February 8

Hello friends, I've just been over here living life, and then this morning I realised that I'd completely fogotten about blogging. So according to this little page here, January didn't happen for me. Of course I've been a busy bee - I don't remember exactly what I've been doing, but things are moving around in the sewing room, and that's a good thing!

Let me update you with a few things:

I got my 2026 doll quilt exchange in the mail, and it's currently winging it's way across the globe to it's new owner. I cannot wait until it arrives!

This was a really fun quilt to make - I hit the scrap drawers really hard. You can see the Jane Austen background fabric there again, and you'll be seeing it again and again as I still have a lot of it! If you're interested, you can see the lovely quilts that people are making over on Instagram with the hashtag #dollquiltswap2026

And another challenge I'll dip in and out of is being hosted by Larissa from mmmCrafts. You can do either the 12 Days of Christmas, or the Merry Humbug challenge, and maybe some people are doing both? I'm working through the 12 Days already for the grandies and some friends, so I elected to do last month's Merry Humbug project, Mr Scrooge:

Ohhh this was fun! Really lovely handwork while watching the Australian Open tennis. One of the  hardest things for me with these projects is deciding what colour palette to use. I wonder if Mr Scrooge himself would have chosen to wear a lovely pink robe ...

This month the challenge is to make Santa, so I'll get busy on that at some point. Ohhh, and don't forget if you're working on these challenges and are anxious about painting the sweet faces, I have them available in my Etsy store for purchase.

And another challenge I accepted ... Repro Quilt Lover Taryn is hosting the Fancy Four Patch challenge. I'm up to date so far with two weeks having been released, I know I won't be able to keep that up though with upcoming travels etc. But here is week two: (I have to hunt further to find what I did with the week one image lol)

Last week I made another block for the Sarah Morrell quilt. This a project I've been on go-slow mode with. Maybe I've found a little of my mojo with it though?

The centre section was hand pieced and the outer section was foundation pieced. A few of the points are less than perfect, but I'm happy enough to let them just slide on by.

I've started another block, and hopefully I'll get it finished during the next week.

My sourdough starter is still kicking along and doing well. I don't remember what I talked about last time, but since I've reactivated the starter, I've learned that I have better success with baking in a loaf tin rather than a dutch oven. This is a recent loaf:

I've been baking about twice a week, and the rest of the time my starter lives in the fridge. I use about 50g of rye flour in each loaf and the balance is regular bread flour. Camo and I love it, Marty not so much - he's a white bread from the supermarket guy.

Last of all for today, here is the puzzle that Amy and I completed during the holiday break:

It was REALLY fun! It's a Jane Austen World puzzle, and it was so much fun looking at all the characters and buildings while we were putting it together. It had to get put away eventually as the small people wanted to play with it all the time, but I think I'm going to put it together again sometime this year. I enjoyed it that much!

Anyway, that's a little of what I've been up to recently, thank you for being patient while I mindlessly bobbled around here - hopefully I can remember to check in with you all a little more often. Ohhh, and Happy New Year!

On the eve of Christmas Eve

It's getting late here - the night before Christmas Eve - I'm quite worn out as it's been such a busy day. Pretty much all the days in the lead up to the 25th are hectic and there are few minutes spare. I decided I really must grab the laptop and do a little writing or it'll be another week before I think of it again.

I'll try and go in order of things that are in my phone ... first up, now that they've been gifted, I can share some of the things I made for the gift bags for my lovely quilting friends:

Keyrings made from one of the mmmCrafts 12 days ornaments patterns. I embroidered both sides of these hearts, and they could still be used as ornaments really.

And some bag straps, or phone wrist straps. These were a really fun make. I don't have one left for myself, but I'll fix that in the holidays!

For my birthday my sweet girl Amy found another piece of Masons Vista for my collection. She always knows the very best things to get for me. This ginger jar is just perfect, I love it!

These are this years 12 Days ornaments for the girls and for some friends that live in the USA. In photo order, 3 - French Hen (for our friends), 5 - Gold Ring (for Mary), 2 - Turtle Dove (for Hazel). I love working on these ornaments and simply cannot wait until I get to work on some of the people!

I was thrilled to reach my goal of 300 days of hand quilting during the year. I crossed that line last week, and I don't think I've sat at the hoop since. I'll rectify that after Christmas day.

Because I'm on holidays now, I fired up my sourdough starter again. When I put it on hiatus some time back, I dried and froze some of the starter so it would be easy to get going should I want to. It was ready to bake with again quite quickly, and I made some dinner rolls.

If I make these again I'll try and do better with the shaping, but I'm learning all the time. I didn't have much bread flour which is why I tried these rolls first, and when I got more bread flour I made sourdough and baked it in a loaf tin. No picture I'm afraid, it was eaten so fast. Next time fingers crossed I'll get a picture.

And last of all for today, this afternoon I finished this year's gingerbread house. I'm pretty happy with it!

I used a pattern from Ellen Designs. Her templates are wonderful, and her gingerbread creations are just spectacular. I hope I'll be able to create at her level some day!

So I can hit the send button while it's still Wednesday evening, I'm going to finish up this post ... but first, please allow me to wish you Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays. I hope you have a wonderful festive season, and here's to wonderful things in this coming year! xox

Quickie post ...

Just a quickie post tonight, as I have a bunch of work to get through, so it'll be a late one tonight in the sewing room.

This week I only got one block put together, this one for the Morell quilt. It's block #43

Somehow I made the diamond sections slightly incompatible with the background fabric pieces and it was a bit of a stinker to put together. But I got there in the end - it's not perfection, but I know it'll be just fine when it's quilted. I should have started again, but that would have been too easy lol!

And in other news, I baked my first ever sourdough cob. There is so much to learn, and I'm on the very beginning of that learning curve, but it's so far so good:

I didn't love it straight up, but it's super nice as toast. Camo has declared sourdough excellent and would like me to keep on baking. Marty is a wonderbread kinda guy, so he'll never love it, but he'll tolerate it. So far my favourite thing has been the bagels which I forgot to photograph, so I think I'll continue on this sourdough journey.

Recently I bought myself the latest iPhone, I always leave upgrading until it becomes super necessary. The camera is so much better than I've been used to - so while doing a little hand quilting recently I snapped a quick picture:

So fun! I can see the weave of all the fabrics, and in the top middle berry you can see some batting fibre that I couldn't see with the naked eye. I do love to see my quilting stitches up close - I don't get as many stitches to the inch as I used to, but it's still my favourite thing.

Well, that's it for me today, I'm going to get back to work and see how much I can get done tonight. Chatter soon! xox

Almost midnight!

Oh my, today has really gotten away from me - it's almost midnight, so I'm just going to get this post in under the wire. I'll keep it short so I can hopefully slip into bed while it's still today!

This week I've started working on a new project. I don't need a new one, but I really felt like I needed some simpler machine work. Well, that's my justification anyway. It's a sampler by Paula of OldePatchArt. She is repairing/reproducing a darling but damaged sampler quilt. Do visit on Instagram and see her lovely work.

Here are my first two blocks:

Block 20 - Spool Dance

Block 30 - Bye Bye Birdy

I have a lot of catching up to do, and I may or may not get there before the last blocks are posted, but I will enjoy the progress. I've decided I'll work from my ever growing scrap drawers, and hopefully put something of a dent in them. No scrap dents have been made to date, but I remain determined.

In other news, on day 16 my sourdough starter finally started doubling in size with lots of lovely little bubbles, so if the whispers are correct, I should be able to start using it for baking now.

The process for baking the bread seems terribly complicated though, so I don't imagine I'll be wildly successful any time soon. 

I'll have to sign off here - Rowley is pacing around, so he's probably looking for his end of night bathroom break. He turns six months old next week, so I hope to share a comparison photo with you from the day we got him until now - it's amazing how much he's grown. So I'll check in with that for you next week. Chatter soon! xox

A busy week with not much to show for it ...

I thought I would have so much more time to spend in the sewing room this week, but it hasn't really worked out that way. I've ended up doing a bunch of chores - sorting things out in the sewing room, and rearranging some things in the kitchen - and with sewing starting again this week, time has just flashed by.

This is the only Morrell quilt block I put together:

Another block using the County Clare panel by Karen Styles. Also a cute little background print from one her scrap bags - the red fabric from stash, possibly purchased from Karen too! I'm going to make one of the diamond star blocks next, and after that I'm going to force myself to work on some more broderie perse. It's only since I used that fraying fabric in the middle block that I've been leery of broderie perse - I had a wonderful experience with it while I was working on Mountmellick!

On Tuesday afternoon I started a very new to me project, and I have no idea how it's going to go. I'm taking baby steps into the world of sourdough starters:

I've had a few friends inspire me to give this a go, so I'm three days in and very unsure of what I'm doing or taking on, but I'm finding lots of resources online to help me out. Quite some time ago I received a Goldfields San Francisco sourdough starter package from my lovely friend Linda in the USA, and that's what I've used to get this going. I'm getting a few bubbles forming, and I'm learning that it could take a a little time to get anything worthy of baking with. I'm patient, and I'm ready to learn. Please pop me a comment if you have any interesting tips to send my way.

Last of all, Rowley is becoming less and less timid each week and we're able to take him for better walks. It's a lovely time of year, so I snapped a few pictures last weekend:

This weekend is going to be a busy one - we're having new carpet installed in our bedroom, so I'll be cleaning everything out of the bedroom and walk-in-robe ready for Monday. This will give me the perfect opportunity to cull a lot of items we just don't need, it will be very freeing!

It's only 10.30 here, but I'm flagging already, so I think I'll have an early night so I can rise tomorrow bright eyed and bushy tailed ready for chores. Chatter soon!