Sisters

Recently I entered a giveaway over at Mary of Mary on Lake Pulaski's blog.

Mary made some lovely aprons for her 5 sisters and herself using an Attitude Girls panel and she generously offered to make an apron for the follower with the most sisters ... and that was me!! Yay!!

Check out Mary and her sisters and Mum here and check out some of her beautiful quilts too.


Like Mary I have 5 sisters and also like Mary 3 are older and 2 are younger....



Here I am (far left) with 4 of my sisters earlier this year. My baby sister wasn't in this photo because she was a little bit busy ....

Don't they look stunning!!

I also have 1 wonderful brother that is getting married later this year, bringing yet another sister into our family :)


One of my sisters has done her best to even the score with a great bunch of boys

Thank you Mum & Dad for giving me a wonderful family YOU ARE AWESOME!!!

I can't wait until December until we are all together again XO

P.S. Thanks Elle for letting me use your photos :)

Another Year Older ... & Giveaway Winners

Today is my birthday and so it's presents all around because it's also giveaway day too!!!

I have had a lovely day! Well I had to go to work ... surely there should be a law passed saying you don't have to work on your birthday. This evening my wonderful husband took me out to dinner and we really enjoyed chatting and being together and the food was good too. It's also been nice catching up with family over the phone. I didn't bake a cake because it's just the 2 of us and my husband isn't a sweet tooth, but don't worry I still had cake.




And now for the all important giveaway "presents". The winners are ..... (drum roll) ......

1st we have no 27 Missie from Crimson Lily

2nd we have no 29 Jennifer from That Girl ... That Quilt

Unfortunately I have not yet worked out how to cut and paste the random number generator thingy, so you will just have to trust me :)


Congratulations to both of you, please email me your address and I'll get your winnings off to you ASAP.


Oh, and you know how I mentioned that "I'm not the luckiest person when it comes to winning giveaways", well not true anymore ... I'll tell you about it very soon :)

Thank You & A Giveaway

THANK YOU to all those people who have visited my blog and to those who have left heartwarming comments since I started this blog 19 days ago. When I started it I said that it didn't matter if no-one visited because I wanted to keep this blog as a bit of a journal for myself of how I improve over time, but your comments and encouragement have really meant a lot to me :)

A special THANK YOU also to my wonderful sister Kate who sent many of you over my way. She is not only inspirational to me as a quilter but also as a big sister and friend!!

Now I'm not the luckiest person when it comes to winning giveaways, but I think that hosting one must be just as fun if not more so than winning one :)

So to say thank you and to celebrate going double digits (yes this is post number 10 hehe) here's your chance to get a bit of fabric love .....



Either a panel of "Once Upon a Time" by Alexander Henry - with 16 very cute prints as shown above or ....


A very sweet "Strawberry Lemonade" charm pack by Me & My Sister Designs.


Here's a picture of a few prints that you'll find in the charm pack ....

There will be 2 winners randomly drawn on Tuesday the 28th September 2010. The first winner has first choice of which fabric they'd like. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment . That's it! Good luck!!

More QAYG Blocks

I hope you are not too bored of them yet because there's 10 more blocks to go ;)

Pine For You

This will be the first throw size quilt that I have quilted. As I mentioned once before, I have quilted lots of smaller items but never a proper quilt! The pattern is Pine For You by Kate Conklin (my sis) and I love it - the instructions were so easy to follow and it all came together so fast - I finished the entire quilt top in a weekend (and I definately was a novice quilter - only the second quilt top I had made). Purple is definately not my favourite colour but it is my mother-in-law's favourite colour by a mile, so I hope she loves it.

I made the quilt top at the end of last year and got it all basted, but in the end ran out of time to quilt it before Christmas arrived (I was a little nervous to try to rush the quilting in case I mucked it up). So I have finally pulled it out of the cupboard and started to quilt it in time for this Christmas. I decided to go with something really simple - I have machine stitched in the ditch around each block and the border and am just about to start hand quilting around the trees. This will also be my first time hand quilting ..... so just wondering what thread and needles you would recommend hand quilting with ???

2 More "Quilt As You Go" Blocks ....

I think this might be Fantastic Mr Fox .....

Princess and the Pea .....

Here's all of them together so far ......

Quilted Bibs

I have wanted to make Kate's Sea View's quilt ever since she showed the first photo of the beautiful quilt top, but I had never done any curved piecing before so I thought I'd start off small. Here is a curved pieced quilted baby bib. It was quite easy to do even without pins .... but I had a little help from the links here.





Now I've just got to decide what fabric I want to make "Sea View's" from. Oh the choices ....



I also thought I'd try a larger size bib. The Noah's Ark print is a really soft flannel and it's been straight line quilted.

I enjoy making smaller items from time to time and these fit the bill because it was fun, quick and easy to make.

Joseph's Coat

When I saw the Joseph's Coat Quilt Along over at Don't Look Now I fell in love. I grabbed my favourite Neptune jelly roll and decided that I would get on board. This is just a few of the many, many petals I have made ......

But so far I have only made one block (and it's not quite completed). I really love the look but am feeling daunted by all of that hand applique. So for a start I'm thinking I might machine zigzag the edges with a clear thread and a small stitch so it's not very noticable and try making something smaller such as a cushion or a tablerunner. Any other ideas?

No-Calorie Sorbet

I've been in Adelaide for the last couple of days for a work meeting and so I had the opportunity today to go to one of my favourite quilt shops Hettie's Patch. I love their large range of fabric and patterns. The goodies above are what I came away with. I can't wait to cut into it, but I will have to wait because I have too many other WIP's. I love the fresh colours, it makes me want to go eat some sorbet!

Quilt As You Go

I really loved this baby quilt when I saw it at A Quilt is Nice blog and I also wanted to try the quilt as you go technique found here at sew take a hike. So I purchased a Once Upon a Time panel and this is what I've come up with so far .....








I found the straight line quilting fun and very manageable and I am enjoying using solid fabric. I think it makes the quilting stand out more. I considered blending the thread colour to the fabric but decided to go with white in the end so that the quilting would be more of a feature (not just because I felt lazy and couldn't be bothered changing the thread :)

Each block is approx 13 x 14 inches. Two down and 14 more to go.

The quilt as you go quilt along round 2 is currently happening over at A La Mode Fabric. I'm not quite ready for round 2 as I haven't completed my first quilt, but it looks like fun.

Tote Bags

Here are a couple of quilted tote bags that I made recently.

I gave this one to my Nana. The fabric is Aviary by 3 Sisters and natural linen. It's also lined with linen. My Nana hasn't used it yet because she only wants to use it when she goes out for "special occasions" and they are few and far between. My Nana was a seamstress and made so many dresses for me when I was younger including my wedding dress, so it was nice to be able to make some small token for her, as she loves fabric and appreciates handmade things.

This one I have kept for myself and I use it as my church bag. The tulip fabric is an old Michael Miller print and most of the others are from the Swanky range by Chez Moi. I also used an aqua linen for the outer bag and lining. It's really roomy and the tulip print reminds me of the tulips my husband Andre used to grow for me when we were dating.

Both bags are nearly the same on either side.

I apologise for the quality of the photos - they are a bit dark, but it gives some idea of the final product.

Just the Start

After speaking with my sister Kate I've taken the plunge and started a blog for my creative crafty and quilting endeavours. I was reluctant at first because I didn't want the pressure of feeling like I had to post something new all the time. I speak with Kate regularly about different quilts we are making, but as we live in different states I get to see her quilts on her blog but she doesn't get to see mine. So my plan for this site is to for me to add photos of projects that I am working on as I go ...... no pressure.

I have been sewing for a few years now, but quilting is relatively new to me, about a year. I have spent most of that time piecing different sorts of quilt tops or completing smaller quilted items such as journal covers and bags, but have very little to actually show for completed quilts. So I am looking forward to gaining more experience in quilting techniques. There are so many bloggers out there that have inspired me and have been so generous to share their talents. I hope that I too in time may be able to give back just a little.

This is my spiderweb quilt top I am currently working on. I used the template from this tutorial and am loving how it is coming together.

Thanks for stopping by!