Easter Sunday Stash

Our first sunflower in the vegie patch - quite by accident

It will be a quick one today. We have family staying and plan to have a huge bonfire and an Easter Egg hunt.

I don't have any Easter fabric but I thought I would show you something 'Spring-ish' even though it is Autumn here in Australia.

'Sunflowers' A VIP Print for Cranston Print Works Co.

'Flowery' by Loralie Harris for Loralie Designs

Feel free to link up below with your Easter haul...

March 2013 Round Up

It's been a month for runners.

I finally finished my double sided Tall Boy runner and I retro-fitted my Dresser runner to be double sided.

I managed 2 out of the 3 blocks for the month of March.

New to Me - Raising Seeds

Books

You can read my review of this book at Goodreads.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Without my online Wombat Stew Book Club I would NEVER have bought a copy of this book. The blurb on the back would have warned me away for sure. I must admit that I really struggled to read it from the first realisation that missing speech marks, first person narrative and little back grounding of the situation was part of the style.

What was it that irked me so much about it as I persevered into the middle of the book? Possibly the fact that Offred seemed to accept her plight without challenging the system she was oppressed by. I like my heroines to have a strong will and a plan. Offred had none. She was at the mercy of her circumstance. I wanted to reach into the pages and give her a good slap.

I have to say that I could not predict where the narrative was going even after some back grounding was revealed in later chapters. That was a good thing. I did not predict the ending either. And the surprise historical note at the end saved the book for me.

Overall I am glad that I read this book. Totally out of my comfort zone but very thought provoking. And for a book penned back in the 80s there we some surprising parallels to real historical events since.

View all my reviews

A Spool Can't be Spooled Again

A few things have gone missing around here lately. 

• One of my daughter's school tunics, (found in her dress up box- Phew!)
• My wedding and engagement rings (I know that I put them in a safe place when my finger started to swell up but I can't remember where), (found in my glasses case in my drawer and now on their way to Sydney to be cleaned and back-filled behind the diamonds to prevent dermatitis).
• The Tooth Fairy who has not replaced Tristan's two front teeth with any coins.
• And little visiting fingers have unravelled my bobbin and my Aurifil spool these past two weekends. Now the small thread holder is missing. Lucky I have two large spare ones.

Anyway the good news is, that after many hours of finicky piecing, I have finished block three in the 'And Sew On' Block of the Month two days before March ends!

Kristy's patterns come together so easily. She will be releasing the April block anyday on her Etsy store. It will be FREE for the month of April only. I hear it goes 'snip, snip'. 

Here are my three blocks so far...

Linking up late to TGIFF.

A Bit of a Slump

I've hit a bit of a wall this past week not knowing what project to do. I feel a bit lost finding a design for the Dr Seuss 'Cat in the Hat' and 'Lorax' panels that I bought more than a year ago. I know that my boys are growing fast and will probably NOT want these as quilts very soon so the time frame is short to get them done.

I have been trawling through Pinterest for inspiration and I found a couple of really clever layouts for the panels but am still undecided on how I should proceed.

And it's Easter THIS weekend so I 'd better hop to and get my two remaining blocks done before my sister and brother-in-law and my two nephews come to stay for 4 days.

This Week's  Sewing  Stats

Completed projects  -  Tall Boy Runner

Currently in progress -   Lorax Quilt

                                                                                           

Yet to start  -  'Spooling Around' paper pieced block

                          'Sew Mid Century' paper pieced block for Wombat Stew

                          

                           

  

Linking up to WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Sunday Stash #56

Peppermint Stitches is a sweet fabric store just off Milton Rd in Toowong Brisbane.  It is owned by young Stacey and she blogs here. She stocks a LOT of Moda fabrics and you can find both new and out-of-print fabrics which you can order online too.

After my appointment with the hand specialist in Brisbane two week's ago my mum and I popped in for some eye-candy. (That's my mum in the front window).

So much stock that it was spilling out of the three rooms and into the cutting area.

Some Dear Jane

Text prints

Sweetwater

French General

Simply Colour

From the bargain box I found this for half price...

Pineapple Brigade by Heather Bailey

So 2.5m to make me a nice dress for next summer.

Thank you to Gemma from Pretty Bobbins for hosting Sunday Stash last week. We had a couple of new folks in the 8 link ups. And thank you to the 7 folks who have signed up to host Sunday Stash later in 2013/early 2014.


 Have you got a great Local Quilt Store? Some new fabrics? Patterns? Books?

Feel free to link up below.

Raise a Little Seed

Equipment

Assistant

Holes

Soak

Seeds

Seed Raising Mix

Plant

Water

House in bottom tray

Watch

Linking up with Down Home Blog Hop at Tilly's Nest

Tall Boy Runner

The Tall Boy Runner is complete and now in use.

Because it is now Autumn in Australia, this Astor Manor side is on display.

Both Dresser and Tall Boy Runners together

The mornings are growing cooler. This weekend I am planning to pull our Astor Manor bed quilt out of vacuum sealed storage in our closet. 

'Hope' side

Usually our back deck resembles Jurassic Park or parts of the Galapagos. The water dragons like to sunbake here. This is one of larger ones. There are lots of younger ones. Tiddler and Piddler are tiny water dragons that like to cross over to my sewing room window and scale the bricks to eat the bugs attracted by the lights at night. They seem not afraid but are very fast and hard to photograph because of their lightning movements.

The wonderful Galapagos documentary by David Attenborough is playing on ABC at the moment and the cinematography and commentary is fascinating. There are some uniquely adapted creatures featured. 

I am so grateful to Sir David for his tireless years of service bringing us the wonders of nature with such passion and education.  I read his autobiography many years ago and my gratitude and admiration only increased.

My kids and I are starting to sit down and watch these documentaries together. Are there any shows that you like to watch as a family?


Linking up with TGIFF.

Almost Enough

I started quilting the Tall Boy Runner last night. I trimmed.

Then I had some original binding left over from the Astor Manor quilt. Score!

Darn!

Modern Sliced Scrappy Block

This block design comes from Elizabeth at Don't Call Me Betsy.

Resewing the Scraps

So a week ago the tall boy runner improv back looked like this:

And now it looks like this:

I was not happy with where the WiP was going and so I did some unpicking of what I had done and some other leftovers. A bit of flipping and turning and I am much happier.

The Front and the Back....

I know that the seams do not match up but they are near enough for me not to worry. I have basted and then will get to work quilting these two to make it double sided.

This Week's  Sewing  Stats

Completed projects  -  Tall Boy Runner (back)

                                         'Sliced Scrappy' block for QCA Bee #1

Currently in progress -  Tall Boy Runner (quilting and binding)

                                                                                           

Yet to start  -  'Spooling Around' paper pieced block

                          'Sew Mid Century' paper pieced block for Wombat Stew

                          Lorax Quilt

                           

  

Linking up to WiP Wednesday...