Friday, June 25, 2021

More of the same ...

This week I've been working really hard to clean up my sewing room (otherwise known as the Ladies Lounge). It was getting really hard to find homes for things and the cutting table was becoming a huge mess. I've made some progress, but I won't share photos with you just yet. I made another trip to Ikea today with Mum, and I have some new doo-dads - it's my aim to share some pictures with you next week.

In stolen moments, I stitched a few more applique pieces down on the current Lily Rosenberry block:


I've spritzed the block to remove the blue placement lines, and when I wandered into the sewing room to see how it was looking earlier today, I just couldn't believe it that I'd managed to miss stitching down one side of a stem again! Duh! You can see one of the stems on the left side is touching the berries - I'll have to get busy and fix it. 

Also a little more hand quilting, OMG, I am enjoying hand quilting at the moment!


If only we could find a few more hours in each day, I'd have this block done by now and a few others too - I'm dying to get this little quilt finished and ready for use by little Mary.

And for the last of the pictures, I got some happy mail today:


Doesn't this look like such a divine project? I can see a lot of fussy cutting in my future - not immediate future you understand, but it's going on the 'must make' list! This quilt booklet is a lovely tribute to a beautiful person taken from us way too soon. Di Ford-Hall was such a beautiful person inside and out, and is so sadly missed.

Catching up on some mail, a big thank you to all my commenters. I've written back to all that I can - but I also want to say Hi to some people that I'm unable to reply to - Beverly, Jude, Regina, Beth French, Leta, Gladiquilts, Viola, Lisa and Carol in TX, thank you for stopping by and leaving notes for me xox

Meryl asked what size ironing board I'm putting on the quilting trolley - I'm not sure exactly what size my ironing board is, but I got hubby to take the legs off my existing ironing board and fasten it in place on top of the trolley. If it weren't for the fact that we still use the ironing board to press his work shirts, I'd probably opt for a larger rectangle surface - but for now the traditional ironing board will work. And I'll share some more pictures when I'm a little further along working in the room. :-)

I feel like someone else has also asked me a question recently about a fabric or pattern or some such thing - I wasn't able to reply as the email address didn't come through, and now it's lost in my inbox somewhere, so if a sweet quilter friend is waiting on a response from me, I'm so sorry I haven't responded - please feel free to send me a note again if you feel inclined.

Well, that's it from me - not an especially exciting week, but things are happening here in the Ladies Lounge - all steps toward finishing projects. Big love and hugs! xox

Friday, June 18, 2021

Getting things done!

It felt so great to work on a few different things this week. I got some more hand quilting finished, I am loving how it's coming along - not sure why, but I seem to want to hand quilt all the time at the moment!


Two triangles and two setting squares are quilted now, won't be long and I'll have to start thinking about how I'll quilt the border.

Next I made up a dress for Mary's rag doll - I keep referring to her as Dolly, I'm thinking when Mary is old enough she can give Dolly a name she chooses.


The dress is reversible, and the lace around the bottom was originally on Amy's cot quilt - not much survived, but I was able to salvage some of it :-) There is a really cute felt raincoat in one of the patterns, so next I think I'll try that - it looks quite complicated, but if I take it one step at a time, how hard could it be? Ha - famous last words!

And today - hubby put the trolley together for me - it's in place in the sewing room now. He also took the legs off my ironing board, and the board is in place (but yet to be secured - that's next) on top of the trolley.


I especially wanted this trolley for the sewing machine space on the lower shelf. At the rear of the shelf are two of my Singer Featherweights, and in front the Coverstitch machine and the Overlocker. The upper shelf will be great for easy access to containers with current projects. Happiness! Note to self: buy a new ironing board cover - that one looks a little scorched :-/

I also made up some spiderweb placemats, they were very cute with teal blue fabric coordinated with a pretty light script fabric - but after I popped them in the mail today I realised I'd neglected to take photos. Ugh, one of these days I'll get better at documenting my stitching efforts!

That's it from me for now - thank you for your lovely comments, I always enjoy reading them - and I'll chatter again soon! xox

Friday, June 11, 2021

Sewing room freedom!

This week I worked on a couple of things in the sewing room - one of them a project that almost needed to have the dust blown off it!

Over the weekend I came up with a feathered wreath quilting pattern I would be happy with for the star crib quilt:


The squares finish at 9.5" and I didn't really have any templates that would fit. I did look to purchase one, but when the shipping was going to be $25 for a $5 template, it just didn't seem worthwhile. I ended up making some circle templates and hand drawing the feathers in between the rings. It worked out quite well really. It'll be interesting to see if I can get them all looking the same.

While on the hunt for a machine piecing project to sink my teeth into, I ran across these scrappy stars that I started many years ago.


I must have gotten distracted by another project at the time, because they had been stuffed in a storage container and forgotten about. I decided to pick up what I had made so far and make up whatever I could with them.


Here's where I'm at so far - there is an un-sewn seam in the middle there, so don't be distracted by my seemingly terrible points! I'll be able to make this small quilt 13x11 blocks, and it'll be a perfect small thing for draping over the lounge while Amy is feeding baby etc. It's amazing how much things need to be laundered when you have a teeny baby, so a scrappy project will be great to handle the rough and tumble.

I hope to have the scrappy star top finished by the end of this long weekend.

Today Mum, Amy, Mary and I visited Ikea, I did have something in mind for storage in the sewing room - but hadn't done any research, so in reality we were just heading there for the fun of it. It was a fun day out, and I did end up finding what I was looking for:


I plan to secure an ironing surface to the top of this trolley - it's actually very sturdy, and my overlocker and coverstitch machines can live on the lowest shelf. I am weary of them being on the floor, and I'm genuinely running out of storage space in the sewing room. I'll keep you posted on how successful this ends up being. Hopefully very!

That is all the news I have for this week, so I'll check back in with you soon!

Friday, June 04, 2021

Indecision!

It feels really great to not have a deadline to race toward. Actually freeing, I can work on anything I like! As you would all well know, I tend to only work on a very limited number of projects at one time - but I'm having a hard time deciding what I'd like to do. Something I'm not very familiar with! I'm giving myself permission to have a few things on the go for a little variety. Like a machine piecing project - a hand quilting project - and an applique project.

I got out the hand pieced tumbler project I've had on slow go for a while now:


I've been contemplating whether I should start piecing this on the machine rather than keep hand piecing, it certainly would get done much quicker! I think I've decided I'll keep hand piecing - it can stay a portable project. But this leaves me unsure what I'd like to machine piece. I'll continue looking and keep you posted.

On Tuesday night I felt the need for some new on-court fashion for Wednesday morning's tennis game, so I put together another tennis skirt - now that I pretty much know what I'm doing they go together quickly.


I seem to be really into plaids at the moment - not something we usually see on court! Did I mention that I caved and bought a cover stitch machine? It makes doing the hems of the skirt and the undershorts so much easier, and the best bonus is that the hems are lovely and stretchy so there are no stitches popping ever! 

And last of all, I've been continuing to get a few hand quilting stitches in the cot quilt wherever I can. I've finished the centre star, and I've quilted four of the pink star points too. 


The quilting for the corner squares and the setting triangles will be a feathered wreath with crosshatching behind it. I'm looking forward to drawing it up.

So that has been my week. Next week I know I'll have more quilting time on my hands - I've been taking Camo to and from his new job while some transport issues were sorted out, I don't need to do that anymore, so there are three hours of each day I get back. Happy days! Chatter soon xox

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