Easy Street Step 6

Easy Street
Finally, step 6 is complete. easy going I thought. The strips were cut easily and sewn quickly.
I left it for the night then ironed them the next day and measured them before cutting. Just as well I checked the were short by 1/4 inch! I has sewn them with the zigzag foot on my machine which is wider than the normal foot. Ripit ripit ripit was the next order of the day. Finally after correcting that all went well. Then I found 2 extra strips beside the chair I had sat in to unpick the strips! Well I now have extra strips for whatever comes next. Roll on step 7.

Meanwhile below is a picture of how Lady sleeps in what we call the captains chair.
Despite how it looks she stays like this for quite a while.

Christmas Goodies

Goodies!!

Thanks to a couple of my crafty friends I have some lovely christmas pressies:

These are from Christine from MacDonald's Patch. The teapot holds enough for 2 cups and has it's own

strainer inside to contain the tea leaves. She knows I love cats and made the Mug Rug to match. The little tree I had to take off my big tree as that is where it spent the afternoon yesterday. Thank you very much.

The wool pin cushion is from Melody of The house on the side of the hill. It came with some pins already in too!. The chocolate I am saving for a late night snack one night. Thank you Mel.

I hope you all got some lovely pressies and enjoyed christmas with family and friends.

Merry Christmas & Talking Turkey

Merry Christmas

I have been talking turkey and now have all of my Easy Street Step 5 done. 

Bonnie has named these sitting turkeys instead of a larger version of flying geese, so I sat and my machine talked turkey to me last night to finish the wings. I raided my stash of all the purples and almost had enough to only cut 2 of each purple. All from the stash, I think I have plenty didn't realise I had so many different fabrics in the range!

Pardon the wonky photo this was done this am in between getting ready for the relatives and Christmas Lunch. Spud (Boo boy as we call him) was hiding in the door of the sewing room when the vacuum cleaner was being used, wary as always. Still a very cute look from a handsome boy.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

Step 4 completed!!!

Easy Street Step 4 Completed.....!
 This is looking so lovely colour wise and the easy angle rulers are so easy to use.
These flying geese went together so well and the greens, well I think I have about 160. I just couldn't stop once I started.

Lovely colours aren't they?

The two old cats are sunbaking under the solar ledlight. The tonkinese lays out her front paws to get the maximum sun all over. It is an unusual position (reminds me of someone lying out flat) but she is happy.

Easy Street Step 3

Finally Step 3 is complete, I took it a little easy this time as the arm protested a little at times.

Here are al the easy street blocks so far including the black and white steps and the green triangles.
It will be very interesting to see what comes next.
Finally the poppies in my garden came up as the normal ones and some californian poppies which open and close depending on the light. Interesting to see on a cloudy day they didn't open!

Enjoy the sewing ladies.

Cat etc

Well I have completed the cutting of the 2 x 3 1/2" black and whites. I have included on the previous post the link on how to do the flying geese using Inklingo which I would have done is my printer was working.  Now I need to decide on a portrait photo of Lady for the rascals wall. Which one do you think looks best?
Hubby likes the top one, the middle one is her ' I am comfortable, What are you staring at pose?', and the bottom one has her relaxed in the outside enclosure. I am labelling them as A = top, B=middle & C=bottom.
Just let me know what you think.

Busy Saturday

It has been a busy saturday. First off download and print the directions for Step 2 of Easy Street.
Then get cutting and stitching. In between this 4 loaves of almond bread to bake.
Step 2 is completed, just have to cut 64 black and white 2x3 1/2 blocks.

Lady in a perfect position for a photo!

I do not have the rulers Bonnie does so it was a different way around and I have to cut off the dog ears, but that will be for another day. I usually use Inklingo but the brain was on the fritz and I am having printer problems. The link above will take you straight to Linda's directions for the HST triangles.  It will definitely come into play is needed in later steps though its so easy to iron print and cut then sew with no dog ears. I usually do several lots of Almond bread for family and gifts. I have been using a recipe I received from my 2nd cousin about 20 years ago, I have made a slight modification to it but it is still her recipe, and goes down well at Christmas. If I don't hide it the family snack on it before I am ready.

The Almond Bread logs before I cut and re-bake.

This is one I prepared earlier.

Hope you all have a good day.

                                                             

Easy Street

Easy Street Mystery

I have joined in the fun of doing an on-line mystery by Bonnie K. Hunter called Easy Street. I love how she can de-construct a shirt to get the most fabric for her scrap quilts, just have a look at her blog, Quiltville. The fabrics are below, and these are close to the colours she suggested. I like these and had most in my stash and I know her quilts are machine done so I thought I would be able to do this if I take my time.

Now it has been a few weeks and Step one has been published last friday (saturday for us in Australia).

I have just completed the 192 4 patch blocks and love how they look.

All the black and whites do stand out against the grey. I am looking forward to step 2 on saturday, just to see what colour combinations we have then! Enjoy.

The top of the fridge is where we feed the Maine Coons as the other cats have to have diet food.
Lady seems to like reclining this way either here or on the cat stand or on a chair it doesn't matter much where so long as she can dangle those long forepaws!

Knitting

I have been absent from my blog for quite a while. Got caught up with quilting then had an arm injury (self inflicted) which means I cannot hand sew for a while longer. I have been able to knit once it got some treatment so here is a pic of the aran cardigan I have started. I started on a side front as I thought it wouldn't weigh as much as the back. It is in a gorgeous purple wool from Bendgio Woolen Mills called passionfruit and the pattern is one of theirs too.  It is the first time I have knitted this complex a pattern and I am enjoying the challenge.

This is a picture of my poppies. I have enjoyed them and the colours are lovely. Enjoy.

Ballan Blogy get together

On Saturday 17 of  November I was invited to a Blog gathering at Mill Rose Quilting and Gallery.
This lovely outing was organised by Melody and Christine thank you ladies it was a delightful day and great fun to see all the show and tell. The ladies had gathered from all over Victoria Australia and we all have Blogs.

The Gang!

Melody enjoying some sewing time.

Autumn and Friends

Well it's now autumn well and truly, the colder weather is here. I have been working on some knitting and quilting an Amish style quilt I started some time ago. I have been to a tea cosy exhibition with some fellow bloggers and I look forward to seeing what they are doing in this colder weather. The cow tea cosy above was one I couldn't resist taking a photo of. The face is completely composed of beads, and looks amazing.

This is an Inklingo New York Beauty 02 pattern. I couldn't resist the shapes and have the number 1 & 3 collections as well. They might get printed tomorrow and hopefully I can finish some more. They are addictive and very pretty.

Meanwhile there are some nights which I find it difficult to do any quilting at all and have to do some hand piecing or nothing. There is aprox 15 kilos of feline parked on my lap in this photo. All we are missing is the other maine coon. Thank heaven she doesn't want a lap at this stage!
I must admit it is very warm under all that fur but it does make getting a cuppa a little difficult!

Snack Quilt top

My Inklingo snack quilt top is finally completed. Thank you Linda for the Pattern. This has been a work in progress for
a couple of years now, something I pick up and put down. Taken to meetings and DR's offices.
I plan to hand quilt this with a dark brown thread with wide stitching on my quilting frame.
The photo on the left shows the whole quilt and the one on the right shows what the colours are really like.

Flowers in the Grass

The sawtooth border on the right of the top belongs to the quilt underneath.

Finally have you ever seen a feline sit like this for any length of time? I just had to have a photo Lady is just so funny at times. She sat like this for at least 10 minutes. Must have been comfortable.

Jan's Elephants

I have finally finished my Auntie Jan's lap quilt. It is a panel of elephants that I have quilted around and the top and bottom sections are interlocking square chains. I have quilted leaved in them. I started on this last year but re-did the top and bottom sections before I was happy with them. My aunt was forced to evacuate her unit last year when Brisbane flooded and she loves Elephants. It was very well received and I hope it will be well used.

New Year New CAt

We have a new coon to help fill the empty hole we have with the passing of Bess.
Lady is a 15mth old Maine Coon  who is showing us all how a coon should behave.
She has made friends with the boys and rubs up against them, she also sleeps on Spud and Jennifer.
Jazz is in a brown snit at the moment but she will come round when the cold weather rolls around.

Spud is really enjoying having another Maine Coon to keep him company. Lady has a bit of growing to do
so it will be interesting to see what size she gets to.