FNWF

I have been working away on my Debbie Mumm sampler trying to get it finished. Not too much to go now but those pesky little Ohio stars are becoming tedious. Only two more to go. They are the last pieces and go in the top border. I have to finish them before I can sew the border on.

You can download this design from http://www.debbiemumm.com/Projects/QuiltBlocks/2012/

I didn't work on this one Friday night but I have been getting some done on my Go Wild Garden quilt. This is from Country Cottage Quilting by Lynette Anderson. I have 8 background blocks done. There is quite a bit of applique on them.

I get the newsletter from Fort Worth Fabric Studio and they had a mid week sale a few weeks ago. I was on the verge of buying the Short and Stout range at full price then it popped up on sale. Whoo Whoo! 7 yards and a panel for $76. That is a bit more than $10 /metre including the postage. I love it.

Thanks to Cheryll at Gone Stitchn' you can visit lots of friends who all joined in with Friday Night With Friends. It is great to see what everyone is doing.

Happy Quilting,
Val

If you are not into Google+ you can contact me through:

valspierssews@gmail.com

or Facebook

Needle book and fabric

When I sewed the stitchery to the front of the hollyhock needle book it went a bit crooked and the tiny prairie points went a bit skew. I thought the best way to get better is to do it again. I loved the poppy stitchery from Red Brolly so I made that up to make a new needle book. I didn't think it needed inside pockets so I have used some of the aplique elements from the SKOW book. I have yet to sew it all together.

I was very surprised to get my new fabric so fast. Just 8 days from America. 40 half yard pieces of Audra's Iris Garden. I worked it out to be $14.75 per metre. I was pleased I found the shop selling the 1/2 yard pieces. It was much better value than the fat quarter bundle. It will be perfect for the Go Wild Garden quilt from Country Cottage Quilting that I will be making this year. It is a nice subdued range, quite a bit darker or duller than I am used to.

I have been wondering what I will have as a home page after Google shut down iGoogle. I decided to go with my blog page. I have added some links to sites I like to visit then I made a list of some shops I often check out. It is now more like home. I set my browser to open my blog page, my email and google plus as tabs on start up. The computer is such a cool tool.

If you are not ready for Google+ you can comment from my Facebook or Flickr.

Val Spiers on Facebook

Val Spiers on Flickr

Happy Quilting,
Val

Sew, sew, sew. Blog, blog, blog

I am so glad I am retired and have time to sew and blog.

Lots of positive things happening .

I received a lovely gift of some woven felt wool from Mel at the House on the Side of the Hill. It was a nice welcome to the Summertime Sewalong she suggested earlier in the year. There are not many sewing along because it is a fairly piecy looking appliqué and even I have decided I will only make 9 of the blocks to make a square wall hanging. It is nice to play and sew with felt.

I purchased some new fabric called Avalon from the Fabric Patch online .

A lovely lady sent me some photos of two block keepers she made with my cat appliqué on the fronts. I was so pleased she liked the patterns. You can see them at Mairsmusings.

I had a great time meeting some of the people behind the blogs at a sewing meet we had for the Brisbane Stitchers Inc. It is basically Brisbane bloggers but all sewers are welcome. Believe it or not I won the lucky door prize of a lovely pattern and a pincushion made by Maree of Ollie and May

I had my first go at needle turn appliqué when I started the Holiday lap quilt from It's Quilting Cats and Dogs. I have nearly finished two of the blocks. They both have some finishing off to do. I plan to make the quilt from the Avalon fabric.

 

I have also been doing more of the Debbie Mumm sampler . Some little log cabins, the fish and I have started the stars.

 

And the weather is just perfect today.

Happy Quilting,

Val

 

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Apple Patchwork and some spending

Since it is autumn here I wanted something nice to put on the table for our Easter feast. I love apples and they are a little bit less common in patchwork than other autumn themes. I looked around for some images and found this one on Flickr.

I have no idea what brand it might be so I rustled up a pattern with my trusty ruler and pencil based on the size of my table. I sorted through all my fabrics and came up with enough for four different blocks. Here is the first one.

I saw the cutest stitched alphabet from Michelle of Rag-Tag Stitchn' on another blog because they had won it in a give away Michelle had and I knew I just had to get it. It arrived today and it is lovely. I have to make some time to stitch up my own initial first.

 

I also gave in and ordered some fabrics in the equilters.com sale. 8 yds for a total of $68. This works out to about $9 per metre.

I made a mistake with the order because I didn't realise that my old card number was still on the account when I clicked pay. It came up declined and order waiting on payment. I updated my details but it didn't seem to work so I sent them an email. When they opened I got a quick email back saying the payment had gone through and then later in the day I got a nice email thanking me for my order and reassuring me that my details were updated successfully and the payment had gone through OK. I was very impressed with the friendly attention they gave me. I have bought from them several times now and feel confident to recommend them to others.

Equilter

I have also ordered two Lynette Anderson books from book depository uk . Other shops just can't compete. Each book was under $20 and when I looked up one of them on an Australian patchwork site it was $29 with postage on top of that. I try to buy close to home but I also don't want to throw away money.

Hope everyone is having fun with their sewing,

Val

 

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