Quick, before my battery runs out...

Long day, short post, secret basting...

It's all good xxx

Saturday Secrets...

Today I've been sewing up a bunch of secrets for next weekend, so nothing new to show you I'm afraid, but they do look excellent!

Instead, I can only offer a glimpse of the next FAL target I have in my sights...

It has literally been in my line of sight for ages, sat in the lounge, wanting to be finished, but being ignored in favour of more glamourous alternatives; so time to knuckle down me thinks xxx

Quick change...

I was all set for a day of EPP, but I lay awake pondering for too long last night, and did a complete about face, and decided on some foundation paper-piecing instead!

Unfortunately as this is not for your eyes just yet, here are the trimmings and a nice tidy pile to prove my activity...

I made up the 36 quarter blocks, all the difficult, time consuming bit is done, so I am hoping for a quick finish and a tick off my To Do list very soon.

So that was my morning, the afternoon did include 40-winks and a couple of old CSIs before collecting the kids, so a nice balance I'd say.

I am all caught up with blog reading and emails, feet up and heading towards the weekend, it's all good xxx

New Stuff!

OK, well aware that I have been flashing my old finishes at you over and over again these last couple of days, I thought you might like to see some (mostly) new makes for a change.

I have deliberately kept my July 'To Do' list as short as possible, in order to concentrate on Retreat prep, and the inevitable aftermath and start of the school holidays; so I have flung myself into July's 'Must Do's with avengence!

I have already made...

Blocks for t'other Di our Stitch Tease Queen for July...

I will be able to hand these over in person, bonus!

Blocks for Bee Blessed...

Which will also make their way to Northern Ireland via Retreat.

A c.20" whopper block for the Siblings Together Bee...

My thanks again go to the wonderful sponsors for this year of charity makes...

      

            

      

And I have just begun a little something that I have been thinking about for ages, and now the decks are clearer, I have the imaginary green light...

Obviously, with all this productivity I am almost running out of fabric, so luckily my birthday pressie from my sister arrived from New Zealand today...

1/2m cuts of some beautiful Sarah Fielke fabric from Spotlight, (oh to have a Spotlight/JoAnns equivalent in the UK!).

And I am going to add in here these blocks, that I made way back when, for a very special friend and her fine gentleman...

The mastermind, ring-mistress and all-round super special friend that is Susan, has posted best about the quilt made by the self-proclaimed 'Circle of Friends'.  It was an honour to be a part of this secretive international group, and a cheeky thrill that it made Cindy cry when she got it - a sure sign that our work was a success!

So there you go.  I still need to work on my pre-Retreat, all-about-me post, so you have that to look forward to.  Now I am going to turn up the TV, to drown out the ringing in my ears from today's recorder concert, and do some hand stitchery.  Nice xxx

Revealing!

Today I will be in the company of some of my bestest sewing friends; Brit Bee hits the south coast!

I am not sure what time I will be home - not too late, but I know I will be exhausted and fit for nothing by the time I get back through the door.  So I am scheduling this so you don't feel like you are totally missing out!

Some of my secret makes have been for today.

The mini (3/4") hexies have been made into little keyrings. 

I used Tacha's Sew Mama Sew tutorial but decided (unwisely) to machine stitch the folded hexies together. 

Talk about sewing in the dark - I literally was, but only in the cold light of day can my wobbly stitching, (made extra special with a bent needle!) be seen in full gory detail.  I am consoling myself that now my buddies will have a bit of hardware they can put onto something else at some point!

Secondly, and way more accomplished, the T-bag I made for Terri.  Totally inspired by the awesome H-bag that Nova sent me, I perfected my Y-seams and made this for my special friend...

I used Jeni's method to make the drawstring bag, but did not box the corners, otherwise the T lines would have been spoilt.

So some of the secrets are out, and I promise to fill you in with the day's fun and games tomorrow.

Happy Saturday everyone xxx

Monday...

Back to work, school, swimming.

Still stitching secret things, but they are almost finished, so I will be back to being a complete show off very soon.  Promise.

But here, have a picture or two for your trouble...

PS. So far, the change in my spam filtering is working - I hope no-one real has been barred from commenting xxx