Sunday Catch-Up

Happy Sunday! We're almost through the first month of autumn, so our days are still nice (it's reached 30ºC the last couple of days) but the evenings are getting much cooler.

Cooler evenings mean that it's nice to crochet or hand quilt a project. My Berry Pie Blanket is coming along nicely and I've added 26 rows since my last post. Each colour is 2 rows.



I love the look of this stitch and the texture is really lovely. 

I have a few UFO's sitting in sewing room, so after finishing my Ocean Vibes EPP Pillow for last weeks blog hop, I thought I'd work on one of those for a few days, rather than start something new. 

I finished putting together my Smitten quilt a long time.  Years. And thought, geez I'd love to hand quilt this thing... and I'm still going, adding a few stitches here and there before putting it away again. I think I've still got years before I finish this one. My first post about this quilt was back in 2017!


The garden needs a lot of weeding and trimming but DH is doing it in stages as our green bin fills up each week. Do you have a green bin collection where you live? Our waste collection used to be fortnightly but our local council has started a program called FOGO (Food Organics, Garden Organics) which is where we throw our food scraps (everything including veg scraps, meat bones etc) and throw them into the green bin along with the usual green garden waste (lawn clippings, weeding, pruning etc) weekly. It's a pretty good idea as they take it away and turn it all into compost.


I'm not sure what we'll plant in the vegetable garden this winter. We usually go with cabbages, cauliflowers, beans and broccoli but have rarely had much success with them. Something to think about.

I finished a couple of books this week too. 

Book 8/26 for 2021 was a horror/supernatural audiobook "The House on Cold Hill" by Peter James

Moving from the heart of Brighton and Hove to the Sussex countryside is a big undertaking for Ollie and Caro Harcourt and their twelve-year-old daughter Jade.   
Within days of moving in, it becomes apparent that the Harcourt family aren't the only residents of the house.

I don't normally enjoy this genre in books or films (I'm a big chook) but I didn't mind this story. I think when it comes to audiobooks, the narrator makes a huge difference in the enjoyment of the book. 

There is a second book in this series which I've already put on reserve with my library.


Book 9/26 of 2021 is Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham.
A girl is discovered hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a terrible crime. Half-starved and filthy, she won’t tell anyone her name, or her age, or where she came from. Maybe she is twelve, maybe fifteen. She doesn’t appear in any missing persons file, and her DNA can’t be matched to an identity. Six years later, still unidentified, she is living in a secure children’s home with a new name, Evie Cormac.  When she initiates a court case demanding the right to be released as an adult, forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven must determine if Evie is ready to go free. 

Meanwhile, Cyrus is called in to investigate the shocking murder of a high school figure-skating champion, Jodie Sheehan, who dies on a lonely footpath close to her home. Pretty and popular, Jodie is portrayed by everyone as the ultimate girl-next-door, but as Cyrus peels back the layers, a secret life emerges—one that Evie Cormac, the girl with no past, knows something about. A man haunted by his own tragic history, Cyrus is caught between the two cases—one girl who needs saving and another who needs justice. What price will he pay for the truth?
This book was quite good and it had me interested right from the start. The storyline flows and Evie Cormack is an interesting and unexpected character with a lot of secrets that we only slowly discover. 

I've started reading the second book in this Cyrus Haven series called "When She was Good" which continues on with Evie's story.

A now for some exciting news *insert drum roll here*

I've joined the Crafters Edge Design Team and look forward to a fun year of being an ambassador for this company. 


Crafters Edge produce a die cutting machine and dies which cut both fabric and paper (hello lots of lovely English Paper Piecing). We had a zoom meeting with the other team members last week which was fun, especially since a few were bloggers that I already follow. 

I've put in my request for some fun and different dies and I am really looking forward to creating new monthly projects to share with you.

Once everything arrives, I'll share more news.

How was your week? 

18 comments

  1. I love your quilt and your crochet!

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    1. Thank you so much Karen. These are my slow-burn projects that will keep me going for a while :)

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  2. Your Berry Pie blanket is gorgeous and your quilt is so stunning.It is just turning spring time here so we are getting ready to plant veggies soon. Since I live in a rural area, I compost as much as possible. Have a blessed Sunday.

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    1. Hi Melissa, I would love to live in a more rural area, even if only for the garden space. Hope you've had a lovely weekend with a little bit of crafty time :)

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  3. That crochet reminds me of an aunt now long gone who did a very similar one in wool. I know its somewhere around but I do wonder where it went.

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    1. I love how we remember our dear loved ones who've passed away by seeing little things to remind of them. Hopefully your aunts blanket re-appears :)

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  4. Oh my but your crochet is looking SO lovely! I know it's sort of a pain to change colors that frequently, but it makes the design very effective. I can understand how you love it. It's nice that you're hand-quilting too. As I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate it more. As for your green bin composing program... we don't have anything like that here. Until a few months ago, we separated trash and recyclables, but that recently changed to putting everything in one container that's picked up twice weekly and taken to an incineration facility. Nothing is sorted anymore. Congratulations on becoming a Crafter's Edge Ambassador. That's very exciting for you! I'm not familiar with that brand, but haven't gotten into template fabric-cutting systems. I tried a machine one time and discovered too much fabric waste! I keep scraps as small as 1-1/2" X 1-1/2", so it was painful to see what was left behind. Of course I had to save it all, and spent the most time hand-cutting the left-over scraps into useable sizes!

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    1. Oh that's sad that your recycling isn't separated any longer. Could it possibly be due to covid? Hopefully over the next few months, life will slowly return to normal and things like sorting recycling will come back.

      I don't use a template cutting machines either so am really looking forward to working with this one. I chose dies for things which are a little trickier to cut (like circles, drunkards path etc) than the standard strips. I'm sure it'll be lots of fun and I can just see myself trying to save scraps too :)

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  5. Great progress with the blanket.

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    1. Thanks Karen. It's coming along nicely and it's quite nice to crochet while watching the telly in the evening.

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  6. I love anything Michael Robotham writes, I have When she was good but I haven't started it yet. Great news about crafters edge I have a big shot but can't find dies so they might be compatible. I am loving Berry Pie but not the FOGO bin, the concept is good but now that we don't have chooks or a dog we have meat scraps and the bin stinks.

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    1. I started "When she was good" the other day and it's another one that has got me straight from the start. The story continues straight on from 'good girl, bad girl'.
      We like the fogo bin though yeah, the green bin does get smelly. We put most of the fruit/veg scraps into our own compost but they other stuff goes to fogo.

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  7. loving the look of your blanket... I was looking at my yarn yesterday thinking about a winter crochet blanket project.....
    Hugz

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    1. Did you get the $20 voucher from Spotlight on the weekend? Valid for all NSW and QLD residents until the end of May. I might go and buy some yarn too with my voucher.

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  8. Your Berry Pie blanket is filled with lovely colour and as for your Smitten quilt, how pretty it is. I have always loved the Smitten pattern. I live down here in Tassie, so we too, are enjoying lovely warm days. But, as you say the mornings and evenings are getting a wee bit chilly. Soon there will be glorious autumnal hues everywhere.

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    1. Hi Kim, thank you! Smitten is a slowwwww project.
      I love, love, LOVE Tassie. We were meant to visit again last year, but didn't end up travelling anywhere. Hopefully later this year.
      Thanks for stopping by my blog :)

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  9. Your posts are so interesting! First of all, congratulations on becoming an ambassador!

    Your Berry Pie Blanket is amazing. Is it acrylic yarn? It looks like something silkier.

    And I love your EPP quilt. You've thought of so many different ways to use the hexagon with other pieces. I'd like to try adding triangles in my next EPP.

    Interesting idea about the green bin. Do they give compost back to you afterward? I usually make my own compost.

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    1. Thank you so much Marti. It's going to be an exciting year working with the new machine and dies. I'm usually a measure and cut kinda of quilter.

      Yes the yarn is acrylic, but really lovely soft acrylic. It's by Stylecraft and I order it from the UK. It's my favourite yarn to work with.

      The compost collected and created by the local council is used around council grounds, botanic gardens, help in growing more vegetation around our area... those sorts of things. We have our own compost bins here at home, but only on a small scale.

      Thanks for stopping by :)

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