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.

Project list progresses...

These holidays are just passing too quickly but I have been making the very most of them....
Today I went with my friend to see The Grand Budapest Hotel. The reviews have been good and it has so many wonderful actors that I just had to see it. After all Margaret Pomeranz gave it a 5 star rating!
I am so glad I went I think it was a fantastic movie, quirky, funny and very sweet.
The only distraction I found was watching Ralph Fiennes playing a great character beautifully but I kept seeing Lord Voldemort when he spoke! Once I got over that I loved his performance. All the other characters were wonderful too. Would happily see it again.

Luckily I have been having lots of time to dedicate to crafting too and I have made a tick next to every item on my list that I shared last month on my blog.  Some projects needed to be completed and others just needed some progress.
All those ticks encouraged me to start my new project Live, laugh, love quilt by Viv's Creations that I bought from Mrs Martins quilt shop at the Monbulk show. I made a start on the weekend and I have completed my first complete block . That little box on the side contains a stash of little berries. I am hoping that I have cut out enough for all the blocks. I am so happy with the finished block. It is stitched on Linen and I have used felted wool for the baskets and berries.

My first items I will share from my list are my Sweet stitches minis. One has been completed and the second has had borders added and is now basted ready for quilting and the third needed to be finished stitching.

quilted and bound

stitching done

a group shot.. one last one to stitch, that can be for next month's list.

love my pile of minis.

Mr Boo with his borders.

Another project was to complete a blanket of love to Send to Cheryll. It was posted over a week ago and has been received by Cheryll. I have enjoyed making these little blankets for her so much. 

Well that's enough photos for this post.
Next time I will share the rest of my project progresses.
Hope you are all having a great week!
cheers
Marina

stitching with friends..

Yesterday and today I had the pleasure of sharing the days with some lovely crafty friends.
Yesterday Rosalie and Liz came over to my house for a stitch in, mum came along too and we were quite industrious in between maintaining our energy levels with  food.
This morning the sun came out after some terribly drizzly days so I bolted out of bed and organised some washing and then got ready to head to Gisborne to spend the day with the wonderful Gisborne girls.
There was meant to be a car load of 'city and outer suburban' girls but I ended up being the only representative from the 'burbs' as circumstances prevented the others coming. A contingent of 1...
There were a few other Gisborne ladies that were at the Patch n quilt stitching day too and they were very friendly and welcoming. This shop is gorgeous and has such a great variety of fabrics.
It was quite an industrious group and a great variety of projects too.
Of course there was photographic evidence of this event..

 Tracy, Annette and Marina (not me another Marina lol, I haven't started talking about myself in the third person)

 Sue, Tania and Donna....

Sue, Tracy, Me, Tania, Marina, Annette, Marg, Donna and Chris
(Now we have worked out who the naughty one is in the group. I didn't get in trouble once till I was at the end of the line up with someone who shall remain nameless.....)
There is also a photo of me buying up fabric out there in blogland...... Oh no it has popped up here too....

Your honour, I object, the evidence is circumstantial at the very least.....
I put to you that these said fabrics attached themselves to my person and could not be removed. Therefore I had no option but to take pity on these miserable fabrics and promise to take them home and care for them to the best of my abilities!

 These two fabrics were 'need to' buy so that I can tick another project off my to do list... that is proof enough of 'need'.

Now where is the crafting you may ask...
I thought seeing that I have been making such great progress on my list I could start this project that I bought from the Monbulk quilt show.
Made a decent start today.

Thought I would also share some of my easter decorations. I am not one to celebrate Easter anymore but I put my mini on display for this month and I thought I needed some more little decorations to add to my entry table. We have a wonderful Bed Bath & table shop in our new shopping centre and they have the most adorable decorations for easter. Not too close to the real meaning of easter but lots of prettiness, that's for sure.

these and the white tree were reduced by 50% and I couldn't resist them.
Well that's it for today's outing.... I will be back soon to show all the progress done on the projects on my list. Loving the holidays!!
I'm now off to make the borders for Mr Boo..
Hope you are having a great weekend!
Big hug and thanks to the Gisborne Girls for a wonderful day! (thanks Sue for letting me nick some of your pics too)



cheers
marina

love long weekends....

The long weekend was a real charger for the batteries. Like a mini holiday..

I made a mental list of some finishes that needed doing and while working on these had a brain wave.

That can be really dangerous!

Remember the two little bliss fabric quilts that I have mentioned recently.... well the recipients of those quilts have a little baby sister who is being christened in a few weeks and of course she will need a quilt too. So......out came the rotary cutter and a lovely charm pack. I can't remember which of the Bonnie and Camille range this one is but I am sure that I can get some extra metreage to make borders and sashings.

I started off with half square triangles but they just didn't seem to suit what I had in mind so after some cake and a cuppa I decided to cut them again and make little hour glass blocks.....

 (by the way the cake is a baked ricotta cheescake, and it was a big winner here, and yes I made it myself)

At our March Bluegum quilters there was a special speaker, Leonie West of Westalee rulers.
I didn't take part in the workshop but listened to a very informative presentation which offered some very useful tips on accurate piecing.
Leonie's quilts had the most amazing points, I don't think I saw one that was mismatched at all! I thought this piecing would be a bit of a practice in what I had learnt.
Leonie's method worked a treat and I was very excited by the quality of my points matching, sad aren't I?
Lots of careful pinning and matching really paid off.

 Here is the final result, in need of a little trimming. Aren't they cute. Now to decide how to put them together as I need to incorporate a stitchery, of course.

I had some forgotten bits that needed to be finished so here they are..

this will be ready for next Valentine's day. It just needed the binding.

these two little stitcheries will be fully revealed for my 1 Christmas Item for this month so I will just show a little peek for now.

Hooray, I will be back on track with a small start for my christmas gift box.

Hope the week is going well for you

cheers

Marina

little triangles everywhere....

Now in my last post I mentioned some triangle action in my future....
Well they arrived this morning! The said triangles were a bag of off cuts that the lovely Lynda  was wanting to rehouse. The said bag contained the corners from some beautiful fig tree quilts fabrics that she has been using in some gorgeous quilts she has been making.
When Lynda posted about the rehousing I think I had another bout of Heat Stroke and I eagerly put my hand up.  Now Lynda didn't just send me the fig tree fabrics but an even bigger bag of Comma fabric triangles too and some snow fabric to help in putting them all together!
Now I am happy to embrace another obsession at the drop of a hat and this new one has been fun. I didn't want to just put them away in my stash..... so I had to get the machine out straight away and start sewing....

 

some inspiration for how to use them.....

progress so far.....

All the fig tree fabrics are done and some of the comma fabrics. They just need to be trimmed down, this will be a slower process and one to work on gradually. They will be trimmed to 1 1/2 inches.
Lynda had some little bundles of triangles all ready sewed up which were a bonus.

On the weekend I managed to finish my Mr Boo stitchery from the Kathy Schmitz bom minis.
I loved stitching him and he looks so handsome!
Just need to find the right fabrics for the border.

Just had to share a pic of the boys....
I thought they should jump on the bandwagon for the Australia Day preparations..
Poor old Monty, he turned 12 in December and is really showing his age. I think I am lucky he survived the heat wave we had. We brought the dogs inside to get some relief and they loved it.

"gee I wish I wasn't so old so that I would be quicker in getting away from her and her crazy ideas...."

 Coffee just likes to go along for the ride....I was bribing him with his throw toy otherwise he wouldn't sit so still.

"oh the humiliation, why does she insist on putting things on us?  can I please have the toy back now?."

Flag update....
Border has been done thanks to the fabrics arriving today too, just some appliqueing of the stars and I am right to sandwich!
Swan Lake update....
Top has been completed ready to go to the quilter....Woo hoo happy dancing with all those dollies for sure.
Would you like to see a pic...

Not a bad tally of projects for these holidays....
Hope you have made it to the end of the post.
Have a wonderful crafty week!
 I need to keep cramming in as much as I can before going back to work

cheers
Marina

Productivity levels high...

This heat has certainly been a booster for productivity levels here.
I just seem to be ticking things off my to do list, and not just the new interesting things either.
Yesterday I sewed the backing for Swan Lake. Nine metres of fabric are now one large piece ready to take to the quilters along with wadding and top, I still need to do the corners and central flowers still.
Talk about dragging out the last bit!
Border fabrics for my Australia flag quilt are ordered and hopefully on their way thanks to the lovely staff at Gail B's. Very excited about that....As I only used half the roll of blue fabrics for the flag I thought I would sew the remaning strips together to make up as much of the back as I could, that's done too.
I thought I would include two little flags to show our heritage. Even though Hub and I were born here our parents were not and we still value our heritage and respective cultures.
They will be sewn on the back of the quilt.

Now as I seemed to have gotten a litte behind with my Sweet Stitches, it seemed only fitting that I get up to date with those projects too these holidays..

Yesterday I hibernated again with my sewing machine as my companion and I started to cut out and sew the borders. I was a little daunted by the borders at first, all those little triangles again but with a little care I got through them again. Just as well I ended up enjoying piecing them as there is going to be some major triangle action happening here soon. More on that later....

Now they are all basted ready to be quilted!

I am so happy with the two minis. They are going to be a lovely addition to my collection.

Of course this one is on display this month...

It has been so enjoyable to get some creativity happening again, end of Next week it is back to the grind. Not looking forward to it but that's life I have to fund my extravagant lifestyle somehow.

 I better make the most of my last days of crafting time!

Somehow I feel I have already lol.

Hope you are having a crafty day 

Marina

catching the inspiration lightning bolt

A wonderful boiling hot day in Melbourne today. (please note my sarcasm) The mercury hit 44 degrees, I am so close to packing up and running away to Tasmania! It is a killer and more forecast for the rest of the week.
Liz, Rosalie and I had planned a get together day for some weeks and we didn't want the weather to dampen our enthusiasm. Our destination: Gail B's patchwork shop.
Now on my more recent girly trip I had a project in the back of my mind but wasn't inspired to buy any fabrics from Threadbare even though there was so much gorgeous temptation in that shop. I think I walked around it at least four times just staring at the fabrics, so much gorgeousness but none came home with me.
Well today I had that inspiration bolt moment!
Gail's is an amazing shop and you could get lost in it for ages.
This is the project that has been lingering in the back of my mind for over a year..

I love how our American counterparts decorate their home with patriotic quilting loveliness and thought it was about time I should make something for Australia Day too. I love this country and feel so happy to live in a wonderful land of opportunity.
The idea just lingered and lingered, I seem to have left my run a bit late but simplified this could get done by Australia day!
I could picture how I wanted to make this quilt in my head and just needed to see the right fabrics for it to start to become a reality.
These are the fabrics that 'jumped out' at me today....

Yes they are Batiks.... anyone who knows my tastes in fabrics knows that they are not high on my preference list but today they just seemed like the most perfect fabrics for this project.
The roll will be for the flag and the separate red, white and blue will be for the Union Jack.
What do you think?
I also brought home these two gorgeous fat 1/4's

this past week I have been concentrating on my stitcheries.
There has been some progress..

Now these will have to take a back seat for a bit as there is a flag to sew or it won't be ready for Australia Day!
Happy days!

Marina