Samelia's Mum

A Great Big Hexie Cushion

2026-07-21T13:31:47.071+10:00

Last week - or possibly a fortnight now that I think about it, I shared the progress on my big hexagon quilt top. I've been at work alot this past couple of weeks so I haven't yet had time to do anything with that quilt.

What I have to share today is a great big hexie cushion that I made with the leftover hexagon shapes. I'd cut so many that I had plenty to make a second smaller project.

Lke my quilt top, these hexagons were hand pieced, mainly in the evenings, on the couch, while watching a good show. I used my large hexagon template to cut the fabric shapes and then a ruler and mechanical pencil to draw my stitching lines, 1/4" inside of the edges.

I put these all together into a square-ish shape. Sandwiched them and then quilted with some gorgeous Aurifil 50wt thread in golden colours. I used my walking foot on my Bernina and went to town with the straight line quilting.

At first, I quilted straight lines in one direction. I enjoyed this simple, repetitive process so much that I then quilted in the opposite direction. The lines are approximately 1/2" apart and the quilting gives this pillow a lovely textured finish.

After trimming the square, I added a back to my pillow using a shirt I'd found on the clearance rack at Kmart. It was a lovely linen shirt and I knew that I'd never actually wear the shirt, but use the fabric for something. It's quite a large cushion in which I used a European Pillow insert. It now lives on the couch and is great for mid afternoon naps.

Do you buy items of clothing etc from clearance racks, knowing that you're going to use them for something else, not just their intended use?

Geranium Delight Quilt

2026-07-10T13:58:11.766+10:00

Circa July 2021, I started an EPP project. At that time, I was an ambassador for Crafters Edge (Crossover II cutting machine) and had received some very cool dies to try out. They cut both paper and fabric for EPP which I really liked. What a great idea!

Read about Geranium Delight progress on previous blog posts HERE and also HERE

I decided to use some of my 1930's inspired prints and the Geranium Delight pattern - a combination of hexagons and jewel shapes.

5 years later, I've finishd this quilt. I don't really love 1930's print fabrics like I used to. This quilt had sat in a drawer for the past few years, waiting for some love and attention. It just needed those little trios of hexagons appliqued down. They were already glued in place - just needed to sit and take 10 minutes to sew them down. Gosh!

I'm very happy to say that it's now finished. I made a backing and basted it one evening and then the next afternoon, I quilted it and machine bound it. I even made a label - which is attached.

The fabric which I chose for my backing was already in my stash. It's a little wider than standard quilting fabric (150cm wide vs the standard 110cm wide) so I added a panel using the same green solid as the front of the quilt with a small piece of yellow 1930's print.

The green within the backing print worked so beautifully with the green background fabric. They were pradctically made for eachother. I bound the quilt with the same green fabric.

I used the alphabet on my old Bernina to create a label. It's not the greatest font in the world, but it's fairly straight and is now done.

I wonder what other long term projects I'll find in my drawers or cupboard that I can get finished. Even though I don't love this quilt, I'm very glad that it's now finished.

Hand-pieced Hexagon Quilt with some Faves

2026-07-06T19:14:48.204+10:00

Slowly, I'm catching up with what's been created around here this past few months. I used to blog very regularly, but other than the last couple of posts, I hadn't been here in this online space for 6 months and before that, it was another 6 months. But you know what's funny, it didn't feel that long. In saying all this, I don't think I've read any blogs for that length of time either - something that I hope to start catching up with.

Anyways, here's another project I've been working on. I prepped and started this on a cruise which hubby and I went on, in February to New Zealand.

Rather than EPP, I decided to take some hand piecing along with me. This hexagon template is 4" and a great size to make a quilt grow quite quickly. I started with a bunch of fabrics which I'd bought from work, at various quilt shows or road trip quilt shops over the last little while. They don't necessarily all match but they were prints and colours which I liked, so in that regard, they did go together.

After cutting the hexagon shapes, I drew the 1/4" lines and they were ready to stitch up.

I sttiched the pieces into manageable sized "panels". When I had a few of them, I started putting them together until I decided to stop at a good size quilt. My main strategy for this project was not to have the same prints anywhere close to together.

The bin in my sewing room was a riot of colour and I had a moment of madness when I thought I'd do something will the cutting scraps. There were a lot of triangles after cutting these hexagon shapes in multiple layers of fabric.

In the end, I thought I'd better not go back to playing with all of the little bits from the bin. I've put them aside for a friends daughter who works in childcare. Apparently they're a great resource for kids to play with, cut out, arrange, glue and generally be creative.

I had a small piece of this check black/orange/blue AMH print in my stash which was leftover from the back of a previous quilt. I had to join it and really did my best to line up the print so that it fit together well the the checks and colours all aligned. Glue was definitely my friend.

This is how far I got with this quilt. It's not been quilted as yet because I'm still deciding if I'll add something more to the border - possibly a second border or a applique something to this border (think vines, leaves etc). Hmmm... I'll get back to you on that.

Circus Samples - Blockstar Prints

2026-07-05T11:25:06.974+10:00

As some of you may already know, I work at my local quilt store. I teach classes, but also work in the retail side. It's a fun job which I really, REALLY enjoy. I get to chat with people about fabric and quilts all day long.

We got some new fabric in the store - Blockstar Fabrics designed by Christopher Hill of Batik Australia. The prints include spots, circus tent stripes and lollipop designs which are all designed to work together with what is ultimately, simple (but very effective) piecing.

I made a couple of small samples for the store. This one below is from one of the patterns designed by the manufacturer. I used a variety of colours, but you can imagine how great this would look in a simple two or 3 colour combination.

With some leftover lollipop pieces, I just joined them together to form full "circles" or "lollipops". Then I thought I'd be a little bit fancy and quilted this using invisible thread (Aurifil) outlining the alternating curves of the print. It's given the quilt a lovely effect and looks almost like I pieced the curves, rather than cheat with the quilting.

I used cotton batting which I had on-hand, but some polyester batting would have given this some extra lovely loft.

Finished with some black and white strip binding - because it's my favourite way to finish a quilt.

Winding Ways in Blue

2026-07-04T17:27:54.115+10:00

My Winding Ways quilt is finally finished. It's been about a year since I started it, but after going through the washer and dryer this morning, I'm happy to now call it complete.

I started this quilt around March or April in 2025 (thank you Instagram for recording the dates). I'd seen a Rose City Originals making a version of a winding ways quilt in scrappy greens and decided that I needed to make this quilt too. Here's the link to Chris on Instagram putting his quilt blocks together. I bought the die set from Accuquilt Australia and got to cutting.

Putting these blocks together turned out to be a little trickier than the YouTube tutorial led me to believe. The centre bits weren't lining up properly so I ended up sewing them together into the top section, bottom section and then with lot's of pinning, the pieced long middle section. That worked a treat, so I continued to make lots and lots.

I realised that I didn't really have enough blue fabric prints in my stash, which needed some stash enhancement throughout the process. Honestly, if you saw how much fabric I have in my sewing room, you'd also be surpised at my lack of suitable blue fabrics.

After putting it together, I needed to think about the quilting which made me fold this up and put it away for a few months. You can't rush into these things, right? I really wanted some sort of quilting design that would enhance those secondary circular shapes but couldn't decide how to go about it.

At one point earlier this year, I had a few days off from work and no pressing things that needed attention (or maybe I did and decided to ignore them), so I got my quilt out, sandwiched it and ditch stitched with my sewing machine.

I could have left it at that, but thought I'd just have a little go and hand quilting with some perle 8 cotton to see how it looked. I chose a dark orange colour thread and made a start. Gosh I really enjoy hand quilting and hadn't done it for a long time.

I've been teaching some ladies in my classes how to hand quilt and they're enjoying it (for the most part) and so it was time that I did a little of my own. I was working my way through that ball of thread rather quickly so decided to add a few more orange/gold/tan tones into the mix. A few years back, I went through a stage of buying lots of of perle 8 in all sorts of different colours, so I had plenty to choose from at home.

This quilting stage took a few months or stops and starts. I'd take up the end of the dining table for a few days at a time and then put it away. This quilt is quite large so having it rest on the table was much easier than trying to manhandle it on my lap.

For the binding, I decided on a dark orange Speckled fabric by Ruby Star Society. It went well with my quilting thread colours and I do love how it turned turned out.

Before I could call it finished, I unpicked all of the ditch stitching and I'm glad that I took that extra time to remove it. The quilt is sitting better without those tight machine stitches holding the blocks apart.

This morning I braved the washing machine with a couple of colour catchers. I only used two in there and in hindsight, should have used more as some of the lighter fabrics took on hints of blueish-grey. I'm not sure which fabrics 'leaked' but I feel possibly, it was the backing fabric.

And here it is - all quilted, washed and put through the dryer for that lovely soft crinkly feel. Now I just need to make a label before folding it up and putting it away in a cupboard somewhere. I have to plans for this quilt - I just really wanted to make this pattern and glad that I did.

Catch Up (2nd half of 2025)

2026-02-07T09:45:00.005+11:00

Looking back at when I last posted, it's certainly been quite a while. Rather than go too deeply into what I'v been up to this past 6 months (nothing exciting - just work), I thought I'd do a bit of a photo dump to catch up.

Graywork Double Wedding Ring Quilt (January 2026)

Sadly, my rate of sewing has diminished remarkably this past few years. In saying this, my phone is still filled with snapshots of ideas for what I'd like to make one day, or pictures of my students works through the classes I've been teaching.

Okay let's go back to what I found in my phone going back to around June 2025

Diamond Exchange Quilt - pattern by Jen Kingwell

I tried the method of making the backing fabric "fit". Have you seen the videos online? When the fabric has plenty of length, but is not quite wide enough, you cut it on the diagonal, slide it down until you have the required width and the sew along that long diagonal seam. Cool, right?

A simple store sample using some pretty Tilda fabric

A custom cushion for Ella - I still make them, on request

And here's one for Grace with a request for a soft pink palette

Designed a Row Sample quilt for my class - a great way to practice many different techniques.

Had a mini workshop to create cute thread bins. This was a lot of fun.

I was inspired by Rose City Quilt on Instagram to make my own version of the Winding Way quilt. I bought the dye set from AccuQuilt and had an enjoyable time putting these blocks together, watching that secondary circle pattern appear and grow.

My Winding Ways quilt is sitting in a drawer, waiting to be quilted. I'd like to hand quilt this one, but it may need to wait a few more months for when the weather cools down a little.

Here is another quilt I designed on EQ8, but still needs finishing. I need to decide on borders and whether I piece them or use some fabulous print fabrics to grow it.

This Whirligig Quilt has been a hand piecing project over the past year or so. It's a template which I bought at a quilt show, by Jen Kingwell. It's been a nice, slow sewing project when I feel the need to stitching something in the evenings.

I'm working on a hand pieced scrappy border for the Whirligig Quilt - stay tuned.

At Christmas, I held a workshop to create these cute candle mats. Again, lots of fun plus I made extra kits for people to make their own at home.

Lafayette Orange Peel Quilt - a store sample using the Marti Michell Double Wedding Ring template set.

Here's the Lafayette Orange Peel Quilt getting some extra love on the Gammill

The picture is a little dark, but here it is, hanging in the classroom.

It's on display for the Double Wedding Ring Quilt classes

I use the Marti Michell Double Wedding Ring template set which we used to sell at the store where I work - sadly we no longer stock this exact template set.

If you'd like to purchase via amazon, click through on the image above

My latest finish is a Double Wedding Ring quilt using Tula Pink's latest fabric range called Graywork. Even though the animal prints are the "hero prints", I honestly think that the disco stripe fabric absolutely makes this quilt sparkle.

The quilt can be finished with a scallop edge, but I prefer to applique it to a background border and then square it off. I feel this is a more contemporary look and I love how the colours work on the charcoal/black spot border fabric.

This post has taken much longer than I'd expected and if nothing else, it's made me think that I really should just post more regularly. Life has taken to becoming very busy and I need to make time for the things I enjoy. I had a wisdom tooth extracted this week and so with a few days at home, it's forced me to slow down... which is not a bad thing at all.

Hemp Leaf Sashiko Table Runner

2025-06-03T20:13:00.003+10:00

I've jumped on the Sashiko train. It's such a lovely, calming way to spend time, following along a design, slowly stitching a piece. I recently finished a lovely Hemp Leaf design and made it into a table runner. It's backed and bordered with a Essex yarn dyed linen in denim.

Sashiko started out as a practical way to patch and reinforce clothes, especially for farmers and workers during the Edo period. But over time, it turned into a beautiful, decorative craft.

The Japanese Hemp Leaf Sashiko pattern, called Asanoha, is one of the most iconic and meaningful designs in traditional Japanese stitching. It’s made up of repeating geometric shapes that look like hemp leaves, which were seen as symbols of strength and fast growth. People believed the pattern would help children grow up strong and healthy, kind of like how hemp grows super quickly and tough.

These days, Asanoha still pops up in everything from clothing to home decor, blending tradition with modern style.

I started this project at the start of the year and finished all of the stitching around the end of March. It was a project which I enjoyed taking along with me on holiday, to trivia or just sitting with, feet up on my recliner, headphones on listening to an audio book with a lovely tea or cold drink beside me.

Diamond Exchange Quilt

2025-06-01T15:35:00.001+10:00

Well it seems that I blogged in February, blinked and it's already June. Yikes!

Little bits and pieces of sewing have been happening around here lately, but nowhere near to the extent that I used to be able to finish projects. Life just gets busy. And it seems I sew more and am inspired more, when you actually sit down to sew. Also when the sewing room is tidy and organised - which it hasn't been for quite a while. Anways, enough excuses. I thought I'd pop in here today to share a quilt which I finished last week.

The pattern is called Diamond Exchange by Jen Kingwell. I used the template set to create my quilt, but it's also available in Jen's book called Quilt Recipes. You can find it here on amazon.

I was lucky enough to receive a beautiful bundle of fabric from Connecting Threads along with some coordinating thread. Have you ever purchased from CT? I've bought quite a bit from them in the past and one of my favourite things is that not only is their fabric varied and well priced, shipping is very affordable - even in Australia! For Aussies, you can get free shipping when you spend $100 US (which we all know is very easy to do).

So back to my pretty bundle. I chose a FQ bundle of Shimmer Tonals (Dark). Beautiful saturated colours with shimmery pearlescent prints.

I paired the Shimmer Tonals with mainly Kaffe Fasset fabric prints to create the Diamond Exchange Quilt. It's really got a whole lot of colour and pattern going on, which I absolutely love. I find that if I use lots of bright colourful fabrics in my quilts, it makes me a bazillion times happier than when I use neutral fabrics.

By the way, I've just checked the website and Connecting Threads have a lovely selection of Kaffe Fasset fabrics available. I may just need to do a little bit of online shopping after I'm finished here.

Click through for Kaffe Fasset Fabric at Connecting Threads

After the quilt top was all finished, I needed to find a suitable backing fabric. I had a 3.5 yard piece in my stash which wasn't quite wide enough - even after cutting the fabric in half and piecing it.

I had seen a video online where the lady cut the fabric on the diagonal, slid the pieces up/down which once sewn together, created a shorter yet wider backing. It was just what I needed.

It worked perfectly for this quilt. You can see where I pieced my large triangle pieces across the middle to make the backing fabric fit.

I can't seem to find that video right now, but if it comes across my feed, I'll pop back in here to this blog post and update. It's such a handy video to watch and follow when fabric isn't quite wide enough for a quilt back.

I all-over quilted it with a loopy meandering design on my new Juki. It's the first large quilt that I've free motion quilted on my Juki TL-2010Q (straight stitch machine). I must admit that I REALLY do prefer the jumbo bobbins that Berninas use, but it was generally a good experience - and fast!

I ended up binding my quilt with the same fabric which I used for my outer setting triangles. It has orange in the print which works with the back of the quilt too.

Thank you to Connecting Threads for sending the beautiful fabric. It certainly gave me the push to get out of my sewing rut and make a new quilt.

FNwF + Slow Stitching Sunday

2025-02-09T19:11:00.004+11:00

Just like that, the weekend is almost over! Sometimes, it feels as though I wake up, blink a few times and it's time for dinner, without having achieved all that much through the day.

I joined Cheryll and the girls for Friday Night with Friends and managed to get some more Propeller Quilt blocks stitched up. I have a nice pile of them now, growing quite well. These are all made using only scraps. I think I need to dig into my red and green scrap tubs as I don't think I've used many pieces from those yet.

I had a busy day at work yesterday with my Saturday class. It's such fun to see what everyone is working on. I took my AccuQuilt GO! Fabric Cutter in with my Drunkards Path die. One student wanted to work on a cushion, similar to one which I have on display in the store. She is a brilliant hand embroiderer, but hasn't done a lot of patchwork in the past. She decided to jump right in and practice sewing curves.

She chose to use a Ruby Star Woodland Park charm pack for her pieces and it's looking very modern with fun colour and print combinations. I'll take a photo next time, with her progress.

Woodland Park available at Fat Quarter Shop

Our class project is the Dreamweaver Quilt project (pattern by Michelle McKillop) and a fair few people have decided to work on that quilt over the next few months. Everyone is at different stages and I set everyone homework to get the quilt back finished. Let's see how everyone progresses with that when we catch up again next time.

I came home to an almost empty house - husband at work and teenagers were out, doing teenager things on a Saturday night. I sat down with my doggies near me, turned on my audiobook and worked on my Sashiko project. It's tricky to see the progress on the front, but the back shows the progress (and my naughty naughty knotted threads).

The audiobook I have been listening to over the past week-ish was Homecoming by Kate Morton. It was over 17 hours long and I listened to it in the car and when in my sewing room. I enjoyed the story immensely and it certainly didn't feel like I listened to it for that long.

Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of the grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia.

Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney...

An epic novel that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, and how we protect the lies we tell. It explores the power of motherhood, the corrosive effects of tightly held secrets, and the healing nature of truth.

I won't tell you about the story but I can say that I didn't pick the ending.

If you haven't yet, you can sign up for a free trial of Audible to listen to some great audiobooks.

Audiobooks are perfect for listening to when sewing. Being transported away to another world while doing some slow stitching is one of my favourite things to do. I alternate between using Audible and listening to books through my free library apps.

Today's slow stitching involved some needle turn applique. A few years ago, I made a quilt called "Breeze on Lee" which was created for and published in Homespun Magazine.

Breeze on Lee - you can read about it in this blog post

I had saved the centre cut-outs from the applique pieces and found them this week when I was doing a little bit of tidying. My coasters have been looking the worse for wear so I'd been thinking that I needed to make some new ones. I needle-turn appliqued the prints to some scrap charm squares (which I also found in my tidying up this week).

I added a layer of batting, a backing and turned them out to make a little set of coasters. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out and already have one in use, holding a cup of tea as I type.

Linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday

Glitter Cushion

2025-02-05T08:26:00.004+11:00

The Glitter Cushion

Glitter Quilted Cushion by Anorina @ sameliasmum

I wasn't enjoying this project and decided that rather than just put it aside and forget about it, I'd use the blocks that I'd already made, and turn them into something. Initially I thought I'd make a long table runner... but when I put them in this 10 block layout (my blocks are 30% larger than the original), they made the perfect size cushion for a large European pillow insert.

A European pillow is 26" x 26" and this turned out slightly smaller - but the insert I was using is one that lives on the couch normally (with another handmade cushion) and has lost some of it's oomph, which made it an easy fit inside of this new Glitter cushion.

It works rather well sitting on my light blue sofa. Harry was desperate to jump up there is have a little lay down to test out the new cushion, but he posed for a photo for me first. Much to his sadness, I took the cushion away after the picture and he had to make do with only the fluffy ones.

The quilting. Gosh I really went back and forth and back and forth with this one. I was initially going to big stitch quilt all over this cushion. After ditch stitching with Aurifil invisible thread, I set out some beautiful 12 weight colours that I wanted to stitch with. I made a start on a few blocks, outlining the outer edges and within some of the inside squares... but I wasn't loving it.

I unpicked my hand stitching.

Then I thought I'd do some spiral quilting. I thought the quilted curves might look cool against all of those points, so I pressed the cushion top (sandwiched with batting and held together by the ditch stitching) again. I started the quilting and after a few rounds decided that I didn't like it.

I unpicked the spiral machine quilting.

I decided to just leave it alone. There was enough quilting in the ditch to hold it together with the batting and it would have to do. I found this fun fabric in my stash and a 50cm zip so made the cushion back.

I always use a wide seam and a zig-zag with I sew up cushions, so lost some of those lovely side points within the outer seams, but that doesn't bother me. As I always say to my classes, finished is better than perfect. After much dithering about, I have a finish, not perfect, but a finish, none the less.

Glitter acrylic template sets are on sale separately and can be found at some quilt stores or I've found them available here on amazon.

If you'd like to have a try at making your own Glitter project, the original pattern can be found in a book called Quilt Lovely by Jen Kingwell. I used the original pattern and enlarged the templates by 30%.

Linking with Needle & Thread Thursday

Slow Stitching Sunday

2025-02-02T17:04:00.005+11:00

As you may have noticed from my past few blog posts, I've been mainly slow stitching lately.

I have my hand pieced Propeller Quilt progressing, slowly but surely. Since starting, I managed 2 or 3 blocks per evening, so I should have enough blocks ready to put together in about... 2 years. Each fabric combination seems to become my favourite. Right now, I'm putting together a dark purple and mustard combo... which is my favourite so far. Funny that.

My Glitter Quilt Project is receiving some big stitch hand quilting to add some extra pizzazz and sparkle. I had thought that I might add stitches in a single colour, but I'm going to use all the colours I have which work with the fabrics used.

The other slow stitching project which I have been working on lately is a Sashiko panel which I purchased at work after being inspired by projects I'd seen online and by projects which I'd seen at work. We have a few different brands of sashiko, but this one is the Olympus brand, which I've found to be the best. The fabric is a great weight and doesn't pucker up as quickly as some of the others.

Sashiko is a great travel project. I've got my current project all neatly tucked away in a lovely Cath Kidston pouch - I think it originally held a selection of hand creams which I received as a gift a few years back.

I used to take hexies to my Monday night Trivia, but now I take this little pouch with my sashiko bits and pieces to work on. Not a lot of thought required, so that I can use some of my remaining brain space in the trivia.

I'm only new to this so I've been watching a few Susan Briscoe videos on YouTube - I love all of her work. To tackle this project, Susan has an example of the order in which you follow to complete it. If you'd like to see the order, this is the link to the YouTube video (starting at the correct point).

I've got a bit of time before thinking about dinner prep, so I'm going to sit down with my Sashiko and listen to my audiobook - Homecoming by Kate Moreton. I'm around 25% into it and enjoying it.

Olympus Sashiko Set on amazon (including a panel, thread and needles)

The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook by Susan Briscoe

Linking up with Kathy for Slow Stitching Sunday

** It also appears that there's been a change in blogger with regards to commenting. Even though I have it set correctly, it seems that my comments are noreply-comment@blogger.com which is very annoying. This is an interesting blog post about this change. Has anyone encountered this problem?

Saturday Stuff - 1 Feb 2025

2025-02-01T15:54:00.003+11:00

Happy Saturday friends. It seems that Saturday's have become my new regular day to post here and catch up with my week. I had meant to come back through the week, but time just got away from me.

Monday was a public holiday, which was a nice start to the week. I taught my first class of the year on Tuesday which was a lot of fun. The day is split in half with students having the option to attend the morning, afternoon or both sessions. We had all sorts of different projects being worked on through the day, which is great fun.

I worked again on Wednesday, so didn't have much sewing time myself, but enjoyed some time in my sewing room on Thursday and Friday. I'm a casual employee, which works perfectly for me and for my family. Other than my teaching days, I don't have set shifts and can be called upon very last minute. It also means that I can make myself unavailable, go on holidays when I want to, without a worry. For me, my job is a great way to get out of the house and talk about fabric and quilts with people who are interested in these things too.

My current addiction is making these Propeller Blocks. It's a Postcard Project from Jen Kingwell. These little blocks are all hand pieced. I start by going through my scrap tubs and finding pieces which are large enough to fit the propeller piece 4 times. If the fabric is a bigger piece, I trace 8 or 12 propellers.

This template shape is great because it lines up very well on the fabric. Tracing it out may be a little time consuming, but cutting out the shapes is very quick with minimal waste.

Once I have a lovely big pile of propeller pieces, I sit and stitch them together in the evenings, usually while watching telly. At the moment, we're working our way through Silent Witness. We're most of the way through Season 20.

I got to a stage where I wasn't enjoying making my Glitter Quilt. I don't know if it's the colours I chose to work with, or just the shape of the pieces and block in general, but I decided to stop, put the blocks I've already made together and will turn this into a large Euro style pillow.

I machine sewed the blocks together (possibly breaking the rules after having hand sewn the blocks) and getting them to line up was a little bit tricky. I'm of the opinion that near enough is good enough; finished is better than perfect... so that's what I went with. If I dithered about too long, stressing about points to matching up exactly, I'd probably not get it finished at all.

I layered some white batting on the back and used Aurifil monofilament thread to stitch in the ditch between all of the blocks. Next I'll use my favourite Aurifil 12 weight cotton threads to add some big stitch hand quilting for added sparkle and texture.

Purchase the Glitter Quilt template set here on amazon

My son is very much into growing plants and cuttings and I found this fun graphic on pinterest. We have a few glass jars with plants growing in water. We have Devil's Ivy (pothos) and Peace Lily's doing remarkably well. All of the guides suggest not using city water, but rather, distilled water. We ignore this and just use regular old tap water. Every few months I add a tiny sprinkle of fertiliser into the water and the plants are doing just fine.

They seem to grow better in water than in soil!

Speaking of the garden, we're beginning to harvest figs but it's a race against the fruit bats and night and the birds in the mornings/evenings. I should really net the tree, but I'd hate for anything to get caught up in the net when all they're doing is trying to eat a yummy treat.

Here's a rainbow lorikeet at the top of the tree yesterday afternoon.

The rainbow lorikeet is a species of parrot found in Australia. It is common along the eastern seaboard, from northern Queensland to South Australia. Its habitat is rainforest, coastal bush and woodland areas... oh and backyard fig trees ;-)

One last thing to share before I go for now. Dad had an over abundance of bananas this year and I brought home a lot. This is a yummy variation of banana bread which we've tried a few times. Anyone have any other ideas on how to use too-many bananas?

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Banana Bread

Saturday Stuff - 25 Jan 2025

2025-01-25T20:20:00.005+11:00

Happy Saturday friends. Now, I know that I've already posted about my Liberty Crossroads quilt, but one more mention here. We returned from our Carnival Cruise yesterday and a parcel was sitting on my doorstep when we got home. It was my quilt as well as my physical copy of the magazine. Yay!

I'm glad that it didn't rain while we were away, otherwise I may have had a soggy bundle to open up. I had originally planned on this quilt being for my bed. The problem I have too pups who enjoy laying up on my bed, way too much. They love to go up there and look out the front windows so that they can bark at any delivery drivers or basically anybody who walks past the house.

Many of these Liberty fabrics have been in my stash for years and I'd honestly rather they don't become dogified. Perhaps when they're older and can't jump up onto the bed any more.

If you'd like to make my Liberty Crossroads quilt, the pattern is available in the current issue of Homespun magazine.

Now on to what has been happening this week. We had a lovely time on our cruise. It was only a short Monday to Friday cruise and went up to Moreton Island in Queensland and then back to Sydney. We had a beautiful view of the Sydney Opera House from our room before we departed.

We had a big group of family and friends join us on this cruise. It was lovely to have everyone onboard to celebrate, but also tricky at times as not everyone knew each other and had different interests/ages. I'm pleased that I got to spend the week with some of my faves.

We watched shows, ate too much food and enjoyed many activities available on board. We even managed to win some trivia challenges and came home with medals. Here they are beside one of the towel animals.

Our room steward was very friendly and attentive. He even surprised me by setting out birthday decorations in our room while we were out having dinner.

The day that we arrived at Moreton Island was VERY hot. There were people returning to the ship glowing red from too much sun. After the island, we headed back south. We woke that next morning by a storm full of lighting and thunder. I looked out of the window and it was very foggy but with bright reflections due to the lightning. By mid morning, it had all passed and it was lovely and sunny again.

We found a heart shaped towel creation on our last afternoon.

After arriving home yesterday, we spent time doing mountains of laundry. That quickly brings you back to reality, doesn't it? Laundry and having to cook your own dinner after being spoiled having everything cooked for you with a huge selection available.

Today I did some grocery shopping, visited dad and picked up a new armchair which I'd ordered for the front room. It's not super exciting, but it is very comfy. I plan on lots of reading and hand sewing while sitting on this chair... not to mention the naps I have planned...

My guard dog, Harry, was sitting on the couch opposite me (as I tested my new arm chair). He enjoys sitting there and looking out of the window... again to bark at delivery drivers and passers-by.

On Tuesday, I'm teaching a quilting class at work. The ladies can bring in any project they they like or which they may need help or advice with. Aside from that, I've also set a class project which can be worked on at everyone's own pace - if they choose to join in.

The project is the Dreamweaver Quilt - pattern by Michelle McKillop. I made my version a number of years ago and it's hung in the store at various times, with great feedback from customers.

Dreamweaver Quilt Pattern is available on ETSY

We have a number of ladies signed up for the class which should be great fun and I look forward to seeing how everyone goes with their version of this quilt.

While looking for my original pattern so that I could prepare some samples for the initial steps, I found this stitched and quilted notebook cover. I think I made it for a blog hop - agessssss ago and hadn't seen it since. Isn't it wonderful when you find things in your sewing room that you completely forgot about.

Hoping everyone has had a lovely week.

Saturday Stuff - 18 Jan 2025

2025-01-18T18:02:00.006+11:00

A few little bits and pieces to record of what's been happening around here this week.

It's been a slow-ish week for me but I have enjoyed a little bit of sewing. They're slow to put together, but I've now made 8 Glitter Quilt blocks and cut up lots of pieces for more blocks. I'm determined to only use fabric in my scrap tubs in a limited palette. If I start to run low, I guess I'll introduce some new colours to keep with the scrappiness.

Glitter Quilt Template Set on Amazon

Read my previous Glitter Quilt blog post HERE

The kids are on school holidays and usually they work at their casual jobs through their holidays, but they've both decided to make themselves unavailable and enjoy a few days off before we head away on our family holiday next week. It's been nice having them home.

It's my birthday today. It's a big 0 birthday and I was thoroughly spoiled by my loves. They alway say that they don't know what to get me and I always tell them that I don't need big expensive gifts, but I rather receive things which they've put some thought into.

Along with beautiful gold jewellery, I was gifted a Glasshouse reed diffuser because I'd like the bottle (which I very much do) and I could use once all of the smelly stuff ran out. A small jar of Moccona coffee because we're going on a cruise and they knows how I much prefer my coffee rather what is available on the ship. Very cute and very thoughtful. I was just going to pour some of my jar into a ziplock bag, but this is much nicer.

My husband has heard me mention that the centre console of the car is great, but huge and deep which makes it very unorganised. He got me a sliding shelf that goes inside of the console to be able to organise things a little better. All thoughtful gifts. Love them!

We had family over for lunch today and I used my new fish table cloth on the dining table. Dad brought it back for me when he was in Portugal last year and I absolutely love the bright and happy coloured fish. I thought they were all sardines, but I've been informed that there are some mackerel in there too. Hah!

I had cake at work on a couple of different days with different work mates which was absolutely delightful. How good are birthdays?!?!

Lemon Meringue Pie

Chocolate Cake with my fave peanut M&Ms

Yesterday, I saw that my Sunny Joy quilt is published in the current issue of Quilters Companion magazine. It's a joyful, scrappy-busting quilt with some 'not so difficult' curves and lots of opportunity to play with colour and value.

This is one of my most favourite quilts and I'd like to remake it again one day, with a more limited colour palette. So many quilts to make with so little time...

Image Source: Quilters Companion Magazine

As I mentioned earlier, we head away on a holiday on Monday. We are sailing away on a short cruise, just up to Moreton Island QLD and back to Sydney on Friday. Lot's of family and friends will be joining us on this cruise which should be a lot of fun and I cannot wait to see everyone and enjoy a cocktail or two.

As we all know, a holiday means deciding what craft project to take along. I bought a new sashiko panel at work last week to take with me - I'll eventually turn this panel into a table runner. I thought about using different coloured thread, but absolutely love the indigo and white combination.

I also started another hand piecing project. Again, it's using up scraps. The block is called Propellar 1 and is Postcard Project #9 by Jen Kingwell. These types of templates are great and lots of simple projects can be made with them. I bought this template a few years at a quilt show and finally decided to cut out some pieces and enjoy some slow hand piecing. I have a small pile of pieces already cut and will spend a little bit of time tomorrow cutting some more shapes, ready to stitch up.

These should keep me busy enough around all of the ship activities. Hopefully...

Liberty Crossroads Quilt

2025-01-14T06:00:00.038+11:00

After previously sharing some sneaky peeks of this quilt, I can finally show you my finished "Liberty Crossroads" quilt which is published in the 25th year anniversary issue of Homespun Magazine.

Liberty Crossroads by Anorina Morris

This is a good-sized quilt measuring 230cm (90" square) although can be made larger with a border or extra (partial) blocks. I chose to use my stash of Liberty Tana Lawn fabrics in this quilt. I've been hoarding them for such a long time and afraid to use my beloved Liberty stash, but I'm very glad that I did and have a lovely quilt to drape over my bed.

The white and grey fabrics are Island Batik solids which are comparable to the Liberty Lawn in softness and smoothness to the touch. I fell in love with the Island Batik solids when I was an ambassador for the company and am glad that I still have some of the fabrics within my stash.

If you'd like to view/purchase Liberty Fabrics, the Fat Quarter Shop are stockists and have some absolutely beautiful prints to choose from. Link below. I love them all and always find it tricky to choose which makes the bundles a perfect idea for a project like this.

The blocks are super simple and are a combination of squares and HST's, which when layed out make a secondary cross design.

Image Source: Homespun Magazine

Homespun is available digitally online, or from your local store for magazine purchases. In Australia, you can find it at Coles or your local newsagent or quilt store.

Subscribe to Homespun magazine and receive it in your letterbox via this link

Great variety of Liberty Fabric available at Fat Quarter Shop

Glitter Quilt & things

2025-01-13T10:40:00.007+11:00

Good Morning friends. I thought I'd stop in here today to share some progress of what I've been working on lately. My 2025 slow-sew project is the Glitter Quilt. The Glitter Quilt is a pattern by Jen Kingwell from her book Quilt Lovely (available here from amazon *).

Click through to the "Glitter Quilt" template set available at Amazon

Let me go back to how we decided to go ahead with this project...

... the current (and some retired) staff of the store where I work, catch up fortnightly after the store closes to sit and sew together. It started as meeting up after the store closed, but found that wasn't enough time, so we catch up mid afternoon and the poor staff who are on shift can only pop into the classroom to chat, but are still technically on the floor when customers need assistance.

Our 2024 project was the Ice Cream Soda quilt and as many have now finished or almost finished it, we needed to plan our 2025 project. There were a lot of ideas thrown around but not a lot of commitment to a decision. Linda of Flourishing Palms had finished her beautiful Glitter Quilt and posted on Instagram, so i shared it with the group asking if they liked this idea... and the rest is history.

I luckily already had the pattern because I bought the book back in 2015. A few others also had the book, some ordered the book, others ordered just the templates from Jen Kingwell's store, Amitie. Suffice it to say, we are all beginning our Glitter journey.

* Glitter Quilt Template Set available on amazon *

To me, after having the templates cut and ready in my hand, the block looked quite small. I decided to enlarge the pattern by 30% and make a new set of templates with template plastic. I figure a bigger starting block, equals less overall blocks required.

* Glitter Quilt Template Set available on amazon *

I have now made 6 blocks with number 7 on the way. They're all hand sewn and I find them to be quite slow to put together. I will be working completely with fabric from my scrap tubs. I've started with pinks, blues, teals plus some low volume prints and will see how they go. I figure that I may need to incorporate more colours further along the journey, but hope to keep the palette quite limited.

I'm also working on a scrappy hexie piece. I had a lot of leftover fabric from a table runner store sample I had made last year, so decided to make hexies. The fabric is Liberty Cotton which isn't as fine as the tana lawn, but great for quilts and projects.

Here's the link to the Petals of Liberty on Denim project in which I initially used these fabrics.

When I had a whole bunch of hexies prepared, I started to put them together and am thinking of turning them into a cushion or the front of a bag. Watch this space.

A few little hexagon pincushions were also made this past fortnight - pattern is available here from the Strawberry Thief blog.

I have a big birthday coming up this weekend and to celebrate, we're heading on a cruise next week with lots of friends and family joining us. It should be lots of fun, but a quilter always has that pressing need to include some projects. I bought a sashiko panel a few weeks back, and plan on starting on that during the cruise. I won't need a lot of supplies which means that it's very portable and can fold up and fit in my shoulder bag.

Ice Cream Soda Quilt

2025-01-05T09:06:00.003+11:00

My Ice Cream Soda Quilt is all finished - it even has a label attached. I started ICS back at the beginning of 2024 with a group of ladies who I work with. Most of the group are current staff members, but we do have a few ex-staff members who join us. We sit and sew after the store closes and then get Chinese food for dinner. We've all begun to look forward to our fortnightly chatter and Chinese food almost more than the actual sewing!

The ICS quilt was a fun challenge. I went down the English paper piecing road and bought the kit from Tales of Cloth (large block kit), when she released them (I think it was around Christmas-ish 2023).

Label created on the Brother Stellaire sewing/embroidery machine

Some ladies only bought the templates and have decided to hand piece their quilts.

One lady cut out all of her pieces with her Brother Scan n Cut machine.

One lady made soooo many blocks that her quilt will be double sided.

About half of us have finished quilt tops - I think only two of us have completely finished quilts.

We all (mostly) used fabrics from our stash although there were a few that went down a Tilda route and have a beautifully co-ordinated projects.

The aim is to eventually have all of our quilts finished and displayed in the classroom for all to see. I'll share some pictures once this happens in a few months time. Our aim was to have everyone finished by Christmas 2024, but we may have to settle for Christmas in July 2025. Fingers Crossed!!

The 2025 project is going to be the Glitter Quilt by Jen Kingwell from her book Quilt Lovely. This will be a hand piecing extravaganza which is looking and feeling quite daunting. I will use stash - because I have so much of it and it needs using up. My plan this afternoon to to make a test block. I'll keep you posted on my Glitter Progress.

Petals of Liberty on Denim Table Runner

2024-12-03T11:08:00.002+11:00

Hello. It's been a while, hasn't it? My sewing mojo seems to have deserted me.

When it comes to my creative life, I haven't achieved very much this past few months. I've almost finished a crochet blanket. Almost.

I only need to stitch up the last few rows but the project has been stopped and sitting in a bag for the last few weeks (or maybe it's been months).

I've been slowly working on my Ice Cream Soda EPP quilt. The blocks are all complete and the joining pieces have been added. I'm at the assembly stage, which is taking much longer than the fun part, which was deciding on fabrics and making the blocks.

I've made a few new samples for the shop where I work. We recently stocked some "new to us" Liberty quilting cotton fabrics, denim fabric and a new leaf template, so I made a sample using all three of these new products.

Well, it's been another few weeks / months and I just came across this half-post saved as a draft which I started back in early October. Time is certainly getting away from me this year and I don't even know what I have to show for it. Looking forward to slowing down some... soon.

Big & Smalls Quilt

2024-06-06T21:11:00.001+10:00

My scrappy and very happy, Big & Smalls quilt is in the newest issue of Homespun Magazine (June/July 2024 issue). It doesn't matter how many quilts you have published, it's always exciting to see your project on the pages of a magazine.

Image Source: Homespun Magazine (June/July 2024)

This quilt was a long-term project for me. I started basting these scrappy hexagons after finishing my Kingfisher quilt (that was such a fun project). I'm guessing I possibly started this around 5-6 years ago.

This became my go-to travel project. Car trips (while husband drove) or waiting for kids in the car. This project travelled with us to US holiday and a cruise to Mexico back in 2019 and I think it may have even gone with us to Europe in 2018. We drove right across the south of England and I remember having my hand sewing during that adventure.

English paper piecing is just so wonderfully portable. You don't need a lot of supplies to put the hexagon flowers together, or even to applique them to the background squares.

Homespun Magazine is now available for sale at newsagents or your local quilt store. Available via zinio for international friends.

Rosalie's Cushions

2024-06-03T12:43:00.002+10:00

With the threat of my sewing machines being unplugged and my sewing room being temporarily out of commission while it's painted in anticipation of our new plantation shutters installed this week - I raced to make a couple of new cushions for the couch.

"More cushions?" I hear you ask. Why yes, I did.

Our couch has some cheap and ugly plain grey cushions which I bought from Kmart last year. They were only around $3, don't have zips, which means that the covers can't be removed to be washed. I ended up throwing 4 in the washing machine at once (that's all that would fit) and then laid them out in the back garden to dry. They ended up looking quite wonky and lumpy.

I decided that I needed to make some quilted cushion covers that the wonky grey cushions would be used as the inserts.

I chose pretty Rosalie Dekker fabrics in a linen/cotton which I had been holding on to for years. After sandwiching with the pretty floral fabric, batting and ugly fabric in the back, I machine stitched some very rustic-looking lines.

I added a bunch of big stitch hand quilting in between the machine quilted lines using Aurifil 12wt thread in coordinating colours. It's a really lovely slow process and I quite like the dimpled effect.

I used an old Liberty Cotton fabric for the back of both cushions. I think they look great. My husband also must think they look great because after I'd placed them down for some photos, and turned my back momentarily, he came in from walking the dogs and sat right on them.

Not beside them. ON THEM! Grumble, grumble, grrrr, grrrrr.

Trivia EPP Hexies

2024-05-28T06:00:00.001+10:00

I'm at home today, which is absolutely lovely. I should be cleaning, tidying etc etc etc - there's always something that needs to be done around here - but I've decided that I'll sit on my computer for a little while instead. I'm slowly going through the pictures on my phone to see what's been happening around here lately. My poor old blog has been sadly neglected, so I'm going to post some updates even though they're from the past few weeks/months.

Every Monday evening we go to trivia. It's a bit of fun and I honestly don't contribute very much to the team, except when it comes to reality TV or celebrity gossip. We all have our strengths, right? Now if only they'd ask more questions about quilting, it'd be right up my alley!

I sit and work on hand-basting scrappy hexies. Everything I need for the evening fits inside of my Twinnings tea tin. A pile of 2.5" scraps, a ziplock bag filled with 1" hexagon papers which I cut in advance with my Fiskars XL hexagon hole punch, and old spool of thread in a colour that I wouldn't normally use (currently isn't a polyester bright lime green), a needle, a wonderclip and little scissors.

While we answer questions, I happily sit and baste hexagons. I've been doing this for at least the past 6 months and have a lovely pile of them to show for it. At this stage I don't know what I'll make with them, but I'm enjoying that slow hand basting process.

I started on some Kaffe hexagons last week and have more cut and ready to take along to stitch at our next trivia session. The Kaffe hexies are gorgeous, as you'd expect from the bright and happy fabrics of the Kaffe Collective.

Do you enjoy trivia? What's your current portable sewing project?

Aurifil Challenge May 2024 : Favourite Aurifil Thread

2024-05-27T11:10:00.003+10:00

Aurifil Evolve Collection - 8wt cotton thread set

The challenge for Aurifil Artisans this past month was to choose and use our favourite thread within the Aurifil family. As artisans, we've been challenged to create with different threads which has helped us (me) decide on the one we like to use the best.

My current favourite thread is the new Aurifil 8wt cotton thread. It has a beautiful sheen, is strong and in a beautiful array of colours. It's slightly thicker than the 12wt which makes it just about as easy to thread for hand sewing, but with a more visible stitchy/quilty effect.

My final Aurifil project is a combination of curves and big stitch quilting. I made a large European size pillow using solid fabrics which complimented the colours of the Evolve collection by Suzy Quilts.

In Australia, we call them European or Euro Cushions (or pillows) and they measure 65cm x 65cm. They look great on a large lounge or bed. I'm guessing that in Europe, they're just called cushions?

I purchased a drunkards path template from Spotlight a few weeks back and was happy to have a play with it. It's a finished 5" drunkards path block and much easier to sew than the smaller 3.5" curves that I've enjoyed playing with in the past. I could have placed the curved blocks to create full size circles or even half circles, but I really like having the blocks all face the same way.

Rather than my traditional white/cream/grey for piecing, I used a lovely golden Aurifil 50wt thread #2920 which I also used to stitch in the ditch between the blocks once I'd sandwiched everything together.

The hand quilting was kept simple with only a line of stitched within each curve and across one side of the seams. Less is more in this case, where usually I go with more is more is more. I finished off the cushion backing with a stripe fabric in warm colours and a long (hidden) zip.

Creating this curvy project with big colour stitches has been mindful, very relaxing and joyful. I incorporated some of my favourite techniques to finish on a high. After two years of stitching fun, challenges and unexpected discovery, this is sadly, my last Aurifil Artisan project as I decided not to apply again. Life has been busy lately as you can probably tell from my lack of blogging and creating. Even though I won't be a part of the artisan program next year, I will continue to use and love Aurifil threads and I thank them for all of the support and fun.

Click through to visit the Aurifil Artisans and see what they have created as their final favourite hurrah.

Picklewedge Quilt

2024-04-07T12:23:00.002+10:00

Happy Sunday friends. I'm very happy to share my scrappy rainbowy finished Pickle Wedge quilt. It's been a very fun quilt to put together as well as a great learning experience.

I had always planned on hand quilting this with some big stitches using lovely Aurifil 12wt thread... but I then opted for speed and machine free motion quilted it. I used Hobbs wool batting in the squishy centre. I tend to use cotton or cotton/bamboo blend battings normally, so this was trickier (slipperier) to quilt and manhandle through my machine.

Speaking of machine, I got my big Bernina B710 out to do the quilting. It's got the wider throat which made it easier to work.

When making my picklewedge quilt, I used mainly solids from my stash. No colour was turned away - even brown! I don't tend to use brown in my projects, but it was welcome in this one.

I pieced the arcs using the foundation paper piecing method, using freezer paper (fold back and sew beside the lines). For this whole quilt, I only used 4 traced out arc wedge templates. For the whole thing! A little big of freezer paper went a long way.

When piecing the blocks, I used my bobbin ends so the quilt is made up with a wide variety of colours.

I originally had it layed out in a 6 x 8 block configuration, but it was too long and seemed out of proportion. I unpicked the bottom row, added an extra block and turned it into a 7 x 7 configuration. Much better!

It's a perfect size for a double bed. Both kids have double beds in their rooms so they can fight over it when winter truly arrives. Or I might just use it on the couch myself. Haha who knows!

A big thank you to my son who let me sweep everything off his bed for an afternoon lit photo in his room. we've had a crazy amount of rain over the last few days (350mls in April). I'll take it out for some pictures in the wild when everything isn't so soggy.

March 2024

2024-03-31T11:36:00.001+11:00

My last post was on 1 March, so I thought I'd better pop in and share a bit what I've been up to.

Firstly, Happy Easter! It's Easter Sunday morning and I've already had chocolate to start the day. It doesn't matter how old the kids get, they still enjoy an Easter Egg hunt. I baked folares, which are a (southern) Portuguese tradition at Easter. Sweet bread, swirled with loads of butter, cinnamon and sugar.

My garden is looking tired and ready for the winter hibernation. I've never been able to grow hydrangeas, but somehow, we've managed to keep these alive in a large pot. I do love this dried colour and wonder whether I should cut them and dry to bring into the house, or just leave them.

Through the month, I joined a class on free motion quilting with Deb Louie. Deb teaches a grid-like technique for the quilting. Using a grid, pounce and powder we quilt within the lines which is really a lot of fun. I ordered my own pounce from Amazon, so I'm waiting for that to arrive so that I can play around some more at home.

With the cooler weather arriving, I have finally finished my 2023 neon liquorice all sort crochet blanket. Only a few ends to weave in and then it needs a bit of blocking. I haven't started a new 2024 blanket yet, but have enjoyed spending a bit of time making some wind spinners. I plan on taking hanging these around the neighbourhood. I wonder how long they'll last?!?

It has been a great year for dragon fruit. My dad and aunt have had a bumper crop and I've eaten more dragon fruit this summer, than I have mangoes. Do you like dragon fruit?

My pickle-wedge quilt top is finished. It's been a great learning experience and absolutely enjoyable. I used the freezer paper method of FPP to create the wedges and managed to only use 4 templates, traced on to freezer paper, to make this whole quilt.

I purchased a dark purple floral wideback fabric for the backing so will need to baste and then decide on the quilting. I'm thinking this could be my winter big stitch quilting project.

I continue to play with scraps. The little bits cut out from my pickle wedge quilt have been pieced and then used to create these peels. I trace the peel (leaf) shape on to some light interfacing, sew it on the right side of the scrap panel, trim and then turn it out. I'm not sure what I'll use these for just yet.

Speaking of scraps, I now have a large tin of prepared hexagons, ready for english paper piecing. These are all thread basted hexagons using 2.5" squares. Again, I'm not sure what I'll make with these, but they've been fun to prepare.

My Ice Cream Soda quilt is coming along nicely. I think I only have about a dozen more blocks to make before I can start thinking about the joining diamonds and triangles. I'd originally planned on using a turquoise or teal print for the background joining pieces, but in the end, I chose a white fabric with teeny yellow hearts (or possibly stars) instead. The problem with working in a fabric store, is too many options!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful March and a Happy Easter weekend (if you celebrate).

That first image is a project I'm working on for a Foundation Paper Piecing class which I'm teaching later in the month. Last month, I taught machine pieced curves, and this is the next step. Before long, the class might be putting togethe NY Beauty quilts! That'd be a hoot.

Curves, Ice Cream Soda and Rainbows

2024-03-01T15:50:00.003+11:00

I haven't sat down to read blogs or post on my blog very much this past month, so I figured I might just do a little catch up post with all of the things that have been happening lately.

Firstly, my Ice Cream Soda EPP quilt has been a lot of fun to work on. I'm half way done now with my blocks, so this will be a lovely big quilt when it's eventually finished. Every second Wednesday (after the store closes), I meet up with some current and ex-staff members at the store where I work and we all sew our Ice Cream Soda quilts. Some of the ladies are doing EPP, others are hand sewing their projects. One is even machine piecing her blocks. We sit and show our progress. We chat and eat and honestly, don't get a whole lot done, but it's a lot of fun.

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