My scrappy quilt has a name!

The quilt top is done and on the design wall. I added a bright yellow stop border.

I like to name my quilts -but nothing had emerged whilst I was sewing this one. I can't keep calling it left overs! 

As I mentioned last time, there are some strange Christmas squares in lime green and yellow among this lot. DD came home, saw the yellow border and commented that the quilt was 'very green and gold'- the colours of our Australian sporting team uniforms, our wattles and more.

Then she had a brainwave: "This is a Summer Christmas in Australia quilt!"

Yep, it sure is!

Love your leftovers!

When I mean leftovers, sometimes I mean food...of course. Using up our leftovers is a big project here, and we come up with lots of ideas to make less food waste.

Food is not the only thing that can be valued, even when a 'leftover'. Take my quilting scraps, for example. I LOVE making scrappy quilts. Fabric scraps were once paid for and so they cost the same as the whole fabric. With some creative ideas, scraps can make fabulous quilts.  Take this example below. 

This picture is of the lesson in the Block of the Month which took place at the West Australian Quilters' Association this month. It is a simple bordered square, but when cut into 4 you turn two of the resulting squares and get a new pattern.

I have a block to make for the Association, but I got inspired to see what I could make using the same layout. I had found some random 4.5 inch squares in a tidy up in my sewing room, and -wonder of wonders -some 4 patches I had made but done nothing with! What would happen if I put these together, and recreated that BOM layout? I already had some leftover green strips from my last finish here- http://earthmotherwithin.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/water-play-my-first-finish-of-2018.html. 

Here is the result -above. I am enjoying this process very much -especially because it is simply using left over pieces which have sat in the sewing room for years, and now they get to shine! I have got about half the blocks made already. 

I have started my regular morning walks, and really am taken by flowers and trees around my suburb in the early morning light. I can't always get to my beloved beach, but this is almost as good. 

The quince, olive and pomegranate are in my garden, colouring nicely.  We are scoffing black grapes from our vines at the moment! 

There is so much beauty here. 

One thing which was NOT a leftover  was that DH and I went to a lovely little country wedding in the Swan Valley last weekend. It was extremely hot but the family had cold water and paper fans for us all! Then we had dinner in  a winery nearby. Such fun to be with young people starting their married life together.

A little laundry room update

The old bulky top loader needed to be replaced. 

We bought a front loader which is much more compact.  We did our research on the Choice magazine site, and decided on this model, which was luckily more than $300 cheaper on sale at the moment.

At the same time we removed the old country-style wallpaper freeze. The shelves above the sink were removed too, and now we needed to fill the holes where they were fixed to the wall. 

DH made some drawers to go on the other side of the washing machine.

After several days of sealing the surface, DH today installed this gorgeous jarrah wood bench top. 

He has done a great job of making the bench fit and have the right holes for the power cord and hose outlet. 

The laundry now is much more useful and attractive, but we recognise we need to paint the walls after filling in some of the rough patches.

I am thinking the wood panels could be navy blue, with white above. 

Water Play -my first finish of 2018

Water Play is now finished, apart from the binding sleeve and sewing on the label. This is my first finish for 2018! Here it is with my long-suffering DH holding it up in our front garden. The sea breeze was pretty strong, so we had to try to get a quick shot before it sailed away! The quilt is actually hard to photograph in artificial light, so I wanted a daylight picture to bring out all those pretty blues and purples and greens. 

You can see behind the quilt, the netted grapevine on the pergola at the front of the house. Our black grapes are just about ready for picking, if we can keep the birds away long enough! 

I chose a red binding to pick out the colour of the koi in the panel. I really like the way it frames the quilt. The panel was bought on a trip to Melbourne. The bargallo style borders around the panel were inspired by the idea of a pond with reeds and sun splashes on the water. 

Nina, my 306K did all the work on this quilt, even though I did have a few tension problems during the free motion quilting. I may have to find out how to adjust the tension, or take it for a spa at the local repairer's shop! 

I am glad I have finished this -as I will gradually have more work to do for the Quilters' magazine I edit, over the next few months, it is good to have a finish under my belt.