This morning I finally added the last border and mitred the corners. In the picture, my Winchester quilt is not pressed yet, so don't look too closely, but you can get the effect of the fabrics weaving along. This quilt was inspired by one of the parquetry floors at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. I don't know which room the floor was in, I had just taken a picture of a floor and thought it would make a nice quilt sometime. I will take this top to the quilt store sometime soon to help sell a selection of lovely reproduction fabrics that have come in recently.
Nines asked yesterday for a closer look at my Fowlers jars. This will probably be more information than she ever wanted to know *lol*! I've photographed one each of the different size jars I have. Along the back row from left to right are sizes 20, 31, 36 and 65. Sizes 20 and 31 are the only ones you can buy new now. Although I have heard rumours that size 14 has come back into production. Size 20 is about one pint, and size 31 is about one litre. The 36 and 65 are getting hard to find now, and are kind of huge! I'm reading from my old Fowlers book, and the 36 takes 3lbs, and the 65 takes 5lbs.In the front are my size 10 and 27 jars. Size 10 is really cute and great for baby foods at 1/2lb. The size 27 is my particular favourite and holds 2lbs. I have sooooo many of these jars, you wouldn't believe it. You saw the picture of my shelf yesterday, well, the shelf above which you can't see is almost full too, and additionally, I have three cartons full in the attic.The thing is, I have a lot of relatives that live in the country. So many of them in the past did preserving as a matter of their daily life, and so many of them don't do it anymore. When I first decided I'd give it a try, I talked to my Nanna about it, and she spread the word. Before I knew it people were sending me boxes of jars that they had no use for anymore. These people were friends, relatives, and people I'd never heard of before. Additionally, my Nanna's bestie runs the charity shop in the town they live in, so my Nanna would buy any that came thru the shop for me. Well, let me tell you, with my four very young fruit trees, I have more jars than I will ever need, and when I hear of anyone that can use them, I gladly give them some.
So, that is the story of my Fowlers jars ... thank you to Nines for asking!
Today Amy and I are off to quilt group. It's the last week of school holidays here, and because Amy is a budding quilter, the group are presenting her with a junior membership badge. We're going to start working together on a quilt I designed while we were away. Today we'll start tracing off the flowers onto vliesofix. Should be good fun. Have a great day everyone! x o x
I wanted to show you that I have been working on more blocks, but I haven't been able to get enough blocks into the picture so that it looks any different to the last picture I showed you! Please trust me, there are so many more blocks! I did take a picture (with the phone, I don't know what's going on with the camera right now) and it was so blurry that it would give you a headache to look at it!I hope to have the top completed by tomorrow, I'm not sure if I'll quilt it before I take it to the quilt store or not. I'll see how I'm going on the hand quilitng first.
With the kids on school holidays right now, I don't seem to be able to get so much sewing time in. I don't really mind though, it's nice to be able to spend some time with them.
On the way to the grocery store, we stopped at this ride at the shopping mall. Cameron always loves the rides, and this one is a favourite of his. Cameron doesn't really understand that Steve has gone, we've explained it to him as best we can, but seeing him on the TV etc has meant he doesn't really get it.I'm not going to press the point, when he's ready, he'll understand.
Ohhh, and on an entirely different subject ... in case anyone is wondering ... I'm having a break from 'points' counting on the WW front for the holidays. Not that I was doing a great job anyways ... but I'm allowing myself the holidays to be a little more free, and hopefully I'll have the determination to count points in earnest when the kids are back at school and kindy. Well, that's my rationale, and I'm sticking to it! *s*
So here you see them, just a couple of the blocks I've been working on. I'm working with the camera phone today, so once again, don't pay any attention to the lack of picture quality.
I have so many more blocks to make before I can call this a quilt, but it's super easy piecing, so it won't take too long. I'll just need to commit some time to sit at the machine and sew. I'm finding I keep getting pulled away to work on hand quilting the mini quilt. When I'm just inspired to work on something I try to go with it, because who knows, I may not feel the same later on.
When you have the chance, go and check out Kathie's work in her sewing room, she's done a great job organising, and reading about it has given me inspiration to do some work in mine too. She mentions a new book, and I loved the cover so much, I whipped over to ebay and put a bid on one for myself. The book will give me further inspiration to get moving! I have a lot in the sewing room that could be Flylady'd away, so I've decided that not only will I spend 15 minutes per day reducing paper clutter, I will spend 15 minutes per day 'sewing clutter' busting. I have already decided that I could use some of the cupboards that Bonnie uses for her fabric stash ... Hubby and I need to visit Ikea or something ...
Well, that's it from me ... have a great day everyone!