May 25th

Hello friends, I'm watching the Monaco GP with hubby, and tapping away on the computer, so decided to pop in a quick blog post while I can. Since I finished Lily Rosenberry, I've been dabbling with a few different projects at leisure and will share a couple of bits and pieces with you now.

First up, I finished another block toward the Morrell quilt:

Lots of applique and reverse applique in this one. The little arrow shapes are a treasured fabric from deep stash and I only have the tiniest piece left. How I wish I could turn back time and find more of it!

And because the quilting stand looked so lonely in the sewing room, I've put the white wholecloth back in it, and even put a few stitches in here and there.

I used to think that this wholecloth would be gifted to Amy on the occasion of her wedding, but given that she recently had her sixth wedding anniversary, it's no secret how that went. To be honest I don't think it's something she'd use, so I don't need to rush to finish it.

And here's a little project I finished on Friday evening - a decoration put on hold while I made every effort to finish Lily Rosenberry:

I really do love the felt ornaments from mmmCrafts, I am getting ready to make some more very soon.

And the last project for today - a little lost applique piece I found while working on a big clean up in the sewing room:

I'll make a few blocks and turn this little piece into something nice. I don't remember what I had in mind for the applique strip, but it's too pretty to put it aside again.

Last of all for today - I saw some darling fabric on someone's socials, and was determined to make some mine. It's a pretty Jane Austen print:

I have a decent chunk of it now, and will find a lovely project for it sometime ... 

That's it from me - thank you for sticking with me, and chatter soon! xox

May 14th

I'm just so entirely thrilled, on Wednesday last week I put the final stitches in my Lily Rosenberry quilt. It was such a relief to have it finished finally - I wasn't sure I'd be able to get it done to the deadline I set for myself at the end of last year. The first pic is while it was laid out drying in the lounge room:

It's on a hanging rail now so I can see if it hangs nice and flat, and so far so good. When I started quilting the top I didn't really have any plans for the quilt and so I quilted at leisure, and in the end it took about three years. But I'd say that more than half of the quilting was done in the final year, there were stretches of time prior to that where I didn't work on it at all and was distracted by other things.

I love the texture of the crosshatching, when the light is just right it really shows well. I did plan to do more interesting quilting with feathers and such in the border, but the background fabric with text that I chose is quite busy and the quilting texture just didn't show up well at all.

This finish makes me so happy, and I'm extra happy to be able to pick up other projects in the sewing room and also do some tidying in there with a clear mind.

So I've picked up a couple of Morrell quilt blocks, and finished this one which I put aside last year. I originally had some hexagons to accessorise this block but they just didn't seem to work, so I've done some broderie perse and I'm much happier. This block is now complete, and I also finished another block yesterday which I've yet to photograph. 

I also picked up some of the tiny nine patches and sewed them together. Though they're tiny, the pinning and stitching takes just as long as larger blocks, so I'll keep plugging away at those.

Last of all today, I wanted to share the lovely treat Amy found for me for Mother's Day. She knows my love of dishes and china, and tracked this lovely Masons Vista treat:

It's a darling ginger jar. Amy must search for ages leading up to special occasions as it's rare to see Masons Vista pieces in the wild lately. I'm so thankful to have such a thoughtful and caring daughter. 

So that's all I have to share today. Now that I have my all consuming project out of the way, hopefully I'll be able to blog more frequently and potentially participate in some of the zoom quilt happenings at times. Chatter soon lovely friends - thank you for sticking with me!

April 25th

It's ANZAC day here, a day where we pause to honour those that served our country. My Great Uncle was in the RAAF as a pilot during WWII, and sadly died in a crash soon after hostilities had ended. My Grandfather was also in the RAAF and served in New Guinea. He was lucky enough to come home but didn't like to speak about his experience at all. I thank them both for their service, as well as all others who put their lives on the line for our freedom.

From a quilting perspective, I don't have a lot to share with you today. I am still madly hand quilting on Lily Rosenberry. I'm three quarters the way around the last part of the border. If all goes well, I should be able to finish up the quilting in a week - maybe a few days more. Even though I probably don't have to focus on it quite so hard going forward, when I have a deadline, I'm always super dedicated to it. I will keep you posted!

Some of my quilting friends, my Mum and I recently had a fun outing - we went to the William Morris exhibition at Carrick Hill. Oh my goodness, it was entirely wonderful - and seeing our lovely friend Michele Hill's gorgeous quilts on display there was a thrill. I'll share a couple of my many photos here:

There were so many lovely things to see and we didn't really have enough time to take a longer look around after the tour finished, so a return journey has been planned so we can wander at leisure. I'm so looking forward to it.

I hope you're all doing well - I have been so focused on quilting that I've neglected my blog and also responding to comments - so please forgive me if you've asked a particular question and I haven't responded. I promise I'll have my eyes up and away from the quilting hoop soon.

Chatter soon and big hugs xox

March 30th

Hello there friends, let me see if I can remember how to use this thing ... it seems like such a long time since I've written. And it is actually a while - just over a month!

I have been super focused on hand quilting Lily Rosenberry, I'm pushing hard to get it finished, and I feel like I just may be able to get it done. As soon as I'm done on the computer this evening, I'll get right back to it:

All the corners are done now, and I have only about one third of the last side to do between the blocks and the applique border. And then I'll do the final lines to the edge of the quilt, you can see a couple marked on the left of the picture above. Fingers crossed! I even had to order another reel of YLI taupe hand quilting thread. And that wasn't easy to find at all!

In other news I now have the pattern for one of the next quilts I'd like to make in my hot little hands:

I have admired this quilt for a LONG time, and know that I'll just love it! You'd think I'd have had enough of little berries, but apparently not, and I have a lot ahead of me. There will be no pressure with this project, and I will have a couple on the go for a little while.

Also during this past month's absence, my extended family and I went on a Pacific Island cruise. We had the very best time - please enjoy this selection of pictures, I'll just throw them up here (oops, they've come up in reverse order, but I'm sure you won't mind!):

Alrighty, I'm going to head back to the quilt hoop and get some more stitches in - I hope I don't abandon the blog for a month before posting again. I thought about it often, and then the thought would drift out of my mind. Does that happen to anyone else?

Chatter soon friends! xox

Feb 21st

Hello friends, here we are almost at the end of February, and I'm looking back over the last few weeks wondering what I've actually achieved!

I'm still plugging away at hand quilting Lily Rosenberry, I'm very pleased with how it's progressing after being at a bit of a standstill for so long. It's hard to share pictures that look different to previous ones, but here is a new view all the same:

I was so thrilled to complete my dolls quilt for the Instagram #dollquiltswap2025 - it's winging it's way to the new owner on the other side of the world, and I hope they love it!

My parcel in the swap arrived on Thursday last week, and I was so thrilled to learn that Angela Homicz was my exchange partner. She is such a lovely person, and the quilt she made me is just darling:

Her parcel also included some beautiful wrapping paper, a very sweet little lavender sachet, some lovely Lenox china which is local to her, and a sweet piece of fabric which my grandies will love. I feel so very blessed and cannot thank Angela enough for her generosity. Linda from Quilts in the Barn has done such a wonderful job coordinating this exchange and I was so lucky to be able to participate.

I'm heading back into the sewing room to work on my hand quilting some more before I head to bed - here's hoping I can be organised and chatter with you again soon! xox

Jan 26th

Here I am watching the men's tennis final at the Australian Open on TV, and remembering I really should pop something on my blog so you don't think I've forgotten about you.

This year I made myself a commitment that I'd get 300 days of hand quilting under my belt - I've gotten to 26 of 300 so far which I'm super proud of, but I won't be able to keep up that pace all year. We have another cruise scheduled, and other things that will get in the way, but here are a couple of pictures I've shared on Insta so far:

I've also completed the top of the doll quilt I made for the swap on Insta. It's now basted and ready for hand quilting, I'm thrilled with how it came together. I really hope my swap partner likes it - I plan to have it in the mail some time next month.

The flying geese units are one inch high, and two across, and the little applique panel in the middle is two inches wide and runs the whole length of the top. I think the applique vine is about an eighth of an inch wide. This project has been fun to make and shouldn't take very long to hand quilt.

I found a cute little dish at a local discount store, and thought it'd look nice on display in the hallway.

I put it on top of the Dresden Valentine table topper - it's one of my favourite little projects. A quick project if you'd like to make one for yourself for Valentines Day coming up soon.

And last of all for today, we planted some tomatoes again this year, hoping against hope we'd have more success than in recent years. This time we tried the Roma variety, and ohhhh my goodness, we have been overwhelmed!

This is what I picked yesterday - we've given away this much and more, and I've made passata and bottled it. I'm waiting on some more rings for our Fowlers unit before I can make more passata - hopefully they'll arrive this week.

Though it doesn't seem to be a lot for this month, I have been super busy, and based on what I'm seeing so far, this is going to be a super busy year in total!

Hope you're all doing well, and I hope to check in with you again soon! xox