Happy New Year! Welcome 2016 - Lets Hope I Achieve More This Year!

Wishing everyone a prosperous 2016 in whatever you do!

I haven't had a chance to update my blog for a while. I did actually manage to finish one Christmas gift in time for Christmas and gave these placemats to my niece Vanessa who has recently returned after 6 years living in the UK. When she eventually moves out into her own place she'll have something new for the table.

Unfortunately you can't really see the quilting on these but I did spirals in the white areas.

Since then I have finished the blue/green set of placemats too but I haven't yet taken a photo of them so you'll just have to trust me on that one! I'll be putting them away to gift for Christmas in 2106.

Just before Christmas I had a lovely surprise in the post. A while back I won a prize as a part of the UFO along at Marti's 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks blog and so when this box arrived I assumed it was the prize for that but it turns out it had three times the goodies! Turns out I also won a prize when Marti had a competition for her blogiversary and then she also included a gift for letting her use my Rainbow Lattice tutorial for her A Quilt Block a Day Facebook group quiltalong. Such a generous soul!

 Inside the box was this lovely Arcadia layer cake, yardage and pattern:

 These pretty charm squares, some yardage and a pretty Valentine's Day pattern:

 Marti also sent this lovely zip pouch she had made, so cute!  Love Marti's label too.

Last but not least a cute quilt badge and a handy tool - a sewing machine seam guide. I have one which has a spot for scant 1/4 inch seams but this one has four different sizes as well as being marked with inches along the side, another handy feature.

How lucky was I? Now I just need to get on and finish some of my UFOs before I start anything new - famous last words I'm sure but I need to get my UFOs sorted out and numbered ready for the UFO along again this year. If you're interested in joining in, check out Marti's blog. There will be a post on 1st January showing off the last finishes for last year and with instructions on how to take part. I have found it a great way to keep myself focussed each month on finishing just one UFO project - except for last year when moving house meant having all my quilting packed up for many months!

Thanks for dropping by,

A Little Sewing is Better Than None at All!

Well yet again my UFOs go unfinished - surprise, surprise!  I did at least get one set of my placemats quilted. What that taught me was that I am quite rusty so clearly haven't been doing enough quilting!

I started the second set but I really am not thrilled with the design I'm quilting. Can't be helped though as I can't unpick as the white fabric has a zig zag pattern which is ever so slightly rubbery and leaves holes if you have to unpick. So onward I go with it and it will have to do.

I've always been a reasonably organised person and I don't know whether its a hangover from moving house or something else but I'm really finding it hard to keep myself focussed and on track with just about everything since we moved. I do feel like we've been very busy, with something on every week and that may be adding to my problem. I am a person who likes a routine and I think I'm having trouble getting back into my old routine. I'm spending way too much time at night on the computer instead of sewing.  I haven't even finished doing all the necessary address changes 4+ months after our move! Normally I'm the queen of admin-type stuff (which is what I do for a living) but not at the moment. Don't even get me started on Christmas shopping, as in I haven't started!

As if we haven't had enough changes this year, here is one more! We have another fur baby, a little brother for Livvie. His name is Justin and he's a lovely 12 month old golden retriever who was unfortunately a wee bit short for showing. Luckily we're not fussy about height! Isn't he lovely?

The other reason for bringing Justin into our home was that while Livvie is a wonderful, sweet natured darling, she is extremely fearful of people she doesn't know - unless they happen to be walking a dog and then they're old friends. She also doesn't get as much doggy playtime at our new house as there doesn't seem to be the same close knit community of dog lovers nearby.

Livvie was so excited to meet Justin and just over a week later she still thinks he's great. They get along so well and he is very outgoing so hopefully he will bring her out of herself with people.  Either way she is loving having a little brother to play with.  Justin is a more traditional golden colour while Livvie is a beautiful cream with slight highlights on her ears and tail - and don't ask about babies because Livvie is desexed!

One of the things that makes me smile about Justin is the way he lies in the froggy position! Nice and cool on the tiles (and a sign of great hips!).

We had a housewarming a couple of weeks ago and one lovely gift I got was a couple of mug rugs from my sister-in-law for my sewing room!

I'm not sure what she's saying!

In my continuing story of garden surprises here are my recent finds. I had an inkling these plants near our front door were agapanthus and I was right. I had always planned to put some in the garden at our other house but here they are already in and blooming in a couple of places! They're not quite open fully but I couldn't resist taking a snap.

This plant is one that we are planning to remove once a couple of others we have planted get a bit larger. You might think its odd to remove a plant which is happily flowering but this plant is covered with the webby nests of a moth larvae which is apparently specific to this type of plant. We've come across it before at our other house and there's not really a very effective way to get rid of it other than get rid of the plant itself.  It has decided to flower so here it is while it lasts!  These are quite small so I am in quite close so you can see it.

I had to leave my lovely liriope behind but it turns out I have quite a few in this garden too which are just sending up buds. Whether they make it to open up is yet to be seen as they frequently get trodden on by two playful dogs at the moment!

Not really a flower but interesting I think. This is some sort of seed pod opening up on one of the palms in the garden (it has quite nasty spikes around the base). It looks like lots of little flowers! The second photo shows you its relative size to the plant.

Last time I shared a photo of a variegated canna lilly. Here is the same flower once the petals had all dried up and fallen away. Isn't it interesting? Its covered in little stubbly spikes and must be its seed pods.

Well that's it for now, hopefully I can get myself back into gear and get on with things by next time I post!

What I've been Up To - Not Much!

I really thought that when I had a sewing room I would do so much more sewing but really we've been so busy lately that hasn't been the case.

Nevertheless I managed to find some time a week or so ago to start on a couple of Christmas presents. You know how you find some projects that you like but you don't have time when you see it and you keep a copy of it for later on? Well I had a few of those put aside as potential Christmas present projects and I pulled this one out to start with.

Only problem is I don't know where I got it from! I'm sure it was from a book I borrowed from the library and I assumed it had the book name on the top or bottom but it doesn't so I can't give the credit for the pattern.

Its nice to make something small and simple sometimes. It was fun to pull out a pile of 2.5" strips I had and pick out colours. I haven't really decided for sure who will get these but I think one set will go to my niece who has just come back to Adelaide after living in London for six years.

I started with a combination of pink, yellow and orange and found some offcuts from fabric I used on the back of another quilt which were just the right size to cut the background pieces from. It is white chevrons on white.

Then in no time I had my strips together:

and then they were done!

I had enough background fabric to make at least one more set but possibly two. So I came up with another set of fabrics in blues and greens.

In no time at all I had another set of 4 done!

Sorry I just realised I forgot to take a photo of the finished blue ones! Oh well! Now all I need to do is quilt them - and take a photo of them when they're finished of course.

I thought you might like this photo too. Does anyone else get themselves in such a mess as me? I guess usually I would tidy it up as I used to be cutting in the kitchen at our old house. Here I can make a mess if I want to so I do!

I must get in there and tidy it up, we're having a housewarming this weekend!

Before I go, a couple more photos of my garden's developments. These popped up hidden behind some other plants in the garden. Its a shame they're not at the front!

 A one and only flower on these - I think its a canna lily (not sure if that's right!).

 I never knew these palms had flowers. They almost look like a small wattle flower.

We had these at our other house too but they were more hidden away. This one opened up and then closed up again!

I shared a photo of a native iris previously but this is a lemon version of native iris. Its not a great example unfortunately as a bug had chewed its way through the petals before I found it but you get the idea! This photo doesn't show its true colour which is a lovely pale lemony yellow.

Who knows when I'll get back to the sewing room as I foresee some a major distraction over the coming weeks. More on that next time!

A UFO Update

Well despite moving in July and getting my new sewing space all organised I don't seem to have any time for any actual sewing! My UFO for this month was to make something with my string blocks - no wait a minute I think that was last month's UFO.  Never mind, I did at least manage to finish a quilt top with the blocks I started on my recent sewing weekend but that's about it this month.

Not the best shot but due to a mischievous golden retriever

who manages to plant herself on a quilt the minute I put it down to photograph it, I had to put it on our bed to take a snap of it.

This one will be a donation quilt and now I just need to get around to sandwiching and quilting it but somehow I don't like my chances anytime soon as I don't think we've got much free time between now and Christmas. However time will tell. I'm not getting worked up about it, this year has really been all about the move and it was definitely worth it.

I keep finding new things to love about our house. Here are a couple of recent finds.  Firstly even though I knew what this plant would look like when it flowered it still caught me by surprise at how pretty it looks where it is. I should have taken a close up photo but its a native iris and all the buds opened overnight on the same night.

This is another discovery, sitting on the garden bench looking up through the branches of our tree. Just lovely!

On the family line, my younger son had his graduation from his horticultural course.

The ceremony was held at Adelaide Oval. We had been there for an AFL game (sitting right up near the top of the stand in the background - nice and dry in the winter) but it was great to see it from a different viewpoint.  Here's a proud Mum with her baby boy (he just loves it when I call him that!). Not a great photo but it was the best my hubby could manage!

Well that's another month gone, not sure where they're going but they're sure going fast!

Thanks for reading my blog today,

Sewing Weekend Wrap Up

This time two weeks ago I was on a sewing retreat at my usual lovely seaside sewing location. Since that time I've been too busy with my mother in law staying to post about it but she went home yesterday and so its time to get caught up!

The weather was spectacular as you can see!

The retreat this time was with my husband's family and we had a bit of a hiccup as my sister in law ended up bringing one of her grandchildren at the last minute. Not quite the same thing being away with a 6 year old in the group and I don't think it will be happening again as Gaye didn't get much done with her along!

The nice thing about this getaway was that Michelle, my hubby's niece, did all the catering for us as she loves to cook and doesn't often get free rein to make whatever she likes.  She had also finished her teaching degree two days before we left so it was a lovely way to relax after all her hard work! She and her ThermoMix looked after us all weekend with lots of lovely goodies including a delicious butter chicken for tea on Saturday night.

Shortly after our arrival there was a quick trip to the nearest electrical store as Kerrie had left the cord for her machine home!  Even in that short time Michelle had a batch of muffins in the oven before they left, leaving me in charge of making sure they came out in time. Mmmmmm, yum!

I got stuck into some string blocks and would have finished my quilt top but for a lack of pink strings!

Here is where I got up to:

There's nothing like being on a retreat and sewing in your pj's! Here are my two sisters in law and our little visitor who you can see was getting a bit weary by this time after having been at a sports day at her school all day!

The next day was another spectacular day and we all took the opportunity at different times to have a walk along the gorgeous beach, and spent some time watching all the dogs having a ball on the beach, the fishing boats heading out to catch a big one and this ship heading back out to sea.

I was working on some more tea cup blocks (from a Missouri Star tutorial here) which I started making last month on my previous sewing retreat.  They are for quilts for a hospice and I let our helper see if she could find a layout she liked with the ones I had already finished (which let her grandmother get on with what she was doing for a little while at least).

By the time I had finished I had enough for two quilts (although I forgot to take a photo of the second one after I had it all together!).

The curtains served as an impromptu display board! I do have a photo of the second quilt before I joined the blocks together.

I also made some blocks for another cause but after coming home I think I've misread the guidelines about the fabrics. Never mind I'll still send them and hopefully they can make use of them in some way, perhaps on the quilt back! 

Well I think that's a wrap! I love going away sewing but I'm glad to be home for a while now. I've unpacked everything again and got my sewing room back to normal after my mum in law's visit. It was lovely having her to stay and I think she enjoyed the visit too. Apparently our new sofa bed is very comfy so that's good news too! 

Our dog Livvie is a bit sad today as she loved having her country cousin dog visiting, although I think Kip was probably glad for a rest from a super enthusiastic golden retriever who insisted on making him play whether he wanted to or not. They did get along well although they couldn't quite decide who had the rights to this dog bed!

Thanks for reading my blog today!