Back in the hoop

The advantage of having many projects on the go is that as soon as you finish one you have something else you can pick up and continue on with (that's my justification anyway:) ).

The other day I finished the blocks from the last post and while I wait for some clear-thinking time to calculate sashing yardage, I pulled out this project which has been waiting patiently all winter. I still have a couple of months before it becomes too hot to quilt this woolen quilt.

I am making up the quilting patterns as I go, playing with styles and discovering what I like and don't like. I have discovered that I am not crazy about the quarter inch outline quilting and will replace it - perhaps with a single line down the centre of each diamond? I love the circles but couldn't for the life of me remember what I had used to mark them, so the above photo is also a pro-memoria. I only mark a small section at a time as I the pencil tends to fade or rub off and needs to be redone. I use a sharp HB or 2B pencil, depending on how dark I need the lines to be. I raided my girls' toy boxes for the marking tools. The cardboard templates were traced from applique patterns. I love how they look quilted. These patterned fabrics are difficult to quilt on and make me wish I had included more white muslin.

I have only just noticed how irregularly I marked the diagonal lines on the plaid fabric. Iwill leave it until later and decide if I can live with that. Probably not, but I want to move on a bit with the quilting before I do it over.

Time can give a different perspective to things, which I guess is the advantage of working slowly. Janet has found a solution to something that has been bothering her about this quilt that she has been working on for a long time. Her thoughts on batting are quite interesting.

Only just

The last four blocks remaining for this quilt have been cut and stacked, ready to sew.

This is how much yellow fabric that was left at the end. Careful planning? No. I had so much yellow fabric to start with that I didn't bother to estimate how much I would need. I managed to make 15 blocks, and 15 blocks will be the quilt, but only just.

As boring as it is, I think I will sit down and plan things a little more carefully next time. Not so economically, I got into a bit of a panic and bought some more yellow fabric while in Australia. As it turned out, finding a good match was not as easy as I thought and I now have a as much yellow fabric in my stash as when I started out!

February is all but gone

What I had planned to be a month long blogging break quickly turned into two. We're back from a  busy holiday home in Australia visiting family and friends. A month has flown by while  catching up with our regular life, unpacking souvenirs (the fabrics are washed and folded), and acclimatising to the cold weather. It will be a short winter for us this year. The daffodils are already in bloom here and other plants are wondering wether to send out their new shoots or wait another month until 'mad March' is over.

I haven't been posting, but I have been busy sewing. Will post about that as soon as I clear some space on the camera......

Thanks Kristine for reminding me that I have a blog!:)

PS. This is not my house:) The was taken in Captain Cook's cottage in the Flagstaff Gardens, Melbourne.

Flying home

A different kind of Christmas compared to the previous post - the excitement of the beginning of summer, school holidays, new bikes and beach holidays.

Christmas lights

The thing I like most about a winter Christmas - the lights in the dark nights. When the weather starts to turn cold, and the days are shorter, I can't wait to get the Christmas decorations up at the beginning of December and we don't take them down again until the Epiphany on the 6th of January.

Christmas in Kinglake

An early Christmas lunch in Kinglake. Most of you probably know of Kinglake because of the terrible fires in 2009. Many quilts were donated to the survivors - not only those who lost their homes and possesions, but also to those who lived through that terrible time and were equally affected by it.

The day before yesterday we travelled up to Kinglake to visit my aunt Margaret, a nun and pastoral worker who had been involved in the area prior to the fires, and was up at dawn, the morning after the fires hit, serving breakfast to those who made it out.

Margaret has continued working in Kinglake helping to hold a community together. When a house became available, one of the few that survived, she moved there. On Thursday we spent a wonderful day visiting her there and meeting some local folk. Thankfully, there has been plenty of rain this winter and early summer, and the forests of burnt trees are dressed in plenty of green.

Heavenly stars

Heavenly Stars crib quilt top. Yet to be quilted. I have an idea for quilted circles in the wavy pink background, and concentric rings in the pink striped background. I am looking to this book for inspiration.