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

Ten blocks, yay!

I'm so thrilled to have finished my tenth Lily Rosenberry block today, I have six to go to complete the body of the quilt. So, I laid them all out on the family room floor ...

I love the area in the foreground where all the berries come together, it's going to be the centre of the quilt, and I'm sure will really draw the eye. This project will be hand quilted, and that is something I just can't wait to start. It's a while away though - even once the last blocks are finished, the border will be an exercise in patience, it's filled with those darling red berries too. Stamina ... hopefully I have it!

There were three quilt related parcel deliveries today. I ordered some of the beautiful new Edyta Sitar Christmas fabric. I just fell in love with it and it finally arrived:

My plan is to make a tree skirt for a darling friend. And I'll make one for me too ... because of my love for this fabric collection haha

The second item was some books I purchased from a friend who is scaling back a little:

Both of these books are filled with projects I would definitely love to make. And I certainly have the stash to support that ambition.

The last of the deliveries is some fabric that I discovered was an absolute necessity!

Last weekend I thought it might be wise to cut out the border strips, and then the remaining background squares for the Lily Rosenberry quilt. When I purchased the fabric a while back I decided to use a double wide backing piece as I like the way the script is scattered haphazardly on it rather than directional like on the yardage from the range. I worked out how much I needed and placed my order. The store let me know that they only had two smaller pieces that made up the amount I needed and I figured it would be okay. Well ..... as it turned out, it wasn't okay. Each of the pieces almost had enough for an extra row/border (they're the same width) but fell about 2 inches short. So I had two pieces of 15" wide fabric after I'd cut most of what I needed, but needed them to be 17". This fabric has been hard to find for a while, but fortunately I was able to get an additional metre and it got here in record time!

I keep thinking I should order even more and use it for the backing too, but would that be too blah? I am very undecided. But if I dither over it too long the decision will be made for me I guess!

That has been my stitching week - not exciting, but still great. I'm thinking I'll still be obsessing over applique for a bit yet - while I'm inspired I need to run with it, so let's see what I have to share with you next week! Big hugs, and 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

Oooops!

I nearly forgot it was Friday today - it's only 9.30pm, but I was buzzing around in the sewing room - not making plans for a blog post - and suddenly I realised that I needed to get busy on the computer.

Though it wasn't completed this week, I have this month's mini quilt to share. A big thank you to Wendy Caton Reed for hosting this fun project - click over to her blog to see the other participants for the month.

The applique in the centre is from Sue Garman's Afternoon Delight quilt, and after that I was just winging it. I was happy to find the red stripe fat quarter I could use in the border, it's thrilling to me to use things up right now, especially things that have been sitting around for a while. I had fun with the quilting, but I still need to be braver. Baby steps I guess?

And for things I've worked on this week, I did end up making the 9" version of last week's Moda Blockheads 4 block:

I haven't made this week's block yet, hopefully that will be a project for the weekend. But I did enjoy the churn dash block so much that I tested it in another colourway with a view to making a larger quilt:

Yummy fabric! I only have enough of the teal print to make sixteen blocks, so this project is destined to be a cute lap quilt for winter. This is where I'm at so far:

The pink sashing fabric was used as the border in my Farmers Wife quilt back in the day, and this quilt should use up the last of it. It's so much fun to remember past quilts when I'm working on scrappy quilts.

I'll get a bunch more piecing done tonight while I wait for a phone call - I dropped Camo off at a friend's party with a promise he could call me to pick him up later, and I don't mind how late! I definitely don't want him drink driving so I'm always happy when he asks for help. How is it that my little baby is turning 20 soon? It seems like yesterday that he was this tiny little guy scooting around the house! Time flies!

Well, that has been my week from a quilting perspective. On the home front I've also been doing a little sorting and clearing out this past week. I haven't discussed it on my blog, but around the same time as my FIL passed away, my Nanna was getting to a stage where she couldn't live independently in her unit anymore and was moving into the nursing home which is part of the facility she lives in. Though I haven't been doing nearly as much sorting/clearing/cleaning as my Mum, that was something we finalised this week. It is amazing how much a person accumulates in a life, and as a result when I came home I cast a different eye over the house and our posessions. I've resolved to send a bag of items each week to the op-shop - it will be difficult, but I'm hoping really freeing also.

Alrighty, that's enough from me for this evening, I hope you've all had a great week, and I will chatter with you again next week! xox

Inspired to applique ...

My Lily Rosenberry applique blocks have been a little neglected lately. I worked on a block for a bit last week, and that's almost finished, but I need inspiration to keep plugging away at them. So this morning I laid them out on the floor to see how they look together:

None of the blocks have been trimmed or pressed, so they're a little further apart than they will ultimately be, and also a little rumpled, but I'm super happy with how it's all looking! This is exactly the inspiration I needed to keep working away at these darling blocks.

It's so much fun to see the patterns forming where the blocks meet - I spent quite a bit of time looking them over. Imagine how much time I'll waste when I'm actually finished with them! And I'm so glad I decided to use a bunch of different fabrics, in my opinion it gives such an interesting texture to the quilt.

I'm also up to date with the Moda Blockheads blocks. Here is block 5 - once again fabrics plucked from my scrap baskets:

This block is from Me and My Sister Designs, it's an easier one this week, but ever so cute. I mentioned last week that I might go ahead and make the blocks in the 9" size as well, and I've decided I'll go ahead and do it. If I'm really good I should have time to stitch them over the next week or so.

In addition, I've been itching to do some simple machine work for a pieced quilt, so perhaps this block in the larger size will be good for that. I have some decisions to make!

Something I've noticed over the past week or two is that Bloglovin' doesn't seem to be working. Is anyone else seeing this? I sincerely hope it's not shutting down forever, I have a lot of my favourite blogs saved there and rely on it for updates. I'm so glad I have saved some to my sidebar here, but that has been a work in progress, and I'm not done with all my favourites. Once again, if you're a reader and you'd like to see your blog on my list, please comment and let me know. I always love to visit new people.

And last of all for today, thank you so much for the orders I received for painted heads after last week's post, I appreciate them so much! If you're working on Larissa Holland's mmmCrafts projects and are nervous about painting the sweet faces, I can help you out - be sure to check my Etsy store:

I'm determined that I'll make a complete set of the ornaments for little Mary to begin her own collection of Christmas decorations. This is a very easy declaration to make while I only have one grandbaby ;-)

I think that's all I had to tell you about this week ... but if I remember anything else, I'll check back in on the weekend. Chatter soon! xox

Working on a few things ...

This week as predicted, I was able to spend more time in the sewing room. I'm having fun flitting from project to project, which is not usually how I work at all!

I began prepping my ninth Lily Rosenberry block:

It's so much fun mixing up all the red and green prints. I really hope it makes for a visually interesting quilt at the end. Still lots to go before I can begin working on the applique, and I can't wait to start!

Here are the last two Moda Blockhead 4 blocks:

Block 3

Block 4

It's so much fun rummaging around in my scrap stash selecting the fabric for each block. I may still go back and make the 9 inch blocks too, there is a setting option that uses both size blocks which looks like fun!

And I continued work on this month's mini quilt, it's coming along!

Right now I'm working on mitering the border for this little quilt, and then I can get busy quilting it. So much of the fun of these mini quilts is deciding on which one I'd like to make, it's so great to have a finish so quickly!

And last of all for today, here is something I've been working on for my Etsy store:

I so enjoyed working on the little Elves by mmmCrafts and received so many compliments on the painted faces I had given them. Apparently there are people not interested in doing the painting themselves, so I've offered a limited number painted bead heads on my Etsy store. If this is something you're interested in, I'll be happy to help you out.

So that's it for the fun I've had in my sewing room! I'm babysitting little Mary for two days over this weekend, we're going to have lots of fun and we both wish you all a Happy Easter, and I'll chatter again next week! xox

Checking things of the Reno list!

This week the only bit of sewing/quilting I was able to get done was block 2 from the Moda Blockheads 4 project. I've only made the 4.5" size at this stage, I may go back and make the 9" too because it's awfully cute!

Block 1 on the left, and 2 on the right. I'm having such fun using up scrap fabrics and I'll continue to do so!

Stitching time was VERY limited this past week, because the very day after we were released from isolation, our kitchen guy came in and started demolition. We had organised several months back to have a little kitchen refresh to update the benchtops and tiling (and to rework some cupboards on the other side of the kitchen. 

When they got started, I almost forgot to take a before picture, the oven was already taken out and the cooktop had started to be disassembled before I remembered! 

It's all just very blah - you can see the surfaces are very dated - this kitchen was installed 28 years ago, and while everything is reasonable condition, it just felt like it was time for a change.

And here's how it looks now. I'm so much happier with it. My picture isn't great as it was at night, but the marble feature tiles in the middle are a lovely jade green colour, and they look so pretty. I had changed the handles on the cabinets over late last year they were originally cream coloured plastic handles. 

We didn't redo the whole kitchen as it's not certain that this will be the final configuration of the space - we've discussed making it larger at some point. But if that doesn't happen, we'll get Brian back to update the doors, and we can call this done.

The next projects on our list are to take up all the tiles and replace them with timber floors, and also to change the showers in our bathrooms. Will we be finished renovating then? Who knows?

Anyway, that has been my week, I know I'll have more time for stitching in the coming week, so I'll check back in with you all soon! xox

Life is about to get busy again!

I don't have a lot to share with you this week, as I've been quite busy cleaning out the kitchen ready for the little 'refresh' that's beginning tomorrow. I'm out of iso, so our cabinet maker is able to come in and get his work done. It's not a huge deal - new benchtops and tiling, but it'll be nice to have something shiny and new to look at. We don't know that this is the forever configuration for our kitchen, so I'm not having the whole thing redone yet. I'll try and remember to take before and after pictures!

Also because my iso is done now, babysitting, tennis, and quilting group can begin again. All wonderful diversions, so I won't be getting quite so much sewing done.

But in crafty news, I started a little something two days ago:

It's 9" at this point, and who knows where it will end up. The applique block is a Sue Garman design, from the Afternoon Delight quilt that I'd like to make some day. It's on the list.

On the Moda Blockheads front, I was so enamoured with block 1 that I decided to make it up in the smaller size too:

I don't think I'll make up both sizes each week, so I'll have to decide which I like best and stick to it. I saw that block 2 is out now, and I can't wait to get busy making it. So much fun!

And I finished the second elf from from the Twas the Night series from mmmCrafts:

I'm waiting on a delivery of supplies before I can make the girl-elf's accessories, but aren't they cute? I have absolutely loved making these little elven folk and will be making a bunch more of Larissa's fun items.

And last up for today, I wanted to share a little something I snapped when I was putting fabric away last week:

This is my fabric closet - it only has my yardage on those three shelves, which means the smallest pieces are half a yard or metre, and probably most of the pieces are two metres or more. It occurred to me (as it often does) that if I continue using fabric at such a slow rate, I'm literally NEVER going to run out of fabric. I won't even come close to using it all in my lifetime. 

I need to spend more time in my sewing room, that much is clear ... now I just need to find creative ways to make that happen! :-)

That's it from me this week - I feel sure I'll have some fun eye candy for you next week, chatter soon! xox