First up ... Hi Sharon & Jon, thank you for drinkies last nite, it was fun! (Our distant family members & good friends who I only last night discovered have been following my blog!) The kids and I went to their daughter's birthday after school yesterday, and it turned into drinks and husbands joining in after work, and a fun night!
Anyways ... here is my Starstruck top, I thought I'd share, I just moved the hoop again. I'm definitely two thirds done with the quilting. I haven't done much in the last couple of days, and I hope to get some done tonight. We have a BBQ with friends tomorrow which I have to prepare for, so I'll do some chores as well *sigh*. The BBQ is the fun part ... but the preparation is less fun.
When I took the picture I turned the backing fabric forward so you can see the fabrics I've used. I used four different pieces, all Judie Rothermel fabrics that I purchased while in Paducah last year. I sure did buy a lot of fabric, it really will take me a while to get through it all.
I'd ideally like to get the quilting finished on or before Wednesday, that way I can be sewing the binding down at quilt group on Thursday. That may be ambitious, but a girl can only try. Sleep is highly overrated and a waste of good time right ... :-)
Ohhh my, I never expected to see 78 comments! Wow, you've all made me blush with your lovely words. I won't continue to gush however ... I'll get on with the news ...
First up I got Marty to draw a name. And the name he drew is: Linda Z - comment at 7.04am. Since you're the first name drawn, you're the lucky winner of the table runner. I sure hope you like it.
And just for fun, I thought I'd have Amy draw another name, and you'll receive something mysterious in the mail ... so mysterious I'm not sure what it is yet. And the name Amy drew is: Hanne - comment at 10.48pm.Congratulations to you both, if you'd be so kind to email me your snail mail address, I'll get busy mailing you!Once again, thank you all for your lovely comments - you sure know how to make a girl feel special. x o x
Today is my one year bloggiversary! Happy bloggiversary to me! I can't believe I made it this far. I was really chicken one year ago to take the leap into blogland. Who would have thought that one year later I'd have managed to post over 250 messages, and had over 56,000 visitors. Amazing! I've met some of the loveliest people too. The world is an amazing place.
I've loved the fact that so many bloggers have been conducting give-aways for their milestones, so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon too! Please leave a comment on my blog and you could win the table runner pictured above. I made it on Sunday and finished the binding yesterday. I made a couple of these for gifts while I was in the US last year. And just so you don't think I was working applique like a maniac - that is a cheater cloth there in the middle. So go on ... leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you - and I'd love to see some lurkers come out of the woodwork too! I will draw a name either on Thursday or Friday depending on work commitments ... so - ready ... set ... go!
This afternoon I finsished the binding on the piecer's mat. Marty kindly took Cameron to the birthday party so I could have some time to myself.
Dawn recently made a sewing machine mat, and my friend Karen purchased a mat a lot like it, but was using it for hand piecing. I was thinking it'd be neat to have one with some flannel fabric in the middle so that if you were hand piecing, it would be like a mini-design wall. You'd also be able to pin your pieces to the flannel area. I can see more of these mats in my future.
I have a small table runner project I'd like to work on for the rest of this afternoon, and then I really MUST get back to doing my real work. I think I'm some kind of ADD quilter - I'm really easily distracted!
It's a special skill that I have ... the ability to completely ignore the pressing deadlines that I have, and concentrate on something entirely different.
I have a top to quilt for a lady, a magazine project to hand quilt, and a very large pattern order for a quilt store. Instead of working on any of these things, I decided to start working on something else entirely. It's a mat thingy, and hopefully I'll get it finished up tomorrow, I'm just working on the binding right now.
If I weren't so tired, I'd press on with it, but it has been a big day. Amy's netball was first up this morning with a big win, a quick visit to Quiltaholics, a trip to the store to pick up the stuff for 'loot bags' for Cam's party. Then making the bags, and finally the party at Hungry Jacks for all his little friends. Whew ... I'm glad for some piecing time. Tomorrow is his little friend Matty's birthday party, and it goes on for a few weeks. They're all turning 5 at once!
Well, that's it from me for now ... I'm way behind with my blog reading. I'm catching up with you all slowly and leaving comments as I can. Don't give up on me! x o x
Still hand quilting away here, I think I've done about a quarter of the quilt now. I'm just doing it lightly to begin with, just in case the deadline looms close and I'm not nearly ready, if time permits, I'll go back and do more. I should be quilting right now, but I'm having a rest, it really does get old after a while.
Today was quilt group, and I had a great time with my buddies. Today was filled with a lot of fun and laughing, they're a great bunch of ladies. One of my besties, Karen, belongs to the group, and today she brought along something which warrants further investigation, so we've organised a play date together on Tuesday. It's something like the machine mats that Dawn showed us not so long ago, but Karen is using hers as a mat for her hand work. I was thinking that we may have a go at making something like it up, but refining it with some cute features, but that'll be something we play with on Tuesday.
Today's picture was snapped just a short time ago. Holly was fascinated by an hourglass that was moving on the computer in the study, and was just staring at the computer. She turned around for the picture though - doesn't the camera make her eyes scary! We were joking around that she's got work to do ... Holly often chases the mouse pointer on the screen and taps at it ... it's really fun to see.
Cameron's family birthday party last night was lots of fun. We had a house full, and he loved being the centre of attention. He received a LOT of Lego as gifts. I didn't realise I'd spread the word so far that he loves the stuff so much! I loved it as a kid, and I'm pleased he does too. Amy didn't care for it so much, but she's enjoying helping him out with his kits. School transition went well today, I think he coped better than I did. It was just an hour with his new teacher today, a little longer on Thursday next week and the week after. Then we have two weeks school holidays, then he's at school for real! OMG, I think I'll be a mess on that first day. I'll be a lot happier next year when he's actually at Amy's school.
Anyways, that's it for me ... I hope to have something quilty to share with you all soon. x o x
I don't really have a lot to share with you today, but I know I won't be able to visit with you tomorrow, so I'll give it a whirl.
There are two reasons for my seeming lack of productivity ... the first is because I'm hand quilting on the Starstruck quilt. We all know how slow that can be. I'm quilting very lightly 1/4" away from the seams with a black perle cotton. I'll get as much done as I can before my deadline. After I get the quilt back, then I can set about doing all the decorative quilting that I'd like to do. The quilting doesn't show up much in the pictures anyways, so as long as the quilt looks nice I'll be happy. I don't know if you can even see the quilting in the picture I took, but I promise it's there. I have around 30 days to have it finished and with the publisher.
The other thing that has been keeping me on my toes is that I'm putting together a web page. I know about enough html to get me in trouble, so it's a slow process. I'm getting better though, so hopefully sometime this milennium I'll have something to share with you.
Well, that's it for me today - tomorrow is the tiny man's birthday, and there is school transition on Thursday, this is one big week for the little guy!
This week I received a wonderful surprise in the mail. It came all the way from the USA. Melanie - our wonderful blogger of Covered Porches and Wooden Screen Doors fame - had sent me the most wonderful package. It contained a Thimbleberries pattern (which is sooooo me) a fat quarter of cute fabric, a thimble, a gorgeous hand made card, and best of all - the most lovely bag ever, which she made herself. I just love all the items! Thank you so much Melanie, I love them to pieces!
I had no idea when I started blogging that I would 'meet' so many wonderful people, and grow to count them among my friends. Such a lovely surpise, I'm glad I took the leap almost a year ago. I took the bag to the quilt store on Wednesday, and it was so admired. The girls were poring over it to see how they could make one for themselves. Of course, they couldn't make one as special as mine, a wonderful gift from the other side of the Pacific.
On an entirely different note - Marty put his computer skills to good use and worked out my phone and computer's communication issues. I guess they were just having a disagreement, as they seem to be conversing politely now. I had taken a picture at House and Garden on Thursday of these cute sheep, and I wanted to share them with you. They were looking at me from the shelf saying 'Please take us home ...' but I had to walk away ... the knowledge that Holly would have torn them asunder was more than I could bear ... Maybe another day when Holly is a little less juvenile ...This afternoon we had a little birthday party gathering to go to. It was Marty's Grandfather's birthday on Thursday, and we had a family gathering today. Can you believe he turned 96! Remarkably, he and his wife (second wife) still live in their own home, and Grandpa still drives and has his wits about him entirely. He's a remarkable man, and we're lucky to have him in our lives. My kids are really lucky actually, they still have all their Grandparents, and also have five Great Grandparents. So anyways ... we had a lovely afternoon catching up with family, and now Cam is worn out and has gone to bed. Our next celebration will be Cameron's birthday on Wednesday. He turns five! School transition starts on Thursday, I can't believe my little man is growing up so fast!
First up ... Hi Sharon & Jon, thank you for drinkies last nite, it was fun! (Our distant family members & good friends who I only last night discovered have been following my blog!) The kids and I went to their daughter's birthday after school yesterday, and it turned into drinks and husbands joining in after work, and a fun night!
