Good News, and a new beginning ...

I could have shared this news in my last post, but I was in a rush ... however, now I have some time on my hands to share my happiness:

My Caswell quilt has done me proud, and won some ribbons at the Royal Adelaide Show. I feel so incredibly blessed - it placed first in its category, was selected as the best quilt in show, and won the prize for the best art/craft exhibit in the show. Oh my goodness, I was gobsmacked when I heard the news. Supremely happy!

A big thank you to my sweet friend Lizzy for taking the picture above for me (and to the many other sweet ladies who've done the same) I haven't been able to get to the show yet, but tomorrow is the day we've planned to head over there. I cannot wait!

In much less interesting news, I've made a couple more HOQH blocks, and here they are:

Block 26 - Domino Net

This was a super easy one (in the scheme of this project) - don't forget that the blocks are 6 inches finished! The floral fabric in the large squares is a favourite, I used it in the Caswell quilt on one of the tricker applique blocks as part of a flower and I love how it looked.

Block 58 - Gentleman's Fancy

This block looks kind of wonky in the picture, but all the points are meeting up nicely, so hopefully it'll look just fine when it's sewed into the quilt top. Most of the fabrics in this block were from the 'Donna scraps' again (but not the green print) - I love rummaging through them ... you'll continue to see them in this project ... and also the one I'm just getting geared up for! And I have a feeling that the pink fabric in Block 26 might have been from Donna too!

I had pretty much decided even before I finished the last quilt that the next BIG THING I would be working on would be the Phebe Quilt by Di Ford Hall. I just love all the things she does, and I simply fell in love with Phebe - possibly because I've been itching for a lot of piecing rather than working on so much applique. Definitely google search on pictures of the quilt - it is just darling. Or, if you go to my Pinterest page and check the Quilts-Di Ford Hall tab, you'll find pictures in there.

Anyway, I've been reluctant to just leap into working on it - I was worried that it'd become an addiction for me and I wouldn't be disciplined enough to work on some of the other things I've needed to get finished. But today I threw caution to the wind, and made the first tiny square ...

This block is a little cutie, at 4.5" square. You'll see a lot of fabrics in common between this project and the HOQH one, and hopefully from my end I'll see a reduction in the amount of scrap fabrics I have kicking around. Who'd like to place bets that I see no discernable difference at all?

Soon I'm going to get busy working on the applique centre block, but for the moment I'd like to enjoy some fairly easy piecing and have fun selecting pretty fabrics that play together nicely.

So that's all my news up to now, I'm going to spend some q-time in my sewing room, and I'll check back in with you all soon! xox

Lucky me!!

On Thursday last week I wasn't able to make it to guild, and I'm so disappointed that I couldn't get there, because I got the most amazing phone call! My quilt won the Viewers Choice Award!!!

I just picked up the ribbon from Vicki today and I can't stop looking at it! I almost need to pinch myself to remember that it really happened. I feel so very blessed - thank you so much to everyone who voted for my quilt - I was genuinely so very surprised, at no time did I think my quilt was a contender!! Colour me thrilled :-)

In other much less interesting news, I managed to get two more HOQH blocks put together this week:

Block 39 - Cut Glass Dish

Another bunch of 1" HST's checked off the list - I could make them in my sleep I'm sure! I wish I knew where I got that toile style fabric from - I really like it and don't think I have any more in my stash.

Block 15 - Puss in the Corner

This block looks kind of wonky in the picture which surprised me, I didn't think it looked that bad in real life. Hopefully it looks good when it's all stitched into the final quilt.

Yesterday I quilted the little top I made recently, and I'm in the middle of binding it right now, as soon as I have a chance I'll share a picture, it's looking quite sweet. Chatter soon folks! xox

And June's nearly over!

Can you believe it's almost the end of June already? Is it just me, or is time going faster and faster? Seriously, things need to just slow down a little ...

This has been a big month for me. First of all, I finally finished quilting on my Caswell quilt!

If I've done a lot of marking on a quilt, I always like to immerse it completely by washing it in the washing machine after it's done - this way all the blue washout marker is removed, and with hopefully no chance of it returning. Putting it in the washer this time was a bit of a heart stopper, as there was a fabric (I had realised half way through quilting) that was definitely going to run. I put two full boxes of colour catchers in the machine with the quilt, and I'm entirely thrilled that there is no sign of dye in any place it shouldn't be. Whew!

So my quilt is bound, labelled, has a hanging sleeve and is all bagged up ready for its next adventure. I'll keep you posted.

While I was working on the binding, my Bernina was playing up in the very worst way, so she's gone for a visit at the Bernina Health Spa, so for fun my other favourite playmate has come out for a visit:

I realised after piecing for a little while that my (still unnamed) Featherweight also could probably use a service *gah* so I've moved on to Bernie the elder ... and thankfully she's running like a trooper and I'm piecing happily on some little blocks.

These are blocks that my sweet friend Betty was working on from a Jo Morton/Kim Diehl book, and I just loved them. I've made some size adjustments to make the block a little larger and so far I've put about 30 together. It's so much fun to be machine piecing again!!

There are a bazillion projects I want to work on, but I'm managing to fill my days at the moment - all the things I've put off until 'after the quilt is finished' have been rushing at me at once.

For example, I've wanted to do some redecorating in the family room for a little while, but haven't had the time to go around and look at bits and pieces ... now I have the time, and I've been busy ordering! Today my Dad and I went and picked up some kitchen chairs that I bid on at an estate auction. Our kitchen chairs were showing their age and getting a little wobbly from kids rocking back and forth on them. I think Marty was sick of the sight of them from repairing them so often, so they're now replaced: Here are the chairs I purchased:

The table was part of the auction, and I don't need it, so I've passed it on to my sweet friend Lizzy, and she is happy to have the old chairs too, they'll tide her over until she finds her forever chairs. I'm super happy with my win, and when I've decided on the perfect fabric I'll have them reupholstered.

I've also been trailing around indecisively looking for a new lounge suite for the family room. This has been the most difficult thing for me, as my home is really quite traditional in style, but I've been loving some of the retro looking lounges that are kicking around and the moment. I definitely knew I didn't want leather, as we have chesterfields in the front room, and just thought a more casual look would be better ... I even had a quote to get our current lounges reupholstered ... and the quote was DOUBLE the price of new lounges. Baffling!!

Anyway, I've finally decided on the new suite - it's much more traditional than I thought I'd go for, but it's supremely comfortable, and that's never a bad thing! Here is a not great picture:

This picture shows up a little darker than the fabrics are in real life. Originally our plan was to get a blue fabric, but the options were all really blah, and I decided to have something more neutral. Soooo I've selected the linen look fabric over the right back cushion. I just need to go in and place my order tomorrow.

Once the lounge is not too far from delivery, I'll be ordering a new rug, and perhaps a different coffee table, and then I really better stop spending for a little while!!

This month was also a milestone for my little guy. Camo turned 15!!

I can't even believe that he's 15 already - those years went by sooooo very fast. I love him so very much, he's growing up to be such a nice young man, one that I can be so proud of. He's already just over 5'10" (8 inches taller than me) ... it's very likely he'll grow to be taller than his dad! Hard to believe that this time next year he can get his learners permit and he'll be on the roads! Tomorrow he'll be getting braces, another rite of passage for teenagers. Lucky for him he won't need them for as long as his sister.

Last of all, I wanted to share some pictures from our most recent cruise with you - even though it was a couple of months ago now. I don't seem to have taken very many pictures which is irritating - I guess we were having too much fun. My Mum wanted to have a girls long weekend and take Nanna, so on Friday morning, Nanna, Mum, Amy and myself boarded the P&O Pacific Eden for a short four day cruise around the gulf.

Here's the ship as we approached the passenger terminal. It's a much smaller ship than we're accustomed to, almost hidden by the building:

We had a lovely big room, a suite - and though I didn't manage to get any pictures of the actual room for some reason, I did get one of the balcony, which was massive:

It'll be hard to go back to regular sized balcony cabins from now on!

And here's a snap looking back to land as we set off:

And for baffling reasons, the only other picture I managed to snap was one of the theatre while we were waiting for a show to begin:

We were obviously there good and early, as this place was usually packed!!

I will definitely have to do better taking pictures to share with you going forward, sometimes I'm soo busy having a good time that I forget to break out the camera. Next year Mum is planning another family cruise - we'll be flying to Hawaii, spending 3 days there, and cruising back to Sydney via New Zealand. I am genuinely looking forward to that one - it is safe to say we are all completely addicted to cruising!

This week I learned that a lovely friend I just adore and don't see too often, regularly checks in on my blog - I didn't realise this, and it makes me so happy to know they're interested. Big hugs to them, it was lovely to chatter and catch up with you. So now that I have a little more free time on my hands, I'll be sure to post updates more often. Famous last words eh?? 

Well, that's it from me for now, and I promise to check back in soon xoxox

Checking in ...

Hello friends! This past week has been one of reminders - I was at guild on Thursday night and I had two sweet ladies remind me that I hadn't posted anything on here for a while. And then I visited the Magill Quilters Biggest Morning Tea on Saturday morning with my sweet friend Wendy, and I received a couple more reminders.

It's so lovely that people are interested in what's going on here, and I genuinely do have good intentions of posting more often. The truth is (and it's not terribly exciting) I have been spending every spare moment I have working on my quilt - and I am getting so very close to finishing the hand quilting. In fact, I reached a recent milestone:

I emptied a complete cone of quilting thread. That's 1000 yards of hand quilting under my belt, and I'm not done yet. Can't be sure how I'll measure exactly how much quilting will be in the final quilt, but I'm sure I can work something out! I'll share some more pictures once I'm finished quilting - I'm really hoping it won't be long now.

Note: I had a comment from a sweet reader named Patti asking if I ever have trouble getting the blue markings out of my quilts. Thank you for asking Patti - I would have emailed you back directly but your message came up as no-reply. In answer to your question - after I'm finished my quilts I always fully immerse and wash them in the washing machine. I use a gentle cycle including spin, and then dry the quilt flat on towels on the floor. This washing method should ensure there is no residue from the blue pen in the fabric. I've never had a problem to date, and hopefully this will continue.

In other news, because I can't work on my big quilt on the days I go to quilt group (it's just too big to be portable) I started work on another little project. It's a fun little diversion:

While I was poking around in the sewing room a little while back, I found some fabric that was in one of Amy's cot quilts - named the people quilt, and also the tiny travel version of the people quilt. Amy loved the little dolls and teddies that were on the fabric, and she called them people, hence the name. This fabric has been kicking around in my stash for 23 years now, so I definitely can't say I'm rushing into anything.

In the picture above I've framed the block a little, I've also started another block with a different picture, and I'll keep going and just see where the wind takes me. I love it when projects just evolve. If I really like it I may make another with some more recent fabric and put a pattern out.

Next up, I can't remember if I told you that I ordered a set of Russian piping tips for icing cupcakes. They are the most fun things ever. I love to take cupcakes for morning tea when we play home games at tennis, and I've been practicing since I've had them:

I made some pretty ones yesterday too and silly me I forgot to take pictures of them ... oops!

There are a few things that are helpful with these tips: firstly, the consistency of the icing is so very important - if the icing is too soft, all the definition of the flower is lost. The butter really needs to be whipped well, if there are little lumps of butter in the icing it gets stuck in the little holes and is a nightmare to work around. Lastly, it's important to wipe the base of the tip occasionally or little bits of the design can get left behind. You can see that a couple of the flowers are missing stamens in the pale pink flowers for this reason.

If you get some, there are so many tutorials online to help you out. I'm just starting to find my feet with the icing tips and look forward to becoming more adventurous when I have more time.

Last of all, here's the portion of the post where you get to feel a little sorry for me ... just kidding. Four weeks ago on this day I tore my left calf on the tennis court. It was such a bummer, as my team were having a great day. Even so, there were still a couple of blessings. At least it was my left calf, so because my car is an auto I can still get around and get Camo to and from school. And because I'm not getting to coaching and cardio etc, I have been able to spend more time quilting. At this stage the physio says I won't be back on the court for another four weeks or so ... so there will be a lot more quilting in my future.

I still have more things to share with you from the past couple of months, like the most recent cruise etc, but I'll save them for a future post. Thank you for all being patient, and also for the gentle reminders, you're all so very sweet! xoxox

Oooops!

Ohhh dear, I don't think I've ever gone a whole month without posting an update before. But it would appear that April managed to simply pass me by.

I have been super busy quilting and living large - but tonight won't be the night for me to fill you in. Just wanted to quickly share that I've been quilting a whole lot, and I'm super happy with how my Caswell quilt is coming along. Here's a quick pic from the border:

This is the centre of the bottom border. I have four blocks left to quilt, and two of the borders, so it's really starting to look finished. I'm so looking forward to getting the binding on and calling this quilt done.

I promise once I'm done with the quilting I'll get back to more regular posting, but for the moment, I'm spending every spare minute with needle in hand. Chatter soon! xox

Quilting progress ...

Quilting is progressing apace on my Caswell quilt. Some days all I can think of is quilting, and other days it's really hard to face it ... but I keep plugging away, knowing that each stitch is another one closer to the finished quilt.

This is block 16 of the 25 that I've used in this quilt. I finished it this morning after a big effort last night. My goal was to get it done before I went to bed, but it was just getting too late and my eyes were feeling tired ... so I succumbed to sleep.

This evening I'm quilting the adjacent triangles and sashing strips, and I hope to get busy on the next block tomorrow after tennis.

I'm still debating over what project I'm going to work on next. Each time I go to quilt group or to work I'm tempted by every single thing that my friends are working on, and I'm dying to do some piecing again. I have a few months to think about it, and I can't wait! Chatter soon :-)

Still quiltin'

Hi there, and Happy New Year! What did you spend your New Years Day doing? Because of course, it is said that whatever you do on the first of the year, you'll spend all year doing it! Personally, I slept in, ate leftovers and also worked on my hand quilting. I did a little housework too, but I'll keep that on the down-low. I sure want don't want to spend all my time this year doing chores!!

I'm still quilting here, and I can honestly say that I'm growing a little tired of it. I MUST keep going though, so I'm trying to find joy in the little things ... like each time I fill a section ... or when I move the hoop ... each of those small achievements will eventually give me a finished quilt!

Goodness me ... what a blurry picture ... let's pretend it's all artsy and that I meant for it to be that way!

** Before I sign off - I just want to mention that I upgraded laptops recently, and I lost any emails I received from my last blog post. If you asked me a question, I'd love to respond ... do you mind getting in touch with me again? Thank you so much! **

Well, I'm going to head back to my quilting throne and put some more stitches in for the evening ... chatter soon! xoxox

Catching up ...

Hello there Christmas, I am ready for you! The only gifts I have left to bring into the house are anything being given to Camo - and that's only because I'm not entirely certain he might not look for them ... (or stumble across them, as I'm not very good at hiding things ...)

Before I get into the bits and pieces that I'd like to share with you, please allow me to take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas. And if Christmas isn't your particular thing, know that I'm sending good wishes from my home to yours, and hoping we'll all have a wonderful New Year!

I have a few things to share, first up, Shay and I decorated cookies for the season on Sunday - I knew I wouldn't have time to put together a gingerbread house this year, so I made a 3D gingerbread cookie tree:

This was fun to put together - and it was nice to have Shay's company while I started working on it. Hopefully Shay was able to take home enough information for her to ice cookies for upcoming celebrations. 

And I can't even tell you how fun it was to see that Mark Lipinski snagged the picture from my Facebook page to share on his own. It was like a little brush with fame!

One of the reasons that I don't have a lot of time to put a gingerbread house together is because I'm really trying to spend as much time as I possibly can working on my hand quilting ... I took the Caswell quilt out of the hoop recently so I snapped a quick pic ...

This is only a little of the work that I've done, but you can see where I'm heading. There are some areas to fill that may not have fitted in the hoop when I was working on that area, and I'll get back to them as I can.

I also had a number of people asking about my hoop setup, so I took a picture of the floor stand to share with you:

My goodness I was blessed that this hoop came into my life. Literally the same day that I heard from Lizzy that she'd finished basting my quilt, I received an email from Lyn, a lovely lady that I used to work with. She had this stand, and wondered if I'd like it as she was de-cluttering her sewing room. Of course it was the perfect thing I needed, at the perfect time - and bless her, Lyn delivered it to me at work the next day. I don't know much about it, but I believe it was hand made by the husband of a quilter that Lyn knows.

Now that I've been quilting on the floor stand, I don't know how I persevered with hoops for so long! It's just so nice not to have to worry about balancing the weight of the quilt. However the only down-side is that my quilt is not portable at all - I can't quilt anywhere but home. But if I'm honest, the quilt is really too big to drag around easily, so it's not a problem at all!

I also had some questions regarding what kind of marking tool I was using to get the blue lines on my quilt. I'm always happy to help with info, and a sweet reader Janet shared that she hadn't seen the blue marker I'm using, so I took a pic:

I use a number of the Sewline products (no affiliation, just a happy customer) - for marking I use this blue marker on lighter fabrics, and on darker fabrics either their white or pink ceramic mechanical pencil. When I finish a quilt, I'm not happy to just spritz the marking lines away, I actually put the quilt through a gentle cycle in my washing machine and then dry the quilt flat on towels. It makes me happy to know that the quilt has been completely immersed in water and then there is no chance that any of the markings will remain or return.

Last of all, readers will know that I recently learned a new applique technique from Teresa's blog - and I in turn passed this technique on to a sweet lady named Pam who comes to my classes. She has fallen in love with applique and is running with it - this is her first project:

Her next job was to place the applique in the borders - and by the last class this year, she had completed all the applique and had moved on to the quilting. She selected big stitch quilting with perle cotton. It's just lovely!

Well, that's it from me for now - I have a feeling I had other things to share, but I can't remember what they were right now. If I remember and I get a chance, I'll pop back in and share, but if not, I'll see you on the other side of Christmas ... chatter soon! xoxox

Still Quilting!

I'm quilting away on my Caswell quilt, and though I'm just loving it, hand quilting doesn't really make for exciting blog fodder.

So, if you need me, I'll be here ...

... for probably around the next five or six months!

Hopefully I'll have some fabulous progress pictures soon ... because I'm super happy with how it's coming along :-)

Chatter soon xoxox

Operation Hand Quilting

Hand quilting on my Caswell quilt is continuing in earnest. Every spare moment I have is spent on the 'throne' in the sewing room with needle in hand, and for now, I'm loving it!

It's hard to capture the stitches in a photo adequately, but you can see some of my efforts, and hopefully some of the patterns I've been trying to stitch.

This is going to be a long term commitment to stitching, and hopefully I'll be as enthusiastic about it near the end. So far, all signs are good! Chatter soon :-)

HOQH - Two more blocks

This past week I put two more blocks together for this sweet project. I am really having fun trawling through my repro scraps to find the perfect pieces to use. Until I get to the stage of sashing etc, I'd like to try not to cut into yardage. Because they're only 6" blocks, it shouldn't be difficult right?

Here are the next blocks:

Block 22 - Leaf Block

Block 55 - Malvina's Chain

With both of these blocks I paid absolutely no attention to the directions whatsoever. With block 22 I made up flying geese units using the flippy corners technique. With block 55 I made up the pinwheels using the doubled up half square triangle technique. I can truthfully say it was much easier than cutting all the individual triangles and worrying about bias edges etc. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do this with all the blocks going forward, but I'll be trying to cut some corners where I can!

These blocks will go on the back burner for an indefinite period of time now though. On Thursday Lizzy delivered my basted quilt top to me, and I'm now quilting in earnest!

This is not going to be a quick process, but I'm enjoying how it's coming along already. I'm playing tennis this afternoon, but as soon as I'm done I'll be stitching those tiny stitches again. Can't wait!

Also - a sweet lady emailed me and asked some questions about having my quilt basted, and I put the message aside to answer once I got my quilt back - but I now can't find the message. So I'm so sorry to that person, do you mind messaging me again? Thank you :-)

Chatter soon :-)

A bit of a reveal ...

I can't even tell you how thrilled I am! My version of the Caswell quilt is a completed top! Initially I had wanted to finish the top by the end of September, but life got in the way ... so I reset my deadline to the end of the school holidays which was yesterday ... and I got there!

Now, I have to tell you, unless you're my buddy on the facebooks and have seen it already, it probably doesn't look like you're expecting it to ... so here it is:

I'm super happy with how it looks - beyond thrilled actually :-) Today I dropped it off with my sweet friend Lizzy, and she's going to baste it for me. After she's worked her magic, I'll start quilting on it ... and who knows how long that will take. It will be so exciting to work on something other than applique though, can't wait!!

And today - because I could ... I worked on a little doodad for a special project:

This is a tiny tile, and it's for a special project being run by one of our guild members for the 'Little Quilts of Love' initiative. If you're interested in how it's made and info about the project, click here.

Even though it's not really time for me to start thinking about my next project just yet, I wanted to share a couple of patterns I purchased from Threadbear from the recent Festival of Quilts:

Both these quilts are right up my alley, and either of these could be contenders for my next BIG project. But I think I've already settled on my next love:

I adore all the quilts Sue Garman produces, I genuinely think she's the quilter I'd like to be. You can visit her website to purchase patterns here, and her blog which is entirely wonderful is here. It just breaks my heart that Sue is currently fighting the battle of her life, she has lung cancer. And just when you thought she really had quite enough to bear, her world was rocked when she recently lost her husband. Just absolutely devastating, I hope Sue finds some comfort knowing that the quilting world is holding her close and praying for her. 

On that sombre note I'm going to leave off, but I'll check back in with you all when I get busy quilting. I cannot wait!

Plugging away ...

I'm still plugging away on the final borders of my Caswell quilt, it doesn't make for interesting blogging - so many of the same flowers and leaves ... but here goes anyway:

You can just see there is a seam in the cream fabric under the flower. I hope I've done enough applique to make the seams not too visible. I didn't actually have enough of that cream fabric to make a diagonal join - my calculations were too good and I only JUST scraped through. I didn't really want to purchase any more ... though maybe I should - I really like it as a background fabric!

I think I'm just over 5/8 done with the border, and it's my sincere hope I'll be done by the end of next week. I think I can do it ... just give me some uninterrupted appliqueing time!!

In other news, some more bling has arrived in the sewing room ... these days being known as the ladies lounge ...

Love me a little glitz and glamour :-) Shame about my crookedy photo though ... I love how my sewing room is looking, it's not a chore to spend time in here!

And for the last bit of eye candy today, I just wanted to share a quilt one of my sweet ladies Pam made recently:

I just love this quilt!! It's a pattern Pam purchased from Hetties, and the fabrics are largely by Tilda with some linen thrown in too. It's just darling isn't it? I feel like this would be the perfect thing to make while my quilt top is away being basted. I'm looking forward to something that's not so time consuming!

And just before I go, I want to say a quick shout-out to some commenters I haven't been able to reply to, thank you so much for stopping by to Jacqueline, Paula and Лёка,

Chatter soon! xox

More border progress, and a sewing room update ...

I've been super busy working away on my Caswell quilt. In my mind I'm thinking I'd like to have the top completely finished by the end of this month so I can send it away to be basted for hand quilting. If I'm honest with myself, that goal is unrealistic, but it doesn't stop my from trying.

I've completed all the applique on one of the borders, and I'm plugging away at a second border. Here are some progress pics:

It's really fun making up a whole bunch of flowers and leaves and then throwing them on the border to see what happens. Of course, my perfectionist tendencies won't let me be completely random, but I'm doing my best to make each border different. My sweet friends from the USA will recognise some of the fabric they sent me in a recent care package making up some of the green leaves. You girls are all awesome, thank you!!

With less than two and a half weeks until the end of the month, the more I think about it, the less likely the applique finish will be, but at least it keeps me motivated and stitching. I'd like to have as much hand quilting time as I can possibly get.

In other news, I have some new additions to the sewing room. I'm not sure if I've shared that I've been looking for the perfect side table for my hand stitching throne. The item I particularly wanted is something I've been seeking for YEARS, mostly at auction because they can be pricey when new. I'd only seen three since 2010 and had devastatingly fallen just short placing absentee bids at auction. I finally decided to bite the bullet and see if I could find a new one, and here it is:

The side table I chose is actually a cocktail cabinet! I just love it! And because I finally got the 'table' I could go ahead and order the lamp I'd coveted for the longest time. It's a repro Tiffany lily lamp. I'm just the worst for having a vision in my head of the items I'd like in a space, and then tearing my hair out looking for the pieces in my mind, not necessarily knowing if they actually exist or not!

Hubster was actually away when both these items made their way into the house - it's actually funny - he teases me that whenever he's away with work I always seem to drag new furniture home. It was the same thing with the dumbwaiter (bookcase) at left in the picture, and I think the chair too. I joked with him that I must get so bored when he's away!

I also had some good news recently with a couple of my quilts in the Royal Adelaide Show - I had some happy wins. I'll share some pictures with you in my next post - I can feel my fingers itching to get back to some applique work. Chatter soon! xox

Border Progress ...

I had a bunch of things I wanted to share with you in this post, but they'll have to wait until next time ... woe is me, I have a horrible cold - and it's all my fault!! Just last week I thought to myself "I haven't had a cold in ages, I am soooo healthy". Almost immediately the universe responded giving me a doozie! Darn me and my cocky thoughts!

Anyway, I have done just a little work on the Caswell border ... I'd have done more, but energy levels have been low:

I'm having fun with the placement of the applique pieces, and I can't wait to share more with you.

Just for fun, I thought I'd share my sweet friend Norma's next project with you - she's the lovely lady that appliqued the chicken I showed you recently. Her next piece is a peacock:

Isn't it coming along wonderfully? I predict that she'll have it finished by the time I see her on Thursday. I can't wait to see it.

Well, that's it for now - hopefully I have more energy to share a newsy post with you soon. xox

Caswell Border

Today I had some time to myself, so I set about putting together some flowers for the border of my Caswell quilt. My border will be more elaborate than the one in the pattern, and though I have some ideas, I feel like it's just going to evolve ...

I'll put a bunch of flowers together, throw them on the borders and see what looks good. My new favourite technique for applique was learned from Teresa's blog, and while I don't use it all the time, I love being able to put flowers etc together before actually placing them on the quilt. Check it out, you won't be disappointed. I should have time to put a few more bits and pieces together tonight, so it'll be fun to have a tidy pile of blooms put aside.

In the last few days I also finished work on the play mat - it's embellished and bound now, but I'll save that for my next post - so I'll chatter soon! xox

Bits and Pieces ...

This week I had to make up another block for my Caswell project. I was putting the top together when I realised I'd appliqued one of the bird blocks on the wrong background fabric. Luckily it was a block that wasn't a favourite, and rather than make the same block again, I opted to make a completely different one:

This is the one I chose - it's F1 from the pattern. Apologies for the poor quality of the picture, I had to nick the picture from my Facebook page and it doesn't seem to have copied across well. I have no idea what I did with the picture from my phone?? My friend Wendy came over not so long after I made the decision to replace the block, and she took the reject home happily and is going to make a cushion with it. Happy days!

The next picture I wanted to share with you is one from class last week. One of my sweet ladies Norma is working on an applique pattern by Wendy Williams:

This is one of her first serious attempts at applique and doesn't it look just fabulous? Some of those points are tricky even for a seasoned stitcher! The original pattern was done in felt, but Norma wanted to use regular cotton fabric, and I'm thrilled that she's doing so well!

In other news, at work recently I was able to do a little machine quilting on a machine I've never touched before, it's a big beastie!!

I'd like to spend some more time playing with this bad boy, I love all the space around the needle. At home I still have Bernie to play with, but it never hurts to broaden my horizons!

Last of all for today, exciting times ahead for January:

Fair to say we're addicted to cruising now, and we've booked another one. I simply cannot wait ... 6 months and counting! :-) :-)

Chatter soon!