One Day Wonders

Another completed item, this time a shoulder bag that I was making as a gift for a good friend who has just had a darling baby girl.

This was the fourth bag I've made and I love them. They can be made in one day if you really put your mind to it and ignore everything else. I usually get the body made the first day and finish off the handles another day. This second pink tone bag was the one made at a workshop.

The brown tone bag I made for my daughter and I made another for my sister-in-law but forgot to take a photo before it was handed over.

Smell the Roses

I had arrived home after dark three days in a row this week. On the fourth morning, my stay at home day, I had a lovely surprise when I went out to let the chickens out. Most of my roses had blooms to share. And the fragances are amazing. Just thought I'd share my delight with you.

I'm supposed to be completing a bag for a gift so this will be a short but fragrant blog.

'Peter Frankenfeld' is proving to be nice purchase.

'King's Ransom' is also shaping up to be good bloomer.

This is 'Just Joey's' first bloom, approximately 15cm or 6" diameter and lovely apricot colour.

And this is the 'Peace' rose with tints of lemon and pale pink.

And then a quick check of my favourite blogs to keep in touch with the wonderful ladies whom I'm so glad to have found. I love catching up with their lives and being inspired by their beautiful quilts and ideas. I am totaly amazed that I can be sitting here in my home sweet home in Australia while regulary visiting places in America, UK, Canada and NZ to name a few.

Now back to the sewing.

Enjoying Spring

I decided last Sunday to take my camera and go for a walk around the garden. It was such a beautiful Spring day. Clear blue sky, everything is green and fresh, a gentle breeze, perfect. Flowers are blooming here and there and yes, the roses have many buds ready to burst. Hopefully I can include some photos of roses in my next blog.

While I was out the chickens were out having a pick. This is Anthony the rooster and Snow (short for Snow white). My other hen Ella (short for Cinderella) is busy sitting on eggs at the moment.

I had not long ago weeded this particular garden bed and need to mulch it as soon as possible. I have yellow, orange and pink daisies and another colour yet to flower. It will be a surprise. I have my lovely Mother to thank for many of the cuttings in my garden.

The hibiscus was pruned heavily early in the year and is looking magnificent covered in blooms now.

This poor geranium was determined to let me know that it was there amongst the grass and weeds. This is a section of the garden I still need to get to. The recent rains have made everything grow.

Bougainvilleas always put on a bright show.

We had our opening on Wednesday which went very well. But then I had a thought of what am I going to work on now. As well as completing a half made shabby bag for a gift, I've decided that I am going to finish my king size bed quilt which has been on the go for 2+ years. All these other projects keep popping up demanding my attention. But I am determined that the bed quilt will be the next completed item. Then do I finish something else or start a new project? We'll see.

Kaleidoscopes Completed

My deadline has been met and I can add three new quilts to my completion list. At present they are part of an exhibition by our local, small but talented patchwork group in Mt Perry. I've never actually named my quilts before so even that was a challenge. Photos of the exhibition will be posted on mpquilters.blogspot.com over the coming weeks.

The two smaller ones will have pride of place in my sewing room, either side of a tall window.

The other will possibly hang in the hallway, not sure yet.


The weather has been very cold and miserable the last two days. Yesterday rained all day and turned our dirt road into slush. Today has been overcast and showery and the wind has been howling non stop. An excellent day for staying indoors and sewing but sadly the housework and paperwork have had to come first after my sewing frenzy last week.

Next project is a patchwork nappy bag as a gift for a friend and then back to those unfinished projects. I seem to always have a couple on the go, then I can work on whichever I feel like at the time. And browsing through magazines, I always manage to add to my to do list. Oh well.

The Home Straight

Finally I can see the finish line for the kaleidoscope quilts. One 36" x 42" is 99.9% completed. One 18" x 46" completed and one 18" x 46" half basted. The small one won't take long to quilt and the binding is a breeze. My next blog I will be able to post photos of them hanging in our local gallery as part of a combined quilters exhibition.

Our small group of quilters held a workshop in June and the time has now come to exhibit our hard work.

The last week has been very eventful. With all the lovely rain we received, the grass has greened up beautifully and the daisies are open in time for the arrival of spring. Hubby is grounded at the present time with the Standstill on horses so he has been getting those jobs done around the house that often get put off.

I had a lovely day Thursday when my two best friends and fellow quilters arrived for the day.
After a quick cuppa, it was needles and threads at the go till lunch. Then back to the sewing. Of course plenty of chatting as we worked. We had tried to plan this day a couple of times previously but something always came up at the last minute to postpone it.

The quilt pictured is my first flannel quilt. I purchased the fabric at a closing down sale with the intention of making it up 'one day'. However, I liked the feel of it so much that all other projects were put on hold while I designed it and made it up. The border fabric was pre-cut into strips so my design started from the outside in to use the full strips. I've now benn able to snuggled under this quilt for two winters.

I've also included another one of my mothers' quilts. The patchwork and quilting is 100% hand sewn. Each butterfly flower block was quilt as you go and joined to the next with the floral sashing. She also made the valance around the bottom.

Sorting Scraps

I finally got to make a start on sorting out those fabric scraps. Thanks to Wanda's suggestion I gave myself a half hour which turned into almost an hour and made a good start. So far I have strips 1.5" and squares 2.5", 3.5", 4.5" and 6.5" Yesterday I purchased some small containers to fit each size and hey presto; containers of neatly cut uniform squares ready for a project.

The actual pressing and cutting was quite therapudic and the end result is very satisfying. Can't wait to get some more done. At the moment I'm busy trying to finish my kaleidoscope quilts for September 4. Thanks to the wet weather I've been kept indoors and had plenty of opportunity to work on them.

Also thanks to the wet weather, I'll have plenty of weeding in the gardens to do.
My girls have taken advantage of the cooler weather to curl up. My son left his quilt on the lounge and it didn't take them long to make a cosy spot for themselves. Fleur is on the left and Jayne on the right. Luckily they're on the back of the quilt. I read a little quote one day that said "Dogs have owners and cats have slaves". These two have got that right but I love their company.

Blessing In Disguise

Sometimes things happen for a reason and I look at my sewing maching breaking down as one of those times. I had hoped to get the binding on my kaleidoscope quilt but the maching had other ideas. Actually it was the feed dogs that wouldn't co-operate. They were staying down and no amount of pleading on my part was going to change their mind. So after the initial frustration of it all, I spread out the first of the two narrow quilts for sandwiching and I am 7/8's finished. I also done some hand embroidery on another project, which reminded me of why I enjoy hand sewing. It's relaxing and nothing can break down.

While home on holidays from Uni, my daughter decided she'd like to make her own lap quilt. I'm proud to say that it's all her work, from design to completion. I forgot to take a picture so she sent me a photo when she got back.

I would like to include a photo of one of the quilts my mother has made. She prefers to hand sew, so Dorothy Clark's 'Cottage Gardens Wall-Hanging' was just the one. Here it awaits being sandwiched and bound. It now has pride of place on one of her beds.

It also goes to show that a love of sewing, patchworking and quilting runs in our family as in many families, passed down from mother to daughter. I might add that my grandmother is an avid hand embroiderer, knitter and crocheter and her hands are never idle at the age of 90.

The weather man forcasts rain for today and tomorrow. It's getting bleaker by the minute so I hope he's right. A lovely day for staying indoors and ... quilting.

Kaleidoscope Quilt

Here's a sneak preview of the quilt I've been working on since attending a kaleidoscope workshop. This is before I sandwiched and I am currently in the process of quilting. I've gone with a jungle leaf repeated 8 times over the quilt in free motion. I'll fill any large spaces with perhaps a hibiscus outline.

This is only half of the hexagons that were made from the fabric. These are all the ones that had any blue in them. The other half I sorted again into orange/green and red/white/green and am making two longer narrow wall hangings.

Here is the original fabric.

No Red Yet

I'm still waiting for the red rose to open up but here are the next two.

A friend of mine who grows beautiful roses suggested I buy a 'Peter Frankenfeld'. I'm very happy that I did. I didn't have a pink rose.

I also decided to try a different yellow this time and found 'King's Ransom'. Another satisfied sigh.

This is the view from our verandah last Thursday morning at 6.30am. Yesterday visibility while driving to work was almost nil and again this morning there was a heavy fog.

I'm hoping to get the borders sewn around three wall hangings today so that I can be sandwiching them tomorrow when our small quilters group get together. Fingers crossed.

Roses are Red

Well one of my roses is red but for now these are the first to bloom. I just had to plant roses at our new place and couldn't wait till they were in. I've given hubby credit for preparing the bed because they've been no time at all and here are the first three. This top one is 'Blue Moon'.

I tried a different white this time. This one is 'Mount Shasta'. A large rose with quite a lovely scent. It was actually planted 3 weeks after the others and the first to open up.

And I couldn't go past 'Double Delight' again. My mum's favourite. You know the saying that you should take the time to stop and smell the roses. Maybe this will be my new motto.