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!

Quickie Post

Just a quickie post tonight as I'm all inspired and working at the sewing machine. I'm making scrappy blocks for some kids quilts, and also the tiny nine patches in an effort to catch up.

I grabbed my 2.5" squares box, and some fabrics that my darling friend Jean donated, and I've been pairing up squares to make blocks, and then framing them with cute fabrics. While I'm inspired I'm just going to keep on piecing and get as much as I can done.

The tiny nine patches, I've caught up a little, I think I have three weeks worth left to do, and then this weeks blocks too. It's not so hard to do, and fun to use up little scraps ... but on that note, I'm going to catch up on a couple of emails, and get back to the machine. Perhaps I'll check back in at the end of the weekend. Chatter soon!

Churn Dash and Catching Up ...

I am super happy with what I managed to achieve this past week in the sewing room. Sometimes free time just presents itself and I was ready to take advantage of it!

The remaining four blocks for the churn dash top were finished, I also made the last sashing strips and put the top together. It's fun to work from stash and see some last remnants of fabric used up!

Now I need to decide what might be a contender for the border. Here are two that are under consideration:

I'm not sure about either of them to be honest. But the one on the left could definitely be a backing. A border stripe would be great, so I'll rummage around in the fabric closet some more.

While I'm in 'churn dash' block mode - Chookyblue is hosting a Sewalong featuring churn dash blocks. I'm thinking I'll participate, it should be really fun. 

And in other news, I managed to get back up to date with the Moda Blockheads 4 blocks. The only ones I haven't made are the bonus blocks, but I'll get on to those soon too.

Block 6 - Spinning Into Spring by Linzee McCray

Block 7 - Game Board by Lisa Bongean

Block 8 - Wild Geese by Kate Spain

Block 9 - Cross my Mind by Zen Chic

If you're interested in the Blockheads 4 project - click on this link for the archive and check back weekly for new block updates. I'm so glad I decided to participate!

Also noteworthy, I added some pink Elf Heads to my Etsy store:

These are for use with the mmmCrafts Twas the Night ornament series. I've seen them made in a cute pink colourway, how cute to have pink hair to match!

Anyway that has been my quilty/crafty progress for this week - I'm super happy to be catching up on things. When I have a bit of free time, I'm going to take stock and write a list of my UFO's - it's fun to check things off a list - while I'm inspired to get things done I'll get some older projects done too.

Hope you've all had a great week - chatter soon! xox

Seeking motivation ...

This week has seen me lacking motivation to sew. I know my mojo will return, so I've been pottering in the sewing room etc and just doing what I feel inspired to do.

I bit the bullet and trimmed four of my Lily Rosenberry blocks so I could commit to sewing them together. When I shared the nine blocks recently I just laid them on the floor all higgledy piggledy, but these ones are set in stone now:

I'll keep them in groups of four until I've made all the blocks, just so I don't back myself into a corner and get forced to have the same fabrics right next to each other. This is always a problem when working on a scrappy quilt!

And I sashed the third row of the Churn Dash quilt, but I haven't stitched that row in place yet:

I'm really enjoying the soft colours in this quilt. It would be nice to make it bigger, but I will be satisfied to use up two of the fabrics that have been hiding in my stash closet. 

In other news - I have kept my promise of taking a bag a week to the op-shop. I have quite a lot of clothing, so it's still hard to see a difference - but the pile of empty hangers definitely looks impressive. My walk-in-closet was getting to the point where hangers were unneccessary - the clothes were quite tightly packed and almost self supporting! I'd like to send about half my garments away ultimately. It's the right thing to do, there are things I haven't worn in years. Last week I also sent about ten pairs of shoes away. None this week, but next week I'll send some more. This feels very freeing!

I don't have much more to share this week, so I'll close off here - thank you for all your kind comments recently, I always love to read them! Chatter soon xox

Sewing room freedom!

This week I worked on a couple of things in the sewing room - one of them a project that almost needed to have the dust blown off it!

Over the weekend I came up with a feathered wreath quilting pattern I would be happy with for the star crib quilt:

The squares finish at 9.5" and I didn't really have any templates that would fit. I did look to purchase one, but when the shipping was going to be $25 for a $5 template, it just didn't seem worthwhile. I ended up making some circle templates and hand drawing the feathers in between the rings. It worked out quite well really. It'll be interesting to see if I can get them all looking the same.

While on the hunt for a machine piecing project to sink my teeth into, I ran across these scrappy stars that I started many years ago.

I must have gotten distracted by another project at the time, because they had been stuffed in a storage container and forgotten about. I decided to pick up what I had made so far and make up whatever I could with them.

Here's where I'm at so far - there is an un-sewn seam in the middle there, so don't be distracted by my seemingly terrible points! I'll be able to make this small quilt 13x11 blocks, and it'll be a perfect small thing for draping over the lounge while Amy is feeding baby etc. It's amazing how much things need to be laundered when you have a teeny baby, so a scrappy project will be great to handle the rough and tumble.

I hope to have the scrappy star top finished by the end of this long weekend.

Today Mum, Amy, Mary and I visited Ikea, I did have something in mind for storage in the sewing room - but hadn't done any research, so in reality we were just heading there for the fun of it. It was a fun day out, and I did end up finding what I was looking for:

I plan to secure an ironing surface to the top of this trolley - it's actually very sturdy, and my overlocker and coverstitch machines can live on the lowest shelf. I am weary of them being on the floor, and I'm genuinely running out of storage space in the sewing room. I'll keep you posted on how successful this ends up being. Hopefully very!

That is all the news I have for this week, so I'll check back in with you soon!

I just snuck in!

Friday finishes here in one hour and twenty minutes, so I'm just getting this post done in time. It's only March, so I don't want to drop the ball with this years resolution already!

This has been one hectic week however, so I have not gotten very much done in the sewing room. But here goes:

I made up some log cabin blocks for a long term scrap project. There are only four blocks so far, but I never cease to be amazed how much you can sew and not make a visible dent in your scrap stash! I have some of the Thursday ladies working on these blocks too. It will be fun to see what we all come up with.

And because I'm so determined when faced with a challenge, here are the results of this week's macaron experimentation:

I can definitely say I'm getting on top of the browning problem. So that's entirely great. I was wondering how the macarons you see in shops have such vivid colours - and according to my new favourite macaron resource, to get big colour, you need to use lots of colouring. So there's that ... 

My friends/family are probably growing tired of eating these almondy treats, so I probably should  slow down the production - but I do want to keep plugging away and getting better at baking them.

Anyway ... it's getting late here, and even though I'm a total night owl, I'm really flagging, so I'm going to head to bed. If I get all rested up, hopefully I'll have lots of quilty inspiration to share with you next week. Chatter soon! xox

Stars aplenty!

This past week I've enjoyed spending time with my Bernina. While I was working on all that lovely applique all I could do was wipe the dust off my sewing machine periodically. I've made up for it though, and here's where I'm up to:

Just the rows at the top of the quilt to go now, and it's onto the next steps. Please don't think I've made all those stars since I checked in with you last, all the stars were already made and patiently waiting for me to pick them up again.

The centre of the quilt just glows next to all the scraps doesn't it? Seeing all this come together has helped me to make another decision - there is a thousand pyramid style border coming up soon, and though I was going to make that scrappy too, I think I'll use the same cream fabric I used in the applique for that. Probably another choice I'll make on the fly when I see how it looks. And I'm entirely thrilled that my lovely quilting friends were able to help me out with the Civil War Dressing Gowns fabric for the sashing strips, I can't imagine anything looking better - it's just how I saw it in my mind's eye. You can see it better in these next two pictures:

There are some fun fussy cut squares throughout the quilt top, and where I could I've tried to keep any stripes running in the same direction. One of my favourite things about working with scraps is remembering the other quilts they've been in and also remembering how the fabrics came to me. Some from lovely friends and from shops on my travels - or from lovely local shops - all fun memories.

Hopefully in the next few days I'll get the rest of the stars in place, and then I can start thinking about the next stages of the quilt. Happy days!

From my last post I had some messages I wasn't able to reply to - so a big hello to Holly Field, Co Coya, Alejesnat and Guusje. Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving comments, they're always appreciated.

A quick table runner ...

Not so long ago I shared that I'd found some log cabin blocks in my sewing room. I'd forgotten all about them, but I knew they needed to become something, and soon! Over the past couple of days, I finally made it happen. Here is the result:

Such a super easy pattern, and really wonderful for scrap busting. I know I have some other blocks I'll give the same treatment soon.

And a dark picture with shadows so you can see how it looked while I was quilting:

Easy in the ditch quilting for the logs (which are half inch finished), a sort of squashy flower in the plain squares, and a half flower in the setting triangles.

And because I'm still enjoying working with scraps (and happy to use scraps that won't work in the Omigosh! project), I raided my 2.5" scrap box to piece the back. Wow, there is some age on some of those pieces there. That yellow check on the right is probably twenty years old. For real!

I know you're all curious about how my talk went with the Gawler Quilters on Monday night. Well, it was really fun, and not at all intimidating. I wasn't nervous at all, right up until I actually stood up, but I don't think any nerves showed at all. I took the ladies through my quilting journey, sharing my first quilt, and a selection of my quilts right up to now. Everyone laughed at all the right moments, and no one fell asleep, so I'm thinking I can call it a success. And the sweet ladies of the group presented me with a lovely pot-plant as a thank you.

Isn't it pretty? I know it will look lovely out on the verandah. And a big hello to the ladies from the Gawler Quilters who are readers of my blog, it was lovely to meet you!

I'm going to do a little more work in the sewing room tonight, and then call it a night. It has a super busy week and I'm really feeling weary. Camo has a bye for tennis tomorrow, so I can even sleep in if I want, what bliss!!

Oldies and goodies!

Piecing on scrap projects can be such fun. Today I spent a lot of time delving through my scrappage and cutting to add more variety to pieces I'm using in this quilt. At the bottom of one of the tubs, I found such treasures that I'm now piecing with.

The medium brown fabric you see in the HST's and the centre of this block must have been in my stash for 15 years now. It was gifted to me by my sweet friend Linda while we were working on our Dear Jane quilts way back when. I really love it, it's super cute. I know one of my DJ triangles is made from that fabric, and I'm pretty sure I used it to piece a block too. My DJ quilt is at the Sewing, Stitching and Handcraft show this weekend, so I'll check it out while I'm there tomorrow.

And the pink you see in the tiny squares there is from my Farmers Wife quilt, as well as the red in the small square near the top. The red in the small square at left is from the binding of my Mrs Billings project. The green in the little square on the right is from the binding and the zig-zag border from my Nearly Insane quilt.

It's all these fabric memories that help me to love working on scrap quilts. I can't wait to see what future blocks bring :-)

The fabric that won't quit!

Behold my blurry block photo! This is one of the blocks I've pieced today for the Omigosh! quilt I'm working on. I've had lots of cutting to do, so I've only managed to put together six blocks so far, maybe I'll get more done after dinner, who knows :-)

That mid blue fabric there - the one in the HST's and the centre ... that particular fabric was used in my first ever quilt ... 22 YEARS AGO! I have been trying and trying to rid the 'first quilt' fabrics from my stash, but seriously, they just won't quit! I keep finding it everywhere. There were only three fabrics, and when we were first married I didn't have the funds to buy tons of yardage, so WHERE is it coming from??

And the picture above is the actual quilt. My first ever. I have no clue where it is right now. But I can tell you with certainty, it is badly pieced, badly quilted (on my first sewing machine with no thought of a walking foot) and I just know it will have that horrible puffy polyester batting. It would be super tempting to track it down, and pull it to bits to quilt nicely.

There are just way too many lovely projects to work on however, so I can't imagine such a tricky task will be in my future ... Would you do it??

An amazing find!

Today Mum, Camo and I went up to Mannum to visit with Nanna. It's so nice to be able to do these things in the holidays ... it's so much harder during the school term with kid sport on the weekends and work/school during the week.

We took Nanna shopping and out to lunch, and while we're in Mannum, we always check out the local second hand and antique stores. Over the years my eye has become trained to look for a certain little box, and just as we were getting ready to leave one store, I spotted THE BOX. It was a Singer Featherweight box!

Of course I dashed over and checked it out, and was baffled to see that even though the box was a little battered, it contained most of a Singer Featherweight 222K ... and it was priced at $30.00!!

When I saw it, I called Marty and asked him if I should buy it, as he is the one that will have to do all the hard work fixing it. He said YES, and why are you still on the phone, go grab that thing!! So I did :-) Happy day!

And this is her! The base that clips on is missing, along with the thread holder, bobbin winder and pretty much all of her accessories. The foot and power cord is there, but has seen better days. Marty and I have been doing a little research and it seems like all but the base will be super easy to deal with, and I'll just have to keep my ear to the ground for that. How fun! Ohh, and if you think you have any spare parts kicking around that you don't need, be sure to let me know!! *crossed fingers*

Not nearly so interesting, but Mum and I poked around at the local grocery store while Nanna did a little shopping, and I found something I've never seen before:

Kaffe Fassett sock yarn! I love the colour, don't you? Now, I haven't done much knitting lately, but you never know when you'll have the spare time, so I just had to bring it home with me also.

And just so you don't think my piecing has been languishing in the background, here is a little snapshot of where I'm at with the Omigosh! blocks:

There are 33 blocks there - at the top are two bundles of ten, bottom left another bundle of ten, and three of the nine patch blocks bottom right. I worked out that I need 361 blocks to make the quilt the size I want, so I'm almost one tenth done!

I was able to piece some more blocks tonight, but I'll be super busy for the next couple of days, so I doubt I'll have any stitching time until Sunday, then I'll be at them again.

Well, it's getting late here now and I need an early(ish) night, so I'll sign off ... chatter soon!

Tumblers

Yesterday while visiting with the NTFW sewing group at Shay's  house, I wanted to work on something super easy. With all the chattering and laughing (and teasing) it's not easy to concentrate on your work, so it's definitely in your best interest to work on something mindless :-)

Do you all remember my Ladies of the Lake table runner?

Well, I want to make something this size to change the look in the dining room periodically. And I want to use my French General leftovers from Mrs Billings ... and I want to hand piece it ... Goodness me, I'm fussy fussy fussy ... want ... want ... want ... Anyways, tumblers to the rescue ...

Before I set off with my family on the cruise earlier this year, I cut out a template and a few tumbler shapes, knowing this project would be in my future. I thought I'd have hours of sewing time, wind in my hair, needle in hand ... but nope. Nothing achieved ... way to much fun was had to waste time stitching .... But the fabric and the idea are still in my mind, so I've brought it out again as a long term project ...

It's really nice and so very relaxing to stitch a few seams by hand, and it's such a long time since I've actually hand pieced. Appliqué yes, but not actual seaming. Anyway, hopefully I'll get more of this cut out and I can have it in the car for stolen moments waiting for small people.

And how fun to see that Karen is working on tumblers too, I love to see what other people are working on in blogland, always so inspirational.

Lastly, while I was doing a little sort in the sewing room yesterday, I found these blocks that I had completely forgotten about.

I think I'll put them together into a little something during the school holidays. There are eleven blocks - I may have to make a few more blocks, or lay them out and see what comes together. How fun to find forgotten projects. I know I must have more than a few of them!

Ohh, and before I dash back to the sewing room, I'd like to say a big HI to the following commenters: Debra, Lorraine, Patricia, Judy and Sassi. Thank you so much for stopping by and dropping me a note. I wasn't able to reply to you directly as your email address wasn't enabled on your comment, but thank you for your kind words :-)

Chatter soon :-)

Coincidence? I think not!

So, I've been piecing away on the Omigosh! project in stolen moments. There haven't been as many of those moments as I'd like this past week, but Camo is now on school holidays, so maybe I'll have a few more? Here's where I'm at right now:

Check out my shadow there ... I have mad photography skillz!! I should have made up one extra of the nine patch blocks before I decided to post, just to fill in the empty corner. I'll work on that before I head to bed tonight.

But I have to share, I received the most fun email during the week, from my wonderful friend Linda F. Linda and I always seem to love the same projects and fabrics. One day a year or two ago, I called her about a kit I was thinking of ordering to learn that she had ordered the very same one. Now, I had no idea that this was going on, but Linda sent me a picture to share that she is working on her very own Omigosh! project, and she shared a picture:

I hope you don't mind me using your picture Linda, but I think this is too much of a hilarious coincidence not to share. Looks like Linda is way further along than I am, and of course I absolutely adore all the fabrics she has chosen. Seriously, I was gobsmacked when I received Linda's message, but honestly, I shouldn't be surprised, we're like quilting sisters!

And so you don't think my appliqué project is languishing on the sidelines, here is a quick piccy of where I'm at with that:

I'm not certain of those little buds going into the corners just yet, I want to see what it looks like when I select a flower for there - and I'll put a few little leaves and doodads next to that little lonely flower there, or maybe some embroidered stems ... I know the border will tell me what it needs as I go along.

Last of all, I just had to share a fabric purchase I made this week:

Now, I haven't been purchasing nearly as much fabric lately as I usually would - I'm very conscious of the fact that I'm not using my fabric very fast, and I have a stash that blocks out the sun. However when I worked at Hetties Patch on Wednesday, this fabric was in plain view of the counter and calling to me very loudly. There was only 85cm left on the bolt, and I decided that it simply had to be mine. Isn't it gorgeous? I have no clue what I'll do with it, but I think it will live nicely alongside my French General stash. Happy happy :-)

Tomorrow will be a fun day, it's the 'Not the Farmers Wife' sewing group visit at Shay's house. It's sure to be a fun day ... and unlikely that much stitching will be done, a lot of chattering, laughing and eating if the past is anything to go by. Super fun!

Alrighty, I'm off to do chores and then whip up that last block, chatter soon! xox

I'm really hooked!

I can't even tell you how excited I am to be finally getting along with my sewing machine. I was looking forward to playing with it today, and I haven't felt that way for a little while. I wonder if some of my piecing slump is related to my machine and I not entirely getting along so far? Anyway, looks like all is forgiven :-)

Do you have an abundance of scraps? I really do, and here you see my leftover 10in square tub, and my 2in strip tub.

Because I usually bind my quilts with 2in strips, I end up with a huge amount of scraps in that tub. This project requires a small amount of 2in scraps (they can be used for the shoo fly HST's with the use of an easy angle ruler) and the light squares are 2in cut - but mainly it uses 1in strips. I've never collected 1in strips, so to reduce the huge amount of fabric in the 2in tub I decided to start cutting them in half. It's likely I could construct most of the quilt from this tub!!

And here is a selection of the components I've already started piecing - they're waiting to be made into nine patches/four patches and other assorted bits and pieces ...

I'm trying to get as much variety into each block as I can, so I like to be able to choose little strip sets that don't contain fabrics already used in a block - but it's early days and I haven't done a huge amount of cutting, so it's not always possible ...

And here are the first six blocks that I've made. I'm really excited how it's coming together. It amuses me that some of the fabrics stand out so much more than the others - like that cheddar there - it really pops doesn't it? I'm not going to start sewing blocks together until I have a whole lot more made, so even though you see the same fabric repeated many times in these six blocks, hopefully the fabrics will be spread out in the final quilt top.

In stolen moments I've also been appliquéing on the Montmellick project - I'm still loving it so much. I'm working on the second of the four borders. I don't mind if I get a little behind, it looks like the next border will be much easier, so I'll be able to catch up in the next two months.

Well, that's it from me, I'll be back with more blocks soon, I'm sure :-)