Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE

It has been all about hand quilting with a little bit of colourful frippery thrown in  over the past couple of weeks.

• This cute little dilly bag was made very quickly, using a pattern from Broderie - available here.  Some beautiful Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry and Margot Elena fabrics, have all combined wonderfully together. It's not a big bag, but I am sure it will be useful for travelling with small craft projects, such as hexis or a little crochet.  I could also see a few made up in Christmas fabrics for reusuable gift bags.

• I loved playing with this fabric and the opportunities it gave me, for adding a little pizazz to the hand quilting on my sea glass sampler quilt.  Luckily I have used it a few times on the quilt, so there will be a consistency to the quilting throughout the quilt.

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

Things Here Lately

Gosh it's March already,  officially the first day of Autumn in New Zealand.  Things here lately - some little bits of randomness from my life over the past couple of weeks.

• Reading is something I will always have time for - here are three that I have recently read and really enjoyed.

• Now that the school holidays are over, and Miss B, my kitchen apprentice is busy with school, and after school activities, I find that I am left with the baking job again.  I tried a new recipe - Blueberry Upside Down Cake, I used frozen blueberries and it worked out fine.  Recipe here

• Colour in the garden, not many flowers this year for picking unfortunately, I need to plan my planting better next year. The geranium and Iresine were all grown from cuttings. 

•  My tamarillos are getting bigger and we have one watermelon just about ready for picking.

• Still working on the hand quiting for the Sea Glas Sampler Quilt - it's hot work with the wool batting some evenings.  Of course as soon as I spread it out to plan the next stage, Meeka appears and claims it.  I think I know where she will be sleeping in the winter months when it's completed.

Wishing you all a fabulous rest of the week and weekend ahead.

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