Waiting

My little 3 year old friend is waiting for some dolls of her own after falling in love with the ones I made for myself a little while ago. I promised to make hers to match the colours of her bedroom. Pink, yellow and green. Now, this trio of dolls is patiently waiting for their eyes to be added and the finishing hand stitching to be completed before going to their new home.

I'm (not so) patiently waiting for Spring to arrive (for more than a day... harrumph) in my part of the world. We had more snow fall again overnight. Ack. Today the sun is shining and the snow is melting, but it's not looking like Spring here just yet. Waiting is hard work, good thing I have some sewing to help me. ;o)

Satisfaction

I'm over the moon with how my newest quilt top is looking.
See this sweet rosebud print alongside my favourite Sandi Henderson fabric? It's a German made fabric and it came from my friend, Suzie (thank you!). I love it.

The gorgeous fabrics of polka dots as well as the wee cherry print are also gifts (thanks, Amandajean!) and the inspiration behind this project.

The quilt top is complete after a satisfying weekend spent cutting and stitching. Now I need to get some batting (and figure out what fabric to use for the binding)!

There's still some work ahead, but for the moment I'm happy with my weekend sewing efforts. It almost cancels out the disappointment with our weather (winter seems to have returned... AGAIN...with more snow in this week's forecast).

I couldn't wait any longer...

to start making something with those pretty new fabrics I received last week. All my daydreaming about them meant that this was inevitable. ;o) I'm starting on a new quilt in a familiar colour combination for me. It does seem that I just can't stop putting reds and blue together.

I know, I know. I already have 2 other quilts currently on the go (here and here). The more the merrier? ;o)

Any guesses as to what I want to be doing this weekend?

Done!

My place mats and tablerunner made from scraps, ready for action on the antique dining table we use.

I have 4 placemats, but I couldn't seem to squeeze it all into the photo to show you. (Mostly because I was trying to spare you the scene of a mish-mash display of packed belongings which surround the table and form a rather unsightly backdrop. I just wanted you to see the quilted goodness on the table ;o).

Look close at this shot of the table runner and you may see that at the middle point of it, the heart quilting looks upside down. I point that out to you, because it was intentional. My idea to do it that way was so that from either end of the table the hearts closest to you are right-side up. Make sense? Maybe not, but there it is. ;o) All that red fabric and those hearts make me happy.

Two done, two to go

on my scrappy red patchwork project! I'll have 4 place mats and a table runner when I'm finished. Here's one of my finished place mats:

These are the two place mats that I have to finish hand stitching the binding on.

I had fun with the quilting on this project. The random sized heart pattern I stitched seems to give a whimsical feel to the project, which I really like. My freehand machine quilting is somewhat easier to see on the back of the place mats, although I must say that red is one of the more challenging colours to try and capture in a photo.

Savouring the good...

exactly describes how I've spent my week after receiving these beauties as a surprise from a friend.

"Savouring" fabric is one of my specialities. ;o) These yummy fabrics are on display in my sewing area just so I can savour them by bestowing admiring glances on them throughout the day. This often leads to mental vacations of creativity. I mean, how can you look at this fabric and not end up being inspired?

It may be winter outdoors, but I've got green indoors!

I've started stitching my scrappy green quilt top! I'm just making up the layout as I go along. This is the first quilt I've made in such a manner and I'm having a lot of fun. So much fun that I really want to ignore everything else in my life for the moment and simply work on this quilt.

Paying it Forward Thank you...

This is my PIF gift from Susan. Can I tell you how exciting it was to unwrap what she sent and not only find handmade goodness - but the lovely dishclothes knit in colours to match my apron set!

Look closely at the next photo. Can you see the beautiful butterfly design she knit into this dishcloth?

Thank you, Susan. Your beautiful gifts and thoughtful words make me so thankful for all the support, encouragement and friendship my life has been so blessed with.

March... of the Penguins?

It would seem that Mother Nature has a sense of humour that is a bit beyond me. Just a couple of posts ago, I had pictures of sunshine outside these windows. Now look at the current scene...

I'm thinking I should've sewn penguins instead of bluebirds to display here with this backdrop! LOL

Here's the view from our second story looking at the huge pine in the backyard. Oh, and that isn't "decorator" frost on the window panes. It's the real thing. Can you say, "Brrrrrrrr...."?

Here's the window above the kitchen sink. If I want to know how cold it is all I have to do is look at the frostline on this window. I've gotten pretty good at telling the temperatures this winter using this as my guideline. Today's reading: it's colder than -15 Celsius outside (in case you were wondering). ;o)

This mostly frost coated window is in the second story bathroom. Another layer will be added after my shower loving teenager performs his daily ritual. You could call this homemade privacy glass. teehee

Now, I ask you, does this look like Spring weather? I think March is confused about what season it's supposed to be leaving behind. sigh. I should have held off on sewing those bluebirds, I guess. ;o)

Getting with it

Here's what happens when you put your headphones on to listen to an audio book while you sit at your sewing machine and have a box full of selvedges to work with!

Sunshine and bluebirds

seem to go together in my mind. Nature has supplied my day with the sunshine, but I had to provide the bluebirds. ;o)

Our old house, Edith, did come with birds of her own. Pigeons.

Those birds aren't so popular with us as they continually manage to make a lovely mess on the walkway to our front door.

They haven't taken our hints to move on. I guess to them, we're the interlopers. Afterall, Edith was their house before we moved in.

***Just to clarify, the pigeons have not and do not live inside Edith. They lay claim to a ledge above a jutting window frame on the second story.***

If only they were quiet and tidy birds like these bluebirds. ;o)

Scrap Jackpot!

Look what arrived on my doorstep from my friend, Jacqueline...

a box chock full of the best scraps! Thanks, Jacqueline!!!

I have combed through every snippet and now have them semi-organized. All the selvedge bits are together in their own container, while the other pieces have been sorted as well. Yipee!

More Green

I'm still piecing blocks from my green scraps. Pretty easy to do when I still have some strips left from a log cabin quilt I made awhile ago.

These are my latest green blocks which I'll add to the ones I showed you on Monday. Lucky for me, I also have lots of white strips left from other projects to use as the background on this project.

My blocks are purposely different sizes because I didn't want to waste fabric by cutting anything down and I wanted to challenge myself with how I would make all these blocks work in one quilt top. I can't wait to get the block layout figured out!

Doll Swap

A little while back I posted about the Matroyoshka doll sewing spree I was on. That post prompted a request from Suzie wondering if I'd be interested in a doll swap. Boy, am I glad I said "Yes!" Look what I received...

two beautiful dolls made by Suzie's talented hands and even more treats! Ladybugs (chocolates - extra special because they mean 'good luck'), a delicious herbal tea, more lovely chocolates and some beautiful fabric and a sweet card... all the way from Germany. Wow. Thank you very much Suzie!

I'm not a scrap greenhorn...

as many of my previously posted projects will attest to. So, you can imagine my delight over getting signed up with other bloggers in 'Nothing But Scraps' over at Twiddletails. .

I was thinking of just making a simple table runner but now I'm toying with making a quilt. A green scrap quilt. I feel like I'm taking a leap of faith with this because green is not a colour I've worked with on its own. It's time to change that. Go green! Go!

Transform your tin

This is the tin I decided to transform with a new covering...

using felted sweaters and some simple embroidery stitches

to make it into a prettier place to keep my buttons!