Something for Me

Today was a lovely day, sewing with my Friday friends ! At last I finished the 10  French inspired placemats (reversable) !  For ME !

Also bought a gorgeous bit of French linen, cut to size, a quick hem, and there it is, lovely runner! ( I just adore how my new little Christmas tree goes with it ).

PS, very excited as my Mum is on her way to the airport in Johannesburg, to come and visit us here in Australia !

My Baby all Grown Up !

I do apologise for my absents in blogland for so long. since ma dad and grandma's deaths only weeks apart, I just lost my mojo. I have been following everyone else's blogs, but just didn't have a desire to blog myself.

I have been quilting though and will take some piccies and put them on. I finished the tumbler baby quilt as soon as the baby was born and the mummy was very happy.   I also finished another baby quilt top and as soon as the baby is born December I will finish that one off too.

I am busy making some placemats FOR MYSELF as a class projects on Fridays at my sewing group. Hopefully they will be ready for Christmas! I also finished the top for my daughter's batik Jelly Roll quilt.

My mum is arriving in 2 weeks from South Africa and when I was over there for my dad's funeral I brought back a suitcase full of his old shirts! I am busy cutting them up to make Mum a lapquilt to take back home in February. It is a bit upsetting at times when I cut up his shirts! Hope I can make something nice with them. If anyone has ideas for a pattern please share! They are pretty bland and plain colours.

Oh and I almost forgot, I am still keeping up with my block swaps each month!

Would love to share with  you that my oldest daughter (4 in the picture below) has just finished school and had her Formal last Wednesday! How time flies! It was a lovely night and she was smiling ALL the time! So blessed to have her as a daughter! She is currently at Schoolies !

Chat soon!

Another Goodbye

My dear Granny passed away at the unbelievably blessed age of 98 years old!  I took this picture only 8 weeks ago when I was in South Africa for my Dad's funeral.   She had a rich and full live, always smiling, never complaining and was loved by all.

My heart goes out to my Mum the most, losing both her husband (53 years of marriage) and almost on the day 2 months later, her mum.   Not easy.  But God is gracious and gives us strength !

Inspired Wardrobe...... The Help

I saw The Help last night. What a wonderful movie! And the outfits! I was transformed into another era. So nice to see many of those back in the shops.

To see some of those outfits ffrom the movie you can hop over to this post!

Inspired Wardrobe: Skeeter from The Help

Birthdays and Babies

Happy Birthday to me !!!  That was the 8th September...

Lunch with my friends and daughters at Terrigal Beach

Dinner with my precious family !  

TODAY.....

So today I finished my first baby tumbler top for a little girl! There are about 4 more babies on their way and this was so much fun and easy (thanks to the Accuquilt Cutter) to cut and piece this top. 

I decided to cut the sides to make it square, think it looks ok that way?

Now if only I knew if I should make more boy or girl ones????  

Miss You Dad

It's Fathers Day in Australia today. I feel so lost today as my Daddy passed away 6 weeks ago and this is the first time I don't have a dad to call up and have a chat with. But the memories remain and I give tribute today to a fine God-fearing man who meant so much to me!  Love you Pappa, we will meet again one day!

GOing good

It's school holidays in Australia and I am determined to do some sewing. I have been working on some block swaps.... some good, some I am going to redo as I don't like the results.  Most of all I have been playing with my new GO! dies. I have partnered up with my friend Helen to do a tumbler quilt and we are both enjoying the tumbler die. Mine has a bit of snag, but useable for now. The friendly lady from the Sewing Box will replace it soon.   I have also played with the 5'' square die. I have cut around 100 charms from 2 different French General ranges (scraps) and will combine that with the 2 FG charms packs I bought a while ago. So, 3 ranges of French General in one quilt ! The first batch were slightly off by 1/8 '' and I was NOT happy. Then I made sure to follow the grain of the fabric and put a piece of paper between the fabric and the mat and then it came out perfect.  Note to self..... use your tools as directed....   quilters don't cut corners!    Love my Go!

NO MORE SPENDING THIS MONTH !!!

What a fun day! My 2 besties and I hopped on a chartered bus last Wednesday to go to the Sydney Craft and Quilt Festival. Imagine a busload of quilters, chatting and laughing for all but 2 hours driving down to Sydney. Did we have fun!!!!! such a great show. At 4pm we HAD to head back home again, (SIGH...)

As feared I did come home with a few FQ's!  Have a look....


Central Park by Kate Spain

Soul Blossom by amy Butler

Spotted Owl by the Alexander Henry Fabrics Collection

Some random fabric to be used in a baby quilt soon.

Mrs March's Collection by Lecien

I also managed to catch up sending off a few siggies this month and my block (Jacob's Ladder in blues and greens) for my Australian Block swap partner in Canada.

Did I mention I bought the hexagon die for my AccuQuilt GO! Think it might arrive tomorrow. Naughty girl! NO MORE SPENDING THIS MONTH   ( what's the dat today.... the 27th, phew what a relief)

More Dies

No photos today, just an update...  I bought 2 new dies for my AccuQuilt, the circles die and the hearts die ! Very exciting !

Also started yet another Jelly Roll quilt similar to the ones I posted the other day, this time with Hoffman Bali Pops. Very curious to see the result myself. I am not rushing to get this one done. I will try to finish it next Friday at my quilting group.

In two weeks time it's the Sydney Craft Show and it is a huge quilt show as well. Looking forward to a great day!

Looks SICK !

As a result of the quilt I made for my Ouma's (Nana) 98th birthday, I decided to make a similar one for a 21st birthday. It is for a guy and I thought those colours  (Charity by Moda) will be nice.

Again I joined all the Jelly Rolls in one long strip. I did however use 2 JR's this time, as I wanted it to be bigger than a lap quilt and cover his bed. After the first JR was used up. I joined strips from the next one until it was the right size. I used a brown for the backing and leftover JR strips for the binding.

The quilting is just a large meandering pattern (quick!) .  It was delivered this weekend and the guy was very happy with it.

When asking how it looked on his bed, he said: " My bed looks SICK!"  Don't worry, in Ozzie slang that means COOL !

If you Have to Go, You have to GO!

After Googling for hours , tossing and turning, getting advice from a quilting friend, etc. I decided to take the leap and invest in an AccuQuilt GO! I am looking forward to trying it out in the next few days, probably this weekend.  I have 3 finished quilt tops to quilt before I am supposed to start any new project, but with the GO! staring at me, it's going to be just about impossible. Additional to the dies that came with the GO! I ordered the 5'' square (to make my own charm squares and the big tumbler die. Can't wait! 

Opening up my GO!

                                           Placing a random piece of fabric.....

 

                                                             Turn, and turn and turn.....

                                               and... wha-la ... like magic, there they are !

YeAH.....

Quilted Bickies

Have you EVER seen something a gorgeous as THESE ?

We visited dear friends from Uni days a week or so ago. They live in Albany, West Australia (down at the southern part). Beautiful !  My hubby and his best friend had a ball, fishing and doing boy things.  Christine and I had so much (more) fun doing girly stuff, like .... chatting ALL day about everything and anything, shopping, having coffees etc. Christine has made some beautiful quilts herself, but her latest passion is making speciality biscuits.  Knowing I like to quilt, she secretly made these especially for me (while I was already in bed!) They are so special and I feel very spoilt ! Thanks Christine !   She also made some gorgeous ones for my teenage girls to take home to NSW.  Must say there is one huge advantage to decorating cookies .... you can eat your mistakes! 

made by Christine @ BickieBlessings

It's Raining, it's Pouring....

Phew, can't believe how much rain we've had since yesterday morning! My poor daughter of 16 is at a church camp too!

Good thing is that this weather is excellent for getting some sewing done!

First off I did my block swap for the month.  Teena (my partner for this month) requested an Ohio Star in green and blues. It will be in the mail tomorrow. Here is just a sneak peak.

Next I finished quilting and binding my Jelly Roll quilt from the previous posting. Just did some freemotion quilting all over and used the same fabric for the backing and binding, a beautiful Marcus fabric called Civil War Tribute Collection.

Then at 9.30pm last night (!) I started a little baby blanket for someone at church. It is a little cotton and  flannel blanket, using the self binding mitred corner method. It came out ok for a first go. Sure the baby won't mind the little imperfections.

Hmmm..... let's see, I must just get something else done this afternoon.... maybe i should think about feeding my family too!

Jelly Roll Fun

I saw a picture once of a Jelly Roll made by sewing ALL the strips together and then by means of a clever and easy method eventually end up with a very random quilt! Looked like a fun thing to do. I have all but forgotten about it until I saw a video last week about it. I decided then and there to do it! So Friday at my quilting group I did it! I got a few strange looks when starting out!  It took me longer to sew the strips together with a mitred seam than finishing the rest. It took me about 5 hours (not 35 minutes as the one lady in video) but I wonder if they perhaps attached the strips and then started timing them? Anyhow,  have a look at the video !!!

I made mine using Charity by Moda.... and this was my result. Was really fun to do !

Marvelous Melbourne

Beautiful Giveaway !

Vignette Stitchers is currently offering this lovely bundle of 15 Fat Quarters/ Hop over to read about it and enter to win!

MARVELOUS MELBOURNE

I just returned from a marvelous weekend away in Melbourne. Other than visiting 3 sets of friends I also had some 'me-time' exploring this vibrant, friendly city! I visited Tessuti fabric store (WONDERFUL), went to the QV Markets and ended up in Brunswick Street, doing some serious vintage window-shopping, well ok, some real shopping too!  Such a visitor friendly city, getting on and of the trams, so easy! Great coffee shops in little arcades scattered through the city centre. 

Thanks Melbourne, will see you again someday!

Back after ....months!

Hi Everyone

Wasn't sure if I would find any followers left after my long absence, but youbeautiful people are still here, thanks so much. Well it was wonderful to have my family over from South Africa, but 3 months without sewing and blogging was hard. In the mean time the siggies kept on coming (international signature swaps) and then there was my Jan and Feb block swaps as well. Everyone was so patient. I have in the mean time played some catch-up, not quite there yet, but getting there.

Here are some of the siggies on their way and the 2 block swaps I mailed out today!

Good to be Back!

Siggies on their way....

Jacobs Ladder in Green & Brown country colours

                                            Squares upon a Square in Teal & White