Spring is in the air......

la, la, la......well not really spring yet, just feels a bit like spring after our cold and damp winter.  Makes me feel like doing things.  The sun is shining and the ground is starting to dry up a little.  Some of the early flowers are out, and I have been pulling weeds out,

After a bit of mucking about I settled on the floral motifs for my new basket block I showed you back here.  The flowers are from a few different ranges, and the leaves from others still.

 I am doing the applique with button hole stitch this time.  My stitches are about 1mm wide and 1mm long.  It is a very traditional way to complete the applique.  I am putting the pieces straight onto the background, not using vlisofix.  You get a much softer finish.

The thread I am using is the same for all the pieces.  you could use a thread to match each of the flower colours, but I stuck with neutral.....once again, this is quite traditional.

In the "olden days" they only had a couple of thread colours...white, black, probably grey, and maybe tan.  My thread is Auriful Mako 28 weight, with the grey base.  People familiar with Aurifil know it to be a wonderful soft thread to work with, and they change the colours of the base, according to the thread weight.  I am planning to use this thread for hand quilting on my next "big" project.  I have used the YLI Select for years, but find the colour I like - Ecru- getting hard to find.  The needle is a Milliners No.8.

Talking about hand quilting........
I have started the basket and rose quilt.  I am doing this one with "big stitch" quilting.  I am going to quilt 1/4" inside the sashing on both sides, then 1/4" inside the blocks, then follow the shapes a bit.  Not much planning involved as yet.

 I started the stitching last night, and got quite a bit done.  Hope to have this one finished for the Adelaide quilt show in November.

These blocks are 8" finished, and I cut the sashing strips 2" wide, so they finish 1 1/2".  A few people had asked me the size, so I am telling you all.

These are my new needles.  I have been using the Clover sashiko needles, then found these from Pepper Corey.  They are a little finer, with various eye sized, to take all the thicker threads.  They glide through the layers smoother than the sashiko needles as well.  I am going to try out each of the needles before I settle on the one I like the best.  I did have some for sale, but sold out totally at the Adelaide Stitches and hand craft show.  Once I have them back, I will let you know.