One flower, JUST one flower?

So I did it, I contacted my local guild. I am going along this coming Saturday to meet them all. I am so looking forward to it. The lady I conversed with via email was super helpful and said that most ladies will bring some hand stitching or some knitting along.

With that in mind I couldn't help but notice the masses of hexie flowers around, every second blog I look at is taunting me with them, yes taunting. I have always had a love for these. I did attempt to make them years ago, but alas my accuracy back then was less than lax and they were horrible to sew and horrible to look at and I haven't tried one since... well until now. Of course hexies would make a GREAT carry along stitching project to my guild meetings. Heres the thing though, do I want to commit to it? I cut the templates from paper by hand, then the fabric and did it the old fashion way and honestly while the flower was so quick, the prep was tediously annoying , must plumb the depths of the web looking for better (read faster options)

So as I sat there with my almost finished flower I hesitated before putting that last petal on. once that petal is done I will know... am I making a hexie flower or a hexie quilt? I am pretty sure it is a quilt :D I might have to spend some time cutting out and building a stash of the papers and consider how I can make the basting go quicker (if ever you have contemplated commenting, now is it baby! HELP).


I think the key here is to not stress it. I dont plan on having it done this week or year, I am entering into this knowing it is going to be a 'when I feel like it' long term project. If I never get it done, although that isnt my aim!, I have something to hand my daughter.


So there we go, a long term hand pieced quilt commitment by me, the queen on the instant gratification and believer that EVERYTHING can be machine stitched!

In other news I have a little lap quilt that I should have finished in the next few days to share and I have a few (8) 36 patch blocks to share too.....

its 50/50 so I am joining the world of quilting (more).

I have been quilting now for what what will be half my life this year, yep from here on in, in my life I have been a quilter more that I have not... I quite like that. Seems appropriate that I should do something I have not done before, so I am joining a my local guild, and participating in a quilt-a-long.

The Guild part I havent done yet, so I will talk about that when 1 have.

The quilt-a-long, I have. have a look over here at Crazy Mum Quilts this is where Amanda Jean is hosting this great quilt-a-long.

This is going to be a great project for me for several reasons; it works so well with the fabric I received from Lyn at Blue Bird quilts which I have been BUSTING to use, and it is a nice simple block and I tend to get a little to caught up in making complex things at times.

It is a 36 patch and I will be making it with a combination of a cream and other fabrics, some from the fabrics I received from Lyn, some from my stash, some from my nanna's stash (oops) and then I might have to shop for the rest (OOPS).

So I got started today, I hope to make 6-10 blocks per week, probably closer to the 6 :P and I hope to make this big enough for our Queen bed, because despite being a quilter for half my life!! I tend to make quilts for everyone but me, and my bed has never worn a quilt WOW.


So this is my start, I sew mine the full 6 fabric across. I have used three fabrics other than the cream here and will be making 2 from each colour. I hope to cross cut these strips and sew the block tomorrow... maybe :D


Quality control around these parts are very stringent, but I passed, just.....

When 2 chickens are no longer enough

Well you see our 2 chickens are slowing down wit their laying, so many suggested that we "put them in the pot". Clearly we will never make it as any sort of farmer, we just couldn't do it, so we had to upscale. Our 'crappy corner', you know... that spot in the back corner of your garden that has the compost bin, the loose pavers etc... That area that is never going to grow grass or look pretty.... well ours is now a chook yard. they don't care about the compost bin, the pavers work great to 'dig proof' the bottom of the fence. So now our 2 old Isabrowns can retire there, we can bring in a couple of new younguns and keep the cycle going as apparently this yard can hold about 10 chooks if needed. No head chopping required.

Now the irony of this is, that once we put our old chooks who hadnt laid in months, into their new bigger yard, they were so happy they started laying again..... so we will just go with the chooky flow with that one.

It isnt quite finished in this pic. the timber on the right of the pic still had to go up and after the worst of winter is over we are going to plant some berries along the exposed side to screen it off a bit. Hopefully this will make it a little more attractive than it is at present.

The yard itself was quite easy, 3 sides were already there, we just had to build 1 (and a bit) and the gate, which id actually bits of our old fence, reclaimed (thanks to Dad and his welder)

so thats that we have a proper chook yard, finally! yay!

I am inspired

SO... I was lucky enough to score a lovely package of fabric from Lyn over at Blue Bird Quilts. When Lyn contacted me I told her that I had plans to use the fabric to applique something pretty onto a border of an existing quilt (I haven't share it with you as yet). When I got the fabric yesterday I realised that was just not going to happen, for 2 reasons. Firstly WOW at how much Lyn sent me! (Lyn that was uber generous, and much more than I expected!) way too much for some border accents. Secondly, they are just too nice, these girls deserve a show of their own.
Ever noticed that things seem to trend on the blogs? well I follow more blogs than I want to admit too (you are all so interesting) and on the quilting blogs at the moment there is soo many people flashing their divine English paper pieced hexagons. One of those is on my long term to do list. I have also noticed some clamshell quilts popping up like here and here (there are others that I will link to when I find them). THAT is what these fabrics need to become, I have some yummy vintage cream to go with it even! BUT just like the Hexagons, my life just isn't that accommodating to the time needed for hand stitching.

So I am going to do som experimenting with this pattern and machine piecing, I will keep you updated, will be interesting to see if I can do it justice. Also if anyone knows of a free clamshell template, please feel free to tell me :D I tihkn I will buy a proper one for the real thing, but for my research, just a printable freebie will do.

Last note, just want to send a massive public thank you to Lyn for her give away, I love the spirit that I am beginning to discover exists in the quilt blog circle. I am feeling compelled to pay it forward and do a give away myself, so keep an eye out, might have to throw some homespun into the dye pot very soon ;)

Harvest is done

I shared Harvest with you all here and again here and while I think the name Harvest is so fitting, it still reminds me of harvest time, it is pretty damn fitting for the winter palette too!


It was knit from A Swell Yarn Shop 'Duet' sock yarn. I just love this wool, it is lovely soft, but very durable. The colourway is just stunning, I have several other skeins from ASYS and none disappoint.

The tunic is knit on 4mm needles and I would guess is about a size 2. It is a little large for Meika, on purpose. it used a little over 200gms.

This is another of my "I can be bothered following a pattern" knits. it has a square yoke, knit in garter stitch, the arms are straight and quite wide and the body has a very gentle flair out, just to give it some shape. All knit in the round. In short very quick and very easy but with a final result that I am rather happy with.