First week of April ....

This week nearly sneaked away without a blogpost!

Another hexagon flower has been put together.....

... and I hand-quilted then bound this little mini.  The hearts are designed by Meg at CrabAppleHill and were a free stitchalong for February - embroidery month.  I sewed along with a few of the Brisbane stitchers and its been fun seeing the different versions...

This  will fit in my mini stand.... or on the wall....

A couple more blocks for the Blessings quilt have been prepped up....

Whilst cleaning up I found these little wool penguin jumpers I knitted up a few years ago.  I had started them to be used for the Fairy Penguins on Philip Island when they need a bit of help but then the organisation said they didn't need any more.  Anyway I see on the website they are taking some in to add on to plushy toys so I will send them off.  Rather a sweet idea and they are very very cute little penguins (even if they didn't bother to appear when we went and sat in the hail and rain and cold to see them)

Hubz had a birthday on Easter Sunday so I baked a cake and friends and family came over...  

We also went to Eclipse light show which was great fun ....

I quilted and bound the blue flannel rail-fence quilt....

An overall fairly open quilting...

The backing was pieced with left over flannel ......

the quilting shows better on the plain areas...

It's gone into the cupboard to go off to Melbourne in due course..... where it gets cold in Winter and this will be nice and snug....

Righto, Gotto Go.... I have another block for Caswell on the go and would like to get a few leaves on tonight...  have a lovely weekend...x

Sorting... sorting....

Pies and Tarts are coming with me when I go out for sewing days on Tuesdays..... over the last couple of weeks I have managed 3 pies and 2 tarts.   I will need to forage for backgrounds to applique them on.

I have finished off this little mini quilt... which has been ongoing for several years.  

It is 13" square and has foundation paper piecing, embroidery and free motion quilting....

and this week I am in to my foundation piecing ..... Abstract Elephant is proving to be completely addictive....

I did finish up the quilting on this little panel.... I wrote 'love' and drew little hearts, stars etc in between all the loves...

It is backed with some lovely soft flannel..... 

This week is going to be a hand sewing down the binding week....  I have 3 quilts that need to be finished off.

Righto, Gotto Go .... the next section of my elephant is calling out to me!  But first coffee!

Have a lovely rest of the week ...

Spoke too soon!

Having finished the big half hexagon Urban City quilt top, made it's binding and found a backing - it's now put away for another day....

and vowing never to do another EPP project someone posted their pies and tarts quilt and I remembered a box ......

I won a starter pack some time ago  ... lots of pieces already cut out and basted, plenty of templates and even quite a few bases to applique the pies onto...

I have a lovely range of reproduction pieces to add to this - at least it is not all EPP - there is also applique and machine piecing... so this will be my main pick up and go project for a while...

My crazy dots quilt is all put together now....

and I got some green to use as binding.... it's all ready with it.... haven't sorted a backing yet...

I did a bit of mini quilting this week....

And have done 17 sections of 97 sections for Elephant Abstraction by Violet Craft... one I've been wanting to do for ages...

It is all Foundation Paper Piecing - lots of preparatory work, lots of pieces all over the place, lots of mess, lots of pressing, lots of removing papers....

But I was having so much fun ......  this is the elephant trunk .... you can see it is beginning to turn at the end so you don't see the snout yet.  This part is 1.4m long .

I would like to get the next section at least prepared this week... it will be a slow project since I can't keep to one thing at a time and this one needs me to concentrate.  I already had to throw 2 made sections away as I had cut them on the wrong line!

Righto, Gotto Go.... time for a cuppa..... hope you are having a relaxing weekend.... xx

Sorting things....

It seems as quilters/sewers/crafters there is always something to be sorted/tidied/made....

I largely keep my 'work room' tidy (forgive me but I find it very hard to get down to work if the room has stuff all over - it is my weakness).

I do, however, have a small storage space and that is 'a scary place' as Mr 10 year old grandson told me when he visited.  This weekend I decided to tidy up part of it .... amongst other things was a box of mini quilts I had taken down when we painted the inside of the house 4 years ago!

This is my main quilting area (which is obvious isn't it?)

Hubz helped me to do this.... it is a really happy place now.

Most of these are gifts/swaps.  I also have a collection of mini's for a hanger which change from time to time and I love them too - also mainly swaps.

Lots of fun and makes me smile every time I walk in there...

My sweet giraffe quilt is finished now....

I did these big informal swirls all over.... I was going more for gentle African breeze but it is a bit cyclonic!!! haha

I love it very much...

The backing is a flannel, grey with cutest little giraffes all over it... I used a darker grey streaky for binding (the background to the giraffes is a very light grey spot)

In the evenings I knitted up this pair of shoes.  Don't know the gender of the baby so going for as neutral as I can be.  I am just sorting out for a bib to go with it..

This is a pattern used for me and my siblings, my children and many of their cousins, my grandchildren and now extended family.  My pattern is written in my Mum's hand so it's pretty special to me.  They are a little shoe that I found the babies didn't kick off easily.

Part of the tidying was getting to use some of my scraps - sometimes I find I end up with very generous sized leftovers from a quilt... 

I made this quilt in 2018 and it lives in UK with a grandiegirl....  cute little hedgehogs with one facing a different direction.  In the label I encouraged her to be brave to take the other way if she needed to.

Anyway, the leftovers have been tamed.... this will be a Star Pop quilt...  Raewyn was doing one and I rather love it.  I expect another bunch of leftovers will get the same treatment.  I just need to buy some plain fabric for the stars to go with it.

Righto, Gotto Go.... I have a bib to cut out and prepare the handwork for it...

Have a lovely week......xx

Home Stay

Limited going out is meaning more time in my sewing room!

I have 80 little 2 1/2" pinwheels all trimmed and ready to go....

Background is purchased.... a soft buttercup yellow floral design and this is the basic idea... thanks to Jennifer who shared pictures of her lovely quilt made with lots of little pinwheels...

My quilt made with the Sew Kind of Wonderful quick curve ruler has been quilted .....

It's all in batik fabric (purchased on a trip to Bali years ago) ... including the backing....

I've added the binding - just need to hand sew it down now...

I still enjoy some sit down quilting and did this 12 1/2" block ....

Close up the quilting is a little bit messy in places ....  I do very little with contrasting colour

A new project is cut and ready for sewing on a Sew Day next week..... I am using the free PopStar pattern by Fat Quarter Shop and sewing along with a few other friends....  plan is one block a week if we can.....  If anyone else wants to join in feel free....

All tucked into it's own project box ready for pick up and sew...

I have hand stitched down lots of little flowers and leaves into the mini baskets...

My accuracy is not amazing and it shows in little blocks far more than in big ones....   

Another block for Civil War Bride is my evening sewing at the moment....

Righto, Gotto Go... time to research our evening meal ....

Have a lovely weekend....  keep safe, keep smiling and keep stitching ...