Last post for 2020!

It's hard to believe that this crazy year is almost over, but here we are - almost at New Years Eve. What a strange year it has been, we've had incredible highs and some dreadfully low issues to deal with too - honestly I don't think any of us will be forgetting 2020 any time soon.

So, what has been going on here this past month? Well, in my last post I mentioned that I was working on some secret squirrel things - they were small gifts for the lovely girls that come to my class:

The applique portion of this block is from Sue Garman's 'Afternoon Delight' quilt. I made one for each of the sweet ladies - they all have different green fabrics, and a variety of background fabrics too. I really liked making them, and hopefully my ladies liked them too.

Then it was back to quilting on the baby quilt - I'm one quarter the way through the final border now:

It's hard to take a good photo of the quilting - I'll try to get one when it's finished with the hubster's help - he always manages to take great photos. When this darling project is finished, I'm going to put the white queen size wholecloth into the quilting hoop. It's not something I want to finish in a hurry, but it'll be nice to be able to sit and quilt on it a little when I feel like it.

And in the week before Christmas, I put together this year's gingerbread house which is a tradition for our family. I wanted to make it a big one this year, and I think I accomplished that!

Marty printed a template on his 3D printer for me to stamp the gingerbread pieces prior to baking, and that made the lovely brick effect. It took me a few goes to figure out how it all lined up properly, but it didn't take long before I was zooming along with it. We still haven't eaten any of the house (which is unusual) the quilting ladies asked if we could keep it intact until they start visiting again at the end of January. I'll do my best, but I can't make any promises!

Next year it may all be much lower key as we'll have a 9 month old grandbaby with us, so time may be delightfully scarcer!

And last of all, something I could have shared last time - I have an almost new overlocker!

I have wanted one of these for the longest time - I'd done some research and decided that the 644D was the one I wanted - it's apparently great for a beginner and super easy to thread. I'd obviously even chattered to Marty about it - but never pulled the trigger on buying one - I was worried it'd be a fad for me and I'd never really use it much. $600 to $700 is a lot of money to spend on something you're not sure about.

Marty must have listened carefully as he found this on a chance trip to Cash Converters and it appears to have barely been used. All the accessories were still in their plastic storage bags, and it came with a trolley case too. He bargained them down further to $229 and brought it home for me. Colour me happy! 

I'm still not too sure about it - I'm admittedly a terrible perfectionist, and I find it a bit out of control - it's flat out or stop! But I've been watching some you tube videos and playing with some scraps and so far have managed to put most of a tennis skirt together. I'm determined to do some classes next year to learn to use it properly and look out, I'll be making lots of garments!

Now, last of all, I feel the need to offer my readers (and in particular those of you who have posted comments) a huge apology!

After my last post I was looking around in the settings of my blog and learned that at some stage 'comment moderation' had been activated on my blog. It was set to kick if anyone posted a comment more than 5 days after the date of a blog post. It also did not alert me by email that something was waiting for me to approve it. So, I looked into the comments awaiting approval, and there were hundreds of them! A good portion were junk, but I'd say a quarter of them were sweet readers with comments and questions. OMG, I was mortified! So please do forgive me for not getting back to you when you sent through your comments - I simply had no idea they were there. 

I've rectified the problem, I've asked it to mail me when something is awaiting moderation, and I've set the day limit to a longer time. I don't think I'm ready to let moderation go entirely based on some of the spammy messages in there - but I'll see how it goes. So, please forgive me for my ignorance - I'll do much better going forward.

In the lead up to New Years, please have a lovely time ringing in 2021 in any way you're able to, and I'll look forward to sharing more quilty content with you next year! xoxox

Just made it in time for November!

Hey there, I just made it in time! I wanted to get a post in this month, and it's still November for another 30 minutes here. I better make it fast as I have to get up early - so I'll grab a few random photos from my camera and see how I go!

I'm still quilting away on the baby quilt - nine of the twelve blocks are done, and then the border, it won't take long from here. I've paused just for a short while while I get a couple of Christmas suprises done, and I'll share those with you in the next post. For now they're secret squirrel projects.

Gosh, these photos have jumped out of the camera in some crazy order - but I'll go with it! Is anyone a fan of the TV show Escape to the Chateau? Well, we're mad keen fans in this house, and we've decided we'd drop everything and move to a 45 room chateau in France if we had the chance! Anyway ... the hubster and I were watching along and he saw them using vintage egg coddlers to cook eggs and declared we needed some. I looked for the longest time - they're available on eBay for crazy prices (mostly due to shipping to Australia) - and after lamenting to buddies, some of my lovely quilting friends rallied to the cause. I now have two large ones and a small one - aren't they darling! I truly have the best quilting friends :-)

And here is this year's Christmas tree ... obviously before I put the skirt in place. I just love decorating the tree, and it's usually a whole day effort :-)

A local shopping trip yielded some delights for $10.00 per metre. A great price for us. It would have been irresponsible to leave it behind! Oops - the photo came out sideways, but oh well lol!

Now this is an exciting fabric - it's actually a Jane Austen backing, but I've decided it will be the background fabric for my next project. If the photos came out in a good order, the picture would be next, but it hasn't worked out that way. Once I'm all caught up here, I'm going to start working on Sue Garman's Lily Rosenberry quilt. I cannot wait!

This book came in the mail this week - it's a real oldie, it was around when I was working on my Dear Jane quilt, and it's out of print now. I wanted to find a copy and I would see it around for sometimes as much as $100 which seemed crazy. But I saw a copy on Ebay for $20 plus $8 shipping so I jumped on it. Even it I don't make it, it's lovely just to browse through.

And this is a not great picture of the quilt I'm going to tackle next. I'm so looking forward to it. Most likely it will be an exercise in perseverance with all those berries to be appliqued, but when have I shied away from a challenge? I think I'll be ready to start after Christmas. Even though that's a month away, things always get busy in the lead up.

And that's my speedy blog post for this evening. I got through it all before midnight, so it's off to bed for me now. I'll catch up with all my emails tomorrow, so I'll chatter soon! xox

An Exciting Week

This has been an exciting week for me from a quilting perspective. First of all, I finally finished hand quilting on the Phebe project, and I've applied the binding too.

This quilt has had so many stops and starts, I was starting to think I'd never get near the finish line. All that remains now it to add a label and a hanging sleeve and I can hand stitch the binding on the reverse side. I'm super happy with how it looks, it has been such a fun quilt to work on.

So with that quilt out of the hoop - I could put the next one in place. This is a really special one - it's for my grandbaby that will be arriving in March! I am beyond excited!

I'll share more of the top when I've moved the hoop a few times. One of the seriously fun things about this baby quilt is that the main fabric with the toys in it was actually used in Amy's cot quilts all those years ago. Who would have thought I'd have a fabric in my stash for more than 25 years - and how fun that I was able to find some fabrics that coordinated well all these years later.

Next on my agenda is to work out which quilt I'd like to work on next - I try to have a quilt I'm piecing/appliqueing on as well as something I'm hand quilting. There are two quilts I'm having a hard time deciding between. It's not that whichever one I don't pick up I wont end up making it ... they're both going to be made sometime, but which one is next ... the contenders are both by Sue Garman - first is Lily Rosenberry - and the second is Afternoon Delight. I love them both, and it's really just a matter of if I want to do all the additional piecing. Because I know I want to be appliqueing again. I'm sure I'll decide really soon and let you know.

I'm sure I have a bunch more to share, because it's been too long, but that's it from me for now - I'll check through my phone again soon and see what photos I have to update you further. Chatter soon! xoxox

Mid August

Hi there lovelies - it's time for me to check in again, though I'd like to do so more often - I always think there's just nothing interesting to share. But to be honest, it's all the small things that make up a bunch of wonderful, so I'll grab a few photos from the camera so you can see what I've been up to.

My own life has gotten a little busier as things are slowly getting back to normal here. We still have many restrictions in place, and so many people are still struggling, but in my little corner of the world, quilting classes have been able to resume in a limited way, and tennis is back in full swing.

I've been hand quilting away on the Phebe project, but photos of that are so very same same. My Rajah-ish quilt has also grown a bit, and here's where it's at right now:

I haven't laid it out on the floor very well, so the centre area is all wonky and wrinkled, but you can see how busy I've been with all the piecing in the borders. Those red and cream half square triangles are one inch finished - I had all those prepped and ready but needed to finish two sides of the purple and tan border.

Also under the needle - an odd project of sorts. I have a steam mop and for whatever reason I only have one cleaning pad that goes with it. I had a brainwave that I could make some more with some old towels and the leftover velcro from the sofa protector project:

These are going to get seriously grimy - it will be good to have a number of them in rotation.

Another thing I did recently was make cupcakes for my wonderful Dad's 70th birthday - I definitely don't bake them as often as I used to ... and I have no idea why?

My sweet friend Bridget made dehydrated oranges and gifted me some, so I thought they'd make a pretty decoration on the orange flavoured cakes. Yum!

Last of all, a couple of weeks ago, I had a call from my darling daughter. She was at Spotlight and wanted to know what kind of fabric was best for making cushions. Well obvs there are many, but she'd found a cotton drill that she liked and was happy to know it would be great. She grabbed all the supplies that she needed and came over for a play date to learn how to sew.

Can I tell you that my heart was so full it was ready to burst! Amy has never been that terribly interested in sewing or quilting, but I knew if the time came, I'd be so ready to help her.

Anyway, she quilted the top of the cushion, and this is the result:

And here is one of the two cushions that she made:

Isn't it just so great? And what a fun quirky fabric. Honestly, it makes my heart just sing that she wants to spend time in my sewing room. Here's hoping I don't get all territorial about my stash lol! Apologies for the quality of these last photos, I think I've messed something up with my settings?!?

I loved the fabric that Amy bought so much that I went out and got some for myself, and also found this sweet peacock fabric, and then one for some bindings. I think I'll make her some matching placemats when I have a chance, and maybe some peacock placemats for us.

Well, that's it from me for now - I hope you're all well and doing okay in these strange times. Big love and hugs from me.

Well helloooooo ...

It's amazing how good I can be at setting up some routines in my life, and yet in others I fail completely. Apparently blogging falls into the latter category :-|

But onwards ... let me share some of the things I've been doing ...

I got all the pesky 1" finished HST's trimmed and stitched all the upcoming borders for the Rajah-ish quilt that I'm slowly working on. I'm not quite finished all the border that comes before it, so there is still a bunch of piecing in my future. The trimming was TEDIOUS and I don't mind if I don't do any more for a little while ... I always say that, and then I end up doing more :-)

The days have been a little brighter, so I've tried to get a picture that showcases the sweet feathery quilting on the HOQH project - Lizzy did such a lovely job. It's actually really hard - the thread is such a perfect match and the piecing is so busy. You'll have to simply trust me that this quilt has such a pretty texture, and I'm beyond thrilled.

And here is the back of the quilt where it shows up a little better - but I have to say I'm in love with this toile. Wouldn't it make lovely setting squares in a blue and white quilt. I have enough left that I could consider doing something like that.

The final step - the binding - is complete now. The plaid binding is a slightly unexpected choice - but so were the checked sashing strips, and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out - so that's the way I went. It's actually kind of a modern print so it's another addition to the mismatch of eras in this quilt. I'm so glad to have finished something that has been in progress for about five years now!

Last of all for today - here is something I very rarely introduce to my stash - a layer cake! This particular one is going to be super useful for my next project. I actually can't wait to tell you what I'm going to work on - but I'm going to wait until I finish one of the two projects I'm currently working on - and the reason for that is because I've already changed my mind once so it's not out of the realms of possibility that I may change my mind again!

Well, that's it from me for now. I hope you're all staying safe and having time to do things you love. Chatter soon! xox

Piecing, and quilted!

Hiya, just wanted to check in and let you know that things are still moving along in my sewing room. It's my happy place, so I spend as much time as I possibly can in there ...

Since I last posted, I began cutting out what I thought was the next border for my Rajah-ish quilt, only to find that I'd gotten ahead of myself, and what I was preparing was for two borders time. It's not a big deal - I'll still use it, but I popped that aside and started on what was the actual next border:

So that's it there around the outside - the purple and tan hourglass border. It has been super fast to put together - and the next border will be a mirror of the one inch red triangles. There are so many seams, it's quite tricky to get all the points to line up - I'm trying to be okay with it when they're not perfect.

In other news, my lovely friend Lizzy has finished quilting on the HOQH top, and I'm entirely thrilled with how it came out:

It has been a super grey weekend, so I haven't been able to take any pictures that do the quilting justice, but when I can find some more light I'll show you the quilting from the back side of the quilt.

And speaking of the back, I promised to share the toile fabric I selected:

I have no clue when I got it or from where, but isn't it fun when you find something in your stash that you know you want to use.

The binding I've chosen is a blue and tan plaid - it'll bounce really well off of the setting triangles - I just have to wait for it to get here. I can be patient, I promise!

It's getting a little late here, and I still have to do my French lessons for the day, and a little hand quilting, then I can head to bed and rest easy. Chatter soon!

Next UFO ...

Though hand quilting is still my priority, sometimes I just itch to spend quality time with the Bernina, so I've picked up another (recent) UFO - My Rajah-ish project.

I had already sort of prepped all the 1" finished triangles for the next border (and a subsequent border) but I still had to cut most of them apart and trim them to size. Do you remember a while back I said I would leave them on the cutting table and work a few at a time so it wouldn't seem like such a chore? Well ... never happened!

Sometimes you just have to get your head in gear and commit yourself to something until it's done, so that's what I did - and because I've used five different red fabrics, I organised them into groups for each border:

Doesn't really look that interesting does it? But it makes sense to me and that's what matters :-) I like scrappy, but it has to be controlled scrappy, so I don't want any of the same reds abutting each other and sorting the fabrics out appeals to my sense of order.

After a few machine piecing sessions, I got four of the borders together and they're stitched in place:

Next up is another pieced border - without checking the pattern I think it's in the same style as the green pieced border - so if I can find enough fabrics I'm happy with, I might make it green again. And then there's another border with the red triangles. I think I made 340 or so of the triangles for this quilt - and there were a lot of them in the HOQH project too - so I really don't mind if I don't see any 1" finished HST's for a good long time.

It's predicted to be rainy here for a bit, so I see lots more quilting and piecing in my future - I'll be sure to keep you updated. Chatter soon! xox

Rounding the corner ...

Just a quickie post to share that I'm rounding the first corner hand quilting on Phebe's border ... this is slow going!

It's actually really hard to see the quilting, but it's there, and I have a whole lot more in my future. It's a shame that hand quilting isn't especially blog worthy, but I'm looking forward to a finish, so I'll keep plugging away.

Tomorrow, I'll get the tub down that has all the bits and pieces for the Rajah-ish quilt, and I'll figure out where I'm up to - happy days! :-)

Thank you so much for the lovely comments on my completed quilt top, I'm thrilled with how it came out, and it was great to hear from you all. Chatter soon!

HOQH Top Complete :-)

When I finally got organised to stitch the border to my quilt top in place, it didn't take very long at all, and I have to confess, I'm super happy with how it turned out:

It's a really grey day here, so the picture doesn't do the colours in the quilt justice - also I'm not a great photographer (but don't tell anyone haha). But so you can see it better, here's a little close up of the border print:

Now that it's all done, I've delivered it to Lizzy ready for her master long-arm skills, so it won't be long before this is a top-no-more. The backing is a pretty toile fabric, and in my haste I didn't take a picture to share, but I'll do that when it comes back to me.

A few lovely readers asked what the border print is, so I snapped a piece of the selvedge before I tossed it away:

This is not a new fabric - I think I bought it when I was in the USA last time, which was 2015 - but you may still be able to find it if you're a fabric sleuth. There were five border strips across the width of the fabric, so I still have one left to make a nice table runner or some such pretty thing.

While I'm still hand quilting away on the Phebe quilt, I'll pick up the next machine project too - I've decided that I'll finish up my Rajah-ish quilt top before I start anything new. I'm so close to finished on that one also, so it will be fun to see another finished top in the not too distant future.

It has been so lovely reading all the comments you're leaving. I do try and answer personally whenever I can, but sometime email addresses don't come to me. To that end, I'd like to say a big hello to Evie, Linda, Lisa, Monique D, Quilt Granma, Pam M, Terry and Sjoukje. Thank you for your comments!

Well, that's it from me for now ... I'll check back in really soon :-)

Border Reveal

It's finally time to share the border print I've chosen for the HOQH quilt top. I've cut it all out, but nothing is stitched in place - I really wanted to audition it before I got busy sewing, just in case I didn't much care for it.

As soon as I can find a few hours together, I'll be firing up the Bernina, because I'm supremely happy!

Please forgive the hurried photo, it was late at night and I was so anxious to see if it was going to work. Now the only other decision I'll have to make is what to use for binding.

My lovely friend Lizzy of Jacaranda Quilts has agreed to quilt it for me, and I could not be more thrilled, she does such lovely work. If I'm focused I'd like to have it in her hot little hands by the end of the week.

Things are a bit crazy here at the moment for various reasons, but I'm sure there will be stitching time, and then I can move on to the next UFO (or start something new) and get some more hand quilting done too. I'll check in again, hopefully with a finished quilt top - chatter soon!

So very close!

Just a quick happy snap to share today - I'm so excited that but for the last border, this quilt top is together!

I'll fussy cut the border fabric out tomorrow, and then (hopefully) carefully stitch it in place. It needs to be done neatly, and I'm just the woman for the job!

Chatter soon :-)

Top Started :-)

I've started putting the top of my HOQH project together - and things have taken an unexpected turn. As it happened, I simply didn't have enough of the striped fabric I selected for the sashing strips - not even half of what I needed, so I turned to my stash to see what else I could come up with:

And this is where I'm at so far! Though the blocks are decidedly vintage, the checked fabric I chose for the sashing strips is a little more modern. And the setting triangles are from a Jane Austen collection from who knows when - but her era is early 1800's - so this is becoming a quilt for all times!

I've chosen a border print that will add a whole new look to the quilt too, but I'll share that with you when I get there. Isn't it fun how our quilts can dictate to us how they'd like to be made. It's so much fun! Chatter soon :-)

Blocks finished! Squeeee!!

This evening I stitched the final seam in the final block for the HOQH quilt. I'm super thrilled, because I think I started working on them five years ago! Whew!

Block 28 - Ocean Waves

I wish I'd used more contrasting fabrics for block 28 - I'm not as thrilled with it as I could be - it looks okay, and won't be a problem in the big scheme of the quilt, but it could be better :-/

Block 31 - Snowy Owl

Block 42 - Memory

I think this is my favourite of this final group of seven blocks. Maybe it's because purple is my very favourite colour?

I hunted through some of my strip bins to find some pretty purples, and found this selvedge on a couple of pieces. This fabric is clearly from DEEP STASH! I think the Sarah Johnson Collection came out in the late 90's? Maybe 1997 or 1998 - who would have thought I'd be hoarding fabric for more than 20 years??

Block 44 - Shoo Fly

Ugh - this is a group of fabrics that really do not go together well - illustrating perfectly that I don't always get it right when choosing fabrics. This can be my humility block *lol*

Block 45 - Grandmothers Favourite

Block 50 - Capitol T

Block 56 - Union Square

What a blessed relief it was to put this final block together - I'm really excited to start stitching the blocks to the sashing strips and see how this quilt top is going to look!

This is the fabric I'm thinking of using for the sashing strips - they'll be only 1 inch wide I believe, so there will be lots of fussy cutting in my future.

I like it! Now I need to decide on something cute for cornerstones, setting triangles and a final border. I'm sure my mighty stash is hiding the very perfect things.

Though I'm anxious to get hunting for fabric, tonight I'm going to put a few more quilting stitches in Phebe, I really don't want to lose momentum there as it's still a favourite project too.

Well, that's it from me, hope you're all doing well - chatter soon!

7 HOQH Blocks

Work continues on the HOQH blocks, I'm actually spending more time on them than I am working at hand quilting. I just can't help myself, it's so nice to spend time with my sewing machine. If I can get another block made today, I'll only have six left to complete - which is really exciting because it's been a while since I've put a quilt top together! Also, I promised myself I'd finish up this quilt top before I allowed myself to even think about the quilt I'd like to work on next :-) I know what it will be ... and I promise to share in good time!

So here are the blocks:

Block 10 - Smokehouse

Block 27 - Maggie's Wildflower

Block 29 - Fancy Contrary Wife

Block 30 - Star and Pinwheels

Block 34 - Birds in the Air

Block 46 - Thunder and Lightning

Block 53 - Eight Pointed Star

I've used some odd little pieces of fabric in these blocks, and some have come from deep stash! It's amazing how few scraps disappear when working on a scrappy quilt, I feel sure I'll have fabric into eternity.

Other than the usual things I do each day, this week I also did a little gardening. I planted sweet-pea seeds - it's a few weeks late for our side of the world, but hopefully they'll still be okay. It's getting ready to rain today, and will be wet for a few days, so they should get a good start.

Is anyone out there learning French at all? If yes, I just wanted to share that I found a nice resource with some cute free infographics and lots of explanations that can be used in addition to Duolingo. It's called A Cup of French, and you can also follow them on social media.

And last of all, I just wanted to give a shout out to a brand new reader - Tarja K from Finland - thank you so much for stopping by!

So that's it for today - hopefully I'll have something other than blocks to share next time :-)