My happy news :-)

Recently the Royal Adelaide Show was held in town - it's a fun week for us here in the city with so many things going on. The carnival rides and sideshow alley for the young and young at heart, the agricultural side of the show with farm animals/equestrian events etc, crazy amounts of showbags for all ages, and also the competition part of the show with all sorts of categories from pets to plants, cookery and craft.

I love to enter a quilt or two when I have something ready, and this year I decided to enter two projects. You've seen them both before, but it can't hurt to revisit them right?

My Montmellick quilt fitted right into the hand quilted category, and this year there was a special category for nine patch quilts, so I decided that Omigosh! would be perfect for that one. After I knew the judging was completed I waited a few days before I checked the show website, and received the happy news that both quilts had placed first in their categories!!

Here is my Omigosh with her first place ribbon. I'm so happy it did so well! :-)

And I also had the happy news that my Montmellick quilt won best quilt in show! I was just so thrilled! You can see her two ribbons in the picture. Yay!!

Amy and I visited the show one evening after work, and we had a really great time. My sweet girl is a real thrill seeker and wanted to hit the rides in sideshow alley. I love roller coasters, but some of those rides at shows leave me a little sweaty ... I don't know how she did it, but Amy convinced me to go on the biggest scariest ride there. It's called Speed 2 - I found a video on YouTube from a few years ago:

It was actually really fun, but I definitely didn't need to go on any more rides after that!! We got busy eating the obligatory carnival food, and after purchasing a bunch of show bags and watching the fireworks, we were super tired and ready to head home. What a great night out with my girl :-)

In other news, I wanted to share a quick snap of Norma's finished peacock block:

It's really cute isn't it? She's made it up into a cushion as a gift for her daughter. I am absolutely certain she  must love it! :-)

And finally for today, I just wanted to share a couple of fabric purchases I made at work today. There's a 50% off sale in the back room, so I was determined to give a few pieces of fabric a good home :-)

How could I leave behind a couple of Di Ford-Hall fabrics? And the Jo Morton in the middle there too? They'll live nicely in my stash until I have a project ready for them.

And this fabric will be super cute for a Christmas project I'm sure. I don't have any ideas right now, but I won't be able to think of anything until I've finished the top of the Caswell project. Surely it can't be long now?

So, today I added 5.5 metres of fabric to the stash. At the beginning of the year I stated that I wanted to end the year with less fabric in my sewing room than I started with - it's fair to say that I've done very poorly with that goal. Maybe next year I'll work on much faster projects and I'll get through more of the stash? Who knows??

Thank you all for the lovely comments you send my way. I'm behind with mail at the moment and promise to respond as soon as I can. And a big Hi to Janet who always sends the kindest notes - your email address doesn't pop up with your comments so I'm not able to reply.

It's getting late now, so I'll have to dash and catch some zzzz's. Chatter soon! xoxox

Life goes on in the Sewing Room

It would not suprise me in the least if I downloaded my mail someday and learned that my blogging licence had been revoked. Much has been happening, but I've either been remiss in photographing details, or things just don't seem blogworthy. But here goes anyway:

The week before last I was playing doorbell tag with our friendly Fedex driver. He'd either ring the bell while I wasn't home or I'd wait most of the day for him. Finally we caught up, and my Montmellick quilt came home from France:

She's living happily with other quilts on the new rack until I decide what other outings she can go on this year :-)

I've also been spending a little time sewing. For baffling reasons I felt I needed to sew a bazillion one inch finished half square triangles. I think I'm about one third the way through that bazillion, and I'm pretty much worn out ... 

But I'll keep going, because they're just so darn cute. Wow, doesn't that close up photo show a million tiny flaws? We'll just pretend all my points are perfect and I'll be happy :-) And just FYI those green bits are half inch finished strips with mitred corners, they took some doing!!

I'm also slowly collecting fabric for a worshop I'm attending next week with the wonderful Di Ford-Hall. I've got a few bits and pieces together:

My goodness, the workshop is next weekend!! I really need to ramp up the pace on the collecting of requirements and doo-dads. I am really hoping I'll have most of what I need in my stash ... and I'm not sure about the background just yet. But honestly, I've been joking with some of my friends that you can see my stash from space ... there must be something suitable in there ...

Well, that's about all I have to share for now ... I need to get busy in the sewing room. Sadly not continuing on my HST journey, but rather making up a William Wallace costume for Camo's history assignment ... how on earth do I get roped into these things???

Caswell Block F3

Raise your hand if you knew I'd find every spare moment to finish the last Caswell block I've been working on! Sleep is overrated right? Of course it is ... so to that end, here is my last block:

Caswell Quilt - Block F3

In my haste to take the picture, I've managed to take a blurry shot and haven't pressed the block well at all - but it's done and I'm just thrilled. I think this may be my favourite block so far. What a wonderful note to end on!

My sewing room is still in disarray, and will be for another week, so I can't get busy doing anything else just yet. Also my sewing machine is having a visit at the Bernina health spa, so even if I could find myself a quiet corner, there's not a great deal I can do.

Before I go, I'm so happy to be able to share some pictures that my sweet friend Janet took of my Montmellick quilt hanging at the AQC in Melbourne:

Now that AQC is finished, my quilt has travelled to Nantes in France with Di Ford-Hall, it'll be displayed in the special exhibit at Pour L'amour Du Fil. I genuinely wish I could be there, but this year it's not to be. I have some lovely friends over there, and they have assured me they'll be sending me lots of pictures, so I'll update you soon.

Well, that's it for me today - I have the last items of furniture to move and then it's time to get busy painting. Chatter soon! xox

Caswell Block E5

This block has taken me a few days longer than I anticipated. Not because it's tricky stitching or anything, I just haven't had so much free time lately. In fact, free time has been very hard to come by for some reason!

But here it is:

Caswell Quilt - Block E5
This block was super fun to work on, I really liked putting the big flowers together, and the leaves were a breeze with their gentle curves.

A decision I have made this week is that I'm going to make 25 of the 30 blocks. I've wrestled with it for a while, and I did some sums - I worked out that with the sashing selection I've made, the number of blocks and the applique border I want to work on, the quilt was going to end up just way too long.

It was a tough realisation, because I really wanted to stitch all 30 - but there is nothing stopping me from making the extra blocks later on, and perhaps a few more for a wall hanging quilt or some such thing.

At class yesterday I threw a whole bunch of the blocks out on the cutting table so the girls and I could have a look at them, and I took a picture to share with you all:

They're not in any particular order, so this isn't how they're ultimately going to be laid out, but isn't it fun to see that they're playing nicely together!

Lastly - at guild night last night, I handed my Montmellick quilt over to our Show Convenor for the first steps on it's journey to France. It's first visit will be at AQC in Melbourne, and then from there it will travel to Pour L'Amour Du Fil in Nantes. I'm more than a little sad that I won't be able to see it hanging at either location, but the timing of school holidays will mean that I'll be hanging with Camo rather than jetsetting. If any of my sweet buddies are going to either show, I'd just love it if you could send me a picture of my quilt in it's surroundings. Thank you so much!! Chatter soon xoxox

Update:  I almost forgot - I had a question from a lovely reader that didn't remember to sign their name and their email is set to no reply. They asked what size betweens I use for stitching. Most of you will already know, but just in case you don't - betweens are hand sewing needles, and are sometimes called quilting needles. My favourites are size 8 Piecemakers needles. No affiliation - just a very satisfied customer. I use each needle for ages until it's no longer shiny or gets blunt, I think they're just fabulous. Hope this helps, and thank you for your question!

Exciting News!!

I genuinely have the most exciting news!! Last night I learned that my Montmellick Mastered quilt was selected to be part of a Quiltmania special exhibit next month at the Pour L'amour Du Fil quilt show in Nantes, France!

It's impossible to express how exciting this news is to me, I feel so very honoured! At the moment I don't know how the logistics will work, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get over there or not, but all these things will sort themselves out - and fairly quickly I'm sure.

In the meantime, I get to enjoy the fact that my quilt has done me proud, and is soon to be very well travelled indeed! Happy days!!!

Major Excitement!

My family and I just got back from vacation yesterday, we flew to Singapore and spent 14 nights on the Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas cruising back to Sydney. I'll share more on that later - I want to share something quilty first ...

I barely had time to have some toast and apply fresh deodorant, but last night I was determined to get to our guild's presentation night, and there I learned that my Montmellick Mastered quilt had won three awards!

It placed second in its category - Open Traditional Large, won the prize for Best Hand Quilting, and it received the Retaining the Tradition Award. I am beyond thrilled and can't wait to visit with it and all the other prize winners on Sunday.

Happy Days!! xoxox

Still Quilting!

Hi there friends, I'm still quilting here, hand quilting of course, and it takes time. I'm out to the margin of the quilt on two sides, and I'm beyond thrilled with how it's looking:

I took this picture under the ott-lite I quilt with, so the fabrics are looking all washed out - it's much more vibrant in real life :-)

Let's hope I can get some more done tonight - I'm sure I have the energy. After an early start for Camo's tennis this morning I had a nap this afternoon, and right now I'm all hopped up on caffeine!!

In tennis news, Camo had two big wins this morning, he and his partner won their doubles 6-2, and then he won his singles 6-3 against a boy he hasn't won against before. So proud!

There is not much more to share in pictures at the moment, but I did see something fun recently - almost like a quilt sighting:

While quilting one night I was watching the old original Footloose movie, and there the scene where the kids are moving the flour sacks around before the big dance, I noticed that the sacks were patterned like the feed-sacks of old. I have a small collection of feed-sack fabrics, but I didn't know they were used so recently. How fun!

And the final thing for today, on Thursday evening I gave a talk to the ladies of the Quilters Guild about my journey as a vintage style quilter. They asked me last year, and I really only left my preparation to a week before the presentation. I was beyond nervous - it's hard to get on stage in front of up to 200 ladies, but it was actually really fun and everyone laughed in all the right places. I call it a success, and I needn't be so nervous if I need to do a talk in future.

Well, that's it from me, I'm heading back to the quilting hoop. Chatter soon!

Speedy days ...

This week is flying by, it always happens when it's school holidays. Camo and I have been busy shopping - he's had some birthday money to spend - and I've also had a little quiet time to stitch.

Last weekend on Sunday we had a lovely time at the birthday of one of Marty's cousins. I didn't want to arrive empty handed, so I baked brownies (which didn't last the day) and on Saturday I whipped up a quick table runner to take as a gift:

I've almost used up the last of this particular border print now - there is only a skerrick left now. Perhaps enough for a little something for me. I think I've had 12 yards of this fabric pass through my hands. It's so pretty - an oldie but a goodie.

Sylvia has lots of wood tones in her home, and a dark red leather lounge, so this fabric really was the perfect choice. She loved the gift and put the runner into service on the table immediately!

And because you know that I'm addicted to it, I'll share that I'm still hand quilting! In a small area, I'm right out to the edge of the quilt. If pushed, I'd say I'm about a quarter done (and that may be generous).

I have some time to myself over the next couple of days, so I hope to get a LOT more quilting done.

If I'm really good, I'd like to also do a bit of a sort in my closet - it's getting wildly full. I was trying to do a "one in - one out" thing, but I fell off the wagon in a big way. In related news, I tossed out five pairs of shoes on Thursday - shocking I know! I really could so some more of that!

Something fun that happened during the week was a little crochet workshop at Victoria's house on Tuesday. Sweet ladies from my quilting class organised it, and it was really fun. I believe I could grow to like crochet, and I'm thinking it'd be fun to work on a scarf - it seems like it'd work up much faster than knitting. Anyone have a favourite pattern they'd like to share??

Chatter soon!! xox

Finally!!

Finally I have set aside a little time to spend at the computer. Isn't it funny how when life gets busy a few balls can get dropped ... and the ball belonging to my blog may have just rolled under the couch. But I have a morning at home today, so I can pick up a few things.

This post may be a little bitty as I try and catch you up on what I've been doing lately, and figure out what I'm going to do with my pictures from Paducah.

First up, I wanted to share that in stolen moments I've battled on hand quilting on my Montmellick project:

This is something I can really only get done late at night, or when I'm out and about, like waiting for a certain small person at tennis training ... or at quilt group when I can get there. Hand quilting is so soothing, and it feels like I've achieved a huge milestone every time I get to move the hoop.

I don't think I'm even one quarter done, so it's not going to be done any time soon, but it's not a race to the finish line, right? :-)

Another significant thing that happened recently is that my little man turned 13!! Oh my goodness, where has that time gone??

The big day was on a Saturday, so after his tennis game (which his team happily won) I took his team mates to Maccas, and then on to a movie - Minions. It was super cute and I enjoy having an excuse to see the kid movies. I wonder how much longer it'll last?? After the movie and dropping the boys off, it was home to prepare for the family party.

This year I didn't have time to make a real cake, so I baked cupcakes the day before, and iced them on Camo's birthday:

Lazy Mum that I am, I even used store bought decorations - Camo chose Monsters and Pirates. But if I'm honest, there weren't that many choices at the grocery store :-) The cupcakes were really yummy though, and by the next day none of the 24 were left!

Another fun thing that happened recently was a couple of fun wins at Small and Whitfield.

I saw on their website that they had a Masons Vista fruit bowl and some loose amethysts coming up in their next auction, and also an oak shelving unit that I thought looked interesting. The day before the auction my Dad and I went and looked at the treasures and placed absentee bids. Dad had found a ring and a bowl that he liked, so in total we had five bids.

The day of the auction I was working, so when I thought it would be finished, I called and had the great news that we'd won four of the five items we'd bid on. I missed out on the shelving unit, and I think Marty is super glad, when it comes to furniture, he thinks we're full!

But here is the fruit bowl I bid on, and it came with a bonus tea cup:

And here are the amethysts, the four stones make a total of just over 30 carats.

I will have fun deciding what to do with them - I know one will be destined for a pendant, and I promised Amy that she could have one - she likes amethysts as much as I do.

Now - I promised I'd get busy sharing some pictures from Paducah didn't I? Well, I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do about that - it seems that most of the pictures I took were of quilts in the show and at the Rotary exhibition. It's not really fair to share quilts without permission from the owners. I will have to see what other pictures my friends have, and maybe even look at some of my pictures from previous visits of things that we visited again. I'll work on it.

But I can share right now the picture of the beautiful Grace Episcopal Church in Paducah - we lunched there on Friday during the show:

It is the most gorgeous historic building, surrounded by lush gardens. This year we ate outside, it was a really nice day, and the ladies of the congregation made us feel very special. There is a picture of our group kicking around, I'll try and find it for you. It's never easy to get 8 ladies in a picture, and at the luncheon we managed it.

Here is a beautiful pink dogwood tree blooming in the garden. This year the dogwood trees in the neighbourhood were kind enough to arrange their blooming schedule to coincide with the quilt show. Everywhere we went we could see spectacular displays of flowers. Our schedule was jam packed this year, so sadly we didn't have time to drive the dogwood trail, but we were able to enjoy the flowers when we saw them.

Obviously I have so many blanks that I need to fill in about our time Paducah, but I do have another picture to share with you. On the last day of our visit, we had a long visit at the Quilt Museum there. Sadly they don't allow pictures in the museum at all, but in the foyer there was this lovely quilt we were allowed to photograph:

I'm not sure of the name of the quilt, but it was made up of the most gorgeous English paper piecing, and the machine quilting was to die for! Being flaky, I don't remember much of the detail of the quilt - it was either a raffle quilt or advertising a book or something like that, the paper pieces logo is in the background there, so I should investigate further.

This year in Paducah and on my other quilt related stops I didn't really buy as much as I have in previous years. I joke with my friends that you can see my stash from space :-) and lately I've been making quilts that are kind of slow going so I'll be a long time using my fabric. I did get some lovely books and patterns, so in my next post I'll share a few of the things I purchased.

Thank you for all the emails I've received checking in on me, and also for the comments on my last posts. I'm way behind on emails - next week school holidays begin, so I'll be on holidays too, and it's my plan to catch up on all things! Famous last words!

Chatter soon xoxox

Hand Quilting

Whew, life has been chaotic these past couple of weeks - my calendar is full, and when ever I have spare moments I've been hand quilting. It really is so very relaxing ...

I don't think I'm going to be done in any great hurry, but isn't it nice to just relax and enjoy the process.

As soon as I have a block of time on my hands, I'll fill you in on my Paducah adventure. It really is such a wonderful place. Chatter soon! xox

Montmellick top finished!

Just a quickie post to share that I finally finished the top of the Di Ford Hall mystery - Montmellick.

I just love how this border print looks - it's much better than the other one I chose. Now I cannot wait to begin quilting. How fun!! :-)

Memphis ... and I'm sewing!

So to continue on my journey ... on Sat 18th April, we headed off for Memphis. We being Linda, Karen, Gerri and myself. An early start for us, and most of the day travelling. After we picked up our rental car, we checked into the hotel, and headed for our first stop:

We were excited to meet up with a long time blogging friend Forest Jane, and thought it would be fun to eat somewhere that locals eat. This is where we met up, and my goodness, we had the most delicious BBQ meal. I'm sad that I didn't get more pictures, and also that we couldn't spend more time with Jane, but it was delightful to meet her in person! xox

An early night was in store for us, because the next day we were having the most amazing adventure - we were going to visit with Elvis at Graceland! This is something that was super high on my bucket list, and I was beyond thrilled for it to be actually happening!!

 I couldn't resist this picture ... we're getting so close to realising a dream!!

 And here is Karen's ticket ... we're getting even closer!!

And now Linda and Karen are heading on into Graceland ... I cannot even describe to you how amazing this experience was. I do have pictures from inside - let me know if you'd like to see some of them, and I'll put them up on another post.

I was quite touched to see his grave in person, and to read the lovely testimonial from his family. Even though I'd never say that I am a crazy super fan, I have always loved him and his music, and it's fair to say that I appreciate him even more now. It was just amazing to share this experience with some of my loveliest friends. What a lucky girl I am :-)

After we were done visiting all the museums and shops at Graceland, we had to really hurry to get back into the city in time to see another famous attraction in Memphis:

We visited with the ducks at the Peabody Hotel. It was 5.00pm and time for the ducks to waddle to the lift and head up to bed for the night. What a fun tradition, and awfully cute. It was over really quite quickly though, and probably a good thing, because our day wasn't over!

Last on the agenda for the day was to head into Beale Street - and for baffling reasons I haven't taken any pictures. We spent the night in the Blues City Cafe, eating ribs, drinking wine and margaritas, and listening to a fabulous band. A really great night. And to make the night more memorable, as we were walking back to our hotel, a huge thunderstorm broke out, and by the time we'd dashed back to the hotel, Memphis was under a tornado warning!! Something I hadn't experienced since last time I was in Paducah. We could see the rain falling sideways outside our window while we kept our eyes on the TV to make sure we were safe. What a crazy night.

The next day was just fine again, and we headed out early. Our first stop was the National Civil Rights Museum, the location of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King.

The museum was amazing, and also terribly moving. How far we have come, and how far we still have to go. I was so impressed with how the museum is integrated into the original hotel, and how well preserved room 306 is. You can see it just as it would have been on the day Dr. King died.

The balcony, and the memorial. A very sombre scene. I'm so glad I visited this museum.

Last on our agenda for our quick trip to Memphis was a visit to Sun Records. The place where Elvis recorded his first songs and got his start in the music industry. 

I didn't get a good picture as it's a tricky little wedge shaped building on a busy corner, but I'm so glad we were able to visit - I don't think a visit to Memphis would be complete without it!

After Sun Records, we had to hit the road as the next stop on our trip - Franklin Tennessee - was beckoning. I'll leave my travels here, and fill you in some more on another post.

I'm excited to share that I've fnished the applique portion of the Montmellick quilt, and I'm ready now to add the final border print:

I need to fussy cut the border print out, and then I can get busy sewing it on :-)

And though I probably should have waited a little, I started putting a few blocks together of the next project I'm going to plod along on:

The project is 'Go Four It' which is in the February 2015 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting (I pinned a picture here). I saw the original at the Edyta Sitar lecture in Paducah, and fell in love with it. Funny, these are some of the same units I made while working on the Omigosh! project, but on a MARGINALLY larger scale. The strips were cut at 1" for Omigosh!, but in this project they're 1 1/4". Yes, a quarter inch larger :-)

I have a good long way to go with this one, and I'll have to intersperse piecing with quilting time, as I'd like to start hand quilting on Montmellick at some stage.

Well, this post has gone on and on, so I'll sign off. I'll leave you with a promise to get back to all the emails I've received really soon - I'm starting to get back into a normal routine. Amazing how quickly that can happen! Chatter soon :-)

Random bits and pieces ...

First up, I would like to wish all the wonderful Mothers out there a very happy Mothers Day for tomorrow, I'm very much looking forward to spending the day with my little people, my Mum and my Nanna, it's going to be a great day. I hope you all get to spend some time with, or be in touch with those that you love! <3 p="">
Since I was away, after seeing so many wonderful quilts and fabulous fabric eye candy, the only thing I've been interested in doing was attacking my stash and getting some piecing done. But before I start something new, I really MUST finish something else, so I've been working hard at the appliqué on my Montmellick top:

The finish line is now drawing so near that I can almost taste it. There are only the corner blocks to complete appliquéing, and then the final border to add. This project will be hand quilted, so it's not really a finish soon, but the top is in the last stages of completion, and that makes me happy!

And while I've been stitching away, I've had company. It seems like Gracie will call any surface a comfy bed:

I wonder what she was looking at? Because she was deliberately not looking at the person behind the camera! This is the trolley I purchased recently, but had deliberated over for a while - can I tell you that I'm just thrilled that I bought it! It has been so very handy, and great for keeping bits and pieces tidy and ready to put away at a moments notice. Thrilled!!

And while stitching last night, I noticed something I hadn't seen in quite a while ... a quilt sighting on the TV:

I do wish TV pictures didn't come out so blurry - but I'm glad I managed to get it somewhat. This sighting was on the movie 'The Birdcage' - an oldie but a goodie. Do you remember it? It stars Robin Williams and Nathan Lane - and this is the father of of the bride (Gene Hackman) fleeing thru a window. I hadn't seen the movie in a long time, and certainly never noticed the quilt in this scene before. It looks like a variable star set on point. A lovely two colour vintage looking quilt.

In other news - my week has been busy getting back up to speed with kid stuff, sport, work and guild - and I'm just now starting to feel like my fabulous holiday was an amazing daydream. I still have much to share, and I'll just show a couple of bits and pieces from the five days I spent visiting with my wonderful friend Linda at her home in San Jose.

Linda was such a great friend to take me out and about to lots of shops I wanted to visit - I always like to get to the Walmarts to pick up cosmetic/toiletry items that I just cant get here - visits to Costco, Kohls, Nordstrom Rack and Macys were on the cards too. We visited the outlets in Gilroy - I spent a lot of time at the Coach, Levi, Gap, New Balance and Forever 21 stores. Heavens, I think I accrued half my luggage allowance in this first week!

Here are the shoes that came home with me ... only six pairs!

Since I've been home, I've been going thru my shoe collection, and I've already sorted some for the trash/donation. It's a tough job, but I really must do it.

I spent moments at home in the sunshine while Linda was working - I always love to be on squirrel patrol in the yard.

I realise that squirrels are really kind of a pest in the USA and other places, but we just don't have them here in Oz. Personally, I think they're kind of adorable - but I've never been up too close and personal with one - I may have a different perspective then :-)

On Tuesday evening I was able to visit with Linda's quilt group, and I could hand out the spiderweb placemats I had made for them all. I do love to make gifts for people, and I was so thrilled when Gerri and Nancy presented me with a table runner they had made for me:

Isn't it just lovely? The fabrics are just gorgeous, and it's pieced and quilted so nicely - thank you so much Gerri and Nancy! xox

We were able to visit some more with Gerri at the quilt store she works at later in the week, and that is when I posted the picture of the tumblers up on the design wall from a few posts ago.

Santana Row was also on the list of places we visited during the week: a delightful high end shopping mall:

We both laid a few dollars down in Crate and Barrel, had the most amazing coffees and pastries at the Left Bank Brasserie ... and I tried on the  most gorgeous shoes in Kate Spade ... which were sadly not in my budget on the day ... but I have pinned them to drool over in the future :-)

Linda and I did so many other fun things together that week - we went and saw Cinderella at the movies, had pedicures, lunched out at every opportunity, and just generally hung out together. The things girlfriends do all the time - but all the more special because we don't get to see each other that often.

Then on Saturday, we set of for our adventure in Memphis ... and I'll fill you in on that next time!! Chatter soon! xox

Dargate Border

Do you remember the Dargate border print I recently picked up at Hetties Patch? It's just the prettiest fabric ever, and this week I finally grabbed the border print and my Montmellick quilt top and made the introduction ...

Aren't they just meant to be together? I'm really pleased with the combination now. As soon as I saw the fabric those weeks ago I just had to have some, and now I'm thinking it must have been a premonition. Happy days, I can't wait to get busy sewing!!

Chatter soon xox

Stitching Day

Today I had the most lovely day stitching with my lovely Guild buddy Roz at her home. My new friend Yvonne was there also, and Camo came for the day to hang out with Roz's little people - they had a great day too!

Whenever we spend time together, we always laugh, chatter, snack and generally have a really fun time, and the day just disappears way too fast. I did get some sewing (and unsewing) done that's been nagging me for a little while:

The Montmellick mystery has been calling to me, and I just haven't been interested in working on it. I finally acknowledged what has been in the back of my mind. I really just didn't like the border I'd chosen for this quilt. It's not that I didn't like the fabric - I love it, but I didn't feel it was perfect for this project - and I needed to do something about it.

But first, I sewed a few more of the little stars to put in place on the second last border. I got the four done in the picture above, so there are only eight left to go now. And after I was done with the fun stuff, I got busy unpicking and removed the outer border. I need to do more investigating to see what I'd like to use instead.

Maybe it'll be this lovely print I picked up at Hetties last week? I haven't put the top and the fabric together yet to see if they play nicely, but it's a contender :-)

The border print that I removed won't go to waste - I know it'll make lovely table runners, and it won't take long to whip them up as it's already cut into strips.

Last of all, Amy and I went to Ikea on Friday night (surprising I know!). Amy needed some bits and pieces for her room, and I wanted to pick something up that I've coveted for a while:

I pinned this trolley on Pinterest a while ago thinking it'd be great to put my hand stitching in. I thought I could have it by me while I'm in the lounge or the family room, and when I'm done wheel it back into the sewing room and everything stays tidy. I didn't buy it straight away as I didn't want it to be just a whim and turn into clutter - but after passing over it a couple of times while I was in Ikea and many months down the track, I still wanted it, so I gave in and bought it. And I'm super happy that I did! Now I just need to get busy filling it with my favourite bits and pieces.

Tomorrow we have a dinner to go to, and I'm planning to bring a pavolva for dessert - I thought I'd get started tonight, but it's getting late, so that'll be a job for tomorrow. Instead I'll spend a little time at the sewing machine.

Well, that's it from me - chatter soon! xox