Phebe did me proud!

Just a quickie post, I’m exhausted after a busy day at the guild show today. Phebe has done me proud and picked up a few awards:

I’m beyond thrilled, and I’ll check  back in with you all next week when I’ve floated back down to earth! xox 

Wholecloth - some hand quilting :-)

This will be a quickie post this evening, as I'm babysitting little Miss Mary. She will be six weeks old tomorrow, and is a delightful diversion :-)

There hasn't been much time for quilty pursuits this week, but when I had the opportunity I put some more stitches in the wholecloth quilt. I enjoyed revisiting it so much last week - it hasn't been that long since I finished hand quilting on Phebe, but I obviously missed it.

I did enough quilting to move the hoop twice, and I'm thrilled with how it's looking. 

I'd love to simply keep going and get a whole chunk of quilting under my belt, but from now I really need to get ready for the quilt show next week. My entry is all ready, but I need to label the bag. And because I'm quilter in residence I have a display of quilts ready - three of the quilts need hanging sleeves, so I must get that done in good time. I can't wait for the show, after all the delays, it's exciting that it's almost here.

Anyway, must get back to babysitting duties - chatter soon! xox

Bits and Pieces

It seems like I had such a busy week in the sewing room, so let's see what I have to share with you: After completing the wine themed quilt top for Amy and Mark, I was keen to get busy quilting it this week. I got it done, and the binding is about 3/4 done now.  I should be able to finish it this evening.

The quilting pattern is my simple fallback peacock flowers, I can almost do it with my eyes closed so when all goes well, it doesn't take long at all. But all did not go well:

Bernie was not playing nice. Not even a little. Of course I did exactly what the machine was asking of me, but to no avail. Quilting time ground to a halt, and I made an emergency call to the Bernina Health Spa. However, when hubby came home, he wanted to check my machine over - I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, he's a technician and electrician by trade, and he has a magical affinity for fixing things, and with most things I wouldn't trust anyone else. And happy days, he found and fixed the problem and I was quilting again the very same evening. 

This was the faulty part:

And this was the diagnosis:

I asked hubby to text me the details so I could pass it on to the Bernina tech in case it happened again (for me or anyone else). And now my machine is running as well as it did when it was brand new! Happy days!

In other news this week, I had some new fabric and a couple of supplies come into my life, this fabric:

It was clear to me when our granddaughter arrived that I don't have much pink or purple fabric, so I had to remedy that, and I don't have much orange/yellow either. The greens and one of the reds will be useful in the Lily Rosenberry project, and more other applique quilts for sure. The other fabrics were 'just because' :-)

And these supplies:

Now where has that 'hot hemmer' been all my (very short) garment sewing life? What a great idea - I know it will come in very handy in the future. And the quilting ruler will be a useful one too - and even more so now that my machine is behaving!

In further macaron adventures, my friend Kath came over on the weekend, and while we were waiting for baby Mary to come and visit, she asked if I could share what I have learned on my baking journey so far. Of course I was happy to oblige - and though I declared my next batch would be colour free, I wanted to share that step with her too, and here are our results:

Wildly pink and strawberry flavoured, these were fun - and for the first time we added sprinkles. The Thursday quilting ladies were able to snack on them yesterday, and Marty and Camo were able to take the leftovers to work today.

Last of all for the day, after seeing Jean's lovely hand quilting yesterday, I was feeling nostalgic for a little hand quilting, so I put a few stitches in the whole cloth project:

My goodness I love this project, but because it's perpetually on the back burner it won't be finished any time soon. Thankfully I was able to move the hoop last night, so baby steps ... it's closer to the finish line than it was yesterday morning lol!

So that has been my quilting week - I wonder what next week will bring :-)

A new top, and an oops!

This week I started working on a new project - a quilt I had promised Mark and Amy for their family room - a room they've decorated like an old English bar. I purchased some wine themed fabric, but had stalled on what pattern to use, I didn't want to cut the feature fabric up too much.

This is what I ended up making for them. It was easy to put together using half square triangles for the pieced blocks, and the feature print is fun for the alternate blocks. It's based on a design from the Missouri Star Quilt co. I couldn't follow their pattern exactly as I only had a small amount of the burgundy fabric and couldn't waste a single scrap of it.

A big thank you to my lovely friend Betty for gifting the burgundy print to me. It was the perfect thing! The green fabric in the small border was a small piece from my stash too, and that's all gone now. It's fun to use things up!

I'll get busy quilting the top on Sunday so hopefully it'll all be finished next week.

And now for my oops! I shared block four of the Lily Rosenberry quilt with you in my last post. During the week I did all the applique stitching and then soaked the glue from the block. At least, I thought I'd done all the stitching ...

Oops! In that lower stem between the berries I missed stitching it down on either side, and the upper stem between the berries I missed stitching down one side! Big oops! I'll fix up the applique before I head to bed tonight, hopefully I can get it to look as neat as the other stems.

Well, that's it from me tonight, this has been a busy week and I'm very tired - I haven't responded to any emails just yet, so I'll do that on Sunday. Thank you all so much for stopping by, I always love receiving your messages! xox

OMG, four blocks!

I just can't put this project down, I'm loving it - I've prepped the fourth block, and here they are all together:

The blocks aren't trimmed to the correct size yet - on two of them a little of the excess has been cut away, but I'm waiting for now. I figure these blocks are going to be dragged around a little - in and out of project totes for show and tell, so I don't want to risk any fraying - it would be devastating if they ended up smaller than they need to be!

My newest block is on the bottom left, and all the pieces are glued in place, but I haven't stitched them down yet - that will be something fun for me to do over the next few days.

On Tuesday evening I made a new tennis skirt - the urge to have a new one for our match on Wednesday morning overtook me ... 

This one is a little different to the last ones - only in that it doesn't have any pleats. I'm trying all the options in the pattern I purchased, and this one was super easy to put together. And maybe it helped us win that day, who knows :-)

And then on Wednesday afternoon/evening the macaron chronicles continued:

Because I had decided to make the filling with a lemon flavour, of course I had to use yellow colouring for the macaron shells. Now, I can't decide if the baked shells are browned more than they should be, or if that is just what colour they were going to come out. I feel like they could be a little browned, so with my next batch I'll leave the colouring out and see what happens. I also need to get my mixture just a touch runnier so the tops are a little smoother. Apologies if you stopped by looking for more quilting content - baking has me equally obsessed at the moment!

Last up - Happy Easter to all my lovely readers. I know we're all still living in strange times, but if you celebrate, and you're able to, I hope you can spend time with your family and friends. Big love and hugs xox