Friday, January 26, 2018

Stitching, staying cool, and other matters ...

It is still so very hot here, and when presented with such weather, it's easy to make excuses to stay inside and stitch. Life will begin returning to normal next week after the long summer break, so at times I've had to venture out into the world and be less hermity :-)

Camo has had a couple of tennis hitting sessions this week in readiness for coaching and playing to resume next week. I too will return to playing, but I'm bound to be quite rusty having not even touched my racquet for six weeks!! It will be good for me to get the heart pumping again, though the trade off is that I'll have a little less stitching time!

Classes also resume next week, and because Hetties has moved over the Christmas break, I did a little reconnaissance run to figure how all the logistics will work - and subsequently fill all the girls in on how it'll all work. And of course when you're at the quilt store, it's important to check out the sale fabrics ... where I found this sweet border print by the lovely Karen Styles:

There was around 2.5 metres left on the bolt, so I decided to give it a good home. I don't have a plan for it, but I know there will be a quilt in my future that this is perfect for.

I've also been on an endless hunt for a fabric to use as sashing strips between the star blocks that are coming up soon in the Phebe quilt. The dressing gowns print I really fell for has proved to be elusive, and at the end of last year I found what I thought was a replacement. It's a little stripe by French General. I sewed a strip in place to see how it looks:

Immediately after stitching, I felt really 'meh' about it and put it aside to think about another day. I probably need to see more blocks sewn together before I can make a decision. Anyway ... on my trip to Hetties, I found another French General stripe that could be a contender:

I think I like this one better, but I'm just not certain. I don't think I've ever been this indecisive about a fabric before, and it's probably because my heart is actually still stuck on that Dressing Gowns print. I did manage to find another little piece in the box of fabric that the lovely Donna sent me, so I wonder if I can re-engineer the pattern in some way. There's plenty of time before I'm going to be ready to sew those stars together, so I'm going to try not to agonise over it.

My plan to get at least 15 mins of stitching done each day has been easy, with much more than that achieved most of the time, and here's where I'm up to with my applique right now:



There are still so many areas on the vine to fill in, and some embroidery details on the berries, flowers and birds. I love the little flowers, it was fun to find such pretty fabrics for the petals.

Another fun thing I can share is the result of the secret squirrel applique project that I made just after Christmas:


I'm an honourary member of the Quilt Batts - the group my lovely friends I visit with in the USA belong to. Each year they have a Christmas block swap and the exchange takes place at Linda's beach house retreat at the end of January. I know the exchange took place today as we had a delightful flurry of text message exchanges, so I can share the block with you that I made for Liz. It was really fun to work on, and I hope she likes it. I'm always excited to receive the block in the mail that was made for me. I promise to share a block when I receive it!

And for my last photo of the day, I wanted to share some happy mail I received from one of my delightful readers Wendy:

Wendy ever so kindly offered to share with me some of her beautiful conversational fabric collection, isn't she just darling! There are so many more prints than you can see here, and I love them all. The one you see on top with the racquets and bats is an actual vintage fabric, how amazing is that? I simply can't say thank you enough Wendy, you are so very generous for sharing, I feel very blessed!

Last of all, a big thank you to Deb from the Frugal Little Bungalow and Suzanne for stopping by recently and commenting on my blog. And from a little longer ago, thank you also to The Civil War Quilter and Bridget. I'm sorry I wasn't able to comment on your messages individually as your email address isn't enabled.

Well, that's it for me today - I've written quite a lot! When you stop by, do take a moment to say Hi, it's always fun to read your messages. The weekend is here soon, let's make it a good one! xox

8 comments:

Janet said...

So far I like the floral French General fabric. Your fussy cutting is outstanding. I love that green leaf fabric on the close up of the border, under the blue bird on the left. Do you know the name/manufacture? Your bell block is beautiful. She is going to be ecstatic receiving it. I just love vintage fabric but fine I can't cut into it. That is a wonderful gift. Can't wait to see what you do with it. Stay cool and don't over do at tennis.

Wendy Caton Reed said...

So happy to hear you like the conversational prints. But then, who doesn't? Wink! If it helps at all,, I think I like the French General sashing fabric best. It is hard to tell without seeing more of them, but it seems to add spice without overpowering the blocks. Have a great quilty day.

Chris said...

That Karen Styles print is gorgeous. But I wonder how would you cut into it without messing with those leaves?

AnnieO said...

I love to see your fabric choices and hear the conversation you have with yourself about them! Stitching looks gorgeous as always. Hope the heat abates before you start running around the court again.

Kyle said...

Despite the heat you have been busy. 15 minutes a day.can add up. I like the newest French General fabric. The colors seem perfect. Your treasures from Wendy will be fun to use here and there.

Donna~~ said...

I also have a hard time switching to another fabric after I've picked one out. You might put out a request for the fabric you need on Instagram's #getyourquiltywishesgranted It isn't very active now but people might see it and have the fabric. Eventually some may end up on Ebay or Etsy, too. Your Phebe is looking great! Someday I hope to do a Phebe of my own. I look forward to seeing yours completed!

Anonymous said...

Hi Tazzie,
I love your blog. And your stichting and sewing is wonderful.
Herzliche Grüße
Martina from Germany

Phyllis said...

I love that fabric that you found, I would have given that a good home too :-) Your applique is so beautiful, so neat and precise. It is really fun to see your progress, I have almost finished my big applique border. There are actually many more items that are in the pattern and in Di's own quilt, but the way I see my border now, I think enough is enough. If I change my my mind I can always add something later on. I will not finish the whole pattern, just too much work. So after this applique border I need to make the next sawtooth border fit and then I need to have a good think about what will be next. How about you, are you planning on finished the pattern as Di designed it (now)?

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