19 May 2016

It feels good to be Sewing ...

Month 4 of Sarah Fielke's BOM pattern arrived while I was in the chaos of moving everything upstairs, it wasn't until today that I decided to work on it. I pulled my project box out and was ready to go in 5 minutes - I love having project boxes - Hurray for being super organised!!

I got everything out as I wasn't sure where I was with this quilt...

I have finished the blocks for months 1 and 2


 I have almost finished appliquéing the bird block from month 3
 The heart appliqué block is prepped
I have sewn down a couple of the wreath filler blocks
 and prepped the rest


 Some of the star filler blocks have been pieced


and the fabrics cut out for the remainder
 I am still in love with these Liberty fabrics, I bought a few more small pieces while I was up in town a few weeks ago
 I used some of them in the appliqué block for month 4 (I have since added a couple of orange circles to this block)
 I also prepared this month's Hawaiian appliqué block, you can't see from the photo but the design is drawn on the block in silver pen, you can see 1/4 of the pattern from the template; you cut away the appliqué fabric as you come to stitch it, it is all thread basted in place so hopefully will be easy enough to stitch down :)

 I have laid out the pieces for the star block - I really need to make myself a bigger design board!
I am really enjoying working in my new space, I hope to keep up with the prep for this quilt, so I will have plenty to sew by hand when my family visit this summer.

12 May 2016

Thatches Garden

I love being able to pick a jug full of flowers from the garden, I hope to be able to continue each week throughout the summer. Today we have the last of the bluebells, some blackberry blossom, periwinkle, white bleeding heart and some lilac - I was really excited to see the lilac flowers emerge last week, this is the first time it has flowered since I planted it four years ago.





09 May 2016

The Big Move...

I have finally (sort of) finished moving everything from my small sewing space into my son's old bedroom. I still have a pile of sell/donate/bin items to go through but I can see the light! My old space was so small and it was very difficult to keep tidy.


 I didn't have a lot of room for visitors!
I have kept the wire baskets as I really love them for storing fabrics, however I have sold/donated all the various boxes/baskets etc on top as it was so easy to just pile things up; I seemed to spend more time looking for things than sewing :( I really love these plastic boxes, I have all of my thread stash in these and rulers, templates etc - I can see what's in them and they stack neatly
I have my slate frames etc in this basket which I think looks quite tidy
However I am not sure what to do with my hoops, they were hanging on the wall, but I am not sure I want to put anything on the walls - any ideas for storing embroidery/quilting hoops?

I have my sewing machine table in front of the window
If I am bored I can look out ...
down the garden to the river
I have another desk that I can use, for cutting etc behind me. My old sewing space will have a daybed in it and my bookcase. I have arranged it so that all of my stash is upstairs. The bookcase has project boxes and my growing collection of embroidery and knitting books. It is easy to take a project box upstairs if I want to work on something. I still need to assemble the bed and make curtains, but hopefully this room will now be a nice place to read and double as a spare room for visiting relatives.
My quilting books are still in their own bookcase in the office/library, if I ever finish all my wips there will be room for them in here too!!
It does feel like I am taking over the whole house! I will see how practical this arrangement is, I have yet to sew anything, the weather has been so nice that when I haven't been busy arranging rooms, I have been reading under the willow tree down by the river. It is our favourite place :)