July 13th

Well, this has been the most exciting of weeks! As you know I finished my Lily Rosenberry quilt recently - I was working really hard to have it ready for our guild show. Tuesday was the day to hand the quilt off to guild committee, and I spent an anxious evening wondering if I'd remembered to trim away any stray threads, had I missed any dog hair etc. You know, stuff that you can't do a darn thing about ...

On Wednesday evening I got a call to ask if I was coming to presentation night as my quilt had won a prize. Ohhh my goodness I was so thrilled, and still kind of anxious. On Thursday to help with all that nervous energy I made myself a cute skirt to wear to presentation night - mostly to keep my mind busy. I sent a picture to my sister-in-law as she's getting into sewing ... here's what I made:

I love the big houndstooth, and I've got extra for some fun cigarette pants. You see Rowley there bottom right - he really wanted to get in on the picture too:

Sweet boy, he always wants to be in on the action. He's bugging at me to go for a walk right now ... it's late, and we'll drag him out shortly.

Anyway, I won't keep you in suspense any longer:

I was gobsmacked when I learned that my quilt had won 1st in Professional Applique, Best Hand Quilting, and the Retaining the Tradition award. And then I was rendered absolutely speechless when it was announced that my quilt had won Best of Show. Ohhh my goodness, I feel so lucky!

I spent Friday and Sunday at the show standing with my quilt chatting with old friends, making new friends and generally having a lovely time with the folks at the show. What a great weekend!

The major sponsor for our show was Bernina Australia, they're always incredibly supportive, and my prize for Best of Show was this darling Bernina 570QE machine.

Thank you Bernina Australia!

And the cherry on my sundae was learning that my dear friend and quilting twin Zara Zannettino had won runner up to Best of Show. I was so thrilled to share the stage with such a wonderful person and huge quilting talent.

Last of all for this week, I managed to get another Morrell quilt block made in the evenings as I was winding down. I had this block about one third pieced on the machine, and I was just so unhappy with how it was going together - with so many Y seams, points weren't meeting as well as I'd like them to, and it was just looking a mess:

So I pulled the block apart entirely, and used all the pieces to hand stitch it together. I'm so much happier with how it looks now:

So, that has been my news over this past week. Honestly, I feel like I'm floating on cloud nine. I'll check back in again soon, though I'm sure I won't have any news to beat this in a good long time!

June 30th

Hello friends, I was hoping to get a post in again in June, and here I am on the last day. Whew! It has been a busy month, and I can share many of the things I've been working on in the sewing room:

Recently I shared the little applique piece I found when I was cleaning up the sewing room. I formulated a plan (which included using some of the little Ohio Star blocks I made) and created this little top:

I was super happy with how it came together - I had salvaged a forgotten project, and used a bunch of scraps up in the process. I'm still going to make more 4.5in Ohio Star blocks - I just love them!

I quilted and bound it with a favourite purple fabric - followed by a trip through the wash, I just love the crinkle it gives. Tomorrow it's going for a trip in the mail. It's destined for a new home.

Recently Camo had his birthday, and rather than have a cake, he requested that I make an apple pie. I made something like a pie - it's a tart - my first ever apple tart, and delicious!

I've continued hand quilting on the wholecloth - and moved the hoop since this picture was taken too:

And last of all today, I've made another block for the Sarah Morrell quilt - I'm thrilled with this one:

The little floral square was just a bit small for the space I needed it to fill, so I added a little frame, and I'm so happy with how it looks. I've now made 25 blocks for the quilt - there are still so many to go.

I've also been working on some secret squirrell projects, and I'll share those when I can, but for now they'll have to stay under wraps.

That's it for me today - I hope to check back in with you again really soon. Let's see how I go with that!

June 8th

Hello friends! I've had busy fingers in the sewing room these past couple of weeks, and I'm enjoying the freedom of working on whatever project I feel like putting my hands on. One of the first things I did was finish up a dress I had worked on before we headed off on the cruise. It didn't fit well so I put it aside - I've fixed it now but forgot to take a picture. I will genuinely remedy this in my next post.

I've also put together a couple more Sarah Morrell blocks, the first one in these two pictures I just finished up this afternoon:

In the pattern, the block above doesn't have any floral/broderie perse additions in the centre. I decided to add something to tie it in with other blocks nearby. I still struggle with broderie perse, particularly when the fabrics fray. Here's hoping I grow more comfortable with it, as there are so many blocks with broderie perse coming up!

This peacock block is a special one. Longer term readers may remember the funny story about when I nabbed Chris Forster at the airport when she was visiting Adelaide. It was all very innocent and fun, and she knew we would be catching up at some point, as she had a little gift of some fabrics for my Morrell quilt. The two fabrics above were from Chris, and based on an inspiration picture on Pinterest (which I'm not sure who it belongs to) I combined the two fabrics to make the block. I'm super happy with how it came together, and it really was very easy. 

I have additional yardage of the fabric I used for the circular frame, so if I feel like I'd like to do some more of the same, I'll be able to do it. I don't have a lot of fabric with birds though, so I'll most likely use larger scale florals. 

Piecing has also been happening, and I've now made a dozen fun little Ohio star blocks from scraps:

I've been having an enormous clean up in my stash - particularly the scraps that have been building up in my baskets. I've been finding little treasures along the way and making up these blocks - the fussy cutting is so much fun when I find the right fabrics. I'd like to make 200 before the end of the year - a big goal at what is traditionally my busiest time - it will be fun to see what I can come up with.

Another fun thing in my sewing room - my lovely friend Bridget gifted me some wooden cotton reels after her Mother had a clean out, and now the apothecary jar in my sewing room is full to the top:

Let's pretend there isn't any dust on the top shelf there ... haha :-)

I'm working on some secret squirrel projects that I'll share later in the year. But last of all for today, here are some new additions to my Etsy store:

A darling little card craft sewing basket:

Vintage lace and ric rac:

The Etsy listing pictures above are clickable if you'd like to have a closer look at the items. I have many more items to list, so if you're into vintage trims etc, do check back in.

That's it from me for now, thank you for reading all this way, and I'll check back in with you all soon xox

May 25th

Hello friends, I'm watching the Monaco GP with hubby, and tapping away on the computer, so decided to pop in a quick blog post while I can. Since I finished Lily Rosenberry, I've been dabbling with a few different projects at leisure and will share a couple of bits and pieces with you now.

First up, I finished another block toward the Morrell quilt:

Lots of applique and reverse applique in this one. The little arrow shapes are a treasured fabric from deep stash and I only have the tiniest piece left. How I wish I could turn back time and find more of it!

And because the quilting stand looked so lonely in the sewing room, I've put the white wholecloth back in it, and even put a few stitches in here and there.

I used to think that this wholecloth would be gifted to Amy on the occasion of her wedding, but given that she recently had her sixth wedding anniversary, it's no secret how that went. To be honest I don't think it's something she'd use, so I don't need to rush to finish it.

And here's a little project I finished on Friday evening - a decoration put on hold while I made every effort to finish Lily Rosenberry:

I really do love the felt ornaments from mmmCrafts, I am getting ready to make some more very soon.

And the last project for today - a little lost applique piece I found while working on a big clean up in the sewing room:

I'll make a few blocks and turn this little piece into something nice. I don't remember what I had in mind for the applique strip, but it's too pretty to put it aside again.

Last of all for today - I saw some darling fabric on someone's socials, and was determined to make some mine. It's a pretty Jane Austen print:

I have a decent chunk of it now, and will find a lovely project for it sometime ... 

That's it from me - thank you for sticking with me, and chatter soon! xox

May 14th

I'm just so entirely thrilled, on Wednesday last week I put the final stitches in my Lily Rosenberry quilt. It was such a relief to have it finished finally - I wasn't sure I'd be able to get it done to the deadline I set for myself at the end of last year. The first pic is while it was laid out drying in the lounge room:

It's on a hanging rail now so I can see if it hangs nice and flat, and so far so good. When I started quilting the top I didn't really have any plans for the quilt and so I quilted at leisure, and in the end it took about three years. But I'd say that more than half of the quilting was done in the final year, there were stretches of time prior to that where I didn't work on it at all and was distracted by other things.

I love the texture of the crosshatching, when the light is just right it really shows well. I did plan to do more interesting quilting with feathers and such in the border, but the background fabric with text that I chose is quite busy and the quilting texture just didn't show up well at all.

This finish makes me so happy, and I'm extra happy to be able to pick up other projects in the sewing room and also do some tidying in there with a clear mind.

So I've picked up a couple of Morrell quilt blocks, and finished this one which I put aside last year. I originally had some hexagons to accessorise this block but they just didn't seem to work, so I've done some broderie perse and I'm much happier. This block is now complete, and I also finished another block yesterday which I've yet to photograph. 

I also picked up some of the tiny nine patches and sewed them together. Though they're tiny, the pinning and stitching takes just as long as larger blocks, so I'll keep plugging away at those.

Last of all today, I wanted to share the lovely treat Amy found for me for Mother's Day. She knows my love of dishes and china, and tracked this lovely Masons Vista treat:

It's a darling ginger jar. Amy must search for ages leading up to special occasions as it's rare to see Masons Vista pieces in the wild lately. I'm so thankful to have such a thoughtful and caring daughter. 

So that's all I have to share today. Now that I have my all consuming project out of the way, hopefully I'll be able to blog more frequently and potentially participate in some of the zoom quilt happenings at times. Chatter soon lovely friends - thank you for sticking with me!

April 25th

It's ANZAC day here, a day where we pause to honour those that served our country. My Great Uncle was in the RAAF as a pilot during WWII, and sadly died in a crash soon after hostilities had ended. My Grandfather was also in the RAAF and served in New Guinea. He was lucky enough to come home but didn't like to speak about his experience at all. I thank them both for their service, as well as all others who put their lives on the line for our freedom.

From a quilting perspective, I don't have a lot to share with you today. I am still madly hand quilting on Lily Rosenberry. I'm three quarters the way around the last part of the border. If all goes well, I should be able to finish up the quilting in a week - maybe a few days more. Even though I probably don't have to focus on it quite so hard going forward, when I have a deadline, I'm always super dedicated to it. I will keep you posted!

Some of my quilting friends, my Mum and I recently had a fun outing - we went to the William Morris exhibition at Carrick Hill. Oh my goodness, it was entirely wonderful - and seeing our lovely friend Michele Hill's gorgeous quilts on display there was a thrill. I'll share a couple of my many photos here:

There were so many lovely things to see and we didn't really have enough time to take a longer look around after the tour finished, so a return journey has been planned so we can wander at leisure. I'm so looking forward to it.

I hope you're all doing well - I have been so focused on quilting that I've neglected my blog and also responding to comments - so please forgive me if you've asked a particular question and I haven't responded. I promise I'll have my eyes up and away from the quilting hoop soon.

Chatter soon and big hugs xox