Sunday, April 17, 2011

Beauty and quilts

Dahlia

This morning I was cleaning up my kitchen bench so I could cut some fabric, and it suddenly dawned on me how photogenic my flowers and fruit were.

Ripening pear


Tomatoes from the garden

These are some of our home grown tomatoes. In the background are the Tommy Toes of which we have picked 50 kg of tomatoes from ... so far ... from the one plant. Granted the plant is a whopper. We tried to keep it pruned in it's early days, but it grew to gargantuan proportions overnight and before we knew it it was too late to do anything about it except stop it from invading our neighbour's property. We failed on that count too, by the way. I suspect he is picking tomatoes on his side of the fence right now.

Autumn sacks for the Four Seasons sack/yarn club

On Friday night I finished making 21 sack bags for the seasonal sack/yarn club that Carrie and I run. These 21 seemed like a hard slog, mainly because I was really worried I wouldn't finish them before I got sick again and I didn't want to let anyone down. Plus my day job is really busy, we've had guests staying, and I am just really tired at the end of the day. Luckily I was blessed with good health and I needn't have worried so much. We pack them up with the yarn tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait to see what Carrie has dyed up.

New quilt

Finishing the bags meant I was free! Free as a rotary-cutter wielding bird! It was time to make a quilt. I can't show you too much of this quilt yet - it's a gift for someone and they might read the blog. But I can say it's a little bit retro, a little bit red, and a little bit funky. I'll show you all how it turned out in a few weeks.

New quilt

But it is so nice to be making a quilt by machine again. I think the last quilt I made was this one. And then there is the hexagon quilt which is all done by hand ... I'd forgotten how good it felt to have wonky seams and a quick result!

13 comments:

  1. Glorious pictures. All of them.
    Those bags look stunning, posing there en masse.

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  2. wow - 50kg of tomatoes - geez I hope you like tomatoes!!

    Look at all those fab sack bags!!! Now I really wish I'd signed up for the club. Stupid StashDownUnder commitment!! Perhaps the next club (she says hopefully!)

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  3. ok I wasn't going to but I can't help sharing the wordverify of 'dillsook'. I think it describes me perfectly so is becoming my new alias.

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  4. I hope you've got a good recipe for tomato chutney to use some of them up!

    Those bags are amazing, so bright and pretty patterns and the same goes for the fabric for the quilt too!

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  5. Those bags are amazing!! And does that retro fabric look familiar to me?......

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  6. Your photos are beautiful!

    I also love the bags you made. They are gorgeous!

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  7. That flower is amazing Michelle, and the colours of your bags - divine, they look so pretty all together - shame to separate them.

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  8. dude! your photos are ace! can't wait to see what you've been quilting up! x

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  9. Wow you have been productive.
    The bags look wonderful and I like that your new venture is working out for you and being less stressful overall (I'm hoping anyway!).
    As the owner of a large amount of the retro vehicle fabric (enough for three single bed size quilts at least) I will be waiting with great interest to see what you have come up with because I am completely stumped as to how to put it all together!

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  10. Those bags look amazing,love all the colours together.

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  11. All the gorgeousness in one post. Love the flower and the pear. Absolutely stunning. And I love the sock bags. I want one without any wool!

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  12. Hey Michelle,
    sorry I haven't been in touch since Sydney .... internet problems, family blah blah, etc. It was so much fun hanging out with you, and I look forward to our next catch-up (in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra?).
    I love love love the photos in this post, and your bags look great. Congratulations on getting through another gorgeous sack/yarn batch and having time for yourself again!

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  13. 50 kg of tomatoes from one plant!? Whoa!

    Your bags looks great (as always!). They look so pretty, lined up like that.

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