Last Week's Happenings

It has been yet another fun filled week, but not all that much to show for it in the sewing room.  I'm just picking up from Wednesday, as Monday and Tuesday were included in my end of month wrap up.

My knitting is slowly progressing, when I catch a few minutes to work on it.  I'm not in any hurry now, as I will be away later this month, and it is a nice portable project to take with me.

I have continued to make my Dresden parts while at my stitching groups.  They are progressing well.  Just ten of the thirty two to go.

Remember I pieced a koala baby quilt at the very end of February.  Well, the next day I quilted it, using Monique.  Once again I had tension dramas and was getting rather frustrated with it all.  Eventually, after lots of fiddling, it came good and progress was made.  It is now waiting patiently for me to add the binding, which is all ready to go.

On Wednesday, at our patchwork group, an elderly lady that one of the members knows, was having a destash.  It was mainly 1980s fabrics.  I did bring some home, as they will actually work in a couple of projects I have in mind.  There were even a couple of Liberty prints in there.

There was also some other fabrics brought in for sale.  I bought some hot pink wide back scraps.  If I was going to bring it home, I thought I had better use it.   After a little think, I found some softer pink yardage and white to add to it.

Ta da!  A very simple gingham baby quilt flimsy.  This is as far I as I have got at this stage.  The backing will be pink flannelette with dachshunds on it.  A cute fabric to go with the simple front.  

Hopefully, both these baby quilts will be completed this week, if Monique plays nicely for me.

At short notice, I now have another project to work on.  I will be making a table runner as a gift.  Their decor is greys and black with pops of navy.  That is a little tricky, as there isn't a great deal of contrast in that colour selection.

I will work with these fabrics.  I don't have a lot of navy in my stash.  I had the low volume in stash and purchased the middle fabric, not really knowing if it would work or not.  I then found the scraps from my Jocelyn Proust quilt and discovered that the two fabrics work really well together.  A very simple pattern has been found that should work fine.  I don hope they like it.  Watch this space.

I have managed to maintain my 15 minutes a day, which I am pleased about.

My tally so far:

15 minutes day/week = 7/7

15 minutes day/March = 5/5

15 minutes days in 2023 = 62/64

Success rate = 96.88%

I’m linking up with Kate at Life in Pieces.

Now to other things.

Being the start of autumn, it was time to refresh my little shelf in the kitchen.  Once again, a very simple collection on show.

We had a very busy and social weekend.

Firstly, on Saturday I travelled down to Medlow Bath to attend a high tea at the Hydro Majestic, which is a rather famous and historic hotel in the Blue Mountains.  The occasion was a family friend’s bridal shower.

Check out the view to the Megalong Valley from the restauraunt.

There was no way we were able to eat everything set in front of us.  It was a delightful way to spend the day.

Then, in the evening, we had a 60th birthday party to attend for a long time friend.  It was nice to catch up with people we don't get to see all that often these days.

On Sunday, we were back in the car and heading down to Hartley, on the eastern flank of the Blue Mountains, to visit their open gardens.  Some were absolutely delightful, where a couple were quite a disappointment, for the hype around them.

One of our favourites was "Serenity", which is owned and looked after by just one lady.  The name was very fitting.

She had some plants that she had propagated for sale and we brought home a rain lily.

"Hartvale" was beautiful.  This is a garden that is always open to visitors.  The amount of colour for this time of year was amazing.  It gave us inspiration of some additional plants to add to our garden.

There was a nice pottager garden with cute green house.

They also have a cottage that is an Air BnB let.  Wow!  I wouldn't mind staying there. The decor was fresh, yet with some rustic touches to give character.  One of the owners is an artist in oil paints and her works adorned the walls.

Looking from the sitting area to the bedroom section.

Imagine waking up to this view.  There is a full glass section in the wall.

The final of our favourite gardens we visited was at the historic "Harp of Erin" and featured cottage plants and sculptures.  I have never seen such a proliferation of dahlias.  It was so nice and colourful.

And that is it for another week.

Now to get busy and start some of that stitching I want to do.