Happy Sunday friends. I'm very happy to share my scrappy rainbowy finished Pickle Wedge quilt. It's been a very fun quilt to put together as well as a great learning experience. I had always planned on hand quilting this with some big stitches using lovely Aurifil 12wt thread... but I then opted for speed and machine free motion quilted it. I used Hobbs wool batting in the squishy centre. I tend to use cotton or cotton/bamboo blend battings normally, so this was trickier (slipperier) to quilt and manhandle through my machine. Speaking of machine, I got my big Bernina B710 out to do the qui ..read more

My last post was on 1 March, so I thought I'd better pop in and share a bit what I've been up to. Firstly, Happy Easter! It's Easter Sunday morning and I've already had chocolate to start the day. It doesn't matter how old the kids get, they still enjoy an Easter Egg hunt. I baked folares, which are a (southern) Portuguese tradition at Easter. Sweet bread, swirled with loads of butter, cinnamon and sugar.  My garden is looking tired and ready for the winter hibernation. I've never been able to grow hydrangeas, but somehow, we've managed to keep these alive in a large pot. I do love ..read more

The challenge for Aurifil Artisans for February 2024 was all about upcycling. Admittedly, I dithered to and fro about participating in this months challenge as I wasn't sure what to contribute. Last year, I using colourful Aurifil12wt threads to do some visible mending on some old jeans, which I really REALLY enjoyed.  Read about last years project here: https://www.sameliasmum.com/2023/05/visible-mending.html I looked around my kitchen and wondered what I could upcycle. Then it hit me. Well, no, it bounced out of my over-full tea towel drawer. A tea towel apron.  A woman came int ..read more

The Karat Quilt is my latest quilt in Homespun Magazine. If you're looking for a quick make, this is definitely a great option, with most of the quilt chain pieced and the blocks coming together quickly and easily. I had bought a selection of Moda Grunge fabrics in blues and greens (as mum used to say, blue and green should never be seen...) along with a cool white. I didn't have a plan for the fabrics (as is often the case) but they came together in this quilt for a fresh, beachy type flavour. It was designed the quilt on EQ8 with a block I found in the library, using the extention program ..read more

I'm working on a fun new quilt called the Colossal Churn Dash quilt. It's a pattern by Natalie of Missouri Star Quilt Company and I first saw this quilt while watching one of their Triple Play videos on YouTube.  You can purchase the pattern directly from Missouri Star Quilt Company I just love watching these ladies (Jenny, Misty and Natalie) present, create, work and banter in their clips. If you haven't watched a Triple Play video yet, I do encourage you to go and look some up. They're released monthly and each video is themed. The three quilters create a quilt within that theme and w ..read more

I've finished my hand pieced green January blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I was going for four blocks each month, but after I'd made four, I just kept going. These are simple to hand sew and only making a few blocks each month is a nice way to jump into a new slow-sewing project.  This past few days, I've found that if I have my pieces all cut and marked, I can sit in the evenings to sew while watching telly or while sitting up in bed, listening to my audiobook. I must look a sight. Headphones on and my neck light thingamajig around my neck.  I'm all ready to pack ..read more

It's late in the month, but I still had time to start, and now share, my Rainbow Scrap Challenge sewing, with green scraps. I've always wanted to make a quilt, sewn by hand. Not EPP, but hand stitched pieces. I'm not sure why I've never tried this way to stitching together a quilt.  I have a big "0" birthday coming up next year and I decided to make a list of "50 things to do before I'm 50". One item on my list is to hand sew a quilt. This ticks off that item quite nicely. I used the triangle template from the Ice Cream Soda EPP quilt, which I'm also making at the moment. I've cut out tr ..read more

This month our friends at Aurifil have asked the artisans to share their tips and tricks for thread organisation. I honestly thought long and hard about this challenge - and whether I'd actually submit a post this month.  Do you watch reels on instagram of beautiful sewing rooms. Fabulously organised shelves of fabrics with scraps organised in smaller tubs. A place for rotary cutters and a place for rulers. A beautiful peg board with my threads hanging in a visually appealing way. Everything looking neat and pretty and having a place where it belongs.  My sewing room feels like it ..read more

It's been a while, but I was able to join Wendy and the gang for the January edition of Friday Night Sew In. I worked part of the day, but as dinner was going to be a BBQ (after our Thursday night meat raffle winnings), there wasn't going to be a whole lot of fussing in the kitchen required beforehand. It meant that I had lots of time in the afternoon to begin preparing some EPP pieces for my Ice Cream Soda quilt.  I bought the EPP set from Tales of Cloth along with the templates. I cut some fabrics - some fussy cut and most not - using the templates in the set. I'm not usually one to ..read more

It certainly doesn't seem like THAT much time had passed since I last blogged, but it's been almost a month. Gosh, time certainly does fly (although I feel like I say that all the time). So what has been happening around here... not a lot really. Busy over the Christmas and New Year period with family, friends and a little bit of work. I think that after all of the year-end deadlines I just needed a little bit of a break. I finished up my last Island Batik ambassador project and decided that I wasn't going to participate again this year. It's a wonderful program with very generous supplies fr ..read more