hello

 Time is getting away from me it would be lovely to be able to slow it down.

Crafting inspiration seems to be lacking as I try to finish off things. I need a lightning bolt of inspiration to get me going.

I have been dabbling though in trying to utilise some little Kathy Schmitz Christmas stitcheries I had completed.  I used to always be quite enthusiastic about making Christmas decorations for friends and family but just like blogging and crafting enthusiasm it has faded a bit the past few years. 

This was going to change for this year. After purchasing some small embroidery hoops I was off and running.

I have wanted to make another of these little trees for ages to make up a trio for decorating. It was great to use up a couple of my vintage wooden reels too.

 

this little top got completed too. Thank goodness it's done. Next to get it quilted.

This finish means that I only have one project on the go, usually there are 3 or 4 works in progress. Seems like I am slowing down lol.

Maybe a new project will get under way soon, just seems so hard to decide on one these days.

My garden is bursting with irises at the moment. The plants are a few years old now and they are pumping out the flowers. Lots of colours are showing themselves. I am quite in love with them.

Have a wonderful day 

Marina

Rolling into the holidays...

 Here we are just about to finish off this school term. I really feel that the term has flown.

Crafting has mainly been that of the woolly kind. Holidays should make for some creative inspiration and I'm looking forward to working on some of my neglected projects.

I have managed to finish off two woolly projects and a sewing project

the neglected blanket was completed and in an effort to use up the scraps I had to buy some more wool to add to those lovely little scraps. so another knee blanket was completed but guess what .... there are still leftovers. I'll just keep hooking till there is only a tiny amount left.

this is how the leftovers started to come together....

the finished scrappy blanket

this quilt was completed and gifted. I really enjoyed making this quilt and even have toyed with making another one for me.

this little May Gibb's themed baby quilt was completed a few weeks ago. It had been languishing waiting for a border.

Now I know that it's only September but....... 1st of September is the day that my favourite elf on the shelf store opens for the year. Of course some new accessories were purchased and a new little elf jumped into the basket too. Looking forward to the antics they will get up to this year.

Happy days

Marina

finish with a purpose

 There's no greater feeling than finding a recipient for one of your projects. A dear friend has a big '0' birthday and I asked her if she would like to have a quilt for her birthday. I have previously gifted her two others.

The choice was between my little blooms and orange sherbet. She chose Little blooms.

I have been working on it since she made her choice to get it finished for her September birthday and today it will be off to the quilters. 

I really love this pattern and was looking forward to finishing it as a keeper but I'm more than happy to gift it and I can always look forward to making another for myself.

The label has even been done.

crochet happiness

 This poor crochet project was abandoned for awhile as I wasn't enjoying the colours that much, when I did pick it up again I didn't realise but I had picked up a larger crochet hook! I had done about twenty rows when I realised that my blanket was putting on some weight - it had grown in width by about two inches. Well as they say if you can live with it let it be but no not me. I tried to undo it but it wasn't working so I just cut off the wider part and put it aside. 

Some of the wool has been pilfered to make granny squares but this week I decided to give it another go as there was a decent amount of the throw at the right size and it seemed wasteful to not give it a bash.

With the cold weather we have been having it is a lovely lap warmer.  Who knows it may get finished albeit a little smaller than intended.

Pattern is from Attic 24 - Harbour CAL

Lovely Hellebores have flowered again this year. Such pretty flowers.

Happy days

Marina

wow!

 Boy where does time go?

It was back to work last week after two weeks holidays and I find that I did very little. Usually holidays are my productive times but it was just a take it as it comes sort of holiday break.

I have been slowly adding to my main projects on the go. I have started the second Orange sherbet block and am on the final stretch with the Little Blooms quilt. Only 7 to go and as I am going to gift it to a good friend for her '0' birthday in September it needs to take priority to get it over the line. I love this quilt design so much I may make another one just for me.

I re checked where I was at with this project and it seems I am close to the home stretch on this one too. I need three more dresdens and about seven more stitcheries and it will be all done ready to sew together. I think this may be enough dresdens for me for awhile as it's about the 5th project I've done in the past few years with dresdens!

 

This is a close up of one of the extra stitcheries I needed to do. I really love Kathy Shmitz stitcheries and these tiny ones really appeal to me.

Well that's me caught up! Not much to show for such a bit blogging absence but I feel I don't want or need to do many projects and it takes a bit of thought to chose one I really want to commit to.

Here is a photo of our Daphne which has absolutely exploded with flowers. The perfume as you walk past is divine.

Bye for now and happy sewing.

Marina

June already!

 I can't believe May has passed by soooooo quickly. I must say my good intentions of hand quilting has hit a brick wall thanks to some pain in my shoulder and arm but I have turned my attentions to some woolly creations. A work colleague that I made the previous pink and green scarf asked if I could make her another. At first she requested sunset colours but when we looked on line she chose another pink with a splash of magenta and purple.  It came together quickly and just needs the little dangly bits made and attached.

while I was in the swing of crocheting I figured I should start my own project of a shawl type scarf. I started the pattern I had selected a few times and couldn't get it to work properly so decided to track down the pattern of a beautiful shawl that I had seen at a little craft shop in Healesville when I met up with Fiona and Liz. Through the beauty of online shopping it was promptly accessed and after a few rocky starts it was up, up and away. There has been a lot of frogging but I am being quite pedantic and checking my rows have the correct amount of stitches each time.

The pattern gets a little lost with the variegations but it's looking ok I think.

When I first learnt crochet from my mum I was taught that there was a front and reverse side to crochet. Whenever I look at other people's work it seems that it isn't a 'thing', and I put it down to my pedantic nature when it comes to crafting and the way I was taught lol.

The pattern above does identify rows by front and back rows - so it may not be just me?

What do you guys think?

This pic shows the front and back sides

Left is the front                                                                      right  is the back

would love to hear from others 

Have a great day

Marina

Saturday with friends

I had a lovely catch up yesterday at Patch and Quilt in Gisborne with sewing friends.

Most of us go back to when there  used to be quarterly get togethers at Mill Rose Cottage. They were great get togethers and where the city girls bonded with the Gisborne girls. Many of the originals  have moved on to other things for whatever reasons and there is still a small group that get together. Sadly most of the bloggers amongst us no longer blog, I think I may be the only one to and even then I seem to forget to get fotos of the day to blog about! 

Mary's shop is always a great place to visit and you can count on a laugh or two.

Sadly I didn't do much crafting as my water bottle leaked over the stitcheries I had planned to work on and it also wet all the pages in the folder of patterns. I worked a little on a stale project that is well on the way to a completion so it all worked out well.

A few purchases were made of course

This has only a few more rows to go..... My favourite scarf pattern, I have used many times. This will go to a work colleague. Barb was admiring the pattern which coincidentally was purchased from one of the early Mill rose get togethers. 

We both purchase this same hank of wool, not knowing the other had bought it so we are going to see if we can have a scarf complete by next get together. I have chose this design and Barb will be using the pattern above.

Of course some fabric loveliness came home with me too. I had admired this coloured Tim Holz fabric on Mary's instagram and had to have some. The other fabric just had to come home with me too. Can never have too many positive affirmations.
 

A happy Mother's day to all those mums out there.

Tonight the masses will converge for feasting and merriment lol

Happy days!!

Marina

May is for quilting

 The recent drop in temperatures have inspired me to do some hand quilting. The fact that I can't focus on what project to work on has no impact on my choice at all lol.

I have two quilts  that I got basted a while ago and this is the first one that I pulled out of the tub. When I first started patchworking I hand quilted most of my quilts as it was a matter of finances. I probably had more patience and arm strength to do it too. 

There is something so appealing about scrappy quilts and as I am quilting I am revisiting some of the lovely fabrics used -both mine and some gifted by sewing friends. 

It's quite relaxing and so far I've done 22 out of 112 nine patch blocks. I don't know how I will quilt the borders but thankfully I won't have to worry about it for a while. I know I will probably be over it by then and go for simplicity but you never know......plenty of time. The great thing about hand quilting is the softness it gives the quilt, that lovely snuggle factor.

It will make for some boring blogging but hoping it will be done by the end of May!

Happy days

Marina 

Thursday happiness

 It's a lovely Anzac day holiday today and I am hoping to get some time to prep some blocks for my Blooms quilt as I have run out of prepped ones. Always a lot of fun selecting fabrics.

Speaking of fun this week I got to catch up with two bloggy friends. Fiona (Bubz Rugz) is down from Queensland and we arranged a catch up. I thought it would be great to ask our mutual friend Liz to come with me for the drive.

It has been a few years since I have had the chance to catch up with Fiona and it was a joy to do so. Of course the time went by too quickly but there was lots of chatting and laughs had. I remember I caught up with Fiona, Michelle and Teresa in Queensland years ago and that was a wonderfully memorable catch up.

Michelle and Fiona are both making the Caswell quilt which  I made a few years ago and I very generously gave Fiona my pattern (after we both talked her into making it). I thought it might have been even more generous of me to give her my Celebrating Mary Brown pattern as she may like to make this one next but she was not very receptive and replied with a threat about sending me the Civil War Bride quilt patterns if I did.

Hmm some people? 

Thanks Fiona for the catch up and hopefully it won't be years between this and the next one. 

Here are the latest bloom blocks. They are such fun to make. I think I may be close to half way, I must tally up and see.

Hope your day includes some sewing.

Cheers

Marina

nearly all done

Holidays are over sadly but it's been a great week for labels and binding with some finishes to tick off the list.

Basket case is a big finish, label sewn on too...

The back is my attempt at a Liberty quilt but I wasn't quite happy with it so it made a perfect backing.

Tilda's Hometown  (adjusted) is done and will be gifted to a work friend.

This was quilted by a novice quilter friend. The larger quilting design has made it very soft, just like a handquilted quilt.

Don't these labels look pretty on their quilts?

Things will slow down, productivity wise but rest assured there will be crafting being done. 

Have a great day

Marina

Another Tick....

 The past few days I have been busy sewing down binding on my completed quilts. Which led to another job, that of sewing labels. 

I have quite a few quilts without labels but have a lot of doilies that I have collected to use as labels for my quilts so....... it was time to get to it!

The binding for this lovely got done. Trying to use from my stash so the binding was made from some greyish tilda that was in my stash. Not unhappy with it I must say, roughly half the binding is in each fabric.

two of my favourite blocks.....

Here is my little collection of labels ready to sew them on as you can see by the dates some are long overdue for their labels.

 I must say my stitching is a little higgledy piggledy but I can live with it. On other quilts I just used a pigma pen to write on the doilies and I always feel I was being a little lazy so I went the whole hog with these and stitched them, the stitching got neater with each label.

Do you always label your quilts straight away?

Just one more quilt to sew the binding down on and then that's it for my 2024 finishes so far. Gotta be happy with that!

Have a great day

Marina