The routine around here has changed significantly. I started full time work at the beginning of the week. This is how I look when I come home.
Stephanie asked if I still had time for crafting. I'm still adjusting to full time work, but I'm hoping once my body calms down and rests adequately I'll have plenty of time for enjoying my crafting.
I work with a wonderful team of people, so I'm sure I'll thoroughly enjoy my new life choice.
Posts will probably be few and far between until I get into a routine ...

The weeks seem to be flying past, I don't know if it's the fact that I'm getting older or I'm just so busy I feel like I'm chasing my tail. The big plans I had for huge amounts of sewing to be done between last week and this week seem to have flown out the window.
Any way I showed a peek of this photo last week, but just to confuse you all, it's not what I worked on.
Instead I chose the one in blue, I mentioned that there are four in total ...

I'm a day late with my Scrap Happy Summer Challenge. Last week I showed you these little blocks.
I grabbed moments last week when I could and put them together. Quilting only took a couple of hours. Simple straight line quilting and then an evening to sew down the binding and it was ready to hang over the dining table.
With that one completed I decided to work on one of the pieces I had prepped. I showed this little peek a few weeks ago. There's four in all.
I chose the blue one to finish up. This ...

Quilting and sewing are very spasmodic at the moment. So when something simple and quick catches my eye I tend to jump in with both feet. That was my reaction when I saw that Em was having a summer scrap challenge.
I showed this pile of scraps yesterday. I've had fun playing with the bright colors, quite opposite to my usual pink.
Add some white background and a little cutting and stitching and you come up with these happy little 6 inch  Maverick stars.




Time doesn't seem to be my friend at the moment, what with looking for ...

Saturday's mail delivery brought a lovely post pack all the way from Sheri.
At the beginning of the month Sheri had a book giveaway, which was won by Lizzie.
But to my surprise and joy Sheri also gave away another four signed copies.
And I was one of the lucky four to receive a copy. Thank you so much Sheri. I plan on putting my feet up with a cuppa and having a good read.
If you come back tomorrow you can see what I've been doing with these scraps, that's part of Em's scrap challenge ...

No I'm not talking about hanging your intimate apparel, but I did want to know how you go about hanging your small quilts. The ones that are less than 3 feet. Although I like the wire hangers, you can't always get them in every size. Plus I've been known to make up  little quilts in an odd sizes, not one to follow a pattern they can end up a size that just isn't available in those little hangers. So how do you hang your mini's?

Happy Stitching.
Linda

I finally managed to get Tayla's crib bumper finished and on her crib. So no more feet hanging out the side of the crib. She now has happy pink spotted elephants marching around the inside of her crib.
I couldn't resist sharing this photo with you. Fresh from the bath tub and squeaky clean.
And just so you can see I haven't been completely idle. I managed to get the first block finished for the applique bom.
Happy Stitching.
Linda

It's amazing how a little retail therapy can inspire you to create.

I took a trip to one of my favorite quilt stores on Saturday.
And came away with this collection, to use for the applique BOM.
Two blocks prepped and basted down ready for the hand applique.
Plenty of evenings ahead to get these stitched.
Tomorrow see's me at the dentist, here's hoping all goes well.

Hollie had a trip back to Cookson school for an open house and to farewell her house parents, as they head back to Illinois to live.
Tayla had a great ...

After Wednesday's post I've come to the conclusion that sitting at my machine is probably an impossibility while I'm without my sewing room. Even though I've read a lot of posts from you all, I haven't always commented, probably because my creative side seems to have left. So I've decided that the only way to keep that creativity alive is to focus on some hand work, until my sewing room is once more my own. While reading blogs I came across this wonderful BOM and decided that a little hand applique would do the ...

DH and I had a date on Saturday, a day out together. We decided to go for a drive, a little South, to a couple of areas that I hadn't seen before. Our first stop was to the Timberlake Rose Rock Museum.
 They had an incredible range of rocks in the shape of roses. Apparently they form naturally in this shape.


We stopped at a local flea market and I picked up ...

Amy does a wonderful job of organizing and hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival. It's that time again, where blogger's from around the globe showcase their favorite quilt.

                                                            Keep Life Simple

The pattern for this quilt was a gift from a blogging friend Melanie.
There's nothing quite like the joy of an impending birth, especially when it's your first grandchild. Working on this quilt helped the days until the birth go much faster.

 Every part of making this quilt I enjoyed, from choosing the fabrics to the embroidery and the raw edge applique to the quilting ...

Well that moment you've been waiting for is here. First I want to say a huge thank you to Sew Mama Sew for another great, organized  giveaway, and a big thank you to all of you for visiting. I do hope you'll come back again. I used the Random number generator to choose the numbers.  Now I had decided that I'd do two drawings as number 1 never seems to get drawn. So after removing those that had no way of contacting them the lucky number 1 is Jackie. 
As I promised there is a second number ...

Today is Sew Mama Sew's May Giveaway Day. Here's what I have up for grabs. A handmade bag, covered purse size note book and a check book cover.
To be entered in the drawing leave a comment on this post only, telling me what your favorite summer past time is. Please make sure that your profile is NOT set at "No Reply", as I need a way to contact the winner. If you are set at no reply, or show up as anonymous  I'm sorry but your name will not be included. Drawing will be on May ...

Sew Mama Sew  is doing it again. A May hand craft giveaway. I've decided to join in on the fun and give back on Monday May 17th. The items have been chosen, so if you come back on Monday you'll be able to see what's up for grabs.
If you would like to join in on the fun yourself, you'll find all the details here.

Happy Stitching.
Linda

Remember this little peek from last week?
Cold, wet and dark dreary weather doesn't help with photo's. So this is the best I could do.
Another little mini ready to hang. I enjoyed the piecing process on this one, slightly different from a regular pinwheel, with less stress trying to match corners.
One more to finish, then it's on to appliqueing the bumper for Tayla's crib.

Happy Stitching.
Linda

My machine came home a few days ago and I've reacquainted myself with her. I showed this little peek a few days ago of some prep work.

It didn't take too long for those little 2 x 3 1/2" pieces to turn into this little mini coin quilt.
I had fun with straight line quilting and had the perfect fabric for the binding.
Thanks to Stephanie for the heads up on marking our photo's to help prevent theft.
I have another mini that I'm stitching the binding down on. Hope to have that finished some ...

While I'm waiting for my machine to come home, which will be today, I've been playing. A different piecing method for pinwheels.
Prepping blocks for applique.
Sorting little pieces of batiks ready to stitch together.
Happy Stitching.
Linda

Not this little monster, covered in bubbles.
But this monster. It's resting, waiting for my machine to come back from being serviced.
In fact it did come home, but only for half a day, and then went back again. It seems they bent the needle threader.
So in between being entertained my this little monster, I kept a little busy with this little hanging.
The birds just need their eyes sewn on and find a hanger and I can call it done.
She's such a poser, but who could resist that sweet face.
Today's mail brought a ...

Several weeks ago I showed you this little peek. Not much to go on, but all I could show at the time.Several of you asked to see the end results of some of  the dressmaking.
My very dear friend Bren has a young daughter, Charlotte, and a small grand daughter, Emerson. She loves to dress both in feminine and modest clothing, but she feels she doesn't have the skills to make them herself. So with that, I made the decision to send a couple of outfits for the girls.
A little lilac gingham top with what Bren describes ...

Thank you for all your words of commiseration about that horrible black hole. I phoned DS (Luke, our own IT geek) in Australia the other day and he's suggested a couple of programs that are available from the Internet and the purchase of a USB Key to load all the lost files onto. So hopefully by next week we'll have everything back on the PC.
Now on to the winner of the 500 post giveaway. I had to quickly get this little item finished in time for today. So there were a couple of late night stitching sessions ...

Who would have thought that I could come up with 500 posts to talk about. I always knew I could talk, but my gosh. So in celebration I have a little something that I'm in the process of completing as a thank you. A thank you for your friendship, understanding, words of encouragement and advice. We've all said it before in so many different ways, but having a blog has opened up a whole new world of quilting, stitching and friendships that otherwise may not have been possible.
How to enter, it's simple just leave a comment ...

I showed this layout the other day, but.......
Sometimes you need to change your plans, when......
You have points that won't play nice. I spent so many hours making sure that these blocks were trimmed correctly, only to discover that there are a number like this one. Points that aren't right in the corner. so it's on to plan B, using alternating blocks and trimming the odd ball blocks up for the backing. Which means it's been put on hold yet again until I get get to the store for more fabric.
I think I need ...