This week.....

I'm always happy to see progress on my projects......  you may have noticed I have several going at once!  

Short attention span!

I had a couple of quilts which were made simply but with lovely fabrics ..... too much quilting would have taken away from the lovely fabric so all I added was texture and some playfullness with the borders.....

Loose enough to keep the quilt soft and snuggly but tight enough to give it that crinkly texture - two quite different designs 

Four more Dutch Treat blocks have been completed......  now I am coming to the end I must finally be feeling more confident as I found these ones relatively easy to do!!! haha

.... and my feather blocks are all together .....

I love, love, love them......

It's a lap size quilt 50" square - of course one can go on building as many feathers but this is the size I wanted.  I loved making them and I do have more scraps! hmmmmm

I used my colour co-ordinated scraps.  The pattern is a freebie provided by Anna Marie Horner, a generous and inspiring artist.  It can be found on HERE .  She is in Australia at the moment - wouldn't it be fun to go to one of her workshops.

Because I used scraps (as opposed to longer strips) I took tips from this TUTORIAL here but using small pieces from my scrap baskets.

Righto, Gotta Go... more quilts to add texture to ...... what fun

Weekends go so quick......

This weekend we stayed at home... there was lot of those silly little jobs that needed doing and we both just wanted to chill out quietly....

Of course I can't just do NOTHING.....  

I finished off some feather plumes that I had started on ChooseDay with the girls.....  I now have all I need and tomorrow I will put in the spines and background fabrics ... then I can play with the settings....

I also finished adding the borders to my photographic safari prints - and I also trimmed them all so now I need space on my design board to set them out and start sewing them together.....  there are lots of duplicates but that won't matter.....

Handstitching has finished off this Angel Story block.... the flying school...

... and also some chain stitch handles for ridiculously small baskets......

I was sewing while we watched "Goodbye Christopher Robin" -  I had to keep stopping cos I needed lots of tissues.... 

Some of our chores were outside - and the weather is just perfect for it... raking up leaves, composting, old branches to the tip etc etc.... (I only raked!)

My little variegated bouganvillea is looking pretty at the moment and I just loved the contrast of colours in this picture.... if you look carefully you can spot a kookaburra in the old gum tree - I think it was laughing at me raking!

Well, that was my weekend and happy playtime... now it's Monday and I need to get back to doing some real work!  At least that requires sewing too!

Now my quilt top is finished I have this pattern if anyone would like it....  it ends up about 66 x 80 and required quite a lot of fabric as it is cut on the bias - so lots of leftovers too for mini projects!

It's not a thick pattern so I'm happy to post it off to you.... let me know if you would like it and I'll choose a name if there is more than one person ...

Righto, Gotto Go.... coffee is required before work...  have a lovely week....

Been doing stuff......

I finally did the binding for this quilt .....

The top was given to me some time ago so I have no idea about the pattern, then I did all the quilting and binding - hard to see in this picture but swirls and feathers....

Good to have another quilt finish .....

Millicent the Magnificent Mum is my latest Angel Story block.....

and some more feathers were made at the ChooseDay girls sewing day....

I already had the pink ones done ..... they end up at about 18" x 9" so quite big really... 

... and I've done a dozen more of my circles.....  the blocks are only 4" finished so I will be going along with these for a while longer.....

Hubz and I spent the day out walking last weekend.  Cunninghams Gap is not too far from us and has some lovely hikes and forest areas

There are lovely big trees, I love how they have their own little gardens growing on them

... some quite thick forest to walk through

there had been some heavy winds the day before - the path was littered with leaves as a result...

part of our walk went through palm forest.... they are messy plants but so stately....

.. then moved over into bushland..... I just love the Australian tree grass....

It was a lovely sunny day - but not hot with it... just perfect for a walk

.. another tree growing its own garden....

lovely views in the gaps .....

great day out.... I enjoyed our burger and drink afterwards at a farm stay which runs a restaurant and cottages nearby 

We live in a lovely area which has places to visit which are easy day trips.... very lucky and this time of year the weather is just wonderful for it

Righto, Gotto Go.... work work time....

Life seems busy ......

It's the beginning of April already..... over a quarter of the way through the year and I feel time is going too fast and I seem to be chasing my tail all the time ......

I know lots of us feel like that - never enough time to do all that we want to do...

I wanted to work on this long neglected project whilst sewing with the ChooseDay girls this week.  This is a Bronwyn Hayes pattern and the kit was part of our Stitchers Dream Day Out in 2015 (I think)

It is a sewing case.....  

Inside is a little bag, pockets and a heart pincushion.... I found that fun spotty ribbon in a box here - went perfectly with it....

I love the sewing ladies on the front, and there is another pocket on the back...

These birds and hearts are from fun fabric and I am making them into lavender bags.  Some will have ribbon so they can hang over the coat hangers, others are plain and will sit in drawers....

Stuffing them will need a bit of motivation I think... and a good movie!

Even though I love to use my quilt leftovers to make backings my scraps still seem to grow.  Last year I made baskets and sorted my scraps into colours.

This year I am going to make feathers with them......  some years ago I noticed this feather quilt by Anna Maria Horner .  She has generously shared a free pattern HERE

Since I am using small scraps I am not doing it in strips... it's a bit fiddly but I am joining smaller pieces up in a slant so that I can cut the feather shape out.

I think I will love it......

Another bunch of Dutch Treat blocks have been sewn..... slowly slowly these are increasing in numbers.....

At long last I have started Angel Story (designed by Anni Downs).  Michelle has been sewing hers for some time in needleturn and it is just stunning.  

I have chosen to do blanket stitch using one thread.  Now I need to do a lot of tracing and selecting of fabrics for the other blocks... that is the part that seems to take me the longest.... 

This is Hettie and she is shopping for Hats.....

Righto, Gotto Go..... my gardener is around and I like to keep an eye on what he gets up to!

Hope you have a lovely weekend ....