The Two of Us

"The Two of Us" is a very cute little bag designed by Rosalie Dekker.  I first made this back in January 2012 for a friend's birthday present, and thought it would make a very cute little bag for little ChaCha using some Tasha Noel charm squares a sweet friend had given to me.

I reduced the pattern by 20% to make it more ChaCha-size.

The jacket and overalls have been finished for months except for the buttons.  Delivered these to ChaCha as well - they should fit next year but you never know with her because she's so tall.  More patterns from the book I bought when Michael was a baby.

Mum and I had a a great day in Sydney on Saturday - shopping at IKEA then visits with our two little sweethearts and my bigger sweethearts.  ChaCha and Gulliver are so much fun and very entertaining.

"Cheerio" is now sewn together and waiting to be quilted.  I love how fresh and happy all the colours look together with the white/red polka dot background fabric.

Sunday afternoon was quilting time - "Marmalade" is done.  The binding is on too - hoping to stitch it down tonight.

Happy to recommend long-arm basting rather than pins - pulling out the threads in much easier than pinning a quilt.  I have another quilt that Karen basted for me a while ago and it will be quilted soon (I hope).

A work colleague and I went to the Helpmann Awards last night - this is an annual ceremony for live theatre in Ausralia and there are performances from various shows throughout the ceremony.  Lots of celebrity spotting.

"Matilda" was nominated for 13 awards and won all 13.

Social Butterfly

The silly season has hit with a bang - last week and this coming week are particularly busy at work, after hours and the weekends.  Lots of fun things happening, spending time with my little sweethearts (and my bigger sweethearts) and some sewing.

Mum and I went to see Schools Spectacular on Saturday afternoon - it's always a highlight of our year and once again was such a fabulous show.  Mum will be 88 on Friday.
 

After the show we visited the babies so I could give them each a package of goodies for December.  ChaCha's Christmas dress isn't quite finished - it will be soon.

Saturday night we were invited to an engagement party.  I was so happy to catch up with family I hadn't seen for ages especially for such a lovely occasion.

Machine embroidered a set of towels for Gabby and Mitch.

Another Stash and Dash bag is on its way to the new owner as a little surprise present.

Yesterday I was back in Sydney with The Schoolgirls - we went to see "Matilda" - loved it, and then had such a lovely time having dinner with my dearest friend Lynell - not often we can say we've been friends for over 55 years.

While I was out socialising Karen quilted two of my quilt tops:

Shortcake - photo borrowed from www.quiltingonthecoast.com.au

and

Off Track - photo borrowed from www.quiltingonthecoast.com.au

Off Track - photo borrowed from www.quiltingonthecoast.com.au

Having dinner with another dear frient tonight.  Wednesday night I'm going to see Hugh Jackman with friends from work.  I need to find some time to start decorating the house.  Everywhere else is looking very Christmassy - maybe tomorrow night as it will be 1 December.

Kiss Me

"Kiss Me" is a quilt designed by Fig Tree and Company.  My friend, Diann, and I started to make this quilt last year and it's been waiting to be quilted since June 2013.  I love these Bonnie and Camille fabrics ("Vintage Modern").

I love how the flying geese border looks like prairie points.

Karen quilted this one too - this spiral design is really lovely. 

A little while ago it was my turn to make a birthday present for one of our on-line group members.  The theme this year is a black and white bag with embellishment so I made Ric Rac's "Work in Progress" bag for my partner with Bloom's embroidery from her "Coquetterie" design.

Photo taken by Leanne

Fantastic Weekend Away

Friday night I flew down to Launceston to spend the weekend with some of my stitching buddies.  I was made very welcome by Cathy and her family (including Miss Millie).  It was pretty chilly when I arrived (4C) and an even chillier 3C on Saturday morning.  Lunch on Saturday was at the famous Cherry Shed - I was very happy to have the chance to visit.

Delicious food and wonderful company

After lunch some of us headed off to Sarah's shop in George Town to start some prep work for making the Weekender Travel Bag - as well as more eating etc (great pizzas in George Town).

I took a couple of presents with me:  Sew Together Bags for Sarah (with green zips) and Cathy (with burgundy zips)

and a Work in Progress bag for Sarah

 

 

as she celebrated a big birthday last week.

Some of the girls working away on Sunday

The girls threw a surprise party lunch for Sarah and me with presents, cupcakes, bubbles etc.  So lovely.  A few necessary purchases from Sarah for our upcoming class with Camille Roskelley (and a couple of extras)

and a photo of the girls from our on-line group who were there on Sunday

Me, Vicki, Sarah, Leanne, Razzy and Cathy in front

Great fun weekend with such wonderful friends and a bit of sewing thrown in as well (no progress shots of my bag yet).

Getting Ready ...

Going on a little trip soon and one day of the trip will be sewing with a group of friends making Amy Butler's "Weekender Travel Bag".  Wanted to do a little prep so that I could jump right in to making the bag - took longer than I thought to cut out all the pieces and quilt the main parts of the bag and the outside pockets.  Will be great to see all the different bags when they're finished.

I'm so looking forward to meeting up with some old friends and meeting the other girls from our on-line group.

I love slicing up fabric and, after searching through my pattern folders, have plans for a few quilt tops. First to be cut out is "Basket Case" designed by Cluck, Cluck, Sew.  I still have plenty of this Oh Cherry Oh fabric and need to use it up.  

These "Sew Together Bags" are taking quite a while to make - well, procrastination is the real reason.  Hope to finish them off soon.

 

ANZAC Weekend

We've just had another long weekend to remember ANZAC Day.  I noticed on Instagram etc that lots of people baked ANZAC biscuits, me included.

 

Everyone loves ANZAC biscuits.  Went to a friend's for dinner on Friday night, took along some biscuits and she have me some of her biscuits to bring home.

Spent some of Friday painting and polishing brass.

Still lots happening at the house - exciting stuff, like a new drain that goes all the way to the front of the block.

By the time I get home tonight this old tree should be gone.

Perfect Autumn day today

Will be a relief to know it's not going to topple over in a storm.  There are still plenty of trees on the block.

Some sewing over the weekend.  Finished putting "Pathways and Crossroads" together.  Doesn't take very long when the blocks are so big.

A couple of RicRac's "Work in Progress" bags for presents - this was the pattern that I couldn't find late last month.   I had issues sewing on the binding around the small handle hole - ended up attaching it by hand.

And I brought out one of the bags of blocks I made starting in 2011 - Civil War Sampler (I called it "Not Quite Civil War" because of the colour scheme).

Won't take too long to sew these blocks together.  I have one more bag of blocks - Sylvia's Bridal Sampler - to sew together, then I think I can start something new.  I'm definitely looking forward to having the house back to normal.  Will be a few weeks yet before the repairs are carried out.

Easter Weekend

The Easter Weekend has come and gone too quickly.  We've had 4 beautiful days and the lovely weather will continue for a few more days.

Friday the troops came over and spent the day painting the house - I painted poles and top rails for the lattice fence.  Great niece and great nephew had an Easter egg hunt in the garden - that was a lot of fun.

Before

After

The next section of the fence has been put back in place and the last section should go in today.  My niece has painted all of this lattice and spent yesterday painting the last piece, while I painted a new little piece to go on top of the gate.

A bit of sewing Friday night to put together the first few "Pathways and Crossroads" rows.  Might do some more next weekend.

Saturday Jenni and I went shopping in Sydney- didn't buy much at all, so will keep looking for some new work clothes.  Met up with all the kids and Matt's Mum for dinner - great food at a new creperie in Randwick.

Very lazy Easter Sunday - faffed around in the morning then decided to make a Sew Together Bag.  I bought this gorgeous fabric when I visited Ballarat Patchwork last July with Helen, Jenny and Norreen.
 

It's 85% cotton/15% linen blend and looks like 100% linen.  I decided not to use the green scallop on this bag but will on the next Sew Together Bag I make.

Really pleased with how this turned out although wasn't too keen on sewing through so many thicknesses to attach the side bindings - broke quite a few needles.  Jenni came over for dinner on Sunday night and was very happy to take this home.

A few errands yesterday morning then more painting and the long weekend was over.

My Clever Girl

A couple of weeks ago Jenni came over and was looking through the current "Homespun" magazine. She put in a request for one of the quilts and decided she would make the embroidered bag for herself using black fabric and bright colours rather than the pretty colours in the original.

Jenni is on school holidays at the moment (she is a primary school teacher), came over to visit last night and cut out a piece of fabric for the embroidered section of the bag. When I arrived home from work tonight Jenni was here to show me her finished embroidery.


I was so surprised and happy to see this. The photo at the top of my blog is Jenni about age 7 doing a cross stitch (which is still not finished). I love that photo.

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Dinosaurs

Last weekend I put the One Bizillion Years BC quilt top together - it was very quick and easy using a panel I cut up.

The top turned out bigger than I'd originally planned so I'm just waiting on some more backing fabric to arrive then I can think about quilting this one.  This afternoon I'm going to sew up a pillow case using one of the leftover dinosaur panel pieces.

Now that I'm working again I have lunchbreaks so I've been handstitching.  The second hexagon bag outer layer is finished.  This one is all Fig Tree fabrics - they are all repeated 3 and four times (I don't have 260+ Fig Tree fabrics).  Last night I prepared a third lot of hexagons for another bag.

This one is black and white with a little touch of grey and red.  The girls in my stitching group gave me a good selection of black and white scraps to add to my own.  About time I tried making up one of these bags I suppose ... maybe tomorrow.

Spoke to the travellers last night as it was Elizabeth's birthday yesterday.  They are having the most wonderful time and have booked a little side trip to Rome for a couple of days next week.