Little Houses

I've been stitching Block 4 of Yoko Saito's Mystery BOM, in the Quiltmania magazine and I've thoroughly enjoyed making these little houses.

My elbow is feeling considerably better than it was and watching the Olympic's is such an ideal time to get on with my applique, eg. Leaves - so plenty of stops, arm stretches, etc is the order for the day.

It's been 10 Days.....

..........since I last posted.
I have been working on Block No 4 of Yoko Saito's Mystery BOM in Quiltmania and I'll show it when I have all the applique and embroidery finished.
Meantime I'm going to show you where I keep most of my bags. They DO get used so they're not all pristine and tidy.

To keep you all going while I'm not doing much in the way of sewing I'm having a 'giveaway'. One of my 'Tote' bags. It's made of upholstery fabric and a very handy size. I'll pick a number on the 1st August. Just leave a comment if you would like to have a chance of winning it.

Celebrate

I'm not doing much hand sewing and trying to rest my elbow. Driving my manual and changing gears seems to annoy it the most but sewing a few little leaves on doesn't. Whoopee! Vine no. 5 is finished and I'm half way.

and in the garden it's time for the Red Hot Pokers. They really do look fiery and the Honeyeaters swing on each stem as they poke their long beaks in. Just as well we have more than one clump with all the squabbling that goes on among them.

Friends, Patterns and Post

Yesterday I had some friends round to sew. Carolyn had had a tidy up in her sewing room and come across Jan Patek kits she had bought a long time ago and had never made. They were all great patterns and yesterday she gave me the Coxcombs and Stars pattern and kit. She feels that she will never make it and that I would. How wonderful is that. There are 4 bags of beautiful fabrics in Jan Patek plaid cloth bags. Oh! I'd like to make it, now. Thank you Carolyn, very much.

Today in the Post I got the pattern I bought from Dawn . It is called Calico Paradise and along with it she also sent me a large piece of V & A fabric. Thank you soo much, I love the pattern and the fabric.

There was also another postal bag with threads I had ordered from Aurifil. I needed 4 more colours for my wool applique. This is called Aurifil Lana, it is wool thread on spools so I can buttonhole stitch my felted wool applique on my sewing machine or use it for hand sewing. It gives a wonderful finish because it doesn't 'bite' into the felted wool like ordinary thread does. I use 'Topstitch' machine needles that have a large eye and turn the top tension down. The first quilt I used it on was my Settler's Pride 2009 and I've been collecting them ever since.

My hand sewing has almost stopped with my 'Golfer's Elbow' but I've been sewing on the machine and also making leaves for my vine, so no photos of my projects today. I really need to get out and prune the roses but that's another job on hold for the moment.

Slow and Slower

My sewing has gone from slower to slow over the weekend and now to a couple of leaves at a time. I had a little twinge in my left elbow,last week, I think from holding the fabric too tight and not flexing my elbow enough while appliqueing. I opened a new jar, on Saturday morning and now it's sore,sore. Here is my vine, only 2 branches to go on No. 5.

But I can machine sew. You didn't really think I was going to stop sewing? This the next block for the Bloggers BOM from Canton Village quilts. I needed to do a cream block. When I looked at my other blocks, I have too many red ones. My layer cake of Rounneries fabrics have been wonderful for this.