Hello November!

My goodness, how can it be November already? It seems like the year has only just begun. The month has been busy for me already, so let me share a few of the goings on here so far:

On the day of the Adelaide Christmas Pageant I put up our Christmas tree. It's tradition for lots of families in Adelaide to mark the day in this way - for whatever reason the pageant is a couple of weeks early this year, but that just means we all get to enjoy our festive decorations for a bit longer. I'm sure I've told you all before, it's an all day job for me, and one I look forward to. It's much less fun when it's time to take it down.

And putting away the Halloween display in the hallway meant I was able to put out something else:

I've been hand quilting and working on some secret squirrell business too. And I promise to share photos of those things when they're gifted. But I can share pictures of the table topper I made for my friend for her birthday:

I'm so sorry about the quality of the photos - I clearly took them (especially the last one) in a rush. For this table topper I used my Dresden Christmas Tree Skirt pattern, and instead of cutting away the center circle and opening for the tree, I appliqued a circle of Dutch Chintz fabric in the centre. I do really love that green floral, it's so pretty.

Another recent adventure was meeting Nagee Maehashi from Recipe Tin Eats:

My lovely friend Sonja and I decided on a whim to head to Tea Tree Plaza to meet her at her book signing. We joined the queue just oven an hour before it all began and were so thrilled to meet her and have Nagee sign our books. Her recipes are wonderful, and Nagee is a delightful person. Amy and I are going to make one of her recipes tomorrow after Amy has a sewing session here.

Dog walking has continued. We decided to give the Wynn Vale dam a go once more - we tried it a while ago while Rowley was still very much in his puppy stage, and it was a big overwhelming for him. It's a much busier place with lots of smells and other people and animals to meet. Just a couple of pictures of the dam:

We are so lucky to live in such a nice place with plenty of space to wander.

And the last picture of the day - some cute pompom like flowers that I bought at the grocery store. I wasn't sure what they were, but my dear Instagram buddies tell me they're crysanthemums:

These would be so lovely to grow in the garden, I'm definitely going to look into it.

I have so much work I'd like to get done tonight before I head to bed, so I'm going to sign off here with a promise to catch up on comments tomorrow. Thank you for stopping by, I always appreciate it xox

Hand quilting obsessed!

I've been really inspired to get as much hand quilting done as I can lately, and even though I've got a lot of work to get through in other areas, I've been making time each day put a few stitches in.

There are a few other pictures I managed to snap ... I set up a little corner by the front door for Halloween, and if we have any trick-or-treaters we'll be ready. 

We don't often have little people stop by, Halloween doesn't seem to have really taken off in our neighbourhood. But there was one time that I wasn't prepared and had to give some little darlings chip packets from the pantry - and since that day I've been ready. Just in case.

Something I needed to make this week was a little mat for my bedside table. It won't really be seen, but I grabbed a sweet little border print from my scrap stash and put this together:

The mat is pieced and quilted, and I've stitched the binding on the front. All that remains is to hand stitch the binding on the reverse side and I can put this little mat in use.

Walking the dog is still happening each day, and I try and take pics of our surroundings when I can. We live in a lovely neighbourhood with fabulous walking trails.

I wish I could take pictures that looked as good as my eyes can see. Does that make sense? Anyway I could learn a lot about photography.

Last of all for today, one of my sweet quilting friends had a significant birthday this week, and lovely Norma made this gorgeous fruit flan, isn't it so pretty?

It tasted as good as it looks. I have such talented and lovely friends.

That's it from me for today, my days continue to be super busy, but I hope to check back in with you in a week rather than the two weeks I've been stretching out to lately. Chatter soon friends! xox

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

I'm obsessed with hand quilting right now.

Seriously, I am! There are other things I need to do, but I'm finding myself drawn to the quilting hoop in any spare moment I have. I even laid the quilt out as best I could on the dining room floor so I could see how far along I am:

I'm further along than I thought I was, but there is still a long way to go. As long as I keep putting stitches in, it's all progress right? I do love how this quilt is coming along, and I know I'm going to love it when it's finished too.

And just a quick side note (and scroll on if you're not Instagram inclined) I seem to find time to pop a picture on Insta more regularly than I do here - it's just so much faster. So if you do want to see something more than my irregular posting on here, do pop over and have a look. There's a link in my sidebar.

Dog walking continues unabated. Every day actually, and sometimes twice a day. We're seeing a lot of our neighbourhood. 

My pictures never look as nice as we see in person, but I'll persevere. Also my friends in far places do like to see the landscape. Rowley continues to grow large - hopefully he'll stop growing soon - he's a lot of dog to walk. Especially when he sees something he wants to investigate.

My parents and brother were on holiday in Europe recently, and while checking on my parent's garden I found Mum's beautiful clivias in flower. The orange ones were abundant, but this much rarer yellow one caught my eye:

I'm trying to grow the orange ones at the moment - my green thumb hasn't really formed yet. When I have success with orange, I'm going to add yellow to my collection, they're so pretty.

And you know that I don't have very much exciting to share when it's newsworthy that I caved and finally bought an air fryer:

I haven't used it yet - it was only delivered yesterday. If I'm honest, I'm a little nervous of it, though my friends and family tell me that it's a life changing kitchen appliance. We shall see.

Painting bead heads for the mmmCrafts ornaments has continued apace. This past week amongst other orders, I had one sweet lady order 28 Mrs Claus heads so she could make ornaments for her friends. What a darling gift to make!

They were fun to work on, and because it's now school holidays here, I'll be able to do more stock replenishment over the next two weeks. We're heading for the busy season in my Etsy store, and I love it!

Last of all today, the sun in the sewing room caught the quilting hoop just right, showing the teture of my Lily Rosenberry quilt. I tried to capture it, but once again my eyes see things my phone camera lens just cant. This picture will give you an idea anyway.

I never grow tired of gazing at, and running my hands over my hand quilted projects. My sweet friend Jean says it's like there are little pillows between the stitches. And to me, that sounds just about right.

That's it from me for now, and I promise to check in and chatter again soon xox

Little things ...

Hi friends, this past fortnight I've been working on some little things, and plugging away on some big projects too.

I've hand quilted a bit more than normal, and I'm out into the border on Lily Rosenberry. In fact, since this photo was taken, I've moved right into the corner of the quilt:

It's so nice to have time to spend on hand quilting, it doesn't seem like I get a lot done, but when I spread the quilt out, it looks so good and I realise all the quilting adds up. I'll try and get a photo of the quilt spread out so you can see how far along I am. Hopefully the detail will show.

It was Nanna's 95th birthday today, and I went with some of the family to visit with her. She just loves when the babies visit especially, her eyes really light up. I made her a little something to have on her side table, I hope Nanna enjoys using it:

I see more of these little mats in my future, they're fast to put together, and fun to quilt. A good Christmas project I think.

And the last picture of the day, Rowley on a recent walk refusing to perform for the camera:

Rowley is about 18 months old now, so still officially a puppy. He's a big boy though, at 34kgs (75lbs) - sometimes onlookers could be forgiven for wondering who is walking who.

Off to bed shortly here, I've just spent some q-time with the hubby watching the F1GP while working on some more lodestar ornaments. And tomorrow I'll get busy painting bead heads to replenish stocks. Hope you've all had a lovely weekend, and chatter soon!

Spring, down south.

Hello friends! I couldn't check in with you last week as I just had nothing quilt related to share. Not a thing. Time in the sewing room is still scarce, but I do have some pictures I can share with you.

I finally hand stitched down the binding on the Moda Blockheads 2022 little quilt. I'm so pleased to have this checked off the list of UFO's. It's not certain what I'll be doing with it, maybe a small gift for someone, we shall see!

A small project I worked on was using some waste HST's and made a small potholder for a friend. It's quite cute isn't it. I got it to quilted stage, and she offered to bind it - who am I say no to that?

And I've almost finished hand stitching the binding on the four extra placemats for my tennis lunch buddies (whoops, apologies for the blurry picture). We'll be meeting up again next month, so it's good not to leave these until the last minute. Unlike how they were constructed - completely last minute ...

In fun news, I just got a new car, and my old one has gone on to new owners. I just love the colour of the new one, and so far I'm completely intimidated by all the new tech and gadgets. Here's betting it won't be long and I'll be feeling right at home ...

Dog walks are a constant, and the weather is just beautiful. Walking seems to account for most of my pictures at this time!

Tomorrow I'm going to the Royal Adelaide Show with Amy, her hubby and the girls, I'm looking forward to seeing the quilts and handicrafts etc. It's always a great time seeing Mary so wide eyed and enjoying the fun of the fair. And then on Wednesday I'm guest speaker at one of our local quilt groups, which will be super fun too.

Thank you for the continued comments and emails, even though I've been a bit of an absent blogger lately, I appreciate them all! Chatter soon xox