Belated Spring Clean

I spent a good part of Sunday tidying up my sewing room - it needed it, there was bits and pieces everywhere - I could not have cut any fabric if I needed to - a lot of bits were left over from when I made the bag for my friend, Joy.

I forgot to take a photo of what it was like before I started, but here it is now :)

My Sewing area

The cutting table

The Project Storage

Now it's all neat and tidy, I can mess it up during the week :)

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day - any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

CHERISH do. Good Stitches - FNSI show and tell

Here is how I spent my first FNSI - I played with my 9 patches received for the November quilt for Cherish quilting bee - I finished sewing them up this afternoon (Sunday).



I am quite happy with this.  I had intended to do a disappearing 9 patch, but as I was laying out the blocks to photograph them, I had the idea to keep them as 9 patches.  I unpicked a few blocks in order to stagger the white squares.  Now to set it aside and work on quilting last year's quilt :)

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day - any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Happy Birthday Joy!

My best friend Joy celebrated her 70th birthday during the week - but celebrations were put on hold as she came down with a bad cold - we waited until she was feeling a little better before catching up :)

You may have noticed from my photography blog that we go out a lot together with our cameras - Adelaide & Monarto Zoos are frequent destinations, as Joy loves the big cats!

When I saw this fabric from Cynthia's Ark, I just had to get it - I wasn't sure what I was going to make, but I got it anyway.









I really enjoyed this project and can see me making another one real soon!

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day - any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

November blocks for Cherish do. Good Stitches

November was my turn again to pick the blocks for Cherish Bee.  I picked a 9 patch Rainbow with a white centre - I will be cutting these blocks up to make a disappearing 9 patch ........... after I finish my January Bee quilts ....... (hangs head in shame)  I have one flimsy made up, but not quilted.

Here is my sample block - once again using up some of the 5" squares received in a rainbow charm swap I did a while back :)



and here are the blocks I have received :)





Now to press them all, and start cutting so that I can play with the layout LOL  I think I actually enjoy that process more than the sewing :)

Here is my pink flimsy all ready for the next step!



here is the layout for my blue flimsy - am yet to sew these together



The admin for this circle has taken a bit more time than I anticipated - doesn't it always LOL - but this year we have two new quilters and that means I can be a stitcher for most of the year.

There were no blocks for December - we can have a break, or use the time to catch up on things.  I volunteered to be a quilter for January to give the other circle members time to decide which months they would like to pick :)  For January, I have picked a black & white churn dash block - 2 blocks requested being 1 @ black on white, and 1 @ white on black :)

Stay tuned for pics a bit later :)

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day - any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Bloggers are wonderful people!

I got quite a few responses from my last post "I miss swapping"

Cynthia, Maria, & Anthea responded with a Fat Quarter Swap (FQ), and Jo responded with a block swap.

Here are the FQs I sent :)

For Anthea

for Cynthia

For Cynthia, I had to hunt high and low to find a FQ that 

I had not actually purchased from Cynthia's Ark :)

for Maria

Here is the block I sent to Jo - I had to hunt for a nice basket to make for her red & white basket quilt.

for Jo

Jo has recently posted that my block has arrived and she has already placed it in her quilt :)  I was most surprised, and very honoured to find Jo had placed it front & centre!

Please visit Jo's blog to see the end result - it looks amazing!

Here are photos of what I received :)

blocks from Jo (photo pinched from Jo's blog as her photo is much better than mine :) )

I had to share just how pretty that ornament is :)  thank you Jo, I love it!

from Anthea

from Cynthia

from maria

the FQs are beautiful and I can't wait to finish off my rainbow starflower quilt!

Thank you ladies for responding to my call for a swap :)  it was a lot of fun!

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day - any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.