Getting things done!

Last weekend I had a blog post kind of ready to go, and when I had some difficulty with my photos for some reason, I put my laptop aside, and then it all went out of my head. So I'll pick up today where I left off and share some pictures with you.

First up, I was so very happy to get a project finished which is a gift for a dear friend. I used my Dresden Tree Skirt pattern, and instead of cutting the gap and circle for the tree, I appliqued a circle in place to tidy up the centre. I had the top made and quilted for a little while, and popped it aside while I waited for a cute sparkly micro ric-rac to arrive.

I think you can just see the sparkle on the ric-rac in the picture. It's so sweet and tiny at 1/8" wide. Once that was stitched in place, I could apply the binding and sew it in place on the reverse side.

The floral fabric is a favourite. I originally purchased it thinking I'd use it for broderie perse, but it's great in this project, and there's hardly any left. The fabric in the centre circle is a Dutch chintz. A shard left over from when I made my Montmellick quilt.

And the finished article. Not a great photo, but you can see that it's on the larger side. Almost going from side to side on our dining table. It's destined to cover most of the top of a round table. 

Once that was finished, I put together another of the strippy hexagon mats for my Great Aunt. That was a simple project, and I neglected to take a photo.

Late last week I took my car into the dealership, so Mum and Dad picked me up and we went out for an adventure. We visited some antique and second hand stores in Semaphore, then headed to West Lakes - I needed to replace my Christmas Pickle ornament from last year. Did I tell you it broke when I took the tree down? Well that's taken care of now, and I have a spare. Then we went to lunch at the Grange Hotel and took a walk on the pier - it's so lovely by the beach there:

A beautiful terrace building on the Esplanade. It had become a little rundown over time, and is being restored. You can see some of the centre apartments are missing their ironwork.

Since vising Norfolk Island many years ago, Marty and I have had an affinity for Norfolk Island pines. We often joke about planting one in our front yard. They become so large, it would be very much ill advised. I understand that they're often planted in coastal areas as historically they were great for use as masts for ships.

We walked to the end of the jetty after lunch.

And the view back to where we walked. After we were done here, my car was ready to be collected, so off we toddled!

In the last few days I've been working on a couple of table mats. I'm entirely thrilled with how they're coming along:

The main prints in the mat are Tim Holtz prints from his current Christmas collection. I paired those with some coordinates I had on hand, and added some sparkly ric-rac once again. This one is a little larger than the one I used on the table topper at 1/4" wide. 

I don't know what your experience is like where you are, but I find it really hard to get interesting ric-rac and trims locally, and I found a great source on Etsy. So if you'd like the information, pop me a note and I'll share the details with you. I based the pattern for these mats on the Halloween Mat I made recently, just shrunk down the centre pieces so I could cut three from a width of fabric. If you've purchased the pattern and think you'd like to make these mats, let me know and I'll send you the amended cutting information.

Because I was doing quite a bit of chain piecing recently, I didn't really have anything Insta-worthy to share, so I grabbed a couple of pictures of the centre of my Phebe quilt which is hanging in the lounge nook. I'll never grow tired of the applique in this project:

I love all the fussy cutting in the Phebe quilt, it was such a fun project to work on.

And last of all, this last photo is a bit of a peek behind the curtain. I'm sure I've mentioned before that I've been working at a slow pace to try and organise my pantry. It's quite a tricky job because my panty is so deep, and things tend to get lost in the back. One of my sweet readers Janet asked a little while back how I was going with it, and I finally decided to take a picture. It isn't great, so bear with me:

I'm afraid it isn't ever going to be featured on The Home Edit, I don't have a lovely selection of rainbow coloured groceries. But it's as good as it will get for the time being. I didn't even straighten up for the picture as you can see.

There are clear drawers for pasta/noodles, herbs and spices and baking supplies. The bottles etc are on two turntables so we can access the things in the back. And the lads enjoy the snack drawer above the cookie jar, you can see what's available for them easily. I don't think I'll be doing much more in here for now. My job will be to maintain it and it will be easy to see when things have run out.

So that's it from me since I checked in last - it has become a bit of a long post, and I'm happy to have caught you up. I'll chatter soon friends xox