Stitching, Naughty Girl 17

Hi everyone,

I've been busy working on a baby quilt, but in between, I have been experimenting with applique. This is a new to me pattern and I've also tried some different stitches.

These are so not my colours, but I have a dear friend who loves them. These will be part of a housewarming gift for her and her new home. 

These are the colours throughout the cottage, so these are for me! All fabrics from my scrap drawer.

The baby quilt for my customer "J" is coming along well.

Here is the flimsy I finished yesterday.  The layers are ready now so pinning is the next step.

Girl 17 has settled in and made herself right at home.  It seems she saw Boy 14 and the quilt stitchery that I showed in my previous post though.......

While I was piecing the baby quilt top yesterday, I noticed she was very quiet...so I went to look for her and found her in MY bed!!! Not only that, I went back to the other end of the house to get the camera and she was STILL  there as you can see by this picture.  Cheeky girl!  The special dogs are not allowed on the furniture, so it is very unusual to have two in such a short time that are doing this.  Now I have to remember to close the door and to put stuff on the sofa at night too as I found her there a few hours after she was in my bed.  Other than that, she is lovely :) xx debbie

A Special Gift & It's a GIRL!

Hi everyone,

I recently received this  cute little stitchery from my dear friend Mel.  Mel and I have not met yet, but we have become good friends through email. We seem to have the same taste in fabrics, we both love dogs, and we have plenty of other things in common...the emails can get pretty long :)

You might remember Boy 14 from July of this year.  He was the naughty one I told you about that didn't care to sleep in the dog bed. The beds here have quilts on them and I was saying how the one quilt was covered with Black Lab hair.  Dear Mel made this cute little stitchery for me to remember Boy 14 by.  He is adorable done in black thread and holding a quilt!  I added the ribbon and it is on my fridge now where I see it every day.  Thank you, Mel, for this lovely remembrance.

Yesterday, I had a call from the special dog place asking if I would be ready for another dog yet.  Of course!   Meet Girl 17.  She is petite compared to all of the boys I have had lately.  She hasn't been here long but she acts like she has been here forever. She is very mellow.

She barely even looked up when I took the pictures.  She is gorgeous and so shiny! 

She doesn't take up near as much of the bed as the recent boys that have stayed with me :)

I've recently mentioned cutting squares for the next two baby quilts I am making for "J".  She has arranged the squares how she wants them and given me photos to follow for piecing.  I will start on the one on the left first because the baby will be arriving in the next few weeks :) It's good to have everything I need now including batting and fabric to cut for the binding and backing too.

Girl 17 won't be going to work all day like Boy 16 did.  I don't like to leave a new dog alone for the first few days, so I try to finish errands before they arrive.  I made a few stops this morning so I will be able to stay in for now.  When I went for milk and bread, I found this in a $2 bin at the grocery store. It is an air freshener with different shades of gel balls inside. When I went back to the room I put it in, the sun was shining through it...such a simple thing, but the reflection really caught my eye!  That's all for now, will show those quilt squares again once I get them sewn to look like the pictures. xx debbie

Applique Therapy Day

Hi everyone,

Today I stayed home! Starting a week ago Sunday, this has been the busiest week I have had in years.

I finished this little bunting mini quilt a few weeks ago, but it just needed something...the idea finally came to me to add the bird and now I am happy that it is complete. I added a little gold stitched beak too.

Here is the other one with a butterfly added. I had forgotten how much I enjoy needle turn applique.  These are wrapped up now and ready to be posted tomorrow.

Last Sunday, I went to the Stitcher's Dream Day Out in Toowoomba. There are heaps of pictures on other blogs of the projects of the day.  My favourite part of the day was meeting Libby Richardson and learning how to paint the teddy. I also bought a couple of teddy patterns that I am looking forward to using soon. 

On Wednesday, I became an Australian Citizen. The ceremony was joyful, with live music and singing along.  Special thanks to Maria for knitting my pretty scarf.

My group of 10 guests was seated with me in the front row.  It was quite warm in there with so many people, so it was nice to be in the front :)  We were also gifted with a native plant (in the shopping bag).  There were snacks after and several people were asking me about my accent?!

Umm...not sure what was happening here, but it was fun anyway!! This is my dear friend Shane.

I also went to the High Tea and Quilt shop hopping the next day with most of the Sunday Stitchers group.  I also went to bed very early that night as the week was starting to catch up with me!

The young mum that I did all the sewing for last month has hired me to make two more quilts.  I met with her on Friday to collect the fabric for the first quilt and to turn in these squares I cut for the second quilt.  She will arrange them how she likes them and return them to me with a photo "map".
The second and fourth fabrics are both solid blues, not patterned as they appear.  (All fabrics chosen by "J"). She has even given me a different striped fabric for binding and a blue for the backing too.

Saturday was spent finishing up my row that was due for Sunday Stitchers.  I will show that later, along with a few others.  Yesterday was the big reveal, so we were able to see what others made for us at last! I am very happy with mine and I will show pictures later. We still need to make one more row for our own quilt that includes stitchery before we finish them off.  At Sunday Stitchers I worked on the turtle pincushion I've showed in previous posts. I will be able to finish it next time I work on it. I also made a hexie swag but haven't taken pictures yet.

I received a special gift for my birthday that I have not shown yet either.  I have added to it so I could hang it in a place where I will see it every day. Picture next time.

So, from Sunday to Sunday, last week was quite a week!  I will catch up on blogs soon. xx Debbie

Thank you to those who offered congrats on FB.   I am not on FB, but friends have showed me some of the messages.  They also helped me register for Instagram, so if you are there, you can find me by my usual name of sweetlittlecottage.

Did You Know?

Hi everyone,


I didn't know that 17 September is Australian Citizenship Day, did you?

This was in a letter I received around a month ago.  (I love the nice little quilty touch they included in the graphics just for me LOL)

I passed the citizenship test back in May.  Next step after that is to wait for a letter of invitation to attend a ceremony and taking the Pledge of Allegiance.   The ceremony is tonight at 7pm.

I don't know how to knit, so I asked my friend Maria if she would knit a scarf in red, white, and blue for me to wear to the ceremony tonight.  She went to great lengths to find the colours especially for me because all of her usual places to shop didn't have what she needed.  It is so pretty, thank you Maria! Pop over to Maria's blog to read this post about what another lady made with one of these scarves...it is very clever!!

I will leave you for now with one of my favourite Aussie pictures as I reflect today on the day I arrived just over 9 years ago, with two suitcases, a new job waiting for me, and plenty of dreams for the future.   Tonight is really the night! :)  xx debbie

Boy 16, Turtle, Veg Pie, and Rhonda

Hi everyone,

I was so happy when dear Boy 16 came home from work yesterday. We have been apart since Friday morning!

I think he was happy to be home too.  He played with NEMO for ages (seems to be his fave), and then he cuddled up to his giraffe for a nap.  This picture just melts me :)

He is such a sweetie. The back of his legs look odd because that is a bit of late afternoon sun shining on him.  We will have to say our good byes Friday morning as he continues to pass all of his training. I sure will miss him.  He has been good fun.

I had a letter last week saying the power on my street will be off for 8 hours Monday. Yikes! I am dependent on the power for nebuliser treatments.  The power company suggested I spend the day at the hospital. *NOT*!!  I decided to do extra treatments up until the time of turn off, then make myself sit quietly all day.  I managed to finish all the basting prep for the turtle pincushion by Anni Downs.

The same rainbow silverbeet I paid 50 cents for many months ago is still feeding me and the baby spinach seeds in the next pot are now pretty leaves ready to pick too.

 

The cherry tomatoes are still coming. That is a jalapeno pepper at the top.  I am not a huge lover of green stuff, but if I chop all those leaves up and make them into an impossible pie with some tomatoes and cheese, that green stuff will be tasty :)

 

 

I know quite a few people on my blog list also have this blog on their reading list too.  If you read Down to Earth, you will know her name.  She and husband Hanno have been speaking at libraries in my area. Tomorrow they will be at Redcliffe Library, which is the closest to where I live.  I signed up to attend around 3 weeks ago, and the day is nearly here, at last!  I have been so inspired the past few years by all the simple living things I have learned from Rhonda. I think my favourite of all was learning to make my own yoghurt with no special packets or equipment needed.  I am very much looking forward to this special day.  xx debbie

 

BOL, Boy 16, First Kiss

Hi everyone,

Not too much sewing lately as I have had several other commitments and also seem to have a bad case of "spring cleaning" too. (Anyone else detail the entire guts of their vac lately)? I scrubbed the filter with a fingernail brush and cleaned all the other bits I could get to.  I even took the hoses apart and soaked them in a tub of hot soapy water and it was amazing what came out! LOL!

  These are two BOL that will be sent on to Cheryll soon. I just want to do a little quilting before I send them.  Both quilts have the white flannel backing with little blue stars and stormy skies with bunting on the front. The white bunting was given to me by De as scraps from a quilt she made.

This was to be our last weekend together, Boy 16 and I.  I have new neighbours that moved in a few weeks ago and their dog barks a lot. This does not worry me at all as I love dogs and  I am just SO happy to have NEW neighbours :)

 

Yesterday morning, I let Boy 16 out and of course the new dog went crazy again, but the neighbour was there and talking to her dog trying to calm him. Meanwhile, Boy 16 didn't bark back but he had a crazy fast run around the back yard.  When I let him in, I saw a few tiny drops of blood on the floor so I mentioned it to his trainer when he was picked up soon after.  His trainer said he would take him to the vet right away, which led to  me getting a phone call later saying his foot is bandaged and he will be confined to a small area to rest all weekend. Really?! It only bled for a couple minutes and a tiny bit!  I am so sad...I know I have to give him up next Friday morning, so I was looking forward to having him here all weekend.  :((((

These are all of his toys missing him too.

Sort of wishing I didn't say anything now.

 

 

I've recently mentioned that my lawn guy also does estate clean ups. He brought me the gorgeous cot in my previous posts.  He also brought me the pink wooden ladder and was kind enough to cut it in half for me.  The old ladder on the right was brought to me by another friend. All 3 pieces are in need of a good scrub and hosing off and they will soon be displaying quilts, doilies, and dollies here.

 

 

Another friend came over last night. We shared a few beers and he admired my rotary cutter, mat, and daylight lamp. (?!!)   He replaced the dowel which is hard to see at the top left of the canopy. This is the only part of the cot that had any damage.  I haven't cleaned the canopy yet.

 

 

This guy actually lives with another friend in the house straight across the street from me.  I have had a little mini crush on him for months now.  I knew he would be leaving late September to go work in PNG for a couple months.  When he came over last night, he said they only told him that day that he is flying out early  this morning for 3 weeks to work in the mines there.  Anyway, we had another nice chat while he was repairing the cot canopy on my cutting mat (LOL) and then he had to go. He is building a huge model ship and so would love to have the daylight lamp, cutting mat, and magnifier that I use for stitching.  Before he left, he gave me a kiss :)  I was shocked and didn't know what to say LOL. It's been a long time since I was remotely attracted to anyone...I love being single.  I think he was feeling very shy too.  It was probably nothing more other than a good bye kiss for a friend, as you do :)  Anyway, he is gone for now, and I  am  just a bit sad Boy 16 won't be back until Monday night at the earliest, and my friend not for 21 days!  Happy weekend to all xx debbie

Travelling Treasures Giveaway

Hi everyone,

The most recent winner of Travelling Treasures is Illene over at retdairyqueen.

After some delays earlier this year, I am so  happy to see that Travelling Treasures is back on track.  This is open to anyone in Australia or New Zealand who would like to play along.  Illene has shown pictures of what she received, what she is keeping, and what she has added to the parcel.  You have until 20 September to enter to be the next person to play along.  The fun part is that you can keep anything you like as long as you add equally nice things for the next person to choose from. 

You can visit Illene here to enter.  Any questions, please leave me a message.  xx debbie