Sassafras

All finished and bound, with a little help from Bella who sat in my lap while I stitched the binding on...

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Spring has well and truely sprung here in Melbourne; the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and everything is in full bloom. I've been home all week with a cold that is bording on the flu, so I haven't made much sewing progress, so I've got pretty garden pictures to make up for it.

The first broccoli head has finally appeared:

The broad beans are continuing their mass flowering; I hope the beans aren't too far away!

The apricot is covered in flowers, and the peach isn't far behind:

The daffodils are in bloom:

The zucchinis have sprouted, and the pumpkins are just peeking out of the ground. I planted eight of each in case they didn't all germinate, and now I've had to find "homes" for all the spares! Fortunately I've got a few vegie-growing friends. I should be able to transplant the zucchini into the garden this weekend.

The strawberries are showing the first signs of fruit:

And the bees are busy helping themselves to the flowers on the rosemary (in the centre of the photo):

I hope you've enjoyed this little peek into my garden. I should be returning with a quilt-related post soon, as I've finished sewing the Sasafras blocks but they are waiting to be assembled.

The Great Batting Shortage

Ok, so maybe not "great", but it certainly was harder to get my hands on my favourite batting this week! I've had one of those months where all the bills due are way more than my income, so I'd been putting off quilting Jelly Girl. I finally had a spare bit of cash, and everyone was sold out!

In the mean time, I stitched together a few offcuts from my last two quilts (4OT and Falling Star), and quilted Picnic. It's turned out really well!

I also dug into my stash and started on "Sassafras", a Thimble Blossoms pattern using Cotton Blossoms. I love this fabric so it'll be nice to have a second quilt from it.

Don't you just love unwrapping a new jelly roll? Bella certainly does!

I did finally manage to get my hands on some batting; not my usual (wool/polyester blend), but one I'm told is just as good, but gives a better "drape". Works for me. Now to baste it and get started!

Baa!

After a cool start to summer, we've finally hit some hot weather here in Melbourne. Unfortunately that puts a stop to quilting, as least for me, as I have a really bad tolerance for heat. We had a cool change earlier today, but my house is a 1950's weatherboard with no air-conditioning, so its still hot inside, even with all the doors and windows open.

However, a blog with no new posts is a very dull blog, so I have some progress to show. I've been working on the aplique for the sheep quilt for C's bub, and its coming along quite well. All I need to do is finish the blanket stitch around the sheeps legs and heads (the purple one is done), and it will be ready for borders and quilting.

A pic of the finished quilt (one I made last year) can be seen here. The only difference to this one is the background fabric.

Also, for fans of Camille/Cotton Blossoms, she is featured in the latest issue of Australian Homespun magazine, just out this week. There is a lovely Cotton Blossoms quilt, which looks quick and easy to whip up. If I hadn't just finished Wallflower, and have Sassafras ready to go, I'd probably jump straight onto this one. Its made using a layer cake.

So...

...I've been a bit quiet on here, I know...but I have been doing stuff, I promise! I finished the flying geese earlier in the week, and on Wednesday I finished all the large 9-patches.

I'm about to start the smaller 9-patches. And I made labels for two finished quilts; Crabapple and Wallflower. Yes, I did finish Crabapple all the way back in November, but I'm a bit slack when it comes to labels. And I haven't actually put them on yet, but I'll get there!

I've also been down the beach a couple of days, visiting my Grandma. That always keeps me on my toes. Fortunately the dogs got to come with us, so we got to take them walking on the beach. It's funny though; Jack loves swimming, and Millie can't get out of the water fast enough.

Bella is finding new and unusual places to sleep, like on the tv with her nose on the cable (Foxtel) box.... we think she likes the heat from the lamp.

And my big news? I start my new, first-ever proper job on Monday! Ok, so it's in the same lab that I did my PhD, but it's a proper, paying job, and on a completely differerent project. And the good part is I'm working 4 days a week, which leaves an extra day for quilting!

Three days to go...

Is anyone else mildly freaked out that Christmas in only three days away? At least the weather is finally looking more like summer than winter (34 here today!).

I handed in my thesis today; thats one less thing to worry about. Plus I finished quilting Wallflower...just have the binding to go.

And I had some new jelly rolls arrive in the post. The Fat Quarter Shop has been having a fantastic Christmas sale, with 50% off different selected items each day, and I managed to snag the two jellies for $15 each!

Recess:

American Primer:

And Miss Rosie's 4OT quilt pattern which I plan to make next year (among a million other things!)

Now, I recently added a visitor counter to my blog, and I know I'm getting up to 40 hits a day, but very few comments. So to all you lurkers out there, please say hello; I like to know who is visiting here so that I can in turn visit your blog. Plus I'm just greedy, I like getting lots of comments, it makes me feel loved!

Cotton Blossoms 2

By popular demand, I've taken a quick pic or two of the backing for the Wallflower quilt. It's a bit windy here today, but it should be enough to give you an idea of what it's meant to look like.

You might also remember a couple of months ago that I posted a picture of potatoes that I had growing in a tub.... I had a bit of a dig around in the tub today, and harvested our first potatoes! Most of the spuds I uncovered will still quite small, so I covered them back up, but I did pull out a couple to have with dinner.

Cotton Blossoms

I got back into the sewing over the weekend, and finished off the flimsy for "Wallflower", done with a Cotton Blossoms jelly roll as per the pattern. I'm very happy with how it looks, particularly my blanket stitch, as its the first time I've used the machine for that. Usually I do it by hand, and it doesn't look particularly good when I do...

If you are wondering where the rest of the jelly roll went, it's on the back of the quilt. I think the backing of this quilt took just as long to put together as the front!

The long and short of it

As predicted, I've very successfully avoided stitching the binding onto my Crabapple quilt this week. There has been a lot going on, and I just haven't had the desire to work on it. In the meantime, I've been stitching Cotton Blossom jelly roll strips together for the back of the Wallflower quilt, and noticed something I've never noticed before. All the fabrics have different widths. I knew that fabric could vary from 40-44 inches, but I didn't realise that they could vary this much within a single line of fabric.

I lined up all the selvages at one end, and this was the result at the other end... very strange. Anyway, I hope to have some decent progress to show off soon. Unfortunately I've come down with a lovely cold which means I don't really feel like doing much of anything.

More new fabric!

Like I've said before, I love getting things in the mail...and todays delivery was the remaining Cotton Blossoms fabric I need for the two quilts, "Sassafras" and "Wallflower". My postie is very clever, he always hides my packages so they can't be seen from the street, and it's always a nice suprise to open the wire door and have a parcel tumble out.

The second suprise in the mail today was a free kimono I was meant to get about a year ago... it was a freebie with a blanket I was given, but it never arrived. I contacted them earlier in the year....and then again last week, and finally it arrived!

I finished the Chocolat quilt top yesterday, with a minor sacrifice along the way-part of my index finger! I didn't notice it hanging over the edge of the ruler when I was trimming the inner border. Fortunately it's only a (relatively) small chunk, and should heal up ok.... Regardless, the quilt looks pretty nice. Unfortunately I don't have the space to spread the quilt out for a proper photo.

For those that asked, my birthday last week was my 25th, or my quarter century! Bizarre Quilter suggested this was a good excuse to buy fat quarters...but I think I have enough projects in the works! My "to-do" list includes:

• Amitie Quilt
• Chocolat Quilt
• Sassafras
• Wallflower
• Catch a falling star (Fat 1/4 shop quilt)
• Sheep quilt
• Baby quilt for B
• Papillion quilt (still dont have all the fabric)
• Something with the two other jelly rolls...

And, being a bit super-productive yesterday, the remaining strawberries left over from the daquiris were turned into jam:

Thank-You

I really want to thank all the lovely people who have left comments on my blog so far; there are so many fantastic quilting blogs around, so I really appreciate that people take the time to visit mine.

I got an early birthday pressie in the mail today (from myself!); two Cotton Blossoms jelly rolls!

I also wanted to post a photo of my most recent finished quilt, "Wish Upon A Star". Not the original name from the pattern, but I like it. I don't have the space to take a photo of the whole quilt, so this will have to do while the weather is still a bit damp outside.

I still need to make time to go and buy the batting for my Amitie quilt, so in the meantime I'm piecing a quilt for my mum. She is always asking "who is that quilt for?", to which I usually reply "me!" (mostly in reference to the star quilt above). I told her to find something she liked, and I would make it for her. So at the recent quilt and craft fair, we found a kit that we both like; a simple charm square quilt (set on point) using Moda's Chocolat range which I really like (as you can probably tell from the above photo; that quilt is backed in Chocolat too). That should keep me busy for a few days...

Time flies...

The last few days have been pretty crazy; I handed in my PhD thesis last Wednesday, after 3 1/2 years of hard work! Since then I've been celebrating in a few different ways. I started the day with breakfast with a couple of close friends, the followed up the "hand in" with lunch with my lab mates and supervisor. I also suprised my supervisor, Belinda, with a lap quilt that I had made especially for her. She was so overwealmed she burst into tears!

This is the quilt top, before I quilted it on my machine:

After a couple of days R&R, I headed down the beach with a friend for a weekend of chilling out, watching TV, eating way too much and hanging out with my beautiful dog Millie. Then today I've come home, and purchased myself two of those beautiful Moda "Cotton Blossoms" jelly rolls; they are available in two colour-ways, "mother" and "daughter", and I've chosen the latter for those two patterns that I purchased a couple of weeks ago. Now I just need to buy a few bits of yardage, and I've got two more quilts to put together...

Anyway, now that i've got more free time, hopefully I can post a bit more of what I'm up to!