Thought Bubbles ...

I had a small vision of something quilty I should make ... it appeared like a little thought bubble ...

So I quickly made up a couple of blocks, and I'll soon make a few more. Cuz you know how easily those thought bubbles can just float away ...

Montmellick top almost finished ...

My to do list from yesterday was a big ask, and I did manage to get all but two things done. The border for Montmellick remained untouched, as did the cupboard in the kitchen that contains all the random glasses. I still feel like I had a pretty productive day, so I'm not too sad about it :-)

The border fabric was calling to me this morning though, and I got busy at the sewing machine:

It looks pretty good - even with the missing appliqué elements. I'll get to those soon. I am definitely going to revisit that top border though - something is amok. It's too bumpy for my liking, and I'm thinking I may have messed up a measurement, or got the angle wrong on the mitre. It's definitely not staying like that!

Two other things I wanted to let you know about:

First up - for those of you that are interested (and because I've had so many requests) I've put a little tutorial on my website giving a some detail about how I make the spiderweb placements and table runners. The button in the right side menu bar will take you to the site, and then go to Free Patterns. Enjoy!

And secondly, don't forget that until the end of this month I have 50% discount at my Etsy Store for orders over $10.00AUD. I've put some more patterns there recently, so go check them out, and if you're interested, the promo code is: JAN15SALE. Enjoy, and a big thank you to all those who've placed orders so far :-)

That's it from me - chatter soon! xox

Three things ...

First of all, a delightful thing:

I had pinned these Liberty print Vans a while back on Pinterest, and yesterday was the day they became mine. Mum and I shopped for school shoes for Camo yesterday: it seems at Camo's school the current trend is black leather Vans, and the school experience just won't be the same without them. The silver lining there is that I noticed these sweet babies had gone on sale - not by much, but enough to make me skip out of the store smiling :-)

Second of all... I managed to get all the borders cut out for the Montmellick project:

It really is awfully cute fabric isn't it? I'm not sure why I allowed it to sit dormant in my stash for so long?? Perhaps I knew in the back of my mind that the perfect project was just around the corner ... (or 10 years down the track!)

And third of all:

Ummm, I think I may have set the bar a little high when I wrote out what I'd like to achieve today ... especially given that it's 2pm ... and I've done ONE thing!! Ohh well, there's always tomorrow ...

Holiday Fun

First up, I wanted to share a quick picture of my Montmellick project - this is where it's at, and I've also unfurled a little more of that border print:

Even though I'm not entirely sure I love the background colour of the border with my quilt, I think I'll use it anyway - it's kind of growing on me!

I received a lovely comment from Lorraine after my last post - I wasn't able to reply to her directly as her email address isn't enabled, but she asked if this was the Di Ford Montmellick mystery. Yes! This is my version of that project. I elected not to purchase the kits that were available as I have a mighty stash, and I'm trying really hard to make a dent in it. Thank you for your kind words :-)

You can also see in the picture that I've gotten a few more of the little stars appliquéd in place. I was able to get some more done on Saturday while I visited with my sweet friends Roz and Dawn, and made a new friend Yvonne too. Thank you for having us all Roz! xoxox

So, what else have I been doing over the past week??

Well, on Tuesday my Mum and I went to the tennis. My sweet friend Claire gave me some tickets, and we had the very best night. Here in Adelaide, the games are fun, not really competitve, but we were able to see some current players and some names from the past too:

Here Marcos Baghdatis and Mikhail Youzhny have just taken to the court. Baghdatis won this game two sets to one, And afterward, Michael Chang and Goran Ivanisevic played a fun game, followed by doubles with all four players. A great night, thank you Clare.

And afterward while walking back to our car park, I snapped this pic while we wandered over the new footbridge:

Adelaide looks really pretty at night :-)

I've gotten a little stitching done too. Early in the week I put this block together:

I found this tutorial online at the blog of The Crafty Quilter. I thought it'd be the perfect thing. I really wanted to use up a teeny piece of fabric I'd found at Hettie's Patch in their scrap basket. It was that sweet Christmasy print in the large triangles there. Isn't it darling? I actually had to deviate from the pattern a little so I'd have enough fabric - for those flying geese units I used my EZ Angle and Companion Angle. No way I'd have been able to do the flippy corners method, but it worked out just fine.

And as a little treat to go with the block, I used up the last log cabin block from an 'orphan block' runner I made a little while back:

And I turned it into a coaster. You can see it's really quite small. The logs are 1/2" wide - so fun :-)

Last of all, yesterday I put together a couple more spiderweb placemats. I'll be visiting with a friend of mine later in the week and I'm pretty sure I haven't given her any quilty treats:

In this picture you can see how I've used up lots of little pieces of batting. I use spray baste on the backing and abut all kinds of little pieces of batting, then spray baste once again and lay the mat on top. Makes it super easy to quilt, and it feels very virtuous using up all those little bits and bobs. My friend is a real girly-girl, so I hope she likes the fabrics I've chosen. To be honest, I can't even believe they were in my stash in the first place!!

So that's how my week has gone - It's so hard to believe that Camo will be back at school at the start of Feb - these Christmas Holidays have gone soooo fast!! xox

Blessings and Wonderings

First up with the blessings. We've had a huge amount of rain here over the last couple of days - while the fires have been largely under control, hopefully all this wonderful rain will take care of matters completely. Thank heavens!

Today has been a busy one - up early once again with Camo's tennis clinic - I got some more bits and pieces appliquéd in place before rain halted proceedings:

I have eight of these cuties in place now, and while I'm watching the tennis tonight, I'll get some more prepped. Things are really coming along.

And now for the wonderings ... because it's on my mind, I rummaged thru my stash a little today to see what I have that could possibly suffice as the final border ... this one looks like it could be a contender:

What do you think? It will be interesting to see some more of it unfurled and more of the actual quilt top. The fabric has been in my stash at least ten years - it's called 'Matters of the Heart' by Kaye England, and I think I have about eleventy metres of it (maybe a slight exaggeration) ;-)

I'll think on it for a little while - there's no rush!

In other news, this afternoon after getting the 'deets' from my USA buddies I booked my internal flights for The Big Trip. It's so much fun that as well as going to my favourite quilt show, we'll also be visiting with Elvis at Graceland. Too Exciting!! That means the big flights, the internal flights, our accommodation and car hire is all sorted. Now I just have to be patient! And in fun news, there is a chance I may be spending my first few days in Vegas, how fun is that? I've been there before, but would have loved to spend more time looking around, and now I have the chance. No wonder I can't sleep well at night, there is so much going on!

Alrighty, I'm going to dash and get back to stitching and watching the tennis - just love this time of year!! xox

Stitching, despite it all ...

After boldly declaring that this year was going to be wonderful, for many nearby friends and relatives, the year has gotten off to the very worst start. Adelaide has been at the mercy of the most terrible bushfires, and while it would seem that the worst has passed, the threat is still very much real.

Marty took this photo not too far from home on Thursday night:

We have been perfectly safe here, but so many of our good friends on the other side of our suburb, and in surrounding suburbs were evacuated from their homes. Amy's boyfriend has been staying with us since early Friday morning, as his family were evacuated and the road closed to his home in the hills. The road opened last night, but power hasn't been restored yet, so he may be with us for a little while longer.

I don't want to dwell on it, as it's all so sad - the terrible losses people are experiencing are just heartbreaking. The only thing that gives me heart at this time is the way the community has rallied together to support those in need. And bless the wonderful firefighters that put their lives on the line to help others.

Stitching is something I can turn to in stressful times to take my mind off things, it's easy to lose myself in mindless handwork. So to that end, I started working on the tiny hexagons and diamond shapes for Montmellick:

How curious - I managed to change the settings on my phone to take squares pictures??!!?? So you can see the tiny size of the hexies, I popped the ruler in there ... they're minute!

And I also got the last of the pieced borders in place on Montmellick:

The plain squares in the foreground are where I'll be appliquéing those little star units - they should look really cute.

I don't remember if I told you a while back I was thinking of using the border print that frames the centre block as the final border? Well, I've decided against it now. I have a feeling it may look a little dull, so my stash is going to be rummaged thru to find a suitable replacement. I hope I have something!

Last of all, Camo has been busy this week, he's participating in a tennis coaching clinic each day at his club. This means I have waiting around time, so hand stitching is perfect to keep me busy:

I have a number of tumbler shapes all cut out and ready to hand stitch together - they're in a small container which is super handy to grab on the run. What I've been doing is sewing the rows into the width that I want - and then sewing two rows together. After I've got as many rows I need, then I'll start sewing the two rows into the final table runner - I don't want to sew more than two rows together at the moment as I want to be able to spread the different fabrics around as much as possible and not have duplicates too close together. You can see in the pic above that there are some fabrics right next to each other. It would bug me for eternity to leave them that way!

This is going to be a long term project - the runner needs to be around 100" long to fit my big dining table. There will be hand stitching a-plenty in my future!

Anyway, that's it from me, I'll be laying low tomorrow as it's scheduled to be hot again - my fingers are crossed that the fires are under control enough not to flare up before the cool change that is coming later in the week. Chatter soon xox

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my wonderful friends and family. 2015 is going to be a great year, I just know it!

Marty took this picture as we were watching the post-midnight fireworks at a local vantage point - he's so clever with his fancy camera :-)

It has been said that whatever you do on New Years Day you'll spend the rest of the year doing. Just in case, I tried to be really good and include a lot of things I want to continue with. Eating healthy was high on the agenda, and I managed to do that, so I'll be glad to keep it going for a good long time. I made sure to get some stitching time in, as well as doing laundry and chores. We also had a few friends over, so our inner social butterflies were satisfied too. If I can keep all those things going this year, I'll be a happy girl.

What did you do on New Years Day, and will you want to keep them up for the whole year?? xox

Apricot Jam Muffins

I've been baking this morning, and happily made up a batch of Apricot Jam Muffins. It's likely there won't be any left by tomorrow.

As promised, I got the recipe together, and I've put it over on my webpage for you to download. Happy baking! xox