New Upload

I often get emails asking if this pattern or that pattern is available for purchase, and I just love that people are interested. Chances are that if you've seen my project, it'll be available at some point, and I just haven't been able to set aside the time to upload it to my site.

On the weekend I got busy and put a 'new' one there - Bears in the Garden. This would have to be one of my favourite scrappy quilts.

If I could ask a favour - could someone out there test the button for me? It's a new kind of button, and for some reason I can't check it out. Don't take it all the way to checkout (unless you want to of course) but just see that it takes you to the correct place. I'd really appreciate it.

Happy stitching everyone!

Bears in the Garden

My Bears in the Garden quilt is due to come out in Australian Patchwork and Quilting next week, so this week the quilt and the 'in progress' pieces were returned to me.

The block is quite a nice size at 18" so last night I decided I'd quilt it and make it into a nice table topper for a small table. It's a cute block, so I didn't want it to end up in the 'orphan block' pile.

Not much stitching of my own going on today, I worked at the quilt store this afternoon, and this morning had a little shopping and posting to do. One of my shopping jaunts was to a local quilt store that has 40% off storewide. Of course I couldn't miss that - so did a little stash enhancement. I'll share a picture late in the week - I forgot to take a pic. The sale is on until the end of the month, so I'll definitely have to go back. My stash of greens and blues has really diminished, and I can always use more variety in my background fabrics, so I got a little of those too.

The second picture is an amusing one - I wish I could show you so many more. It is Cheryl's birthday today, and one of the girls from the quilt store purchased her this hysterical book. I think the name of the book was 'Women's Porn' or something like that, and it was just filled with quotes and pictures similar to the one I'm sharing ... Can you imagine it ... "As long as I have legs to walk on, you'll never have to take out the garbage". If that happened here ... I'd wonder who's house I'd stumbled into ...

Bits & Pieces

Here is just one picture for you to have a looky at, and I've crammed all three items I've been working on in there. Just too darned lazy to take more than one picture I guess! *s*

I've stitched the binding on the quilt, I just need to hand sew it to the back now. I've named the quilt 'Bears in the Garden'. Just a little time to write the directions for it and I can put it right outta my head.

Last night I knitted some more of my second sock. I've been so inspired by Jenny at Fairybread and Cathi from Crazed Quilter, their knitting has been wonderful eye candy, so I thought I'd go ahead and turn that heel. The heel turned just wonderfully, and I'm now working through the decreases for the instep. I can highly recommend the Yarn Harlot's book 'Knitting Rules', it has wonderful tips for the newbie sock knitter. I never would have known why it's so important to slip the first stitch when knitting the heel flap - she tells us that those slipped stitches should work out to the exact number of stitches you need to pick up when you're turning the heel. Incredibly. Useful. Book.

And lastly, there are 10 log cabin blocks there. I made them earlier this afternoon, but I can't tell you too much about those, only that they're going to a new home, and they're going to be entirely unexpected. Enough said. In fact, I have probably said too much ...

What should I do this afternoon ... knit ... or sew down binding .... decisions decisions ...

And it's quilted!

Ohhh thank heavens, it's quilted! I just finished up the last of the quilting five minutes before I had to go pick the kids up from kindy and school. I have really enjoyed quilting this project, but I don't enjoy having the time crunch so much, it would have been nice to have a little more time to relax about it. But having said that, I'm still just soooo happy with it. You can also just see a sneaky peek of my Sarah Johnson quilt there in the background. I'm sure I've shared that quilt with you all before.

This afternoon I have some chores to do, and I need to can some tomatoes we were given, so if I get a chance this evening, I'll pop the binding on after I pick Amy up from dance.

While at the quilt store yesterday, I picked up my new copy of Quilter's Companion, and while reading thru it last night, I was just so thrilled to see Bonnie's Quiltville website mentioned in the 'net fishing' article. They're doing a write up on places to find directions for string quilts, and Bonnie's site was the second site they mentioned. How fun, I always love to see our buddies names up in lights.

Well, that's it from me for today - chores are beckoning ... I'll chatter with you all later!

Quilting!

On Friday night I was able to stitch the final borders on the quilt. You can just see the fabric in the picture there. It's one I got in the US last year, I think it may have been from Carolea's. Then yesterday at the quilt store, Cheryl and I pinned like crazy ladies so the quilt was ready for quilting.

Well, you know I just couldn't resist starting to quilt, so last night I completed two bobbins worth of quilting! Because I'm in a hurry to get this done, I've been doing a smallish meander, but I'm having some fun with the flowers. I don't know if you can see well in the picture, but I've given the petals some dimension and quilted little circles in the yellow part.

And this is the fabric I'm using on the back. This is another fabric from my stash. I picked it up at Hancocks of Paducah last year. I had originally thought I'd use it on the back of the DJ I'm currently working on, but because it could be years before that's finished I'll think about the back another time.

It's so nice to be almost entirely working from stash. The only things I didn't have at the ready were the pink inner border and a little more of the white fabric.

I'll bind with the blue border fabric as I've still got about a yard or so of that one left. This project has been super fun, it's not a chore to work on it at all!

Still stitching!

I'm still stitching away on the new quilt, and here's where I'm up to! I have only to put the final border on, and I need to audition a couple of fabrics first. I'd really like to get the border sewn on tonight after netball, then I can go to the quilt store tomorrow and take advantage of their tables to pin the quilt. How fun!

No sign of Holly helping while I was laying out the quilt for you to see. I think she's sleeping in our bedroom. The house is very quiet - I haven't picked up Amy from school yet, and Cam has fallen asleep after a very busy play date this morning. It seems such a shame to wake him, I'll leave it to the last minute.

I must send out an apology - for some reason I haven't been getting emails from the comments on my blog - just for the past day or so - which has meant I haven't been able to respond to anything that seems like it needed an answer. I'll check them out a little later and hopefully be able to post any answers here.

The weekend is almost here, and I'm so looking forward to a little relax time. Have a great day everyone!

Slept in ...

This morning Amy slunk into my bedroom and said 'Mum, you really need to get up, it's quarter past eight". Ohhh my goodness, did I spring into action. Amy's school actually starts at 8.30am, and Cam needed to be at his day care lady's house after I dropped Amy off. After all, I'm working at the quilt store a little later on today! I had slept right thru the alarm!! I threw on some clothes, prepared some breakfast for Cam to eat at Christines and we all bounced into the car.

Now I'm at home, and I feel just shattered - don't you hate it when the day just doesn't start right?? I know that I'll be feeling super good soon though - firstly the caffeine will start to kick in shortly, and secondly I'll be at the quilt store soon, and there's nothing like the smell and sight of all that fabric to make a quilter feel reeeeeeealllly good! I have no idea why I was so tired, I haven't been doing anything out of the ordinary, maybe I was having a really good dream that I wasn't finished up with yet?? Who knows ...

Anyways ... I promised the other day I'd draw up a diagram or something to show how to do the peacock feathers. Well, it's easy to draw it up, but it's not exactly self explanatory or anything. Can you see the drawing there, it looks a little light on the laptop.

I'll try to explain how I work these things. Each feather consists of three loops. The direction you work the first loop is the direction you're going to be heading with the last loop. So if you're ultimately wanting to be working to the right of your quilt, work the first loop to the right, the second will go to the left, and then the third to the right. You can then continue to start a new feather. It's so easy, at the bottom of the loops there's a place to rest and move your hands without making a bump. Just practice first on a piece of paper, and then move to a practice quilt sandwich. I would say the only downside to this quilting pattern is that it CAN use a LOT of thread. And speaking of thread, it looks spectacular with some of those cute shiny variegated rayon threads. Please also remember, I've said it before, I'm far from a wonderful quilter, this just works for me, and it's super fun. Let me know how you go!

And here's where I'm up to with my blocks. I just have four to put together, and then I can start working all the sashing strips into place. All the components of the blocks are already made, all the HST's, all the large flower HST's and everything is all cut and ready, they just need to be assembled.

You can see Holly there contemplating my feet ... she's about ten seconds away from attacking my thongs (that's the flip flop kind for my non-Aussie friends - not the underwear kind!). Holly is loving helping out in the sewing room ... she chases scraps of fabric all over the place, and when she's tired, she just wants to sleep in there on a folded quilt. She's a very sociable little fur-person.

Well, that should be it from me - for a sleepy gal, I've managed to type up what seems like a thesis. Hope you're all having a great day!

Piecing some more ...

Here ya go ... this is what I've been piecing on these past few days. It's starting to make some sense now. And it's why I needed a bazillion half square triangles.

Everything is cut for this quilt now, and it has all come from my stash, apart from a bit more white fabric that I needed to get. I did have some other white I could use, but I decided not to dig into my DJ fabric. Ohhh, actually, I haven't cut the first border and the big border yet, but I was thinking I'd let the quilt speak to me when I get there. My first thoughts are a fun pink narrow border, and then a blue outer border, but we'll see.

I'm itching to get piecing on the blocks again today, but I'm going to have to force myself to do some housework first, and then get back to quilting on Maureen's table runner. Thank you all for your lovely comments on my peacock feathers. They're really super easy - so if I get a chance later on I'll draw a diagram that will maybe show you how they're done. I'm so far from an expert quilter, so if I can do it, honestly anyone can! They're easier than meandering, as you have a place to rest when you get to the point at the bottom.

Anyways, that's enough from me - the faster I get the other stuff done, the faster I can get back to the piecing!

Machine applique

I feel like I've been working so hard at the machine applique, and I still have 9 blocks left to do. It really takes some time! I'm also making up the half square triangles I need, I've done about 80 of the 380 odd required for the quilt. I just love the colours in this quilt, and I'm just having the best time making it up.

One thing I haven't done yet this month is to set some goals for my quilting. I definitely want to finish up this quilt I'm working on, and other than that, I'm not really sure. Well, except for stick to my fabric diet of course. I'm just thrilled with how I'm not making any impulse fabric purchases lately, and I am actually starting to notice small inroads into my fabric stash. I do have a couple of fabrics in my stash I know I'll never use, so I plan to weed them out and donate them to a charity group a lady I know belongs to.

Tomorrow I have an early start, I have to drop the kids off and get back home again in time to let the painter in. We're having the front doors and the side door to the garage painted, and I'm just so thrilled. After that, I have to be at the quilt store to look after the Thimbleberries Club girls in the morning class. I'll be back home working on deadlines in the afternoon, and then grocery shopping and hopefully collecting the new car after picking the kids up from school etc. A big day - bring it on!

Working at the machine applique

Hope you're all having a great Saturday. Ours is drawing to a close, it's almost 6pm, and I'm feeling ready for a sleep already! Today DH and I have spent many hours visiting car yards, and he got me a new car. We haven't picked it up yet, that will happen next week sometime I guess, and I just know that when we do pick it up, I'll be kind of sad to see my old car traded. All part of life I know, but I always get attached to things and think they have feelings. My friend said the other day that I'll soon forget as soon as I'm driving the new one around. I have a feeling she's right.

On a quilty note, I've been working on a little of the machine applique for my next project. I'm enjoying the variegated rayon thread I got the other day, it's really pretty looking, and will span the spectrum of the colours I'm using in the flowers. It's going to be another scrap quilt, and I'm hoping to get every component of it from my stash. I've taken a quick picture for you to see a couple of the blocks.

Also, a big thank you to Kim from Peach Quilting for our new fabric diet badge for this month - you're a superstar Kim!

Well, that's it from me, I'm going to put my feet up ... and I wouldn't be suprised if my eyelids go down ...

March Already!

Can you believe it? It's March already! I know February is a short month, but seriously, it felt like it was a week long!

I missed one of my goals, I just couldn't cut into that special fabric for the February Stash Challenge. I'm still determined to do it, but I think I need to find that special pattern that inspires me. My wonderful friend Linda sent me a picture of the pattern that went with the fabric, but I'm not sure that I have enough of the fabric to do it justice.

Last night I was asked to attend my old quilt group. They had organised a special presentation for me. Last year one of the group leaders had contacted me, she'd found a tree skirt at the quilt store which she thought would be great to work on at their quilt camp, and she was so pleased to find it was one of my patterns. She asked if she could buy the pattern to use, and I told her they could use it no problem, they were my group, I wouldn't charge them at all. So last night I was invited along to view all the tree skirts they made. It was super fun, and lovely to see all the old faces, and the new faces too. At some stage I may go back to the group, I stopped going when I had Cameron, it was so much harder to go out in the evenings, and I joined a daytime group instead.

And to that end, I'm off to quilt group today, and I needed some hand work to take with me, so last night after my visit, I started work on the next scrap project I have in mind, and you can see a picture of my progress. I'm just going to cut out the shapes today. We never seem to get too much done, we always chatter too much.

Also, a big thank you to everyone for your wonderful comments on my Zig Zag quilt. I'm so pleased with it, and I would like to say a huge thank you to Bonnie for the inspiration on her website. I love all her scrap quilts, and I admire her for her dedication to using up her stash. Thank you Bonnie!

A quick share

Blogger doesn't seem to be playing very nice this morning, so I will keep my post short and sweet lest it be lost in a blogger-abyss.

While we were at the beach house recently, I had a little inspiration for a new quilt, and so drew it up so I wouldn't forget all about it. Here is a picture. Amy and I are going to make it together, it should be a fun one for us both to do.

A few people asked if I'm using EQ5 to do my quilt drawing. I don't actually use a quilt program, I use Corel Draw. I find it's great for what I want to do, but the downside is that it doesn't do any calculating of yardage etc for me. The reason I love it is beause I have the freedom to draw any applique shapes I like, and of course I know the program so well. Having said that, I am considering purchasing EQ6 when it comes out. I think it would be a great tool to have. I'll decide later.

Well, that's it from me for today, I will save while I'm ahead!