Medallion Sew-Along

I have finished the stitching of the second border for this little quilt. I have enjoyed making all those small blocks. Lori will be back soon with the instructions for the final border which is more applique.
To see more of these little quilts Lori has a Link-up Party on her blog.

I am keen to start making the pinwheel blocks (the correct size this time! Lol)  for my other centre.

As I mentioned in my last post I am continuing to make delectable mountain blocks. Here are the most recently completed blocks.

It has been ages since I had any photos from my garden!!  Here are a few from this afternoon.

I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw this one! A Jonquil this early in June! It smells delightful too!

The little Correa is starting to bloom...

 ...as are all the Zygocactus plants.

 Lastly an African Violet that is doing well inside.

Winter is with us here in Melbourne. The days are getting shorter and the weather has cooled off.
Perfect stitching weather!

Family sewing.

I have been busy working on lots of different projects recently.

First is block 5 of Monique Dillard's Blogger Girls BOM.

Only one more block to go now, then the sashing.

There is sooo much inspiration out there in blog-land at the moment that I have succumbed to the lure of 2 new projects. :)

I started another machine piecing project and joined in with Cheri's piecework sampler. Each day for the last 3 days Cheri has given instructions to make a different block.

These are 3 1/2 inch (unfinished) blocks. These blocka are made with lots of french General fabrics. I am looking forward to the next blocks.

I also joined Lori and Randy's Applique Medallion sew-along. This time I am doing machine applique! It has been so long since I did any machine applique I can't remember just how long!! ( more than 20 years!)

Again I have chosen to use French General fabrics, and I have made 2 different centre blocks.

The first follows Lori's pattern....

...and on  the second block I kept the same general shape of the vase, but did broderie perse. I haven't done broderie perse by machine before.

I used buttonhole stitch for both blocks.

Next week Randy will have the instructions for the beginning of the pieced borders, then Lori has another applique border.

Some progress has also been made on my current WIPs.

Four more delectable mountain blocks have been hand pieced...

 ...for 30 completed now.


More handwork, with applique.

All the blocks are now pinned ready to be sewn down on Joseph's Coat. This is the final corner I pinned down 2 nights ago.

I have been slowly stitching on Wanda's applique block...

Now, I would like to share some of my daughter's work.
She made a wall hanging for her new home.

The fabric is more than 20 metres of silk organza of varying shades and qualities.

I took the photos with my phone and unfortunately the colours haven't shown true.

Last weekend we went for a drive down the west coast past Melbourne and along part of the Great Ocean Road.

You may be able to make out some hang gliders in the photo above. There were about a dozen of them up at the same time.

One several beaches there were surfers. Some beaches were much more popular than others.

Happy sewing! :)

Lots of sewing

This post has plenty of WIP photos and one tiny finish! First the finish.

I finished a little pin cushion from my 12 projects in 12 months challenge.  It is from a Schnibbles pattern called Sweet Liberty - Tuffets. This one is machine pieced.

There are some delelctable mountain blocks peeking out of that tin. More about them later.

I have really only finished 2 projects so far, but I am well on the way with Oso. It has been pin basted now, so next is some machine quilting.

Now for some hand applique...

Here are all 8 of my completed Chester Criswell Quilt blocks.

I am really enjoying all the hand applique on these blocks. Today we received the pattern for the next block. :)

Lots more melons prepared to finish Jacob's Coat.

I have decided to take each of the completed blocks and applique them to a large piece of fabric, rather than join each of the circles as Kelly showed in her tutorial. Has anyone done their Joseph's Coat this way?


Two machine pieced scrappy blocks and 3 hand pieced hexagons.

These are my next batch of delectable mountain blocks.

I love the two blocks with the dark red fabric. I have 23 blocks finished now.

I am still playing with the flying geese blocks in previous posts. There are about 50 6 inch blocks, but I can't decide on the way I want to arrange them. I will probably make some more and have another play in a few days. :)

My plans for the next few days include some more hand applique and making a new knitting bag. I have had my current knitting bag for over 30 years, so I figure its time for a new one! Lol
The weather has finally cooled down here so its time to get the knitting needles out. :)

Have a happy and safe Easter.

Piecing

Lots of piecing! Machine, by hand and english paper piecing.

Starting with machine piecing, below is my 3rd block for Monique Dillard's Blogger Girls Block of the Month.  I enjoyed choosing all the fabrics and the fussy cutting with this one.  These blocks are 12 inches finished.

The flying geese in my last post now are these 6 inch blocks...

I still have lots more to make.

Now for the hand piecing.

I am still well ahead of my goal of one delectable mountain block a week. Here are some of the most recent finishes,

Late last year I won a bag of scraps from Christine. I have taken some time to think about how I would use them. I wanted to make a lone star of some sort, so I chose one of the lone star blocks from the Morrell Quilt for the centre.

Many of the Morrell blocks have a saw tooth border, but I decide to do half square triangles for this block. I am still trying to decide what to do next. Maybe 9 patches. Any suggestions???

Recently Karen at Somerset had  some more of these little bags arrive.  They are perfect for holding sewing notions.

Several of us Friday girls now have one of these bags, so some of us have added something extra to make them individual.

This afternoon I finished this little block which I will applique to one side of the bag.

If you have made the Nearly Insane quilt you may recognise the centre section (up to and including the flying geese) as the centre from block 22.  I love these fabrics!!! They are from Jo Morton's Square in Square line.
(scroll to page 4 to see all the fabrics in the line)

Have a look here to see what Dorothy did with her bag! :)

One day I will get back to my Nearly Insane blocks! I think I have 8 finished; and  long way to go!

This English paper piecing project has been going for a while and I finised one section of it a little while ago. You may remember seeing some little half inch hexies on my blog last year. Slowly they have been joined together to make one side of this purse from Brigitte Giblin.

A little closer look at the fabrics.....

Every one of those fabrics are from the scraps left from the Morrell quilt BOM.

I have started the 2nd side, but it is slow going!

Next post I hope to have some appplique to show.

Here in Melbourne at the moment we are trying to keep cool. We are on to day 6 of an expected 10 day run of temperatures over 30 C (86F). Today was 36C  (96F) here and we expect about the same for Monday to Wednesday next week. Night times are not getting below 20 C (68F). Very unusual for March!

Have a great weekend everyone. Especially those of us who will have an extra day with our Labour Day holiday on Monday.

The winner is....

Thank you to everyone who entered and helped me celebrate more than 200 posts and 200 followers! Thank you for all the wonderful and encouraging comments. Its great to hear from my regular readers/commenters and especially great to hear from those who have never left a comment on my blog before. It has been fun to "meet" some new-to-me bloggers and visit some new-to-me blogs.

I numbered all the comments and asked my random number generator (my DS) to pick a number.

He chose Barb from Fun with Barb who said...

congrats on finishing your shnibble top, it is wonderful. I like you plan for the next one and look forward to seeing what you choose.
The DM blocks are so tiny and sooo awesome.
You've got a lot of fun projects going on.
Lovely giveaway - count me IN IN IN


I have emailed Barb and I will get the book into the post for you Barb when I get your mailing details.


Not much has been happening on the sewing front because we have had an overseas visitor staying with us for a few days.

I have completed a few more delelctable mountain blocks and I am happy to say I am still well ahead of my one-a-week goal. :)

I was inspired by this quilt on Jackie's blog (didn't she do a wondeful job!!) to start making a whole pile of flying geese myself...

I don't usually sew with sparkly fabric (except maybe for Christmas time), but I wanted a fabric that said Australia and this is what I found deep down in my stash!  Some Geese have been stitch together, but the rotary cutter and sewing machine are going to be busy for a few more days yet!

Remembering Duncan.

Oso top finished, BOMs and a giveaway....

Giveaway now closed.

I finished my Oso top this week. It was my first Schnibbles quilt and I am quite happy with how it turned out.
In the instructions there is quite a bit of trimming to size during the construction of each block. For my next Schnibbles I am going to try to constuct the blocks to size removing the trimming steps which I found became quite time consuming. I have a pattern and fabric chosen already. :)

This is my second block for Blogger Girl's Block of the Month.  My variation!!!  I didn't get the fabrics in quite the right places! Ooopps!!! There may be a bit of operating on this block in the near future!

Block seven, William and Harry Clendenen's block for the Chester Criswell Quilt is completed.

Lastly, some hand piecing with my delectable mountain blocks.  Eight completed, so I am a week ahead! :)

I will be making more today.



It has been a little while since I had  a giveaway, so, in celebration of having 200 followers, making over 200 posts and, just because it is a lovely, sunny day here I have a book to give away.

Thank you to everyone who has become a follower, everyone who leaves a comment, or even if you just "lurk". :)
No hoops to jump through, just leave a comment and I will choose a winner randomly in a few days. Please make sure I have a way to contact you by adding an email address if you are an anonymous commenter.

Giveaway now closed.


Have a great stitching week everyone. :)

Abundance top finished and more

Weeelll, I was ready to write a post about my Abundance top last night, but when I looked at the photo on my laptop I found a little mistake in it!!! I considered leaving it alone and having a "humble" Abundance quilt, but everytime I looked at the little quilt that little turned around square just started at me!!! It was all I could see! So, this morning out came the seam ripper and I fixed my wonky square.

Here is my completed Abundance top

...and, just for the record, here is my humble version.

How long did it take you to find the wonky square??

Now to choose a backing and binding and do some hand quilting.


The Oso blocks are coming along well.

I plan on getting some more of them finished today.

At the shop where I go for my Friday sewing group there is an annual challenge quilt. Two years ago it was the Mrs Billings Coverlet, last year it was a Star a Day, this year it is a Delectable Mountain block a day. I joined the group too late in the year to start the Mrs Billings Coverlet, last year I made some stars, but no where near a Star a Day! I have been wanting to make a quilt that included delectable mountain blocks for a long time, so I decided to join this year's challenge.........but only make one block a week! These little blocks are hand pieced and measure 4 1/2 inches, unfinished.

Four weeks so far this year, so four blocks completed. :)

Fifty two blocks will give me plenty to complete a lovely little quilt with the chance to experiment with a variety of settings without the quilt being too large.

It has been a loooong time since I did any hand piecing (there has been plenty of hand applique!) and it feels wonderfully relaxing to be hand piecing again! :)

I am using Barbara Brackman's Lately Arrived From London fabric. Barbara has a post on her blog about  delectable mountain quilts, with some examples using this fabric.

It has been a while since I posted a photo from my garden, so here is a quintessentially


Australian summer blossom; Eucalyptus Ficifolia (red flowering gum).