More of the same ...

This week I've been working really hard to clean up my sewing room (otherwise known as the Ladies Lounge). It was getting really hard to find homes for things and the cutting table was becoming a huge mess. I've made some progress, but I won't share photos with you just yet. I made another trip to Ikea today with Mum, and I have some new doo-dads - it's my aim to share some pictures with you next week.

In stolen moments, I stitched a few more applique pieces down on the current Lily Rosenberry block:

I've spritzed the block to remove the blue placement lines, and when I wandered into the sewing room to see how it was looking earlier today, I just couldn't believe it that I'd managed to miss stitching down one side of a stem again! Duh! You can see one of the stems on the left side is touching the berries - I'll have to get busy and fix it. 

Also a little more hand quilting, OMG, I am enjoying hand quilting at the moment!

If only we could find a few more hours in each day, I'd have this block done by now and a few others too - I'm dying to get this little quilt finished and ready for use by little Mary.

And for the last of the pictures, I got some happy mail today:

Doesn't this look like such a divine project? I can see a lot of fussy cutting in my future - not immediate future you understand, but it's going on the 'must make' list! This quilt booklet is a lovely tribute to a beautiful person taken from us way too soon. Di Ford-Hall was such a beautiful person inside and out, and is so sadly missed.

Catching up on some mail, a big thank you to all my commenters. I've written back to all that I can - but I also want to say Hi to some people that I'm unable to reply to - Beverly, Jude, Regina, Beth French, Leta, Gladiquilts, Viola, Lisa and Carol in TX, thank you for stopping by and leaving notes for me xox

Meryl asked what size ironing board I'm putting on the quilting trolley - I'm not sure exactly what size my ironing board is, but I got hubby to take the legs off my existing ironing board and fasten it in place on top of the trolley. If it weren't for the fact that we still use the ironing board to press his work shirts, I'd probably opt for a larger rectangle surface - but for now the traditional ironing board will work. And I'll share some more pictures when I'm a little further along working in the room. :-)

I feel like someone else has also asked me a question recently about a fabric or pattern or some such thing - I wasn't able to reply as the email address didn't come through, and now it's lost in my inbox somewhere, so if a sweet quilter friend is waiting on a response from me, I'm so sorry I haven't responded - please feel free to send me a note again if you feel inclined.

Well, that's it from me - not an especially exciting week, but things are happening here in the Ladies Lounge - all steps toward finishing projects. Big love and hugs! xox

Getting things done!

It felt so great to work on a few different things this week. I got some more hand quilting finished, I am loving how it's coming along - not sure why, but I seem to want to hand quilt all the time at the moment!

Two triangles and two setting squares are quilted now, won't be long and I'll have to start thinking about how I'll quilt the border.

Next I made up a dress for Mary's rag doll - I keep referring to her as Dolly, I'm thinking when Mary is old enough she can give Dolly a name she chooses.

The dress is reversible, and the lace around the bottom was originally on Amy's cot quilt - not much survived, but I was able to salvage some of it :-) There is a really cute felt raincoat in one of the patterns, so next I think I'll try that - it looks quite complicated, but if I take it one step at a time, how hard could it be? Ha - famous last words!

And today - hubby put the trolley together for me - it's in place in the sewing room now. He also took the legs off my ironing board, and the board is in place (but yet to be secured - that's next) on top of the trolley.

I especially wanted this trolley for the sewing machine space on the lower shelf. At the rear of the shelf are two of my Singer Featherweights, and in front the Coverstitch machine and the Overlocker. The upper shelf will be great for easy access to containers with current projects. Happiness! Note to self: buy a new ironing board cover - that one looks a little scorched :-/

I also made up some spiderweb placemats, they were very cute with teal blue fabric coordinated with a pretty light script fabric - but after I popped them in the mail today I realised I'd neglected to take photos. Ugh, one of these days I'll get better at documenting my stitching efforts!

That's it from me for now - thank you for your lovely comments, I always enjoy reading them - and I'll chatter again soon! xox

Sewing room freedom!

This week I worked on a couple of things in the sewing room - one of them a project that almost needed to have the dust blown off it!

Over the weekend I came up with a feathered wreath quilting pattern I would be happy with for the star crib quilt:

The squares finish at 9.5" and I didn't really have any templates that would fit. I did look to purchase one, but when the shipping was going to be $25 for a $5 template, it just didn't seem worthwhile. I ended up making some circle templates and hand drawing the feathers in between the rings. It worked out quite well really. It'll be interesting to see if I can get them all looking the same.

While on the hunt for a machine piecing project to sink my teeth into, I ran across these scrappy stars that I started many years ago.

I must have gotten distracted by another project at the time, because they had been stuffed in a storage container and forgotten about. I decided to pick up what I had made so far and make up whatever I could with them.

Here's where I'm at so far - there is an un-sewn seam in the middle there, so don't be distracted by my seemingly terrible points! I'll be able to make this small quilt 13x11 blocks, and it'll be a perfect small thing for draping over the lounge while Amy is feeding baby etc. It's amazing how much things need to be laundered when you have a teeny baby, so a scrappy project will be great to handle the rough and tumble.

I hope to have the scrappy star top finished by the end of this long weekend.

Today Mum, Amy, Mary and I visited Ikea, I did have something in mind for storage in the sewing room - but hadn't done any research, so in reality we were just heading there for the fun of it. It was a fun day out, and I did end up finding what I was looking for:

I plan to secure an ironing surface to the top of this trolley - it's actually very sturdy, and my overlocker and coverstitch machines can live on the lowest shelf. I am weary of them being on the floor, and I'm genuinely running out of storage space in the sewing room. I'll keep you posted on how successful this ends up being. Hopefully very!

That is all the news I have for this week, so I'll check back in with you soon!

Indecision!

It feels really great to not have a deadline to race toward. Actually freeing, I can work on anything I like! As you would all well know, I tend to only work on a very limited number of projects at one time - but I'm having a hard time deciding what I'd like to do. Something I'm not very familiar with! I'm giving myself permission to have a few things on the go for a little variety. Like a machine piecing project - a hand quilting project - and an applique project.

I got out the hand pieced tumbler project I've had on slow go for a while now:

I've been contemplating whether I should start piecing this on the machine rather than keep hand piecing, it certainly would get done much quicker! I think I've decided I'll keep hand piecing - it can stay a portable project. But this leaves me unsure what I'd like to machine piece. I'll continue looking and keep you posted.

On Tuesday night I felt the need for some new on-court fashion for Wednesday morning's tennis game, so I put together another tennis skirt - now that I pretty much know what I'm doing they go together quickly.

I seem to be really into plaids at the moment - not something we usually see on court! Did I mention that I caved and bought a cover stitch machine? It makes doing the hems of the skirt and the undershorts so much easier, and the best bonus is that the hems are lovely and stretchy so there are no stitches popping ever! 

And last of all, I've been continuing to get a few hand quilting stitches in the cot quilt wherever I can. I've finished the centre star, and I've quilted four of the pink star points too. 

The quilting for the corner squares and the setting triangles will be a feathered wreath with crosshatching behind it. I'm looking forward to drawing it up.

So that has been my week. Next week I know I'll have more quilting time on my hands - I've been taking Camo to and from his new job while some transport issues were sorted out, I don't need to do that anymore, so there are three hours of each day I get back. Happy days! Chatter soon xox

Another week has just shot by!

That Facebook meme that talked about people going through life saying "Next week will be quieter ..." seems so appropriate at the moment, I keep hoping that my days will soon be less full. 

To that end, my quilting time has been very limited - I did manage to finally get the pattern for 'The People Quilt' crib quilt into my Etsy store - I had some requests for the pattern, so I hope you lovely folk enjoy it, and thank you for being interested!

In stolen moments I put some more hand quilting stitches in the crib quilt I started last week. It's so lovely and soft having been made from precious feedsacks and osnaburg, it will be a really nice quilt for little Mary when she gets big enough for a cot/crib.

Hand quilting is so relaxing, and I love that I'm all set up in the ladies lounge - if I have five minutes spare I can just work a few stitches without fussing about setting up and then putting things away. I am very blessed!

This week I also made up a worry quilt for a friend who is going through some hard times. In my haste to get it away I neglected to take a picture, something that I'm apt to do much too often. And that is my whole week done and dusted - I hope sometime to have more interesting things to share - soon, I promise! xoxox

This week went by so fast!

Isn't it amazing how fast a week can just disappear? I had so much I wanted to achieve this week, and I feel like I've only checked a few things off the never ending to do list ... but I'll share some of the bits and pieces with you ...

Here's where I'm at with Tilly, I'm pretty happy with her for a first go at making a ragdoll - and I was all ready to start making some more clothes for her, but I was struck with some other inspiration and had to go with it:

This is the top of a cot quilt for little Mary - another one! Poor little darling has no idea of the tsunami of hand made items heading her way! I drew it up on Sunday night while the idea was still in my head, and then I started sewing on Monday.

By Tuesday evening I was ready for quilting. I used the paper shapes I'd drawn up to pencil some quilting designs, and then I traced them to freezer paper so I could iron them on the back of the quilt, and then trace the designs to the quilt using my lightbox.

Over the last couple of days I've gotten a little quilting done, and I'm super happy with how it's coming along.

So that's where I'm at with my actual quilting. I've also been attempting to work on my website and write some patterns up. I don't find that quite as much fun so I have to use a work/reward kind of system. Maybe I'll grow up some day ... hehe

Anyway, that's it from me for this week, I'm itching to get back to some hand quilting, so I'll chatter soon! xox

Only a little quilting ...

First up I want to thank my lovely readers that stop by and visit with me, and I love reading any comments that come my way. Just a little info that may affect some of you - I had a reminder this week that the Feedburner email blog service is shutting down soon - I'm not too sure how many people use Feedburner to read my blog, but for people that are looking to continue reading via email, I've popped a link in the sidebar to join an email service with Bloglovin'. I can't give you any information on how it works as I don't personally use an email service, but I do keep my list of blogs I read on Bloglovin', and that works out well for me. 

Anyway, onward with the content:

Last week I mentioned I was going to start putting together the rag-doll Tilly for my little granddaughter:

I decided that I'd like to put one of the clothing items together first as another practice piece, and I'm very happy with how it came together. This is the romper, as pictured in the top right corner on the pattern:

It was such a fun little garment to sew, the instructions were so great! I found the fabric at the Aldi a week or two ago, it didn't seem quite as nice quality as some of the quilting fabrics we can get, but it was perfect for toys!

So, filled with confidence, I started putting Tilly together:

This has been quite a learning experience for me - I'm not used to working on dimensional items, so envisioning how things will look when they're turned through etc has been a bit of a head scratcher, but I'm getting there. The picture above was before I started filling Tilly with stuffing, and the one below I'm still in progress:

I need to get some more fibre-fill tomorrow so I can add a bit more to the head/body and then I can get busy on the arms and legs. I'm looking forward to making some more of the cute little garments too - so much fun!

There has been a little quilting going on too - sometimes I just didn't feel like working on the sewing machine, so I put a few more stitches in the wholecloth quilt:

No matter how much machine quilting I do, I know hand quilting will always be my first love, it's not for everyone, but I find it very relaxing. (Please note that's not a stain on the bottom right of the photo - it's the shadow from my phone - I really do lack great photography skills!)

I think that's everything I wanted to share with you today, so I'll leave off here and check back in with you next week. Chatter soon! xox

Thank you!

Thank you so much to everyone for all the kind words after my Phebe quilt did so well at our guild show. I genuinely felt really lucky to have won ribbons, as the standard of the show was incredibly high. And to be Quilter in Residence was a great time - each day there were reunions with people I hadn't seen in a while, and being able to show so many people how I work was so much fun.

There were a number of emails I wasn't able to respond to as blogger didn't send me email addresses - Jude, it was a pleasure to help you out with your hexagons - and thank you to Regina, Jean and Lizzy for your sweet comments, and also to Unknown for all the hearts! You all make my heart full!

While at the show I was demonstrating applique techniques, and over the course of the three days, I got most of the following block done:

When I got home and had unpacked, all I needed to put in place were a few of the leaves and the vase, and now it's ready for stitching. This is the fifth block, only eleven to go! I also got soooo many of the little berries prepared for upcoming blocks and the border - they were fast and easy to demonstrate so I made sure to do lots of them.

After the show was over, it was like a little pressure had lifted - there is no longer anything urgent that MUST be worked on, so I did a little stitching on a pattern I've been dying to get to:

Meet Elliot - I purchased the pattern from Etsy a little while back - and he was destined to be a small practice piece to see if I have what it takes to make a rag-doll for little Mary. Turns out I have the patience to make small things that aren't flat like a quilt, so I can go ahead and start toy production:

Do visit with Jodie on Etsy - her shop is RicRacSews - she has the most delightful patterns and lovely pins and doodads too. I have a few of her patterns now and they're very easy to follow and look fabulous. Hopefully I'll be able to check in next week with something fabulous to share with you all. Chatter soon! xox