1st SAL.....Peg, Dale and I committed to stitching Anni Downs - A Gardener's Journal in March. I blogged about this on my blog thinking maybe one or 2 others may join us and lots of girls indicated an interest so I decided to start this blog where we can all encourage each other to meet the goals set along the way....March 2010 -March 2011...........
2nd SAL ......well so many of the girls wanted to continue on with another project and some new girls joined us and now approx 91 girls are stitching Natalie Bird's Tis the Season. March to Sept 2011...............
3rd SAL....many girls want to stick with the SAL so now we have moved onto Anni Downs Some Kind of Wonderful - My Favourite Things Quilt.......Oct 2011-Oct 2012.........
Where are we now.....
4th SAL 2013...is numerous smaller projects from the previous 2 books Tis the Season and Some Kind of Wonderful plus some projects from Red Home by Natalie Bird approx 60 ladies stitching together.........
2014 we had the year off..............
5th SAL 2015..........inspired to continue we are doing another quilt project.....Anni Downs newest quilt Natures Journey.....
6th SAL 2017.............A Holly Cottage Christmas by Michelle Ridgway.......once again the pattern is in an affordable book so it is easy for everyone to join in...........and you can raid your stash for the fabrics........or lash out and buy a the whole lot........this SAL will be run by Fiona aka Bubz Rugz and Raewyn........
Chookyblue........

Thursday, September 30, 2010

"Was a Sunny Day. Not a cloud was in the sky "........


YES,the sun is shining today,both inside and outside: I did it!!

Still September at my part of the world for another 7 hours.
Well,dear Stitch-A-Long friends,must admit this block F has been the most
difficult block to finish. Very glad as well as proud I made it.

Thanking you,Chookyblue,for me its working with given dates. And I do love to follow the blog in our journey towards March. Very inspiring,lots of lovely blocks. I see fabric-ranges I could gladly have swapped to any time!

My block there is placed on a mirror on the lawn. The blue you see is the sky,
and the sun beams is shining on my block. The sky had a stronger blue
colour,but reflected different in the mirror. However I like the picture!

Now very soon ready for our October block B.
Happy Stitching to all of you, Take Care :-)

Goodbye September!

Sliding in sideways...with just a couple of hours to spare...my freshly completed Block F!

I stitched my happy gardener so it was obvious that she is not me...

She has blonde hair, I have dark...she has a cat on her lap, I'm allergic to cats...she likes to garden, I do not... I used to have a white wicker chair though ;)
All joined together my Block F looks like this...

But wait!!! We can join it to Block G....oh how I love it when we can join :)



Hello October...and Block B!
Happy stitching
Susan (aka Suzitee)

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Still stitching, Block C completed.

Hi everyone. It's been a while since I posted although I have been reading the blog and have been encouraged to keep going by all your posts. I have been continuing to do the stitcheries each month but have only completed Block G until today when I finished my second block, Block C. I am really pleased with how the fabrics are coming together in the two blocks done so far. I have stitcheries ready for two more blocks so will work on them over the next couple of weeks. Below is a photo of both blocks together.

So until next time, Happy stitching.............

Noela

Monday, September 27, 2010

Greetings from Finland

Hello you all!!!!

I have finally finished block F!!!
Piecing it together took over three hours...
there is plenty of pieces,
and my assistant, Fenix -cat was very anxious
to check all those tiny pieces, before I managed to sew them together...

... and as always...

HE had to
inspect the quality of the block!

First
when he arrived,
it looked like he tried to sit on gardener's lap;)

Greetings to you all -

TOGETHER this is so MUCH more FUN!!!!

B & G finished

I was able to get these stitcheries done early so I decided to go ahead and make the blocks early. I feel a momentum shifting and I want to get this quilt done sooner than I had planned, especially after seeing all the beautiful quilts being finished.
Have a great week!!
Yvette

Saturday, September 25, 2010

130 .... Counting the hours!!!


Hello my SAL friends:-)

At last something from me,glad to show you! And yes,aprox 130 hours before the deadline for block F, Chookyblue`s and my own! It suits me to stick to a plan. Hopefully it works this month too?

Well,here you see my stitchery of block F. I do a wee bit of combinations of stitches,stem and backstitch.I know when I get the quilt up on the wall,I do not see the small mistakes I saw before.

At the moment the rain is pouring down outside. The Autumn is here. I have
always something to stitch,to sit quietly stitching for an hour or so is very pieceful. In the mail to day I got a full envelope from Fatquarter Shop.
Nothing to do with a Gardeners Journal. But sure you would like to know!!:
a Layer Cake/Breakfast at Fiffany`s,and the pattern of aTisket aTasket by Bunnyhill,so I am soon starting,about 1 year after almost everybody have finished.

Anyway,looking forward to showing you my GL block F by the end of this week.... Promising you....

Finished Top

I know that I've not been by lately but I've been busy...Here are the two borders I chose for my Gardener's Journal Quilt...I really am pleased with the choice...I do not have my backing, however, on a stop at Hobby Lobby this week for embroidery thread, I passed the fabric department and something caught my eye..You know how that is..so I will take this top and see if that fabric works as well as I thought it would.

The photo doesn't show it but those flowers in the widest border have yellow centers.


This is the closest  I could get and still get the entire top in the photo...I'm am quite pleased with the way it looks.
Happy Stitchin', Ladies!
Mama Bear
:0)

Friday, September 24, 2010



Need some borders


Now complete.  Off to the quilting machine


Thank you girls for organising this and all the encouragement along the way.  Its been a great journey and looking forward to quilting this one.  Maybe when the girls go back to school after the school holidays.  Thanks again and keep on stitching you will also get there and a great reward when you finish.


Cheers Kez 

Monday, September 20, 2010

Last block complete

 Yay I have my last block completed.  This has been really good one to make.  I really like the colours in this one.



Garden tools


 Packets of seeds



 Violet


Hope to get the quilt top done today  and then quilt it some time soon

Cheers Kez

Saturday, September 18, 2010

I'm back ...

... not up to date yet but I will be soon. Here come's my block D ...


... and I started putting the blocks together.

I love that scrappy look.

Pia

Better late than never


At last my block for August is done, I've had the stitcheries done  for a while but the fairies just wouldn't come and put the block together so I had to do it myself. Its great to see all the blocks coming along and I guess we can see the end isn't toooooo far away so keep up the good work girls.,

Helen

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Geee Im on a roll

Block G complete.




 Love feeding the bird and they are so nice to have around.

   
Dont need to be watering the garden at the moment.  We  are getting heap of rain here.  yay

Monday, September 13, 2010

100 followers.........

As pointed out to me by Suzitee we have 100 followers...........pretty amazing since there are only 60 of us in the SAL group so a few other people must enjoy what we do............if you pop in here and your not a group stitcher leave a comment we would love to hear from you.........and thanks for stopping in and seeing what we are up to here........

How is everyone going with their stitching??? Hope better then me.......
Chookyblue

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Final Block

This is my final block. We had Club Quilt today and I managed to put it all together, even have mitred the corners of the border. Now to quilt it.


A Gardener's Journal is completed






I have finished the Quilt.... I was waiting for the stippling from the long arm quilter to be finished...I can say that between us Mum and myself we have enjoyed working as partners. We have started Mums Quilt for A Gardeners Journal and are up to the binding on that one....I however have completed mine so I guess it wont be long before Mum has hers finished...Thanks everyone for your comments. I have enjoyed being part of this group..
I have changed my blog...you can now find me @
http://thegloriousyears.blogspot.com/
Andrea

Friday, September 10, 2010

The F BLOCK a pleasure


The stitchery of this month has given me so much pleasure.
Resting in the garden with a cup of tea and a stitchery in my hand is a fantastic combination.
Slowly it is getting cold and dark in the evenings and that gives me more time at the sewing machine and I can finish the blocks.
It is great to see all of your blocks coming up and the finished quilts too. I have three blocks more to go and the stitchery on the next one is almost done.
I do not feel comfortable with quilting and I am already thinking about how to do that. By hand or by sewing machine. When I reach that point I need help from friends.
But for now happy stitching and have a good weekend.
Jytte

Block E complete



No many to go now.  Loving making this one.  Very spring colours












Have a great weekend

Cheers Kez

There's no place like home...

....for sheer volume of stitches! Wow, you girls were right...there was a lot of stitching in this house, but I am happy to report...

...it's all finished! I put the final stitches in this morning, and with that, Block C is complete.
Compared to the house, the dog house was a breeze :)


The flower wreath? A piece of cake!

All joined together...

This one was a catch-up block for me, since I didn't start A Gardeners Journal until July...woohooo, I'm getting there :)
I've pieced together and traced September's Block F all ready for stitching, and then have only Block A to do and I am up-to-date with Chookyblue's grand plan (and wouldn't I love that!!)
Here's to a sunny, stitchy weekend!
TTFN
Susan (aka Suzitee)

Thursday, September 9, 2010

So What Now ???????

So much for my good intentions... I spent a couple of days trying to get some sort of message from the quilt to tell me just how to quilt it and just couldn't get passed a gentle meander. Really, I even tried to put off sandwiching my GJ quilt but the only thing that happened was I ended up trying to use up the left over fabric bits by piecing the back.

Then with still no idea I tried to get some inspiration by designing my quilt label, by the way the stitchery in it is one of the UFO's I found the other day - well, I've got to make use of them some how, right?






In the end I just gave up and went with the meander, something understated and simple that doesn't detract from the blocks.
So now my version of Annie Downs, Gardener's Journal is finished and bound, so what now? Yep there are plenty of 'to do's', WIP's, UFO's and PHD's but they're not half as much fun as starting another - tee hee.
By the way, remember I told you about the ladies that come to the shop and like to keep up to date with the SAL and sometimes give me ideas on mine? Well at least one of them is making her own GJ quilt. Sharon doesn't have a blog but once she is finished I'll post a picture of her quilt.


To all of our stitching sisters over the Alps in Christchurch. Keep smiling girls I'm sure nobody will mind if I speak on behalf of all of us and say our prayers and thoughts are with you all.
hugs
Miche'le







Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Bec's Stitching

While I have been resting with my fractured foot I have been stitching my blocks for GJ. I have three more left to stitch then I should be able to piece the blocks together. I haven't been able to piece the blocks together since my fall because it means getting up and down between the sewing machine and the iron; not an easy thing when your foot is meant to be kept up!
Excuse the not so good photo's, the camera isn't working so great at the moment.