And it's done!

Life has been super busy here, so I simply haven't found time to check in with you all, but I did quickly want to share that I had a finish this week:

The strippy I was working on is all done now. In stolen moments during the week, I hand stitched the binding in place, and I have to say I'm just thrilled with it!

I'd like to put another one together with a pretty toile fabric - I'm just looking for the perfect one. It would look great with kids prints too I'm sure.

Now, I'm never good with names for my quilts - does anyone have a suggestion for this quilt?? It would be much appreciated :-)

Chatter soon xox

Another project on the home stretch ...

I've been quilting like a fool these past couple of days - I thought I'd be done so much sooner, but it's amazing how life can just get chaotic. Today though, I finally finished quilting on the strippy and stitched the bias binding in place on the scalloped border:

I'm super happy with how it's looking, and I'm really hoping that I'll be able to get started hand stitching the binding down tomorrow evening after cardio.

Here's a closer look at the quilting:

I really struggle to take good pictures of quilting, but here's one I took while it was under the machine - the lights under the machine throw some mad shadows:

At least you can see what I was trying to achieve a bit better.

So, that's my effort for the past few days - I should type more and fill you in on what I've been up to, but I'm just so darn tired I'm going to head straight to bed. I'll catch up on emails and bits and pieces tomorrow. Chatter soon! xox

My Dresden Table Topper is finished ...

... and I'm loving it! I've enjoyed working on this project so much, it's fun to work on something small sometimes, you see results so much faster.

Here it is all done:

This was one of my earliest patterns - first made in 2005 - I really felt it needed refreshing with some of the pretty fabrics that are in vogue right now. So, I've updated the pattern as well and listed it in my Etsy store.

Here are some more pictures of the finish:

We're experiencing even more hot weather here, so once again we'll be laying low this weekend. I've chosen a backing fabric for the strippy I made the other day, and if I'm really productive, I may be able to have it all quilted by tomorrow night. Let's see how far I get :-)

Trimming ...

I'm fixing the trims in place with applique glue before I stitch them down using monofilament. I'm just thrilled with how it's looking!

This is absolutely super fun! :-)

A new project ...

On Monday while I was working on the Dresden Topper, I needed a break - so I decided to work on something different for a little while. I made up a whole bunch of half square triangles, and then made them into little blocks:

On Tuesday after I was done quilting the topper, I got busy and made the blocks into strips, cut a bunch more strips, and by Wednesday morning, a new top was born. Apologies for the wrinkly state of the top - I just pulled it out of my bag - it would not have hurt me to press it again :-/

I'm really looking forward to quilting on this top, there are so many opportunities to do something a little fancy. And at this point I'm thinking a scalloped border would be fun too.

As predicted, while at Hettie's today, they had just the perfect trims. The red is a French General trim - very appropriate for the Dresden project given that a lot of the fabrics are FG. The pink ric rac has the sweetest green embroidery, and I'll use that for the centre circle and a couple of seams. I'm thinking about a lace doily in the centre like I had on the old one - I'll see what I have kicking around in the linen press :-)

Tomorrow I have little in my diary, so I'm hoping to get lots done on the home front ... I'm looking forward to it! xox

Almost finished ... sooo close ...

The Dresden Topper is so close to being finished, all it really needs is the binding ...

But before I bind it, I'm toying with the idea of adding some trim ... I'm thinking a red ric-rac around the center circle, and then maybe some other trims along the outside seams ...

I'll have a looky when I get to work on Thursday, I know they'll have the perfect thing :-)

Just about a Dresden ...

It has been so stinkin' hot here these past few days, there's little a girl can do but stay indoors and stitch. So I've almost got the top of my refreshed Dresden Table Topper put together:

I just need to organise the centre and stitch it together in quarters. I'm really thrilled with how it's looking, and have made a small dent in the FG stash. Actually - I'm almost entirely out of reds (but that's because of the tumbler project I'm hand piecing too).

Yesterday the NTFW sewing group gathered together at Shay's home - it had been such a long time since I've been able to catch up with them due to tennis commitments - so it was great to see the girls. I took a couple of the Dresden blades to share, and Shay was surprised at the size of them. In the last post it probably wasn't apparent how large the pieces are - so I'll share that they're probably around 12 inches in length - and the picture above takes up a whole portion of my kitchen bench and hangs over the sides a bit. I think it finishes around 36 inches across at the widest point.

If I'm a really good girl, I may just have the top finished by the end of the day - and if I'm extremely good, I may get it basted too! Chatter soon :-)

Today I Passata'd and Scrapped too :-)

It's possible that Friday is one of my favourite days of the week - I usually get to spend a fair amount of time in the sewing room, and generally I don't have tiny person commitments - so after school is much more slow paced.

Today I started another French General scrap reduction project. I can't believe how much of this fabric I still have ... is it reproducing? What on earth is happening in my sewing room??

Anyways, here's where I'm at ...

It's the second project I'm refreshing from an old favourite :-) my Dresden Topper. In addition to the FG fabrics, I threw a few red and cream beauties from other collections - I'd used them in recent projects, and they seemed to get along with their neighbours.

Getting back to the scraps - it just blows me away how much can be created from the scraps that you really want to use up - but when you have some yardage, it never seems to be quite enough for the special project you want to use it in. Hmmm ... the ponderings of a quilter ...

I didn't get too much done though, because earlier in the day I got busy picking tomatoes in the garden, so many have become ripe all at once:

And so I got busy making passata again. The small jars in front are about a pint in size, and the ones at the back are a litre, which is (I think) a scootch more than a pint and a half.

Last night I used one of the jars I made the other day to make pasta for the boys. Marty declared it excellent, so I'm super happy. I hadn't tried the recipe before - and if you'd like to have a go, I pinned the recipe here. There are still a bazillion more tomatoes in various stages of ripeness on the bushes, so there will be more of this in my future - and I'm sure we'll be grateful for it later in the year.

Before I dash back to the sewing machine, I just wanted to say a big HI to a couple of commenters I haven't been able to respond to due to email addresses being unavailable: Wendy Phelps, Wendy Caton Reed and Sjoukje. I loved hearing from you, thank you for stopping by!

I'll get busy sewing now. I'm hoping to finish up all the blades of the topper, and then I'm going to pull fabrics for a cute project I designed during the week. Super fun!! xox