It's all about Apples

I'm not quite sure why, but I have this urge to write a post about apples! I know this is a quilting blog but my heading does say "sprinkled with a glimpse of life down on the farm" so perhaps I'll get away with it?!
Admittedly, I have been immersed in apples lately as the trees we planted a few years ago are getting more and more prolific.

I have just realised what a comfort fruit they are - other fruits come and go, sweet juicy peaches, plums, nectarines shine for a few weeks - we feast on them to the point of gluttony, but then they are gone for another year.

But Apples! They last and last... with a variety of trees they seem to go on for months.

Apples connect me to my past and my family. Many a childhood hour was spent around the kitchen table peeling bucket after bucket of apples - us kids and Dad peeling while Mum cored and sliced and cooked. Dad instigated "longest peel" contests and regularly told Mum to make sure there were no 'toe-nails' left in the stewed fruit ... you know those tiny bits of core that when they cook up feel like toe nails in your mouth (not that I've ever had toenails in my mouth but it's a good analogy). These apparently were common in Dad's boarding school days but happily it's a while since I've found a toenail in my stewed fruit.

Once Dad stopped milking cows fulltime and sort of retired, he spent the last 30 years of his life planting, growing, pruning and harvesting fruit (and nut) trees, adding to the orchard that his father had planted.

Part of Dad's orchard - all fruit and nut trees.

Homegrown fruit seems to have always been part of my life and apples have been the backbone.

And so lately it has been a comforting time, peeling, cooking and bottling. Making desserts (and cakes and muffins) with apples.
 You cant beat it!
Do you have a comfort fruit?

I"m not the only one liking apples.

So there, I've got this out of my system! Thank you for letting me indulge myself.
Normal crafting transmission will resume soon :-)
Have a great day!
Happy stitching,

Some practise and a finish or two

When I looked at my to-do list at the start of the week, I wasn't sure how much of it I would get done, given that I had limited sewing time; however I came up with a clever idea and managed to kill two birds with one stone.
I wanted to do a little more practise of the scroll flower motif which Amy has introduced for this month's free motion Monday.  And I also wanted to make my ED a cushion as part of her birthday present this week.
Yep, you've got it, ED has a cushion with Amy's scroll flower on it!

First of all, a small amount of applique.....

then some quilting.......

Most of the photos have been taken at night and the colour is a bit
washed out. This is pretty close to the true colour.

It was good to have a project to work on, rather than just random quilt sandwiches. I like this scroll flower design; I used a lot of echoing to change direction and get out of corners. I think the echoing adds to the design.

I did this on my Bernina as my big machine is all set up with a quilt for the MOML.

— ta-da! One completed cushion!

ED and some friends came around for a birthday tea last night; during dessert I was able to grab a few moments to sew the last of the binding down.... it was a great way to get out of dessert duties (oh the joy of having adult children :-))... and in spite of a bit of guessing, I was able to keep what I was making a secret until handover :-)

Simple back with a splash of colour.

Another little giftie thing I completed earlier in the week is this little hanging, which I made for a friend. I used the spool pattern *here* on Edyta Sitar's Laundry Basket Quilts blog. It is an easy way to make the spools, starting with 5 equal sized squares which you cut up then sew back together (of course!)!

Always interesting, isn't it, to think, that it took 5 x 2inch squares to make
one 2.5inch block!!

I have been inspired by the Grinch and am trying to have a handmade (made with love) element in all my gift giving this year. I've got to the end of April and have managed so far, which is a good start, just need to keep it up...!!

The weather is certainly telling us that it is Autumn this morning, I think I am going to have to find some warmer clothes. Once the clouds burn off though, the day will likely warm up and we will be peeling off the layers! Maybe I could also warm up now with a bit of activity in the kitchen, and finish cleaning up after last night's dinner party :-)  (One drawback of dishwashers that you cant get all the dishes done at once - I wouldn't have it any other way though!)
Have a good day everyone,
Happy stitching and thank you for visiting,

A Big Weekend and a Small Quilt!

I baked for the girls - but they didn't eat a crumb......

I went on retreat - but I stayed at home.....

My little online quilting group have just had a Skype version of a quilting retreat! We chose a quilt from a book we all have, warned our families, and got sewing!
It was so much fun! Time zones only got in the way a little and we seemed to sew our way through them :-)
This is the little quilt we chose to do —

 

It is Square Dance, by Lori Smith, out of her book Fat Quarter Quilting. It finishes at 16" x 20".
It was fun to do as it had the mix of piecing and applique... its size meant we mostly got to the quilting and binding stage by the end of the weekend.

A couple of posts ago, I asked if anyone had any great tips on invisible machine applique.... this quilt was a good practise for me; I worked hard at getting it as invisible as I could and have finally realised you cant have it totally invisible - I think the look I was striving for doesn't exist!! However I am happy with it and will write a little more about it in another post another day :-)

This was the first time I have used a wool:poly batting mix and I am quite pleased with it. (60/40 from Matilda's Own). It has a lovely puff and it also has a beautiful weight and feel. Dense quilting wasn't needed (which was good as the weekend was over!). I'm hooked! (And it kept my lap warm while sewing on the binding too!).
Thank you girls for your company!! Joanne shows her quilt here, and Wendy's is here.  We chatted with Joan too but she wasn't sewing the same little quilt.

I put the last few stitches in this block last night, my third from the Quiltmania mystery from last year. (Halfway there!)

Do you rememer the VW van I pattern tested a few blogposts back? Juliet now has it on her Craftsy site so if you loved it, you can now make your own!! It was fun to make.
Apologies to those of you whom I haven't answered after my last post, I hope to catch up soon. (Been busy sewing!)
Have a lovely day, happy stitching,