Today Is A Special Day

Today is our 20th wedding anniversary.  

22 years ago we met and fell in love and the rest is history.  Our relationship is a little different than some others as there is an 18 year age difference.  Many said we would never last but here we are still blissfully happy after 20 years of marriage.

We are off out tonight to our favourite restaurant (Italian) it has become a tradition for us to celebrate there.

Things have been busy on the sewing front.  I am doing a little secret stitching for a friend and also squeezed in the time to get my project for Let's Get Stitched in March finished.

I love these fabrics and will be cutting up what I have left to make up some kits which will be available to the attendees.  It was a very hard decision to actually decide to share these !!  I know you understand what I mean.

We are having a little name tag swap over the LGS weekend and it was revealed that my secret partner liked purple amongst a lot of other colours.  So I just happened to have some purple wool to play with and I made this little flower to adorn the tag.

And of course what would a name tag be without embroidery?

We are looking forward to getting together again this year - It will be the 4th anniversary of Let's Get Stitched.  I wonder which city we will find ourselves in 2015?

Have a wonderful hump day.

Hugs,

Fee xx

Needle Book Tutorial

Sam at Fee's Shabby Shack asked me to make a little needle book from some of the little panels she has in stock so here we go a FREE Tutorial for a simple little needle book.

Trim the little panel to 4 1/2" square and choose a fabric for the back and cut to the same size.

Lay the backing fabric wrong side down onto the little panel and sew down the left hand side.  Open out and press with a hot iron.

Cut a piece of fusible parlan and a piece of backing fabric to measure 8 1/2" X 4 1/2".  Fuse the parlan to the back of the needle book front.

Place the backing fabric with the right side down onto the right side of the needle book front.

  Starting at the middle of the bottom stitch all the way around the needle book stopping around 2" from where you started to leave a small gap for turning.

Clip the corners and then turn to the right side.

Turn under the turning area and then press with a hot iron ensuring that the raw edges are turned inside the needle book.  Top stitch all the way around the needlebook.

Cut a piece of felt to measure 6" X 3 1/2".  Place in the centre of the inside of the needle book and then sew down through the centre to attach.

Attach press studs on either side as closures.

And there you have it a simple way to make a needle book for your sewing friends.

Hugs,

Fee xxx

Let's Get Stitched

Our annual Stitching Event is coming up in March and this year it is in lovely Melbourne.

It's a wonderful fun filled 3 days of Fun & Friendship which concludes with a full stitching day to be held at Rydges in Preston.

All of the details are on the Let's Get Stitched Blog - Can you join us?  It would be lovely if you could.  Hurry because we only have limited places left.

I have been working on my project to be released at the event.  It's coming together nicely.

Have a wonderful day.

Hugs,

Fee xx

Changes and Berry Yoghurt Muffins

Life is all about changes and how we adapt to them.  Hubby and I have gone from almost empty nesters with just a 15 year old at home to now having 2 more adults and a toddler in the house since the weekend.  Talk about different !

Any storage space that I had left is now filled as is every nook and cranny of our home.  It's only for a year or so whilst they build their new home.

I have taken the opportunity of moving things around to begin to cull some of my belongings.  Hubby and I are on a five year plan to begin to minimise and de-clutter our lives so that in around five years we can downsize to a smaller home and do some travelling.

It's also a great opportunity to clean out the pantry and the freezer over the next few weeks.  We have so many meals or portions in the freezer to suit just the 3 of us and now that there are 6 of us meal times are going to take some imagination and of course I will need more storage room in the freezer for bigger portions so last night I pulled out a selection of meats for a lovely BBQ tonight.  It's going to be a scorcher here today so a BBQ will be great.

We have lots of berries in the freezer too (my daughter's partner can't eat berries) so last night we had fresh and frozen berries with ice cream  I LOVE berries !!

I decided to make some muffins with the left over ones.

I browsed through my recipe books and came up with this divine recipe which has no butter but has yoghurt - They sounded delicious !!

Here in Tasmania we have a yoghurt brand called Tamar Valley Fruit Yoghurt.  It is delcious and sounded perfect to use in Berry Yoghurt Muffins.

And I have to say that they tasted as nice as they sound - Delicious !!  So if you have any frozen berries in the freezer that need using up try out this recipe.  I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Hugs,

Fee xx

Finished Commitments

Hello and happy Thursday !  So many of you are joining in the fun with my Stitch A Long - Up the Garden Path.  Have you started the first block yet?

It's so easy to stitch and I can't wait to show you the next block !

I spent some of my break time over Christmas finishing off the last of my commitments from 2013 which is my Garden Treasures Quilt top.  It was a 12 month Stitchery BOM.  I decided to unpick what I had done in the Buttercup range and decided to go with a whole new layout in Lario.  Once I laid it on the floor before the border went on I realised that a piece of Buttercup had snuck it's way into the centre of the quilt !!  I decided that I couldn't live with it and replaced the offending piece !!

So here it is all finished and ready to be sent off to the quilter.  That was my final tick for 2013 - I produced a total of 11 quilts for 2013 - No wonder I'm tired !!!!

Hugs,

Fee xx

Up The Garden Path

Happy New Year !!

To celebrate my year of freedom from designing and commitments I am hosting a FREE stitch A Long to make a 38 1/2" Square Wall Quilt.

Each month on the 1st of the month for 9 months a FREE Block will be released.  On the 1st October 2014 the finishing instructions will be released.  Your quilt should be finished by Mid October and would be a perfect Christmas gift.

Each block is only 6 1/2" square and is framed in 2 1/2" squares so it will be very achievable for even the busiest of crafters.

The 1st month includes all Fabric Requirements which is basically a Charm Pack and 60cm of White Quilters Homespun and a Co-Ordinating Fabric.

I would love for you to join me in the Stitch A Long and have created a button for those that are playing along.  If you right click on the logo in my sidebar you can save it to your computer and then upload it to your own side bar.  

You can download the 1st Block and Fabric Requirements from HERE

It would be great if you could help spread the word about the stitch a long too.

Hugs,

Fee XX