DH's birthday was on Friday and what do you get them? Finally I had a brainstorm! He loves the series Deadwood which has been on Showtime on Austar but he didn't get to see them all so I got him the set of series one. When I was there what else did I see but his old favourite, Fawlty Towers so he got both of them as I couldn't decide on one or the other. He was thrilled. Phew another birthday over so I don't have to think of anymore gifts for him until Christmas!






Here are some photos of the beading I have done recently. First is the bracelet I made from one of the beading magazines, Creative Beading. It is from Anne's Glory Box and is also available as a kit although I used my own beads. It uses a mixture of glass and plastic as it would be too heavy with all glass. This one used a different technique, a beading needle and beading thread it took quite a while to make and is very full.










Next are the swarovski pearls. I made this set to wear to a wedding next Saturday. I thought it was a necklace and bracelet but it's more like a choker. I will decide through the week whether to do it again and add a bit more length. Apart from that I am very pleased with it, it looks great on.















Last but not least is my turquoise and silver bracelet. Made with turquoise nuggets and chips, bali silver spacers and bali silver scroll beads. I love turquoise and silver together and the scroll beads are gorgeous, pity you can't see the detail here.

This will be my second post, the first disappeared isn't that annoying! I had finished the whole post when my dial up disconnected just as I was publishing, not happy Jan!

I have been good and finished a custom quilt this week. That means only three to do before the end of March!!!!

Seems like we may have had a win with the garden....woohoo! DH put up an extension on the chicken wire we have around the front garden and it seems to finally have the wallaby beat. We now have lots of buds new shoots and even some flowers on the roses instead of eaten off stalks!

Wedding wise we have been to the florist, picked flowers picked a colour for the bridesmaid finally or should I say matron of honour and the cake. Not much left to do now so hopefully I can concentrate on getting these custom quilts done before the Ballan quilt show which is the same weekend as the wedding...as it would be.

I have been doing a little bit of handwork, not much it has been so hot here just like Qld weather hot and humid. yuk!

I have done a bit of embroidery on my Honey bee and bear quilt by My Favorite Things.

I have also done one third now of my Leanne's House quilt, three down six to go. Pictured left is block one.

Leannes House block two.

Leannes House block three.

Pictured next is Adeles gorgeous quilt. I love the colours in this quilt, she used mainly Kaffe Fassett fabrics the photo doesn't do it justice. Very simple quilt but very effective. She chose Rhapsody after seeing my quilt using that pattern.

This is part 2 of the previous post, hopefully blogger will behave and let me post some more photos.

Now I am halfway through quilting my dresden plate and nine patch quilt, pictured before quilting in my October archives. I am afraid I am not computer literate enough to know how to link to it so you will have to find it yourselves if you are interested. I have completed the stitch in the ditch and have advanced halfway down the quilt then it had to come off to make way for Adele's quilts. I may start using the zippers I have had for a few years and that way I can take customers off at night and work on my quilts.....but then when do I find time to do my embroidery on Leannes House and others waiting to be done? * sigh*






Next is a shabby chic stack and slash. I am doing a class at the local patchwork shop for this technique as it's a great class for beginners and people who have seen my oriental stack and slash quilt have wanted to make one so I decided to use up some of these fabrics I keep buying to show a different look you can't see the borders but I put a scalloped edge on this quilt so it looks quite pretty. I quilted it with Jodi Beamish's Rhapsody.

Finished! One UFO I think I started this two - three years ago this was a pattern from Ballarat Patchwork. It's quite different to the original which was made with one of the Amy Butler fabric ranges.
I only had to finish one border, I had got sick of doing the pieced borders so put it away for a while which turned into some years. I found it in January put on the remaining border then quilted it with Jodi Beamish's Flora pantograph. I only need to bind it now so one more off the ufo list.

Pictured right is my broken dishes quilt. I had originally made a much larger quilt than this lap sized one but it is down at the local quilt shop so I decided to make another one to be here in it's absence. One of the girls from the Friday morning class at the patchwork shop also wanted to make one of these quilts so I helped her pick out some fabric to achieve the look of my original quilt then she added some from her stash and some she bought from other patchwork shops in her travels. We then made up the half square triangles and swapped some of them. It will be interesting to see hers made up. Same style of fabrics as lots of my other quilts these days, civil war, reproduction fabrics, antique flowers and similar vintage looking fabric. I then made a conscious effort not to place lights and darks (with difficulty) but to sew them together randomly to achieve a scrappy look as if it was put together from left over scraps of fabric as they would have done years ago. I quilted it with Baptist Fan pantograph from Lorien Quilting.

Here it is Feb 2007 and I haven't posted until now. Slack aren't I!
A few quilts have been on the machine in the past month so I haven't been totally slack over the holidays.
My daughters wedding is on countdown approx eight weeks to go and I need to lose weight!!!!!!!! I have managed to lose 2kg over the past two weeks so hopefully that will keep going. It would be great if I could lose another 8 but anything is good. Another three and I am what I was at Hamilton Island so that would be ok. Then the dredded hunt for THE outfit begins again, I don't think I can outdo the last one, it was such a gorgeous colour.

Now for some work photos. First is Adele's quilt with Kerryn Emmerson's Baroque Hearts quilted on it. This is the first time I have used this panto although I have had it a couple of years I think. I was quite happy with how it turned out but I don't think it would be one for beginners.





Next is my sister Trudy's quilt. This quilt I started helping her with she picked out of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. When I looked up the mags they were from 1998 so it was her first and only quilt. I helped her cut but she did the rest on her own. It turned out a bit more work than I thought as I had to redo the borders as they had too much fullness in them. It was good practise for me to try some hump and bump feathers.

Well it looks like blogger is playing up on me again and won't let me post anymore photos, maybe its these collages so I will have to post this one and then post another!