Almost June

Goodness this year is going fast, I can't believe it - it's almost Camo's birthday month, and then on to the actual middle of the year. Whew!

This week I've managed to get a little hand quilting done - I don't think this quilt is going to be done any time soon, so it's a good thing I'm just loving it!

I think I have three blocks left in the centre area to quilt, and then it's on to the borders. Happiness!

I've also been itching to do some simple piecing, and I was thinking about using some of my feedsack fabrics again. When I made a baby quilt for little Mary, the texture of the quilt after it was hand quilted was just divine, so I wanted to recreate that feeling ...

A double Irish chain is what I've settled on, and I'll use my pink and blue feedsacks with white Osnaburg. This is only my first block, but I've cut out several more. It won't take long to put together and I'll have itched the scratch for easy piecing.

Tonight I'm painting heads again, something I've also done a lot of this week. I am so surprised and thrilled with how many orders have been coming in. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - it thrills me that people are trusting me with their crafting needs.

At the moment I'm working on heads for the Ebenezer series, and on little elves heads in different colourways. I've also been stocking up as I go, as it's not even the busy time of the year for my Etsy store yet.

I shall sign off here so I can get some more work done before bed, and I'll check back in with you all really soon. *hugs*

May is almost over already!

Just a quickie post - having checked the photos in my phone, I only have one picture I can share with you tonight. It has been a busy week.

With homework, housework and painting bead heads there has been little shareworthy stuff going on. In fact, the only picture I had was of the orders I put in the mail today!

These all went in the mail today to sweet customers in the USA. I love that people are being so organised and getting ready for Christmas early!

I have put a few more stitches in the ornaments I started last week, or was it the week before? Oops, I'm not sure. And I did maybe 30mins of hand quilting in the whole week. But I do know that I don't have bunches to do this weekend, so maybe I'll have something to share with you after that. I promise to let you know! Chatter soon xox

Another Saturday post ...

I wanted to put a post up last night, and though my my mind was willing, my body wanted me to get some rest. So here we are. This has been the very best week - on Monday little Mushroom Chu-Chu arrived. Her name is Hazel Jane, and she is an adorable blonde bundle. Hazel was my Great Grandmother's name, which is such a lovely tribute, Amy has always been very family oriented, and Nanna was so pleased that her mother was honoured in this way. I won't share a picture just now, I want to run it past Amy first.

In other news, I finished the top of Cameron's aviation themed quilt, and it went together so easily. Once I got sewing I got it made in two days. Why did I linger so long over finishing it?

I do know that the blue fabric in the sashing was running low, and I have some recollection of being concerned about it. My original plan for the quilt is long gone from my mind, so I just built on what I'd assembled so far and put a border on it with the fabrics that I had on hand. And I think I have a 2in x 6in (approx) strip left over of the blue fabric, so it definitely was a close run thing. My darling friend Lizzy is going to quilt it for me, so I can check this project off my ever-long list. There are bits left overs from a couple of the fabrics, and they'll be great to use up later for donation quilts.

Later in the week I wanted to get busy on some mmmCrafts ornaments - I have a lot to make this year and don't want to leave it to the last minute:

These are the ones I've started off with - from the 12 days series. I'll be able to show them when they're finished too, but some of the ornaments I'll have to keep on the down low. They're lovely hand work, and somewhat portable too.

Last picture for the day - week 18 of the tiny nine patch blocks:

I'm so enjoying the little nine patches, and I think I've settled on how I'll set them together for the final quilt top. I'm not sure if I'll start working on that though, I should probably keep going on some of the other things I have on the go. It's not like me to have so many projects in various stages of construction, I'm flitting from one thing to another lately!

So that's going to be the extent of my post today, I have been busy painting bead heads for orders today (as well as visiting with my grandies) and I need to get back to painting. I'm always amazed by how many orders head out the door in a week, and very much appreciative too! Chatter soon friends xox

Back on schedule ... but with distractions ...

I'm back on schedule posting on Friday evening, but only just - it's almost midnight. It may click over to Saturday morning before I hit the publish button, let's see how I go!

This week has been a busy one, but also one with distractions. I stitched Week 17 of the tiny nine patches, and I'm super happy with them:

Some more genuinely old fabrics used again in those blocks, some icky shadows in that picture from taking photos late at night. A great photographer I am not, and more evidence of that to follow haha!

During the day on Monday I cut out a whole lot more one inch squares in readiness for the blocks above, and also for selecting in upcoming weeks. Little Mary was here for the day, and while I worked at the cutting table, she played with her Sylvanian Families that I have set up in the sewing room. 

Mary tells me she'd like to learn to sew some day, and it makes my heart sing. You can be sure I'll love helping her use the sewing machine when she's older.

I don't know if you remember, but during the Xmas holidays, one of the things I hoped to get back in progress was Camo's aviation themed quilt. I've been looking back thru the blog to see if I can figure out how long ago it was that I last worked on it, and I actually can't find any sign of it so far. So I'm going to say that it has probably been at least ten years. Perhaps more. But today I added two more rows, I'll add a further two rows and a border and hand it off to be quilted.

Even though he's an adult now, Camo tells me he'll still be thrilled to have it. Which gives me a tiny pang of guilt that I didn't make time to finish it much earlier. I think in the past I had some anxious thoughts that I didn't have enough of the fabric in the sashing strips. Because I don't remember what my original plan was, I'm going to make it work with what I have, and that will be just fine. It's fun doing some simple piecing, it has been a while!

And I promised last week that I'd share the pants that I made, this picture is not flattering for them, but here goes:

The pants on the far right were the first ones I made - I bought a cigarette pants pattern and wanted to use a less loved fabric to try it out. The fit was okay for the most part but I wanted the legs to be more fitted, so I took a half inch off each side of the legs before making the pants in the middle, and I'm very happy with them. And because I had enough of the houndstooth fabric left over I made the pencil skirt. These are made from stretch suiting, so I was able to use the coverstitch machine to do the hemming which I just love!

That's a warts and all picture, you can see I didn't match the stripes super well, but it's not really noticeable unless you're looking hard. And I did a little split in the bottom of the seam, I don't know what that is called (being a beginner garment sewer and all) but it just adds a little something to the look of the pants. I'm looking forward to being more brave and trying a few more things. Next on the list is a top, and I've bought some linen and prewashed it, so when I have a stretch of time that's what's coming up on the garment sewing agenda.

Well, that's all the action in the sewing room for this week, I don't know how much sewing time I'll have in the coming week, but I'm sure to keep you posted. Chatter soon!

Whoops!

On Friday I was such a busy bee, and I spent so much time at the sewing machine in the evening that I entirely forgot to put a blog post up! So here I go on a Sunday evening instead:

I finally caught up with the group working on the Tiny Nine Patch Challenge - it was such fun making my blocks:

All four weeks

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15

Week 16

I love them all and have such a great time finding vintage shards of fabric in my stash.

Prior to all the blocks, I completed the Dresden Table Topper I was making anew - in addition to refreshing my pattern, it's going to be a gift ... shhhh - as discussed!

I was actually surprised at how much I love the finished item, I think I'll make another for myself at some point - it'll be a challenge to find a bunch of red and cream strips and border stripe shards, but if I dig around hard enough I'm sure my stash will bear fruit.

During the day on Friday my Mum, Dad and I went on a little adventure. There's a story ... when I was growing up my Nanna had a set of what we called her fish bowls. They held so many memories for me of being around her big kitchen table at meal times, school holiday snacks etc. Nanna knew I loved them and promised I could have them some day. Anyway a long time later in the hustle and bustle of her downsizing and moving, the bowls disappeared. I decided that should I ever see any in the wild, I'd make them mine. And Friday was the day I was able to collect some:

Aren't they darling? I think they date from around the 50's by Diana Pottery - they're fish ramekins. My Mum tells me these are possibly in better shape than the ones Nanna had due to so much use, so I'm very glad to have them and every time I see them they'll make me smile.

Also during the past week, while I've been working I've been watching/listening to many episodes of the Great British Sewing Bee. Ohh my goodness, I just love it. And I was thrilled when one of the episodes had the contestants sewing on Featherweight machines!

How fun! Featherweights are always super fun to sew with. 

Watching all those GBSB episodes got me inspired to sew some garments again, and I sewed two pairs of cigarette pants. The first pair was with fabric less loved to test the fit, and the second pair from a darling black and white houndstooth to wear to a dinner party last night. I haven't taken pictures of them yet, but I absolutely promise I'll share them with you next week if you're interested.

So that has been my busy bee week - how has your week been? Chatter soon xox

So thrilled!

I've been working on a project over the last three days, and I'm so thrilled with how it's coming along. I'm using the opportunity to update some of the photos and instructions on my Dresden Plate Table Topper, but the main reason I'm stitching this is for a gift for Mother's Day. I'm pretty certain Mum doesn't do any reading here!

Yesterday and the day before I cut out and strip pieced the blades. Today I put it all together, basted and quilted it, and added the embellishments. Don't worry about the halo around the doily in the middle. I had just hit it with some spray starch and didn't want to wait until it dried before I took a picture.

All that's left to do now is to bind it, and I'll do that in a dark red fabric. I'm so happy with how it looks, it's going to be hard to give it away, but I know it'll be very much appreciated <3 <3

In other sewing, I've also caught up on more of the tiny nine patch blocks:

These are blocks from weeks eight and nine. I took the picture outside and it's weirdly blue, but I think the blocks in the front look true to colour. There are some really old fabrics in the blocks that I can see, definitely a Smithsonian in the front there, and I think also a Sarah Johnson print among others ...

And these blocks are from weeks ten and twelve - having completed week eleven a couple of weeks ago. Above you can see my little tray of squares cut and ready to go in upcoming blocks - it's like a trip down memory lane with some of these sweet prints.

I'd like to have a few more made before week sixteen is released in a few days, but I won't push myself, I actually have a huge list of things I'd like to achieve before Tuesday.

The last picture for this week is just a couple of things that made their way to me recently:

I think the fabric in the middle has the potential to be the binding fabric for the Morrell quilt when I eventually get there. The pink on the right is just because, as is the book - I do always love a sampler quilt!

Tonight I spent a few minutes on the party line with the Chook Shed stitchers - not especially talkative on my part as I was working away, but always fun to hear the chatter in the background. Nice to spend time with you ladies.

Well that's it from me for now - chatter soon friends xox

Fabric luck!

This week I have absolutely been counting my blessings, and those of you that follow me on Instagram will already know why. After seeing a darling fabric on the internets that would make the perfect addition to my Morrell quilt, it was devastating to learn that this fabric I coveted was several years old, and wildly popular when it was released. So tracking some down was going to prove difficult. After several days of sporadic google searching, I found a source, and I'm thrilled to say it arrived in my hot little hands this past week:

This is Regency Zarafa by Christopher Wilson Tate, and I found my piece at Chitter Chatter Fabrics in Canada. I'm sorry to tell you that I purchased the last of their yardage, but they may still have some fat quarters if you feel it's something you must have too. I can absolutely see this incorporated into some of the broderie perse blocks.

I've had some other deliveries this week too, but I've been slow to wield the camera, so I'll get back to you with those. Also stitching time has been very limited as I've been painting so many bead heads to send out. Thank you so much to all the sweet folks for trusting me with their crafty needs.

Tomorrow is my nephew's first birthday party and also his christening, and my sweet brother asked me if I could make a cake. Of course! Forgive this hasty picture, as it was an in progress shot, and the cake is boxed up now so I can't take a better one:

I battled with the buttercream icing as it was cold today, hopefully it will still taste good!

Next week I have much fewer commitments, so I'll take some extra photos for you, and also share what I'm able to work on in the sewing room. Chatter soon! xox

Quickie Post

Just a quickie post tonight as I'm all inspired and working at the sewing machine. I'm making scrappy blocks for some kids quilts, and also the tiny nine patches in an effort to catch up.

I grabbed my 2.5" squares box, and some fabrics that my darling friend Jean donated, and I've been pairing up squares to make blocks, and then framing them with cute fabrics. While I'm inspired I'm just going to keep on piecing and get as much as I can done.

The tiny nine patches, I've caught up a little, I think I have three weeks worth left to do, and then this weeks blocks too. It's not so hard to do, and fun to use up little scraps ... but on that note, I'm going to catch up on a couple of emails, and get back to the machine. Perhaps I'll check back in at the end of the weekend. Chatter soon!