AMH Quilt in Progress

Under the watchful gaze of Meeka, sewing has commenced on my AMH quilt - I really need to think of a name for it.  (I mentioned that to my kids, and Mr J, being the funny guy suggested Jenny - there's always one in a family).

I had a minor disaster the other evening, I came home to find that my design sheet had  fallen off the wall, the pins had come out and all my carefully placed blocks had fallen everywhere. Luckily Meeka was outside, so I couldn't blame her.  Yes I had a photo of them all laid out in my previous post, but I had reshuffled a lot since then, and not taken another photo.  Sigh!

I laid it out on the floor this time, put them back into a semblance of order and then labelled and clipped the rows together ready for sewing.  Hopefully I have the colours fairly evenly spread out, every time I look at it I want to change things.  Since taking this WIP photo, I notice I have the same fabric in two colour ways next to each other - guess I need to decide if it really bothers me and unpick and replace it,  or just keep sewing and finish it.

Here & Now

There are not a lot of flowers blooming in my garden at present, one old spring faithful though, is my Corydalis Blackberry Wine - I love  the fresh green leaves and mauve flowers, although I have never been able to smell the fragrant scent it is supposed to have.

Other things making me happy this weekend are:

Loving // This blog post

Eating // Home made chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake, the joy of having Miss B and Mr J do the baking in the school holidays.

Drinking // Water, earl grey tea and hot chocolate.

Feeling // 

• Pampered, I spoiled myself and bought a beautiful new hand cream and shower cream.  
• Excited, cos my Bird Dance is being quilted at present - see here for a sneak peak.
• Pleased, I have mulched all the gardens now, it has been a big job, but they look great and hopefully will retain a lot of the moisture from all the winter rain we have had, as well as keep the weeds down
• Surprised, when I received some lovely mail from a friend in America

Making // The last few blocks for my AMH quilt, - the design sheet is up again and providing it doesn't become a toy for Meeka, this can stay up until next weekend for sewing.  Another ice cream soda block (lunchtime sewing only)

Thinking // It is all very well, when all the books you have been wanting to read arrive at once, it's just hard to find the time to do it.  Maybe I'll ignore the house work for a while ....

Dreaming // of what I'm going to plant in the flower and vegetable gardens this coming weekend.


Linking to Here & Now at Say Little Hen.

Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE

This weeks Sew Stitch Snap Share from me  is all about the stitch.

I have been very good and actually completed both the swans I needed to for my Christmas decoration exchange with my sister. We are doing mmmcrafts: 12 Days of Christmas ornament collection, I make the odds, she make the evens.  We both make two each,  so at the end we will each have a full set.

Every year I put off doing these, thinking they'll take a long time to do. In reality they are quick and fun to make.  Admittedly the neck was a little faffy to stuff, and there is a reason you are told to prewash your felt before soaking off the sulky fabric solvy.  They are starting to get trickier now with people and clothes to make in the last four patterns to be released.

These swans just need to be threaded for hanging, and one of them packaged up for my sister ( I think she'll get the pale pink one).

Now, it's YOUR turn to share, by linking up your sewing and stitching projects, whether they are starts, wips, or finishes, following these guidelines. 

1. Link up from any post from the past week that features something you have been sewing or stitching,
2. Somewhere in your post, please link to this post.
3. Please comment on a couple of the other Sew,Stitch, Snap, Share links - it's fun to receive comments from new people, and we are trying to encourage people to read blogs and keep blogging too.

Thanks  for linking up

Julie and Linda

Weekending

Saint Andrea Corsini c1630 by Geurcino.  Bullet holes courtesy of  a soldier in 1944.

Maffeo Barnerini c1597 by Caravaggio

Progress

• We had a wind free day, so I managed to get a group shot of all 32 Ice Cream Soda Blossoms.

Reading:

• Tin Man by Sarah Winman, a  charming bittersweet novel of love, life and friendship, that's easy to read.

Making

• Colourful stitches on felt for my Christmas decorations - pattern from mmmcrafts

In the Garden

• My lemon tree is just covered in clusters of buds, they'll be opening properly and perfuming the air soon.  Looking forward to lots of lemons for baking and summer G & Ts.

City Tripping

• Miss B and I went into the city, to see The Corsini Collection at Auckland Art Gallery.  Beautiful portraits and pictures from the Corsini Family focusing on the Renaissance times.  The colours and workmanship was amazing, as were the personal family stories relating to the portraits.  Many of the frames were just as impressive.

Hoping you have all had a lovely weekend and have a fabulous week ahead.

Eight More

Well that's another month completed, bringing my total of Ice Cream Soda Blossoms to 32 now.

I never realised how many floral fabrics I had in my stash, I haven't used the same fabric twice yet, I'm trying not to use solids in these blossoms, but am finding the inner kites hard to work out sometimes.

I bought some fabric (Jennifer Paganelli's Austin in green) to use as part of their quilt backing over the weekend - it just seemed a perfect match, and a pretty box to store them in, much better than the plastic bag I had, now they stay flat.

I'll be having a little break from these now, I must make my felt Christmas decorations in time for Christmas and finish my AMH quilt top.  October goals!!