A sneak peak...

...at what is heading to the post office shortly.

The Bend the Rules Sewing Swap deadline is today - thankfully I will scrape in with an hour or so to spare (before the post office shuts for the day!).

Sunday Stash...on a Monday...again...

I just picked up these fabrics today from Darn Tootin' in Glenhuntly (Victoria). They are all from the Lecien, most from the My Folklore range, and were all priced at $7.50 per metre.

Thanks to Tamara for hosting. Check out her list of stashers, too!

Goodness, it has been 3 weeks since my last post! Part of that was just slackness on my part, and the rest I blame on my incredibly incompetent internet service provider, who stuffed me around for a total of 8 days (no phone, no internet).

Thankfully my service has been restored, so back to blogging. Instead of giving you a blow-by-blow rundown of what I've been doing, I have included some pics instead!

Wedding Quilt complete

Rolled up and ready to gift

Mod Sampler Quilt-along (my progress so far)

Etsy custom order

Pinwhale cord dress for a new baby girl

Closer shot of the embroidery

The embroidery on the little dress was taken from this book. The design is called "wild bunch", and I just used three colours from my stash for the flowers.

My progress on the quilt-along has been so slow - waiting for fabric to arrive from the US, then popping over to the Amitie sale for some extras (which of course lead to a whole re-thinking of my colour scheme). After all that, I realised how much cutting was involved! I have chopped up all of my dominant pieces (all spots), and am halfway through cutting the prints.

Elizabeth at Oh fransson! has been so thorough with her guidance for this quilt-along. Her posts are such a wonderful resource that it is well worth a look if you haven't already checked it out.

Grandma's Fancywork

I had a phone call from Grandma last week, asking if I would like her unfinished fancywork (her word) and floss. "Hell yeah!" I said (in my head - I don't actually speak to Grandma like that!).

A brown paper package (tied up with sticky tape, not string) arrived on my doorstep today (why don't the posties ring the doorbell when they drop them off?). It was filled with an abundance of embroidery floss (conveniently bundled into groups), two unfinished pieces of Grandma's fancywork, and some other random notions.
Unfortunately, Grandma's eyes don't see well enough to finish off these pieces. One is nearly finished, so I might try to get it done before her birthday next month and post it back to her. It will likely involve a little lacy crochet work, so we'll see how I go. It'd be nice, though.

Question - can I iron straight onto the fancywork? Or should I press it under a cloth? I assume that when finished I would iron straight onto it...

Wedding Quilt

I think I work much better with a firm, self-imposed deadline. Of course, most of the work still gets done a only few days before the deadline.

This is what my sewing table currently looks like. I'm madly trying to finish a quilt destined to be a wedding gift for a friend. Her first wedding anniversary is on March 8th, but she and her man will be in Geelong celebrating another friend's wedding, so I told them I'd present it to them on Friday afternoon before they head off.

It's made up mostly in linen and linen blends, with a patchwork of some favourite Lara Cameron prints. It's larger than I expected (190cm by 210cm), it fits so nicely on my queen sized bed.

I've been reading up on free motion quilting of late, and had my first practice tonight. I enjoyed it so much that I thought I'd do just a little on this quilt, around the green border. 
I'm debating now whether I should keep sewing or not, but just looking at the computer monitor makes me want to close my eyes and sleep, so I think I'll take the hint!

Oh, before I forget! Once I bundle this quilt off to my friends, I'll be joining Elizabeth from Oh, Fransson! in her quilt-along. She's doing it over 4 weeks, I believe, which may be a little fast for me, but I'll try to keep up. Shall I see you all there?

Sunday Stash - ballooning

I've been a terribly slack stasher so far this year. Hopefully this will make up for it!

This is a vintage pillowcase I picked up a couple of weeks ago from an Op Shop in Clayton (Vic). I have no plans for it yet, but I'm sure something will come up. Your suggestions are welcome!

Thanks to Tamara for continuing to host - go to her blog if you'd like to join in, or just to have a nosy at what people have in their stash (worth the look!).