Butterflies in Blue - Finished!

Another satisfying finish. I like the front, the back and the binding equally as much as each other, I guess that's what happens when you choose favourite fabrics to work with - all 100% organic cotton. 

Butterflies in Blue is now listed (sold) in my Etsy shop. More details can be found here in the previous post too. For now I'm working on a little more of my slow sewing Fresh Fields EPP project and tossing around ideas for another quilt... or two!

Falling in Love

Why is it I fall in love with nearly every single quilt I make? Maybe it has something to do with choosing fabrics I love and endeavouring to create something which highlights the beauty of each fabric. Maybe it's the delight of seeing an idea slowly coming to life, little by little, as the fabric slips through my hands, over and over again. 

Bringing together some of my favourite fabrics in Butterflies in Blue has been very satisfying. Each butterfly print (Fauna in Dusk) triangle is echo quilted in soft white, then I straight line quilted the Cirrus in Sky surrounding fabric in matching diagonal lines with light blue thread. 

I'm excited about this binding too - Plumes in Turquoise, another beautiful fabric from Sarah Watson's 'Biology' collection for Cloud 9. All fabrics, threads and batting are all 100% organic cotton. Hand stitching the binding will be a pleasure, one of my favourite steps in creating a quilt. Looking forward to another finish soon.....


Sharing at WIP Wednesday.

Bitter Sweet

Lemon meringue pie, made by our elder Miss E with our homegrown lemons - bitter sweet at its best! It was wonderful having Miss E home from college/uni on winter break. There was the usual flurry of catching up with friends, watching movies at home with younger siblings, sorting books and cooking delicious treats and meals for the family. All squashed into less than two weeks! Yesterday morning we had to say goodbye again as she set off on the 10 hour train journey to her other home. There were tears from our younger Miss E who is only seven and adores her eldest sister. Sigh....

With two learner drivers (our twins) and another soon to be old enough, we continue to make every attempt to add to their total supervised driving hours (they need 120 each). Some of our local drives are uncovering new treasures, even if you have to make you own track and get your feet wet to discover what lies beyond the country road bridges. 

Winter means shorter days and trying harder to squeeze in brisk walks, yet the river always seems to yield refreshing views, as long as I can make it before the sun sets, so I best keep moving with my day....

Meanwhile Master J is enjoying last night's snowfall up on the tablelands near where his uni is. He has just sent the snow photos through of this morning's snowy scenes. It never snows in our riverside town. I spy more lemons! Sweet!

Butterflies in Blue

This butterfly print pairs beautifully with blue! Both are organic fabrics by Cloud 9. Some of you may recognise these fabrics and blocks from my recent Butterfly Kisses quilt. These blue hourglass blocks were my favourites, however they were amongst the colours we removed to bring some harmony to the overall effect. It is a pleasure to now feature them in a smaller quilt.

Looking forward to sharing further progress in a few days. It is a pleasant change of pace to the steady hand stitching of Fresh Fields, my current EPP hexies project. Thank you to all who shared their opinions regarding colour choices for Fresh Fields - the vote to include the stronger tones was unanimous! It's so good to move ahead feeling confident in this choice.

Fabric Notes: The butterfly print is Fauna in Dusk from Sarah Watson's Biology collection for Cloud 9. The blue, appropriately called Sky, is a cross-weave with a slight shot effect, part of Cloud 9's Cirrus collection of solids. 


Sharing at WIP Wednesday.

The Voice You Believe

Some wonderful quotes and words of encouragement were shared by our Pastor this morning.....

The photo is recent sunset one when the light was doing amazing things.

Deliberations

After much deliberation and opinion seeking, I've decided to go with all of these flowers. We were considering pulling out the brighter/deeper ones to give a more serene effect, but after already having removed all those with touches of navy last year, I was beginning to think I may never end up with a finish.

I really do like the brighter pieces as they add more 'bounce' to this Fresh Fields quilt. What do you think? Combining the work of the last few weeks with that of last year, I now have around 60 flowers. I'm aiming for 100+ before working on final placement and stitching together.

Sharing at WIP Wednesday.

Wooli in Winter

The view from the house where my brother's family is holidaying in Wooli is spectacular. There is even a lighthouse on the islands 14km away on the horizon (North Solitary Island Lighthouse). They can see whales swimming by from the kitchen sink! Last night my brother smoked some of the fish they had caught on his homemade smoker.

Today we visited and had a wonderful time together. The cousins even spotted some whales to point out to our children. Then they went down to the beach for some beach cricket - and turning Gracie into a mermaid!

A beautiful winter's day


Sharing at Saturday's Critters, SkyWatch Friday.

Pocket Full of Starlight

Too late to catch the sunset, too early to watch the moonrise, but I did find Venus and Jupiter! And while walking home in the near dark I saw a falling star - and put it in my pocket, to save it for a rainy day.....



Sharing at SkyWatch Friday.