Weekend sewing and halloween

 I have had a lovely time in my sewing room, making pouches and working on my christmas gifts. Yesterday I made the pouch pictured above, it was a fiddly but a  fun little project to work on. Its a pattern by Thimbleblossoms.

 I decided to try and make the same pouch but this time bigger and so far its working out great. I adore the fabric range Scrumptious. its so fresh and modern. it works well with some linen.

 If you look close you can see I did a bit of fancy machine stitching, just for something a little different.

 As Halloween is approaching I have been thinking about making a quilt. I bought these fabrics when I was in America last month, now I just need to decide what to make.

 I have a few cute Halloween goodies, I like things that are different.

I also made a Halloween bunting during the week.

Next weekend I am going on my annual quilting retreat to Hagely farm, I can't wait. 3 days of non stop sewing , laughter and lots of fun.

Have a great day.

Sunday already

 There  hasn't been alot going on in my neck of the woods lately, the weather has finally started to warm up and I have been busy in the garden, here are a few Spring flowers, they are so pretty. The yellow tulips were a new variety to what I already had and I love their elegant shape.

 Daffodils are just about finished, they are always so bright and cheery.

 I received this beautiful journal cover from my dear friend Barb who is my partner for the Let's celebrate swap, Barb sent me this to open on my birthday then I got lots more goodies when we got back from our trip. Thankyou Barb, its been used for notes already.

 I have been making a few hexie flowers, these are to go on secret things for Christmas gifts.

 Last week at work we got this beautiful fabric by Bonnie and Camille. I have cut this up already but I  can't show you what I made as its another Christmas gift. I'm sure there is alot of secret sewing going on in blog land right now.

The other day I bought the most beautiful pad of scrapbook papers from Spotlight.  Look at this Hexie print. I wish it was fabric. I just loved the selection of colours. I raided my cupboard and found a jelly roll of Avignon by Riley Blake and it matches perfect. I have started a new design so stay tuned for more  as I make progress.

Well thats it from me, Back to my christmas sewing and pattern writing.
Have a great day.

Lucky me

 I have had such a good birthday, it has lasted well over a month. Its very exciting getting parcels in the mail. Just before my birthday I received this beautiful bag from my dear friend Tracee, its so me. The fabrics are perfect and I love the style. Thankyou so much Tracee. So much time and effort was put into this bag which makes it even more special.

 Not long now until Tracee comes to stay with us for a few days, I'm looking foreward to it alot. We have so much planned. I'll be sure to share photos.

 Yesterday I received this bundle of goodies from Barb, for our Lets Celebrate swap. Barb made some some beautiful sewing things. Look at the sweetest bag, I love the fabrics.

 Inside was all these wonderful gifts, a thread catcher, a pin cushion and needlecase and lots of chocolates. A quick unpick, needles, scissors and such pretty threads.

 Thankyou so much Barb, I love it all.

 If you read my blog regularly you will know that every Sunday I bake something for my boys to eat either at home or for their lunch boxes, as its school holidays I opted for something they can eat during the day. I made apple pie. I found this recipe on Red brolly blog, what I loved about it was you didn't need to use a pie dish as the pastry was the dish, it was so easy and tasted delicious.

Now I need to find some new recipes for this weekend,
Have a great evening, hope you find some sewing time.

September.

 September has been a awesome month, not only did we spend 25 days of it in America, it was also my birthday and  just last week I had my 2nd design published in the October edition of Patchwork and stitching magazine, which is in newsagents now.   Vol 14 No. 9   I am so thrilled to see my design in print, the photography looks amazing,.

 I designed 4 stitched christmas tags. I love to do stitchery and these cute little tags are so much fun to make.

 I hope you like them to.

 When we arrived home from our holiday I came home to so much wonderful mail.  I received some beautiful gifts from my friend Anthea, Look at that cute bird and the cross stitch pin cushion is so delicate and pretty. Anthea also sent me the cutest tin of pins.

 My lovely friend Wendy made me a gorgeous framed stitchery and a crocheted pin cushion, its so soft and cute. I love the way Wendy painted the frame, Thankyou

And finally my lovely  penfriend Stephany  who lives in Belgium made me these 3 beautiful tilda whales, they are just the sweetest little things. I have them set up in my bathroom and kind of have a beach theme going on in there.


So there you have it, I'm a very lucky lady to have such wonderful and talented friends, thank you so much.

Have a great day, I hope to do some more sewing later today. I have started working on my christmas swap gifts.

Sewing results are in....

 I had a good sewing session last night, I got nearly all my In full bloom by Lynette Anderson  top together, just 2 borders to go, I love this quilt. The stitcheries are so  cute and easy to do, I finished 8 of them while we were on holidays. It helps to only take one project with you.

 I used Minnick and Simpson fabrics and changed the threads for the stitcheries to match. I think I would like to quilt the top first then applique the circles on. What do you think?

To wind down a bit before I went to bed I started stitching a new pattern I got for my birthday. Its a Leanne's house design and so pretty.

Today hubby and I are gardening, I have already planted 20 packets of Zinnias, I grew them last year and they are beautiful, now to tackle the vegie garden.
If you would like to see what everyone involved in Friday night sewing made go here and click on their names.
Enjoy your Saturday.

Are you sewing tonight?

 Its Friday night with friends tonight, if you would like to join in on some sewing fun pop over here to Cheryll's blog and sign up.

 I plan to work on these stitcheries, they are so much fun.

 A few random pics from my garden, its bursting with colour. I Love Spring.

Hope to see you tonight,

A few more holiday snaps and my birthday.

 I just wanted to share a few more holiday snaps from our trip to USA. Since we arrived home just over a week ago it hasn't stopped raining, I really want to go back to the warm days and lots  of sunshine.

 My boys kept teasing me about only going on little rides like a tea cup  so I proved them right and did just that. Our youngest son came with me so I didn't  look silly on there by myself.

 The sunsets in Hawaii were beautiful.

  We went on a snorkelling tour and that was so much fun, the fish were so colourful and you could almost touch them.

 There was lots of  Hawaiian quilting , I bought this cushion for my boss at work,

 While I was away  it was my birthday so when I returned home I had lots of fun mail to open, I received these beautiful goodies from Fiona who belongs to our on line stitching group.

 I also received these gorgeous projects from my good friend Nicky, all in my favourite colours and fabrics.
Even a wonderful Cath Kidston notebook,

I was thrilled with everything, thankyou Ladies. I still have more presents to show you  and something exciting to tell you  but they will have to wait til another day. Time now to  get ready for work.

Have a wonderful day.