This weeks bits and pieces ...

Last week I shared the squares I had been busy cutting out, and during the week I started stitching a simple top together. I think I'm about 3/4 done:

I'm sure it'll look much more interesting when it's all together and pressed - fingers crossed! I do love the Kaffe prints, they're all so pretty.

Also this past week I sort of finished the paint by numbers I had been working on:

I say 'sort of' because I need to go over it really carefully and make sure I haven't missed any places, and also ensure that none of the numbers are showing through on the light coloured areas. I'm pretty happy with how it's come out. 

And last week I forgot to share the frame that Marty and I picked up while we were out and about. It looks icky at the moment - it was in pretty bad shape when we stumbled across it, but we both feel that with a little TLC it could look great!

It needs a really good clean, and possibly a light sand and oil. The frame had an old (and quite damaged) picture of a very dapper gentleman. My lovely quilting ladies were super excited to open up the picture and see if there were any identifying marks inside the frame or on the reverse of the picture, but sadly there werent, so he's a mystery man.

Wouldn't it be fun to know who he is? I'm guessing the picture is early 20th century based on his clothing and look. You can see the reflections of some of my buddies in the picture. Anyway, my sweet friend Bridgie is giving him a new home, so he can live on mysteriously at her house. 

Last of all for today, I wanted to share that I've put my Faux Stitchery Table Topper in my Etsy store. It's available in PDF or Paper Pattern form, and with the paper pattern I'll send a set of the stitchery blocks.

I really like it, and I hope you do too!

This has been quite a week in so many ways, but today I'm going to close with a heartfelt wish that this world could know peace. It's so hard to see people suffering, and I really wish I could wave a magic wand and change it. Big wishes, I have so many xoxox

Today was a Kaffe kind of day ...

This has been a challenging week, so I was super happy to complete the quilting on the mini quilt top I made last week. I'm so pleased with how it looks now!

I started out doing some ditch stitching with the walking foot, which is something I rarely do, and I just didn't like how it was coming along. However when I went back and added more free motion quilting I started to fall back in love with it.

 See if you can tell where I ran out of thread:

Playing thread roulette seems to happen a lot with me! And I don't really mind when there are funny little things like mismatched threads in a project, it's all part of the story of the quilt. So now I've finished my first little quilt for Wendy's Monthly Mini challenge, yay!

Recently one of the Mum's of a school friend of Camo got in touch on behalf of Cranio Facial Australia regarding a need for quilts/blankets and comfort items for children undergoing surgery. I passed the information to our guild, and also chatted to my quilting ladies about what we could do. This week two beautiful friends Jean and Pam had brought in some fabric that was surplus to their needs, and I decided to get busy cutting so we can make up some quilts from the beautiful fabrics.

Today I started with the fabric Jean donated - a gorgeous pile of Kaffe Fasset loveliness!

So the photo is quite deceptive - it doesn't really illustrate well how much fabric is actually there - and on the right there are some of the I-spy fabrics that Pam donated.

Look at these lovelies that were hidden in the pile, just gorgeous!

It took me most of the day today, but I'm so happy that I managed to get all the Kaffe fabric cut into 2.5in, 3.5in and 4.5in squares. I have a plan for putting some cute scrappy quilts together.

When I was done I just felt like I needed to sit at the sewing maching for a few minutes, so I enjoyed a little time stitching some pairs together - this will be fairly mindless sewing, and sometimes that's just what's needed:

Thank you for sticking with me if you've read this far. I wanted to say thank you for the messages of support that lovely readers and friends have sent over recent weeks. My father in law passed away last wekeend, he had been in hospital for about a month after having collapsed at home. This has been and will continue to be a hard time for my husband and his siblings, and it's not at all easy to see them going through it. So thank you for the kind words, they mean a lot.

On that note, I'll sign off here with a promise to check in soon. Big love and hugs xox

I made a mini quilt top ...

First up, thank you for the kind messages regarding family issues. I know I was vague about what's going on - and I promise I'll fill you in when it's appropriate. Please don't worry though, we are fine in this house. The circle of life can be a tough thing, and we all have to ride these emotional roller coasters at some time. But still, thank you for the support.

But to the title of this post ... I'm sure my lovely readers are also reading Wendy Caton Reed's blog - she is a beautiful and generous person, and I just love her. Wendy hosts/participates in a monthly mini quilt collective, and I thought it would be fun to participate.

So this week I pulled a few fabrics and got ready to cut out some pieces:

I absolutely love that Judie Rothermel border print so I made it my starting point. I'm not certain, but I may have that border fabric in blue too - but possibly only a fat quarter. When I was looking at the colours I selected for coordinates, they all looked oddly familiar. And then I realised ... they were very similar (and one exact match) for the fabrics/colours I used in my Farmers Wife Quilt. I am not very original! But I do like the combination :-)

And here is the little quilt I put together:

Isn't it fun? Honestly, that border print does all the hard work and really makes it special. I do love fussy cutting, especially when it gives such a wonderful result. The pattern is quite an old one by Jo Morton, and I've made it before with Jane Austen prints. I may even make it one more time with sweet girly prints, as it's a lovely size for a doll quilt for little Mary.

If I can I'd like to have it quilted by the end of the weekend - after all I had made myself a promise that I'd finish a bunch of things before I started anything new, so I broke my promise really - and to make amends I'm not going to let it become a UFO. Once it's done, I'll get right back to the 'have to do' stuff.

Last week I mentioned that we were heading to the Barossa Valley on an errand - Marty was looking to get more Port for his barrel. He particularly loves an aged one from Seppeltsfield, so we visited again. Seppeltsfield is just the most beautiful place so I took a couple of happy snaps for you:

And while we were in the neighbourhood, we did stop at a very curious second hand store and I found a picture frame that I may be able to use for the "work of art" I've been splodging paint on. I neglected to take a picture before my quilting friends and I took it to pieces, and it's outside right now, so if I remember, I'll show you what it's like in my next post. It definitely needs some TLC and fixing up here and there, but it was a bargain, and I'm pretty sure it'll look lovely!

Well, that's it from me for tonight, I hope you've all had a great week, and I'll check in with you again soon! xox

Quickie Post

This has been one of those weeks. Not one that I can bore you with all the details - but a week that is inevitable when family members grow older. Our families absolutely mean the world to us, so it's really hard to bear when it's not easy to just fix things and move on.

Anyway, stitching time has been scarce, so I don't have a lot to share - I did manage to get this table topper finished:

I just fell in love with this stitchery panel by Primitive Gatherings and I've been looking for all sorts of ways to use the little blocks. They're just adorable. I'm going to use them to make a table runner for the coffee table too - the Thimbleberries runner I shared recently really needs to be replaced - I did a little research and figured out that it was a club project from 2004!

And in other stolen moments, I've been working really hard to finish up the Paint by Numbers project so I can start working on the mmmCraft decorations:

I'm getting so close! This weekend Marty and I will do a quick trip into the Barossa Valley, and while we're there I'll look in a couple of antique/second hand stores to see if I can find an old frame that will work with this picture. I've really enjoyed splashing paint around, how fun it would be if I was artistic and able to paint like this for real!

Sorry this is going to be so brief today, I really hope I'll have something more newsy to share with you next week. Thank you for sticking with me! *hugs*