Lucky me!!

On Thursday last week I wasn't able to make it to guild, and I'm so disappointed that I couldn't get there, because I got the most amazing phone call! My quilt won the Viewers Choice Award!!!

I just picked up the ribbon from Vicki today and I can't stop looking at it! I almost need to pinch myself to remember that it really happened. I feel so very blessed - thank you so much to everyone who voted for my quilt - I was genuinely so very surprised, at no time did I think my quilt was a contender!! Colour me thrilled :-)

In other much less interesting news, I managed to get two more HOQH blocks put together this week:

Block 39 - Cut Glass Dish

Another bunch of 1" HST's checked off the list - I could make them in my sleep I'm sure! I wish I knew where I got that toile style fabric from - I really like it and don't think I have any more in my stash.

Block 15 - Puss in the Corner

This block looks kind of wonky in the picture which surprised me, I didn't think it looked that bad in real life. Hopefully it looks good when it's all stitched into the final quilt.

Yesterday I quilted the little top I made recently, and I'm in the middle of binding it right now, as soon as I have a chance I'll share a picture, it's looking quite sweet. Chatter soon folks! xox

Bits and Bobs and Blocks

First up, I've completed two more HOQH blocks in the past few days. I'm thinking it'd be nice to complete two blocks per week until they're all done. Shouldn't be difficult right? I don't have a particular deadline, but it's nice set myself a little goal to stay motivated.

This is the first one I made, and it's a super easy one:

Block 35 - Streak of Lightning

And next up I made one which was significantly less easy. Actually, that's not really true, it wasn't hard, just fiddly. A whole bunch of 1" finished HST's. Overall I'm pretty happy with all the points - I don't think I'll be pulling this block apart any time soon.

Block 47 - Battlegrounds

That's a total of 22 blocks made so far - which is just over one third of the blocks finished. Looking forward to the next ones now :-)

The next pictures will have already been seen by my buddies on the facebooks, but it'd be cheeky not to share right?

Loving the new shoes I got last week - they're cutie pie Scarletto's, and I adore them, they're super nice, and believe it or not, supremely comfortable:

I wore them out and about pretty much all day on Saturday and not only were they much admired, but no sore feet for me. Winning!!

Last of all, because our lemon tree is absolutely groaning right now, I made lemon cupcakes last night so we could have them for morning tea at tennis today:

For the first time ever I made candied lemon for a garnish, and it worked really well. I'm definitely going to make these again!

Well, that's it for me today - I'm feeling a little achy after my three sets today. It's only my second week back on the court after more than two months off - it's amazing how quickly any fitness I had has fallen away and how my muscles are complaining. Hopefully it won't last too long!

Chatter soon xox

HOQH - Two more blocks!

I've managed to get two more of the Honouring our Quilting Heritage blocks made, they're really fun to put together. Remember that they're only 6" finished, some of the pieces end up being quite small!

Block 25 - Railroad

Block 32 - Lost Ships

Once again, the blocks are all made up from scraps. The bottom one is made up entirely of scraps gifted to me by my sweet friend Donna. I always love to remember where fabrics came from, or from what quilt I used them in. I'm surely getting lots of practice making half square triangles, and there are a lot more on my horizon too!

In my last post I mentioned the 'People Quilt' project, and a lovely reader Janet asked me which one that was. There is a whole big story that goes with the People Quilt, it was Amy's favourite cot quilt when she was little, so I just threw that name out there again possibly without explaining, but it's the project I'm working on slowly with the fabric leftover from Amy's People Quilt. I haven't done much, but I like the way it's heading:

I hope to get some more of the applique done this afternoon, and if I'm really good, maybe I'll get another block prepped ... who knows? :-)

Yesterday was our first day back at stitching class after the school holidays, and I had the most lovely surprises from my sweet ladies. Pam was so thoughtful and gave me some chocolate coated almonds as a treat for winning ribbons with my quilt. She's just adorable - I shared them with the ladies in class as it would be way too easy to scoff them all myself.

Manuela knows my love of Nutcrackers and gifted me the adorable decorations you see above. And Norma just got back from a holiday in South Africa and kindly brought home some darling fridge magnets that you see there. I am so blessed to have such sweet and generous ladies that come to class with me - I honestly love them all to bits.

Well, I'm going to get busy on my applique, so hopefully I'll have something to share with you soon! xoxox

Honouring our Quilting Heritage - 2 blocks

Late Friday afternoon I spent some time putting a couple of blocks together. I haven't worked on these in many months, so it took me a while to get back in the zone. Two blocks are added to the finished tally, and hopefully I'll get some more made soon:

Block 9 - Mystery Flower Garden

Not super pleased with the points on the bottom pink triangle in the block above. It's tempting to take it apart and see if I can't do a better job there - you all know I'm super fussy about points.

Block 11 - Chained Star

Much happier with this block - I don't think I need to change a thing. Yay!

I'm still working through my scraps with this project. After working on so many scrap projects over the last few years you'd think they'd be lessening ... but no, my scrap baskets appear to be getting fuller by the day. Baffling!!

Today I'll try and put a couple more blocks together, and then I'd like to get busy again working on the People Quilt project. So Much Fun!!

Small Projects

Thank you so much to everyone for your kind comments on my last post - it was lovely to hear from everyone, as well as so many people that don't regularly comment. I've responded to all that I can, if I haven't responded to your message, I wanted to, but your email address didn't come to me. But thank you for commenting all the same!

I'm so looking forward to collecting my quilt tomorrow, and pinning my newest ribbons to the pinboard is going to be fun.

Today I'm having one of those days where it's hard to get motivated. I've finally moseyed into the sewing palace, and hopefully I can get some fabric moving around. Yesterday though, I managed to get something done:

One of my lovely friends is going through some tough times at the moment, so I've made her a little worry quilt:

I know it won't change anything for her, but I hope whenever she holds it, she'll know she's loved.

And earlier in the week I finished up a cot quilt I was asked to put together:

I was given the panel and I cut it apart to add fabric and make it larger. It was indeed serendipity that I have coordinating fabrics in my stash. But back to the panel for a moment ... it's baffling to me how out of square they can become - the individual blocks of this panel were 11" square, and some of them were almost a full inch askew - crazy!!

And for fun a strippy back to make it more interesting, the red and blue prints having been given to me also:

All these projects were put together and quilted with Bernie the elder, she's such a workhorse. Bernie the younger is still at the health spa, and hopefully returning soon.

Not sure what I'll be working on this afternoon, but I'm thinking it's been a while since I worked on the Honouring our Quilting Heritage blocks, so they may be contenders. I've also been doing a little designing, it's been fun to have the time to be creative again.

Chatter soon!! xox

Quilters Guild of South Australia - Show Day

Today was the big day out for my quilt. It was a wonderful day, I'll let the pictures do the talking ...

I'm beyond thrilled, so proud that it was hanging nice and flat and looking wonderful. Happy Days!! :-)

Cute Top!

I finished that little quilt top I was working on ... if you're my buddy on the Facebooks you've already seen it ... but here it is again:

And it's really quite cute isn't it? But for the green inner border, it's all made from scraps. Even the sashing strips were leftover from back when I made my Nearly Insane quilt. It almost feels like I made it for free :-) :-)

And it's Friday already!

My goodness, this week has really flown, but don't they always?

Today is such a dreary rainy day that it's hard to get motivated to do anything. After I dropped Camo off at school I settled down on the lounge with the Ipad and did a little reading of a new to me blog. A sweet TV show has started airing here - Home Town, and I'm loving it - as I tend to do with home reno shows. I discovered that Erin has a blog that she updates with fabulous regularity, so I've been reading along.

It's easy to get caught up in other people's writings about their lives, and before I knew it, an hour had flown by! My realisation was that I really needed to get up and make busy living my own life rather than just reading about those of others, so I got up and moved around a bit ... and on that note, I'm so glad you're here reading about my life *lol* :-)

Anyway ... sewing time has been scarce, but is soon to be easier to come by - school holidays start at the end of today! But here's my small amount of progress on the criss cross top:

I'd like to have the top finished today as I have another project I need to get busy on. A commission for a baby quilt. I have some ideas floating around in my head, and I'd like to get it drawn up before the ideas flit away ... it happens so easily!

Another thing on today's agenda - replacing the net curtain in the lounge room ... the evil kitties caused me to make an unwanted expenditure ...

When the days are warm (obviously not today) they like to snooze on the sill of the lounge room bay window. One of the naughty creatures has tugged at the net curtains too enthusiastically and caused a huge tear! I had to call for a new curtain to be made as it is a very specific size and I picked it up yesterday - this time with an opening at the centre of the window to hopefully prevent it happening again. Gracie and Holly, start saving your pennies as you'll be receiving my bill and I don't take credit cards!

The third picture in the collage is just one that amused me ... I realised once I dragged the new (old) kitchen chairs home is that they are almost identical in style to the ones in the dining room. Maybe that is why I was drawn to them on the auction listing?!?

Something else I've been meaning to share with you for the longest time is a blog post I found. Do you remember that about this time last year my Montmellick quilt was happily selected to travel to France? Well, I never did end up getting pictures of it, time went on and I didn't want to hassle the people that visited, after all, it's the same quilt in a picture, but just a different location ... blah blah blah, reasons reasons ... but I was cruising Pinterest and saw a picture of my quilt I didn't recognise and followed the link. It led me to this post about Pour L'amour Du Fil and the Montmellick display - there are many different versions of the quilt pictured, and mine is one of them. Do check it out, it made me so happy to see it and some of the others on display.

Last of all, a big thank you to everyone who responded regarding my Etsy sidebar. I can see it on my Ipad, but not on my laptop, and it appears that some people can see it, and some people cannot. I'm not sure what I should be doing as Etsy don't seem to be supporting Etsy Mini anymore. I guess at some point I'm going to have to make some buttons myself ... just another thing for those spare minutes we all have *lol*

Well, that's it for me today, I hope you all have a great day doing something you enjoy! xox