FNwF + Slow Stitching Sunday 8 Feb 11:11 PM (last month)

Just like that, the weekend is almost over! Sometimes, it feels as though I wake up, blink a few times and it's time for dinner, without having achieved all that much through the day.

I joined Cheryll and the girls for Friday Night with Friends and managed to get some more Propeller Quilt blocks stitched up. I have a nice pile of them now, growing quite well. These are all made using only scraps. I think I need to dig into my red and green scrap tubs as I don't think I've used many pieces from those yet.

I had a busy day at work yesterday with my Saturday class. It's such fun to see what everyone is working on. I took my AccuQuilt GO! Fabric Cutter in with my Drunkards Path die. One student wanted to work on a cushion, similar to one which I have on display in the store. She is a brilliant hand embroiderer, but hasn't done a lot of patchwork in the past. She decided to jump right in and practice sewing curves.

She chose to use a Ruby Star Woodland Park charm pack for her pieces and it's looking very modern with fun colour and print combinations. I'll take a photo next time, with her progress.

Woodland Park available at Fat Quarter Shop

Our class project is the Dreamweaver Quilt project (pattern by Michelle McKillop) and a fair few people have decided to work on that quilt over the next few months. Everyone is at different stages and I set everyone homework to get the quilt back finished. Let's see how everyone progresses with that when we catch up again next time.

I came home to an almost empty house - husband at work and teenagers were out, doing teenager things on a Saturday night. I sat down with my doggies near me, turned on my audiobook and worked on my Sashiko project. It's tricky to see the progress on the front, but the back shows the progress (and my naughty naughty knotted threads).

The audiobook I have been listening to over the past week-ish was Homecoming by Kate Morton. It was over 17 hours long and I listened to it in the car and when in my sewing room. I enjoyed the story immensely and it certainly didn't feel like I listened to it for that long.

Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of the grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia.

Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney...

An epic novel that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, and how we protect the lies we tell. It explores the power of motherhood, the corrosive effects of tightly held secrets, and the healing nature of truth.

I won't tell you about the story but I can say that I didn't pick the ending.

If you haven't yet, you can sign up for a free trial of Audible to listen to some great audiobooks.

Audiobooks are perfect for listening to when sewing. Being transported away to another world while doing some slow stitching is one of my favourite things to do. I alternate between using Audible and listening to books through my free library apps.

Today's slow stitching involved some needle turn applique. A few years ago, I made a quilt called "Breeze on Lee" which was created for and published in Homespun Magazine.

Breeze on Lee - you can read about it in this blog post

I had saved the centre cut-outs from the applique pieces and found them this week when I was doing a little bit of tidying. My coasters have been looking the worse for wear so I'd been thinking that I needed to make some new ones. I needle-turn appliqued the prints to some scrap charm squares (which I also found in my tidying up this week).

I added a layer of batting, a backing and turned them out to make a little set of coasters. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out and already have one in use, holding a cup of tea as I type.

Linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday

Glitter Cushion 4 Feb 12:26 PM (last month)

The Glitter Cushion

Glitter Quilted Cushion by Anorina @ sameliasmum

I wasn't enjoying this project and decided that rather than just put it aside and forget about it, I'd use the blocks that I'd already made, and turn them into something. Initially I thought I'd make a long table runner... but when I put them in this 10 block layout (my blocks are 30% larger than the original), they made the perfect size cushion for a large European pillow insert.

A European pillow is 26" x 26" and this turned out slightly smaller - but the insert I was using is one that lives on the couch normally (with another handmade cushion) and has lost some of it's oomph, which made it an easy fit inside of this new Glitter cushion.

It works rather well sitting on my light blue sofa. Harry was desperate to jump up there is have a little lay down to test out the new cushion, but he posed for a photo for me first. Much to his sadness, I took the cushion away after the picture and he had to make do with only the fluffy ones.

The quilting. Gosh I really went back and forth and back and forth with this one. I was initially going to big stitch quilt all over this cushion. After ditch stitching with Aurifil invisible thread, I set out some beautiful 12 weight colours that I wanted to stitch with. I made a start on a few blocks, outlining the outer edges and within some of the inside squares... but I wasn't loving it.

I unpicked my hand stitching.

Then I thought I'd do some spiral quilting. I thought the quilted curves might look cool against all of those points, so I pressed the cushion top (sandwiched with batting and held together by the ditch stitching) again. I started the quilting and after a few rounds decided that I didn't like it.

I unpicked the spiral machine quilting.

I decided to just leave it alone. There was enough quilting in the ditch to hold it together with the batting and it would have to do. I found this fun fabric in my stash and a 50cm zip so made the cushion back.

I always use a wide seam and a zig-zag with I sew up cushions, so lost some of those lovely side points within the outer seams, but that doesn't bother me. As I always say to my classes, finished is better than perfect. After much dithering about, I have a finish, not perfect, but a finish, none the less.

Glitter acrylic template sets are on sale separately and can be found at some quilt stores or I've found them available here on amazon.

If you'd like to have a try at making your own Glitter project, the original pattern can be found in a book called Quilt Lovely by Jen Kingwell. I used the original pattern and enlarged the templates by 30%.

Linking with Needle & Thread Thursday

Slow Stitching Sunday 1 Feb 9:04 PM (2 months ago)

As you may have noticed from my past few blog posts, I've been mainly slow stitching lately.

I have my hand pieced Propeller Quilt progressing, slowly but surely. Since starting, I managed 2 or 3 blocks per evening, so I should have enough blocks ready to put together in about... 2 years. Each fabric combination seems to become my favourite. Right now, I'm putting together a dark purple and mustard combo... which is my favourite so far. Funny that.

My Glitter Quilt Project is receiving some big stitch hand quilting to add some extra pizzazz and sparkle. I had thought that I might add stitches in a single colour, but I'm going to use all the colours I have which work with the fabrics used.

The other slow stitching project which I have been working on lately is a Sashiko panel which I purchased at work after being inspired by projects I'd seen online and by projects which I'd seen at work. We have a few different brands of sashiko, but this one is the Olympus brand, which I've found to be the best. The fabric is a great weight and doesn't pucker up as quickly as some of the others.

Sashiko is a great travel project. I've got my current project all neatly tucked away in a lovely Cath Kidston pouch - I think it originally held a selection of hand creams which I received as a gift a few years back.

I used to take hexies to my Monday night Trivia, but now I take this little pouch with my sashiko bits and pieces to work on. Not a lot of thought required, so that I can use some of my remaining brain space in the trivia.

I'm only new to this so I've been watching a few Susan Briscoe videos on YouTube - I love all of her work. To tackle this project, Susan has an example of the order in which you follow to complete it. If you'd like to see the order, this is the link to the YouTube video (starting at the correct point).

I've got a bit of time before thinking about dinner prep, so I'm going to sit down with my Sashiko and listen to my audiobook - Homecoming by Kate Moreton. I'm around 25% into it and enjoying it.

Olympus Sashiko Set on amazon (including a panel, thread and needles)

The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook by Susan Briscoe

Linking up with Kathy for Slow Stitching Sunday

** It also appears that there's been a change in blogger with regards to commenting. Even though I have it set correctly, it seems that my comments are noreply-comment@blogger.com which is very annoying. This is an interesting blog post about this change. Has anyone encountered this problem?

Saturday Stuff - 1 Feb 2025 31 Jan 7:54 PM (2 months ago)

Happy Saturday friends. It seems that Saturday's have become my new regular day to post here and catch up with my week. I had meant to come back through the week, but time just got away from me.

Monday was a public holiday, which was a nice start to the week. I taught my first class of the year on Tuesday which was a lot of fun. The day is split in half with students having the option to attend the morning, afternoon or both sessions. We had all sorts of different projects being worked on through the day, which is great fun.

I worked again on Wednesday, so didn't have much sewing time myself, but enjoyed some time in my sewing room on Thursday and Friday. I'm a casual employee, which works perfectly for me and for my family. Other than my teaching days, I don't have set shifts and can be called upon very last minute. It also means that I can make myself unavailable, go on holidays when I want to, without a worry. For me, my job is a great way to get out of the house and talk about fabric and quilts with people who are interested in these things too.

My current addiction is making these Propeller Blocks. It's a Postcard Project from Jen Kingwell. These little blocks are all hand pieced. I start by going through my scrap tubs and finding pieces which are large enough to fit the propeller piece 4 times. If the fabric is a bigger piece, I trace 8 or 12 propellers.

This template shape is great because it lines up very well on the fabric. Tracing it out may be a little time consuming, but cutting out the shapes is very quick with minimal waste.

Once I have a lovely big pile of propeller pieces, I sit and stitch them together in the evenings, usually while watching telly. At the moment, we're working our way through Silent Witness. We're most of the way through Season 20.

I got to a stage where I wasn't enjoying making my Glitter Quilt. I don't know if it's the colours I chose to work with, or just the shape of the pieces and block in general, but I decided to stop, put the blocks I've already made together and will turn this into a large Euro style pillow.

I machine sewed the blocks together (possibly breaking the rules after having hand sewn the blocks) and getting them to line up was a little bit tricky. I'm of the opinion that near enough is good enough; finished is better than perfect... so that's what I went with. If I dithered about too long, stressing about points to matching up exactly, I'd probably not get it finished at all.

I layered some white batting on the back and used Aurifil monofilament thread to stitch in the ditch between all of the blocks. Next I'll use my favourite Aurifil 12 weight cotton threads to add some big stitch hand quilting for added sparkle and texture.

Purchase the Glitter Quilt template set here on amazon

My son is very much into growing plants and cuttings and I found this fun graphic on pinterest. We have a few glass jars with plants growing in water. We have Devil's Ivy (pothos) and Peace Lily's doing remarkably well. All of the guides suggest not using city water, but rather, distilled water. We ignore this and just use regular old tap water. Every few months I add a tiny sprinkle of fertiliser into the water and the plants are doing just fine.

They seem to grow better in water than in soil!

Speaking of the garden, we're beginning to harvest figs but it's a race against the fruit bats and night and the birds in the mornings/evenings. I should really net the tree, but I'd hate for anything to get caught up in the net when all they're doing is trying to eat a yummy treat.

Here's a rainbow lorikeet at the top of the tree yesterday afternoon.

The rainbow lorikeet is a species of parrot found in Australia. It is common along the eastern seaboard, from northern Queensland to South Australia. Its habitat is rainforest, coastal bush and woodland areas... oh and backyard fig trees ;-)

One last thing to share before I go for now. Dad had an over abundance of bananas this year and I brought home a lot. This is a yummy variation of banana bread which we've tried a few times. Anyone have any other ideas on how to use too-many bananas?

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Banana Bread

Saturday Stuff - 25 Jan 2025 25 Jan 12:20 AM (2 months ago)

Happy Saturday friends. Now, I know that I've already posted about my Liberty Crossroads quilt, but one more mention here. We returned from our Carnival Cruise yesterday and a parcel was sitting on my doorstep when we got home. It was my quilt as well as my physical copy of the magazine. Yay!

I'm glad that it didn't rain while we were away, otherwise I may have had a soggy bundle to open up. I had originally planned on this quilt being for my bed. The problem I have too pups who enjoy laying up on my bed, way too much. They love to go up there and look out the front windows so that they can bark at any delivery drivers or basically anybody who walks past the house.

Many of these Liberty fabrics have been in my stash for years and I'd honestly rather they don't become dogified. Perhaps when they're older and can't jump up onto the bed any more.

If you'd like to make my Liberty Crossroads quilt, the pattern is available in the current issue of Homespun magazine.

Now on to what has been happening this week. We had a lovely time on our cruise. It was only a short Monday to Friday cruise and went up to Moreton Island in Queensland and then back to Sydney. We had a beautiful view of the Sydney Opera House from our room before we departed.

We had a big group of family and friends join us on this cruise. It was lovely to have everyone onboard to celebrate, but also tricky at times as not everyone knew each other and had different interests/ages. I'm pleased that I got to spend the week with some of my faves.

We watched shows, ate too much food and enjoyed many activities available on board. We even managed to win some trivia challenges and came home with medals. Here they are beside one of the towel animals.

Our room steward was very friendly and attentive. He even surprised me by setting out birthday decorations in our room while we were out having dinner.

The day that we arrived at Moreton Island was VERY hot. There were people returning to the ship glowing red from too much sun. After the island, we headed back south. We woke that next morning by a storm full of lighting and thunder. I looked out of the window and it was very foggy but with bright reflections due to the lightning. By mid morning, it had all passed and it was lovely and sunny again.

We found a heart shaped towel creation on our last afternoon.

After arriving home yesterday, we spent time doing mountains of laundry. That quickly brings you back to reality, doesn't it? Laundry and having to cook your own dinner after being spoiled having everything cooked for you with a huge selection available.

Today I did some grocery shopping, visited dad and picked up a new armchair which I'd ordered for the front room. It's not super exciting, but it is very comfy. I plan on lots of reading and hand sewing while sitting on this chair... not to mention the naps I have planned...

My guard dog, Harry, was sitting on the couch opposite me (as I tested my new arm chair). He enjoys sitting there and looking out of the window... again to bark at delivery drivers and passers-by.

On Tuesday, I'm teaching a quilting class at work. The ladies can bring in any project they they like or which they may need help or advice with. Aside from that, I've also set a class project which can be worked on at everyone's own pace - if they choose to join in.

The project is the Dreamweaver Quilt - pattern by Michelle McKillop. I made my version a number of years ago and it's hung in the store at various times, with great feedback from customers.

Dreamweaver Quilt Pattern is available on ETSY

We have a number of ladies signed up for the class which should be great fun and I look forward to seeing how everyone goes with their version of this quilt.

While looking for my original pattern so that I could prepare some samples for the initial steps, I found this stitched and quilted notebook cover. I think I made it for a blog hop - agessssss ago and hadn't seen it since. Isn't it wonderful when you find things in your sewing room that you completely forgot about.

Hoping everyone has had a lovely week.

Saturday Stuff - 18 Jan 2025 17 Jan 10:02 PM (2 months ago)

A few little bits and pieces to record of what's been happening around here this week.

It's been a slow-ish week for me but I have enjoyed a little bit of sewing. They're slow to put together, but I've now made 8 Glitter Quilt blocks and cut up lots of pieces for more blocks. I'm determined to only use fabric in my scrap tubs in a limited palette. If I start to run low, I guess I'll introduce some new colours to keep with the scrappiness.

Glitter Quilt Template Set on Amazon

Read my previous Glitter Quilt blog post HERE

The kids are on school holidays and usually they work at their casual jobs through their holidays, but they've both decided to make themselves unavailable and enjoy a few days off before we head away on our family holiday next week. It's been nice having them home.

It's my birthday today. It's a big 0 birthday and I was thoroughly spoiled by my loves. They alway say that they don't know what to get me and I always tell them that I don't need big expensive gifts, but I rather receive things which they've put some thought into.

Along with beautiful gold jewellery, I was gifted a Glasshouse reed diffuser because I'd like the bottle (which I very much do) and I could use once all of the smelly stuff ran out. A small jar of Moccona coffee because we're going on a cruise and they knows how I much prefer my coffee rather what is available on the ship. Very cute and very thoughtful. I was just going to pour some of my jar into a ziplock bag, but this is much nicer.

My husband has heard me mention that the centre console of the car is great, but huge and deep which makes it very unorganised. He got me a sliding shelf that goes inside of the console to be able to organise things a little better. All thoughtful gifts. Love them!

We had family over for lunch today and I used my new fish table cloth on the dining table. Dad brought it back for me when he was in Portugal last year and I absolutely love the bright and happy coloured fish. I thought they were all sardines, but I've been informed that there are some mackerel in there too. Hah!

I had cake at work on a couple of different days with different work mates which was absolutely delightful. How good are birthdays?!?!

Lemon Meringue Pie

Chocolate Cake with my fave peanut M&Ms

Yesterday, I saw that my Sunny Joy quilt is published in the current issue of Quilters Companion magazine. It's a joyful, scrappy-busting quilt with some 'not so difficult' curves and lots of opportunity to play with colour and value.

This is one of my most favourite quilts and I'd like to remake it again one day, with a more limited colour palette. So many quilts to make with so little time...

Image Source: Quilters Companion Magazine

As I mentioned earlier, we head away on a holiday on Monday. We are sailing away on a short cruise, just up to Moreton Island QLD and back to Sydney on Friday. Lot's of family and friends will be joining us on this cruise which should be a lot of fun and I cannot wait to see everyone and enjoy a cocktail or two.

As we all know, a holiday means deciding what craft project to take along. I bought a new sashiko panel at work last week to take with me - I'll eventually turn this panel into a table runner. I thought about using different coloured thread, but absolutely love the indigo and white combination.

I also started another hand piecing project. Again, it's using up scraps. The block is called Propellar 1 and is Postcard Project #9 by Jen Kingwell. These types of templates are great and lots of simple projects can be made with them. I bought this template a few years at a quilt show and finally decided to cut out some pieces and enjoy some slow hand piecing. I have a small pile of pieces already cut and will spend a little bit of time tomorrow cutting some more shapes, ready to stitch up.

These should keep me busy enough around all of the ship activities. Hopefully...

Liberty Crossroads Quilt 13 Jan 10:00 AM (2 months ago)

After previously sharing some sneaky peeks of this quilt, I can finally show you my finished "Liberty Crossroads" quilt which is published in the 25th year anniversary issue of Homespun Magazine.

Liberty Crossroads by Anorina Morris

This is a good-sized quilt measuring 230cm (90" square) although can be made larger with a border or extra (partial) blocks. I chose to use my stash of Liberty Tana Lawn fabrics in this quilt. I've been hoarding them for such a long time and afraid to use my beloved Liberty stash, but I'm very glad that I did and have a lovely quilt to drape over my bed.

The white and grey fabrics are Island Batik solids which are comparable to the Liberty Lawn in softness and smoothness to the touch. I fell in love with the Island Batik solids when I was an ambassador for the company and am glad that I still have some of the fabrics within my stash.

If you'd like to view/purchase Liberty Fabrics, the Fat Quarter Shop are stockists and have some absolutely beautiful prints to choose from. Link below. I love them all and always find it tricky to choose which makes the bundles a perfect idea for a project like this.

The blocks are super simple and are a combination of squares and HST's, which when layed out make a secondary cross design.

Image Source: Homespun Magazine

Homespun is available digitally online, or from your local store for magazine purchases. In Australia, you can find it at Coles or your local newsagent or quilt store.

Subscribe to Homespun magazine and receive it in your letterbox via this link

Great variety of Liberty Fabric available at Fat Quarter Shop

Glitter Quilt & things 12 Jan 2:40 PM (2 months ago)

Good Morning friends. I thought I'd stop in here today to share some progress of what I've been working on lately. My 2025 slow-sew project is the Glitter Quilt. The Glitter Quilt is a pattern by Jen Kingwell from her book Quilt Lovely (available here from amazon *).

Click through to the "Glitter Quilt" template set available at Amazon

Let me go back to how we decided to go ahead with this project...

... the current (and some retired) staff of the store where I work, catch up fortnightly after the store closes to sit and sew together. It started as meeting up after the store closed, but found that wasn't enough time, so we catch up mid afternoon and the poor staff who are on shift can only pop into the classroom to chat, but are still technically on the floor when customers need assistance.

Our 2024 project was the Ice Cream Soda quilt and as many have now finished or almost finished it, we needed to plan our 2025 project. There were a lot of ideas thrown around but not a lot of commitment to a decision. Linda of Flourishing Palms had finished her beautiful Glitter Quilt and posted on Instagram, so i shared it with the group asking if they liked this idea... and the rest is history.

I luckily already had the pattern because I bought the book back in 2015. A few others also had the book, some ordered the book, others ordered just the templates from Jen Kingwell's store, Amitie. Suffice it to say, we are all beginning our Glitter journey.

* Glitter Quilt Template Set available on amazon *

To me, after having the templates cut and ready in my hand, the block looked quite small. I decided to enlarge the pattern by 30% and make a new set of templates with template plastic. I figure a bigger starting block, equals less overall blocks required.

* Glitter Quilt Template Set available on amazon *

I have now made 6 blocks with number 7 on the way. They're all hand sewn and I find them to be quite slow to put together. I will be working completely with fabric from my scrap tubs. I've started with pinks, blues, teals plus some low volume prints and will see how they go. I figure that I may need to incorporate more colours further along the journey, but hope to keep the palette quite limited.

I'm also working on a scrappy hexie piece. I had a lot of leftover fabric from a table runner store sample I had made last year, so decided to make hexies. The fabric is Liberty Cotton which isn't as fine as the tana lawn, but great for quilts and projects.

Here's the link to the Petals of Liberty on Denim project in which I initially used these fabrics.

When I had a whole bunch of hexies prepared, I started to put them together and am thinking of turning them into a cushion or the front of a bag. Watch this space.

A few little hexagon pincushions were also made this past fortnight - pattern is available here from the Strawberry Thief blog.

I have a big birthday coming up this weekend and to celebrate, we're heading on a cruise next week with lots of friends and family joining us. It should be lots of fun, but a quilter always has that pressing need to include some projects. I bought a sashiko panel a few weeks back, and plan on starting on that during the cruise. I won't need a lot of supplies which means that it's very portable and can fold up and fit in my shoulder bag.

Ice Cream Soda Quilt 4 Jan 1:06 PM (2 months ago)

My Ice Cream Soda Quilt is all finished - it even has a label attached. I started ICS back at the beginning of 2024 with a group of ladies who I work with. Most of the group are current staff members, but we do have a few ex-staff members who join us. We sit and sew after the store closes and then get Chinese food for dinner. We've all begun to look forward to our fortnightly chatter and Chinese food almost more than the actual sewing!

The ICS quilt was a fun challenge. I went down the English paper piecing road and bought the kit from Tales of Cloth (large block kit), when she released them (I think it was around Christmas-ish 2023).

Label created on the Brother Stellaire sewing/embroidery machine

Some ladies only bought the templates and have decided to hand piece their quilts.

One lady cut out all of her pieces with her Brother Scan n Cut machine.

One lady made soooo many blocks that her quilt will be double sided.

About half of us have finished quilt tops - I think only two of us have completely finished quilts.

We all (mostly) used fabrics from our stash although there were a few that went down a Tilda route and have a beautifully co-ordinated projects.

The aim is to eventually have all of our quilts finished and displayed in the classroom for all to see. I'll share some pictures once this happens in a few months time. Our aim was to have everyone finished by Christmas 2024, but we may have to settle for Christmas in July 2025. Fingers Crossed!!

The 2025 project is going to be the Glitter Quilt by Jen Kingwell from her book Quilt Lovely. This will be a hand piecing extravaganza which is looking and feeling quite daunting. I will use stash - because I have so much of it and it needs using up. My plan this afternoon to to make a test block. I'll keep you posted on my Glitter Progress.

Petals of Liberty on Denim Table Runner 2 Dec 2024 3:08 PM (4 months ago)

Hello. It's been a while, hasn't it? My sewing mojo seems to have deserted me.

When it comes to my creative life, I haven't achieved very much this past few months. I've almost finished a crochet blanket. Almost.

I only need to stitch up the last few rows but the project has been stopped and sitting in a bag for the last few weeks (or maybe it's been months).

I've been slowly working on my Ice Cream Soda EPP quilt. The blocks are all complete and the joining pieces have been added. I'm at the assembly stage, which is taking much longer than the fun part, which was deciding on fabrics and making the blocks.

I've made a few new samples for the shop where I work. We recently stocked some "new to us" Liberty quilting cotton fabrics, denim fabric and a new leaf template, so I made a sample using all three of these new products.

Well, it's been another few weeks / months and I just came across this half-post saved as a draft which I started back in early October. Time is certainly getting away from me this year and I don't even know what I have to show for it. Looking forward to slowing down some... soon.

Big & Smalls Quilt 6 Jun 2024 3:11 AM (10 months ago)

My scrappy and very happy, Big & Smalls quilt is in the newest issue of Homespun Magazine (June/July 2024 issue). It doesn't matter how many quilts you have published, it's always exciting to see your project on the pages of a magazine.

Image Source: Homespun Magazine (June/July 2024)

This quilt was a long-term project for me. I started basting these scrappy hexagons after finishing my Kingfisher quilt (that was such a fun project). I'm guessing I possibly started this around 5-6 years ago.

This became my go-to travel project. Car trips (while husband drove) or waiting for kids in the car. This project travelled with us to US holiday and a cruise to Mexico back in 2019 and I think it may have even gone with us to Europe in 2018. We drove right across the south of England and I remember having my hand sewing during that adventure.

English paper piecing is just so wonderfully portable. You don't need a lot of supplies to put the hexagon flowers together, or even to applique them to the background squares.

Homespun Magazine is now available for sale at newsagents or your local quilt store. Available via zinio for international friends.

Rosalie's Cushions 2 Jun 2024 6:43 PM (10 months ago)

With the threat of my sewing machines being unplugged and my sewing room being temporarily out of commission while it's painted in anticipation of our new plantation shutters installed this week - I raced to make a couple of new cushions for the couch.

"More cushions?" I hear you ask. Why yes, I did.

Our couch has some cheap and ugly plain grey cushions which I bought from Kmart last year. They were only around $3, don't have zips, which means that the covers can't be removed to be washed. I ended up throwing 4 in the washing machine at once (that's all that would fit) and then laid them out in the back garden to dry. They ended up looking quite wonky and lumpy.

I decided that I needed to make some quilted cushion covers that the wonky grey cushions would be used as the inserts.

I chose pretty Rosalie Dekker fabrics in a linen/cotton which I had been holding on to for years. After sandwiching with the pretty floral fabric, batting and ugly fabric in the back, I machine stitched some very rustic-looking lines.

I added a bunch of big stitch hand quilting in between the machine quilted lines using Aurifil 12wt thread in coordinating colours. It's a really lovely slow process and I quite like the dimpled effect.

I used an old Liberty Cotton fabric for the back of both cushions. I think they look great. My husband also must think they look great because after I'd placed them down for some photos, and turned my back momentarily, he came in from walking the dogs and sat right on them.

Not beside them. ON THEM! Grumble, grumble, grrrr, grrrrr.

Trivia EPP Hexies 27 May 2024 12:00 PM (10 months ago)

I'm at home today, which is absolutely lovely. I should be cleaning, tidying etc etc etc - there's always something that needs to be done around here - but I've decided that I'll sit on my computer for a little while instead. I'm slowly going through the pictures on my phone to see what's been happening around here lately. My poor old blog has been sadly neglected, so I'm going to post some updates even though they're from the past few weeks/months.

Every Monday evening we go to trivia. It's a bit of fun and I honestly don't contribute very much to the team, except when it comes to reality TV or celebrity gossip. We all have our strengths, right? Now if only they'd ask more questions about quilting, it'd be right up my alley!

I sit and work on hand-basting scrappy hexies. Everything I need for the evening fits inside of my Twinnings tea tin. A pile of 2.5" scraps, a ziplock bag filled with 1" hexagon papers which I cut in advance with my Fiskars XL hexagon hole punch, and old spool of thread in a colour that I wouldn't normally use (currently isn't a polyester bright lime green), a needle, a wonderclip and little scissors.

While we answer questions, I happily sit and baste hexagons. I've been doing this for at least the past 6 months and have a lovely pile of them to show for it. At this stage I don't know what I'll make with them, but I'm enjoying that slow hand basting process.

I started on some Kaffe hexagons last week and have more cut and ready to take along to stitch at our next trivia session. The Kaffe hexies are gorgeous, as you'd expect from the bright and happy fabrics of the Kaffe Collective.

Do you enjoy trivia? What's your current portable sewing project?

Aurifil Challenge May 2024 : Favourite Aurifil Thread 26 May 2024 5:10 PM (10 months ago)

Aurifil Evolve Collection - 8wt cotton thread set

The challenge for Aurifil Artisans this past month was to choose and use our favourite thread within the Aurifil family. As artisans, we've been challenged to create with different threads which has helped us (me) decide on the one we like to use the best.

My current favourite thread is the new Aurifil 8wt cotton thread. It has a beautiful sheen, is strong and in a beautiful array of colours. It's slightly thicker than the 12wt which makes it just about as easy to thread for hand sewing, but with a more visible stitchy/quilty effect.

My final Aurifil project is a combination of curves and big stitch quilting. I made a large European size pillow using solid fabrics which complimented the colours of the Evolve collection by Suzy Quilts.

In Australia, we call them European or Euro Cushions (or pillows) and they measure 65cm x 65cm. They look great on a large lounge or bed. I'm guessing that in Europe, they're just called cushions?

I purchased a drunkards path template from Spotlight a few weeks back and was happy to have a play with it. It's a finished 5" drunkards path block and much easier to sew than the smaller 3.5" curves that I've enjoyed playing with in the past. I could have placed the curved blocks to create full size circles or even half circles, but I really like having the blocks all face the same way.

Rather than my traditional white/cream/grey for piecing, I used a lovely golden Aurifil 50wt thread #2920 which I also used to stitch in the ditch between the blocks once I'd sandwiched everything together.

The hand quilting was kept simple with only a line of stitched within each curve and across one side of the seams. Less is more in this case, where usually I go with more is more is more. I finished off the cushion backing with a stripe fabric in warm colours and a long (hidden) zip.

Creating this curvy project with big colour stitches has been mindful, very relaxing and joyful. I incorporated some of my favourite techniques to finish on a high. After two years of stitching fun, challenges and unexpected discovery, this is sadly, my last Aurifil Artisan project as I decided not to apply again. Life has been busy lately as you can probably tell from my lack of blogging and creating. Even though I won't be a part of the artisan program next year, I will continue to use and love Aurifil threads and I thank them for all of the support and fun.

Click through to visit the Aurifil Artisans and see what they have created as their final favourite hurrah.

Picklewedge Quilt 6 Apr 2024 6:23 PM (12 months ago)

Happy Sunday friends. I'm very happy to share my scrappy rainbowy finished Pickle Wedge quilt. It's been a very fun quilt to put together as well as a great learning experience.

I had always planned on hand quilting this with some big stitches using lovely Aurifil 12wt thread... but I then opted for speed and machine free motion quilted it. I used Hobbs wool batting in the squishy centre. I tend to use cotton or cotton/bamboo blend battings normally, so this was trickier (slipperier) to quilt and manhandle through my machine.

Speaking of machine, I got my big Bernina B710 out to do the quilting. It's got the wider throat which made it easier to work.

When making my picklewedge quilt, I used mainly solids from my stash. No colour was turned away - even brown! I don't tend to use brown in my projects, but it was welcome in this one.

I pieced the arcs using the foundation paper piecing method, using freezer paper (fold back and sew beside the lines). For this whole quilt, I only used 4 traced out arc wedge templates. For the whole thing! A little big of freezer paper went a long way.

When piecing the blocks, I used my bobbin ends so the quilt is made up with a wide variety of colours.

I originally had it layed out in a 6 x 8 block configuration, but it was too long and seemed out of proportion. I unpicked the bottom row, added an extra block and turned it into a 7 x 7 configuration. Much better!

It's a perfect size for a double bed. Both kids have double beds in their rooms so they can fight over it when winter truly arrives. Or I might just use it on the couch myself. Haha who knows!

A big thank you to my son who let me sweep everything off his bed for an afternoon lit photo in his room. we've had a crazy amount of rain over the last few days (350mls in April). I'll take it out for some pictures in the wild when everything isn't so soggy.

March 2024 30 Mar 2024 4:36 PM (last year)

My last post was on 1 March, so I thought I'd better pop in and share a bit what I've been up to.

Firstly, Happy Easter! It's Easter Sunday morning and I've already had chocolate to start the day. It doesn't matter how old the kids get, they still enjoy an Easter Egg hunt. I baked folares, which are a (southern) Portuguese tradition at Easter. Sweet bread, swirled with loads of butter, cinnamon and sugar.

My garden is looking tired and ready for the winter hibernation. I've never been able to grow hydrangeas, but somehow, we've managed to keep these alive in a large pot. I do love this dried colour and wonder whether I should cut them and dry to bring into the house, or just leave them.

Through the month, I joined a class on free motion quilting with Deb Louie. Deb teaches a grid-like technique for the quilting. Using a grid, pounce and powder we quilt within the lines which is really a lot of fun. I ordered my own pounce from Amazon, so I'm waiting for that to arrive so that I can play around some more at home.

With the cooler weather arriving, I have finally finished my 2023 neon liquorice all sort crochet blanket. Only a few ends to weave in and then it needs a bit of blocking. I haven't started a new 2024 blanket yet, but have enjoyed spending a bit of time making some wind spinners. I plan on taking hanging these around the neighbourhood. I wonder how long they'll last?!?

It has been a great year for dragon fruit. My dad and aunt have had a bumper crop and I've eaten more dragon fruit this summer, than I have mangoes. Do you like dragon fruit?

My pickle-wedge quilt top is finished. It's been a great learning experience and absolutely enjoyable. I used the freezer paper method of FPP to create the wedges and managed to only use 4 templates, traced on to freezer paper, to make this whole quilt.

I purchased a dark purple floral wideback fabric for the backing so will need to baste and then decide on the quilting. I'm thinking this could be my winter big stitch quilting project.

I continue to play with scraps. The little bits cut out from my pickle wedge quilt have been pieced and then used to create these peels. I trace the peel (leaf) shape on to some light interfacing, sew it on the right side of the scrap panel, trim and then turn it out. I'm not sure what I'll use these for just yet.

Speaking of scraps, I now have a large tin of prepared hexagons, ready for english paper piecing. These are all thread basted hexagons using 2.5" squares. Again, I'm not sure what I'll make with these, but they've been fun to prepare.

My Ice Cream Soda quilt is coming along nicely. I think I only have about a dozen more blocks to make before I can start thinking about the joining diamonds and triangles. I'd originally planned on using a turquoise or teal print for the background joining pieces, but in the end, I chose a white fabric with teeny yellow hearts (or possibly stars) instead. The problem with working in a fabric store, is too many options!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful March and a Happy Easter weekend (if you celebrate).

That first image is a project I'm working on for a Foundation Paper Piecing class which I'm teaching later in the month. Last month, I taught machine pieced curves, and this is the next step. Before long, the class might be putting togethe NY Beauty quilts! That'd be a hoot.

Curves, Ice Cream Soda and Rainbows 29 Feb 2024 7:50 PM (last year)

I haven't sat down to read blogs or post on my blog very much this past month, so I figured I might just do a little catch up post with all of the things that have been happening lately.

Firstly, my Ice Cream Soda EPP quilt has been a lot of fun to work on. I'm half way done now with my blocks, so this will be a lovely big quilt when it's eventually finished. Every second Wednesday (after the store closes), I meet up with some current and ex-staff members at the store where I work and we all sew our Ice Cream Soda quilts. Some of the ladies are doing EPP, others are hand sewing their projects. One is even machine piecing her blocks. We sit and show our progress. We chat and eat and honestly, don't get a whole lot done, but it's a lot of fun.

CONTINUED (Keep Reading) »

Aurifil Challenge - February 2024 28 Feb 2024 9:00 AM (last year)

The challenge for Aurifil Artisans for February 2024 was all about upcycling. Admittedly, I dithered to and fro about participating in this months challenge as I wasn't sure what to contribute. Last year, I using colourful Aurifil12wt threads to do some visible mending on some old jeans, which I really REALLY enjoyed.

Read about last years project here: https://www.sameliasmum.com/2023/05/visible-mending.html

I looked around my kitchen and wondered what I could upcycle. Then it hit me. Well, no, it bounced out of my over-full tea towel drawer. A tea towel apron.

A woman came into the store where I work to buy some cotton tape in different colours. I, of course being nosey, asked what she was working on and she said that she was making aprons from pretty old tea towels, for her friends. I admit that I was a little bit sceptical about the prospect, thinking they're way too small to make a useful apron... but I was very wrong!

I bought this tea towel from a gift shop in Auckland, on our trip to New Zealand last year. The colours and print captured by attention straight away and I had to have it. It's quite a decent size tea towel and great quality fabric. I held it in front of me and thought that it'd be pretty good for an apron.

The next step was to google how to make one. I found a old tutorial on YouTube by Jenny Doan (Missouri Star) and jumped right in.

I didn't have cotton tape at home, so I made my next strap / ties (is that the word?) out of a solid fabric from Island Batik which matched the reds in the print beautifully. I even found the most perfect shade of red #2270 in my Aurifil collection to put it together and top stitch.

I'm quite pleased with how my upcycle project turned out. I have a useful item to now use rather than leaving the tea towel in a drawer, unused because it's too precious.

Karat Quilt 27 Feb 2024 12:29 PM (last year)

The Karat Quilt is my latest quilt in Homespun Magazine. If you're looking for a quick make, this is definitely a great option, with most of the quilt chain pieced and the blocks coming together quickly and easily.

I had bought a selection of Moda Grunge fabrics in blues and greens (as mum used to say, blue and green should never be seen...) along with a cool white. I didn't have a plan for the fabrics (as is often the case) but they came together in this quilt for a fresh, beachy type flavour.

It was designed the quilt on EQ8 with a block I found in the library, using the extention program, BlockBase. The hardest part was deciding on a block and how to lay out the fabrics... ie mix them up or go for a gradated type of look.

It was pieced and quilted on my domestic Bernina 710 using Aurifil 50wt #6722 for the piecing and the meadering free motion quilting.

Why call it Karat? Looking from the top, it almost looks like a cut diamond or precious gemstone. I'm honestly hopeless at naming quilts, so that was the best of an awful lot.

This is also the first month of the latest Sunshine & Lollipops BOM by Anni Downs. A great time to purchase. Homespun is available at all the usual places magazines are sold (eg quilt stores, newsagents and supermarkets) or can be viewed online via Zinio.

Colossal Churn Dash Quilt 7 Feb 2024 3:36 PM (last year)

I'm working on a fun new quilt called the Colossal Churn Dash quilt. It's a pattern by Natalie of Missouri Star Quilt Company and I first saw this quilt while watching one of their Triple Play videos on YouTube.

You can purchase the pattern directly from Missouri Star Quilt Company

I just love watching these ladies (Jenny, Misty and Natalie) present, create, work and banter in their clips. If you haven't watched a Triple Play video yet, I do encourage you to go and look some up. They're released monthly and each video is themed. The three quilters create a quilt within that theme and whats great is that they're all so different.

Anyways, you may have heard already, but I love the churn dash block and have made a few churn dash quilts in the past... when I saw Natalie's Colossal Churn Dash design, I knew that I had to make one. It's made up with 10" squares (perfect for a layer cake) although I used leftover yardage from my Island Batik ambassador days. This range is called English Lavender and is made up of beautiful purples, lilacs and blues. You can see my original post about this range and the project I made with it here.

I cut out 10" squares, mainly darker purples and blues, from my remaining pieces of yardage - I left some purples which I'll eventually use for the outer borders. That colossal churn dash is also an Island Batik solid in grey. I would have loved to use a bright yellow or orange, but as this quilt will eventually live on my sons bed, I kept is slightly more sedate than what my usual inclination would be.

I pieced the main section of quilt top quite quickly. I had it laid out on the floor beside me and Harry, my little fluffy helper, decided that it looked like a good place for a nap. Hmm...

I've now made up the outer border pieces so will add those today and then hopefully have it basted and quilted before too long. It's nice to be able to work on and finish a quilt quickly - unlike some of my more recent looooooooooong term slow projects.

RSC24 - Green 31 Jan 2024 4:09 PM (last year)

I've finished my hand pieced green January blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

I was going for four blocks each month, but after I'd made four, I just kept going. These are simple to hand sew and only making a few blocks each month is a nice way to jump into a new slow-sewing project.

This past few days, I've found that if I have my pieces all cut and marked, I can sit in the evenings to sew while watching telly or while sitting up in bed, listening to my audiobook. I must look a sight. Headphones on and my neck light thingamajig around my neck.

I'm all ready to pack away the green scrap tub and start a new colour now.

And if anyone is looking for a Neck Light Thingamajig this is the exact one I have and use. Yes, it's pink.

My husband bought it for me last Christmas. I use it for sewing and crochet in bed.

Slow Stitching Sunday 28 Jan 2024 1:42 AM (last year)

It's late in the month, but I still had time to start, and now share, my Rainbow Scrap Challenge sewing, with green scraps. I've always wanted to make a quilt, sewn by hand. Not EPP, but hand stitched pieces. I'm not sure why I've never tried this way to stitching together a quilt.

I have a big "0" birthday coming up next year and I decided to make a list of "50 things to do before I'm 50". One item on my list is to hand sew a quilt. This ticks off that item quite nicely.

I used the triangle template from the Ice Cream Soda EPP quilt, which I'm also making at the moment. I've cut out triangles from my scraps, marked the lines and am hand piecing these into hexagon shapes.

My hope is to make at least four blocks each month, but realistically, I'll probably aim for at least 8-12 in each colour so that I can make some sort of colour wash style quilt at the end of the year.

So far, so good! I've made another couple of blocks since this picture was taken and have more triangles cut to piece together over the next few days as I find snippets of time. That's one good thing about hand sewing - it can be picked up and put down quite easily. No need to head into the sewing room and turn on the sewing machine...

What else has been happening around here this past few days? Well I taught a class at work - a group of girls on how to sew a pencil case. It's lined and includes a zipper. They all did very well.

It's always funny to me that at the start of the class, I tell the kids that they can go around the store and choose any fabric they want. The overwhelmed look that crosses their faces when they see the walls of fabrics, is priceless.

As quilters, we know that choosing the 'right' fabric for a project can take a lot of time. So I give them a 5 minute time limit. They have 5 minutes to go around and choose whichever fabric they want, to create a pencil case to take to school. I've run this class a few times and the fabric choices always surprise me. No Tula, Kaffe or Anna Maria have ever been chosen (which would be my go-to fabrics).

Australia Day was on Friday. We had a BBQ here at home for lunch, which is tradition. Around that, I joined Chooky and the gang for a zoom chat. I popped in and out a few times through the day, but some of the girls stitched for a good 12+ hours!

It's always fun to join the zoom chats organised by Chooky. If you're interested in joining in, follow along her blog to find out when the next one will be. There are people who join from all over the world and we just sit, sew and chat. Here's the link to Chookyblue.

Joining Slow Stitching Sunday, RSC24

Aurifil Challenge - Thread Organisation 23 Jan 2024 9:01 PM (last year)

This month our friends at Aurifil have asked the artisans to share their tips and tricks for thread organisation. I honestly thought long and hard about this challenge - and whether I'd actually submit a post this month.

Do you watch reels on instagram of beautiful sewing rooms. Fabulously organised shelves of fabrics with scraps organised in smaller tubs. A place for rotary cutters and a place for rulers. A beautiful peg board with my threads hanging in a visually appealing way. Everything looking neat and pretty and having a place where it belongs.

My sewing room feels like it's the opposite of the instagram reals. Hah! It's not very organised and right now, it's especially messy. But you know what? My threads are all organised, in their own way. And best of all, it works for me.

Lets begin with the 50wt and 40 wt threads (with a few 28wt thrown in for good measure).

I keep the colourful ones in a large clear plastic tub (with a lid). I don't use a lot of different colours in my general sewing, but years ago, when I first discovered Aurifil thread in the gorgeous Aurifil Thread Storage Cases, I had to buy a bunch of them.

I keep the neutral/everyday colours in an easier to access basket. I don't usually sew with white thread, unless my quilt has a lot of white in it. I keep the cones in there too. My new Juki will be more accepting of cones with it's thread spool holder, than my previous machines.

I tend towards light grey, cream or a greenish colour. These three are my favourite Aurifil 50wt cotton threads and my most used colours for piecing.

Colour 6724 - Moonshine

Colour 2026 - Chalk

Colour 2912 - Platinum

Next we move onto my favourite thread weight which is the 12wt cotton. In saying this, I recently had the pleasure of working with some of the new 8wt thread by Aurifil and it is an absolute delight! Keep an eye out for all of the artisan projects using 8wt thread, in the coming weeks.

I fell in love with 12wt a few years ago when I really got into big stitch hand quilting. It is the thread which I've used on all of my hand quilted quilts for the past few years. Sometimes I even used it for hand embroidery (think quilt labels) or machine stitching for extra delicious texture on a project.

The reasons I love this 12wt thread so much are then easy needle threading, a beautiful range of colours, gorgeous sheen and thread strength. I can hand quilt and then still pull the knots through to bury within my batting without fear of the thread snapping.

I tend to use all different colours in my hand quilting because they all work so well with my scrappy quilts. I have a couple of boxes of designer collections which I like to keep seperate from the big plastic tub - mainly to keep them looking pretty and organised. How gorgeous is this Glorious Kantha set Kaffe Fassett and Liza Lucy!?!?

I have a collection of Aurifloss which I bought for myself, a few years ago, when I used to do a lot more embroidery. All of the little wooden spools sit so nicely in this basket - although I have to pull out the spools of thread to see which is which.

Last but not least is my small collection of Aurifil 80wt cotton thread. These are my needle-turn applique heroes. I keep these in a small fabric basket which normally lives in the top drawer of my side table beside my sewing chair. It's the drawer that holds all of the extra packets of needles, glue sticks, frixion pens and assorted bits & pieces for the sewing room.

I have this beautiful set of Aurifil 80wt thread by Aussie designer Sarah Fielke, which I like to keep in it's box, so that it stays nicely organised. This was a set which I received last year from Aurifil for an artisan project. I have since used almost every colour when appliqueing a scrappy EPP quilt (I'll share once it's published in Homespun magazine, later in the year).

So there we have it - this is how I organise my Aurifil thread. I keep it sorted by thread weight, by set and sometimes by neutral/colour.

Now it's your turn to let us know, how do you organise your thread?

Do you have a beautifully organised system?

Do you keep thread sorted by weight / colour?

FNSI - January 2024 19 Jan 2024 1:10 PM (last year)

It's been a while, but I was able to join Wendy and the gang for the January edition of Friday Night Sew In. I worked part of the day, but as dinner was going to be a BBQ (after our Thursday night meat raffle winnings), there wasn't going to be a whole lot of fussing in the kitchen required beforehand. It meant that I had lots of time in the afternoon to begin preparing some EPP pieces for my Ice Cream Soda quilt.

I bought the EPP set from Tales of Cloth along with the templates. I cut some fabrics - some fussy cut and most not - using the templates in the set. I'm not usually one to use templates, but these have been very handy quite a good time saver.

Dinner done and the dogs walked (after a sweaty, hot day) we sat down to watch the Big Bash cricket and I glued basted my pieces. Good news is that I got all of the pieces basted and other good news is that my team, the Sydney Sixers are straight into the final at the SCG on Wednesday night. Yay!

I managed to put together a few of the central stars before bed time.

I keep all of pieces in this beautiful sewing basket. It was a gift from my secret santa at work. Our secret santas are assigned in the middle of the year which means that we have lots of time to listen to what our recipients want/like and to plan.

My santa heard me oohing and aahing when these new sewing baskets arrived. There was only one with this print, so she bought it and put it aside on a day I wasn't there. When I next came in, I saw that it was gone and figured someone (with great taste) saw it and bought it too.

I love the girls I work with. It was my birthday on Thursday and so at work yesterday, they had a surprise morning tea for me. A couple of girls who weren't rostered on came via the store to go shopping in the mall downstairs and hung around chatting - little did I know that they were waiting for a lull in customers so they could sing happy birthday and we could all eat cake. Did I mention I love the girls I work with?

Okay, only a short and sweet one from me today as I'm heading to work for only a few hours today. Saturdays are always fun with the weekend crafters coming in to the shop.

Go to Wendy's blog, to see what everyone got up to for FNSI.

Still Here 13 Jan 2024 7:51 PM (last year)

It certainly doesn't seem like THAT much time had passed since I last blogged, but it's been almost a month. Gosh, time certainly does fly (although I feel like I say that all the time). So what has been happening around here... not a lot really. Busy over the Christmas and New Year period with family, friends and a little bit of work.

I think that after all of the year-end deadlines I just needed a little bit of a break. I finished up my last Island Batik ambassador project and decided that I wasn't going to participate again this year. It's a wonderful program with very generous supplies from Island Batik and industry partners, but I wasn't able to contribute as fully as I would have liked. I felt like I was rushing my projects to get finished, rather than have the time that I would have preferred. Who knows, I may apply again next year. It was a lot of fun and the monthly projects were quite diverse and often pushed me out of my comfort zone.

I am still an Aurifil Artisan and as you know, I love slow sewing and playing with their beautiful thread. Just before Christmas, Aurifil put a memo out to the artisan group about the new 8 weight cotton thread which they will be releasing at Quiltcon in February. The thread collection is a collaboration with Suzy Quilts and we could put our hand up to receive a few spools to "play with" and create a project by the end of January. I was very quick to put my hand up.

This new thread is lovely quality and sheen, like all Aurifil thread. It's slightly thicker than the 12wt thread which had always been my favourite for big stitch quilting.

I have some classes coming up at work in the next few months and one of them is a curve class. I need some class samples so I gathered some fabrics from my stash (that worked with the thread samples) and created this cushion using the drunkards path template. The green is quite "lime" but I think it looks kinda cool and certainly pops beside the calmer natural tones.

Last month, I had a project published in the latest issue of Homespun magazine. It's my Sea Cookies quilt - a simple design but quite effective with the different coordinating colours. As new issues are only available every two months, this issue is still on sale through until the end of the month.

Yesterday, I joined the Chookshed Chatters for a quick zoom in the afternoon. It was nice to join the group and listen to the chit-chat. I worked on my latest EPP project - the Ice Cream Soda quilt. Pattern by Tales of Cloth. I purchased the set as a gift to myself for Christmas. I really loved the sample that Jodi made with the pinks/purples and orange centres, so I'm going in that direction and choosing fabrics in these shades to make mine. And I'm only using fabrics from my stash. Gotta use it all up.

I hadn't been online and reading blogs for a long while, but I'm back now. I've figured out my phone settings so that I can actually comment on blogs again (and not go around and around that annoying google loop that never went anywhere). I saw that the RSC colour is green this month, so I'd better make a start with my scraps. It's also a bird house challenge for the PQ group. So many things happening to get back into the sewing room.

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