Secret stitching

If you have a 'significant' birthday this Thursday, look away now! That means you, Happy in Quilting! Hopefully, more will be revealed later in the week ... just don't know if I've got enough fabric in my stash to finish it - ha de ha, ha, ha!

Fabric, food & too much fun!

Had the lovely company of the Club Quilt girls at my place for the day yesterday. They are all such good fun. Had a fantastic day. The photo is blurred, but reflects the flurry of activity! These women do not dillydally. They are talented & proficient quilters & churn out projects quickly & beautifully! Didn't get many photos so head on over to our club blog to see what everyone got up to.

But I don't know what you're talking about, Ms Bloom!

Fiddling with felt today. I need to come up with a simple Christmas craft for some 11 and 12 year old boys and girls for tomorrow. My guess is that they may not ever have used a needle & thread, and I know for sure I've not tried to teach embroidery to such an audience, so it will be an education all-round! Wish me luck!

Quilt-a-long progress

Here is second of Mum's quilt-a-long blocks. She's loving it. Mondays won't be the same for the next few weeks as she waits anxiously, sewing fingers at the ready, for the next set of instructions. It is not too late to join the quilt-a-long. This is only week 2 of 12. Pop over to Crazy Mom Quilts to join the fun.

Lovely liliums

I have grown liliums for the first time this year. I always thought that flowers this beautiful must be terribly difficult to grow. Well, I'm here to tell you they are a cinch! Stick the bulbs in a pot, water them & look at the reward! This is a very old photograph (probably almost as old as me!) of a lilium my Dad grew. I remember him pointing this photo out to me in our family album many times as I was growing up; "Look, I grew that"! We lost my Dad to bowel cancer in February this year, and I find myself planting things in my garden that remind me of him. And so here are my first liliums. "Look Dad, I grew that"!

Now there's an idea

I will never lose embroidery floss in the middle of a project ever again! Keep your floss colours for your latest stitchery on a binder ring. Inspiration from here.

'Faux piped' handles

I suggested in this post that I would do a tutorial for 'my favourite handles'. Well, here it is. Please ask questions if I am less than succinct in my instructions!Choose two fabrics for your handles. The contrast fabric will be the one that appears to 'pipe' the edge of the handle. Cut one 1.5" wide strip of main fabric, one 2" wide strip of contrast fabric and one 2" wide strip on iron-on pellon. The length of these strips should be your required handle length. For a small bag, I cut them about 16" long.
Fuse iron-on pellon to 2" wide strip of contrast fabric.
With right sides together, stitch the main fabric piece to the contrast fabric piece with a 1/4" seam, down one long side.
Stitch the other long side of the handle with 1/4" seam. This seam is a little more difficult as the handle doesn't sit flat. The wider contrast fabric tends to curl up a little to the left of the foot. You may need to pin the handle at intervals to assist in sewing this seam. Persevere at this point - all will be OK!
Turn handle (I have a really nifty way of doing this easily, which I will attempt to post about soon). Press handle carefully. You should have a nice narrow contrast strip on each edge of the upper side of the handle.
Top stitch either side of handle, just outside each seam, using a cotton matching the contrast fabric. I use a #10 edge stitch foot on my Bernina as it runs nicely along the seam & gives a neat 'in the ditch' line.
So hopefully, you now have before you a robust but sweet handle that looks for all money like it has narrow piping down either side. Let me know if it works for you! Best wishes, Bloom.

Mother to the rescue … again

What to do, when Crazy Mom Quilts comes up with the enticing idea of a 'quilt-a-long' and I have too many projects on the go to participate? Ring Mum of course & talk her into doing it instead! (She didn't take very much convincing!) Here is her first block.My mum has taught me everything I know about sewing. She has done the most meticulous stitching in her time. Tiny, perfect stitches.This d’oyley would have been stitched when she was in her early twenties. It is difficult to communicate the fineness of her work in a photograph. ‘Big’ day today – 2nd cricket test between Australia & Sri Lanka is on the radio, and I’m trying to get all my jobs done before the World Netball Championship semi final between Australia & England on TV this afternoon.

A mother's protection

I couldn't work out why I was getting dive-bombed by this everytime I walked out the front door: Here is why: Baby willy wagtails in the lilly pilly pot plant (say that 10 times quickly!).

Harvesting at last

Harvest started here today. We only have a tiny farm by Australian standards, and our main income is off-farm, but we planted our whole place down to wheat & barley this year. The crops are terrible because of the drought, but we at least have something to harvest. Many families have no harvest at all. This is taken from our front verandah this morning. Gotta love a nice, big, new header with a wide comb when there is rain coming!