Been awhile.....

 Well it's been two years since I last blogged a post and life has been flying by.

Time has been spent and wasted on other social media and as I have deactivated one I will see if I can channel some time back to my neglected blog.

A quick life catch up -There has been a big birthday, a big anniversary, a new grand baby girl, some quick getaways, parent caring, new job and that's just to name a few.

I hope there are still some people interested so this will be a test run!

Of course there have been quilting projects. Some tops finished, some quilted, some gifted and some put away and of course some new projects started.

I will start with  a project I had in my last post. My dresden and stitchery top. I ended up going with a lovely little peeper and plain border to frame it and give it a little extra size. I am very happy with the result.

This Joy of life quilt was completed and gifted to my work bestie. The patterns were given to me by the lovely Rosalie complete with bom fabrics but it was from the early 2000's so I felt the fabrics were quite dated. I did a complete revamp and this is it.

Another Favourite things top has been made. I just love making these blocks and was contemplating rehoming them as I didn't have the oomph to sew them up but inspiration hit and I followed the kiss principle and it got done. Just needs to wait to be quilted....perhaps later this year as I have two at the quilters already

This was a distraction project. I love hexie flowers but don't have it in me to sew a full on hexagon quilt so this was a lovely compromise. Some lovely Tilda fabrics and some add ins make this top look very vintage. Onto the to be quilted pile.

This was my big passion project for the year. So far I have made all the applique blocks, which I will share in upcoming posts. Now onto the pieced blocks, my least favourite part of the process. I am altering some aspects of the quilt, of course, to make it suit me. I can't wait to get to those applique borders!!

Lastly, this little baby quilt for our new little princess born in January this year. She is a gorgeous little doll. I hand quilted it and quilted a wreath in the plain blocks. Little hard to see but I forgot to take a photo when it was finished to had to rely on my son to snap it for me.

Well that's it for this post. We'll see if there is anyone out there still looking I hope you are.

Have a great day!

Marina

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

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

Time is flying....

 Seems like my blog has become a little neglected again, this doesn't mean a lack of crafting though.

Progress has been achieved on most of my ongoing projects I'm happy to say though not has quickly as I would like. Just need more hours in the day I'm afraid.

Latest row of the zoo quilt has been done, a plan has been hatched and implemented for the sweet Kathy Schmitz stitcheries and that has involved some fabric hunting, one of my favourite sports. Would you like to see ?

I am using up leftover background fabrics and also my small stash of leftover Liberty fabrics. I did need to do some buying to add to my stash as it didn't have enough variety. Thankfully GJ's sell and cut down to a 25"square so this was not an exorbitant expense and I could pick lots of styles. These dresdens were left over from a quilt I made a little while ago that I ended up gifting to a lovely work friend. Now I will get a version to keep-well that is the plan lol.

So it seems this is becoming a real leftovers quilt, you have to feel good about that.

A peek at some of the later stitcheries that were completed....

Christmas has been on my mind too..

This little pillow got finished. Poor thing was the last of the set that was just hidden in a drawer. But he's done now and ready for Christmas.

 

I got to go to a lovely sit and sew day at Kilmore quilters and there was a little retail therapy had.

This little ornament kit came home with me and was completed in my Festive flurry. There were plans to make more but I think this will do for now.

Well that is it for me for now.

Hopefully I will not leave it so long to make a post. 

Next post I will share the updates on my zoo quilt and Tilda quilt. Both are on the home stretch.

Happy days

Marina

PS stay tuned for some Elf antics as the time is drawing near for their arrival!!

There have been some new purchases for this year's antics. I think I really need an intervention lol.

Take care.

happy finishes

 Last weekend I picked up a finished quilt from Jemima's.

I was quite excited to get it back as it has been a flimsy for quite awhile. I had hoped to hand quilt it but I think my hand quilting days are all but over. The binding was on Saturday afternoon and as I had poor miss May Gibbs awaiting binding too that got done also.

The binding for the liberty dresdens has been ready since I cut the borders. Some extra scrappiness to keep with the feel of the quilt. I am going to use my Terrier doily for the label on this one.

This will be the label for the May Gibbs quilt. I need to polish up my stitching skills as it has been such a long time since I did stitchery. I thought this was perfect for the label and seeing as it is for our princess I wanted to go that extra effort.

(if anyone is wondering where the stitchery was from- it is a colouring page from here The have a couple of very sweet pictures that could be used quite easily for stitchery.)

Just love that little bottom poking out.

Happy days 

Marina

Get ready for some pics...

 Here we go with another post....

These are the photos I had wanted to share the other day... I may have worked out my photo issues

This is my Liberty Dresden quilt. A little indulgence for me and a great project to have as a portable hand piecing project.

I am hoping to hand quilt with a very thin wadding.

Before we knew there was going to be a new addition to our family I had really wanted to make Lori Holt's Farm sweet Farm quilt. I only have two rows of the pieced blocks to do to complete the top. The piecing is always where I seem to stumble but as there is no  hurry it is patiently waiting to be finished.

I have worked out how to upload photos to google pics where they can be edited! Hooray that is going to make it so much easier. 

Here goes....

row 1 are the first 3 pics.

bottom row left

middle row centre block

bottom row centre block

bottom row right block

bottom row left block

I'll just cram in one more photo of the quilt I made for our little princess. 

The pattern is Milestone quilt by Melly and Me.  As I wanted to needleturn applique most of the pieces the numbers and letters would have been too difficult so I used black wool felt and it worked a treat.

The arrow and round bear outline are perspex that came with the pattern. Great idea!

Well that is a photo overload so I'll leave it there for tonight..

Hope you enjoyed seeing them and I 'll be back soon to show more of what I've been up to.

thanks for hanging in there 

cheers

Marina