Scratching my head thinking of a title ...

I didn't manage to get here on Friday - I had set myself a crazy deadline and was racing toward it. On Saturday I was meeting four of my lovely tennis friends for lunch, and at 2pm on Friday I thought it would be a great idea to make them two placemats each. What was I thinking? I got all eight placemats made and quilted, but I only got four bound by 1.30am Saturday morning. So my sweet friends each received one placemat, and the promise of another next time we meet.

The binding is made and ready to go, so I'll be able to bind the remaining four placemats at my leisure. That pretty seed packet fabric is almost gone now, I've been able to use it so many times for cute projects.

Earlier in the week I made a quilted cushion for our sweet dinosaur loving granddaughter Mary:

This was a super quick project, and I was glad to have a pillow form in my batting box to use for it.

Also on the list of finishes were a couple of the mmmCrafts ornaments I started a couple of weeks ago:

These were such fun to make - the turtle dove will be heading overseas, and the partridge and pear will be Hazel's first ornaments for the collection I'll build for her. I'll get busy on Mary's ornaments next, along with some others.

And last of all, I did something I've been avoiding for a couple of weeks now. I've been working on a garment - a first top for me. I purchased a pattern on Etsy and got busy with some linen fabric. While linen probably wasn't an ideal first fabric choice, it worked out just fine ... until I became completely intimidated by the buttons.

A sweet Insta/former blogging buddy encouraged me to just have a go - and also to investigate my machine's auto-buttonholer ... so I steeled myself and just did it ... and it was EASY!

I'm a bit disappointed with the pictures, the linen is almost a denim colour, so the blue thread makes so much more sense in real life. On the bolt in the store, the tan colour which I've used as the reverse of the fabric was on show, but I decided that I liked the reverse side better. Anyway, I know I need never be afraid of buttonholes again.

This morning I purchased some textured cotton, and I plan to try my hand at a dress pattern that I also purchased from an Etsy store. I downloaded the pattern to Officeworks to print on A0 sheets so I don't have to tape bunches of sheets together. Such a timesaver!

Once I'm finished on here, I'll put a few stitches of hand quilting in Lily Rosenberry, and then it's bed time for me. Chatter soon friends! xox

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to my friends who celebrate, I hope you have a lovely weekend. Because of the extended long weekend, I forgot what day it is and here I am posting on a Saturday ... better late than never!

I managed to get quite a bit of sewing done this week, I quilted and bound the cot quilt for Mushroom Chu-Chu, and I'm thrilled with the results:

I used the serpentyle style quilting stitch that I'd used on some placemats earlier in the year and it was so speedy. After I marked all the lines and basted the quilt, it only took about 90 minutes to get the quilting done. Colour me happy! In fact I'm so pleased with this quilt that I'm contemplating writing it up as a pattern. It's just perfect for prints you don't want to cut up too much.

And in piecing news, I'm making moves toward catching up on the reproduction mini 9 patches - I made these ones during the week:

I'm calling these week 11, though they bear little resemblance to the originals. They're not very scrappy and quite blendy too TBH. At the time I made these, I still had weeks 5 through to 10 to catch up on - but yesterday I worked on week 5 though I haven't taken a picture yet.

This afternoon I'm contemplating breaking out the Morrell quilt project and potentially putting a block together. I'm not sure if I've made any blocks toward that project this year? It got put aside when things got busy for me and other projects bullied their way to the front of the queue. My version of the Rajah quilt also met the same fate. It's waiting on me to open that project box and finish it up. I don't think there it a lot to go, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, that has been my week in the quilting room/ladies lounge, how has your week been? Chatter soon xox

Decision made ...

Whew, this week thankfully saw a return to something like normality. Though I'm still a little low on energy, I could spend the day with sweet little Mary, get some work done, and catch up with my sweet quilting friends.

And also, I was able to make a decision which had been eluding me for a little while. Mary's little sister (who she has named Mushroom Chu-Chu) will be arriving in the not too distant future, and though I'd purchased some pretty fabrics, I had no clue what I wanted to make with them. That is no longer the case! Here are some pictures of the completed top - I just finished it this afternoon:

I had originally drawn up this pattern and made the quilt about ten years ago - I'm not sure what I did with the original quilt, but it's a really nice one for a print you don't want to cut up too much. I really like the sweet little possum print, and I may go back to the store and find some more.

If I get really enthusiastic, I'll get the quilt basted this weekend and maybe start quilting. I'm not sure what quilting style I'll use, but I've been toying with using the serpentile quilting stitches like I did with a couple of the placemats recently. 

In other news, it was lovely catching up with some of the Chookshed quilters on Zoom last weekend. Next time I must remember to have my laptop charger with me, I always get low batteries much faster than I think I'm going to. The ladies I've met are all lovely, and it's so fun to hear all the chatter.

That's all I have to share for the moment, fingers crossed I have a bunch more to share with you next week! *hugs*

So, Mary is almost 2!

I have been such a busy bee since I checked in last, I've been prepping for imminent babies, and a sweet little birthday party!

Finally I can properly share the little quilts I made for the sweet baby boy my brother and his fiancee are expecting:

This is the quilt I made with the fabrics that Mum found in a charity store. The three fabrics she spotted are the ones in the large squares. I wish I had noticed those two dark squares in the middle and separated them. It's funny that you see things immediately in photos that don't jump up right away in real life.

And since we were going with an owl theme, I added some borders to this panel and made it up too:

They were gifted on Sunday when we went to the Glen Ewin Estate for high tea with our family. It was so lovely. The grounds are just beautiful and the high tea absolutely divine.

So very delicious, and it was hard to leave after such a wonderful time.

Because that celebration was finished, next I needed to focus on finishing little Mary's quilt which is making up part of her birthday present. I'm super thrilled that I finished stitching down the binding on Wednesday evening:

I don't think the blocks of background fabric that are pieced are noticeable at all, so that's a relief. After I'd finished the quilt top, I realised that I may have a piece of the same fabric in my William Morris box so it's possible I needent have pieced the squares, I haven't had a chance to check yet, but I will look - not that it will change anything, it's too late to alter it now.

Thursday I had a few big orders for painted heads to fulfil, and then it was time to start baking Mary's birthday cake. I had the four layers done by bedtime last night, and today was final assembly.

But first up0, Amy wanted some guidance icing cupcakes for the party, so she came along this afternoon and finished making up these lovely things:

It thrills me that Amy has been becoming crafty and also loves creating in the kitchen.

And then it was my turn to put the cake together:

This cake was a bit of a learning project for me - it's the first time I'd tried the drizzle icing, which was easier than I thought. Also, I tried Italian buttercream for the first time. I do love that it's not as sweet as regular buttercream, but I found it a bit harder to work with and make smooth, so I'll probably stick to regular buttercream in the future. I also had the devil of a time halving the macarons, so I don't think I'll bother to do that again lol. It's all learning for me, so I know I'll do a little better with each cake.

So, that's where I'm at as of right now. I'm pretty worn out, so I don't think I'll be long out of bed. So, I'll leave off here with a promise that I'll chatter again soon! xox

Thank you!

A big thank you to Maxine for her inspired help toward a quilting design for little Miss Mary's quilt. It was like a little lightbulb switched on in my brain. I had already looked at a heart template but dismissed it as too small, so I drew up a larger heart on Corel Draw and continued the grid behind it and presto, I'm happy. I have the best visitors to my blog, thank you so much!

I'm on the home stretch now with the borders, I'm looking forward to getting the binding on this quilt and putting it in use.

I also finished the second of the twisted hearts blocks, still the same machine quilting design, but I'm getting so much more comfortable with my machine:

Lovely Janet asked about the quilting design I used on the tangled hearts, whether there is a stencil or a name for the design. I don't know about a stencil, but I an tell you that the little circles are generally called pebbles, and the circles with shadows - I call them peacock feathers, but they may also be called paisley or something like that. I think there would be lots of online tutorials about how to quilt them, they are super fun to do and great for filling spaces. Hope this helps!

Last of all for today, in baking adventures for the week, I made a lemon ricotta tart for the sweet ladies that come to quilting:

Ohhh nom nom nom. It was good! I pinned the recipe to my Pinterest board. It was actually an orange tart, but I changed it to suit my abundance of lemons right now. There is a little sliver left over, so I may just indulge and have it with coffee for afternoon tea today.

Thank you all for stopping by, and I'll chatter again next week! xox

First Friday, check!

I tried so hard to get all the things done that were on my list for this past week, and I think it's fair to say that I made it!

The quilt I've been working on for our soon to be arriving Grandbaby is now complete - I finished the binding and washed it to remove all the hand quilting marks.

This was such a fun project, and I loved that I was able to re-use the feature fabric from Amy's baby quilts - it feels very nostalgic. I'm thinking I may make this one up again sometime with some more modern fabrics and put together a pattern for my Etsy store.

Just another fun angle so you can see the quilting a little better and also the adorable 'people quilt' fabric. 

And because the 'people quilt' was out of the hoop, I replaced it with something I haven't worked on in a really long time!

This is the queen size wholecloth I've had on the go for a really long time. I'm pretty sure it has been YEARS since I've spent any time with this top. Just for nostalgia's sake I put a few stitches in it right away, but I will have to leave it be for a little while as I have other things to concentrate on first.

The next thing I needed to check off the endless to-do list was to finish up with Phebe. Even though I'd resolved to finish up the binding etc last year, I hadn't gotten it done. So, I made up the label and the hanging sleeve, got them in place, and finished hand stitching down the binding.

It was about 10.30 on Wednesday evening when I placed the last stitches, and then I gave it a 30 minute ride in the washing machine to remove all the quilting lines. My habit is to lay the quilt out on the lounge room floor on towels so it can dry flat so that was the last thing I did before I headed to bed - pretty much exhausted. When I wandered past on Thursday in the afternoon, it was fun to see the dappled light highlighting the quilting while it was drying:

Today is going to be a busy day - I have an optometrist appt, a coffee date with a cousin, and so much preparation for a birthday celebration. We're having a bunch of friends over for a formal dinner this evening. 

This is the menu:

Broccoli and Cheese Soup

Beef Bourguignon

Mixed Berry Eton Mess

I started working on the pavlova/meringue component of the dessert last night, but I have a bunch of cooking still to do. I'm really looking forward to it, and if I remember I'll take some pictures as I go along. 

From a quilting perspective, during the next week I have a secret squirrel block to work on, and I need to get some patterns ready for Etsy that I've had requests for. Let's see how far I get!

A big thank you so those of you that stopped by and commented on my recent posts. I wasn't able to respond to some of you due to email addresses not being enabled etc, but thank you for your notes all the same. I'll chatter with you again on Friday next week!

Happy New Year- Welcome 2021!

Happy New Year lovely readers, I hope you were all able to spend New Years Day doing all the things you'd like to continue doing for the rest of 2021. It's a fun little ritual for sure, why not start the year off on a good foot :-)

I had been doing a little thinking on what I'd like to have as a resolution for this year (from a quilting perspective) - there have been some bloggers resolving to make sure they spend at minimum 15 minutes quilting each day. I thought this would be a great one to take on, and got ready preparing a spreadsheet to record my progress ... but then I changed my mind. I realised I do already quilt every day (it's a strange day for me not to) so I'm just adding paperwork ... So, instead my resolution for this year is to do a blog post every Friday so I can share what I've actually been working on!

This week I have been entirely focused on finishing up the quilting on the baby quilt:

The border hasn't been hard to quilt, and it has been fun to mindlessly stitch away while watching/listening to some favourite things on Netflix.

I've rounded the last corner now and have about three quarters of the last short border to go, so I'm about where I wanted to be at this time. I was hoping to have the quilting finished by the end of the week, and if I do really well, maybe I'll get the binding on too.

So, that is my week from a quilting perspective - I hope your week has been good too! :-)

Last post for 2020!

It's hard to believe that this crazy year is almost over, but here we are - almost at New Years Eve. What a strange year it has been, we've had incredible highs and some dreadfully low issues to deal with too - honestly I don't think any of us will be forgetting 2020 any time soon.

So, what has been going on here this past month? Well, in my last post I mentioned that I was working on some secret squirrel things - they were small gifts for the lovely girls that come to my class:

The applique portion of this block is from Sue Garman's 'Afternoon Delight' quilt. I made one for each of the sweet ladies - they all have different green fabrics, and a variety of background fabrics too. I really liked making them, and hopefully my ladies liked them too.

Then it was back to quilting on the baby quilt - I'm one quarter the way through the final border now:

It's hard to take a good photo of the quilting - I'll try to get one when it's finished with the hubster's help - he always manages to take great photos. When this darling project is finished, I'm going to put the white queen size wholecloth into the quilting hoop. It's not something I want to finish in a hurry, but it'll be nice to be able to sit and quilt on it a little when I feel like it.

And in the week before Christmas, I put together this year's gingerbread house which is a tradition for our family. I wanted to make it a big one this year, and I think I accomplished that!

Marty printed a template on his 3D printer for me to stamp the gingerbread pieces prior to baking, and that made the lovely brick effect. It took me a few goes to figure out how it all lined up properly, but it didn't take long before I was zooming along with it. We still haven't eaten any of the house (which is unusual) the quilting ladies asked if we could keep it intact until they start visiting again at the end of January. I'll do my best, but I can't make any promises!

Next year it may all be much lower key as we'll have a 9 month old grandbaby with us, so time may be delightfully scarcer!

And last of all, something I could have shared last time - I have an almost new overlocker!

I have wanted one of these for the longest time - I'd done some research and decided that the 644D was the one I wanted - it's apparently great for a beginner and super easy to thread. I'd obviously even chattered to Marty about it - but never pulled the trigger on buying one - I was worried it'd be a fad for me and I'd never really use it much. $600 to $700 is a lot of money to spend on something you're not sure about.

Marty must have listened carefully as he found this on a chance trip to Cash Converters and it appears to have barely been used. All the accessories were still in their plastic storage bags, and it came with a trolley case too. He bargained them down further to $229 and brought it home for me. Colour me happy! 

I'm still not too sure about it - I'm admittedly a terrible perfectionist, and I find it a bit out of control - it's flat out or stop! But I've been watching some you tube videos and playing with some scraps and so far have managed to put most of a tennis skirt together. I'm determined to do some classes next year to learn to use it properly and look out, I'll be making lots of garments!

Now, last of all, I feel the need to offer my readers (and in particular those of you who have posted comments) a huge apology!

After my last post I was looking around in the settings of my blog and learned that at some stage 'comment moderation' had been activated on my blog. It was set to kick if anyone posted a comment more than 5 days after the date of a blog post. It also did not alert me by email that something was waiting for me to approve it. So, I looked into the comments awaiting approval, and there were hundreds of them! A good portion were junk, but I'd say a quarter of them were sweet readers with comments and questions. OMG, I was mortified! So please do forgive me for not getting back to you when you sent through your comments - I simply had no idea they were there. 

I've rectified the problem, I've asked it to mail me when something is awaiting moderation, and I've set the day limit to a longer time. I don't think I'm ready to let moderation go entirely based on some of the spammy messages in there - but I'll see how it goes. So, please forgive me for my ignorance - I'll do much better going forward.

In the lead up to New Years, please have a lovely time ringing in 2021 in any way you're able to, and I'll look forward to sharing more quilty content with you next year! xoxox