August 3

My goodness, time has flashed by since I dropped in here, and while I was looking through photos to share I realised I've worked on quite a few things!

Though I was a little adrift when we first got home from our holiday, it didn't take long for me to spend time in the sewing room. I finished the placemat pattern I had been working on, and got it into my Etsy store. I love these placemats, and I'll be working on some more soon:

And once they were done, I pulled a project from the archives - my version of the Rajah Quilt. I had gotten stuck as I didn't want to do the final applique border, and I put it aside for Seven. Years. I switched out a border that I wasn't happy with, and decided to add a border print instead. This has been a year of deciding not to follow patterns to the letter, and it has made me really happy. Here's the final quilt top, I'm so thrilled with it:

And then it was time to finish up another project I've been working on - I put the quilt top together of my Fancy Four Patch Challenge. I'm super happy with this too:

And I chose a border for it too - I haven't stitched it on yet, but it will be a fun project for a weekend.

On another note, did I mention that when Mum and I were in Paris, we made a special trip to a gorgeous dollhouse store in one of the covered passages? I was looking for inspiration, and some little bits and pieces for a project that I knew would be upcoming.

You see, I bought a dollhouse from a lovely friend to rehab for my darling granddaughters. It's a real fixer upper, and it needs SO MUCH work, but I'm just the person for the job. Here it is (please forgive the screenshot from my phone):

I've been working all new windows and doors which will be much larger. The walls will need to be replaced, and hubby and I have decided that the orientation will be changed. The front will no longer be opening, it will be open at the back, and we'll add electrics too. 

I think I'm inspired to make this dollhouse for the girls as Amy had a lovely dollhouse made by her great-grandfather when she was little, and it was absolutely treasured. Unfortunately it didn't stand the test of time and is no longer around, but we can recreate something like it for our sweet girls. And we'll have fun working on it (and playing with it) too.

I've already been practicing painting techniques on inexpensive items from dollar stores, and learning how to build the most basic of things so I can make some of the furniture. Here are my most recent efforts:

And I had the best luck recently when a lady in the next suburb was selling her old dollhouse project along with all the furniture and electrics. I felt like I won the lottery when I saw what I was getting for my $50 investment. The furniture in the photo, and so many other items too. I won't overwhelm you with them all, as really this is chiefly a quilting journal ... but I'm sure there are many of you that would have a little dollhouse nostalgia too ...

A few of the pieces need some minor repairs, but I'll have fun with that also. See the little dollhouse in the photo - a dollhouse for in a dollhouse ... how fun!

Anyway, it's getting late here now, so I'll sign off. I'll make no promises about checking in promptly, as I don't seem to be able to keep up my end of that bargain. Hope you're all doing well, chatter soon! xox

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

June 8th

Hello friends! I've had busy fingers in the sewing room these past couple of weeks, and I'm enjoying the freedom of working on whatever project I feel like putting my hands on. One of the first things I did was finish up a dress I had worked on before we headed off on the cruise. It didn't fit well so I put it aside - I've fixed it now but forgot to take a picture. I will genuinely remedy this in my next post.

I've also put together a couple more Sarah Morrell blocks, the first one in these two pictures I just finished up this afternoon:

In the pattern, the block above doesn't have any floral/broderie perse additions in the centre. I decided to add something to tie it in with other blocks nearby. I still struggle with broderie perse, particularly when the fabrics fray. Here's hoping I grow more comfortable with it, as there are so many blocks with broderie perse coming up!

This peacock block is a special one. Longer term readers may remember the funny story about when I nabbed Chris Forster at the airport when she was visiting Adelaide. It was all very innocent and fun, and she knew we would be catching up at some point, as she had a little gift of some fabrics for my Morrell quilt. The two fabrics above were from Chris, and based on an inspiration picture on Pinterest (which I'm not sure who it belongs to) I combined the two fabrics to make the block. I'm super happy with how it came together, and it really was very easy. 

I have additional yardage of the fabric I used for the circular frame, so if I feel like I'd like to do some more of the same, I'll be able to do it. I don't have a lot of fabric with birds though, so I'll most likely use larger scale florals. 

Piecing has also been happening, and I've now made a dozen fun little Ohio star blocks from scraps:

I've been having an enormous clean up in my stash - particularly the scraps that have been building up in my baskets. I've been finding little treasures along the way and making up these blocks - the fussy cutting is so much fun when I find the right fabrics. I'd like to make 200 before the end of the year - a big goal at what is traditionally my busiest time - it will be fun to see what I can come up with.

Another fun thing in my sewing room - my lovely friend Bridget gifted me some wooden cotton reels after her Mother had a clean out, and now the apothecary jar in my sewing room is full to the top:

Let's pretend there isn't any dust on the top shelf there ... haha :-)

I'm working on some secret squirrel projects that I'll share later in the year. But last of all for today, here are some new additions to my Etsy store:

A darling little card craft sewing basket:

Vintage lace and ric rac:

The Etsy listing pictures above are clickable if you'd like to have a closer look at the items. I have many more items to list, so if you're into vintage trims etc, do check back in.

That's it from me for now, thank you for reading all this way, and I'll check back in with you all soon xox

Jan 26th

Here I am watching the men's tennis final at the Australian Open on TV, and remembering I really should pop something on my blog so you don't think I've forgotten about you.

This year I made myself a commitment that I'd get 300 days of hand quilting under my belt - I've gotten to 26 of 300 so far which I'm super proud of, but I won't be able to keep up that pace all year. We have another cruise scheduled, and other things that will get in the way, but here are a couple of pictures I've shared on Insta so far:

I've also completed the top of the doll quilt I made for the swap on Insta. It's now basted and ready for hand quilting, I'm thrilled with how it came together. I really hope my swap partner likes it - I plan to have it in the mail some time next month.

The flying geese units are one inch high, and two across, and the little applique panel in the middle is two inches wide and runs the whole length of the top. I think the applique vine is about an eighth of an inch wide. This project has been fun to make and shouldn't take very long to hand quilt.

I found a cute little dish at a local discount store, and thought it'd look nice on display in the hallway.

I put it on top of the Dresden Valentine table topper - it's one of my favourite little projects. A quick project if you'd like to make one for yourself for Valentines Day coming up soon.

And last of all for today, we planted some tomatoes again this year, hoping against hope we'd have more success than in recent years. This time we tried the Roma variety, and ohhhh my goodness, we have been overwhelmed!

This is what I picked yesterday - we've given away this much and more, and I've made passata and bottled it. I'm waiting on some more rings for our Fowlers unit before I can make more passata - hopefully they'll arrive this week.

Though it doesn't seem to be a lot for this month, I have been super busy, and based on what I'm seeing so far, this is going to be a super busy year in total!

Hope you're all doing well, and I hope to check in with you again soon! xox

Keeping my head above water ...

November and December are always the busiest months of the year for me, and this year is proving to be no exception. I've been working hard on getting Christmas gifts ready, and I'm almost done with all that - this is a busy social time of the year, and of course we have all the normal things going on.

Looking thru my phone, I've taken some photos that I can share with you, but as is my habit I don't seem to have everything:

This past weekend we had a dinner party with lovely friends - I made a new table runner for my big table and decorated for the event.

I love how this runner turned out, I used the Tim Holtz Christmas fabric that I absolutely fell in love with. This is basically the same as the Halloween Table Runner pattern I put in my Etsy store but I stretched it to almost 100 inches in length. As you can see, I'm still mad for ric-rac and have been using it on almost every project lately.

Once the table runner was done, I set the table on Friday:

We had a great time, and I did share a picture of the aftermath on Instagram stories - I can share that next time if you like :-)

Our sweet friends gifted me with some flowers and a potted plant which was so kind:

I've been walking the dog every day, and we've been finding new paths to explore. When Rowley was younger he was very anxious about going too far from home, but he's getting better every day. On a recent outing I was taken with these pretty trees close to home:

Last of all for today, I just wanted to share the latest set of mmmCrafts heads I've been working on. Larissa added the 'Hung by the Chimney' ornament to her Twas the Night Before series, and it is so adorable! After it was released, I added the doll heads to my own Etsy store and they've been so successful.

There seems like to much more that I have to share, but I've reached the end of the photos I've managed to take since last time I checked in with you all. I have my sweet daughter here and my grandbabies too, so I'll leave off here and check in with you again soon. Big hugs!  xox