FNWF - November

I had a FDandNWF!
I sewed all day with my Friday group (Needle Girls)...well apart from a lengthy discussion about what fabrics were needed fro a 2025 project!!!!  and tonight I sewed some more.

I did some of this block...a Fig 'n' Berry pattern

and then I worked on the current Winter Shop...the Pizzeria - not much to go on that . . .

Thanks Cheryll for hosting us, thanks all participants for the cyber company.  

FNWF - October

The year is flying past....but some regular catch-ups are good.

Friday Night saw me sewing the binding onto a quilt...This is my Sunday Stitchers Challenge for October... it's a very old UFO - originally started around 2011...but will be finished this month.  There are numerous 'doo dads" (embellishments)....to add.

Come back after October 20th to see the front!

Thanks Cheryll & fellow FNWFers!

FNWF - August and Murder Mystery Progress

I think we are all saying it - "Where has the year gone???"

Our lovely hostess Cheryl has gathered us together for a night (afternoon/day??)   of craftiness.  Even though she is busy holidaying in Canada - she was with us in spirit!

What did I do?

At night I started on the July blocks for a Murder Mystery Quilt I am working on....It is a real mystery - so far we have done 7 sets of blocks and have absolutely no idea how they will all go together and we have a number of fabrics that haven't been used at all. . . .

I suppose that is why it is a mystery!!!!

Friday Night I got here:

but by Saturday Night - all done.  These blocks represent the seas around the Greek Isles...apparently.  The project provides blocks for 12 months as well as a chapter in a Murder Novel....I haven't read any of the chapters yet....perhaps towards the end of the year I will.

and just for curiosity's sake - here is what we have made so far.. . . no idea how it will all come together??????????

FNWF - July

And another month has rolled on by .  . 

Friday Night saw me working on a little crossstitch.  One of my "enabling" friends showed it to me and I laughingly said, "Oh!  I will whip that up tonight".  It took more than a night - but not too many.  Here is where I stopped Friday Night.

As Saturday was a sewing group day - with Loose Threads - and it wasn't a complicated design...I worked on it some more.

Now, I just need to assemble it.

Thanks, Cheryll for hosting FNWF each month, and thanks everyone for the company!

FNWF - June

It won't be long and the year will be half over . . .

I had been doing some applique today on my Sunday Stitchers UFO Challenge #2...it wasn't going so well....so Friday night I plonked on the lounge - take away for dinner (the normal Friday night fish & chips) and did some stitching...no brain needed...

It's hard to tell what is stitched and what isn't, but this was a good coloured thread for the fabrics I am using.

Hope everyone stayed warm - even Brisbane is a little chilly at the moment - and my daughter in Townsville is wearing slippers.... It must be cool there too!) - and got some sort of sewing/crafting done.

Thanks Cheryll for cyber hosting us all.

FNWF - May

When you have the luxury of being able to sew all day . . when do you officially start FNWF??

I figure that is up to me  . ..so my day's efforts included:

Counting & some extra cutting of Novelty 5" blocks and the necessary number of half blocks.

Cutting and cutting 5" French General and FG-like blocks and the necessary number of half blocks.

Darn - there are only 170 good ones and 10 "sort of OK" ones.  I need 200 . . . hunting....hunting...


These are in preparation for an upcoming retreat...getting some charity work organsied  . . .hopefully a few will do some charity sewing....


Then it was some "me" time....I am sitting & waiting for this week's FPP block, so in the meantime I thought I'd whip up this Kiwi block.  This is actually my Chookshed Challenge #5 project, so I will do a separate post later....but he turned out kinda cute.

Now, I better get myself organised for  . . .yes...another sewing day tomorrow!

Thanks, Cheryll for hosting us again.
I hope everyone had some "me" time and was able to craft a bit.

Needle Girls - Sandi's Birthday & FNWF

Needle Girls

Today the Needle Girls met to sew and celebrate Sandi's Birthday.

Following on with our plan for the year - we bought presents starting with Sandi's initials

- S L M

I gave her:

Lint roller

Snack Box
Lollies - charity ones from Lions Australia - in Spearmint and Musk

Spotty fabric

Scarlet, Lemon and Mauve threads

Serviettes

Socks

Webbing with Love on it

Herbs - Sorrel, Lemon Balm and Mint

We ate in this time - each person brought some food.   It was a fun day, 

But I am glad to have a bit of a rest from challenging Birthday Present hunting.  The next birthday to buy for is December.

FNWF

Tonight I continued on the sewing I had been working on during the day.

This is a cute pre-printed stitchery from Nikki Tervo.  I think I've had it for a while - but in a recent re-org, sorting session, I discoverd it (again), so decided to get it done.
And...I have another sewing day on Saturday...it might be finished by Saturday night . . .???

It's great to be able to connect with like-minded souls all over the world - via Facebook and blogs....

Thank you, Cheryll for continuing this on both platforms.

I hope you had a fun productive night.

FNWF - March & RSC - February

Tonight I worked on my RSC blocks for February - I am running late....but if February had been a "normal" month, I'd still be on time...LOL

My machine has been at the repair shop for a loooong time - almost 4 weeks....so I've been busy prepping stuff, but mainly leaving the sewing til I got it back.
I will have a busy time catching up!

Hope everyone had a productive night!

FNWF - February - the real one!

After a little hiccup last Friday - Cheryll invited us over for a "Sew-In".

I had a sewing day with one of my groups - we were celebrating Lynda's Birthday, so we had morning tea so we could have a candle on a cake! and then lunch. . not much sewing got done.  We also spent time enjoying Lynda opening her presents.
this year we are gifting presents that start with each person's initials - L G & B for Lynda
I bought her:
a Bobbin Box
a Blue Bowl filled with a Lime, Grapes & Blueberrires
Guterman thread in Lemon, Green & Blue
ric rac in Lemon Green & Blue

a Bubbly Bunny (a chocolate)
a Glue Pen refill
and  

a packet of Lolly Gobble Blissbombs

 But we had a fun time and talked about current & future projects...LOL

For FNWF - I sewed a lot of 3.5" squares together to make 14 sets of vertical rows for the two RSC 2023 quilts. (10 to go plus some fill in squares...)
I have the horizontal rows done.  I have a retreat coming up at the end of March, so hope to put it together then - taking advantage of the large design walls.

Thanks Cheryll for hosting us - I hope everyone had a fun time.

FNWF - February

 A few of us gathered in cyber space for FNWF.

I worked on this project for most of the day.  The building is foundation pieced and then the other pieces are appliqued.  Some of them are quite tiny...

It is Shop 1 (Teacup Bake Shop) in a set of 10 - called "The Shop Ladies" by Sue Pritt.

I have a few friends who are also working on this.  I think we will all need to keep motivating each other.

One thing we have tried for this project is printing the applique shapes onto the fusible webbing - that did save a lot of tracing time!

It was a little frustrating in parts, so once all the pieces were ready, I decided to reward myself with something simpler.  I prepped this sewing machine applique which will be made into a small wall hanging.  This is also my Chookshed Challenge #2 project, so getting a very early start on that one.

There was no linkup from Cheryll this time - but it's hard to keep a sewer down!

FNWF - January

A new year - but feeling comfortable getting back into the swing of Friday Night With Friends.

I had been with one of my sewing groups during the day, so had a full day of sewing.
Daytime I worked on an old cross stitch project...this is my SS #9 Challenge project - I have a set of 3 cross stitches of vases of flowers.   Two are done.....really want to finish this one.   The Challenge for the month is to make progress on it - so I decided that I would set aside 2 days to work on it.

Here is the starting point 

and where I got to

At night time I did a bit of crochet....

And then I started quilting the skies of the houses in my Homegrown Quilt.  This project has a "Finish" date of 21st January....so it is a major focus at the moment.   More work on it over the weekend.

I wasn't sure if I would continue doing blog posts for FNWF (& FNSI), but it seems a lot of people are still doing it, so I will carry on for another year.   I do find it is a great record of my projects.

Thanks Cheryll for continuing on - thanks everyone for your company.

FNWF - December

The last FNWF for the year !!!

I had a busy day sorting some gifts for Christmas, and writing tags.  Then dropped my husband to a Christmas party.   I stopped on the way home to get some dinner - and the heavens opened...I waited a while - but still got drenched getting back to the car.  It has helped reduce the temperature - today has been a real stinker - hot & humid.

Tonight I did a bit of crochet while watching TV 

and then sorted some fabrics for a Mystery Quilt I will be doing next year.

Wishing all FNWFers a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2024.

FNWF - November

I am lagging behind a bit - I did join Cheryll & cyber friends for FNWF and worked on this colourful little thing!

A while back I bought a set of orange square rulers... They're designed to be able to cut squares when you have many layers of applique or trims/buttons etc.

BUT - how to hang them on my peg bard???

Solution - a zippy pouch with handles!  I still need to finish off the binding. . but just about done!

Thanks Cheryll and all you crafty / sewing friends!

FNWF - September

Ooops - very late post.

I am having a few blogger problems (seems to be common) and I stopped visiting blogs and commenting...and didn't post for FNWF for a similar reason.  The problem isn't resolved - I know a lot of people are not getting emails to show that a comment has been added....very annoying.

BUT - for the record I did sew on Friday Night With (Cyber) Friends....

and I am happy to say - it is nearly finished!!  

A belated thank you to Cheryll

FNWF - July

The days seem to slip by....here we are again at Cheryll's (via cyber space) ready for a night...or day...or part thereof...sewing, crafting, blogging or Facebooking.

Now that I am a lady of leisure and had no other commitments today, I decided to get a head start on my RSC blocks - the colour for July is Red - 'that will be easy' I thought - lots of novelty fabrics in red....well, No, Susan, you do not have a lot in red.
I managed to scrape it in - I added spots and circles so I could have enough.

I am going to a new sewing group tomorrow and we can use the machines at the shop which probably means most of us will be machining - most of my groups end up being for hand sewing.
As this is the first meeting, I decided to take the black red & white stripey (string) blocks - seam allowance isn't important, so I can do them on any machine.
That necessitated some cutting of the jelly roll that had been donated. 

I have quite a collection now - roughly sorted into sizes.

Of course - a bit of crochet while watching BH&G...but as sport was on after that I was able to make a quick exit from the TV area to the pleasant haven of my Sewing Space.

Pop over to Cheryll's blog to have a look at the other crafty pursuits.

Thanks Cheryll, I hope everyone got to do some crafting or had an enjoyable night otherwise.

FNWF - June

What ????
June already???  The year will be half over soon.

But the First Friday of the month sees us gathered for some sewing fun with Cheryll and friends.

Recently I had finished prepping the pages for the next ABC book, so I decided to work on them.  (The alternative involved measuring & cutting etc...so I gave it a miss)

I had a medium grey in the bobbin, so worked on the grey pieces (not a lot of them and not a lot of bobbin thread.)
Then I switched to a light grey bobbin and did all the white pieces, before calling it quits for the night.  In retrospect, I should try to do the white & cream in daylight  .  but . . )

And of course - a bit of crochet while watching BH&G!!!

Thanks, Cheryll - pop over here to find out what the others got up to!

FNWF - May

Cheryll has now included the "Dark Side" and we can post & chat on Facebook as well as on the blog.   

I did some sewing on FriDAY, but collated my supplies for the nighttime sewing session.

I needed to hand stitch the binding on this - it's not even a mini quilt - it's 3.5" x 4.75".  I'll do a separate post later on.

I also did some stitching on my Sue Spargo Homegrown blocks...no pic as they are not all finished...

And I made four more strippy blocks to go with the ones I started at Scrub Stitchin' at Baradine.  I've decided 35 blocks with a border will make a good-sized quilt for our DV Charity Quitl collection.

I hope everyone else got to do some crafty stuff - or had fun in another way!

FNWF - February

Time to gather with cyber friends for a night/ day/time of sewing / crafting.

Recently a friend gave me several bags of fabrics to donate to SS for our charity efforts - 7 bags in all!
I had sorted through them and was able to pass most of it along to Helen for storage.  I kept some pink fabric - there was some of that pre-quilted with poly wadding (very thin) fabric that I didn't think would be good for a quilt...and some other pink cottons.

Helen suggested placemats...so I cut the quilted fabric and the tone on tone pink to approx 13 x 18, pinned them together and using a pale pink thread, sewed along some of the quilting lines.  (Interestingly the manufactured quilting is not very straight!).  Then I flipped them over and with a reel of variegated pink & green thread left over from an old quilt, I used a few of the decorative stitches on my machine to stitch over the lines I had done.

So far (Saturday night)  I have added binding to two of them (some left over that Helen had) and I still have some more patterned pink to use on the rest of them.

These will be donated to Meals on Wheels when I have them finished.

This shows the pre quilted fabric - quite pretty

and the decorative stitches I used.

Hope everyone was able to be a bit productive - or at least were able to do something they enjoyed.

Thanks Cheryll for hosting...it encourages me to sew & post on my blog.
A goal for 2023 is to improve my blog posts and blog reading.

FNWF - January

After all the Christmas and New Year festivities - where it's hard to work out what day it is - back to routine - a Friday Night sewing With like-minded crafty Friends all over the place.

Thanks, Cheryll for continuing another year so that is a push to do something and then do a blog post.

As usual, a spot of crochet

then into SSS to continue the quilting of this baby quilt.  This bub was born a few weeks early - just before Christmas, so I will make finishing it the #1 priority for now.

You can see who else joined in here.

FNSI - October

The year is slipping away so quickly - and looking at my diary and To Do list is quite scary!

But deadlines are very motivating and what has to be done will get done!

I wasn't very productive at all - my lounge chair s far too comfortable!

The usual crochet - this is using yarn gifted to me - it is very bright - neon colours - but I may as well use it up.

Then I did a bit of hand piecing on these 1" finished squares,,, a mystery project.

Why am I hand-piecing???   

I don't have a lot of hand sewing that is on the "Must Be Done Soon" list 

so I started this for one of my sewing days... also good to have for TV-watching sewing.

Thanks Cheryll - Happy Birthday for Sunday - and everyone else for the company.