I can barely contain my happiness

Spring is coming to my garden!!

I can't wait for my bones to thaw!!

Andi xx

WIP Wednesday

Another WIP this week.  First mentioned on the blog here, nearly 2 years ago.

An homage to my grandmother's one-and-only-quilt-she-made (shown here) that I inherited, re-quilted and absolutely cherish.

Another great scrappy project. All paper pieced and hand stitched. Each hexagon measures 1 inch along each side.

I have 14 more flowers to make, white 'borders' to tie them all together and also some work to do on the edges to straighten them up a little. And that's before I've even begun to think about quilting (which I plan to do by hand).

This is most definitely my slowest stitching project but a great one to pick up when I'm running out the door to Perle 8's and don't want to lug around a sewing machine. Also great for taking on holidays, or even having some piecework to keep in my bag for those moments when the craft 'itch' takes hold and I'm out and about!

Do you have a portable project like this one that you keep on hand? What is your 'go-to' slow crafting project?

Andi xx

On the holidays ......

We have just come back from a week in sunny Noosa.

It was a fantastic week to choose because Melbourne has just had one of the coldest September weeks on record.

There was much swimming ...




Entertaining ....


(Making new friends on holidays was always the best!!!)

Some bushwalking ....




A sighting of the rare "Sunshine Coast Penis Tree" .....


Some Eumundi Market shopping ....


(I actually bought HEAPS more than this but didn't get any photos)

There was much slack jawed TV watching ....





and happy snapping in the sunshine ....




Of course there was also a little stitching ....


No chance of going a whole week without some craftiness sneaking in.

Happy stitching.

Andi :-)

Happy Fathers Day ... and more

Happy father's day to Dan from your 2 Gingies:


Happy father's day to Dan's dad (Please build a holiday house!!!!) :



Happy father's day to my dad:




A challah cover!!

My siblings and I gathered at my parents place this morning for father's day.

There were many comments about my mum's beautiful garden:


And also many comments about Ella's quirky outfit:


That's my girl!!!!!

Hope you and yours have had a great day!!

Andi :-)

Couldn't help myself

Fun online time wasters.

I have just read this post telling about this service where you can search for images on flickr according to colour.

Well, that was fun!!

But then I used this site to make this gorgeous collage.

Thinking about turning it into a proper quilt using these.

Andi :-)

Flower Gardens

In my first post, I promised to tell about my grandmother's "Flower Garden" quilt. Well, here goes.

My grandmother (Mama) was always very creative and crafty. She painted (oil paintings, ceramic painting, silk painting and more). She sculpted. And she sewed. She embroidered. And she made one quilt.

She hand patched this beautiful quilt top with the tiniest little stitches. It took her about a year to finish it.

At the time I was about 8 years old. She showed me how to cut patches, sew them together. I remember making a rather small and design-less piece. I wish I knew where it ever got to.

After finishing the quilt top, she had it "professionally" quilted. It was a pretty ordinary end result, with a nasty green nylon backing. But it was always on her bed and she loved it.

When she died in 1999, she left her quilt to me, knowing I was the only one of her 18 grandchildren who would really appreciate it. I decided to have it requilted.

I didn't do anything about it until 2007 when I started an evening class with the lovely Judy Newman at my favourite place, Amitie in Bentleigh. I was very clear with Judy at the time. "I am a patchworker. I DON'T quilt".

Judy is a wise teacher and cleverly convinced me to have a go at hand-quilting it myself to honour my grandmother. Well, needless to say, Judy now has me hooked on hand quilting.

Here is a look at my efforts with Mama's quilt (with a gorgeous new vintage look backing).

My Uncle Brian says "it's the first rug I've ever seen that's more like a tombstone". Thanks Uncle Brian!

Well, more recently, I have been working on a gift for my daughter Ella's third birthday which is coming up in November. I have called it "Ella's Flower Garden" and it incorporates my latest favourite quilt style ....... memory quilting. I think that often memory quilts look really tacky but when you modify the images so they actually blend in with the other fabrics, the results can be lovely.

I think Mama would have approved. Ella certainly does.

Have a lovely Wednesday.

Andi :-)