Sewing Room Woes

This weekend, I am lucky enough to have the house to myself, The Scout, Miss B and Mr J are all at a Venturer Camp.

A couple of days prior I had basted my Sea Glass Sampler quilt using spray glue and some pins (cos I want to make sure it doesn't move), ready to attack the quilting on this beastie.  Imagine my heart break, when every time I attempted to machine quilt a line, the backing kept puckering.  It appears that wool batting does not like being glue basted and doesn't adhere very well. I have given up trying to machine quilt it, added more pins and started hand quilting it instead, which funnily enough I had dreamed about doing the night before.  I am actually enjoying the process,  which may be slow, and I have no real quilting plan, but is a lot easier  than trying to wrestle a quilt through my domestic machine.

There is another disaster story to add to my sewing woes, it appears that three of my completed Solstice Dream blocks, were made using felt squares were from the offcuts bag.  I have all the block patterns in a flip file - one per pocket, and when I am ready to sew some more blocks, I add the felt and fabrics I want to use to these pockets.  Since these errors - I have gone through and put correct sized pieces of felt in all the pockets now. I think to make my inner perfectionist happy, all three blocks will be redone on the correct sized felt.  Maybe I'll turn these ones into pin cushions.

And in other sewing news - look what I am now the proud owner of.  She was made in c1939. A lot of cleaning, and polishing needs to be done, a new belt needs to be installed and then we'll all be able to laugh at my lack of co-ordination trying to operate her.

Wishing you all a fabulous week ahead.

Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE

Welcome to another Sew, Stitch, Snap SHARE.

Between work, trying to be a domestic goddess and playing taxi driver for Miss B and Mr J, there has not really been a lot of time for sewing.  Solstice Dream is still very much an enjoyable work in progress and so easy just to pick up and do a few stitches here and there in the evenings. Admittedly there is some unpicking that occurs too, I think I am trying to be too much of a perfectionist.

The first couple of photos are details of my latest finish, Block 10 - Big Bloom.  I love the colours in this one.

I'm really enjoying all the bullion knots on Block 15 - Pretty in Pink.  Hard to believe that this time last year I had never even heard of some of these stitches and had to constantly look at tutorials to see how to do them.  Now they are second nature to me.

On my days off this week, after a serious vacuuming and furniture moving session, I'm planning to baste the Sea Glass sampler quilt, never something I enjoy, but I am looking forward to getting on with the quilting and hopefully finishing it in time for Miss B's birthday.  Nothing like working under pressure.

Now it's your turn to share, it doesn't matter if it's embroidery, a quilt, applique or epp, or some other stitched or sewn project,  It can be a start, a finish or just a wip.  All we ask is that you follow these guidelines when linking up:

• Link up any post from the past week that features  a sewing or stitching project you have been working on.

• Somewhere in your post, please link to this one.

• Also please take the time to read and comment on some of the other linked posts, it is always nice to know that people are reading what you have written, and we are trying to encourage people to keep blogging and reading blogs.

Thanks for joining us

Julie and Linda

Here & Now

Loving // My new arrivals from the library - both fiction and non fiction, entertainment, inspiration, and information,

Eating // Fresh cherry tomatoes from my garden - and all from the one plant

Drinking // lots of water

Feeling //Hot and bothered, I love summer but am not really a fan of the humidity, and the library I work in, doesn't have aircon in every room.

Making // Another block for my Solstice Dream Quilt, I've changed the stitch required on the yellow petal from crested chain stitch (sometimes my head does not like complicated stitches) to oyster stitch, still lots more to do on this.

Thinking //About what to make for dinner tonight, it's a neverending chore some weeks.

Dreaming // Of cooler nights which would let me sleep well.

Linking up with Here & Now at Say Little Hen

Heroic Garden Party at Foggydale Farm

Children's Playhouse

I need a view like this and the garden art to go with it

Rudbeckia and Dahlia

Rudbeckia under the apple trees

Bird and bug hotel

Close up of some of the guest rooms

Coleus and flowering Hosta

Russian Red Sunflower 

Just before Christmas I booked tickets for Mum and I to attend the Heroic Garden Party hosted by gardener and author Lynda Hallinan at her home and garden, Foggydale Farm as part of the Heroic Garden Festival.  The garden festival  itself is held over two days and visits many different town and country gardens in the greater Auckland area.  Originally it was established as a fundraiser for Herne Bay House which offered respite care for suffers of HIV/AIDS.  Now it supports Hospice.

We just wanted to visit the one garden event,  the idea being that everyone would dress up in pretty summer clothes and wear lovely creative sunhats,  Unfortunately the weather put paid to that, it was Soggydale Farm we visited with everyone garbed in coats, gumboots and wielding umbrellas.

The gardens were lovely, especially the potager garden of which most of my photos came from.  There were some stunning colour and plant combinations too, which I think I may be inspired to recreate albeit on a smaller scale in my little garden next year.   I was also quite intrigued to see how she mixed coloured vegetable plants in some of her flower gardens.  Devonshire teas were available, there were different market stalls to shop at offering plants, garden art and other treats.

Weather aside, was still beautiful garden to visit, and to see in real life so many of the different features we have read about or seen pictured in various house and garden type magazines over the past few years.

Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE - 2018

Hello and welcome back to the first Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE of 2018.  

Here in New Zealand, we have been experiencing a record hot summer, which has at times, made sewing or hand sewing feel like a chore.

Nevertheless I have been stitching away on my Solstice Dream blocks and have finished another one.  I love the how the hedgehog block turned out and am so pleased I and managed to find just the right scrap of Liberty fabric for the flower and all the threads I had on hand.

That moment you realised you used felt from the offcuts bag, not the project bag. Half an inch too short.   I posted it on the Solstice Dreams facebook  page, and both Kerry Green and my sister suggested adding a strip of felt to the block and embellishing it,  I figured I had nothing to lose, cos if it didn't work I still had to do a new block.  This is what I came up with.  I think that once it is properly quilted, that will hopefully  help disguise that extra seam too.(tell me that will work please Leeanne

Guess this is the impetus needed to clean up my sewing room, and put the offcuts away.

And I'm finishing off with a little sewing room cuteness, Meeka has obviously decided that unused quilt blocks and an almost empty pincushion make a great bed.

Now it's your turn to share, it doesn't matter if it's embroidery, a quilt, applique or epp, or some other stitched or sewn project,  It can be a start, a finish or just a wip.  All we ask is that you follow these guidelines when linking up:

• Link up any post from the past week that features  a sewing or stitching project you have been working on.

• Somewhere in your post, please link to this one.

• Also please take the time to read and comment on some of the other linked posts, it is always nice to know that people are reading what you have written, and we are trying to encourage people to keep blogging and reading blogs.

Thanks for joining us

Julie and Linda