Yay, I did it!!!!

Paper piecing!!!

I have procrastinated over this for a long time. Finally, I tried this afternoon using a set of instructions I wrote while I watched someone else do a demonstration. I actually got it to work!!!! It wasn't that difficult really and I now I don't know why I waited so long! lol.

The photo is of a practice piece. Now to try it again on fabric for a Morrell quilt block.


I didn't post a photo of any flowers this morning, so here are some grape hyacinths flowering right now in my garden. I love that shade of blue! (excuse the weeds!! haha)

Morrell Quilt centre medallion and another finish

This is the centre medallion of the Morrell quilt. The fabrics that were chosen for the BOM all work really well together.
Square in a square pieced block. There are not many pieced blocks in this quilt. Hand piecing is where I am most comfortable, so this quilt is giving me lots of opportunities to learn.






I made this little needlecase last week. This one got the creative juices flowing and now I have ideas for several more. :)

Appliqued Morrell Quilt Blocks

These 2 blocks are my latest finishes for the Morrell Quilt. The first block is the first time I have done applique with more than 2 layers. I am certainly learning lots with this quilt. :) A couple of pieced blocks and some more broderie perse blocks coming next. I have a block with a paper pieced border coming up. Wish me luck, I haven't done paper piecing before.

In the last week I have been inspired to try 3 new ideas by other bloggers. If I have success I will post pictures in the next couple of weeks.

The flowers below are all from my garden. The ranunculus have just started flowering and I love the variety of vibrant colours. The freesias are the very first of many. I love the perfume of freesias.

Spring

Spring is in the air. The days are getting longer, the air is getting warmer and the blossom trees are flowering. This is our plum tree.


I had a lovely afternoon yesterday. We shared a "yum cha" lunch, then went fabric shopping. No quilting shops on the list this time; they were all dressmaking fabric shops. I found this lovely piece of silk chiffon. I haven't decided whether to make a dress or a floaty skirt from it. The shop I bought this fabric from is so crowded with treasures you can hardly walk all the way around. Every time we visit there is something different to see. They often have the ends of rolls of fabrics used by local designers who still have their clothes sewn here.


I have spent a few hours today preparing more Morrell Quilt blocks, so for the next post I will have something much more "quilty" to see.


These are Australian native plants. Their common name is Dwarf Emu Bush. I have both the red and pink forms in my garden. The red flowering plant always has many more blooms.

More little bags

I enjoyed making these little bags so much I decided to make 3 more.

The fabric used on the one on the left is from my previous post. The other fabrics are from my stash.

After a very foggy, drizzly day yesterday we have sun shine here today. It feels like Spring is on its way.

Now I have satisfied my desire to make something that doesn't take months to finish I am going back to sewing the Antique Quilt and the Morrell Quilt.

Fabric finds

I went to a fabric sale last week and had some great finds. The top piece is a Liberty fabric with red roses. very me! :) I just love the 2 top fabrics on the 2 piles of fabric in the top photo. I searched around and found some other fabrics to go with them. I managed to get 50% off some of those! Got to love a bargain!!!

I love going to this shop. They stock lots of bright, cheery fabrics and everyone who works there is really friendly. It always makes me feel happy as soon as I walk in the door!


I looked through my stash when I got home and found some other fabrics that work with the new ones.

We're back!

We are back on our high speed Internet!!!

Earlier today our ISP solved their problem, but we were still not online. After lots of testing and looking for loose connections, I finally discovered one little loose plug!

It is amazing what can be done when you can't get onto the computer!!! I made these 2 little bags today. There is another one on the way! All these fabrics were from my stash.

The pattern is from the Moda Bake Shop.

Slow!!!

Well, our ISP is having server problems, so we have been off line for about 24 hours. Tonight I have resorted to the ancient form of communication called dail up!!! It is sooooo slow!!! Goodness how did we manage in the old days? I have been having blogger's withdrawal....I missed you all!! I have read a few postings, but I can't see too many photos. I have tried to leave comments but the line gets disconnected!

Hopefully all will be back to normal tomorrow and I can put up some photos.

I hope you are all doing lots of lovely sewing!

More Antique Quilt

I have finally finished appliqueing on the tiny Le Moyne stars. I fussy cut all the fabrics and hand sewed each star. The next round will be more of the larger Le Moyne stars after the narrow border of the brown fabric in the last post. It could take me a while! Thank you Ranette for all the help getting this together. :)

My old, faithful iron stopped working this morning. It tripped the safety switch and turned off the electricity for the whole house! ...thank goodness for the safety switch or I could have been zapped! I love this iron. It may be smaller than newer irons and it doesn't have a "shot of steam", but I love the feel of it gliding over fabric. I have a newer iron with a teflon base, but it just doesn't feel the same.....plus it seems to generate static electricity in some fabrics. Has anyone noticed that before with their iron?


This flower appeared yesterday. Isn't the colour wonderful!!
This is a bayside beach near where my daughter lives. That is her with her dog walking on the sand. At this time of the year there is usually no one else on the beach and you are allowed to walk your dog there.