My Patchwork Palace

 I've been in a creative slump for the last few weeks.  I've spent many hours looking for inspiration (time wasting).  I did finish sewing the blocks together for my Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt top.  I can add it to the pile of tops waiting to be quilted.

After spending a few weeks struggling with the blocks for the Orca Bay quilt I'd started, I finally decided that it needed to be put away again.  I've seen many photos of finished Orca Bays on Bonnie Hunter's Facebook feed.  They look really fabulous but I found mine just wasn't going well.  I was getting very frustrated and realised I wasn't enjoying the piecing at all.  An eighth of an inch can seem huge when your triangles aren't matching up like they're supposed to.  I eventually decided that if it was making me unhappy it just wasn't worth working on at the moment.   It made me doubt my abilities and question why I was bothering to sew anything at all.

Once my anxiety took over I found it really hard to focus on any quilt related activity.  I guess thats the down side of not belonging to a quilt group any more, I did enjoy the inspiration I got from stitching with friends.

I have decided to start a new quilt and this churn dash is my first trial block.  I have a gorgeous quilt pinned on my pinterest board thats a churn dash in pinks/reds/oranges I love the colour combo so I'll see how it goes.  I didn't want anything with too many triangles, I'm all triangled out at the moment!
 The last couple of weeks we've had a few visits from these lovely ducks.  I don't know how long ducks live but we've had a couple that have visited us over about the last ten years.  Living next to the wetlands its not such a strange occurrence to have ducks around, they are lovely birds and they do enjoy a swim in the pool.
This was too funny, Ruby sat next to the pool for about 20 minutes absolutely fascinated with the ducks.  I was sure I was going to have to fish her out at some stage, she did get a bit too close to the edge but the ducks weren't worried.  We have been having some very extreme weather lately, terrible winds for days at a time, a day over 30 when its not summer yet and then this week it has been very wintery, cold and raining a lot.  At least we haven't had the dreadful weather they've been having in N.S.W.  It's hard to believe they've had such terrible bush fires this early in the season.

Hopefully next post I'll have some progress to share, progress on anything would be nice.

Happy Stitching,

Debra.

 Hi there, I have been making progress on a few of my projects.  I finally got my Scrappy Trips laid out.  I've made more blocks than I'll need but any extras will be great for the backing. 
On the weekend I finally got my sewing table sorted out so that I could start machine quilting a quilt.  This quilt has been basted for about 2 years.  I just couldn't decide how it needed to be quilted.  I think I've figured it out, diagonal lines and maybe double horizontal lines.  It's not the type of quilting I enjoy doing, I'd rather be doing free motion but I don't think it will suit this design.  If I ever get it finished I'll take a photo.  
As we all know the minute a quilt comes out so do the cats.  I'd only done one row of stitching when Ruby plonked herself in the middle of the quilt putting an end to any more quilting for the night.
I've been making slow progress on my Jubilee quilt.  I'm up to the applique border but its taken me ages to decide what I was doing with it.  I'm appliquing my initials on one side of the vase and the year will be on the other.  I'm not sure if the initials are too big.  I think I might have to shrink them down a bit.  Applique seemed like a good idea but it's taken me a very long time to get my ideas sorted out.
These photos were taken in the shade, it's been hot here again.  The colour is a bit washed out.  This is the longest summer ever, we've nearly had 1 month of Autumn and the heat just hasn't stopped.  We have some cooler weather forcast for the end of the week, I can't wait.

Happy Stitching

Debra.

Hi there, here are some of the pages from the photo album I made for Aleisha's birthday last week.  She was such a beautiful baby, but I might be biased!  I was very happy cause she really loved it.  It was so much fun to do and brought back so many memories of those years.  I really can't believe it was 20 years ago, the time goes so quickly.  I've got plans to do a few more albums in the future.

 

 We had a very nice dinner out at the local Mexican restaurant with my parents.  I even had a Wicked Woman Margarita! Yummm.

My week has been very busy, I usually only work 2 days but have worked 4 days this week.  I'm always happy to get some extra work, helps pay my fabric debt.hahaha

I brought this great cat scratcher/play centre home this week.  This is Dougal inside the cat cave and Ruby investigating, they seemed to enjoy playing and scratching on it.  It fits in a corner of the kitchen perfectly.    You can tell these guys aren't spoilt at all can't you?

Here's Harry after a visit to the vet to get his sore paw fixed.  He is quite fond of lying with his head hanging over the edge of the couch.  He is such a sook but he did behave very well while the vet did his examination and while he got his paw bandaged.

I took him back tonight to get the bandage cut off, I decided I'd rather the vet did it.  Harry was very patient and stood still while it was cut off and his foot seems back to normal.

I've eased up on crocheting for a while cause my little finger was starting to get sore again.  I have done a few more leaves on my applique borders, and finished a few more string blocks.  I'm hoping I might get some stitching done over the weekend.  I might have more to show you next time. 

Happy Stitching

Debra.