought I would do the same here....some days the words just flow and some days I can't string a simple sentence together. Yesterday, for what was to be my last post for awhile, I enjoyed the process and creating the photo collages...so I will see how I go for a bit longer but just so you know....a forced break is coming.

While on a break, It was my intention to spend more time in the kitchen and sewing room.....but just look at the sewing room. You can CLICK on the pictures to enlarge them.

This tidy up came as a result of running out of a particular colour of embroidery thread. I won't be in town till Friday and so went searching among my other stitcheries to see if the same colour was there....then I realised that a couple of stitcheries were missing and I couldn't find my floss boxes. I went searching in our storage shed and found at least one box in storage that had been water damaged (fortunately it only contained fabric scraps) so I went into overdrive to unpack the remaining boxes.  Trying to get everything to fit into my diminished sewing space meant some serious re-organising.

Firstly, I decided to add further top of shelf surface space by putting my wool stash into waste paper baskets which I hung on the wall. Then I had room for my everyday tools (scissors/rotary cutters and markers), my rulers are in one spot and some patterns are also within easy reach and on view.....I had forgotten about quite a few of them.....I filled up my empty basket storage with even more wool and used one of my kit baskets for WIPs....this is all next to the cutting table so within very easy reach. 

One problem I have is not enough shelving.....I bought two white 'bakers shelves' last month. They were intended as shelving for my potting shed. One is outdoors atm as a plant stand and since I have a really large sewing table....I stood this one on it in the corner to hold all my stitchery and applique BOM's...all in their own project box....On the top shelf is a box of threads, 2 boxes of cross stitch Aida scraps and below that a place that my embroidery hoops can call their own. Opposite all this, I have used the two top shelves of another basket unit to hold boxes of quilt UFO's....just so they are not out of sight, out of mind. I have used the same size/shape of storage box as much as possible to create a sense of neatness and order....those plastic food storage boxes are so affordable at dollar stores.

I did find those missing stitcheries and embroidery threads....Bric-a-Brac is also on my BOM progress wall now. I think I might have to add a few more hooks to this wall for the other BOM's that need finishing.
I still have a whole lot of fabric to sort and pack into my glass fronted cabinet and my bookcase needs an organisation overhaul.  Storage space is at a premium so I have commandeered a couple of bookcase shelves in the farmers study....and there are still a couple of containers still on my desk that will go there.....but just look at the sewing space now....

Much better, more inviting and just as well.....there is some sewing I need to get done.

 I do need to show off my little support buddy while I was busy....although she did get under foot....just a tad!

Design Board Monday #34 - Meet Val

I had to dash out to the shops yesterday morning for some emergency sugar supplies for my marmalade and it struck me as odd that a few places were closed. I thought about asking the check out person if it was a public holiday but we were talking marmalade and it slipped my mind.  On the drive home I wondered about it again since the Doctors Surgery was obviously closed as well.  My farmer knows all these things so I posed the question to him when I was unpacking the groceries.......his reply.....it's Sunday dear!! Oh Duh!! Well, thank goodness for that as I hadn't even given Design Board Monday a thought yet....but I couldn't shake that Monday feeling for the rest of the day.

I have made progress on my stitcheries. Flowerville, Block 8 is done and dusted....still waiting for the last block.  A Country Tea Party is well underway and I finished the two little daisies on Block 6 and then started on Block 7.

If I had posted this earlier like I had planned, you would of missed the fabrics that arrived in the mail today......such lovely Tilda Fabrics with block 10 of A Country Tea Party.  I may have complained about the stitchery fabric being a tad too small but I love how each fabric is labelled according to the pattern....no chance of confusion for me.

And now to the title of this week's post....Have you met Val from Val's Quilting Studio?? I am quite a fan of Val's blog and I was tickled pink when she linked up to Design Board Monday last week. She has an idea for  a fabulous swap that she is putting together. If you missed her post and would like to join it or would like to just meet Val, click the pic below to read how the swap works.

Vals: I-Spy Flimsy & Swap

I haven't taken part in a swap for a couple of years.....as far as I can remember....and an I-Spy quilt has been on my agenda for ages which means I have collected a fair few novelty prints.....all of which I will not use up by myself.....I'm in....are you?

a fraction of my novelty collection

What do you have to share for this week?

• Link will be open until this coming Sunday.
• 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 (why not get the button code from the side bar to paste into your post). This will help your readers finding the Link Up if they want to participate as well.
• Please make the effort to visit other link users and leave them a comment. Leaving me a comment after linking up will help me know that you have been by and linked up. 
• Other Link Parties are more than welcome to link up too! Please NO Sales, Endorsement or Promotional Posts....they will be deleted.

Link Below

Also Linking with:

• Podunk Pickins
• Monday Making
• Main Crush Monday
• Slow Sunday Stitching 
• Stitchery Link Party 
• Moving it Forward Monday

Design Board Monday #33 - Stitchin' Progress

I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day yesterday. If it wasn't Mother's Day in your part of the world (UK) then I hope you got to spend the day doing something enjoyable....maybe stitching!

I was so lucky to have one of my children down in Tassie for a weekend visit and we spent the afternoon walking through a beautiful Tasmanian Forest environment taking photo's of some amazing sights...I will be sharing those pics on Cath@Home this week.

Here at Bits 'n Bobs... I managed to do some stitching since the boy and my farmer went hiking on Mt Wellington on Saturday.  I put a huge dint into Block 6 of A Country Tea Party while they were off. This morning, all I have left to complete this block is two daisies that need stitching, near the wagon.

Some of my favourite bits to stitch were the bees....the little flowers in the grass and miss Teddy

I also remembered to get a couple of thread skeins that I was short on so I can complete Block 8 of Flowerville.

That reminds me.....I forgot to show the finished block 7 last week, so here it is....

What do you have to share for this week?

• Link will be open until this coming Sunday.
• 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 (why not get the button code from the side bar to paste into your post). This will help your readers finding the Link Up if they want to participate as well.
• Please make the effort to visit other link users and leave them a comment. Leaving me a comment after linking up will help me know that you have been by and linked up. 
• Other Link Parties are more than welcome to link up too! Please NO Sales, Endorsement or Promotional Posts....they will be deleted.

Link Below

Also Linking with:

• Podunk Pickins
• Monday Making
• Main Crush Monday
• Slow Sunday Stitching  no link party this week.
• Stitchery Link Party 
• Moving it Forward Monday