I'm obsessed with hand quilting right now.

Seriously, I am! There are other things I need to do, but I'm finding myself drawn to the quilting hoop in any spare moment I have. I even laid the quilt out as best I could on the dining room floor so I could see how far along I am:

I'm further along than I thought I was, but there is still a long way to go. As long as I keep putting stitches in, it's all progress right? I do love how this quilt is coming along, and I know I'm going to love it when it's finished too.

And just a quick side note (and scroll on if you're not Instagram inclined) I seem to find time to pop a picture on Insta more regularly than I do here - it's just so much faster. So if you do want to see something more than my irregular posting on here, do pop over and have a look. There's a link in my sidebar.

Dog walking continues unabated. Every day actually, and sometimes twice a day. We're seeing a lot of our neighbourhood. 

My pictures never look as nice as we see in person, but I'll persevere. Also my friends in far places do like to see the landscape. Rowley continues to grow large - hopefully he'll stop growing soon - he's a lot of dog to walk. Especially when he sees something he wants to investigate.

My parents and brother were on holiday in Europe recently, and while checking on my parent's garden I found Mum's beautiful clivias in flower. The orange ones were abundant, but this much rarer yellow one caught my eye:

I'm trying to grow the orange ones at the moment - my green thumb hasn't really formed yet. When I have success with orange, I'm going to add yellow to my collection, they're so pretty.

And you know that I don't have very much exciting to share when it's newsworthy that I caved and finally bought an air fryer:

I haven't used it yet - it was only delivered yesterday. If I'm honest, I'm a little nervous of it, though my friends and family tell me that it's a life changing kitchen appliance. We shall see.

Painting bead heads for the mmmCrafts ornaments has continued apace. This past week amongst other orders, I had one sweet lady order 28 Mrs Claus heads so she could make ornaments for her friends. What a darling gift to make!

They were fun to work on, and because it's now school holidays here, I'll be able to do more stock replenishment over the next two weeks. We're heading for the busy season in my Etsy store, and I love it!

Last of all today, the sun in the sewing room caught the quilting hoop just right, showing the teture of my Lily Rosenberry quilt. I tried to capture it, but once again my eyes see things my phone camera lens just cant. This picture will give you an idea anyway.

I never grow tired of gazing at, and running my hands over my hand quilted projects. My sweet friend Jean says it's like there are little pillows between the stitches. And to me, that sounds just about right.

That's it from me for now, and I promise to check in and chatter again soon xox

Little things ...

Hi friends, this past fortnight I've been working on some little things, and plugging away on some big projects too.

I've hand quilted a bit more than normal, and I'm out into the border on Lily Rosenberry. In fact, since this photo was taken, I've moved right into the corner of the quilt:

It's so nice to have time to spend on hand quilting, it doesn't seem like I get a lot done, but when I spread the quilt out, it looks so good and I realise all the quilting adds up. I'll try and get a photo of the quilt spread out so you can see how far along I am. Hopefully the detail will show.

It was Nanna's 95th birthday today, and I went with some of the family to visit with her. She just loves when the babies visit especially, her eyes really light up. I made her a little something to have on her side table, I hope Nanna enjoys using it:

I see more of these little mats in my future, they're fast to put together, and fun to quilt. A good Christmas project I think.

And the last picture of the day, Rowley on a recent walk refusing to perform for the camera:

Rowley is about 18 months old now, so still officially a puppy. He's a big boy though, at 34kgs (75lbs) - sometimes onlookers could be forgiven for wondering who is walking who.

Off to bed shortly here, I've just spent some q-time with the hubby watching the F1GP while working on some more lodestar ornaments. And tomorrow I'll get busy painting bead heads to replenish stocks. Hope you've all had a lovely weekend, and chatter soon!

Spring, down south.

Hello friends! I couldn't check in with you last week as I just had nothing quilt related to share. Not a thing. Time in the sewing room is still scarce, but I do have some pictures I can share with you.

I finally hand stitched down the binding on the Moda Blockheads 2022 little quilt. I'm so pleased to have this checked off the list of UFO's. It's not certain what I'll be doing with it, maybe a small gift for someone, we shall see!

A small project I worked on was using some waste HST's and made a small potholder for a friend. It's quite cute isn't it. I got it to quilted stage, and she offered to bind it - who am I say no to that?

And I've almost finished hand stitching the binding on the four extra placemats for my tennis lunch buddies (whoops, apologies for the blurry picture). We'll be meeting up again next month, so it's good not to leave these until the last minute. Unlike how they were constructed - completely last minute ...

In fun news, I just got a new car, and my old one has gone on to new owners. I just love the colour of the new one, and so far I'm completely intimidated by all the new tech and gadgets. Here's betting it won't be long and I'll be feeling right at home ...

Dog walks are a constant, and the weather is just beautiful. Walking seems to account for most of my pictures at this time!

Tomorrow I'm going to the Royal Adelaide Show with Amy, her hubby and the girls, I'm looking forward to seeing the quilts and handicrafts etc. It's always a great time seeing Mary so wide eyed and enjoying the fun of the fair. And then on Wednesday I'm guest speaker at one of our local quilt groups, which will be super fun too.

Thank you for the continued comments and emails, even though I've been a bit of an absent blogger lately, I appreciate them all! Chatter soon xox