Still at it ...

Hey there lovelies - I'm still here working away on Phebe's applique in stolen moments. I'd love to share that I'm finished with it and moving on to the next step, but not just yet. Surely it can't be too far away now.

Things have been busy over the past week or so, Camo's tennis team were in the grand final on Friday night, and happily won - my own tennis, parent teacher interviews and work have meant that time has been scarce. Is anyone as shocked as I am that we're almost at the end of March and it seems like it was New Years just last week??

Anyway, back to Phebe, I took this picture earlier today (wouldn't have hurt to press it a little!!) and since then I've already added the oak leaves in the top left corner. Next I will make up more acorns for the left side of the quilt, and after that the small flowers. The last additions will be the leaves which will fill the gaps along the vine. It really feels like I'm getting near the end of this border.

Framing the applique will be another red and cream sawtooth border, and I'll foundation piece that like I did with the last one. I love the accuracy of foundation piecing. Then I'll finally be able to use the star blocks and the wonderful sashing stripe that I was luckily able to track down. Happy days!

Before I sign off, I want to say a big hello to Sjoukje, Paula DiMattei, Pamela Tasker, Deb from the Frugal Little Bungalow and Martina from Germany for stopping by and leaving greetings. I wasn't able to respond to your messages personally, but I would have loved to.

Well, that's it from me for today - the rest of the week promises to be busy, but I feel sure I'll have some time free over the Easter weekend to get some more work done. Chatter soon! xox

Quickie post ...

I just wanted to check in really quickly to share where I'm at with Phebe's applique. It's coming along slowly, but all progress is good, right?

The little acorns in the corner were fun, and I love the little flowers. I'm slowly filling in the vine with leaves, and if I have time tomorrow night I'll add the vines on the other two sides.

Well, that's it for now - I promise to check back in and catch up on emails soon! xox

Applique changes ...

I haven't had much time to work on Phebe's applique lately, but happily today was a quiet day so I could spend as much time as I wanted working on my stitching.

Some of the little oak leaves I'd already stitched down didn't thrill me, so I unpicked them, and I've replaced them with some others. I'll reuse the ones I replaced in other corners - I realised I wanted to have a couple of different sizes, and also I knew I wouldn't have enough of the Jo Morton print for all the leaves required. Let's face it, I like to use a lot of different fabrics, so it was weird that I'd used only one in the first place.

So here's where I'm up to now:

Something else I'm going to do this week is pop into Officeworks and pick up some waterproof coloured pencils. I thought it'd be fun to add dimension to the oak leaves with shading - and also use the pencils to give the people their faces. I'm just not confident to stitch details in place, so pencils may be better?

I'm looking forward to adding more applique shapes tomorrow after tennis. It's the last Saturday game for the Summer season, so in coming weeks I'll have a little more stitching time :-)

In other news, on Wednesday I received two lovely squishies in the mail. One was from the lovely Rosemary Youngs containing the fabric I so desperately wished for to complete the sashing strips for Phebe. And the second squishy was from one of my lovely readers Wendy - with another delightful piece of conversational fabric:

Isn't it adorable? I'm fairly certain it's a vintage print, so it's very kind of Wendy to share. I can't wait to find the perfect project to use all these lovely prints. How blessed I am to have such generous people in my life. Thank you once again Wendy, and also Rosemary.

Well, that's it from me for now - I'm heading to bed soon. It has been a great night with Camo's tennis team having a big win tonight, and they're now heading in to the finals. Hooray!

Chatter soon xoxox