Winter Wonders

Well Winter is certainly in full swing here in the Southern Hemisphere.  We've been pretty lucky in that the last week or so has been brilliant blue skies.  Unfortunately the beautiful skies have been accompanied by some of the coldest weather we've had all year!  There has been gale force winds throughout most of our state and the wind chill really does make a difference to the temperatures.  I do love the blue days (a cold, bright blue day is one of my favourite kinds of days) but everyone can do with some cheering up - so here are the things putting a smile on my face at the moment.

We had some friends over for dinner on Friday night - it was a lovely night of food, wine and company - and they gifted us some beautiful Sunflowers.  We've positioned them so that as you walk down the hallway, I smile each time I see them :) 

Despite the cold weather we've had my plants are continuing to grow.  I've got mint, parsley, rosemary and thyme.

They are all still growing really well, the parsley in particular.  The last two months I've taken bundles of parsley to quilting to share around because we can't possibly eat it all!

I don't do a lot of knitting, but at the moment I'm working on a gift for a friend.  For a number of years I've given her a hand knitted scarf for her birthday, and she seems to love them, so I'm working on one for this year.  I just finished a ball of wool and I think I'm just past half the length I'll need - so I'll be done soon!

I thought I'd leave you this shot of Sir Pinkying and I.  You know that winter is here when you have to snuggle under quilts even with the heater on!!

W.I.P Wednesday

Lee over at Freshly Pieced does "W.I.P. Wednesday" which is going to give me a chance to list my current WIPs. Some of them you are already familiar with - but this is a more comprehensive list - all in one post - this could be a long one!

1) Hand sewing
Up first - Candied Hexagons - English Paper Pieced - 15 or so blocks to go, then insets and borders.  Feeling not at all guilty about this one!

 Celtic Applique - all scroll work basted down, but in need of being appliqued into place.  This is something that I tend to go back to when I'm looking for some hand work that is a little different to the hexagons!

 2) Piecework
Odd Fellows March blocks - all fabric cut for this quilt, including borders.  I haven't worked on them for a long time though and should probably get back to them!

 Asian Circles - I've done all the cutting for these and have a vague tickling of an idea of how I want to lay them out but need to find time to sit and sketch it out.  Sewed a few more of these blocks over the weekend and will hopefully get the the blocks finished this weekend.

 3) Completed tops
Urban Couture - this top actually doesn't have a name yet.  I've been calling it "Urban Couture" just because that is what the fabric is called... I would like to use this for free motion practice - but just not sure how to quilt it.

The "Sultry" quilt - another top with no name - other than it's fabric name!  I want to free motion this too, and I have a kind of swirly flower design in mind - but just can't figure out how to get from one flower to another. 

Placemats - these are going quite well - all the binding is made for them, and I've machined it on to 3 of 8 placemats.  I'm hoping to get the machining of the binding finished off this weekend.

I also have two other tops that are in need of quilting - both have actually been basted but I haven't been game to get started! 

Now that I look at the list, it really does seem that perhaps it is the lack of maching quilting experience that is holding me back.  I'm hoping to go to a free motion class later this year, so hopefully that will help!!

Work(s) in progress

I thought I would give you all a quick update on some of the many projects that are in progress here.

First up - what does 89 English Paper pieced blocks look like?? A little something like this!

 I've been really enjoying watching this pile grow, especially as I've never hand sewn a whole quilt before, so there is a real sense of accomplishment with this one.  I'm also quite happy that this project hasn't gotten sidelined by other projects!!

So here is a little look at all the blocks laid out.  I needed to lay them all out so that I could figure out what I need to do for the remainng blocks.  I'm quite happy with how this is coming together, the colours are working quite well, and I only have about 15 blocks to go before I can start stitching them all together!  I'm really glad that I did lay them out, I've actually made one change to the positionings since this photo was taken, there are two blocks that are nearly identical quite close to each other... so I moved one!  Can you spot it??

My second update is on the placemats that have been in progress for a while.  They're all quilted, and late the other night I made 480 inches of binding (yes, that's right 480!!) and started sewing the bindings on.  I've done about half of them and then I'll have to stitch them to the back.  It's going to take me time but I'm getting there!