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Australia
Wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, great-aunt and friend....and fur-kid mum I love Quilting, stitching, photography, cooking, baking, gardening, blogging and making new friends...stop by and say hi!

Monday 30 May 2016

No Design Board Monday Today!

Now I know it is Monday today and I should of had a post all ready to go but I didn't and I haven't had a chance today.... and to top it all off, my computer is being so S.L.O.W.....so I am here to let you know that there won't be a linky this week.


I am nearing the end of stitching Flowerville and so I have been looking at my Projects-in-Waiting and I have just about decided on starting this Sue Daley BOM kit that I bought a couple of years ago.


I also picked up the frames that I had on Layby last Friday and so I have been playing with these greeting cards that I collected on my UK trip. They are from The Country Set by Wrensdale Designs.


I am framing them the same way as I did these ones but using a cranberry textured cardstock as a frame. I will show you how they turned out sometime soon.

Have a terrific week and keep your needles threaded!!!

 

Monday 23 May 2016

Design Board Monday #35 - Inclement Weather

It has been wet, cold and plain miserable here today but I have made the most of it....stitching happily in front of the fire with my furry companions softly snoring on a blanket near by.


Here is what I continued stitching today.....A Country Tea Party...Block 8


I made a slight change and stitched a row of tiny chain stitch for the cream in the cake....


 I still have a few sites to visit from last week but once again I am asking:

What do you have to share for this week?



  • Link will be open until this coming Sunday.
  • Link anything that you are working on this week or over the past week....needle and thread is all it takes.
  • Please add a link back to Bits 'n Bobs as part of your post (why not get the button code from the side bar to paste into your post). This will help your readers finding the Link Up if they want to participate as well.
  • Please make the effort to visit other link users and leave them a comment. Leaving me a comment after linking up will help me know that you have been by and linked up
  • Other Link Parties are more than welcome to link up too! Please NO Sales, Endorsement or Promotional Posts....they will be deleted.

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Tuesday 17 May 2016

A Tidy Up

I am taking a break on my Cath@Home blog and to be truthful, I had thought I would do the same here....some days the words just flow and some days I can't string a simple sentence together. Yesterday, for what was to be my last post for awhile, I enjoyed the process and creating the photo collages...so I will see how I go for a bit longer but just so you know....a forced break is coming.

While on a break, It was my intention to spend more time in the kitchen and sewing room.....but just look at the sewing room. You can CLICK on the pictures to enlarge them.


This tidy up came as a result of running out of a particular colour of embroidery thread. I won't be in town till Friday and so went searching among my other stitcheries to see if the same colour was there....then I realised that a couple of stitcheries were missing and I couldn't find my floss boxes. I went searching in our storage shed and found at least one box in storage that had been water damaged (fortunately it only contained fabric scraps) so I went into overdrive to unpack the remaining boxes.  Trying to get everything to fit into my diminished sewing space meant some serious re-organising.


Firstly, I decided to add further top of shelf surface space by putting my wool stash into waste paper baskets which I hung on the wall. Then I had room for my everyday tools (scissors/rotary cutters and markers), my rulers are in one spot and some patterns are also within easy reach and on view.....I had forgotten about quite a few of them.....I filled up my empty basket storage with even more wool and used one of my kit baskets for WIPs....this is all next to the cutting table so within very easy reach. 


One problem I have is not enough shelving.....I bought two white 'bakers shelves' last month. They were intended as shelving for my potting shed. One is outdoors atm as a plant stand and since I have a really large sewing table....I stood this one on it in the corner to hold all my stitchery and applique BOM's...all in their own project box....On the top shelf is a box of threads, 2 boxes of cross stitch Aida scraps and below that a place that my embroidery hoops can call their own. Opposite all this, I have used the two top shelves of another basket unit to hold boxes of quilt UFO's....just so they are not out of sight, out of mind. I have used the same size/shape of storage box as much as possible to create a sense of neatness and order....those plastic food storage boxes are so affordable at dollar stores.


I did find those missing stitcheries and embroidery threads....Bric-a-Brac is also on my BOM progress wall now. I think I might have to add a few more hooks to this wall for the other BOM's that need finishing.
I still have a whole lot of fabric to sort and pack into my glass fronted cabinet and my bookcase needs an organisation overhaul.  Storage space is at a premium so I have commandeered a couple of bookcase shelves in the farmers study....and there are still a couple of containers still on my desk that will go there.....but just look at the sewing space now....


Much better, more inviting and just as well.....there is some sewing I need to get done.


 I do need to show off my little support buddy while I was busy....although she did get under foot....just a tad!

Monday 16 May 2016

Design Board Monday #34 - Meet Val

I had to dash out to the shops yesterday morning for some emergency sugar supplies for my marmalade and it struck me as odd that a few places were closed. I thought about asking the check out person if it was a public holiday but we were talking marmalade and it slipped my mind.  On the drive home I wondered about it again since the Doctors Surgery was obviously closed as well.  My farmer knows all these things so I posed the question to him when I was unpacking the groceries.......his reply.....it's Sunday dear!! Oh Duh!! Well, thank goodness for that as I hadn't even given Design Board Monday a thought yet....but I couldn't shake that Monday feeling for the rest of the day.

I have made progress on my stitcheries. Flowerville, Block 8 is done and dusted....still waiting for the last block.  A Country Tea Party is well underway and I finished the two little daisies on Block 6 and then started on Block 7.


If I had posted this earlier like I had planned, you would of missed the fabrics that arrived in the mail today......such lovely Tilda Fabrics with block 10 of A Country Tea Party.  I may have complained about the stitchery fabric being a tad too small but I love how each fabric is labelled according to the pattern....no chance of confusion for me.


And now to the title of this week's post....Have you met Val from Val's Quilting Studio?? I am quite a fan of Val's blog and I was tickled pink when she linked up to Design Board Monday last week. She has an idea for  a fabulous swap that she is putting together. If you missed her post and would like to join it or would like to just meet Val, click the pic below to read how the swap works.

Vals: I-Spy Flimsy & Swap

I haven't taken part in a swap for a couple of years.....as far as I can remember....and an I-Spy quilt has been on my agenda for ages which means I have collected a fair few novelty prints.....all of which I will not use up by myself.....I'm in....are you?

a fraction of my novelty collection
What do you have to share for this week?



  • Link will be open until this coming Sunday.
  • Link anything that you are working on this week or over the past week....needle and thread is all it takes.
  • Please add a link back to Bits 'n Bobs as part of your post (why not get the button code from the side bar to paste into your post). This will help your readers finding the Link Up if they want to participate as well.
  • Please make the effort to visit other link users and leave them a comment. Leaving me a comment after linking up will help me know that you have been by and linked up
  • Other Link Parties are more than welcome to link up too! Please NO Sales, Endorsement or Promotional Posts....they will be deleted.

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Monday 9 May 2016

Design Board Monday #33 - Stitchin' Progress

I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day yesterday. If it wasn't Mother's Day in your part of the world (UK) then I hope you got to spend the day doing something enjoyable....maybe stitching!

I was so lucky to have one of my children down in Tassie for a weekend visit and we spent the afternoon walking through a beautiful Tasmanian Forest environment taking photo's of some amazing sights...I will be sharing those pics on Cath@Home this week.


Here at Bits 'n Bobs... I managed to do some stitching since the boy and my farmer went hiking on Mt Wellington on Saturday.  I put a huge dint into Block 6 of A Country Tea Party while they were off. This morning, all I have left to complete this block is two daisies that need stitching, near the wagon.
Some of my favourite bits to stitch were the bees....the little flowers in the grass and miss Teddy



I also remembered to get a couple of thread skeins that I was short on so I can complete Block 8 of Flowerville.

That reminds me.....I forgot to show the finished block 7 last week, so here it is....






What do you have to share for this week?




  • Link will be open until this coming Sunday.
  • Link anything that you are working on this week or over the past week....needle and thread is all it takes.
  • Please add a link back to Bits 'n Bobs as part of your post (why not get the button code from the side bar to paste into your post). This will help your readers finding the Link Up if they want to participate as well.
  • Please make the effort to visit other link users and leave them a comment. Leaving me a comment after linking up will help me know that you have been by and linked up
  • Other Link Parties are more than welcome to link up too! Please NO Sales, Endorsement or Promotional Posts....they will be deleted.

Link Below




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Saturday 7 May 2016

ACTP for FNWF

I haven't participated in FNWF for ages and since I stitch every night, I do have some progress to share.


Working on A Country Tea Party Block 6 at the moment and here's what I achieved Friday night while watching "Continuum" on Netflix....I do love a futuristic sci-fi mixed in with time travel....I am addicted.






Thanks to Cheryl for hosting FNWF...head on over and see what everyone else got up to on Friday night.

I will show more of my emerging Teddies on Monday for Design Board Monday.....drop by again and link up to share what is on your sewing, crochet, embroidery or knitting agenda this week.




Wednesday 4 May 2016

NEWFOUND OLD DISCOVERY

It has been so easy motoring through my Flowerville BOM and I really thought I would have it up to date by the time I next posted on my blog.....but.....I didn't take into account that I would run out of embroidery thread for the last few bits.....so I am on to A Country Tea Party sooner than expected.


One of the reasons I procrastinate over ACTP is that I have to do more work and trace the design onto the supplied fabric......it's time consuming, awkward due to a design flaw with my light box (I should write to them about that!) and makes my hand ache badly (an issue I have with my right arm) but worst of all...the # 1 problem I am having is that the quilt shop handling the BOM does not supply enough fabric for the stitching.  I understand this is a way of saving money but it doesn't help me!! Have a look at this ....

  1.  shows how close I have to stitch to the edge to fit the design in.
  2. shows how badly it frays and I can't get those edges into a embroidery frame...no matter how small.
  3. top and bottom is a good measurement but the sides are barely cut to the size the designer suggests after stitching.
I knew I was going to be faced with these problems again and the issues start right from the moment I tape the fabric down onto the light box. I thought I had some sort of webbing tape that I could iron on to stop the fraying.....when I was looking for it, I found my box of abandoned cross stitch pieces...sometime last century, I used to make small gifts and cards...these didn't make it. The reason I am telling you this is because one of the pieces still had masking tape on the edges which I used once when I was without a sewing machine.  It was an Aha! moment for me.


Now, I know many of you use your overlocker to stop fraying. I don't have an overlocker but I have used other methods. Sometimes, sort of successful and sometimes not at all.


  1. Fray Stop is a product I have used before and it works adequately but it is messy to apply, you have to wait for it to dry and right when I needed it, my half bottle had dried up!
  2. No overlocker, no problem if I have a sewing machine....or so I thought! First I tried zig-zagging close to the edge...what a mess and it somehow managed to gather the edge of the fabric too.....so I tried a straight stitch like I used to with my Aida fabric....no good! It had to be close to the edge which left my fabric misshapen.
  3. I gave the masking tape ago and Voila! It worked a treat.
Here's how I did it...
  1.  I used what I had and my masking tape roll is just over 1" thick. I cut a strip just longer than the long side of my piece of fabric.
  2. I carefully stuck it down the length...covering about a 1/4" of the edge. Pressing the tape well onto the fabric and the cutting board to avoid slippage.
  3. Then I trimmed the masking tape right up to the edge of the fabric with a ruler and rotary cutter. Carefully pull both up and repeat steps 2 -3 on all sides....this way I only used one strip of the masking tape.
  4. I had cut the tape longer than the fabric and I folded the excess to the back.
I found it gave the edges a lot of support as well as stopping the fray when I taped it onto the light box.  It was easier to tape down and keep taut while I traced. I am not worried about it being there when I finish stitching as I have to cut it down by at least 1/4" anyway. Here is a picture of how it looked after the tracing was complete.


No Fray! See that grey arrow between the 13 & 15" inch mark.  It is not fraying that it is pointing to but rather the whisperweft that I iron onto the back of all my embroidery pieces before stitching. Here is a close up to prove it.


I was so excited by my newfound old discovery....that I traced all 4 of my BOMs waiting in the sidelines....no excuses now! I will let you know how it holds up after it has spent time in the embroidery frame.

p.s....I never did find that webbing tape!

 
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