countdown

2009 Sydney New Year's Eve Fireworks
Reproduced with kind permission of sydney.com.au

Sydney is the first big city to celebrate the new year with not one, but two, rather spectacular fireworks displays on Sydney Harbour. The foreshores are already jam-packed with revellers with the first display at 9.00pm tonight.

However you celebrate the changing of the year, I wish you all peace and happiness for 2018.

Just read Love's post and besides her stunning collection of Christmas decorations and displays, she remarked on all the projects not completed this year. You're in good company Love as I am in much the same boat. Guess you and I need to paddle a little faster in 2018!

After Christmas, I enjoyed some quiet days and was inspired to reconnect with a project started in 2012, on which I have worked sporadically. Once again, I thank Gail from Gail's Place whose recent post rekindled interest in my English Paper Piecing project.

One of the downsides to not having a pattern to follow is that there is no picture of the finished project to aim for; no image to keep you on track. For a long time this project sat in limbo but the addition of half a dozen blocks and it's starting to look like something.

Okay, perhaps not so much in this photo but trust me, it's starting to look like a proper quilt.

Happy New Year!

jingle

Merry Christmas to All

This has been quite a year and once again, work commitments ate into sewing time.  So I've got quite a few projects to finish in 2018.

Prepare yourselves for lots of boring posts of quilts under the machine foot!

At least I got the Christmas tree up this year - a new 7ft pre-lit job. Simple decorations. It makes me smile everything I flick the switch.

I planned to at least finish the top of the RSC 2017 Challenge Quilt - didn't quite make it.

Another border of background fabric (the creamy/white) and a scrappy binding so not too far off. I really enjoyed making this quilt and participating in the Challenge. 

Wishing you a peaceful Christmas and lots of  sewing in the year ahead.

dark

November's colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is  DARK.  I've made two blocks.

Linking up with Angela's 2017 Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2017 here.

It's just about all the sewing I've managed to do around here. The wheels seem to fall of my wagon in October and November. Work becomes super busy and weekends vanish before I've had a chance to enjoy them.

Still, I am determined to stay on track with the RSC Challenge and plan to have at least the top put together before Christmas.

Thought I'd share a picture of my pretty Jacaranda tree in full bloom. (that's my lemon and bay trees in the foreground).  It's looking a bit old and tired these days but I adore the purple carpet of blooms at its it feet. 

Other than that, I've only had enough time to make some Aussie meat pies. The One Pot Chef on Youtube has an excellent tutorial. I make my own shortcrust pastry for the bottoms but use store-bought puff pastry for the tops ;

Traditional mincemeat for Fruit Mince Pies. We enjoy the first of the season after decorating the Christmas tree on the first weekend in December;

Image reproduced with kind permission of BBC Good Food

and; Microwave Lemon Curd using the recipe from My Baking Addiction

Image reproduced with kind permission of My Baking Addiction

That's all from me for now!

pink

The colour for October's Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2017 is PINK.

It's all the sewing I've managed to do - not because of the wrist  (no broken bones) - it's just a crazy time of year. 

Not matter, some sewing is better than none at all right? I'm linking up with Angela at socscrappy for RSC 2017.

This made me laugh.

backing

No sewing here for a while after I tripped over my own feet and hurt my wrist. No major injuries but some soft tissue damage and possibly some chipped bone. X-rays will no doubt reveal all.

So instead, I went out shopping for backing fabric to finish some long outstanding quilt tops when the wrist is back to normal.

Went to Spotlight (sort of like JoAnn's) and was amazed at all the fabrics on display. The quilting section is still small but I did find fabrics for the Crackle Quilt. This was made from some fat quarters cut into layer cake squares. 

a design by aneela hoey

better colours in this image

I also found a plain dark teal green for this quilt which picks up the dark teal green in those squares. This was made from a charm pack and some plain co-ordinating fabric.

a quilt for Aussie Hero Quilts

. . . and because nothing else stitchy is happening in these parts, here are some pictures of what's flowering in my garden despite temps being in the high thirties (yes, I know it's meant to be Spring) and there's been no appreciable rain for about two months.

Gardening on the edge people.

a pink climbing geranium

miniature rose - a $1.50 bargain at the local garden centre years ago

budding bottlebrush

blooming bottelbrush

The bees and native birds love the nectar these produce. This one flowers right outside the sewing room window.

orange

 . . . is the colour Angela has chosen for the month of September in the RSC2017 challenge.

Now I don't really have a lot of orange, hardly any, in the scrap bin but I did have a selection of peachy colours.

I'm linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge here.

Made some small progress on the CW Scraps table mat. Yes, I'm still deciding on how to proceed with the big quilt. I know what I don't want and I don't want all that red. 

Decisions need to be made.

sidelined

While I dither about how to proceed with the next phase of the Civil War Fabric Quilt (seriously, I need to get a proper name for this puppy), I started playing with the crumbs leftover from making that 32 inch medallion centre (see last post).

That nine patch centre measures 3 inches finished.  More of this to come. Didn't think I'd get any time to sew this weekend what with errands, chores and baking.

I made these . . .

(not my images as I'm rubbish at photographing food. If you want gorgeous images of food, visit sidewalkshoes.com. Pam takes terrific photos of food and other stuff!)

Lemon Coconut Slice from allrecipes.com.au

 and this

Sticky Melt Mix Fig Date cake from taste.com.au

Except I didn't have any figs so I just used dates. Meanwhile winter strawberries from Queensland were just too gorgeous to pass by.

Strawberry Muffins from delicious.com.au

and for dinner

Slow Cooker Beef Short Ribs from food.com

 Well, that's the weekend done and dusted!

neutral

So the colour chosen by Angela for RSC August is - No Colour! Well, Neutral, so it's kind of a colour.

I'm joining Angela's Challenge here.

I've had two busy weekends and finding time to sew has been a wee bit challenging but  I managed to achieve more than I thought I would. Here's the progress on the CW Fabric Quilt.

This project is starting to get some size on it. Ruth, here are some measurements for you.

My centre section above is 32 inches square and based on rough measurements this quilt top without the last border should measure 68 inches.

Reproduced by kind permission of Quilt in Style

 With the last border I'm guessing it will be about 76 inches.

Not sure if that's big enough for a queen size bed Ruth.

I'll be putting this project aside soon to finish off one baby quilt and start another. That's okay as I'm still looking for a border fabric.

Did you get any sewing done this weekend?

diversion

Whilst making the block for the CW Fabric quilt (I really need a new name for this thing), there were various offcuts sitting on the sewing table.

Seemed like a good idea to make them into something. A mat and a pincushion, as a thank you to the delightful Kelli whose thoughtful  gift started the ball rolling on this project.

These beauties and a box of treats are making their way State-side and should arrive soon.  

In the meantime, I've been prowling the internet for ideas on how to layout the 12 inch blocks I've made. I couldn't find the BOM pattern the original six blocks were from, but I did find this . . . 

 

 

I just knew this would be the layout when I tracked back the image to a blog by another girl named Kelli. Same spelling and all!

The pattern is a Lori Smith design. I found the pattern here at From My Heart to Your Hands. Lori has designed the quilt with 10 inch blocks but mine are 12 inches. I'm working on that centre medallion using 2 inch (finished) blocks. Wanna see?

Hey Leanne! Recognise the fabrics in that centre star?

It looks like piecing the top is going to be tricky, as I discovered when I found this on Quilt in Style's blog.

Reproduced by kind permission of Quilt in Style

There are quite a few mitred and Y seams there. I also don't like my chances of finding a border print for those outside blocks but I could make my own pieced version.

Plenty of challenges ahead!

rotate

I got a new toy - a rotating cutting mat! Not sure why I haven't organised one before now but it's a handy bit of kit when trimming down all those  two and a half inch HSTs.

Thought you might like to see what I've been making - the last blocks for the CW fabric quilt. 

Number 9

 

Block 10

Block 11

Block 12

That's the main blocks all done. Time to start on the centre medallion. You'll have to come back again to see the quilt I'm making with these.