If you ever need a break from complicated quilt patterns, try laying out different designs with squares. I have piles of 2 1/2 inch squares, cut from leftover pieces of fabric and sorted into colours. These simple shapes are fun to arrange and stitch together easily by machine. I recently made a quilt using squares […]
Welcome
Hello! I’m Erica Spinks and I’m glad you are here. I write mostly about gardening, reading, writing, quilt making and creativity.
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I’d love to hear from you, so please leave a comment on any of my posts if anything resonates with you.
Bluebells
The bluebells in my garden have thrust their flower spikes towards the sun and opened their blooms. They are plentiful in my garden, some surprising me for the first time, but it’s a particular patch that draws my attention. They are the bulbs I transplanted from my father’s garden. His garden was fronted by a […]
Spring equinox
Hello and welcome to the spring equinox! Longer days and warmer weather are on the way for us here in the Southern hemisphere. One of my crabapples is in glorious bloom and, even though the flowers will only last a few weeks, it is worth it. I always celebrate the spring equinox; it’s the period […]
Only Murders in the Building
The number of streaming services showing TV series and movies is increasingly annoying me. It’s fragmenting audiences as people either can’t afford or choose not to subscribe to multiple services. It’s even more annoying when a series you were already watching changes to a different service. So, when you constantly hear and read about a […]
Book review: The Ink Black Heart
The latest book in the Strike series finds detective agency business partners Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott involved in the investigation of the death of Edie Ledwell. Edie is co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, and had earlier visited the agency to request help tracking down the true identity of the unknown […]
Time for tulips
I knew as soon as we moved to a cooler climate I would plant tulips. I’d never been able to successfully grow them in Sydney (humidity? microclimate?). So, after we moved, I had to learn about their requirements and tap into local knowledge. May is tulip planting time in the Southern Highlands. I always take […]
Newsletter: growth and colour
Hello to you! Here we are, heading towards the spring equinox in a couple of weeks and I am longing for the temperatures to warm. Partially so the blossoms and leaves emerge on my deciduous trees and also so people living nearby no longer have the need to use their wood-burning heaters. The smoke those […]
Binding time
There’s a queen size quilt sitting in my cupboard. I finished piecing it at least five years ago and it was professionally quilted at least three years ago. It still doesn’t have binding. I’m not sure of the stumbling block. Do I imagine it’s already finished? Does the thought of preparing binding strips put me […]
Rhubarb
I’ve always been entranced by the beauty of well-tended vegetable and fruit gardens. Those surrounded by quirky fences or walled gardens seem so romantic. All that flourishing greenery, just waiting to be harvested and eaten. Most photos of vegetable gardens found in books and online are shot when the beds are looking at their best, […]
Book review: Keeping up Appearances
Living in a small rural town can have its challenges. Inter-related families, the stress of keeping small businesses and farms working, and the threats that some people see to their ‘traditional’ ways of life. Sometimes it takes a newcomer to town to sort through the complexities and offer a different way of looking at the […]