Going Granny

I have been fiddling around with yarns lately. Pretty, bright and delicious yarns. I've even taught myself to crochet a granny square. Lots of help from friends and hours of sitting with headphones plugged into my iPad, so I don't annoy the husband and teenager, watching slow motion you tube videos. Finally success! I will add some photos of them soon.

Google images has had a work out too as the obsession has taken hold. All that beautiful colour! The crocheted hexagons are very lovely. My next mission will be to learn how to hook those. I think I'm hooked (pun intended). What do you think of my colours?

Happiness

Image via here

I love this photograph.  It is a little symbolic don't you think?  We do hold the power to be happy in our own hands.  Sometimes, however, we give our happiness to someone else to hold or it gets taken away by something sad. 

So this week I am grateful for my own happiness and the smiles and support of my friends and family.  My lovely father-in-law Des died suddenly on Saturday and we are all a bit sad.  I like to think of my happy memories of Des.  He loved birds, vegetable gardens and his dogs.  It is sad to think that I won't see him again.  Death is such a final thing.  I am so very pleased that I had the chance to know him, love him and learn from him.  Thank you Des for you xxoo

Strips of Goodness

I have been very busy designing.  There is a pieced quilt top on my sewing room couch waiting to have the binding sewn on by hand and another that is about to be sandwiched together for quilting.  These however are Secret Squirrel projects so I can't share yet!

I do have something that I can show you though that I am very pleased with.  It is a Kaffe Fasset design from his book "Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts".  The design is very simple and easy to make.  It is simply 4 large pieces made out of 2 inch and 3 inch strips. Such beautiful colors.

These strips then go together, laid out on the floor to get an idea of colour distribution, like so:

Then when I am happy with how it looks I sew them together.  This is one bit that I have already sewn together.

My Creative Space

I would like to start my foray back into the world of the Creative Space with a riddle.

What honks but has no horn?

Answer: A Goose.

That is what I have been doing this week; about sixty flying geese to fly around my sewing room.

What have you been up to?  Do you like flying geese?  Or do you steer clear?

Silence is Golden

Well maybe not golden in this case but certainly productive.  There has been a frenzy of stitching, threading and sewing going on.  I have even been finishing things!  Miracles do happen, my husband says.  Lol!! 

I have a finished quilt awaiting binding.  Ted was the first one to test out the quilt.

The official quilt tester however got a bit huffy and kicked Ted off, regaining his position as official quilt tester.  He thought the new quilt was pretty alright and settled down to read his favourite night time story.

We will have to be quiet now because Puss is reading.  *In a whisper*  Do you like secrets?  Yes, well just as well we are whispering then!  I have been stitching away on a secret project that I can't show you yet.  Now I know that it  isn't very exciting without a visual but I can say that it looks amazing and I am very pleased with it.  A flurry of red, black, white and green.  Cuteness!  Can't wait to show it to you. 

Last but not least, Hubby and I have been out scouting around for inspiration on our recent holiday.  We visited the lovely Sue at Mill Rose Cottage in Ballan, chatted with the bubbly Merrilyn at Thread Needle, pondered fabric choices with Emma at Ballarat Patchwork and searched around a pile of fabric with Gail at  Gail's Patchwork Emporium.  Of course there has been some beautiful fabrics added to the stash.  Will show you more next time.  Better go now so that I don't wake Puss. It seems he has fallen asleep!

Another Crafty Friend

On Saturday the Crafty Little Fox met Morgan from The Crafty Squirrel.  It is a delightful little shop in Ballarat that is full of lots of little treasures.  Even Mr Crafty Fox found things there that he liked.  She has even added her magic touch to the pole outside the shop.

Now don't you think that all power poles should look like that?  I have some foxy treasure too.....

Morgan's business card was so sweet so I added that in as well.  My other goodies have already found homes.  Do go and visit Morgan if you are in Ballarat.  She is very friendly and her store is well worth a look. 

On other business I have been giving my cutter and the sewing machine a bit of a workout.  I have finished another quilt top with a beautiful new range called Storyboek that I got from Emma at Ballarat Patchwork.  It is the most beautiful fabric.  Now that the top is almost fnished we are off tomorrow to look at fabric for the final border, binding and backing.  With the miserable Ballarat weather and a weeks holiday I am going to have plenty of time to stitch.  Yay!!

Would you like to see a photo of the finished quilt top?  What projects have you been working on?

I Am Grateful For Home

Via here



It has been a long two weeks of travel, cars, trains, conference food, discussions and learning.  I don't mind saying that although my brain is tired and resembles, figuratively at least, mush I did enjoy it.  There was so many interesting and excitng ideas and great people to learn from.

Despite the fun I had, coming home Thursday night on the train seemed to be the longest part of the journey.  In fact I couldn't get home quick enough to the heating, to sit next people I actually knew and to cuddle up on my warm couch and hug my family.  I am grateful to be home.

Has anyone else travelled a bit for work?  What were the bad bits?  What were the good bits?

For more grateful posts head over to Maxabella