Quickie post ...

Just a quickie post tonight, as I have a bunch of work to get through, so it'll be a late one tonight in the sewing room.

This week I only got one block put together, this one for the Morell quilt. It's block #43

Somehow I made the diamond sections slightly incompatible with the background fabric pieces and it was a bit of a stinker to put together. But I got there in the end - it's not perfection, but I know it'll be just fine when it's quilted. I should have started again, but that would have been too easy lol!

And in other news, I baked my first ever sourdough cob. There is so much to learn, and I'm on the very beginning of that learning curve, but it's so far so good:

I didn't love it straight up, but it's super nice as toast. Camo has declared sourdough excellent and would like me to keep on baking. Marty is a wonderbread kinda guy, so he'll never love it, but he'll tolerate it. So far my favourite thing has been the bagels which I forgot to photograph, so I think I'll continue on this sourdough journey.

Recently I bought myself the latest iPhone, I always leave upgrading until it becomes super necessary. The camera is so much better than I've been used to - so while doing a little hand quilting recently I snapped a quick picture:

So fun! I can see the weave of all the fabrics, and in the top middle berry you can see some batting fibre that I couldn't see with the naked eye. I do love to see my quilting stitches up close - I don't get as many stitches to the inch as I used to, but it's still my favourite thing.

Well, that's it for me today, I'm going to get back to work and see how much I can get done tonight. Chatter soon! xox

Such a productive week!

Hi friends! I feel like I had such a productive week this week, I didn't get photos of everything, but I snapped quilt block pics for you.

On Saturday night we had friends over, and I used the recently new to me Spode dinner set. OMG, I love it so! I made rolled roast chicken and a fabulous roast vegetable medley. And for dessert I made a lemon ricotta tart. This is the recipe I based it on. It was so great I made it again on Wednesday so that the Thursday quilting ladies could indulge too, yum! Also on the baking front, I made sourdough bagels from scratch using the sourdough starter I've been cultivating. They were gone before I managed to take a picture. So very yum also! I'm going to make them again this weekend, so I'll try and remember to share my results.

And from a quilting perspective, I was busy too. I made some more of the Opa Sampler blocks:

Block 8 - Churn Dash

Block 16 - Radiant Sun

Block 9 - Checkerboard

When I started this project, I declared to myself that I was to use fabric from my scrap drawers, and that I wasn't to be concerned about if it was reproduction fabric, or any other type. But after I made this block, I just wan't in love with it, and didn't think it would fit in with the other blocks at all. I was expressing these thoughts to some of my friends, and one of the sweet ladies told me how much she loved the fabric and the block too.

So I added a border, quilted it up and bound it, and I'll give it to her on Thursday. It makes me happy that it won't go to waste. And then I made another block:

I'm much happier with this one, and I know it'll look better in the quilt overall.

Last of all, I mentioned last week that Rowley turned 6 months old this past week and promised I'd share a photo:

He has grown so much! The first picture is from pickup day which was the 9th May - he was around 6kg. And the second picture was on Wednesday - he's now weighing in at 19kg. He's a big boy, and getting bigger fast!

Afrer I sign off here, I'm going to work on a little hand quilting, and then get busy working on a few more Christmas gifts for this year. I have quite a bunch to make, so I don't want to leave them to the last minute. I'll let you know how I get on. Chatter soon!

Almost midnight!

Oh my, today has really gotten away from me - it's almost midnight, so I'm just going to get this post in under the wire. I'll keep it short so I can hopefully slip into bed while it's still today!

This week I've started working on a new project. I don't need a new one, but I really felt like I needed some simpler machine work. Well, that's my justification anyway. It's a sampler by Paula of OldePatchArt. She is repairing/reproducing a darling but damaged sampler quilt. Do visit on Instagram and see her lovely work.

Here are my first two blocks:

Block 20 - Spool Dance

Block 30 - Bye Bye Birdy

I have a lot of catching up to do, and I may or may not get there before the last blocks are posted, but I will enjoy the progress. I've decided I'll work from my ever growing scrap drawers, and hopefully put something of a dent in them. No scrap dents have been made to date, but I remain determined.

In other news, on day 16 my sourdough starter finally started doubling in size with lots of lovely little bubbles, so if the whispers are correct, I should be able to start using it for baking now.

The process for baking the bread seems terribly complicated though, so I don't imagine I'll be wildly successful any time soon. 

I'll have to sign off here - Rowley is pacing around, so he's probably looking for his end of night bathroom break. He turns six months old next week, so I hope to share a comparison photo with you from the day we got him until now - it's amazing how much he's grown. So I'll check in with that for you next week. Chatter soon! xox

A little gift ...

Hi there friends, it's time for me to check in with my week's achievements. Wednesday and Thursday I spent a little time at the sewing maching and put together a small gift. It was for the couple that run our local post office - they're retiring after serving our community for the longest time, and I wanted to show my appreciation:

It was a fun little make, and I delved into deep stash for a couple of those fabrics. The darker green may even be a Thimbleberries print! It makes me smile to think that each time they see this little mat they'll remember all the pesky parcels I've pushed across their desk over the years.

Other than a few stolen stitches in my Lily Rosenberry quilt, that mat is about the only stitching I managed to get done this week.

The lack of stitching time was for a couple of reasons. The first being that my Etsy store has gone a little wild lately, so I've been painting bead heads like a crazy lady. Also, on the weekend we had to completely empty our bedroom and WIR as we had new carpet installed on Monday. Whew, that was something else - it's amazing how much we managed to fit in there.

I adore the look of the room with the lovely fresh carpet, and while the room was empty I asked our cabinet maker to come over and make a big shoe rack to go in the closet. He's amazing and delivered it today. But I digress - a good deal of this week was dedicated to sorting out all our clothes, and I estimate we've donated/tossed out at least a third of them! It felt sooooo good! I don't have any pictures of all that to share, but trust me, I'm thrilled with how it's coming along.

Anyway, I'm babysitting little Mary tonight, so I'm going to keep this somewhat brief - and I'll chatter again soon! xox