More Stars

The wide-eyed babies are now ready to be sewn into a quilt top.

I love the Lake House (Holly Holderman) dotty fabrics.

Seeing Stars

As a change from quilting I decided to sew the sweet pyjama babies into blocks

I'll sew the rows together tomorrow maybe - time to get back to some quilting.

More Cuties

Some sweet little critters today ...

"Wide Eyed Lil' Cuties"

Little Cuties

While Jenni was here today sewing a dress for herself, it was my turn to use the embroidery machine.

"Baby Animals in Pyjamas"

These are the cutest little guys and girls.  I've started stitching out some wide-eyed bugs and grubs.  All of these embroidered blocks will go into a baby quilt soon.

I also started some quilting at long last.

"Ruffles 'n' Rows" - Natalie Bird

Beautiful weather here so far this weekend.  John is away dirt-bike riding till Monday morning so I'm hoping to spend tomorrow quilting as well.

Almost Finishes

In June 2009 I went to Kingaroy for the first time.  I took along "Simplicity" to sew up over the weekend.  I got this far then sewed these pieces together and made the outer flying geese borders when I came home.  The quilt has sat in the cupboard ever since.

Today I sewed the final outer borders onto the quilt top and it's now in the pile waiting to be quilted.

Simplicity is such a pretty fabric range and the design is really lovely.

When we came back from holidays in January, I sewed up a very quick quilt top in Fig Tree's Buttercup fabric.  That quilt top also needed borders and they were done today as well.

Another quilt top for the ever-growing pile along with this little one.

I have a drawer in the sewing room where I store bindings for the quilts I hope to finish off one day ...

It's gettng a bit full.  Think it's time to do some quilting.

More Squares

Jenni has been playing with the embroidery machine again - this time some really cute owls, which she's made into cushion covers

while I have been sewing more Granny Squares and putting the quilt top together.

It looks really busy with the floral sashings and borders but I didn't have enough of the white-on-white left to use for a narrow border.  This has been a great design to use up some lovely leftovers.  Not sure what's on the agenda for today - maybe I should do a bit of housework while I think about it.

Short Attention Span

That's me lately - can't seem to settle on doing one thing.  While reading this blog yesterday I came across this quilt and thought how lovely it is and what a great way to use up favourite left-overs.  Then I remembered I had some leftover of jelly roll pieces from Twirling Bliss, about 0.5m of the white-on-white from Hot Cross plus a little bit of the red spot fabric to use for the centre of the blocks, so last night I started cutting and had to sew up one block.  There was enough fabric in those leftovers to make 12 blocks and I have plenty of the Bliss large floral to use for a border.

Granny Square Block

The block isn't set out precisely as in the original, because I don't have enough darks and lights, but I'm really happy with how it looks and thrilled to bits to be making another quilt out of these pretty leftovers.

Something else pretty exciting happened this week too.  I have been asked to make a cot quilt on commission for a baby due in May - the only requirement is that grey is used and, after discussing fabrics with the soon-to-be nanna, I'll be using some of the Little Apples range by Aneela Hoey - it's so sweet, teemed with a couple of grays and a red from A Day in the Country.

Pretty Maids all in a Row

The embroidery machine worked overtime yesterday

.

Soft, fluffy bathrobes for the girls on The Big Day.  The colours have nothing to do with the wedding party colours.

Not much other sewing happening here - I've been trying to quilt the zig zag quilt for the last 2 weeks and there have been plenty of interruptions.  Maybe I'll do some more this afternoon.  I can't believe how busy life is when I'm not going out to work.

2011

Playing with Picasa:

Family and Friends

Sewing etc

And Now for Something Completely Different ...

A friend told me about a website she found that designs/sells very funky, extreme machine embroidery designs.  The designs are definitely not everyone's taste but are very popular with the "young 'uns".  Jenni bought a few and has started stitching them out on the embroidery machine.

This design takes over 3-1/2 hours to stitch out

By the end of the night Jenni had made a cushion to give to her friend as a housewarming present.

Meanwhile, I didn't do any quilting - I sewed a few of my pinwheels together for our on-line group's mystery BOM

and played with some pretty fabrics that I'd cut up some time last year.

Mini version of Camille Roskelley's "Dream Big"

Bec had sent me a few honey bun strips of "Spring Magic" by April Cornell and I added a couple of pretties from my stash.  Not sure what size this little quilt will end up - that will depend on when I run out of these fabrics.  I have more of the Lake House pearlised white spot and the pale peach that I may use for borders.

Looks like the rain has gone for a while - beautiful weekend weather here.

Blogging from an iPad

I tried to do a blog post from our iPad using an App called "Blog Press" but there's some issue with our network and it won't post.

The last few days I've been pin-basting quilts.  Anyone who has visited has been roped in to pinning too.  The first quilt is being quilted but it's very slow going - lots of interruptions, which I don't mind.

iPad photo

The new sewing machine is great - after these 3 quilts the machine will be going on the frame and I'll get stuck into the rest of the quilt tops in the pile.  Maybe some more quilting over the weekend.  Lots of rain here the last couple of days.

One More ...

Finished off another cot quilt last night - the quilting on this one was started well before Christmas but it was put aside (and forgotten about).  Came across the quilt when I was sorting through a pile of stuff in the sewing room and was able to do the quilting over the last couple of days and sew down the binding last night.  It's a mix of flannel (pale blue/white spot) and cotton.

33-3/4" (85 cms) square

 

 

Blogger is loading photos sideways again.

I think I have one more cot quilt cut out ready to piece but that one can wait for a while.  I'm hoping to baste a couple of quilt tops this afternoon, if something else doesn't distract me.

Songs for Nobodies

Yesterday Mum and I went to Sydney for the day - first I had an appointment at the Chanel Makeup Studio in Myer.  I've never had my makeup done before so I wanted to have a trial run before The Big Day - no photos.  We met up with The Bride, her mother and aunt for lunch and a bit of shopping before going to the Opera House with Elizabeth and Jared (her best friend) to see this show:

Brilliant!  Stunning!

It was a beautiful day in Sydney - the harbour was sparkling and it's been just as beautiful here today.  So many people mowed their lawns today.

Two Finishes

Rain, rain go away ... it's supposed to be summer here in Australia.  After such an awfully hot day on Monday we've had solid rain for the rest of the week.  So many part of our country are flooding (again).  All we can do is stay indoors and I did a bit of sewing yesterday.  I needed to sew binding onto the table topper but was unsure how to mitre the corners as I've only ever mitred 90 degree corners on quilts.  Google came to the rescue - found this great video tutorial.

Not all the corners are perfect but they're ok.

34" x 34"

The girls in our on-line group chose great blocks and I'm really happy with how the table topper has turned out, except for a couple of my fabric choices because two of the blocks don't have enough contrast.  I love the "Oh Cherry Oh" fabrics - the same range I'm using for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler.

On Tuesday night, at stitching, I finished the punchneedle part of this bag.  It's a Rosalie Quinlan design called "Welcome Home Bag".  I received the pattern and starter kit when I went to the first Inspired Stitches a few years ago - took me a while to get around to making it.  I started doing this punchneedle when we were away on holidays - not the best activity for car travel.

6-1/2" x 8"

Might do some cutting out and tracing today.  It's our friend's birthday today so we will be going to her place for dinner tonight - should be a fun night.

Brain Food

 While at the hairdresser this morning I came across this article in an old Woman's Day:

Couldn't get the photo to post vertically - the article says:

"Being creative is good the the mind ... but throw away the paintbrush and pick up a sewing needle, recommends a Scottish study by the University of Glasgow.  Researchers found that quilting improved wellbeing in ways that other activities could not, adding that the use of bright colours was 'uplifting'.  The activity also distracted fro the stress of work while offering challenges such as maths and geometry." 

Scientific proof that what we love to do is good for us.