Quickie post ...

Just a quickie post tonight, as I have a bunch of work to get through, so it'll be a late one tonight in the sewing room.

This week I only got one block put together, this one for the Morell quilt. It's block #43

Somehow I made the diamond sections slightly incompatible with the background fabric pieces and it was a bit of a stinker to put together. But I got there in the end - it's not perfection, but I know it'll be just fine when it's quilted. I should have started again, but that would have been too easy lol!

And in other news, I baked my first ever sourdough cob. There is so much to learn, and I'm on the very beginning of that learning curve, but it's so far so good:

I didn't love it straight up, but it's super nice as toast. Camo has declared sourdough excellent and would like me to keep on baking. Marty is a wonderbread kinda guy, so he'll never love it, but he'll tolerate it. So far my favourite thing has been the bagels which I forgot to photograph, so I think I'll continue on this sourdough journey.

Recently I bought myself the latest iPhone, I always leave upgrading until it becomes super necessary. The camera is so much better than I've been used to - so while doing a little hand quilting recently I snapped a quick picture:

So fun! I can see the weave of all the fabrics, and in the top middle berry you can see some batting fibre that I couldn't see with the naked eye. I do love to see my quilting stitches up close - I don't get as many stitches to the inch as I used to, but it's still my favourite thing.

Well, that's it for me today, I'm going to get back to work and see how much I can get done tonight. Chatter soon! xox

Such a productive week!

Hi friends! I feel like I had such a productive week this week, I didn't get photos of everything, but I snapped quilt block pics for you.

On Saturday night we had friends over, and I used the recently new to me Spode dinner set. OMG, I love it so! I made rolled roast chicken and a fabulous roast vegetable medley. And for dessert I made a lemon ricotta tart. This is the recipe I based it on. It was so great I made it again on Wednesday so that the Thursday quilting ladies could indulge too, yum! Also on the baking front, I made sourdough bagels from scratch using the sourdough starter I've been cultivating. They were gone before I managed to take a picture. So very yum also! I'm going to make them again this weekend, so I'll try and remember to share my results.

And from a quilting perspective, I was busy too. I made some more of the Opa Sampler blocks:

Block 8 - Churn Dash

Block 16 - Radiant Sun

Block 9 - Checkerboard

When I started this project, I declared to myself that I was to use fabric from my scrap drawers, and that I wasn't to be concerned about if it was reproduction fabric, or any other type. But after I made this block, I just wan't in love with it, and didn't think it would fit in with the other blocks at all. I was expressing these thoughts to some of my friends, and one of the sweet ladies told me how much she loved the fabric and the block too.

So I added a border, quilted it up and bound it, and I'll give it to her on Thursday. It makes me happy that it won't go to waste. And then I made another block:

I'm much happier with this one, and I know it'll look better in the quilt overall.

Last of all, I mentioned last week that Rowley turned 6 months old this past week and promised I'd share a photo:

He has grown so much! The first picture is from pickup day which was the 9th May - he was around 6kg. And the second picture was on Wednesday - he's now weighing in at 19kg. He's a big boy, and getting bigger fast!

Afrer I sign off here, I'm going to work on a little hand quilting, and then get busy working on a few more Christmas gifts for this year. I have quite a bunch to make, so I don't want to leave them to the last minute. I'll let you know how I get on. Chatter soon!

Almost midnight!

Oh my, today has really gotten away from me - it's almost midnight, so I'm just going to get this post in under the wire. I'll keep it short so I can hopefully slip into bed while it's still today!

This week I've started working on a new project. I don't need a new one, but I really felt like I needed some simpler machine work. Well, that's my justification anyway. It's a sampler by Paula of OldePatchArt. She is repairing/reproducing a darling but damaged sampler quilt. Do visit on Instagram and see her lovely work.

Here are my first two blocks:

Block 20 - Spool Dance

Block 30 - Bye Bye Birdy

I have a lot of catching up to do, and I may or may not get there before the last blocks are posted, but I will enjoy the progress. I've decided I'll work from my ever growing scrap drawers, and hopefully put something of a dent in them. No scrap dents have been made to date, but I remain determined.

In other news, on day 16 my sourdough starter finally started doubling in size with lots of lovely little bubbles, so if the whispers are correct, I should be able to start using it for baking now.

The process for baking the bread seems terribly complicated though, so I don't imagine I'll be wildly successful any time soon. 

I'll have to sign off here - Rowley is pacing around, so he's probably looking for his end of night bathroom break. He turns six months old next week, so I hope to share a comparison photo with you from the day we got him until now - it's amazing how much he's grown. So I'll check in with that for you next week. Chatter soon! xox

A little gift ...

Hi there friends, it's time for me to check in with my week's achievements. Wednesday and Thursday I spent a little time at the sewing maching and put together a small gift. It was for the couple that run our local post office - they're retiring after serving our community for the longest time, and I wanted to show my appreciation:

It was a fun little make, and I delved into deep stash for a couple of those fabrics. The darker green may even be a Thimbleberries print! It makes me smile to think that each time they see this little mat they'll remember all the pesky parcels I've pushed across their desk over the years.

Other than a few stolen stitches in my Lily Rosenberry quilt, that mat is about the only stitching I managed to get done this week.

The lack of stitching time was for a couple of reasons. The first being that my Etsy store has gone a little wild lately, so I've been painting bead heads like a crazy lady. Also, on the weekend we had to completely empty our bedroom and WIR as we had new carpet installed on Monday. Whew, that was something else - it's amazing how much we managed to fit in there.

I adore the look of the room with the lovely fresh carpet, and while the room was empty I asked our cabinet maker to come over and make a big shoe rack to go in the closet. He's amazing and delivered it today. But I digress - a good deal of this week was dedicated to sorting out all our clothes, and I estimate we've donated/tossed out at least a third of them! It felt sooooo good! I don't have any pictures of all that to share, but trust me, I'm thrilled with how it's coming along.

Anyway, I'm babysitting little Mary tonight, so I'm going to keep this somewhat brief - and I'll chatter again soon! xox

A busy week with not much to show for it ...

I thought I would have so much more time to spend in the sewing room this week, but it hasn't really worked out that way. I've ended up doing a bunch of chores - sorting things out in the sewing room, and rearranging some things in the kitchen - and with sewing starting again this week, time has just flashed by.

This is the only Morrell quilt block I put together:

Another block using the County Clare panel by Karen Styles. Also a cute little background print from one her scrap bags - the red fabric from stash, possibly purchased from Karen too! I'm going to make one of the diamond star blocks next, and after that I'm going to force myself to work on some more broderie perse. It's only since I used that fraying fabric in the middle block that I've been leery of broderie perse - I had a wonderful experience with it while I was working on Mountmellick!

On Tuesday afternoon I started a very new to me project, and I have no idea how it's going to go. I'm taking baby steps into the world of sourdough starters:

I've had a few friends inspire me to give this a go, so I'm three days in and very unsure of what I'm doing or taking on, but I'm finding lots of resources online to help me out. Quite some time ago I received a Goldfields San Francisco sourdough starter package from my lovely friend Linda in the USA, and that's what I've used to get this going. I'm getting a few bubbles forming, and I'm learning that it could take a a little time to get anything worthy of baking with. I'm patient, and I'm ready to learn. Please pop me a comment if you have any interesting tips to send my way.

Last of all, Rowley is becoming less and less timid each week and we're able to take him for better walks. It's a lovely time of year, so I snapped a few pictures last weekend:

This weekend is going to be a busy one - we're having new carpet installed in our bedroom, so I'll be cleaning everything out of the bedroom and walk-in-robe ready for Monday. This will give me the perfect opportunity to cull a lot of items we just don't need, it will be very freeing!

It's only 10.30 here, but I'm flagging already, so I think I'll have an early night so I can rise tomorrow bright eyed and bushy tailed ready for chores. Chatter soon!

What a chaotic week!

If you had asked me at the beginning of the week how my week was looking, I would have told you it was going to be a relatively quiet one, with a couple of outings and some lovely stretches of time in the sewing room. That's not really how things went ...

On Monday evening Marty came to me and said 'I think we've got a big problem', and to cut a very long story short, the main water line into our house had ruptured (fortunately outside) and we were dumping water into the front yard underground somewhere, and very little water was getting to the house. Not ideal. I won't bore you with all the details, but all kinds of digging, investigating and repairing followed over the next couple of days. And while the water was turned off, we lived like pioneers with containers of water. 

Rowley was super helpful while we were working in the yard - relocating things we were using:

It was actually pretty funny, we should probably have named him Bandit!

Some of my friends and I had planned a trip to a quilt store on Wednesday which is about an hour drive away, with a side trip to pick up a dinner set I had seen on Marketplace. Because of the plumbing drama, I wasn't able to go, which was super disappointing, but my lovely friends offered to pick up the dinner set for me anyway, which was so kind. I had been watching it for a while, and thought I had missed my chance to get it.

It's Copeland Spode Byron, and I just love it. It really suits the decor in my front room, and I can't wait to use it at our next dinner gathering. As all my friends know, I have an addiction to vintage china that can't be tamed, but I am going to have to temper my collecting now as I'm running out of places to put these lovely pieces!

From a quilting perspective, I've made a couple more blocks, and cut one out of a lovely toile I purchased - I'm really loving working on these Morrell quilt blocks:

This is block 57, I love how it came together - the fabrics are really crisp and fresh looking.

This is block 53 - it's much murkier looking with that mustard coloured print in there, but I love it too. It gave me flashbacks to working on the Nearly Insane quilt with all those pieces, but definitely not so tiny. 

And this is the toile block I cut out - it's from one of Karen Styles of Somerset Patchwork's collections. I was so happy to find it. I've ordered some other fabrics that should look lovely in this quilt where the toile fabrics are placed, so I'll share them with you when I get them.

Before all the plumbing chaos I also quilted and bound a small top I'd made earlier in the year, but I forgot to take a picture, so if I remember, I'll share that with you next week. I hope to also get some more time in the sewing room over the weekend, so hopefully I have some interesting things to share with you next time I check in. Chatter soon lovely friends! xox

I did it!

Oh my goodness! After having so studiously avoided finishing the centre block last week, on Saturday I bit the bullet and made myself finish the broderie perse. And you know what? It wasn't as fiddly as I'd worked myself up to believe. And I'm very proud of it!

I realise that Di's pattern has appliqued petal shapes in the corner, but I wanted to try something different, and I'm sure you've come to realise that I do like to break rules - in my own 'don't colour too far outside the lines' kind of way! 

Not sure yet how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to ensure that the little rose print will appear in several other places in the quilt. Carefully, because I don't have a lot of that particular fabric.

And because I was on a high finishing up the centre block, I put together a couple more. One using a cheater fabric:

I'm calling this one Block 13, but there are a few blocks almost exactly the same, so it could be used in their place. For this quilt I'm not going to assemble as I go, I would like the freedom to mix the blocks around if necessary.

And on a roll, this block came next. Block 59 - so much fun to make - I foundation pieced the triangle strips and the large rectangles I fussy cut the stripes as straight as I possibly could. Nothing bothers me more than stripes that run in all wonky directions. The outer border had me stymied for a while. I was really hunting through my stash for a cute (but narrow) border stripe. This one was cut at 1.25" wide, so will finish at 3/4". I didn't find what I thought I was looking for, but decided this green from a scrap bag from Karen Styles might work. I probably should have put the green in the middle rectangles, and the stripe in the border, but this is what I've ended up with. And tiny mitred corners too, yay!

There has also been a little hand quilting during late nights watching Wimbledon, but on a wild hair Wednesday evening, I decided I'd like to put together Mrs Claus from the mmmCrafts Twas the Night Ornament series. I finished her this afternoon:

I'm so thrilled with how her red hair turned out on the painted bead head, so I've added red as a colour option for Mrs Claus when people are shopping for painted beads in my Etsy store. I've only made three of the ornaments from this series, but I've painted hundreds and hundreds of heads. I love that people trust me to help them with their crafty pursuits.

So, the first of the Wimbledon mens semi finals has started, so I am going to settle in front of the TV with some stitching and allow myself to be engrossed. I hope you've all had a great week, and we'll chatter soon! xox

Avoidance at its finest ...

Last week I shared with you that I was feeling super happy to have completed a broderie perse corner on the centre block of my Morrell quilt - and that it was challenging because of the fabric's propensity to fray ... so this week I have been studiously avoiding that particular block ...

And instead today completed this block - it's # 36

I really love it, and I so enjoyed making it. It's all I can do not to make a few more that are very similar. But I really should finish the centre block - it's so close!

Earlier in the week I made an alternate colourway of one of my recent tree skirts. Also avoidance I suspect - but I told myself it's Christmas in July.

Also super happy with how this project worked out. The pattern is available in my Etsy store if you're interested, it's the easiest tree skirt I've ever made - you can stitch it together almost in a heartbeat!

So they've been my quilt related accomplishments this week - I'm super pleased that 'life with puppy' is getting easier and stitching time is easier to find. It's also mid year school holidays for the next two weeks, so I'll have an extra couple of hours to myself each week which I'll dedicate to all things crafty. 

And just a fun little aside - I was watching a movie while working on some hand sewing during the week (it was the tennis movie Battle of the Sexes) and at one point they were sewing tennis outfits for the ladies - and I was so thrilled to see that they were using this machine:

A darling white Featherweight! How fun is that? I have one of these sweet babies of my own, but I don't use it very often. I purchased mine while I was in the USA some years ago, and it's a 120v machine, and we're 240v here. I do have a transformer for it, but if I need to use a Featherweight I tend to use my black one as it's much less messing around. Maybe I should put the white one on display somehow, as it's such a sweet little thing.

So that's my stitching week up to now - I plan to get a little hand quilting done tonight while I watch some of the tennis at Wimbledon. And then tomorrow I will make some kind of bargain with myself so I finally set to and finish that darned broderie perse. Seriously!

Chatter soon - and hugs!