Week 12 of 52 Weeks Word Photo Challenge

Hi once more, I've really enjoyed our "stretch" photographs so far, looking forward to seeing more maybe.

Our word for Week 12 is "Free".

Don't forget that you can join in any time and photograph along with us.

Our new modem has arrived and I'm about to fit it up, so let's hope I know what I'm doing.

Will see you next week with our  free photos!

52 Weeks Word Photo Challenge

Hi everyone! Good to know you are back with me!

I found todays word, "stretch" a bit difficult to tell you the truth, so here's what I came up with

This is a beautiful soft stretch jersey fabric that I bought this past Summer, to make a skirt and top from.

I did make the skirt up:-

Sorry for the not so good photograph, I was just too tired tonight to play around with it and fix it, but you get the gist!

The skirt has a roll top and is gorgeously swishy and hangs lovely when it is worn, thanks to the stretch fabric, I simply love to wear it.

Maybe I'll make a long sleeved top to wear with it, though with Winter coming quickly, I might just wait till next Summer and make a summery top! The fabric is far too light for Winter!

Well that's my photo, so enter yours with Mr Linky and let's see how you managed!!

See you tomorrow night for our next week's word!

Look What Is Flowering!!

The Bat Plant-

From the side - isn't she just the spitting image of a Triffid?

The colours are simply beautiful!

At the beginning of this summer, Alan and I were at a local nursery, when I spied a plant known to me as "Rose of Sharon".  I have always believed that it was related to the regular Hibiscus flower, which it is.

When I was young ( a long long time ago) There was a Rose of Sharon in our back garden, and I loved it's beautiful white flowers that turned to pink as they aged, and the bush would be covered in white and also pink blooms.  

It used to make a stunning sight in Sydney, so I grabbed this plant called Rose of Sharon, and we planted it in our back garden.

Well, the thing grew like a weed, and I was starting to worry that it was not the Rose of Sharon that I remembered.  Now I realize that it is probably just the change in climate, being so much warmer here.

Here is the plant, can you see the buds all over it? These  appeared at the end of the summer.

Here is the garden we planted beneath the tree, some colourful plants and ground orchids, along with some hoyas to grow up the tree.

This morning, I went outside, and lo and behold! there she was! the first flower!!

A lovely close up for you:-

This afternoon I went out into the back garden, and lo and behold!! the flower had turned pink!!

Another close up for you-

I am astounded! Isn't she absolutely adorable, and with all those buds coming on she will be weighed down by her flowers very soon.  I'll post more when she opens more buds, so you can see how she looks with both coloured flowers on her.

I am so glad that I don't have to dig her out because she was the wrong plant!!

Week 11 of 52 Weeks Word Photo Challenge

Hi everybody, good to see you here for our next week's word!

I would just like to make a quick comment about our challenge here, if I may.

Please don't worry if you can't post your pictures on the date, or if you can't manage a week. We all know ( me more than anyone!!) :):) how life can simply get in the way of all good intentions! Simply carry on when you can. No one is counting how many pictures you post - it's not about that.

So, here we go for this week:

The word for Week 11 is - "stretch".

I think that one's another doozie!!

See you back here next Sunday for our photographs.
Have a great week everyone..........

Week 10 of 52 Weeks Word Photo Challenge

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

I have really enjoyed looking at your "size" pictures today - they have been great.

So here we are at week 10, and I know how eagerly you are awaiting the new word, so I'll get right on with it!:):)

The word for week 10 is "star".

This will definitely be another interesting one, won't it?

SO I'll see you back here next Sunday night for your lovely pictures!

Have a great week..........

52 Weeks Word Photo Challenge

Hi, welcome to this weeks photographs, I hope that you have had a great week!

I had  fun with this one, hope you did, and I wonder how you photographed it.

Without any further comment, I give you my "size" =

All new fabric as it comes off the bolt, has size in it.  It is a running discussion amongst quilters, as to whether one should wash quilting fabric to remove the size, before using the fabric, or leave it.

The size gives the fabric a stronger hand, making it a little easier to cut and piece. Others will argue that the chemicals sometimes used can be dangerous if breathed in, so everyone has their own opinion on the question.

I personally normally do not wash my new fabric, but only because I'm too lazy to wash and iron it before I use it, so I'm not getting involved either way!!

So add your link to the Mr Linky below, and let's see your "size".

Be back tomorrow night for our next week's word.

Saturdays Scraps on Sunday

Hi everyone, had no time yesterday to blog - we were at our friends 80th Birthday party, and boy, did she have a ball!

It was wonderful to see her so happy, but of course I didn't take my camera to photograph her, so you'll just have to believe me on that!

Anyhow, have some great pics to show you of things i have worked on this week - well, a few of them anyhows!

I have been working on Puffss for the seat, made some storage bags for my sewing room, and went on a net trip, and found Victoria Findlay Wolfe's blog, 15 Minutes Play.

So above is my 9th 6 1/2 inch block, using her instructions. Here's the rest:-

There's the other 8, with the 9th in the corner! I think these are a fabulous way to use up scraps, and I think also that the finished quilt will be stunning.

So, I'm only doing a couple a day, and already I am feeling quite relaxed with the process and getting faster. Looking forward to the next 90 or so!!

the Triffids Have Returned!!!

Run for the hills! They're ba-aack!!!

For those in the know, the black bat plants are flowering again, so I thought you might like to see - there is only one flower so far, but there are many more buds waiting:-

Notice how he is hiding his face, so we won't recognize him??

Also, along the same lines, another Hoya has decided that the roof is the ideal spot to flower from:-

This Hoya Carnosa, even though it is normally a prolific flowerer, decided that if the Royal Hawaiian could do it, then so could she!

Not quite as pretty as the other, but at least  she has more flowers!

Be back with my Week 9 picture shortly

Week 9 of 52 Weeks Word Photo Challenge

Hi everyone, welcome to week 9!

I know you are waiting with bated breath to see what this weeks word is, so without further ado, I give you:-

Week 9 word is "size".

Now that's a good one, wouldn't you agree?

See you back here next week for photographs.

Remember, anyone can join in at any time.

Have a great week, and I'm going to try and post more great things through the week, I've been getting rather slack lately!

52 Weeks Word Photo Challenge

It's time for Happy!!

Don't Worry,

Be Happy!!

It's Happy evening today, and here's my Happy Face, hanging on the door to my sewing room, along with his best friend, Mr Owl, from Bali.

I smile every time I walk past them.

So let's see your "happy" photograph, I'm sure they will be great!

Join in any time you like, just fill in Mr Linky below.

See you tomorrow evening for our next week's word....

Saturdays Scraps

Welcome friends, to Saturdays Scraps!

Have been working this week on getting the scrappy puff quilt done for Alans' chair.  Have the back completed, and now am onto the seat.

So here is the top cover, it has a calico backing that slips over the back of the chair

and here is a close up of the back.  The quilt laying over the chair is one of the first quilts I made.  It was a rail fence, and I carefully cut out all the fabric and assembled it, and then found that it had frayed here and there over the quilt.  

So I stuck those self adhesive patches over the frayed stitch lines and now I find the patches are losing their grip, so I suppose I will have to hand sew them all on!  Cheap and nasty fabric, it was!

Now here is a closer close up ( I'm getting carried away here, aren't I!!) This shows the long strip I sewed along the bottom to slip between the top of the chair and the seat, to keep it secure.

It is also stuffed with stuffing (boy I love stuffing these puffs with stuffing!!)

So now i only have these puffs left, so it's time to start cutting  for the seat area. 

I didn't work this out too well, I have to cut the squares manually, don't have a template to do it by machine!

Next time i'll think more deeply about sizes...

So here i go again, trusty cutting board and cutter, madly cutting 5 3/4 squares!

What a silly size.

Fabrics to the right of me, squares to the left - i need 56 squares for the seat.

It's going to be a long weekend!

So I have worked out a really simple way of assembling this quilt, but no one seems to be interested in seeing it, so I haven't posted it yet.  

So let me know if you would like to see how i do this really cute little puffy thing, and I'll show you!

So that's what I'm up to!

Have you done any scrappy quilting this week?

Add your pictures below and show us!

I'll see you tomorrow night for our happy photographs!

Week 8 of 52 Weeks Word Photo Challenge

Welcome to week 8's word. I have promised that it will be an easy one, so be prepared!

The word for week 8 is "happy".

This should be a breeze, shouldn't it.  I have loved the Fast's so far.

Don't forget that you can join in with us at any time, simply take your photograph of "happy" and post it here next Sunday.  All are welcome.

52 Weeks Word Photo Challenge

Welcome to our week for the word "fast".

I hope you all had fun doing this one - I just couldn't decide what to do, so here is my final photograph:-

This Grevillea Robusta has grown so fast in it's first 12 months, from seed to almost as tall as the palm tree!!  The fence behind it is 5 feet tall, so it is now over 10 feet, wonder where it will stop!?

Add your photograph below in our Linky, and show us your "fast".  Don't forget, you can join in at any time, and join in the fun!

Saturdays Scraps

Hi everyone! Welcome to Saturdays Scraps, have something interesting to share with you tonight.

Before I go any further, I dislike these ads that have suddenly appeared on this blog, and am trying to have them removed as I type.  So rest assured they will not be here for long.

Alan's seat in the TV room is very hard, with not much padding. So I decided to make a puff quilt to put on it and hopefully make it more comfortable.

My puffs are not too large, because I felt that large ones would flatten too quickly and be uncomfortable, so my backing is simply unbleached calico cut into 3 1/2" squares

The tops are scrappy ( of course) and cut at 5 1/2"

It is really fun putting them together, and stuffing them with fibrefill then sewing them shut. I'm getting quite fast at it now, I don't even use pins to hold them and I do the pleats also without pinning!

I sewed 7 of them together and did it with the seam at the back of the block, because I was going to line the back with another fabric but I then changed my mind because that was too hard! So I unpicked those blue ones in the picture and did this instead:-

I'm doing a sort of raggy puff quilt, joining the squares to the front so I don't have to line the back because it will be smooth now. I have some ideas in mind to make the assembly of these babies even more simple, so I'll work on it, and if you say you would like to know, I'll do a little tutorial on it through the week.

So sign up below and show us what scrappy goodness you have been up to lately!