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!

Door & Quilting

I'm loving my front door!! Does that sound crazy?? I have to begin by saying I don't pay that much attention to my front door. When I do actually see it, I think I should get it painted, but then it leaves my head. We live in one of those areas where people have the garage doors with the beepers, and you drive in, lower the door, and you're not seen again. So, we seldom use the front doors, except to let others in, and then we don't see the front of the door too much anyway.

You can see by the picture the colour of the bricks my home is built from, and prior to the picture being taken, the door was varnished, and actually the colour was not all that different from the bricks. Just yellowish flaking varnish. If we didn't do something about it, the wood was going to be badly affected by the sun, so we asked our friend Jonnie to do the work for us. I chose heritage green rather than varnish it again because it's the colour of the woodwork on the rest of the house, and I'm just loving the way it looks. It really breaks up the expanse of bricks with a different colour. We now have to take the tape off, polish up the brass and put the decorative brass back on the door. Loving it! And I'm sure you're thinking ... okay ... enough of the door ... where's the quilting?? *lol*

Here it is! Joyce asked to see a close up of the quilting on the table runner - and by the way - apologies for the apalling picture yesterday! Lazy girl that I am, I chose not to rummage around for the real camera. This is one long table runner, and this is the middle section I've started quilting on. Please don't critique my quilting too much - remember that I'm just a try-hard, but I do love this peacock feathers pattern, it just always looks so nice. I really do have to get back to quilting on the runner - I hope to have it ready to give back to Maureen on Wednesday.

I have been working away still at the blue and white quilt, and I've made over 200 of the half square triangles. I sat in front of the TV for a while last night cutting them apart and snipping off the little ears. The end of the HST's is in sight and I can start constructing the blocks! Yay!! Amy has gone to the beach house with my parents for this long weekend, so I should have lots of sewing opportunities!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Table Runner

I don't have anything especially interesting to show you today that I've been working on myself - I'm still plugging away at the half square triangles. All the machine applique is done now, I just have to get through all the cutting and sewing for the other pieces now. I'm sure I'll have some interesting show and tell with all of that soon.

Instead, I am sharing a picture of a Table Runner made by Maureen, a lovely lady from classes at the quilt store. She asked if I would quilt it for her, as she's not terribly confident with machine quilting yet. I'm using the freemotion peacock feathers - it's my favourite, and always a good one to fall back on when I'm not sure what else to do. The runner was made up with two of those cute charm packs from Moda. I don't remember the collection name, but how fun it is to use those precut squares. The girls in the Wed afternoon class are mad for these runners right now, they're fun to make and are the very best gifts.

This morning we picked up the new car - Marty got me to drive it home from the dealership - he said I should get used to it seeing it was my car. It was a white knuckled ride, I was so tense by the time we got home. It's a little quieter than my old car, and I was so worried about speeding or having an accident on my first trip. Luckily (touch wood) it was entirely uneventful, and I'm just loving the car already.

I must also send out an apology - I have been really slow catching up with everyone's blogs lately - I promise I'll catch up on you all really soon. Well, that's it from me this afternoon - I'm heading back into the sewing room now. Have a great day!

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!

New Car

Here is my new car, we still haven't picked it up yet, probably Thursday or Friday I think. I'm really looking forward to it now, but I know I'll have trouble saying goodbye to my old car. This is a dealer picture, but let's face it, I probably couldn't take one much better :-)

It's a Nissan Maxima - my old car is a Maxima too, just a few years older. I noticed that my old Maxima was called an Infinity in the US, and the cars I saw called Maxima while I was in the US we don't have here in Australia at all!

I'm still sewing away. I've fused all 32 flowers, and I'm doing machine blanket stitch around the edges. I can only do that for so long before my mind wanders, so I'm also making up half square triangles for the quilt at the same time. I have 384 2" finished HST's to make, so I'm going to be at it for a while. I'll share a picture soon I promise, there's just not much interesting to look at just yet!

We had my Puppa's 80th birthday to go to yesterday. It was just so nice meeting up with relatives we hadn't seen in a while. Also when Puppa gave a speech after cake time, he shed a few tears. It really tugged at the 'ole heartstrings. Puppa is a real old fashioned guy who doesn't share too much emotion, and when he talked about Nanna, you could see how much love he feels in his heart. Just lovely stuff.

Have a great day everyone!

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!