November 14

Hello lovely friends. I was trawling through photos on my phone and thought it really was time to check in with you all. I think I have a few interesting ones to share.

But before I get to that, I just wanted to say how wonderful it is to see our lovely friend Teresa from Fabric Therapy posting again. I missed her lovely humour and wonderful work, and I don't mind confessing that I was worried. But there she is with her delightfully quirky applique and I'm beyond thrilled to see her again. Hi Teresa! xox

During the last month it seemed like I got a lot done, I get forgetful what I've shared here, as I've often popped a few pictures on Instagram - it's so much quicker to share there. So here goes:

A lovely friend of mine experienced a terrible loss, and my quilter brain immediately wanted to make her a quilt to wrap her in love. I used some favourite fabrics and this was the result. I can't talk about it too much, it's too sad, so I'll leave it at that.

The little cutaway HST's and scraps meant that I could make up this small table topper, so I gifted this to her too a bit later on.

Another DJ block, B5 - Hot Cross Buns. I tried so hard to get the points of the applique diamonds really good and sharp - some are better than others. There haven't been any more DJ blocks since this one - I'm definitely flitting from one thing to another at the moment, and I'm quite enjoying not having any particular deadline right now!

Some friends and I took a day trip to Victor Harbor and visited with lovely Penny at Pennylane Patchwork. I had never been there before and absolutely LOVED it! Here are my purchases on the day - I really had to restrain myself as I had set myself a limit of $200 for shopping, and came in just under the wire. There was no proper reason for me to have set a limit, but I find it really easy to buy SO MUCH and I know that there are fabric and notions purchased long ago and they are crying out to be used!

Here we have a little decorating I did in the hallway for Halloween. My darling friend Norma made the sweet little crochet pumpkins for me. And you see the Halloween table topper from a few years ago on the table there.

For the first time ever I put a couple of decorations outside. I saw someone on Instagram who had made up these light up pumpkins - I'm sorry I don't remember who it was, you know how it can be when one is mindlessly scrolling. You take a garden solar light (the kind where the top of the light looks kind of like a hat) cut a hole in the top of the pumpkin to fit the light but hat sits on top of the pumpkin - a small hole in the bottom of the pumpkin if you want the spike to poke through. Set the pumpkin with it's little light inside in the garden for the day, and in the evening watch it light up. I was thrilled with the result, and it was really inexpensive. This year we actually had a couple of trick or treaters which is unusual for our street!

After the spooky season passed, I set the hallway back to it's usual state:

Next came Melbourne Cup day, and I decided I wanted to make a pillbox hat to match a pencil skirt I had sewed earlier in the year:

Oh my goodness I was absolutely thrilled with how it turned out. I purchased the pattern from Elsewhen Millinery - the pattern very easy to follow with great instructions. I did make a couple of alterations because of the thicker fabric that I used, but it's about 98.7% exactly as written. Here is a link if you're interested in seeing the wonderful patterns this designer has for sale: Elsewhen Millinery.

On the next Saturday we had a dinner party with lovely friends. I took this picture before we learned we would be having extra guests and added the extension table. I love to use my Spode Byron dinner setting it's so much fun that the cabbage pieces add something a little different. I do have enough side plates to do the job, but the contrast is cute. We had a really great night and I left the cleanup for the next day. When that job was complete it was time to ...

... put up the Christmas tree! The Adelaide Chistmas Pageant had rolled through the city the day before and for so many local folk that means it's time to start decorating for Christmas. I would normally have done it on the Saturday but dinner party preparations meant that I was a bit too busy. There is a big gap at the bottom of the tree which I've since filled with a large pick including berries and poinsettias etc. I only noticed it after I'd taken the picture from this angle. Isn't it funny how pictures often reveal what the naked eye can't see. And I've used my favourite Dresden Plate Tree Skirt. I think I'll make another someday, maybe with a red toile fabric and coordinates. It's so much fun being able to change things around on a whim.

So that has been my past month - thank you for sticking with me if you've made it this far. It really has been quite busy and I haven't had many opportunities to check in, neither here nor on Instagram, but I hope to post a little more in the lead up to Christmas. Hope you're all well, and chatter soon! xox

Hello November!

My goodness, how can it be November already? It seems like the year has only just begun. The month has been busy for me already, so let me share a few of the goings on here so far:

On the day of the Adelaide Christmas Pageant I put up our Christmas tree. It's tradition for lots of families in Adelaide to mark the day in this way - for whatever reason the pageant is a couple of weeks early this year, but that just means we all get to enjoy our festive decorations for a bit longer. I'm sure I've told you all before, it's an all day job for me, and one I look forward to. It's much less fun when it's time to take it down.

And putting away the Halloween display in the hallway meant I was able to put out something else:

I've been hand quilting and working on some secret squirrell business too. And I promise to share photos of those things when they're gifted. But I can share pictures of the table topper I made for my friend for her birthday:

I'm so sorry about the quality of the photos - I clearly took them (especially the last one) in a rush. For this table topper I used my Dresden Christmas Tree Skirt pattern, and instead of cutting away the center circle and opening for the tree, I appliqued a circle of Dutch Chintz fabric in the centre. I do really love that green floral, it's so pretty.

Another recent adventure was meeting Nagee Maehashi from Recipe Tin Eats:

My lovely friend Sonja and I decided on a whim to head to Tea Tree Plaza to meet her at her book signing. We joined the queue just oven an hour before it all began and were so thrilled to meet her and have Nagee sign our books. Her recipes are wonderful, and Nagee is a delightful person. Amy and I are going to make one of her recipes tomorrow after Amy has a sewing session here.

Dog walking has continued. We decided to give the Wynn Vale dam a go once more - we tried it a while ago while Rowley was still very much in his puppy stage, and it was a big overwhelming for him. It's a much busier place with lots of smells and other people and animals to meet. Just a couple of pictures of the dam:

We are so lucky to live in such a nice place with plenty of space to wander.

And the last picture of the day - some cute pompom like flowers that I bought at the grocery store. I wasn't sure what they were, but my dear Instagram buddies tell me they're crysanthemums:

These would be so lovely to grow in the garden, I'm definitely going to look into it.

I have so much work I'd like to get done tonight before I head to bed, so I'm going to sign off here with a promise to catch up on comments tomorrow. Thank you for stopping by, I always appreciate it xox

I'll try something here ...

Hi friends, I hope you're all well ... I have a few things to share with you today, one of which I'm not exactly sure how to do - but I'll give it a go!

First up, I am finally able to share the secret squirrel projects I've been working on for a little while. Do you remember I shared that I'd found a number of milk glass bowls, ones that are frequently used to make pincushions for sewists ... well - I needed extra to do what I wanted with them. So I assembled a small but dedicated team of friends to find more - and fortunately we managed to locate enough for my quilting buddies, and I set to making them up as gifts:

I'm so pleased with how they came together. I wasn't able to find an actual pattern that was meant for the bowl, and made it up as I went along. There are several lovely inpirational pictures on pinterest, so it was fun to spend time researching as well.

And I also made up an embroidered ornament for everyone, a super fun stitchery project:

All the mmmCrafts projects are absolutely foolproof - the directions are fabulous, and I've already planned which one I'll tackle for my friends next year.

For the sampler project I've been striving to catch up on, I was able to put one block together, and it was a bit of a tricky one:

Block 24 - Dolly's Star

For whatever reason I decided to machine piece the center area of this block instead of hand piecing like I normally would, and it was a bit of a battle to make sure all the points lined up. I used freezer paper piecing which I love, but I'm finding that the freezer paper I have at the moment just doesn't seem to stick as well as it used to. But no excuses, I should be able to get good results anyway. 

I'm aming to get a couple more blocks made this weekend, so I'll be looking forward to digging around in my stash. I think there are only two more blocks to be revealed, and I'll be hoping to get them all complete during the holidays.

Last of all, I wanted to see if I can share a video of my Christmas tree - I'm not sure if I've shared a video before, so I'll see if I can do it ...

I hope this has worked, let me know if you're able to see it. My Xmas tree is one of my favourite things, and it's such fun to decorate it. This is a slim tree, I think 7 1/2ft tall. It's so much fun to cram so many decorations on there that it's hard to see the actual tree itself.

Last of all, I took a quick snap of the camper-van placemats I put together before I handed them on to their new home:

I really like this placemat pattern, it's great for prints that you just don't want to cut up too much. There will be more in my future!

Okay, I'll sign off here so I can spend some time in the sewing room. I hope you're all doing well, and I'll chatter soon! xox

Such relief ...

This week I'm feeling so much relief that I'm really getting through some 'have to do' things. One of those things was to complete the tree skirt I shared an in progress shot of last week:

I've been trying to get a new tree skirt into my Etsy store each year, and this year the festive season is starting to draw very close. It's a quick make so I feel confident that people will be able to get one made in time with no trouble. This was such a fun project, and I was so happy to be able to use some fun fabrics. I don't have my tree up yet (which is so late for me) but I'm looking forward to putting this tree skirt to use.

Two other projects I'm working on I can't share just yet, but won't be long I promise.

On Monday I put together another block for the OPA Sampler sewalong. I challenged myself to work only from my 1.5" strips - I haven't actively added strips to that container in quite a while, so some of the strips in there are OLD. You'll see some very vintage repros in this block:

Block 22 - Brickwork

There is definitely a Smithsonian print in there, and several from the Ann Robinson collection - both of those are late 90's collections. I also see others that I know have been in my stash a good long time but I don't remember any details about them.

And last of all for today, I can share that last night I put the last stitches in the binding of the first of the Scrappy Stars Stitchalong quilts. In this picture you can see the plaid binding I chose really well, and also a hint of the random backing fabric I dug out of my stash.

I'm mad for plaid bindings right now, I just love how they look on the edge of the quilt, and I have several different colours to suit different quilts. Come to think of it, I really like a stripy binding too.

And as for that backing fabric, I really like it, but mustn't have had a plan for it. I'm trying to get fabrics like that out of my stash closet and used up to make room for future new fabrics.

After I'm done on here, I'm heading back into the sewing room, I'm really feeling like I'm on a roll right now and may be able to get a long term project completed this evening. Such a relief! So I'll chatter soon, thank you so much for stopping by xoxox

Limited sewing time ...

Sewing time has been so scarce this week that I have very little to share with you. My little Etsy store has been super busy and I've been painting wooden bead heads almost every day. It thrills me that people are so happy with my work, and I never grow tired of the darling little faces.

So, I have two things to share for you - the first up is a new tree skirt I'm attempting to have completed really soon. It'll be another option for people looking to stitch up something for themselves, and this time jelly-roll friendly so ppl can keep to a fabric theme/collection.

I'm having fun with these novelty prints, aren't they darling? I'm sure to be close to finished/if not finished by next week, so I'll look forward to being able to share more soon.

And today I made another OPA Sampler Stitchalong block as I've gotten well behind ...

Block 41 - Chessboard

This block absolutely could not be simpler, so it's a good one to get back on the horse with. And it's the only block in the quilt that is repeated, so I definitely knew what I was doing when I put it together. I'm hoping I'll be able to sew up another block tonight, but if I don't that's okay too :-)

Another thing I want to tell you about, and it's bothering me. I'm having loads of trouble commenting on peoples blogs recently, and I'm just not sure how to fix it. When I send lovely friends a comment after stopping by, I'm getting a message in my mail account saying Bigpond isn't allowing the comment. Gah! I'm not tech savvy enough to troubleshoot and fix what has happened, there must be an update that has messed things up. But I did want to send my sweet friends know that I have been visiting with you when I can, you just won't know that I've been by. I'm so sorry!

Anyway, that's enough from me for now, I'll check back in with you soon when I have something fun to share. Have a great weekend! xox

Checking things off the super long list!

Another wonderful week is drawing to a close, with many successes making me happy. I've been busy working on mmmCrafts ornaments:

These are so enjoyable and easy to work on. I have quite a few I'd like to get done before the big day. Some more for little Mary, and also Amy, plus some that I'd like to send to far away friends. They'll  have to be next on the list to ensure they get there in time.

And I did manage to quilt and bind the first of the Scrappy Star Stitchalong quilt tops:

I do really love a plaid binding, I have quite a few different colourways to suit different quilts. I think I'm mad for plaid in general, I'm always drawn to it in clothing stores and pretty much everywhere! I have some other things to work on for a bit, so I may have to put the second top on hold for a little while. Let's see how many hours I can eke out in the coming week.

This past Wednesday I went shopping with a lovely friend in search of something I have been seeking for YEARS!

I have wanted to get a Christmas Pickle ornament from David Jones for the longest time, and I'd never manage to get there in time before they sold out. Well this year I was determined to get in early and found one. Can I tell you that in store they only had 5 left already! Apologies for the blurry 'instructions' card, but you can see why the pickle is special. DJ's always have the most glorious selection of ornaments, so I got a few more things ...

Of course I purchased the Kitchenaid Mixer ornament, and the macaron ornaments too. They're so me. I know it's early to be talking about Christmas for some folk, but I needed to shop early to make sure I didn't miss out. Also, tomorrow is the day for the Adelaide Christmas Pageant, so it's traditionally the day I'd put our tree up. I'm going to wait a couple of weeks this year, as I need the space free in the lounge for a bit.

And the last Christmas themed info for this post: I've popped one of my finished tree skirts in my Etsy store if any of my sweet readers are interested. I really like it, and hope you all will too:

Please let me know if you have any questions about the skirt, I'll be happy to help you out.

I'll sign off here, there are still a number of things to get done today, and they day is disappearing, so I'll chatter soon! xox

Avoidance at its finest ...

Last week I shared with you that I was feeling super happy to have completed a broderie perse corner on the centre block of my Morrell quilt - and that it was challenging because of the fabric's propensity to fray ... so this week I have been studiously avoiding that particular block ...

And instead today completed this block - it's # 36

I really love it, and I so enjoyed making it. It's all I can do not to make a few more that are very similar. But I really should finish the centre block - it's so close!

Earlier in the week I made an alternate colourway of one of my recent tree skirts. Also avoidance I suspect - but I told myself it's Christmas in July.

Also super happy with how this project worked out. The pattern is available in my Etsy store if you're interested, it's the easiest tree skirt I've ever made - you can stitch it together almost in a heartbeat!

So they've been my quilt related accomplishments this week - I'm super pleased that 'life with puppy' is getting easier and stitching time is easier to find. It's also mid year school holidays for the next two weeks, so I'll have an extra couple of hours to myself each week which I'll dedicate to all things crafty. 

And just a fun little aside - I was watching a movie while working on some hand sewing during the week (it was the tennis movie Battle of the Sexes) and at one point they were sewing tennis outfits for the ladies - and I was so thrilled to see that they were using this machine:

A darling white Featherweight! How fun is that? I have one of these sweet babies of my own, but I don't use it very often. I purchased mine while I was in the USA some years ago, and it's a 120v machine, and we're 240v here. I do have a transformer for it, but if I need to use a Featherweight I tend to use my black one as it's much less messing around. Maybe I should put the white one on display somehow, as it's such a sweet little thing.

So that's my stitching week up to now - I plan to get a little hand quilting done tonight while I watch some of the tennis at Wimbledon. And then tomorrow I will make some kind of bargain with myself so I finally set to and finish that darned broderie perse. Seriously!

Chatter soon - and hugs!

Tree's up!

Thank you everyone for the lovely comments about our little room reno, you're all so sweet! Because that was all finished up, on Sunday I was able to finally put our Christmas tree up. Now I really feel like we're heading into the festive season.

In years past the tree has always been in the bay window, it's so nice to have it in a different place for a change. I love how it looks!

This is the new tree skirt I made this year. I had wanted to put one together for the longest time, but other things always got in the way. If you like it, I made a pattern for my Etsy store, it's selling really well, it's nice to have some options for people.

In stolen moments I've also been working on another tree skirt, this one is even easier if that's possible!

My sweet friend Bridget has helped me out a little with the binding too, when she ran out of things to do at quilting she put a few stitches in. Every little bit is appreciated, I love my quilting ladies <3 <3

And in exciting news, another of my wonderful quilting friends - Lizzy - finished basting the Lily Rosenberry quilt for me, so whenever I'm ready I can start hand quilting! I cannot wait!

So that has been my week. It seems like it has been a busy one, and it has just flown, but slowly life is queting down here, and I'm looking forward to having time to myself this weekend to catch up with you all. Big love and hugs, and chatter soon!