Helping hands

A call went out to the members of the Quilt Club Australia on Facebook to help with auction items to raise funds that will be put towards travelling expenses; a young couple is currently battling with a distressing issue that requires medical attention in Sydney and they live in Queanbeyan - so there's quite a few kilometres...their story is here....

I don't know this young couple at all but I'm trusting they find an answer quick smart and they can get on with their lives.

I've decided to send them a baby quilt with a matching soft basket - hope it brings them lots!

Finished size is 38.5" x 45" (98cm x 114cm)

catching up.....

It has been a little while since I posted last - there's been quite a bit going on this last couple of weeks, not least of which was a wonderful visit by one of my nephews and his gorgeous wife - Ian and Mads usually live in Manchester UK and they took time out to travel very south after a wedding in FNQ (Far North Queensland, Oz), to catch up with family - which was just brilliant - I hadn't seen Ian since he was 15 and now here he was, with a beautiful wife too - we spent a fabulous couple of days and then dropped them off to spend their last night in Melbourne before their flight home - thanks to them both for coming south, putting up with the rotten winter weather and joining in so marvellously with us lot here - it was fantastic sitting around the dinner table on saturday night and getting on with the 'craic' - they also took 'The General' home with them as it is destined for one of my sisters, who just happens to be Ian's mum (Finona, if you're reading this, make sure to remind Ian about it!!)

one of a few photos with various members of the family - I don't think I have one with us all!

I've been knitting - I've pulled it back 4 times but now it looks like this one sock will be finished soon....then onto the next (and the next pair..)

My bestie and I bought a knitting machine - and can't wait to get some time to have a decent play...

it came with wool for practice and all sorts of clever bits and pieces

I bought a new book and it's awesome..

We have some new babies (who were really cheesed off when I stuck my camera with the flash under their cover) - they're too young to go outside overnight as it's still too cold - so they're making a hell of a mess inside!

we have 5 chooks here - 2 black ones and 3 creamy yellow one - I think there's 2 roosters among them (damn - they may be destined for the pot!) - and they're at the very ugly, reptilian dinosaur stage....

...and last, but not least, some fabric I ordered in March arrived - it's called 'Garden go round' and it's really pretty - here's 3 of the bolts - there's about 9 bolts all up - and I have to get off my butt and organise selling it...

and now I have to go to bed - I spent the last couple of days quilting a quilt top for a client on the longarm - I used Aurifil thread for the first time and it broke too many times to mention - drove me absolutely insane and I spent a lot of time unpicking and or sewing ends in......don't think I'll be using it again......good job my bestie was helping me otherwise I think I would have done a Basil Fawlty and wallopped the Gammil!

smiling...

Nothing like a visit from your bestie to add some much needed perspective - thank you Miss Lizzie - you always make it better :)

We spent the day yesterday loading up the long arm with a quilt that Liz is making for me - I feel so spoilt - it's a beautiful quilt - and there's going to be hand quilting as well - soooo looking forward to this one being finished and I can show it off in all its glory then....

While Liz was quilting, I actually got some Farmer's Wife blocks done - another 6 making a grand total of 93 complete - only 18 more to go - last time I did anything on this was about 3 months ago - so an attack of the miseries substantially increased my sewing output this last week....hopefully it continues (not the miseries, the output - I have an assignment due on Friday and my piece is still only at concept stage...)

blocks 88 - 93

....and here's me trying to get a good shot of my new top - some say it is a good shot because I cut off my  head  - and I will never win prizes for photography.......but, check out the shoes - these are so high I can only just about  stand in them - although the first time I wore them, at a wedding, I managed to do the 'Nutbush' without falling over - they are highly impractical but I love them..

Hope you have a good week

stuff

I think I'm in a bit of a funk - want to sleep all the time and being very tetchy - usually with my dearheart - who brushes it off - which kind of makes me even tetchier.......so, what's a girl to do?

Hide myself in my sewing room and sew, of course......

My great-niece is turning 3 and given I'm a little bit enamoured with the Bento bag, I made her one to put her dollies in (her mum tells me Stella loves bags)...I made a birthday card to match......

I also made a 241 tote - I've seen these around the blogs (designed by Noodlehead) and really admired them - but I don't love mine - it's smaller than I expected for a start and I made poor fabric choices - so I think this one is a fail......maybe I'll increase the size for the next one and not try and be so matchy matchy with the fabric...(because that really was an epic fail)

So then I thought, what next?

Ages ago I bought some patterns for tops for me - one of which was this very stylish 'tunic' (gawd that sounds so old-fashioned!) by Issey Miyake for Vogue - it was on spesh and I think I paid about USD2.99 for it

oh to have legs that long!

In one of my forages around Spotlight, I found some fabric that was reduced to $3 per metre - not a great colour, but not bad, and I can always dye it I thought........and given it was 50% off everything on the table, I got it for $1.50 per metre.....so that's what I thought I'd make the top out of.....so, out of pocket so far to the tune of about AUD10.00

Once it was cut out I was reading the instructions - and finding them a bit, you know, hard - and then I saw it was a 'plus difficile' pattern - but I forged on - and here we have a delightful, yellow top - that is definately going into the dye bath soon......

it needs a right good iron as well

You can't really see in this photo, but there's radiating pintucks across the front, the sleeves and the back.  It's fastened with only 2 buttons, which is going to make it a bit difficult to sit down without flashing all my frillies - it looks alright on, but it is not the right colour for me - it kind of looks like a flash pj top in this colour   I also think it might need shoulder pads and I'm sure I've got some somewhere - they'll be relics from the 80's but I'm sure there's a packet of them in my sewing stuff - might have to resort the sewing room again!

In between the abovementioned, I've been working on my school stuff - lots of samples and paint and sticking stuff - I'll have to make a big effort with these as they're almost due and I'm not loving the ideas I came up with.........

Ok, so I'm off to make a coffee and then give myself a talking to about being a miserable bugger.......

Squishy post

Some time ago, the Circle Mamas of do.good Stitches thought it'd be a great idea to get to know each other better, and a swap was arranged......

My secret partner was the very talented Hollie of Undercover Crafter fame, and I sent her this - happy to report she loves it and is using the bag - yay!!!

So, back to today........squishy mail in the post is always welcome at my house.....and the one I received yesterday was no different....

Jenn of The Knotted Thread must have been looking over my shoulder - look what she sent me...

The sewing roll is fabulous - great fabrics, a very usable configuration  and so, so pretty - the pins will definitely come in handy - I find I never have enough pins - not sure what happens to them.........maybe I have some Borrowers at home.........maybe they're left in pieces of work that I have abandoned in disgust, slowly rusting into the fabric........maybe they fall into the heating vents behind my sewing table and fall under the house when they become overheated and burn though the ducts, scaring the wildlife....I digress...

The pouch on the left is a perfect size for my rotary cutter - and that's is what is happily ensconced inside as we speak - and you can't really see the clever quilting - follows the chevrons on the fabric - noice!

Thank you so much Jenn - I love what you made :)

Winner

The winner of the lovely pattern created by the very clever Joan is......

Anne, who wrote...."My latest surprise was my hubby arriving home a day early. I had been at work, arrived home in the dark and he was inside sitting on the stairs when I entered the house. I got a bit of a fright but a nice one:):) A huge surprise as he had been away for weeks."


Nice one Anne - I'll be sending you an email for your address so I can post it out - congrats to you :)

Bee blocks

Had to catch up a little on Bee blocks and in the process of fixing a very slight backlog, I got ahead of the game and got August blocks finished too...........excellent!!

For the Cherish Circle for July, we were asked to complete any blocks we liked in the colours of red, aqua, grey and white.

a bit of wonk

if I did this again, I'd flip the patches so the white is on the inside

For August, we were asked to create snail trail blocks in greys and aquas (a manly palette)

...and last, but by no means least, August requirements for the QCA bee was for a Mondrian inspired block - love, love, love this one.....

What's your fave blocks at the minute?