Tea time

I was wandering around in a new (For me) local shop and I found this amazing fabric!

I hadn't seen anything like it since about the year 2000, and here it was, just what I needed.  Teacup fabric for the applique quilt I started 2 years ago. (Secret Garden by Esther Aliu, my Alice in Wonderland version).



I had halted at the teapot block, because it just wasn't going to turn out how I had first envisioned. Especially, as it was a mystery quilt, and I needed to work out how I was going to use these massive applique blocks and turn them into something I liked.

Check out this teacup! Yeah! I am back baby!!!

Let's see what we can make from maybe 4 completed applique blocks.

Suddenly switching projects

I've stopped working on a few projects abruptly to commence Christmas In July!!

Another small (6 inch) block from The Goblin King is finished, and another 6 are traced ready to stitch in August.

And Toby is started, and almost finished. He reminds me of my own son... walking.. blonde.. blue eyes... doesn't say much (well, not in words we can understand)... looks cute in a stripey onesie, runs around like a garden gnome/playful goblin.

That's the end of the thread I had stockpiled in that colour. Time to go buy another swag of threads.

Secret Garden month 6 has been released. It's four intense centre applique blocks that require deadly accuracy as there are interlocking circles. In August it will be back to embellishing the first 3 blocks, appliqueing block 4, and machine piecing 40 x four inch blocks. Crikey! That should be a good warm up to the very specific centre blocks.

Stay tuned for Christmas in July projects!

Head down...

Only a couple more days left this month, and I am excited to do as much as I can on Diamond Hill, Secret Garden and the Goblin King quilts before July starts.

And when July starts, I will be just as excited to start a new challenge project, and to make Christmas gifts and Christmas themed items during the entire month. Ooh! What a great idea to insert a (hopefully) whole lot of finished items onto the annual list (see the sidebar on the right) in the middle of the year, instead of adding them all at the end. Hee hee.

Some people make gifts all year - one project a month, they call it. I think I've been making gifts all year anyway. Hahahahahhaha. Just really big ones, that aren't all finished yet!

Progress? Well, this is an English Paper Pieced block for a Diamond Hill corner.

It's the first one. And these are quite tiny. They will be appliqued onto a 4 inch finished square.

And this is the back.

A little bit more machine piecing... two out of four chequerboards are finished for the next border on Diamond Hill, which is mainly applique.

And another 36 little diamonds (not all pictured here) for the other two chequerboards.

Soon, the last scraps of purple will be used up, and that piecing will have to wait until I pick the rest of the background fabric from layby.

Secret Garden pieced blocks are being cut more accurately with freezer paper patterns ironed onto the contrast fabric, then rotary cut.



Today I pieced about 10 of them. Only 30 to go, then leaves to be added to each block. Next set of instructions (month 6) will be released in 3 days, and I am still working on month 4 and 5. A month off may be all I need to get really stuck into the blocks again in August.

And another block for The Goblin King stitchalong.



I love that line!!  As the quilt is a tribute to the Labyrinth movie I wanted to include any particular lines that come to mind from the character.

Right! Now it's time to stitch the next EPP flower or another stitchery block!

Head down, bum up... see you in a few days!

Sneaky stitches

It's so lovely to have my machine home...

Since I picked it up last Wednesday I've left Janome baby on the kitchen table and sneakily stitched (well... snuck a bit of stitching in at odd moments) up another 44 diamonds. Woohoo.

44 foundation pieced blocks to be trimmed

I MUST be half way by now...

Oi! What's this? Little man has been drawing on Mummy's sewing! Too bad I didn't see it until after I finished stitching the block. Such a little helper!

Ooh! He's a cheeky clogs! Dancing to "La Cucaracha" at the Mexican restaurant.

Mmm chipotle chicken and rice

And I tried out test blocks for Secret Garden part 5, some machine pieced blocks. I prefer the grey background with purple contrast cross.

Next for Secret Garden: make 40 blocks and applique leaves

I've realised that I need to cut the strips for the diagonals much more precisely, and pin to fit, to ensure the background is not stretching. Otherwise, if the lattice blocks are joined later in the quilt instructions (I don't know as it's a mystery), the seams will not match.

Ooh, a patworthy pile of fabric!

Maybe I'll get up to these next week!

Revisiting block 2 of Secret Garden

The evenings are pleasantly spent... including an hour or so each night, embellishing Secret Garden blocks I thought were already finished. Ha!

Once one starts embellishing, where does one stop?

There is a need to be careful ... because if too much embellishment occurs, there is a risk the quilt will be seen as "too precious" to use. And this quilt is for me! Ha!

The extra embroidery is making a big difference, especially when tying the different colours in a block all together.

And so, I hereby pronounce this block, finished. I even handwashed it to remove all of the green Artline fineliner.

Memo to self: make sure to adjust brightness when snapping photos of these blocks. With the darker background, the phone camera seems to automatically overexpose the photos.

And aren't the cameras in phones sensational? In the early blogging days we would take a photo on our digital cameras, then run it through various programs to reduce the pixels so the photos would load on screens around the world in a timely fashion.

A couple of days ago I made another 42 twinkly diamonds for Diamond Hill. That is enough to finish the centre when my machine comes back from it's big checkup. The next instructions are on Esther's blog for Diamond Hill part 6. The instructions are in 7 parts - we are almost finished the quilt top! At the moment it's a free pattern. But only for another month or so, then it will be available for purchase. Get onto it now if you think you might want to do it.

So... when my machine comes in, it will be time to finish the centre of Diamond Hill (part 5 finished). Then it will be time for me to start part 5 of Secret Garden, which is also mostly machine piecing.

Just have to keep going and going....

Have a great day everyone!

Creating away

What a busy week it has been!

So many ups and downs... so many projects going on... and transformation as moods and inclinations vary with turns in our lives... new priorities... new schedules.. so many changes to begin. Now.

And luckily, my quilting mojo is still here. Having worked through some kacky stuff this week, creating is still a happy place at the moment.

It's funny, when "stuff" happens, we need the comfort of our quilting, the soothing of the stitch, the caress of fresh cotton and prints... and yet, at those times, for some of us,  we cannot enjoy our sewing. I know I had a big break from regular stitching and blogging for a couple of years. You can see the number of finished projects on the side bar shrank drastically when I moved out of a house into a caravan.

Living in the moment, and enjoying my creating once again, I would like to share what I have been doing in the last week with 2 family birthdays.

The evolution of a princess fairy tale birthday cake for Miss 6.

5 cups of icing sugar and 250g of butter for the pink icing. Right there.

I only got these piping tools for Mother's Day. Perfect timing! Feeling so experimental!

all you need is the star piping tool... and a few hours!

After those easy looking cupcakes made last week with the purple star violets, I thought I'd just dive in!

swirly things on the ice cream cones - another 5 cups of icing sugar

silver cachous in the centre of each swirl, and sparkly dust on everything

a doorway, flowers, and princesses...

And more cupcakes for MIL's biggest morning tea party.

Then, for my sweetheart's birthday, there was a request for carrot and pecan cake.

Here it is topped in PLENTY of icing...

And "decorated" by the children. Hee Hee. 6yo and 7yo seem to think that decorating the cake is adding lollies....



As for stitching, I hope I can figure out when to Stop... but I am still embellishing Secret Garden block 3.


Haven't even finished laying down the fabrics for block 4 yet, and the new instructions will be out soon.



I am enjoying stitching. Wonderful! That makes everyone happy.

Love to you all.. xoxo

Hectic-icity

It's an incredibly busy week here, with my sweetheart's birthday, and our daughter turns 6, and it's MIL's Biggest Morning Tea this week as well.

Little bits of stitching are in order interspersed by huge bouts of baking. Haha! I love family life, despite its hecticicity. (I think I just made up that word, what a fun thing to say!)

A little bit of an Uh-Oh moment saw the start of embellishment on Secret Garden block 3.

adding the boingy bits out of the flower

Oh my! Will the embellishment ever end? It looks so, so good! I foresee returning to the original blocks also, to embellish and emphasise. It's going to be something that may need reigning in! We shall see.

outlining the petals

Miss almost 6 took a batch of mini chocolate cupcakes to school for her classmates (a few days early, as my way of reminding the children to ask their parents to RSVP). Vanilla icing, purple flowers, leave tip and some hologramatic sprinkles. Sooo pretty!!! After "nailing" these beginners cupcakes (guess who got cupcake decorating tips for Mother's Day??), my plans for her party cake on Saturday have escalated. Eek!

these look a bit like violets... perhaps lavender flavour next time?

Sweetheart had a big weekend at karate grading, and found himself slightly incapacitated for a few days. While he enjoyed down time, and couch time with Bub, I found myself free to machine stitch!

lots of papers to remove

Another 34 twinkles made in one day!

out of purple background fabric... back to the shop next week 

And on the next day, enough of them were joined to add two sides to each of the three remaining Diamond Hill applique blocks. These will be joined in a few days. It is crunch time in cake land here now.

These cupcakes are for MIL's Biggest Morning Tea on Saturday.

Master 7 added the ladybugs. Miss almost 6 added the silver cachous. Master 20 months dragged a chair over to the bench, stood on it, and ate 2 cupcakes while our backs were turned!!

Tomorrow I have Bub's swimming lessons, quilt show and tell coffee with a gf going overseas again on Tuesday, then grocery shopping, somehow bake 4 vanilla cakes for young Misses birthday cake design, and older children's swimming lessons! Eek! First cake will be in the oven before 8am.

Hope you are enjoying your week too!

Linking up to Esther's blog.

Lots to see

Somehow I've misplaced the stitchery blocks and hoop that were in a little "go bag" to take here and there. Maybe they blew out of the car door when it opened, or maybe a certain little toddler stashed it somewhere. No doubt it will turn up.

It is getting harder to keep things out of Master 19 months' reach... there is a little story that goes something like this... a clever toddler climbed up onto a chair to reach a box of mini cupcakes, and ate 3 of them really, really fast while Daddy was in the loo. Of course, then he didn't want to eat his dinner... and as if by magic, even with all that sugar in his system, he went to sleep 2 hours early! "That's a magic baby, going to sleep with all that sugar in him" said his 7yo older brother. Heehee. Too sweet. Littlest boy is a bit under the weather, and probably wouldn't have eaten his dinner anyway.

And here he is... helping Mummy to take photos of the four Diamond Hill blocks stitched so far.


Don't put your feet on Mummy's sewing please!



These are ready for basket fabric and pieced sashings when the next part of Esther's free pattern is released in a few days.

I had planned to buy another embroidery hoop at Sewcial group (I just made that up, hahahahha, what a strange word!), but they had none left in the size I wanted, and I didn't feel like paying $20 for a hoop that was the wrong size.


What to do? Of course, start the next Secret Garden block (even though I hadn't finished the embroidery embellishments on the 3rd one.....ooooooh).



A few leaves, and a teapot, which is my variation to Esther's pattern, keeping to the Wonderland theme.


Then I started the large flower last night. And today I've basted a few things together onto the background, ready for stitching at swimming tonight.

Time to relax and stitch.. soon I hope!

Linking up to Esther's Working on Wednesdays.

Progress is starting to show

And so it goes that Diamond Hill block 4 is complete! Hurrah!

applique stitched down - time to make basket fabric auditions

I finished stitching it yesterday for Slow Sunday Stitching. It's not really that slow, as there is not anywhere near as much stitching and preparation to do as there is on these Secret Garden blocks.

The next instructions for DH are issued in a week, and I am guessing that it will be cutting and machine piecing together the first four blocks to make the quilt centre.

All I have left to do is one little circle on block 2. I took it out the other night, but I thought I'd made it too small. When I went to remake it tonight, I couldn't see where I had put the fabric I wanted to use. Well then! Next task! It will turn up, or I will look again in daylight and see that the circle I appliqued is actually fine.

This morning I tried to print out block 4 of Secret Garden on my home printer. I bought an inkjet printer late last year, so it's fairly new. And I've already purchased all the inks again in the last month (over $100), and still the black ink won't work. That's it, I've googled and searched and read all the nonsense. For all the time and muddling around I could have bought a laser printer for printing black only, for about $59, and the toner is only about $60. It prints around 700 sheets. That turns out to be about 8 cents a page, plus the cost of the paper. So it's actually cheaper to go to Officeworks to print the pages out at 8 cents a page including paper. It's just the petrol to get there. In the end, it's probably cheaper to have a printer at home, and more convenient.

adapting Esther's pattern

For the moment, I will go to Officeworks every 2 weeks as Esther's new applique patterns are released, and when our spacious new home is built next year I will have plenty of room to maintain a laser printer.

This morning I printed out Secret Garden 4 at Officeworks, then enjoyed some sit down time working out how I am going to adapt the pattern to suit the Wonderland theme I've added to the previous three blocks.

adding Wonderland eccentricities

Lastly, this evening, I've prepared the last applique pieces (tiny circles) to stitch onto Secret Garden block 3. They should be stitched on tomorrow, no worries. Then there's the quote from Alice in Wonderland to stitch on (where has my redwork and embroidery hoop gone? I took it somewhere.. maybe it's under a car seat or down the back of the couch.. hmm... ) I think by Wednesday's social sewing class I will be up to preparing applique pieces for SG4, even if the quote isn't stitched on yet.

more more more

Diamond Hill block 4 is progressing. As well as preparing the pieces, I have also been stitching away.



Isn't it strange how our moods strike us? Sometimes we just want to stitch, sometimes we want to prepare away so that we can watch the block form in front of us.

When this block is finished, before I start to put the blocks together with month 5 instructions, I need to make the final choice of basket fabric. I think I have it, but I am not yet sure. I also need to buy more of the dark purple grunge background fabric for the applique part of the borders. In fact, I'll also need to buy other fabric for the twinkly pieced sections. When I see the instructions I will know how much to buy.

I received the pattern for block 4 of Esther's Secret Garden BOM, which is another flower vase/vessel containing a large bloom, rose buds and ivy leaves.  After a couple of days ruminating, and especially today in the fabric shop for my social class, I scouted out some fabric.

This batik will be used for the ivy leaves. Using fabric like this will give the block a feeling of movement and twinkle factor as they appear to move across the fabric.



This feathers fabric (top in dark blue) will be for the vase. I have already decided how I will change the block into Wonderland, and these fabrics add depth and also give a beautiful twinkle. I am happy to hug my secret to myself for now. Although, I know that as soon as I start it I won't be able to help myself but share my progress.

second fabric underneath is graduated, in real life these fabrics have so much depth they look velvety (Hummingbird)

I would love to start block 4 straight away, but I am not keen to have 2 blocks from Secret Garden unfinished (block 2 just needs its quote stitched on, and to be washed, and block 3 needs a little bit of applique stitching, embroidery embellishment and its quote stitched on also). My concern is that  I would keep starting the next block, then have lots half finished.

And so it comes that the last free pattern (I think) was released for the Goblin King stitchalong at Fandom in Stitches, and I've only done about 5 of the 18 stitcheries! Oh my goodness!! I was kind of hoping the last block would be big, and it would be David Bowie as the Goblin King, but that didn't happen. Anyway, I have the rest of the year to complete the quilt.

In the meantime, I will also keep collecting patterns from Buttermilk Basin for the free BOM blocks, because free patterns I like don't always come along.

Linking up with Esther's Working on Wednesday.

Just a few more days

I've been feeling really good about my progress as lots and lots of this block (Secret Garden block 3 with my own Wonderland modification) is now stitched down.

this section is all stitched down

I was working on it at sewing group today when I thought "Ooh! I might have this finished in two days". Then I saw that I still need to fix the stem I unpicked near the cat's head.

I wondered if I should put in another leaf near the stem (have now decided No, as the stem on the left side is kind of bare). Maybe I will put a smile on the tiger to make it look more like a Cheshire cat? (No, it's beautiful just as it is).

More stitching and fixing to do on this side

Then there is embroidery to do on the flowers. Ooh! And the little appliqued circles coming out of the protea-ish flowers.

And then I'd like to embroider a quote onto the background.

Leaves, flower, and pot to be stitched

Well, that sounds like more than two days work stitching. Hopefully I will be finished it by the 1st of May when the next block comes out.

If you haven't seen the wide variety of fabric and colour choices used by other quilters with these patterns, you can see them on (the designer) Esther's facebook group page.

I am totally loving the fabrics on this quilt. So much fun and variation. There is no chance to be bored with the stitching.

I am also pretty pleased with my goal setting, to try to keep up with the 2 heavily appliqued BOMs. I am a bit behind on the stitchery blocks, but I feel certain I will catch up and complete the quilt by the end of this year. Especially if I keep up with Diamond Hill until July when the last block is released.
After Diamond Hill is released, I am looking forward to making a softie of some kind. Perhaps a toy or decoration. I also know I'll have to make it along with a friend for motivation and encouragement. When this block is finished I'll have a rummage in my pattern stash.

Linking up with Esther's blog today for Working on Wednesdays.