The Last Day of Summer.

It was a dull day today, but we decided to go for a drive down the Mornington Peninsula for a day by the beach. Afterall, it is the last day of summer for us. The photo above is from the bay side of the peninsula, looking south. (Blairgowrie beach)

 The photo below is taken just a few minutes drive across the peninsula on the ocean side. (Koonya beach)

Today the bay was quite calm, a big contrast to the ocean side.

This rock formation is called London Bridge and is a little further down the peninsula near Portsea ocean beach.

Just 2 more little houses to add to the collection.

Happy sewing. :)

An afternoon at the sewing machine

and some shopping.

It has been quite hot here the last few days, so I spent the afternoon at my sewing machine.

These are the next blocks for Blogger's Block of the Month. This month's block is by Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter.

Now I have 6 blocks in each colourway.

I also finished my last 2 blocks for the Civil War Quilt.

I have been playing with arranging the blocks in several different ways, but I still haven't decided which way to go.


Recently I had a morning in the city and after seeing this shop referred to a couple of times I decided to take a look. What a treasure trove of goodies L'uccello is!!! I could have spent hours in there!

Here is what I came home with.

A lovely collection of wool felt, ribbon, thread and some Barbara Brackman fabric, all of which will be used for a needlebook....or three. :)


Does anyone remember this book???

This is my very well loved copy. I've had it since I was five years old. I can remember my Mother reading it to us at bed time. A year or so later a teacher read it to us at school. Later still I read it on my own...several times. :)

Weeeelll, look what I found at Spotlight yesterday.....:)

Aren't they cute!!!!  They are going in to stash until there are Grand babies! :)

From the garden

In the garden this morning.

The bromeliad has opened a little more.

Remembering  Duncan.

Blog changes.

I am in the process of making a few changes to my blog.

The first, and most obvious, is the change from pink to green for my background. Now, I'm not too sure about this shade of green (green is my favourite colour!) and I may change to white instead. Does anyone have difficulty reading my blog with a coloured background, or have an opinion on background colour?

Secondly I have removed word verification for comments. After reading these two posts and experiencing myself the new 2 word verification by blogger (at least one of the words is difficult to decipher!) I decided to try turning off  word verification. Last time I did this I was hit by spam, but I believe Blogger now has better spam filters.
Thank you to everyone who has left a comment on my blog in the past and battled with the word verification!

If you want to turn off word verification on your blog, in your Dashboard click on settings. Below settings click on the comments tab and scroll down to "Show word verification for comments?"  Click on "no", then scroll down and click on save settings.

Lastly I have started adding labels to my posts. So far I have done all the posts for this year. I am not sure if editing each post individually will result in a whole new post appearing in everyone's readers. Please let me know if you have got multiple posts from me in the last few hours!

I have also got the link to work on the Hari-Kuyo Needlebook button. Thank you Susan!! :)

I can't have a post without a photo, so here is my one little house finished in the last couple of days.

Have a great weekend!!

Plenty of preparation and not so much stitching here during the last few days.

I have prepared the leaves for the first 2 branches of the first panel of Trailing Vines. The leaves are sewn down on the first branch.

All the pieces for the next Roseville Album block have been prepared and I have started stitching them down.

Here are the fabrics for the next Friends of Baltimore block. The next step will be to prepare the freezer paper pieces and make the overlay.

I did make 4 more little houses, bringing my total to 27.

You may have noticed a new button on my sidebar.  Susan is a talented embroiderer and this will be her first E-course. I can't wait to start!  If you would like to read more about the Festival of Needles there is a short post with more information here. It is a fascinating tradition.


In finishing, just a few photos from my garden this morning.

The bromeliad is finally flowering again..

Buds are appearing on the wattle tree.

This little fellow looked like he was doing his best chameleon act.

Have a great week, everyone. :)

Blogger's BOM and lots more.

 Here are my 2 blocks for January's Blogger's Block of the Month.

 January's blocks were designed by John Adams of Quilt Dad blog. John's great instructions make this block quick and easy to make.

In my last post I showed some fabric designed by Petra Prins. On the left in the photo below you can see the other pieces I bought from the Josephine range. 

The fabrics on the right are Andover fabrics and are from the Winterthur John Hewson collection.
I plan to combine all those fabrics (and a few more) and make a version of the quilt below. I will use one of the Winterthur panels for the centre.

The first time I saw any Dancing Dollies was on Lurline's blog. Look at Lurline's blog header. I loved the look of those dollies, but at that time I had no idea about the Dancing Dollies quilt. (Lurline's blog was the very first blog I ever saw)
It will be a while before I start this quilt......there are one or two more I already have on the go. :)

Lots of cutting has been happening for Trailing Vines.

Strips of fabric..

...sewn together ready to cut out the pieced leaves.

So far I have only 2 branches of freezer paper leaf templates prepared. Lots more cutting to go!!

I finished the embroidery on the Friends of Baltimore block.

I added beads to some of the flowers on my first block. I still haven't decided whether to add them this time,so I am calling this one finished....for the moment!!

My thoughts are with a couple of friends who are battling severe illness.

Friends of Baltimore progress.

At last I have finished the applique for this Friends of Baltimore block! I started this block many moths ago. Now for all the embellishment.

I have already decided which block I will be making next. This one won't have any flowers on it!
I found the tiny pieces something of a challenge to stitch, the reverse applique flowers were OK to make, but for some reason, I had a problem with those 3 red flowers with the petals layered one over the other!! I left 2 of them as the last pieces I appliqued!

I only managed 3 little houses this week. Another Rouenneries house and 2 others.

The fabric the house blocks are lying on is from a new fabric collection called Josephine by Petra Prins. There is a blue colourway for this design too. In my next post I will show the other prints I have....and the quilt they are intended for. :)

I have made some small progress with Trailing Vines and should have some photos to share in my next post too.

Lastly, it has been a while since I showed photos from my garden.......

Have a great weekend! :)