A Friday Finish

I did it ........ a FINISH of my

Scandinavian Christmas Quilt

I sat down this afternoon whilst Miss Lily was having her afternoon nap and finished sewing on the binding for my Scandinavian Christmas Quilt / Wall Hanging ...... also broke another button so will have to replace two next week but it's still a Finish :o)

and look, my Bird of Paradise plant has begun to flower

This is the first of about 15 flower spikes on this plant.

They take forever to flower but I do believe the wait is worth it.

Enjoy your weekend and I hope you have a chance for some creativity.

Happy stitching,

Sharon

You can also follow Lilabelle Lane Creations here

A little quiet around here .........

Yes I know. My blog has gone a little quiet for the last few days after it went gusto for the few days before that. I am hoping now that it will return to "regular programming" and settle down a little. 

Why did it do this? For those who read my blog regularly will know that my dear brother-in-law passed away a bit over 2 weeks ago and finally we were able to lay him to rest and celebrate his life on Monday afternoon.  We are now back home and getting back into the swing of our daily life again.

School holidays are finished and the three eldest Children are back at school which now leaves Miss Lily to get back into the routine of only having me around most of the day!  Some days I feel a little greedy having her all to myself, she is such a pleasure to be around, always happy and such a girly girl :o)  Maybe I am just savouring every moment knowing that she is our last and I wont be doing this again.

Anyway...... what has been happening on the sewing front .............. a quick round up on the WIP's

Scandinavian Christmas - Need to purchase the backing fabric and finish it off.
Once Upon a Time - Whoops, I have two blocks to do on this one then back up to date.

I got to pick out the boarder fabrics for the outer boarders on this one yesterday so I have gone with pinks to make it all girlie for Miss Lily :o)

Vignette Mystery Quilt ..... Slow progress on Block 4

Farmer's Wife - Hmmm...... I need to clean off my cutting table and cut a couple more out.

Accountability Projects - 8 Christmas Place mats - I have finished off the raw edge applique of the names and have begun to quilt them.  I have purchased a Jelly Roll (arrived in the mail today .... yay) to use to make a scrappy binding so progress on this is well and truly happening.

This quilt (below) is not being cut up, it is going to have a boarder or two added down the track and finished off.

Thank you to everyone who helped me in making this decision.

Your feedback was greatly appreciated.

Scrap Busting Rainbow / Postage Stamp Quilt

I was going to use only scraps but have needed to purchase some more white as I have decided to add a wider white boarder and then finish off.  Hopefully this boarder will be on in the next day or two

My .....

now looks like this .....



Lots of  Charm Squares



Last but not least .......... I purchased this yesterday .......... and I LOVE it .........

and I have the PERFECT little boy to make the quilt for so it's on the to do list :o)

Thank you for stopping by and

Happy stitching,

Sharon



You can also follow Lilabelle Lane Creations here

Scandinavian Christmas Top is Completed

and is ready to be quilted :o)

I am so pleased to get this far.

It feels like it has taken me forever to get all those hearts stitched on.

All I need to do now is quilt it (and buy a new button as I broke one). 

I still have children home on school holidays this week, we have the funeral of my Brother-in-law on Monday and next Thursday I am doing a "Quilting the Quilt" Class so later next week I hope to be able to quilt it.... maybe with some new found skills! lol



Top Half



Bottom Half



Snowflake Buttons



Heart Buttons



A Birthday Present

I also started to work on a little something this morning to give my mum for her birthday next week.

It's not finished but here is a sneak peak :o)

I hope she likes it.

Thank you for stopping by,

Happy sewing,

Sharon

You can also follow Lilabelle Lane Creations here

An early Christmas Finish

Christmas Bags

My two Christmas bags are finished thanks to a very productive afternoon whilst Miss Lily was asleep and also thanks to a little late night TV once everyone was in bed.  Want to see?

One is for my 2.y.o. daughter Lily and the other is for my one and only little Nephew Liam (who I loving refer to as "My little Man") he is 10 weeks younger than Miss Lily.

Backs all pieced together using what scraps I had left.

I followed the pattern instructions for Liam's Christmas Trees but did Lily's in a chain stitch to make them a little bolder and I like both ways!



I am so pleased with how these have worked out.

I have made them using Natalie Ross's Book called, Get red red ready for Christmas and I have used Lynette Anderson's new range of fabric called "Scandinavian Christmas".

Also, I have joined all the creating people over at

So many creative people over there, I could spend many hours reading and gaining even more inspirations to sew and create.

Thank you for stopping by,

Happy stitching, Sharon

You can also follow Lilabelle Lane Creations here

Nearing completion ..... and more ......

Scandinavian Christmas

As of 1pm today my Scandinavian Christmas looks like this ....

I need to hand stitch all those hearts so not quite a completed top yet, but hopefully not to far away.

The buttons that I ordered for the blank blocks arrived on Friday. What do you think?

Snowflakes .... only pinned in place!



I only ordered One of these Hearts and I think I
like them so I must order a couple more to fill the blanks
on the outside border :o)



Also arriving in Fridays mail were these .......



Adding to my GO! Baby Die Collection



A while ago I also joined in this ......

I am slowing tackling the task of making the Yo-yo's and can report that I am up to 235 yo-yo's which is 23% made so a few more to go but I am slowly getting there.  Here is what 235 Yo-yo's look like!!!!

This container is about 11" x 8" x 6"

I don't "Do" scrappy very well as I like to be a "little" more controlled but I am doing my best and have only used scraps so I have no idea how this is going to work out!  Wish me luck :o) lol





Sorry, no Blog post on the Farmer this week :(  I do have two blocks cut out but that is as far as they got. Blame my Vignette quilt ....... It now looks like this and I have more of the outside blocks cut ready to be sewn :o)

I am enjoying working with the bright colors at the moment as opposed to the darker colors of my Farmers Quilt .... I am blaming the great weather that we are having here at the moment and it's still Winter :o)

Enjoy your Sunday stitching,

Sharon



You can also follow Lilabelle Lane Creations here

Vignette and Scandinavian Christmas Progress

I have been busy on two projects this week.  Firstly .....

Vignette in Stitches Mystery Quilt

I only started this one last week and it has consumed a LOT of my free time but I am so pleased with how it is turning out and all falling into place.  And it brightens up my creative space and even if I do say so myself, I think it looks great on my new design wall!!! lol



Block One




Block Two and Three



Block Four

I was hoping to get these 4 and the next two blocks (5 and 9) pieced before the next magazine comes out next week but I think that is a little ambitious so I will just concentrate on getting these 4 pieced and ready for stitching.


Scandinavian Christmas ... Block 4 Now looks like this :o)

Then Block 5 arrived ... the final block. So I stitched 1 through 4 together and started working on my version of the border.

The material that came in  the kit for the stitchery backgrounds was a really dens linen that was almost impossible to see through (even with my light box) to trace all the details and especially those Cross Stitches and I think that because of this I found it really hard to get the snowflakes to look any good so I am still undecided what to put on them but I do have a couple of wooden buttons in transit to see if that might work.

I have to go out in the next few days and get more "Supplies" so that I can finish tracing out the hearts and getting ready to iron them on but this is what I have so far ....

My poor Farmer must be feeling a little neglected as I have not done any blocks yet this week so hopefully once Miss L goes down for her afternoon nap I can get two made this afternoon.

Happy Stitching,

 Sharon

You can also follow Lilabelle Lane Creations here

Scandinavian Xmas/Once Upon a Time and some HELP please ....

I started Block 4 of My Scandinavian Christmas last night. This is my progress so far.

and as you can see I still have a way to go especially with all the little cross stitches around the border.

Miss L and I went out and visited some local Patchwork shops today in hope of finding some little bells for the Reindeer's necks on this wall hanging/quilt and also for some inspiration for the snowflake blocks that I have left blank.  I may have found some buttons but I'm not totally sold on them just yet.

Can you help me.....

I have seen somewhere in Blog World round wooden buttons / decorations (Christmas) that people have been adding felt to etc. They are little scenes with bits cut out.  My dilemma is that I can't remember where I have seen them. :(

Do you know what I am talking about?  Do you know where I can find them?

I would love to hear from you if you do, please.

Once Upon a Time .....

Whilst we were out today we picked up the next block in this BOM so whilst my little girl was down for her afternoon nap I managed to piece the next block, Thumbelina.

Looks like I have a little stitching to do! :o)

Happy Stitching,

Sharon

You can also follow Lilabelle Lane Creations here

Do you ever doubt your abilities?

Ohh Help Me!!!!!  What a week of ups and downs in my creative space.

Earlier in the week I had my Hexagon quilt all "sandwiched" together ready to go for some hand quilting.  I was so pleased that I was within reach for a finish .... not just a top Finnish but a complete finish and what made even more exciting was that I had promised myself that I could have a real play with my new toy, my Go Baby if I got a real finish.

Well my hexagon quilt went from this

then to having 8 hexagons hand quilted (sorry didn't get a pic of this bit) which involved working on it every spare minute I had, then things started to fall apart....literally.

I had used a basting spray and then pinned the quilt and to my disgust the basting spray wasn't sticking so I tried to do some border quilting to help hold the fabric.  I thought this was working until yesterday morning when I sat and assessed the situation.   Lets let some photos show you what happened next ..........

I thought I could just unpick some bits to fix and go from there.........

Nope ...... In my utter disgust at the state of my quilt, I unpicked it ALL and am going to have to start again.

It is now hanging on the side of my storage unit waiting my attention :(

One positive thing for my poor quilt top is that I have decided to Bind it in the same fabric as the border!

I kept telling myself  "If you can't quilt a quilt why bother making them?"

I needed a boost to try to stop doubting myself so what was I to do .....

Grab out my Go Baby of course!  I know I don't have a finish but I needed to do something,

something smaller to practice on maybe?

I know...I chose Apple Core, probably not the smartest decision when one wants to boost their confidence!

Not all was lost though :o)

The fabric was cut in record speed (that's a positive)  They were sewing together perfectly ( double bonus for me as I was also sewing curves)  I was beginning to feel better about myself and my abilities (although somewhat limited!!!! lol )   I am feeling so much better now.  It's now is a little bigger, has a border, I have machine quilted it (not going down the hand quilting again just yet) and I am going to go sew on the binding when Miss L is down for her afternoon nap and post a pic later :o)

Look what Postie has delivered today ........

To lift my spirits a little more, look what my postie has delivered ........

"Christmas Treasures Wreath" and "Stitching Fairies" both by Rosalie Quinlan

 Where the Wind Blows complete Range F/Q Bundle

(These are on sale for only $26 so I've added a link ....check them out)

I also got my last block for my Scandinavian Christmas.

These have been flowing in fast as I've been getting one per

fortnight instead of monthly so now I need to finish it off as I

still have block 4 and now 5 to do :o)

Happy stitching,

Sharon

You can also follow Lilabelle Lane Creations here