Merry Christmas Everyone

Another year has gone by very quickly.  A year which included crafting and blogging and making more craft friends from all over the world.

I would like to thank everyone for their friendship, and would like to wish each and everyone a Peaceful Christmas with all their family and friends. Also Best wishes for the New Year--2016.

Here is a photo of the gift my daughter and son in law have given themselves for Christmas. Her name is Zoe and she took herself under the tree when they had finished decorating it.

Merry Christmas everyone.
Until next year.
Cheers,
Yvonne

Friday night with Friends

I have been making these blocks for ages-- I had bought the book, Farm Girl Vintage by Lori Holt and I love the sunflower and leaf blocks. I decided to make a quilt with just these blocks. So Friday night saw me sewing 2 of these blocks. I continued sewing more on the weekend, and have finally finished the last blocks on Sunday. Now to join the blocks-- may have to put these aside and start on some Christmas sewing instead.

Sunflower and Leaf Blocks

I have not been active with my blog lately as I have been using Instagram. I do find that a lot easier and quicker to use. My IG name is YvonneWDesigns.

Thank you, Cheryl, for hosting another FnwFs.

A Paypal query

I have a Paypal account, and I am sure many of you have them as well. Have you received a request to update your Paypal account?  I have had a request saying that it needs to be changed urgently-- which then made me think is this a genuine request or not. When I tried to look at it further, it was so complicated, I have no idea what I am supposed to do. They recommend sending it to a technical support person-- which I do not have , and never had to use before. All in all, it makes me think that this is not a genuine email. I would appreciate feed back from anyone who has a Paypal account.

Thank you.
Cheers,
Yvonne

FnwFs-- needlebooks

I spent Friday night doing some embroidery. I had drawn this boat and beach hut drawings and have been using them for many projects. I decided I would make needle books out of them. On Friday night I embroidered these.

Today has been wet and cold-- a good day to stay indoors and sew. I made 2 needle books today, using the 2 embroideries.

Needle book with a boat embroidery

 

 

Needle book with a beach hut

 

 

I used Doctors flannel for the inside of the needle books.

 

My old needle book-- still my favourite



 

 Thanks for hosting another FnwFs, Cheryll. I will have to do some blog surfing to see what everyone else has done this Friday night.

 

Cheers,

Yvonne

Yvonne

Sign up for Friday night with friends

It is the first Friday of the  month-- where has August gone to? Cheryll is hosting another FnwFs-- so  hop along to her blog and sign up.     

FnwFs

See you there tonight. I wonder what I will make tonight. What will you be sewing?

Cheers,
Yvonne

Thread called "Westwood".

We were away for a couple of days last week. I came home on the weekend to a parcel on my dining table. I was not expecting a parcel-- so was rather curious to see what was in it. It was from Katie and Pam of Cottage Garden Threads, and there were 3 skeins of a colour I have been after, and they have come up with it and have called the colour "Westwood"!  What a surprise!! I am rather chuffed, needless to say.  The threads are in the colour testing phase and should be out in the shops soon.

I promptly embroidered this little boat with "Westwood".

"Westwood" by Cottage Garden Threads

 

I have had to paint more large sewing machine buttons and have finally finished them. Here is a selection of the colours available. I call a group of sewing machines a "patchwork" of machines. Someone on Instagram suggested that it should be a "bobbin" of machines. Regardless they look quite cute in a group.

A patchwork or bobbin of machines

 

 

 

Last week we went to the Blue Mountains for 2 nights. I was keen to see the daffodil display at Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens, and they were just beautiful. I really enjoyed seeing them.

 





Daffodils in Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens

 

 The next day we did a walk in Wentworth Falls area, and this is Wentworth Falls on its way down into the valley.

Wentworth falls

 

All I all, it was a lovely few days-- being away, and coming home to my surprise ie threads with my surname as its name.

 

Have a lovely weekend.

Cheers

Yvonne

 



Sewing and knitting for Friday Night with Friends

I am a little late posting what I did on FnwFs hosted by Cheryll, but it is better late than never.
This is what I worked on-- an embroidery, then after awhile I switched to some knitting.

Embroidery

Knitting-- making a beanie

 

 

Then on Sunday I had one of those rare days where I sat and did craft most of the day--heavenly.

 

I had cut and sewn the front and back panels of the pouch, but I had to put it together. I find zippers a challenge-- but finally managed to do the zipper for this pouch. The pattern for this pouch is on Noodlehead. The instructions are very clear and the pictures are easy to follow.

 

One side of the pouch

The otherside of the pouch

 

 I used the left over fabrics from this quilt. I had made this quilt for my son in 2011.  The pouch is large enough to hold my knitting-- so I now have a knitting bag.

My son's quilt

 

 

Thank you Cheryll, for hosting another FnwFs.

 

Cheers,

Yvonne

Friday night with Friends is tonight

I had missed many Friday nights sewing with  blogging friends-- but I am going to be there tonight. Thanks, Cheryll for hosting it.
Head off to Cheryll's blog and sign in, by clicking onto the FnwFs logo on my side bar.

FnwFs

 



See you there tonight.
Cheers,
Yvonne                                                           

Winner is... and few days in Melbourne.

We have been away and back again-- and I realised that I had not picked a winner for the Red Embroidered Cushion Pattern. Thank you for the lovely comments, and the winner is ..... Ondrea.
I  will send the pattern to you shortly, Ondrea.

We went to Melbourne for 4 nights-- the aim was to attend a wedding on the 18th July. Unfortunately, I did  not find a single patchwork shop , but we did have a fabulous time in this beautiful city. We stayed in St Kilda and travelled on the trams to the CBD etc. Victoria Markets was fabulous and the laneways in Melbourne are a great feature of the city. We did a walking tour that started out from the front of the library at 10.30 am-- and it was well worth it.
Here are some photos of Melbourne.

Luna Park, St Kilda

 

Lovely tea cosies in a shop window

 

 

One of the Arcades in Melbourne

 

 

on a corner of the Melbourne CBD

 

Street art in one of the lanes in Melbourne

 

 

 

The beautiful cake shops-- I am sure I gained 2 kgs by just standing and looking at the cakes!

 

Sign outside a café

 

Fresh vegetables in Victoria Markets

 

 

View from a bar in Rialto Tower

 

 

St Kilda Beach

 

This was the lovely arch used for the wedding ceremony-- made with lots of gum leaves and flowers

 

I made this hexagon ring for my suitcase--to help identify my bag

 

Cheers,

Yvonne

 

Where has time gone to? and a chance to win a pattern

It is now July, and I have been chasing my tail.  But I finally think that I have got there.

I had visited Marilyn from The Patchwork Teahouse in Warburton, and whilst  there, we had a discussion about the new French general fabrics from Moda, called  Bon Voyage. Marilyn sent me some of the fabric when it arrived in the shop, and I have been happily playing with them. Made these, -- which is another version of the Blue Heart designs I had made previously,-- and they have got a pattern and hopefully, Marilyn will have time to cut up some of her fabrics as a kit for them. Otherwise, I am sure she will have the kits of this fabric in her online shop, once she is back from Adelaide. She will be attending the Quilt Show in Adelaide next week-- so make sure you drop in to see her and say Hello.

Red Heart Embroidered Cushion made with the French General fabrics, Bon Voyage.

 

Red Heart Embroidered Wall Hanging made with Bon Voyage by French General.

 

Christmas Hearth Cushion with 3 stockings

 

I was madly packing the patterns in their packets last night, and today they are off to the post office on their way to Victoria, then Adelaide. They are doing more travelling than I am!

 

 

The second deadline I have is to send  a quilt and matching cushions off to Homespun magazine by mid July. I have completed them, written the pattern and all the other things that need to be done for the project and they will also go to the Post Office --on  Thursday. I would like to take a photo of them because it will be awhile before they come home again. Unfortunately, I cannot show them off just yet -- am busting to do so-- but need some patience!

 

 

Once these are done-- I might be able to go back to a slower pace again. I am such a slow stitcher-- that is the problem. And of course, writing a pattern up is just so time consuming as I am paranoid about making a mistake.

 

Next project in mind is a Christmas one, I think.

 

P/S I do have a spare painted button for the Red Embroidered cushion, so if anyone would like to win the pattern with the button, please leave a comment for a chance to win it.

 

 

Cheers,

Yvonne

 

Post re FNSI ( A little late) and the Sydney Quilt Show

Where is time going to? It is past the shortest day ( Hurray!!) and almost the end of June. I just remember us coming home from our holiday to Victoria at the end of April-- and lo and behold-- it is now almost the end of June.

I joined in Wendy's FNSI last Friday and realised that I have not done a blog post for it and it is now Wednesday. So this is what I have done. It is only partly finished.

Embroidered Heart cushion with new French General Fabric

 

I am making this cushion with the new French general fabric that is just out. It is the same pattern for the Blue Cushion I have done in the past. There is more embroidery to sew on that and of course the back to be sewn on too. So this is what I got up to on the FNSI. Thank you Wendy, for hosting it.

 

 

Last Thursday, I went to the Sydney Quilt Show at Glebe Island. As usual, I spent some money ( a good amount, actually)-- but forgot to take photos of what I bought-- so that will have to be for another post. My favourite shop is Hatched and Patched and caught up with Anni and Peter there. Spent the most there, as ususal.

Anni at Hatched and Patched

 

I have been collecting red and white fabric for ages now-- I am sure I will have enough fabric for half a dozen red and white quilts now-- did not stop me buying more though. I loved the red and white quilt section at the Quilt show-- here are a few of them.

 

Red and white Quilts

 

Love this red and white quilt

 

This was so intricately done-- amazing



EPP hexagons-- fabulous

 

I will have to visit other FNSI bloggers -- so I had better be off now.

 

Cheers,

Yvonne

A Beach bag and another FQ Birthday club gift

Whilst in Victoria, I found some lovely, dark blue batik Bali Pops fabric. I decided that a beach bag would look really pretty with those fabrics.
So this is what I made up with it:

My Beach bag

I decided that it needed a sea side themed embroidery on it . So I drew this up and embroidered it and appliqued it to the front of the bag.

The front of the beach bag 

 

This is a close up of the embroidery:

 

The embroidery on the front of the Beach bag

 

I was going to go for a walk to the beach with the bag and photograph it down by the water-- but the weather here is wet and miserable. I will have to do that on another day.



I belong to the FQ Birthday Club run by Cheryll, and  I have received the final parcel in the post. The fabric is bright and gorgeous.

The final parcel from the FQ Birthday Club

Thank you to all the people who have sent me birthday wishes and fabrics for the birthday club. When I use these fabrics in a project, I will always remember the person who sent it and the birthday club. Thank you Cheryll for hosting it.

Cheers,
Yvonne

Chance to win some floss at the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

I was browsing the blogs and came across Sylvia's, from Flickenstichlerei, and she had won a lovely red, blue and white collection of ric rac and buttons etc. I followed the link from Sylvia's blog and came across the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe ( www.victorianmottosamplershoppe.blogspot.com)  and they have a beautiful collection of floss-- and an opportunity to win them. 

Here is the collection of floss (1795 Sampler Floss Collection) -- the picture is taken from their blog post:


Pop around to their blog and join in the competition to win this collection. I am keeping my fingers crossed as the threads look just divine.

Enjoy the weekend.
Cheers,
Yvonne

Chooky's Blog birthday party and new stitchery and another present from the FQ birthday club

Chooky is celebrating her 3rd birthday! Actually, it is her blog's 3rd birthday. And to celebrate, we are having a sewing party.
I have been wanting to sew these stitcheries I have drawn----and finding time to do so ---- and have finally decided that this sewing party can be the time I sit and sew the stitcheries. These are the 2 I managed to finish. Thank you, Chooky, for hosting the party which allowed me to get them done.

Sea side themed stitcheries

I found this dumpling pouch pattern on IG by Michelle patterns.com. I decided to give it a go-- it was harder that I anticipated-- I am not much good with zippers. However, I am happy with the result.

Michellepatterns.com dumpling pouch

 

 

This was another of the Fat Quarter Birthday Club presents I received in the post last week. It was supposed to have one FQ of fabric. But instead, this large parcel arrived with 3 FQs, 2x skeins of DMC threads, a project pouch and some yummy chocolates. Thank You , Peg, for your very generous birthday parcel. As you can see, I have used 1 of the fabrics to make the pouch. Needless to say, the chocolates have all gone.

 

 

Parcel from Peg

 

 

Today is a cold, grey, overcast type of day here. I guess winter officially starts tomorrow-- so I cannot expect anything different.

 

Cheers,

Yvonne

A Birthday and the Fat Quarter Birthday Club

I celebrated my 6oth birthday yesterday. Age does not usually worry me, but seeing the 60 written down was a little bit daunting. I am not a party person and chose not to have a party as such, but there have been many mini celebrations with family and friends. The first started on Saturday, cake and coffee after my walk yesterday, dinner last night, dinner tonight, lunch on Friday and lunch again next Tuesday. I hope my clothes still fit me after all those meals!

For the first time, I joined in the Birthday Club, hosted by Cheryll. The parcels started arriving from 2 weeks ago-- and I kept them aside until yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed opening the gifts, one at a time. Here they are:

from Chooky

from Sue B.

 

from Tarnyia

 

from Ondrea

 

from Claire

 

from Dzintra

 

from Simone H.

 

 

My Special gift from Simone

 

 

Thank you Chooky, Sue, Tarynia, Claire, Dzintra, Ondrea and Simone for the lovely fabrics. Simone-- I adore the special gift-- a beautifully embroidered cushion. The wording reflects my sentiments exactly.

 

 

I received a card from the local MP and it said that  turning 60 means I could be eligible for a Senior's Card. Therefore I must now be a Senior!

 

 

Cheers,

Yvonne