Sweet Dreams blocks are finished!

Well I’ve finally finished sewing all of the Sweet Dreams blocks and I’m very happy with the way they have turned out. 

Block 15 – another block where I could add a few more rabbits…

Block 16

Block 17 – this block really pops from a distance…

Block 18

Now comes the decisions about how to place the blocks so I’ll play around with them on the design wall for a few days. here’s a few layouts I’m considering:

2. 

3.

At the moment #2 is my favourite but I’ll give a couple more days of consideration.

Other than sewing news – life is good here. I feel happier and more content than I have in years so I have no complaints, no regrets. DH is ‘working’ from home a few days each week as he winds down and we are enjoying hanging out together, sitting around drinking coffee, talking about our plans for the house and trips we want to do – its nice to have more time together.  The weather is cold and snowy, perfect to be cozy inside working at the sewing machine, the smell of soups and stews from the kitchen during the day, not having to go out into the cold to drive to work. Just taking each day as it comes and without any need to rush – retirement is good! 🙂 

“Contentment is not the fulfilment of what you want but the realisation of how much you already have.” Anonymous

Sweet Dreams & new quilt plans

 I’ve had a nice few days of sewing, getting caught up with my Sweet Dreams blocks and making plans for new quilts to sew. 

Block 11 – I made these with a pop of orange in the centre. I need to add another border strip around this but I’m still deciding on what fabric to use for the border.

Block 12 

Block 13 – It’s a simple basket but gosh I had to do a lot of unpicking and resewing with this block to get it right. Now that it’s finished I think the orange instead of the floral would be a better contrast but it will do as it is.

Block 14

I feel like I’m slowly starting to get into new routines now and having more energy to get things done is a lovely way to start the day after years of just feeling exhausted a lot of the time. Its amazing what a good nights sleep can do.

Yesterday I mowed the lawn which took me almost an hour and I really enjoyed it! Being outside in the sunshine instead of sitting in an office under a flourescent light looking at a computer all day is just wonderful!

DH is still at home resting after his surgery a few weeks ago and so he can’t do anything around the house at the moment. Last week he saw the surgeon who is thinking of taking him back for more surgery, we will know more after his next appointment next week. He has only 10 weeks until he retires so he may not be back at work for much of it.

I’ve been looking at lots of quilt patterns this week and have decided on my next quilt, its the  pattern Summer in the Country. I’ll use this fat quarter bundle – Cherry Lemonade – and some fabrics from my stash as well, so thats what I’m playing with at the moment.

Then this morning I saw some posts about Moda Blockheads 4 and it looks like a fun challenge. So I’m going to make a scrappy version of that. I love sampler quilts as there’s so many interesting blocks to make and I really need to reduce my scraps so this looks like fun.

Whats on my sewing table right now? I’m about to start work on Summer in the Country as soon as I finish this post.

Sweet Dreams blocks catch-up

 I’ve been catching up on the Sweet Dreams blocks over the weekend as well as catching up on sleep. It was so nice this morning to sleep in and then just have a leisurely breakfast with no thoughts of work in my head at all! 

I fussy cut flowers for both blocks, this is block 7.  I made a few mistakes with the direction of triangles and so it took twice as long as it should of with quite a bit of unpicking and re-doing, but its a gorgeous block now its done.

§Block 9 was simpler and quicker to sew.

On Saturday I finally  hung my ‘design wall’ up in the lounge room and then had a lovely time rearranging the blocks throughout the day until I settled on this arrangement for the centre panel.  I added the first border and I’m quite happy with how its coming together.

I opened my fat quarter package – its fabulous! I’ll post some pics soon. I’m going to have lunch now and then catch up on MAFs lol!