Spring, down south.

Hello friends! I couldn't check in with you last week as I just had nothing quilt related to share. Not a thing. Time in the sewing room is still scarce, but I do have some pictures I can share with you.

I finally hand stitched down the binding on the Moda Blockheads 2022 little quilt. I'm so pleased to have this checked off the list of UFO's. It's not certain what I'll be doing with it, maybe a small gift for someone, we shall see!

A small project I worked on was using some waste HST's and made a small potholder for a friend. It's quite cute isn't it. I got it to quilted stage, and she offered to bind it - who am I say no to that?

And I've almost finished hand stitching the binding on the four extra placemats for my tennis lunch buddies (whoops, apologies for the blurry picture). We'll be meeting up again next month, so it's good not to leave these until the last minute. Unlike how they were constructed - completely last minute ...

In fun news, I just got a new car, and my old one has gone on to new owners. I just love the colour of the new one, and so far I'm completely intimidated by all the new tech and gadgets. Here's betting it won't be long and I'll be feeling right at home ...

Dog walks are a constant, and the weather is just beautiful. Walking seems to account for most of my pictures at this time!

Tomorrow I'm going to the Royal Adelaide Show with Amy, her hubby and the girls, I'm looking forward to seeing the quilts and handicrafts etc. It's always a great time seeing Mary so wide eyed and enjoying the fun of the fair. And then on Wednesday I'm guest speaker at one of our local quilt groups, which will be super fun too.

Thank you for the continued comments and emails, even though I've been a bit of an absent blogger lately, I appreciate them all! Chatter soon xox

Finished!

I'm so thrilled that late last night I managed to get the last binding stitches in my Halloween Table Runner. And today there was enough light that I could take some pictures and get it listed in my Etsy store.

And of course this pattern works well with other fabrics too:

Hahaha, whoops, zero photoshopping in these photos :-)

I've also been working on some more of the lodestar felt ornaments by mmmCrafts, but I didn't manage to get a photo of those, and I'm sure you've seen them before anyway.

This afternoon while Marty and I walked the doggo, I took the opportunity to grab a couple more pictures - the light was lovely ...

There's our handsome boy <3

This week I plan to hand sew a bunch of bindings in place, and get some more of these lodestars made. Then who knows what's on the agenda ... but I'll be sure to let you know. Chatter soon xox

Sewing time!

It has been such a sweet relief to be able to spend some time in the sewing room this week. Not lots, but it was so great!

I finally quilted and sewed the binding on the little top I made from the Moda blocks a few weeks back. All I need to do is hand sew the binding on the reverse side:

I've positioned the quilt so you can see the fabric I used for the backing also - it's so pretty! And you can also see that I wasn't able to continue the border print right into the corners of the top, I only just squeaked enough out of my scraps to have this much. In fact if you look really closely - about an inch to the right of the larger corner square you can see a join which I tried so hard to pattern match. There are four or five such joins in the border - and there's not a lot of border fabric in the quilt as it's really quite small being made from 4.5in finished blocks.

I can see that I need to clean my phone camera lens - the picture looks fuzzy at the top - I'm so lazy with things like that!

Another job I checked off the list was to apply the binding to the second lot of four placemats I made for my tennis friends. Because I just didn't get the extra four made in time for our luncheon, they just ended up sitting around while I moved on to other things.

Once again, ready for the binding to be stitched to the reverse side. And I'll also spritz away the blue lines I used as a guide for the wibbly quilting.

And this afternoon I've started working on a Halloween themed table runner - I saw this adorable doggo themed fabric at the store again so purchased some more:

I must have used it all up last year as I can't find it - so I purchased a little extra :-)

In other news, I finished all five role play portions of the two assignments I have to hand in this week, and I'm almost finished all the questions, so I'm feeling really good about my studies right now. I'm almost half way through the whole course - it's going so quickly!

Now I'll catch up on some emails, so I'll sign off here and chatter again next week!

Hello there!

Hello there friends - my apologies for not checking in last weekend - time just got away from me and I realised I probably didn't have anything noteworthy to share with you anyway. And same for today if I'm honest.

Classes have started back again, and the units I'm working on this term seem to be quite intense. I've also been painting so many mmmCrafts bead heads for my Etsy store. This thrills me, as I'm saving up for something in particular, and when my Etsy store goes ka-ching on my phone I know I'm working toward my goals.

With that in mind, I bought one of those little light boxes so I could take better pictures of my listings, here are a couple of the updates ... Little Elves:

and the Twelve Days Series:

There are more, but I won't bore you with all of them. They're such fun to work on, and I'm looking forward to making some more of the 'people' style ornaments for myself sometime.

I've also gotten a little hand quilting done, and machine quilted the birthday project for my friend. I'm looking for the perfect ric rac trim for that item, so I can't bind it until that little shopping project is checked off my list.

Last of all, I just wanted to share a picture of a fabric I'm thinking about buying to make the dress pattern that I like:

Not a great photo, I just snapped it quickly so I'd remember it later on. I'll keep my eye out for a sale and come back to it. I think it's a linen cotton blend - I'll have to check. It'll be so pretty, and has some of my favourite colours.

I'll sign out here, I've been babysitting this whole weekend, so I know I won't be out of bed long. Here's hoping I have a more newsworthy post for you next week. Chatter soon! xox

Such a great week!

I had such a great week this past week, checking things of the list I made here and there. I've taken several new photos for Etsy listings, and using Canva to edit/make them interesting. 

I've still quite a few to do, and now that I've decided on how I'll present them I can do it at leisure. 

I also started to work in the pantry - this is a job that I always dread, and I pretty much find any excuse not to do it. My pantry is a floor to ceiling cupboard in the kitchen, and it's the same depth as all the other cupboards in there. IMHO it's too deep, and things get lost in the back. I'm forever watching organisational videos and instagram stories and just not coming up with good ideas that will work with what I have. I'll keep trying. 

I've now made up eight of the star decorations, I'll keep going on those too, but I'm going to make a Colly bird next for a little variety and to keep it interesting.

In stolen moments I've hand quilted a little too. On Insta I was asked to show a photo of my setup, and I was happy to oblige:

This is a cosy corner of my sewing room where I can just come and pop a few stitches in here and there when I feel like it.

What you can't see in this picture is that Rowley wanted to get in on the action:

He's such a sweet boy and always wants to be exactly right where we are.

Yesterday I started working on an Autumn/fall inspired Dresden Table Topper for one of my lovely friends birthdays. I've pinned it this afternoon and I'll start quilting it once I'm done here.

For this table topper, I'm actually using my Dresden Tree Skirt pattern, and instead of cutting away the centre opening I've appliqued a circle in place. I was thinking it looks a little bit drab, so tomorrow I'll get some pretty ric-rac to stitch over the seams and jazz it up.

I didn't get the pattern for the recent table runner written up just yet. I'll make another one or two up so I can take some in progress pictures for the pattern and I haven't decided which fabric I'd like to use. I'll get there!

So that has been my week, how has yours been going? xox

Inspiration sought ...

Well, maybe inspiration isn't quite the right word. Have you ever had a week where you just haven't felt like sewing very much? That's what this week has been like - but it's possibly because I've been staying up very late watching the finals at Wimbledon. 

I've been putting my viewing time to good use and doing some hand stitching, making up some more of the LodeStar ornaments:

These are such fun to make, and I love all the bling. Later on in the year I'll make some more up in different colourways. Fun!

I did also put a few hand quilting stitches in Lily Rosenberry, it's easy for time to disappear working by hand ...

And this next picture is a secret squirrell project I've worked on, some dear friends are anticipating a new grandbaby soon, and this is for them to gift to him:

This panel is Noah and Friends by Dear Stella - I did the piecing down the sides and appliqued the name. And I've quilted it using my somewhat new favourite wibbly lines. Gosh, I probably should have waited until after Tuesday (when it's being gifted) to share it, but I'm 98.7% sure they don't read here?!?

So I guess on balance I have got a bit of sewing done this week, it just doesn't seem like it though.

And the last picture of the day, when I took Rowley for a walk this afternoon, we saw a couple of kangaroos just down the hill a little. I took a picture from a distance as I wasn't sure if they'd bounce away as we got closer ... can you just see them there?

We're so lucky to have lovely walking trails just at the end of our street. Until we got a dog, I really never went there at all and didn't realise how nice they are.

Anyway, that's it for me this week - hopefully I'll have a bit more to share next week, and I'll have checked a few things off the list of projects to be done in the holidays. Chatter soon! xox

Mid year holidays ...

I have two weeks of holidays ahead of me, and I'm pretty excited about it. There are a bunch of things I'd like to accomplish, which seems to always be the case when I find myself on leave. I don't always get everything done, but it gives me something to strive for. These holidays I'd like to get some new photos taken for the painted bead heads in my Etsy store, make some more felt ornaments, write up the pattern for the table runner I've just made, and if I get really enthusiastic I'm going to try and organise my pantry. Seems like a lot, I'll try not to make myself nervous!

With kind social media help, I selected and applied the binding on the table runner I shared with you last week. The general consensus was to use the red plaid fabric for the binding, and it does look pretty:

The table runner is very pink overall, and looks so nice on the table. I have some different fabrics in mind to make some more soon, so I'll share those as I can. I do love the plaid fabric you see in the picture, I have it in a slightly darker red colourway, and a brown and blue also. I'm so nervous about running out of the red especially as I just love plaid bindings. I hope I'll be able to find a suitable replacement sometime soon. I keep looking!

Here's a close up of the quilting and the binding:

I took these photos yesterday, I was so enjoying the filtered sunlight coming in through the bay window - we've had plenty of grey days lately so it was a nice change.

And the last picture for today, walking the dog this afternoon, the trees in the park across the road looked so colourful, I just had to share:

That's all from me on a chilly Sunday evening, I hope you're all having a lovely weekend xox

June 30

When I wake up tomorrow morning we will officially be in the second half of the year, how crazy is that? Time has gone so quickly and it feels like next year will be here before we know it.

This week I don't seem to have gotten as much stitching done as I would have liked, but I haven't wasted my free time. I've gotten a few more Xmas ornaments made, and I've put together a new table runner that I was thinking about. It will be a companion piece for some of the placemats I've made a number of:

I hope to have the binding done within the next couple of days, but I'm having a hard time deciding which fabric to use. I popped a little video on Instagram, let me see if I can share it here:

The four options in the video are red plaid, green print, red stripe or spring green. The fifth option is that I could purchase some more of the light green spot fabric I've already used in the runner - but for the moment I don't have a scrap of that left. What do you all think? I'll love to hear your thoughts.

Chatter soon! xox