Here's my April photo.

Here's my Tis the Season wall hanging although at this stage I have planned it as a rail hanging. My house has quite a few railings - going around the central staircase and between some of the rooms. So I attached the tape so that I can hang it on the rail for Christmas.
The fabric is Adoring from Moda, and is the same fabric I used for my Tis the Season quilt. I was hoping that there would be enough to do the patchwork bag but even though I have quite a bit of yardage I don't really have enough variety to do the hexagons. Anyway I still have a month or two to think about that.
Now onto May.
Lynda ( bettsylyn)

January all done.

For January I have managed to make two thread catchers and the shoe bag. Because the shoe bag isn't lined I decided to use some lovely double sided fabric I was saving for something special - so it has spots on the outside and checks on the inside. I also did French Seams so that I had no raw edges inside. To be honest I didn't need a shoe bag so decided not to do the applique. What I did instead is use a band of Anni's lovely fabric across the bag. You can see that I did manage to get one picture of the shoe design on that band.

My thread catchers were fun to make - I'd like to experiment with some different sizes. The red spotty one is actually for my bathroom - I need something like that to keep little things tweezers,nail clippers and lip balm close at hand.
So January is finished and I have everything all ready for February.

Lynda

Did you hear it?

Did you just hear the squeal of delight which came from my house? Here I am, just about 12 hours before October finishes ( actually I got an extra hour due to daylight savings) with a finished Gardeners Journal top.

 

 

I started this one with a layer cake and a few extra pieces so I ended up with quite a variety of fabric.

I might have been slow but I do enjoy being part of a group all stitching together. Thank you to everyone for taking part and of course to the wonderful Chooky.

 

Lynda ( bettsylyn)

Finished....

Yes, it's finished. I am really happy with the way it turned out. I used the stripe for the border and the binding and I like the little bit of gold colour it adds. So Chookyblue doesn't need to crack her whip in this direction for TIS.

 Here's a close up - I stitched in the ditch around the stitcheries and the inner borders. I also quilted in the ditch for the outside borders and put two rows in the wide border.

Happiness is a finished quilt. 

Top is finished...

My Tis the Season top is finished, and I did get it done before midnight last night. Okay, so it's not quilted and bound but I haven't quite decided yet whether to machine quilt or hand quilt.

I found the problem that others had with the light border being similar to the blocks so I added another border in between to frame it, and I like it because I think it pulls the colours together. I think this stripe is also going to be my binding.

The fabric is Moda 'Adoring' and the thread I used was Cottage Garden Threads 'Plum Pudding'.

I have loved seeing everyones quilts and congratulations to everyone with thier finishes.

April and May

Here is April....


And here is May....

The stitching was done but I ended up doing the fabric borders for the two months at the same time.

I still have a few days left this month to do some GJ stitching.

Note to self - when photographing on a dark table, trim the threads off first.

Lynda (bettsylyn)

First three complete

In no particular order here are my first three blocks. Mine will turn out quite scrappy ( even though they are all from the same fabric range) because I only have enough fabrcic of each colour to do one border on each block. But I am happy with it so far.

Still Stitching...

I think I can, I think I can......


Here's my choice for the next project. It started with a Moda scrap bag of Adoring and then a sale at my local shop. I worked out that I can do all the parts around the stitcheries with the strips - so it will be quite scrappy. I bought two different pieces for the main border - red and green and I won't decide which one I am going to use until the end. The stripe will be for the bindings.

The threads are Cottage Garden threads in the colour Plum Pudding. I hope it all works out.

An adventure...

Last week Kayly and I felt we needed a girl's day out and decided to visit Thread and Ginger on the other side of town. For those who don't know, Thread and Ginger is Natalie Bird's (also this link) shop and we got to meet her and see the next stitch along quilt. Can you see it behind us? Of course I bought the book too ( and one or two other things). I am going to be good and not start - after all I am still working on my Gardener's Journal - but I did get the hexagon papers to make the cute little bag in the book. (you can see it behind my head.) So maybe I might just get to stitch one square over Christmas in anticipation of making the bag.

bettsylyn (Lynda) and Natalie Bird

Photo by Kayly.

The next decision will be choosing the fabric to make this cute quilt in - and then the colour to stitch it in. Natalie used a fabric which isn't actually Christmas - I am not sure yet what fabric I will use. Has anyone else decided?

And here you can have a look at the inside of the shop. It doesn't show much - there are so many beautiful things there.

A stitch-a-long Day Out.

Helen, Teresa, Tereasa, Kayly and Lynda.

On Tuesday Kayly and I decided to go on an adventure and visit some other stitch-a-long members . I knew that Teresa and Helen visited Tereasa's shop on Tuesdays so we decided that that was the perfect time to visit. Kayly, Tereasa and I were even stitching our Gardener's Journal. As Helen and Teresa didn't know we were going to be there, we will forgive them for not bringing thier Gardener's Journal stitcheries this time but maybe we will visit again later and post some more progress photos.
We thought that you might all like to see us hard at work stitching.

While we were there we were able to see Teresa's beautiful Girl's Day Out Quilt - do go and check out the photos on her blog.

Is there anybody else out there getting together? Post a photo if you do!

It's still May isn't it?

Here's my Block A for May. June is going okay - well, I am still stitching the house but so far so good.
The blue sparkly items at the top of my block are part of my mother's day present from my 7 year old. They are actually pegs with glitter and magnets glued on but as I was too lazy to walk to the laundry to get the pegs I grabbed these from the fridge. I think it adds a bit of bling to the blog.

Lynda ( bettsylyn) Queensland, Australia.

Looking for book...

I don't know if this will help anyone but Kayly and I saw a copy of the book on Friday at Crafty Lady's stall at a quilt show. This is actually the shop where I bought mine from and I think the price was $30.50 Australian. Sandi doesn't actually have it listed on her web site ( or if she does I can't find it) but email her and she will help you out I am sure. She is a lovely person to deal with. ( if you have any problems let me know and maybe I can source it for someone)
Lynda ( bettsylyn)

Borders.

I am prompted to post this by Satu's post a bit earlier.

Today one of my local quilt stores had a special day for their loyalty members, with 20% off. I have been waiting for this day to get my border and backing fabric. I had some tough decisions to make. If I had just been using fabric from my stash or a mix it wouldn't have been as important but as I am using only Moda's Garden Party I knew that I would need to buy the fabric soon so that I could get what I wanted. If I waited until when I finished the quilt I might not get my choices. I decided on the green large flowers for the main border - this design really does lend itself to the wide border - you can see in Satu's post she has chosen the darker plum colourway. I was tempted by the pink spot which Satu has but decided that it was a little too busy and went for the pink cross stitch fabric. The pattern won't show up too much as the inner border is fairly thin, but the colour seems to lift it. The light fabric in the right bottom corner will be my backing fabric. Now I can happily stitch and know that I have everything now to finish my quilt.

I have finished my stitching for this month and I only have to sew it now. So hopefully there will be a photo soon.


Lynda ( bettsylyn)

www.bettsylyn.blogspot.com

First Block - Block G

Finally I have a picture of my first block. It seems that the stitching part for me is easy - it is the photo part that I find hard.
The fabrics are all from my Moda Garden Party layer cake. I have all my pieces cut out ready to go for the rest of the blocks except for the odd shaped ones. I just hope that I can keep the scrappy look - although I do have extra fabric to choose from.
Just out of interest I thought I was going to still have about half of my layer cake left. It is close - I have pieces of about 4 inches by 10 inches left from each 10 inch square, so not quite half.
I am hoping to use the large floral design for my border ( like the piece above the watering stitchery) but there are a few different colourways. ( green , brown ,pink, cream and maybe yellow and maroon, I can't quite remember) When I have the next block made I think I will make my choice then when I can see how they look next to the fabric.
(One of my local quilt shops is having a 20% off sale the weekend after next for their club members so that might factor into my choice as well. It might depend on what they still have in stock.)

Lynda

Stitching done and decisions made.

I have finished my stitching for Block G ( you can only see the watering the garden stitchery but the bird bath is done as well). I have spent way too much time agonising over which fabric to use. If I had the time I could make a whole variety of colour ways but I have finally decided that I will use Garden Party. I know others are using it too - but I just think that it is perfect for this quilt. Mine may turn out more scrappy because I am using a layer cake, so I have some interesting times ahead trying to figure out the cutting. I do have some scraps as well so I should have no problems with yardage. I have actually started stitching a little bit ahead but now I have made my fabric choice I can start putting the block together.

Kayly suggested that I use an older Robyn Pandolph line - Sentimental Journey. I definately have enough in my stash and I am sure that it would have looked lovely too. But I like the tiny prints in the Garden Party range and the layer cake was a birthday gift so it seems the right choice this time. Now to get things under way.

Lynda ( bettsylyn)

I'll get started soon....

I wasn't going to do this. Up until last Thursday I was not going to join in as I felt I had enough to do. ( Like everyone else I guess). But.... I went to the Brisbane Craft Show and said to myself if I see the book - well,maybe I will. I walked around all day and didn't see it so it seemed that I was safe(?). But just as I was leaving a copy appeared in front of me and I took it as a sign. So here I am. Of course having seen so many beautiful show and tell quilts at our day with Anni Downs helped to put the idea into my head.
So, I have the book, the fabric, the light box and hopefully I will get the threads out tonight. Isn't it a good thing that I bought that metre of weaveline at Cottage on the Hill?
So I should be right for a big start in April.
Lynda.
P.S. Hubby will be away for 5 days at the Byron Bay Blues Fest - I think the kids and I will just have a nice time at home relaxing and stitching over Easter.