February heats up

Well the hot weather (36C +)is about to hit with a vengeance, starting today and going for a week.   I will be getting up early to try and water, water, water the garden.  But after taking the kids to school I will be bunkering down under the air conditioning and sewing...and eating fresh fruit!  

I have already eaten my body weight in nectarines!  I have finished picking the nectarine tree, the only ones left are too high for me to reach...pity as they are the biggest!  We also have boxes of pears picked, which Dad said he would help me bottle.  I picked the plums last night.  I feel like Con the Fruiterer as I have been trundling around our friends sharing out our bounty!

 Yes its February and I still have a Christmas table runner out on display, but I have nothing to replace it with and want to protect this table we had restored last year.

So I started this!  This is a Kim Diehl pattern called Cottage Garden from her book Simple Graces.  Obviously it needs applique flowers, leaves and vines, which I am going to needle turn...I have made the flowers and just prepping the leaves.  I slightly altered the pattern to make it fit my table ...well that's the excuse I am using, it wasn't  anything to do with not reading the pattern properly before I started sewing!  

I spent one day quilting my Split 9 Patch primary coloured child's quilt top this week.  I found the top and back already made in my boxes, just had to join a bit of wadding first.  The great thing about being back in my home town is they have THE BEST pinning table...and the other quilters all join you to help you pin/admire your quilt - so this little quilt was pinned in no time at all!

I also found this gadget in amongst my stuff.  I bought it at the Adelaide Quilt show from Punch and Judy  after seeing Julie Haddrick (award winning Adelaide quilter) using one.  You only need one glide (the box comes with two in different sizes) and it just sits on top of your quilt.  The glide seems to grip the quilt really well, despite the pins getting in the way, and then you just hold the dark purple "handles" to move the quilt and start quilting.  I hadn't used it before, but love it!  My shoulders sat lower while I was quilting and for the first time ever I didn't end up with a massive shoulder/neck ache.  Don't get me wrong I was still a bit stiff...but I quilted this in one day...I just kept going until I was finished!  Which previously would have seen me at the physio's getting treatment to loosen the muscles in my neck and shoulder blades.  It does take a bit of getting use to as I kept bumping the back of the foot into the glide, but I am keen to try it again using a linear FMQ pattern.

I even machine stitched on the binding and label the same day I quilted it (and after I took this photo)...that's how good I felt!  So with hot weather upon us, at least I have some hand work to do.

In keeping with my happy feelings about the local multinational patchwork shop, I ventured back to make use of a discount voucher they sent me.  Happy, happy days, I got seven metres at a discounted price!  I have a large collection of novelty fabric, which I intend to make up into charity quilts for kids and needed some brights for sashing and borders, so this is ideal.

Happy quilting and stay cool, Sue.