4x5 Modern Quilt Bee

I've joined the 4x5 Modern Quilt Bee on Flickr and I'm pretty excited!

In this Bee, I choose one block that I like and make it for the 5 other people in my group in the colour scheme of their choice and in return I receive 5 different blocks from others in my colour scheme. If I participate in this Bee a few times a year I should end up with enough blocks for a whole quilt!

I've decided on a yellow, aqua, grey and white colour scheme and here's my colour inspiration mosaic ...

1. Tea Garden Star Quilt, 2. WIP, 3. aqua & yellow mini quilt, 4. Ranunculas in Aqua Vase, 5. Birdhouse pillow, 6. Bits and Pieces Bee - April Block 1, 7. front flat on wicker, 8. Susanna's Quilt 1, 9. Sneak Peek, 10. Blues, yellows, grays, 11. FFA 2 - Rob Peter to Pay Paul, 12. Single Girl block, 13. Bee Hexed In, 14. 3x6 bee block - 2nd quarter 2011, 15. Baby Mish Mash, 16. favorite-bowls

Drool!!

Baby Shower

My youngest sister Ellen is having a baby, but unfortunately she lives in another state from me so I wasn't able to attend her baby shower this past weekend. They haven't found out whether they are having a boy or a girl so when I was making her a baby shower gift I thought I'd go for a orange/aqua colour scheme which I hope is gender-neutral enough.

Remember this block? Well this is what I made from it .....

  

I quilted it in straight lines approx 1/4" on either side of the vertical seams and made it into a cushion for the nursery. It's approx 15.5" square. I decided to sew yoyo's on for eyes instead of buttons since it's for a newborn nursery.

 .... and here's the back ....

I also made a Scottie softie using the same fabrics and Denyse Schmidt's free pattern.

It turned out a little wonkier than I'd hoped because the strip between the front and back stretched a little as I sewed the back on, but I'm hoping the baby will love cuddling it regardless :) Next time I think I'd make it out of heavier weight fabrics.

And here they are together .....

(Excuse the cushion being a little crushed as I had just trialled vacuum sealing them to

reduce their size to send them interstate, hopefully those creases will drop out soon :)

Hope you and the bub enjoy them Elle!!

Anniversary Cake :)

Further to my post earlier today, and to prove what a fantastic and gorgeous husband I have .....

My husband is a great cook and cooks dinner often, but rarely bakes cakes etc. But tonight he wanted to bake a cake, I read out the recipe and blog hopped while he made the cake. When it was all done he said to me "In 5 minutes can you please cut me a piece of cake". 5 minutes later I went into the kitchen and this is what I found .....

(No, that is not blood or tomato sauce :)

 .... a very delicious almond cake with our initials on it in icing. It really made my day!! 

I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband and best friend!!

12 Years!!

(Look how young we were!!)

Today we are celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary!! We dated for 3 years before we got married so we've been together for 15 years all up. Wow that makes me feel old.

Happy Anniversary Sweetheart! I'm really looking forward to the next 12 years (and beyond) with you!!

(a recent photo .... check out those cheeky faces in the background! Love you Bec & Morgan :)

Woof Woof

There are 100 little squares in this 17.5" block. I think a baby quilt out of this would be mighty cute, but I don't have the patience for it right now.

This block was inspired by this free scottie dog pattern by Denyse Schmidt. Cute huh!!

Thank You Jennifer!!

Did you notice anything new up the top of my blog??!!

I finally have a new blog header!!

I have been thinking that I desperately need a new blog header for a while now but I wasn't quite sure how to go about it.  This morning I finally decided it was about time to figure it out when I spotted Jennifer's (from "That Girl ... That Quilt") fantastic tutorial. She has laid it out step by step for those of us who aren't quite so computer savvy ... and it worked!!

Thank you Jennifer :)

Bijoux Kaleidoscope WIP

I am so bad ... I've started ANOTHER quilt top!!!

I think my problem is that my favourite part is choosing a pattern or block, picking out fabrics and seeing the quilt top come together. My least favouite part is the basting (it also doesn't help that I don't really have a space large enough in my home to baste anything larger than a baby quilt) and I still feel a little daunted by the quilting (I wish I could just hand them to a longarm quilter), so I tend to stall once the quilt top is pieced ...... and once I put it aside until I have time to find a place large enough to baste the quilt, I start all over again.

So this is what I have recently started on .....

The pattern is Kaleidoscope by the very clever Allison at Cluck Cluck Sew and the fabrics are Bijoux by Heather Bailey - such bright, fun colours. I am yet to applique the circles on the blocks I have made thus far.

I did get one of my There's a Square in There quilts basted yesterday so I'm hoping to get stuck into the quilting this week and with any luck I'll have another completed quilt to show you soon :)

Oh and one more thing .... remember the giveaway I had back in January for all those that donated items to the Qld Flood Appeal Auctions. Well Lexie (Periwinkle Girl) won the Sherbet Pips charm pack and has just completed her first ever quilt!! It's gorgeous, so please head over to her blog to check it out and let her know how talented she is!!

Organising My Stash

(Hmmm ... it didn't look this wonky in real life).

I've had my stash stored in plastic storage containers, which definately has it's good points but I have been finding it hard to see what I've got, plus I like to stare at pretty fabric bundles while I decide what I might make next. So recently I did a bit of a tidy up of my sewing room and got some of my favourite fabric out of the boxes and on to one of my shelves and drawers.

How do you store your fabric??