In the thick of things.......

It has been some time since my last entry. I have been very busy with my day job, designing houses for people and drawing plans. Our son has gone back to school for the year and is enjoying himself there with new subjects and new sports. I thought I would have more time for quilting but alas, every spare moment is either drawing or something else.

The other day I received a parcel with two books that I ordered from America, they are Jennifer Chiaverini novels about quilters and quilting for those of you who are not familiar with her. I have started reading them during the night when the insomnia sets in.

Our local quilt group is getting together to make quilts for the bushfire victims in Victoria, we are all making blocks and will have a fund raising lunch for that as well. Its a good thing that we can all do something to help out.

The Truly Scrumptious BOM that I have been doing for some time has now gathered momentum. I received all of my remaining blocks at once (at my request). It is beautiful and I cant wait to see it done.

The Breast of Friends quilt in the Homespun magazine is also coming along with Blocks 3 and 4 in motion. Maybe some pictures of that next time.

After the heatwave

Hello everybody out there in blog land.  It has been a very unusual week with temperatures here in Tasmania higher than they probably have ever been.  It has been very difficult to do anyhting except sit infront of the fan.  All of you in Victoria and South Australia would know what I mean.

The other day (Sunday), I invited a couple of friends over and we had a very nice sewing day here at my house.  Leanne (Lizzie's Page, in the blog list below), came over and showed all of her projects and Tina brought along her projects as well, we ate, sewed and looked at fabric.  It was really fun.

I have had one of my older quilts returned from being machine quilted.  It is shown below.  The quilt top was made for our son in 2005, the design came from a book called "Take away Applique" .  I have altered some of the animal designs and made them my own and also the block design is different.

My American block of the month arrived the other day and I have been slowly finishing them. They are also shown below.

There have been several other things that I have been working on including the Homespun Breast of friends quilt and some knitting.  Winter is coming and knitting projects are in the pipeline as well.  I will be knitting my husband a jumper.

Signing off for know

Happy Stitching

Marina

Tea for two

The bumble bee just happened to fly into the shot as I was taking a photo of the foxglove, it was there for quite a while but was very quick.  

The table I was painting for our veranda is now finished and looks very pretty and is ready for use.  I spent the afternoon stitching out here since it is a warm day and very relaxing in the shade.  It has been a 28 degree day here and I feel sorry for everybody in Melbourne.  I wish for a cool change for them very soon.

I will be hosting many a morning and afternoon tea here and have now begun looking for little projects to make to use as table cloths. Todays post is a very short one due to the lateness of the day and dinner cooking time is virtually upon us.  The bonsai in the middle is a fuschia called "Tom Thumb", it is about 4 years old. 

 

Summer Days

It has been a few days since my last blog entry and things are fine.  I have been very busy with various things.  I have started the new Mystery of the month quilt in the Australian Homespun Magazine and am nearly finished the first block and have pieces for the second block ready for stitching.

I made an out of town trip the other day and visited a quilt shop in a small town called Latrobe here in Tasmania. The shop 

is called Picture Patchwork. I had a look around and bought a few fat quarters which are pictured below.

During the hot days here, the opportunity to paint some furniture had arisen.  I have been revitalizing a small outdoor table and chairs by giving them a nice white finish. They were raw timber before.  When they are done there will be a photo.  This project has let to a complete veranda clean up so the table and chairs can be the main feature of this veranda.  Four new hanging pots with fuschias have been hung and look very pretty.  A new place to stitch and have friends over will be good.

Until next time

Happy Stitching

Marina

Back on Track

Everything has returned back to normal. My parents went back home to New South Wales with lots of photos, memories and 9 kilos of Tasmanian cherries.

I have converted my sewing room from guest room to sewing room again. All my projects are lined up on the day bed in no particular order.

On the way back from the airport, I stopped to pick up a parcel from the post office. It contained a beautiful pack of fat quarters from The Buggy Barn which I am going to use for the monthly mystery quilt which will be appearing in the Australian Homespun magazine. The fabrics are more beautiful in reality than they are in the photos. I can't wait to get sewing but it may have to be on the weekend. I have work to do on my drawing project. The anguish of anticipation is going to be terrible.


Tomorrow is a friendship day of sewing and food which I will attend with a friend, I have made some Almond shortbread cookies for tea and coffee.

Until next time
Marina

UFO Quilting

I have taken an old project our of the cupboard and have decided to quilt it on the machine myself. It is a small quilt with stitchery blocks on it that I made last year every Sunday while my husband flew his model aeroplane. My parents are going home tomorrow and I have begun working on a building design project. I work on that in the evenings when it not so hot.

I am looking forward to going back to our quilting group which starts on the 29th January.

Thank you to everybody who has made comments about various things on this blog. This new world of blogging is amazing but sometimes tricky to find interesting things to put on so today I will show you this small UFO Quilt.

The fabric used in this is Robert Kauffman Mary Rose Quilt Gate No 11 or 12. I cant remember exactly. Summer days have been hot and evenings pleasant, so many hours have been spent in the garden watering and weeding. There is not many flowers at the moment only the beginning of the second flush of David Austin roses.

Goodbye for now
Marina

Blessed Bags!

After a couple of days of high temperatures here on this splendid island of ours, a cool change is upon us.  This has been excellent for all kinds of quilted projects.  During their visit with us, my parents have been relaxing in the garden, playing with the dogs and generally chilling out.  My mother celebrated her 70th birthday on the 14th of Jan and we all went out to a Chinese restaurant which was very nice.  There we all are in the photo below.

We made a bag together in the afternoon and now this bag has become a very frequent visitor to all manor of retail establishments and eateries.  As for my American Primer Bag, it has become a camera and quilt project bag, both of which I cart all over the place just incase there is time for a bit of hand piecing or a photo opportunity.  The little dog in the photo is our newest family member, her name is "Pip" and she is 4 months old.

The other day I recieved the next installement of my American block of the month called "Stars Around the Garden",  I will be making it up shortly.  I also received a pack of reproduction fabric swatches from the US.  These will come in handy for the quilts I am designing for this year.

Here is the bag we made in the afternoon being displayed for the photo.

That is the installment for today, until next time, Happy Stitching

Marina