Quilting Around the Rose Garden..

It's been soooo hot...42.1 degrees celcius..

I really haven't felt like doing  too much, but I thought I'd sit under the air-con and try to get my Around The Rose Garden quilted...It's quite big and heavy, so I brought it out to the family room table where there's more room for it to rest on as I quilt...
Too hot to fuss too much,  just a simple cross hatch machine quilting will be enough and finish it off nicely...my trusty Husqvarna sewing machine is great for quilting, no walking foot, as it has a sensor motion foot lift, just wish it had a bigger throat...

Air-con full on as my Teddies watch and keep me company...Dh asleep in his recliner chair.

Hope your having a great weekend....♥

Happy Australia Day...our sunburnt country.

Today the 26th January is our national Australia Day.
We are having a heatwave...a whole week or more of very high temperatures...very much a sunburnt country,

Here you can read about our HistoryWe are having a very warm day of 41 degrees Celsius today so I think there will be a lot of barbecues getting fired up here today.
There's nothing like a barbie, it doesn't matter if you have just eaten, the smell of a neighbours barbecue, just makes you want to have one too.

I'd like to share a couple of Aussie things with you...

These are my Dh's great books of poems by two very famous Aussies and illustrated by another famous Aussie Pro Hart..

Here's a little piece from another great Aussie poem written by Dorothea Mackellar

MY COUNTRY
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

Proud to be Australian..

From my heart...♥

Calico Garden...preparing the plot.

It's too hot to garden outside...we're having a heatwave!

...so I have set up my garden plot inside.
I thought if I set up the blocks already made, back up on a design wall, I would see them as I walk into the sewing room and inspire me to get back to my Calico Garden quilt..
It's such a pretty quilt...loved it when I first saw it..now I'd really like to work on it again and have it ready to hand-quilt during the winter months..

I bought these gorgeous Moda Old Fashioned Calicoes a couple of weeks ago...small prints, lovely little flowers to fussy cut. ..perfect for this quilt.

Boy's it's hot outside...stay cool or warm where ever you are....♥

Around the Rose Garden...Zillion Pieces..

I thought I'd call this "Around the Rose Garden"...

I must say, I'm glad I stuck to all rose fabrics...still scrappy but oh so pretty...
I decided not to make it square as first intended, because I'll use it as a lap quilt...for me!
It measures 72" x 60"..

I have this lovely rose border fabric, and deciding whether to add this as a border or not...I think it should work in nicely adding a lovely rose framed finish..

Thank you Lois for the inspiration....

Have a lovely weekend.....♥

Moving on...Projects for 2012...

Might be a bit ambitious, but this is what I'd like to work on this year...

I bought this pattern "Under the Southern Stars" by Sue Daley...paper pieced, will be a great one to take out to patchwork gatherings, and keep my hands busy in the evening....It's available from Busy Fingers Patchwork...oh and looking at my tiny Tumbler quilt here, reminds me I'd like to make another big tumbler quilt..

Of course, I have to make "Baskets for Betsy", by Carol Hopkins in my favourite Civil War repro fabrics...I have had this pattern for a couple of years now, every time I come across it in my sewing room I admire it, and perhaps this year I will make a start on it..Pop on over and check out all Carol's gorgeous CW patterns.

Calico Garden, another design I fell in love with a couple of years ago...gorgeous applique and nine patch piecing....the original quilt is owned by the Shelburne Museum, in Vermont

I did make a start on this one, but put it away for some time to work on other things...time to get back on track and work on it a bit more..

As I said , maybe a bit ambitious to even dream of attempting all this in 2012..and finish off a couple of UFO's....but I can dream...
                                                                   Have a great day...♥