Friday, September 28, 2012

Thimbleberries Stash-Bust

Just a quick heads-up for vintage Thimbleberries lovers:

I'm selling an item from my stash that I'll never get around to making: It's the Thimbleberries A Quilters Garden project from 2001 - all twelve block patterns plus two yards of the 'faux applique' block panels. And because I was going to make an extra pattern from the panels, I've included that pattern too.



Check out the listing if you're interested. And of course, if you have any questions, you're welcome to ask :-)

School Holidays

The kids and I are on school holidays right now, and having a really nice time. I have grand plans of getting quite a bit of sewing done - let's see how that goes :-)

Yesterday Camo and I made gingerbread. We make it a lot at Christmas time, but Camo loves it all year round. First he helped me out putting the ingredients in the mixer:


And once the dough had been in the fridge for a little while, he helped me roll it out. The most fun part is the decorating, but because he was really ready to get busy eating, we kept the icing simple.


Last night I started cutting out some strips for a secret squirrel project. Would you agree that sometimes the hardest part is choosing the fabrics? These ones have been in my stash for a LONG time. I'm thinking maybe 12 years or so. I know that Linda gave them to me, and it could have been when I visited with her in 2000?!?

This morning I got busy sewing the strips together and cutting them apart. Oh my goodness, I should have had another coffee before I started. I sewed three long seams and found I had to rip two apart, I'd sewed the wrong pieces together. And then I couldn't figure out why the pieces were curling up in a weird way. I sewed for a long time muttering to myself and then realised I had my top thread tension wound out to 9! Heavens! Lots of rookie errors today. I'm sure it's all up from here right? :-)

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Growing larger!

I have been wanting to post this picture for about a week - but I had a slight technical issue ... the small people in our house had completely used up our internet allocation, and we were cut back to dial up speed for almost a week! Oh my goodness, I can't believe how much we rely on the internet now!

Anyways, here is the piccy:


I'm really glad to have the double diamond border in place, it seemed to take forever to piece. The next two will be much easier - the first of them being another border with the little coloured squares and background fabric triangles. I'll be spending quite a bit of time cutting first though.

No other news to share right now - I'm working on a couple of 'secret squirrel' projects at the moment, which means I just can't share - even though I'd love to very much.

Better run, and I'll chatter soon! xox

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Getting very close ...

Just three little wedge shapes need to be pieced, and I can attach the rest of this border. It's getting soooo close!


This border has been quite a marathon - with HUNDREDS of pieces, but I think it has been really worth it. I took a peek at the next two borders, and they're much simpler. I'm really looking forward to working on them.

I may get the next bits done this afternoon - but first a few chores - I've been a bit lazy and Camo's toys are all over the place right now. Once they're tidied, my mind will be de-cluttered and I can press on :-)

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Determination

I'm settling in for the night - a solid several hours with my sewing machine. I'm utterly determined to finish 'block 4' of Mrs Billings Coverlet. The double diamond border. It's a big job - and I'm just the girl to do it!


Tomorrow I hope to be able to check back in with the borders in place - I've made a good start, let's see if I can have a great finish. Send speedy thoughts my way friends :-)

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Show-ing off :-)

My sweet friend Monica gave me a gentle nudge today - a little reminder that I hadn't visited with my blog for a while. Where does a week go? I swear they're spinning by faster and faster! Before I know it, it's going to be the middle of next year!

So, in recent days what have I done? Well, I visited with my quilt at the Royal Adelaide Show. I love gazing at the new ribbon:



And because I stood and stared for a good long while, I noticed that the light was really showing off the quilting. So, like any good quilt paparazzo would, I took more pictures:


And though it seems like little time has passed since you started reading this post ... here in the sewing room, my laptop has just recovered from a blue screen of death experience ... so I'll make the rest of this short and sweet ...

I was fascinated with the display of orchids, so many of them I'd never seen the likes of:

 One day I'll have some of my own ... but given my black thumb, maybe it'd be kinder not to ...


While visiting with the orchids, I noticed this maiden hair fern nestled in there. I have to admit I'm suffering fern-envy. My maiden hair fern experience is to have swap outs. Four in total ... three in a little green house at any one time - getting healthy again, and one in the house - which is dying a little each day. Some day I'll get it right :-)

Alrighty, I'm sure I have so much more to share, but I'm nervous about the state of the lappy, so I'll sign off now with a promise to check back in before too long ... chatter soon!

Friday, September 07, 2012

A big day out ... and news ...

Saturday just gone, some wonderful friends and I from the Quilters Guild of SA went on a shop hop bus trip. It was the perfect Spring day, sunshiny and warm - there was plenty of chatter and fun, and of course, we all participated in a little retail therapy.

Here we all are at one of the stops:

A big thank you to Gay MacLeman for the great picture :-)

And here are some of the goodies I brought home with me - stash enhancement is my specialty!

The fat quarters were such a great price I couldn't leave them behind - the William Morris print is for an upcoming project. Of course I always bring home a little French General with me. Other assorted prints for another Owl Ipad cover or two, and I'm slowly building up my collection of Aurifil threads and replacing what I'm running out of. Am I becoming a thread snob? Maybe so :-)

And last night at the monthly guild meeting the funniest thing happened. Lately there has been a fat quarter lottery. You bring along however many fat quarters you like, and for each fat quarter you get a raffle ticket. The winner of the raffle wins all the fat quarters (of if there are LOTS of them there may be two winners etc). This month's theme was Under the Sea. So I donated a couple of blue fq's. Really happy to have them out of my burgeoning stash - not really fussed if I get anything back. So of course, next thing I know, my number is called out as one of two winners! Oh my goodness, did my friends tease me! Need more fat quarters like a hole in the head was mentioned by one *lol*. I think my plan is to share them among my friends that can use them, and also to make up some charity quilts. I've seen a really nice blue Bricks and Stepping Stones quilt on Pinterest. Sounds like a plan right? Too funny :-)

More news this morning: My friend Victoria called me from the show to tell me that my quilt has won the second place ribbon in the quilt competition. I'm just THRILLED! And even better news is that my sweet friend Irene Carrig placed first in the category. A wonderful result. Amy is at the show today, so she may take a picture that I can share with you - otherwise I'll be there on Sunday and I'll get a pic to show off.

What a wonderful week it has been!! Chatter soon :-)

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