A meagre offering!

So little time for stitching right now, but I sneak a few stitches on this every now and then:

The pattern is 'Baby Love' by Anni Downs of Hatched & Patched.

A little fabric love

I have been enjoying Sew Mama Sew's wonderful tutorial links all through November - such a treasure trove of ideas. For each day of November, they ran giveaways, & I was the very thankful recipient of a $20 voucher at their shop. Ooooh, what fun, and a special treat considering the bottom has fallen out of the Australian dollar. I've not bought fabric from the States for ages.

  Here is my little, summer-y stash of 1/4 yard cuts. Lots of Heather Bailey (Pop Garden & Bijou), a couple of Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom, a little Park Slope by Erin McMorris and one beautiful Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabric.

Special treats indeed - I can't find any of these fabrics locally.

The sous-chef is home on school holidays!

FUNKY MORNING TEAS RULE!

Jan, the Rose Genius!

You may remember from a few posts ago that I put out a request for anyone to identify this lovely rose:

No sooner was the challenge issued, than I received a lovely email from Jan, complete with beautiful photos of her own garden:

Jan has identified my beautiful unknown rose as 'Albertine', a stunning, large climber, bred in France in 1921. She says it is a real show-stopper, with passers-by always asking her about it. No wonder - what a beautiful archway!

Thank you so much Jan for your help. 'Albertine' will certainly be finding a place in my garden. Jan does not, as yet, have a blog, but I am sure she would have wonderful things to share with all mad-gardener bloggers if these photos of her garden are anything to go by!

Another deadline met ...

... with only minutes to spare!

Teacher gift completed & delivered.

More pictures on this post from last year as I made them exactly the same - and I had no spare time to take photos!

Rainbow-making?

Sewing to a deadline ... again!! Last day of school for us today, so busily stitching up a teacher present, hopefully to be finished by the end of school! I am making the same gift as I did last year, as they were so well received & something different to the usual coffee cups or chocolates.

Pulling up stumps

Mum & I have been called back to the farm tomorrow for what remains of the wheat harvest after some very wet & damaging weather. So no more stitching for a bit. This is how far the 'Seeds of Love' quilt has come today (after the unpicking of the last post!): There is a little 1/4 inch blue peeper around the centre block, a la Peg at Happy in Quilting.  There are more borders to be added yet, and lots of machine blanket stitching around those tiny applique pieces. But it is a whole lot further ahead than this morning! 

Whoopsy!

Hmmm, and she hasn't even had a glass of wine tonight yet!

'Seeds of Love' progress

Mum pulled rank and insisted we go for lunch, which turned into some clothes shopping, culminating in my being booked in the underground carpark for not parking wholly between the lines - grrrrr! Would have been so much less expensive to stay home & sew. This is the state of the quilt so far: I am trying to get Mum back on task now that we're home again, but she is off playing pairs with her grandaughter just at the moment! I will keep nagging her.

Mum is stitching away ...

Thank you for the lovely comments on my last post. Mum is very encouraged as the emails come in & is hard at work. She is working on a small quilt called 'Seeds of Love' which we bought from Weigela Design, who knows how long ago! (Weigela Design does not have a website, but I have posted photos previously, here, here, here and here). The quilt has a gorgeous heart-shaped centre panel, which Mum has finished embroidering. We are just adding the appliqued pieces this morning:

It is a very sweet design. Hope to be back soon with more progress, although her concentration is wavering a bit, & she is talking about going out for lunch! Focus Mum, focus!!