Dapple & Grey

Posy Quilt in Progress

A few months ago, I asked, "Can a bathrobe be inspirational?"  It turns out the answer is yes, because my favourite bathrobe (well, it's more a summer brunch coat, if I'm being honest) has inspired this Posy Quilt in progress: 

 Here's a reminder of the fabric in my robe: 

When I saw Aneela Hoey's Posy fabric, the colours reminded me of the fabric in my robe and I knew, novice quilter that I am, that I would have to make a Posy quilt.  I am making a single bed sized quilt, which is the biggest quilt I have made so far.  Until now, I have only made cot quilts (of various sizes). 

I am making picture blocks - ie, I am using the picture fabrics in the Posy range as the centre of each block and then framing each picture with two, three or four borders. 

 The pictures range in size from 1" to 4".  Each finished block will be 12".

 I was feeling a bit "meh" just recently about my quilt design, but one lovely reader suggested that I spice things up with a fabric or two outside the Posy range.  Brilliant!  I have taken that advice and I am feeling re-energised.  These lovely lavender spots have been added, and you just see a peek of a mint green fabric at the top of the photo below - that's new too. You might also see a hint of a lovely lemony Flower Sugar fabric in some of the photos.

I am also adding a hint of the pearl bracelet by Lizzie House, to pick up on the red in the flowers above.

All in all, I am feeling positive about my progress on my Posy quilt. 

I am, however, quite terrified about the prospect of trying to machine quilt it on my trusty old Janome MyExcel!  The only thing more terrifying, would be trying to hand-quilt it!

Amber x

Queensland - the land of the pumpkin scone and the perfect winter

Last week I mentioned I had some News.  News with a capital "N".  I rather think my post headline has given the game away, but nonetheless I announce that I'm Going Home.  We are moving back to Queensland. 

I grew up in Brisbane, in south-east Queensland.  I moved to Melbourne just over 6 years ago.  I suppose I didn't want to spend my whole life in the one city so one day I just decided to move.  It was as simple as that.  But having lived away for 6 years, it's tme to go home to the River City. 

Don't get me wrong - I love travel.  But being away from home for 6 years has felt like living in exile, holding my breath.  Now that I am going home I feel like I can finally exhale. 

A lot of people from other cities (I'm looking at you, Sydney and Melbourne) say nasty things about Brisbane - that's it's boring, parochial, uncultured and worst of all, you can't get a good cup of coffee there).  To all of you, I blow you a raspberry in a most unladylike fashion and skip off to Merlo's for the greatest cup of coffee in the country, nay, the world! 

To celebrate the occasion, I whipped up a batch of organic pumpkin scones for my beloved Bunny. 

Does anyone else in the world eat pumpkin scones?  I have in my mind that it might be a food peculiar to Queensland (and Australia more broadly).  I would be very pleased to receive any comments telling me whether pumpkin scones are eaten in the UK, Europe, Canada or the USA (or indeed anywhere else in the world). 

 

While I am in the middle of my love-in about Brisbane, a word about the winters - divine.  Crisp air, intense blue skies and a gently warm sun, day after day after day.  One August a few years ago I was visiting Noosa from Melbourne (Noosa being about 90 minutes north of Brisbane) and I needed to buy a pair of bathers so I could swim at the beach.  For my friends in the northern hemisphere, for you that's like swimming at the beach in January.  JANUARY! 

I could go on and on about Queensland, but I should stop, because I also want to pop up some photos about my Posy quilt in progress. 

Amber x

 

Pretty pressie for a precious parcel

A friend has recently welcomed a precious new baby girl into the world, so I decided to whip up a pretty but practical present for the occasion - a pair of burpies!

I needed only 1 fat quarter of my top fabric and about the same in terry towelling.  I was fortunate to have some organic cotton terry towelling in my stash - perfect for patting delicate little baby cheeks dry. 

This isn't a tutorial, so I won't go into too many details about how I made up the burpies.  However, I will say that I found the terry towelling suprisingly stretchy, so for the second burpie, rather than cutting the terry towelling piece to size, I cut it out roughly, oversizing it.  I then stitched it to the top fabric piece, right sides together, leaving the gap for turning out.   Before I turned it out, I trimmed back the terry towelling so I would have nice, non-bulky seams.  I think the second method worked better, because I wasn't wrangly stretch terry towelling during the cutting step. 

I am hoping to see my friend soon, and I hope she loves the burpies! Most importantly, I hope her little one finds them soft and cuddly. 

Amber x

 

 

 

So many projects, so little time - Briar Rose and other lovelies

When my parcel of Briar Rose fat quarters arrived last week, I started to feel stressed.  Yes, stressed - by receiving beautiful fabric in the post.  Or perhaps I just realised that I was already feeling stressed and the realisation that I would not get to work with these vibrant and humourous Heather Ross prints for months was just the last straw.  That's particularly upsetting given all these beautiful projects I have spotted on flickr lately.

1. Briar Rose!!, 2. qm2 (1 of 1), 3. Briar Rose Quilt_littlemushroomcap_star, 4. ice cream top in briar rose, 5. Flying bear and flowers, 6. Briar Rose Quilt, 7. all together!, 8. Divide Basket Front, 9. briar rose pillows, 10. Briar Rose Churn Dash, 11. briarfront, 12. Briar Rose hexagon potholders, 13. Briar-Rose-cusion-full214. Not available15. Not available16. Not available

I have been a bit quiet these last few months.  I won't turn this post into a maudlin, woe is me, weeping violins kind of a post, so I will just say that there have been some significant life events in the last few months, both for me and some of my family members.  Some old feelings have weaseled out from Under the Rug where they had been firmly swept some time ago.  It has required some willpower and determination to wedge them back Under the Rug where they belong. 

In any event, I will have some News to announce in the coming week or so (and no, unfortunately my precious Bunny is not going to be a big brother just yet).   

While I haven't been posting much lately, I have been sewing.  I started a quilt using Aneela Hoey's gorgeous Posy collection.  The quilt is to be single bed sized and I imagine that when my nieces come to stay they will love snuggling up under it.  However,  I am only a third of the way through my Posy quilt and I am suffering from a serious case of Partway-Through-A-Quilt-and-Feeling-Meh Syndrome.  Does anyone else suffer from this? 

Any words of support or encouragement would be most welcome.  I'm dragging myself through each block, feeling that my quilt design doesn't make the most of Aneela's delicate designs and warm, fun colours.  In short, I feel my design lets the fabric down.

I will post again shortly with some photos of my blocks in progress.

In the meantime, happy sewing.

x Amber