Scenes from my Week

• The rainbow round has been added, now it is up to planning and cutting for the next round.  I think I am going to have to find a bigger fence for photos now.

• Tomatoes from my Dad's garden, my plants had finished fruiting, so these make it seem like summer is lingering.

• The last of my summer flowers - cosmos and zinnia, just enough for a little posy.

• Meeka - she is lucky she's cute, even my family aren't meant to sit on this pillow.

• Lucy - my stray, who still won't come inside, but is certainly looking well fed and knows where the best sunny spots are on a cool autumnal morning.

• Another bird in progress.

Hoping you are all enjoying lovely autumnal or spring days too, wherever you are.

Weekending

I've been a little miserable with a cold all weekend, I have managed to do a little sewing, and work on my Bird Dance project, as well as lots of  reading, and spending time on the computer.

• Some gorgeous little 3" blocks for my medallion quilt - though I am not sure if I will use the flower blocks in it, at this point I am thinking the pale silvery background is now to light and bright.

• Border one is completed on my Midnight in the Tulip Garden Medallion

• starting my 15th bird - halfway there now.

• Lots of lovely applique and embroidery inspiration here, (I am so lucky Auckland Libraries has such a fabulous craft section) I am wondering whether the botanical applique patterns would transfer easily enough to be done in felt rather that silks,

I'm currently reading  Summary Justice by John Fairfax, a British legal thriller that I am enjoying immensely, and for a change of pace Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier set in 1800's America in the Cherokee nation.

This article caught my eye and made me think -  and yes I am probably one of the mediocre

Also planning  something new, and hopefully exciting with Linda from Kokaquilts, the big reveal will be April 1.

Have a fabulous week!!

Works in Progress

A day at home today saw me determined to finish quilting my City Sampler quilt.  After a couple of quick tutorials, the hand tying commenced, I found this rather quick and easy and so much less stressful on my shoulders than machine quilting, subsequently it is now ready for binding.

However, before binding can start, the sewing room needs to be cleaned up, so of course this means you find other WIPs that need finishing:

• Sea glass Sampler quilt - this now needs to be turned into a quilt top.  It won't be a large quilt more of a lap quilt for Miss B.

• Bird Dance - 12 blocks down, 18 to go plus the borders, this is meant to be done by the end of June - not liking my chances here.

• My Tiptoe through the Tulips test block is going to be turned into a medallion quilt, lots of planning to be done first.

• Liberty Bloomsbury Quilt - this is in fact in a usable state, however it still needs the hand quilting to be finished.  Luckily the evenings are getting cooler which makes it a much more pleasant task.

No doubt other new projects will catch my eye, but I am going to try and be good and finish these before starting anything else large.

Testing Complete

Woohoo - my Tiptoe through the Tulips test block is finished.   I love how this came together and how the colours really pop against the dark background, almost reminiscent of stained glass.  Read here for the story behind my colour palette inspiration.

 Allison's pattern instructions were clear and on the whole the pattern came together easily. Only one of the large leaf arrow blocks had to be unpicked, because I got the HST round the wrong way. I have to admit I wasn't looking forward to making the Drunkard's Path blocks, I have sewn curves before but never this many.  They turned out well, and as the blocks are sewn a little larger than required, there is room for trimming too, so they all end up looking pretty near perfect.

I had intended to use Allison Glass's new Sunprint  range for the flowers, unfortunately due to big delays in post arriving, I had to resort to some fabrics in my stash, luckily my fabric order turned up in time for the applique circles, which gave just the pop of colour I was wanting.  I used the foil applique method for the large circle in the centre of the block and raw edge applique for the small circles, which I finished with a blanket stitch.  The little bias applique strips are a Liberty print.

For more inspiring test blocks, have a look here.  Thanks Allison for letting me test this pattern, I know there will be some stunning quilts made once your pattern is released.