Successes ...

So, I was at Hettie's Patch today, and I remembered to hunt for the perfect background fabric for the Di Ford BOM. I had a huge win and found exactly the fabric I needed ... what do you think? It's a darling French General fabric, and I do so love everything they produce:

Tell me though, does the fabric look familiar at all? Oops, I have managed to bring home a fabric that is pretty much identical to the background I used for Mrs Billings. Of which I still have around 3 metres!! Oh well, I know I'll use the Mrs Billings background for something in the future, maybe a back for this quilt? I have no idea why I checked pretty much my entire stash for the perfect fabric, but not that one.

In the photo, the background fabric looks much darker than the chintz, but in the light of day at the store, they were a much better match. I'm still super thrilled with my purchase, I nearly got something else entirely different with little flowers on it, and I don't think that would have been half as good. And just so you know, I've decided to make myself wait until I've finished embroidering the tractor block before I'll allow myself to start working on the BOM - if I don't push myself that way, I'll never get the Chronicle blocks done, they're just not really my favourite thing.

And in other news, I finally got myself this month's copy of Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine (it's Volume 23 No 6).

The magazine has a review of our Festival of Quilts, and my Mrs Billings quilt is in there along with a whole bunch of the other prize winners. I do so love seeing my babies in print :-)

And last up for today, I've done a little baking this evening. If you're a long time reader, you'll know that each December our apricot tree supplies us with wonderful produce for me to make Apricot Jam. Last year I had quite a bit left over when it was time to make it again, so I was left wondering what to do with the excess. Pinterest to the rescue!!

I found this fabulous recipe for Marmalade Muffins, and decided the science would be just the same if I used Apricot Jam instead. For fun, I also tossed in some white chocolate chips, yum!. I first baked these on Tuesday afternoon, I didn't even get to eat one, and they were gone entirely by this morning (Thursday morning). I call that a success. Feel free to scoot over to Pinterest and see what I'm pinning, I think I may be hooked!

Well, that's it from me this evening, I'm heading into the family room ... I'm going to park my butt on the lounge and get busy stitching ... chatter soon! xox