Piecing and Applique

There is not as much time spent stitching around here these days, but I am still managing to fit plenty in.

Last week we went for a long drive and I attempted, for the first time, to hand piece in the car. I can't read while the car is moving, so I was quite surprised to discover I could stitch!
The extra stitching time meant I could make lots of progress on my lone star. I finished the first diamond a couple of days ago.

Two of the rows are fussy cut from one piece of fabric.

Luckily for me there is only a tiny amount of wastage from the floral fabric.

My Noah and Matilda BOM is going well.  I have completed 3 blocks...

Those circles of fabric on the bottom right will be made in to tiny purple grapes. There are 67 of them!!! I usually use Perfect Circles to make circles, however these need an even smaller circle than the smallest I have.  I'm still trying to figure out how I will make them.

I have finally finished part 1 of Di Ford's mystery quilt for Quiltmania.

Slow progress has been made on preparing the circles for part 2.


Now, I don't really need another project to work on, but I started another little quilt for my grandson.
This one will be totally machine pieced, so won't take too long to complete. I've made 2 of 15 of the pieced blocks...

The alternating blocks are plain.

I first saw the quilt on the Instagram page of @messyjesse1. The pattern is from Quiltmag.com and search "nautical".
I will be making a smaller version.

Have a great week everyone.

Starts, finishes and a little progress.

Hello! Is there anyone out there?

Its been a while since I posted here, but there has been some sewing happening, between visits to my DD and her new son.

My latest start is on a Lone Star quilt. I have been waning to make a lone star quilt for a very long time. Several of the ladies in the Friday Girls at Somerset sewing group I am a part of started lone star quilts, so I decided to join in.

So far I have the diamonds cut out for one of the 8 wedges.

The red block will be the centre of the star.

I am using a mixture of old and new fabrics.

I had some help to arrange the "swirl" diamonds so they will make a continuous path around the star.

Today I sewed together just 2 of the 9 strips.
It has been a long time since I did much hand piecing. It feels great to be piecing again!


I have finished appliqueing the latest CCCQ block.

Block 23 Mary Watkins.


Last night I finished making templates and chose all the fabrics for the next 4 Noah and Matilda blocks.

A couple of weeks ago the Quilt and Craft Fair was here in Melbourne.

I bought this pattern.

Last year this quilt was offered as a BOM by two (Cathy) ladies  (Emma) at Treehouse Textiles. This year the pattern is available. I will be using the Cotton+Steel fabrics I won earlier this year.

I also found these needles. Isn't this cute packaging....

These are a size 10 Applique needle. They aren't as fine as the size 12 needles I have been using recently, but the have a larger eye (much easier for threading) and do feel good as they glide through the fabric.

I bought another pattern at the show. This one is to make a cloth book for my Grandson. So far I prepared 5 pages and the cover ready to stitch. I will be using blanket stitch on my sewing machine to stitch these down.

Slow progress is happening with Mountmellick. I have completed stitching down all the flowers. Next will be the border and the corner hexagons with the leaves. This version is using the BOM fabrics supplied by Threadbear.

And just one photo of my grandson earlier this week. :)