OPAM ALREADY?

I nearly forgot that February is a short month and my mind has been elsewhere lately. No surprise there!  Only 2 finishes this month and I just scraped them in LOL.

                                                              A cushion for myself.

 

 

And the crib quilt for my adorable grandson, Corben.

 

 

 

Angel Blessings.

 

JUST IN TIME

Since last  year I have been working on a crib quilt for my new grandson. It was a lot of hand appliqueing and it was certainly made with heaps of love because my fingers suffered quite a bit during the process. I finished it within a couple of weeks of Corben's due date and took it to my quilter who returned it to me a couple of weeks ago just before the birth.  I frantically stitched the binding onto it and then tried to design a label for the quilt. Well, as you know, Corben was born on 21st  Feb and I have been rather busy since then. So, on Friday night I started drawing up the wording to trace onto fabric and stitched it on Saturday night. Whew! They came home on Saturday and I was able to give it to them yesterday. The quilting has owls in it if you look closely.

 

 

 

The label.

 

 

 

Life has been very busy in a good way this past week and I am exhausted LOL. It is such a wonderful experience as all you blogger grand mothers well know.

 

Angel Blessings 

 

I'M A GRANDMA!!!!!!

I would like to introduce you to my new grandson ,CORBEN, who was born yesterday around 5 pm.  These pics were taken this morning.

 

 

 

Thankyou all for your lovely emails and comments over the past few months regarding my pending grandmotherhood. ( Is that a word?).

 

Angel Blessings. We are truly blessed with this little fella.

 

NEW AND OLD ,(UFO), PROJECTS

I have been quite up and down with my sewing mojo lately. Some days passed without threading a single needle and others saw me happily stitching to my heart's content. Meanwhile my youngest daughter flew over to NZ to attend  a wonderful week long workshop by Jordu Schell who is a world reknown designer for creatures, character design, props and special effects in the film and TV world. He is known for his creations in Avatar, Men In Black, Edward Scissorhands and many many more movies.  This is the pic she sent to me of her creation. ( I have no idea why the computer insists on showing it sideways).  She flew back home this morning so at least she will be in the country when her new nephew arrives in a few days.

 

 

So, what have I been up to? Well I really wanted to stitch something a bit different. I searched the internet for inspiration and found a lovely gothic drawing with an owl, skull and roses. I stitched the roses in a gorgeous Cottage Garden thread and now the black and purple stitching looks rather flat. I think I shall add more texture to the skull and owl by shadowing the backstitch with another row of backstitch in a dark but slightly lighter thread than the colours used. Hmmmmm, still thinking about that.

 

 

 

 

Yey! I finally finished another cushion. This one is for me as the stitchery pattern was a gift from Barb a couple of years ago which I had completed but put in the UFO drawer. I don't think I measured properly as the cushion cover is a bit loose. 

 

 

 

 

I finished a stitchery (Jenny's design) and have put the borders on. I still need to sew a button on and finish it off,  (when I work out what to make it into ). It is a gift for someone.

 

 

 

 

I also put the borders on this little mini ready to quilt which is also a design of Jenny's.

 

 

 

 

I am enjoying needle turning the Rosie Quinlan BOM block I started. I had to add a strip to the bottom as there wasn't enough fabric for the background Grrrrrr. This really is "Patch" work. It is quite noticeable as the pattern is crossways rather than vertical so it doesn't meet up properly. I am not fussed because it is for me. I would be really stressing out if I was making it as a gift.

 

 

 

 

The cockatoos have now stripped our trees bare of fruit. At least we did get a few peaches which we enjoyed stewed. I was quite proud of this fella because he actually ate the entire peach rather than just taking a bite and dropping it to the ground like the others did.

 

 

 

 

 

 BABY IS DUE IN 3 DAYS!!!!

 

Angel Blessings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UFOs

This year I am once again attempting to finish projects stashed away in my UFO drawer. The first thing I came across was the Cupcake BOM I started a couple of years ago. Each block depicts a special day of the year and this one is Fathers' Day. I must confess that I have changed all the blocks using the original designs for ideas.  The BOM was designed by a stitching friend for one of our quilt groups and she has no problem with individual creativity. I tried to think what to put on this block to remind me of dad, thus the cap and the bee.  ( He always wears a cap and he is a hobby apiarist). I think it needs a few more things on it. Do you think it is a bit bare?

 

 

The 2nd project I found was a block from one of Rosalie Quinlan's BOMs that I had bought in kit form. I completed the other one ( only have 2)  quite a while ago and have no idea why I put this one aside. This is the centre part of the block that I have needle turned. Unfortunately, I need to improvise with the foundation fabric before I can needle turn the other parts as there wasn't enough fabric included and it is 1/2" too small!!!! So, I am cutting a strip and sewing it along the side hoping it won't be too noticeable. Fingers crossed! Shall show you when I have finished it.

 

 

 

 

It has been too hot to sew the last 2 days. No air con means sweaty hands and glasses sliding off my nose all the time. So, yesterday I decided to put all my DMC threads into new containers and re sort them. I also wound a few onto plastic bobbins replacing the old cardboard ones which wear over time. Alas, not enough plastic ones for all the threads but that can be a another day's fun.

 

My old plastic boxes were damaged after over 40 years of use and I had more threads to be wound onto bobbins. A mess!!

 

 

 

 

This time I sorted them by colour, then number rather than simply by number. I figure that most patterns have the colour listed beside the number anyway and I often choose my own colours. How do you store your threads? These containers are slightly larger than my old ones . Even better!

 

 

 

 

Thankyou for stopping by.

 

Angel Blessings.

 

 

 

 

2017 OPAM

 

 

                     It is time to sign up for "One Project A Month" with Peg. I found OPAM to be quite inspiring last year , motivating me to finish projects. So, if you would like to join in the fun pop on over to Peg's blog and sign up. I completed 2 things in January, both cushions for my new soon to be born grandchild.

 

 

 

 

 

Now onto February.

 

Angel Blessings.