Busy, Busy, Busy.....

 I finally finished the last bag of squares for my sister Anne's blanket now comes the fun part of sewing in all those ends...... I think this will be done one bag at a time while I'm watching TV at night or maybe taking a bag or two to work with me to work on over my lunch breaks, I can't wait to see this one made up with a bit of a fancy edge :) I can see it being finished by Christmas now!

 This is another blanket I've been slowly plodding along on, not my usual colours but the expectant mum wanted neutral colours so neutral it is, this one is also working up quickly and I hope to have it finished by the middle of November before her bub's due :)

 I know, I know.....another baby blanket being worked on what can I say my work place seems to be exploding with bub's at the moment and I have another two I'll be starting in another month or so as soon as the mum's find out what they're having and tell me what colours/patterns they'd like for their new additions. I'm certainly keeping my crochet hook smoking at the moment lol....

Here are both blankets, the blue and white ripple blanket is slightly bigger than the neutral one as the expectant mum asked if I could make it bigger and I was happy to oblige :)
I've also been working on some secret sewing so can't show you what else I've working on, hopefully by the end of September I'll be able to show you these items. I've also been working on a couple of crocheted blankets for me when I need a break from working on the baby ones, boy you'd think I don't sleep with all the things I've been churning out lately, hope to post more pic's soon :)

AAaaahhhhh Saturday!

 Nothing beats baking on a Saturday......two date and nut rolls, one heading of to my sister's the other to be sliced up and added to my freezer. The other a ginger cake from the lovely Fiona of http://bubzrugz.blogspot.com/ thanks Fiona it turned out beautifully :)

Now to sit with a frothy cuppa and a slice of ginger cake MMMmmmm.......maybe a bit of hooky happening as well

Celebration Swap, fat 1/4 swaps and fat 1/4 birthday swaps....phew!

 For the Celebration swap my lovely partner Leanne sent me this gorgeous spring stitchery and fabrics.....wasn't I spoilt! Love the stitchery now to think about what I want to make it into and incorporate the fabrics Leanne sent along with them....MMMmmm maybe a block keeper or a cushion???? will have to think a bit before I decide what to do with all these lovely goodies. Thanks Leanne I love everything you made and sent me :)

 This is the spring stitchery I made up for Leanne, but naughty me forgot to add any fabrics so I'll be sending some of with Leanne's birthday gift later next month, the stitchery is designed by Kaaren from http://thepaintedquilt.blogspot.com/  she has some lovely freebies on her blog if you want to go over and have a look :)

 I'm also involved in a couple of fat 1/4 swaps and last month I swapped with LeAnnne and she sent me the beautiful red and white fabrics on the left for July and the fabric on the right are from Maryanne for our August swap. A big thank you to both ladies as they will go beautifully with the others in my stash that I'm collecting for a special quilt :)

 These yummy spotty fat 1/4's and threads went to Sharon for her birthday this month :)

 and these pretties went off to Heather for her birthday as well :)

These are the fat 1/4's I sent to LeAnne for July's fat 1/4 swap and I know she's received them and liked what I sent her :) I'm a bit like Maryanne and forgot to take a photo of the fat 1/4's I sent her but I know she's received them and liked them as well so all's good with the swaps I'm in and I'm now up to date and ready for next months commitments lol :)

FNSI Results....

 Last night I worked on a few rows of this baby ripple blanket, better get a hurry on as the bub is due in October!

I then started working on this when my hand got too tired to crochet and added a few more stitches, hope to get this block finished real soon and start on another one :)
What did you get up to last night??? I'll be popping around to all the other blogs that joined in when I get back from the dreaded grocery shopping run this morning.......

Finishes for August....

 I finally finished the last four bon bon stitcheries and put them together, so that makes a total of eight and another project of my UFO list :)

I finished stitching this candle mat and finally found some time to put it together this morning, this one is going into the Christmas gift basket. I have another one of these traced out and ready to work on and this one when I finish it will be for me :) I have three more finishes but as they are secret sewing for a couple of swaps I'm in you'll have to wait for full disclosure pictures till the middle of September as I don't want to spoil the surprise for my partners.......
What Christmas items are you working on at the moment, are you like me and love to work on Christmas projects throughout the year?

FNWF Results....

Friday night saw me stitching some more of my Rosalie Quinlan "It's a red work Christmas" BOM as well as alternating with crocheting some more blocks for my sisters blanket but bloggers not playing nicely today and wont let me upload that photo :( 
I've been really tired lately so I haven't been a very good blogger in regards to answering my comments for the last couple of post so I'll apologise for my slackness and try and do better but no promises as life is certainly getting in the way of fun lately as well as it being winter which I hate with a passion.....bring on summer and the warmer weather I say as I am sooooo over winter!! :)

OPAM, Craft show & Friends in stitches.....

 Finally finished putting these Christmas Bon Bon's together, I just have four more to stitch up and then they can be put together as well.....so four more finishes for OPAM this month.....just under the wire!

 I also went to the Craft show on Friday and these are just a few things I brought home with me, I haven't put everything here as some of the things I bought are being sent for a couple of swaps I'm in and need to be secret for a little longer.....I was really excited to buy the new line by Bonnie & Camille "Scrumptious" it certainly lives up to it's name!

 Then Saturday I attended "Friends in Stitches" at the Novotel in Glen Waverly and was lucky enough to be able to get a photo with Leanne Beasley one of the designers for the day as well as sit and sew with my sister Anne :) I had a ball!!

 Here's Anne trying to stitch while I'm trying to chatter, stitch and take photo's lol....

 I met up with another bloggy buddy Shez of http://shez-enjoyinglife.blogspot.com/ she always makes me smile and I always have a great time when stitching with her :)

 This is part of our table, (L to R) Pam, Shez and Claire........

 this is Sharon from http://lilabellelane.blogspot.com/ finally managed to get a photo of her face even if it is looking down lol.....

I love Sharon's version of Rosalie Quinlan's new BOM  "Best friends Forever" Shaz has used the new line "Scrumptious" and it looks divine! I have this BOM but wont start it till I can access larger lengths of Scrumptious  which wont be till later in the year :)
Lets just say by Sunday I was one very tired stitcher! I have more photo's but I'll do another post with more photo's later in the week when I have a bit more time and I'm not so tired :)

Finally a finish for July!

 Finally I can say I have a finish  for July OPAM Woop, Woop. I finished one of my journals today, I still have  a few more to finish off but they'll have to wait till after the show and a visit to the lace man as I couldn't find any of the eyelet lace I need to do them at Spotlight today.....but I did buy some more wool for the project below.....

This is another blanket I've started working on and I needed to stock up on a few more balls, isn't it lucky and great timing that Spotlight were having 40% off all their wool in the store this weekend so I was able to pick up more to keep working on it, I'm calling this one  "gelato" because of all the soft pastels in it. This is also going to be a long term project so keep an eye out for photo updates over the coming months :)

FNSI....or in my case all day Friday

 Friday saw me cutting these out to make up into journals, I did go to spotlight today to get more lace and ribbons to finish them off but I got side tracked with the 40% off wool sale happening there and came home with a bag of wool which means another trip tomorrow for them.....and maybe another ball or two of wool???

 I also found myself working on a secret project so here's a sneaky peak, sorry that's all I can show you for now :)

 I also picked up this very neglected stitchery and worked a few more stitches onto it to keep me motivated, I'll be working on this one today I think so I can finish it before Christmas....no promises mind you!

I also discovered these in a forgotten project tin so finished them off as well, I have another seven traced stitcheries of the Christmas tree to finish so may work on them as well today and tomorrow my crochet has been taking up a lot of my time lately and I decided my hands needed a bit of a hooky break, don't know how long it will last as I can hear my hook calling me to come crochet LOL......
Well I'm off to visit a few more of my sewing buddies blogs and see what they've been up to, I hope you too got a chance to spend a little time doing something you love last night :)

Something for me....

I decided to start working on a long term project for myself.....I'm going to need 480 (or more ) of these squares so quite a few more to go yet lol. I wanted to see how many squares I could get out of a ball I made 7 out of one of the orange 50g balls and with the leftover wool made two smaller squares consisting of 4 rounds instead of the 6 I used for the larger squares, not sure what theses smaller ones will turn into but will just add them to the pile till I have enough to work them into a cushion or a smaller baby blanket??
 Has anyone read the book Elemer the elephant?? well this is going to be my Elmer blanket for our bed for next winter, can you see I have one colour missing that I really, really, really love and can't get a ball of yet :( Oh well I'm not going to start putting it together till I reach the 300 mark with my squares so hopefully I'll be able to source out a ball or three of my favourite red :)
These aren't all the colours I want to use in my blanket I still have to order a few more balls to get some more colour happening but I'm not worried as it will probably take me all year to source them and then work them up. The wool is called Drops baby merino in 4ply and is lovely to crochet with.