A little bit of this and that

In the last couple of weeks I have slowly been stitching along my cute stitchery for the Stitch a-long. I'm don't think I am going to finish the whole bag by tomorrow. I really don't want to rush it and am feeling the pressure!

I've been doing a tiny bit of this cross-stitch too when the kids go to bed. I find it so relaxing. 

My Dad turns 82 today and we are having dinner and cake here this evening. The kids are just beside themselves with excitement. However, I asked my mum the other day to give me some old photos of her family to start scanning into my computer (now that I have finally worked out how to do it properly). 

The photos are coming up so well in my Creative Memories package. I never got to meet most of these people. 



The photo's above are of my maternal grandfather who died when my mum was four, and my grandmother and great grandmother whom I never met. The sad thing is I don't have a name for these people when I talk about them to my mum. As I never knew them I always say 'your mum' or 'your dad'. Strange.

It is really interesting to see the family resemblances. We are lucky to have such old photos in good condition. The one on the left was taken in 1934.

Happy Stitching everyone,

Susie

January was a busy month

Amongst lots of quality family time, and finishing the top of this beauty, I managed to have a rather busy but productive month.

skow quilt

My first project in the latest stitch-a-long was this thread catcher from Natalie Bird's Red Home book. I enjoyed using some of my fat flat's from spotlight (I do have rather a large number of them lying around).

Red Home - by Natalie Bird

Next, some more progress on this Faye Whittaker - All our yesterday's cross stitch. I got this pattern from the World of Cross Stitching magazine. Its so relaxing to do this in front of 'Downton Abbey'. I'm trying to catch up before this new season starts.

Towards the end of the month, hubby and I found ourselves for two nights, kid free, in paradise (tropical FNQ - Cairns, one of my favourite parts of the world). OK, we did arrive in a tropical depression from Cyclone Oswald and some minor flooding but it didn't stop us having a lovely time celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary.

The perks of a hubby that travels alot is there is generally some frequent flyer points and hotel points to go somewhere. We were lucky.

This was the view from our room.

And this was 10yrs ago this month. (it was 44 degress when this photo was taken, you wouldn't know it!).

Happy Stitching, Susie

No Pressure - what deadline?

Can't believe I haven't felt any pressure getting this done by today! Who am I kidding?? Chooky placed a deadline of the 31st Jan on our quilt tops and our next 2013 Stitch-a-long project for January. I am yet to start my January one - approx 9 hrs left in the day!!

You MUST excuse the horrendous background - hubby's soon-to-be man cave. (only myself and little tackers home so couldn't ask them to hold it up - they would only make it to the first block!). I just needed to photograph quickly on my phone, and blog to show you the top is done!!!

(nicer photos to come shortly - I promise)

Not without some issues I might add. I was in such a rush that I didn't press one seam!! nope! so obviously the alignment is out of whack but I will just have to deal with that. Its all leaning to the side. I envisage over the next evening or so I will be standing up in front of the TV for two hrs or more trying to press this humongous thing!

This is my backing fabric - quite a contrast but I wanted that. And Denise Schmidt fabric at $4 metre from spotlight was a bargain I thought.

Now my biggest issue is how to quilt it - I think some FMQ would be wonderful but I'm not attempting it on this huge quilt. So I was thinking of hand quilting in the thin hand quilting thread (not sure what it is called - not Pearl 8 like I normally use) with some free motion designs I will draw on. Mostly on the strips - not the blocks.

Anyway, a weight off my shoulders - now to complete my next Jan project by this evening. I cut out the shoe bag template from the Anni Downs book and didn't realise there is a smaller template of the shoes in the back. Fortunately, I just got my hand on the Red Home book this week so I may just look at doing the thread catcher instead.

Happy Stitching All, Love Susie

A new year and new goals

Still can't quite believe the school holidays are almost finished. Its been busy here in the house of Flower and Linen.

Chookyblue has been cracking her whip in the Stitch-a-long. I have been going as fast as possible at the moment with three kids at home and hubby away for alot of the holidays but this is what I have achieved lately........

Some more of this.......

and this...........

a little of this.........

some more of these........

And to get myself into gear this year I've joined this wonderful group

http://sewitsfinished.blogspot.com.au/

I figure this should help me get through three projects I have going, I adore them still, but other priorities have taken over.

Lastly, I have decided to attempt a quilt that I have had my eye on for a long time now. This is the Girls Day out quilt by Libby Richardson that was originally a BOM for many stores a couple of years ago. I was fortunate enough to be in Cairns during the week to celebrate my 10th wedding anniversary and saw this quilt 'in the flesh' for the first time by Button Tree quilts and made me fall in love with it all over again.

picture courtesy of stitcherscupboard.com.au

Look at the details in these blocks, especially this block previously completed by Narioka

picture courtesy of narioka.blogspot.com

picture courtesy of lyndainwonderland.blogspot.com

Pop on over to see Sharon our host at http://friendsmakingquilts.blogspot.com.au/ of Lilabelle Lane fame. Such an amazingly productive woman with four children - not sure how she does it.

I am really looking forward to starting this quilt. I picked up two of twelve patterns for $2 each at Button Tree quilts - not sure I'm going to be so lucky with the rest. I'm hoping to complete most of this in this gorgeous fabric - however not having much luck.

La Belle Fleur by French General

Happy Stitching everyone

Susie

A beautiful gift, new hobby and holiday project

I am so fortunate to have wonderful friends. I really treasure their friendships and know that many of them will last a lifetime.

One of those is a young lady I used to work with in the corporate world. We also have a love of stitching and sewing, and she is also my buddy at the Friends in Stitches get-together scheduled for 2013 and Urban Stitches from 2012. I admire this woman so much, she is literally a machine. With having an extremely stressful corporate job that takes her all over the world, managing a home and three children, making costumes and taking the children here and there for dancing comps, and making two dinners everynight cause she is vegetarian, I honestly can't comprehend how she does it all. And then she comes up with these amazing handmade gifts!

This is one of the gifts I received yesterday. The others are under the tree (strict instructions not to open the other gifts until Christmas day).

  

I just adore this wooden bunting and it will go perfectly in my sewing room on the wall. She knows me very well considering the colour choice.

 It was a little hard to photograph and apparently too hard to wrap! What a devine sewing machine.

 I am so grateful for my gift Sam - thank you. I just love it!

(I will show you what I made her in a later post as its currently still wrapped up under Sam's tree).

So I picked up a recent copy of 'The World of Cross Stitching' recently as I just adored this little kit that came with it. I'm making it for my daughter for Christmas. You just pop it in a little card.  

 I have now decided I really enjoy cross stitching. oh dear........

Its very relaxing although you don't get very far after an evening's work.

I also have my eye on this project next......

I am not sure I should be taking up another craft hobby - I have too many as it is. Am I the only one that does this?

Have a lovely weekend. We are having a dinner at our place tomorrow with my girlfriend from kindergarten. Now that is also a long friendship!

Happy Stitching

Susie

Steady progress as we go.......

Steady progress is being made on my SAL SKoW quilt

These little flowers were a bit fiddly. But I got there in the end.

And yes, as one of my very kind instagram followers pointed out - I do need to add an 's' in there!

A litte bit of cooking with Quinoa. I don't mind this and need to eat it regularly due to the health benefits of this grain for coeliac's.

It did taste rather oishii.......(delicious).

Susie xo

FlowerandLinen bathmat

Forgive me for the forthcoming picture overload and the lapse in blog posts. Well, in truth I discovered I had exceeded my web album limit for blogger and needed to resize most of my photos to within the free limit. I didn't really have a clue how to tackle it other than purchasing storage space, however, a long story shortened - sorted for the moment.

Anyway, I haven't been idle during this silly season. I've been rather busy. Here is the makings of a new bath mat. I will be selling these on my Etsy site shortly for AUD29.95 (plus p/h) but if you are interested in purchasing for a gift or for yourself, please message me and I can show you snippets of the alternative colourway I am working on.

This bathmat has been made in the gorgeous MoMo fabric 'oh deer' by Moda. Its so vibrant and really brings life to a dull bathroom (not to mention takes the attention away from those areas you would rather not look at!). I love the birds and deer scattered throughout.



I still have loads more to share with you but will upload the additional photos next time.

In the meantime, happy stitching everyone! (and enjoy the silly season!)

Susie