Happy 1st Birthday Coco!

I just barely finished Coco's quilt and Mrs Perkins in time but I got there and they were both a hit, especially Mrs Perkins with Holly's mothers group Mum's and her friend Mandy who collects giraffes...seems she wants one too!!! (so do I count that as one or two finishes toward my July challenge??)

Here's Mrs Perkins with her pins still in, I forgot to get one with them out!! Geez those horns are (*(*&^%% fiddly!!!

Here are a few photos, Coco was very cute and very well behaved, she even clapped after everyone sang Happy Birthday. Isabella was also very cute of course but I am biased! See her gorgeous daisy cake and the hibiscus in syrup in the bottom of our bubbly!

Coco with her Mum my DD Holly and her Dad Craig. Love the little fairy wings!

With her cute beret you can't see the pom pom but it has one!

Isabella looking very cute too!

Coco, not sure if she likes the birthday cake or not!!

Giveaway at Four Wise Monkeys.....

Rachel over at Four Wise Monkeys is very generously giving away a copy of Rosalie Quinlan's newest book, Gift. Hop on over and leave a comment to enter but you must be quick, you only have until Tuesday 1st July. Don't forget to tell her I sent you!!

While the cat's away.............

as the saying goes the mice will play!

No not this cat........

This one....

(Photo from when we were in Mt Gambier earlier in the year, the beautiful Blue Lake).

Earlier in the week TWOEMOTM was away for a night or two and somehow the kitchen turned into another workspace! SSShhhhh....don't tell it was all back in the workroom when he got back, he already says I take up all of the house with my sewing....lol.

What are these sitting on the ironing board?

Lissa's tumblers! Yes we (gluttons for punishment) decided to follow Kathie's Inspired by Antique Quilts lead and go through all of our 1800's reproductions and cut out two tumbler blocks, one each and swap. I had emailed Kathie as she did a swap with her friends which gave me the idea and she said go for it so Lissa has already sent me the first 30 odd. I started cutting some of mine but as quite a few are in different bags earmarked for different projects it became quite difficult to stop as I wouldn't be sure what I had done. So the easiest thing- do them all at once! No they aren't all cut yet and the ones that aren't are now piled up on my cutting board back in the workroom waiting.

Also on the cutting board are these.....

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The first delivery of my 1800's repro's for the scquilters (southern cross quilters online) swap. All cut up into 1/8ths and ready to go...when the next lot get here.

Above they are with the half yards I didn't want to cut up as that didn't leave me with as much as I wanted...the problem between imperial and metric! I have been wanting that Old sturbridge village green forever, I had some of the other colours but not the green.

Last but not least. On Wednesday night sit and sew at Pentland Patchwork in Bacchus Marsh I love to go scouring the shelves for repros....Denise has so much fabric all over the place that's it like going on a treasure hunt! I thought I had found all the repros but no.....here's some more I found although the blue second left is an old favourite, Deja Blues range and so is the turquoise blue which is Dargate Divinity (1830's) but I didn't know it had it's pink sister until the other night. Denise says the range was from 5 or 6 years ago? I found a heap more but can't get them all at once even though I am only buying 15cm pieces. Had to leave some for next time!

And below this is what I am doing instead of just sitting here waiting for photos to upload...the binding on Coco's quilt so she can have it tomorrow for her birthday!!!

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Lots done!

Today I have been good. I haven't actually finished anything but I did make a start on one or two projects I have had sitting there ready to go.

I have done lots of cutting and preparing so now I can just sew!

Here is Mrs Perkins she is cut out and in her bag ready to sew together. I hope to finish her for Cocos birthday on Saturday. She is actually brown with daisies....for Coco Daisy!!

I also have Phoebe cut out she may even get her as well if she's finished.

Next is Chloe's Quilt all cut out and ready to sew I love the bright freshness of the Prints Charming fabric and it is very soft.

I have also cut the sashing for my Funky Scrap Quilt mainly Amy Butler fabrics so that's pinned and just ready to sew. I have a feeling this one might get put on the backburner again though as it has all those strips for the border!

Saturday

What a lovely day I had. First of all I met lovely Rachel.

Rachel was kind enough to trust me to quilt her two lovely quilts, her version of Leanne's House Ruth's quilt and her version of Lime and Soda which you can see on her blog. The photos don't do them justice and the colours in Lime and Soda are just gorgeous. Rather a lot of this aqua and browns. Rachel says she isn't really a quilter she is more an embroiderer.......have you seen her Elizabeth quilt and curved piecing isn't the easiest either, I don't think you give yourself enough credit Rachel!! I gave Rachel some fabric she was after to finish a project plus a purse organiser I had made and a pin cushion to match for her little win from my giveaway. The pattern was from here. Now I think I will have to make one for myself. I might make one for Michelle and Charlie to put in with their wins too. (they are coming girls!)

I was actually at Ballarat Patchwork doing a class yesterday, Compass and Vines with Deborah Dorward. Once we all got our brains working back to front and inside out the foundation piecing was easy! I have done it before but as I don't do it often enough I have forgotten by the next time I do it. I always think you learn at least one new thing at every class and the thing I learnt about was the Sulky transfer pen. What a little gem this pen is, you trace over the pattern with the pen then iron it onto (in this case) the interfacing we were using for the foundations, with it making around 10 patterns before re-inking brilliant!! It certainly saves a lot of time tracing out each foundation pattern when you have 8 per block and 16 blocks. I did some more when I got home but I was having trouble with the iron shrivelling up the interfacing so a sheet of glad bake later and I was done...how easy!

Next Emma called out to me...and there in the shop was the extraordinary Jodie! What a lovely surprise and she came bearing gifts....how lucky am I!!! She is very bad I just gave her a bag of selvedges, admittedly it was a pretty large bag, I won't mention here how big as I don't want to incriminate myself but suffice to say I think Jodie may have gotten a few of her papa selvedges along with the mamma's and baby's. Anyway there she was wearing her lovely selvedge scarf. LOL I don't think I told her I still have some stash put away in UFO's I haven't de-selvedged yet. I am almost convinced to make one for myself...but I already have enough WIPS....ok too many. Look at the cute little address label....

And the gorgeous card, lovely colours.....

And what's this peeking out of the box?


A box full of pink sugary goodness....yummmm!!!!

Here's all my goodies look at the cute cards with some of Jodies softies.....

Thank you Jodie it was delectable!

Challenge!!

I have taken the plunge and become part the challenge issued by Peg over at Happy in Quilting.

As I said to Peg I doubt I will actually finish five as I don't have the time to quilt five of mine but if I can get five tops completed I will be just as happy.......now the big challenge, to stop starting something new. Although I am booked in for a class on Saturday so we can't count that!! It will be interesting to see how many of us succeed.

Amitie- Finally!!!

YAY....it's finally arrived! I got home around 9pm last night after babysitting and decided to check the mail just in case........



and there it was, my little package from Amitie finally arrived. These are the two fat quarters that are a part of the first challenge for the Amitie blog VIP's aren't they cute.
Now what to do........I think a mini quilt!

Equal Time!

Now there has to be equal time as I have put a photo of Saffron on my blog I must put a photo of the little cuties they haven't been on for some time.

This was Miss Coco (who is one year old in a bit over a week) yesterday when I was on baby sitting duty. Poor Lily Rose was getting a bit of a bashing. The little poor thing still has the blue ducky quilt instead of her Sweet Baby Jane quilt! As soon as I have done the class in early August she will get her quilt.

Miss Isabella at the zoo with her mummy my eldest DD Rebecca.

Bella with her Daddy at the zoo...she is a daddy's girl can't you tell?

Go and say hello to Kelly

Kelly has just joined blogland! Go on over and say hello to her. Tell her I sent you...lol... and ask her to explain the name of her blog....if she will!
Oh and Sharon said I don't put enough photos of Saffron on my blog...so just for you Shan.

I have not been idle

Well not totally! I have managed to do a little bit of work and a little bit of my own sewing.

First here is Kelly's very first quilt, her stack and slash with Papillon edge to edge, I didn't get any big photos as I ran out of battery power and I forgot yesterday when she was here.

Next is Brenda's Egyptian quilt revisited. I ran out of time before the Ballan show but wanted to swirl fill the backgrounds of the pyramids before she puts it into the Melbourne Show so I got that done.

Here is my disappearing nine patch quilt that I bought the kit for at the Ballan quilt show. Finally finished....or is it? I think I saw the lovely green rose fabric at Pentland Patchwork so I think I will put a border on it and make it a bit bigger with perhaps the raspberry as the first smaller border....see how large Kelly's quilt was underneath it on the gammil?

And last but not least the Bendigo siggie quilt. I finally have it laid out and have been joining the blocks into rows.

The point of no return.....

Point Impossible? Pointless? Get to the point??? Point Taken? What I am rambling about ? All shall be revealed in due course.





To start the story I had a thought on Friday.....TOWEMOTM (the one who earns most of the money) had to work on Saturday.....hmmm.......no males, cold weather and bacon bone soup cooking all day = sewing day. So I emailed Kelly who had been emailing me asking me quilting questions (which I then asked Rachel -thanks Rachel) and asked if she and her MIL my friend Sharon would like to come up for a sewing day so it was arranged.



Shortly after ten saw them arrive laden down as if they were coming for the weekend. I had everything set up and away we went with Sharon protesting the whole time that we had to have a cuppa first...lol....she doesn't know me when I get into a sewing mood however Kelly was of a like mind and away we went and started WITH not after cuppa!!!




So now we come to the title of this blog entry. Here are Sharon's lovely blocks. They were started as a mystery quilt quite a while ago now but she had been sick for quite a while and was unable to finish the quilt. I decided the time was right to crack the whip and get this quilt together so I suggested she bring it with her. It is going to be a very pretty quilt when it's done and will look lovely in her bedroom with the grey carpet and walls.

However as Sharon is a reasonably new and inexperienced quilter.....well some of the points had gone missing and by the time I saw them it was too late to do much about it. So we were trying to decide what to call the quilt. Sharon has a good sense of humour and as the quilt police don't live at or visit her house well who cares about points!! Does anyone else have any suggestions......we would love to hear them.

BTW we ended up with all the blocks finished and the top three rows together with me pinning and Sharon chain piecing. Only three more block rows (with sashings) to go. The finished quilt can be seen in my November 2006 post.



Here are Kelly's gorgeous Kaffe Fassett blocks. Her quilt is the Tequila Sunrise version of Lime and Soda from Ballarat Patchwork. Emma has picked out some lovely fabrics for it. Believe it or not this is only her SECOND quilt and she is doing curved piecing in the large drunkards path blocks. Isn't she clever.......oh yes (no show without punch) I can't forget Sharon.......yes so are you Sharon!!
Sharon keeps telling me I will be in trouble with her son Brenton for converting Kel.....I don't think so after all every girl needs something to do when the dreaded football is on!! AND she is about to start a blog too...watch this space.





And here is Sharon at the end of a day of me cracking the whip!!!!

(you asked for it Sharon did you think I wouldn't...lol....you know me better than that!)

Embroideries of the past

These are specially for Wendy who didn't know I use to do embroidery, when I had more time...like before the Gammil. Here are just a few.

Here is my absolute favourite....The Blue Wren. He was a class I took at Sovereign Needlework in Ballarat with the very talented Lesley Turpin-Delport from South Africa.

Just look at his beady little eye.....

His body is long and short stitch the gumnuts are stumpwork and satin stitch for the flat ones the branch was I think coral stitch and those tiny claws are bullion wraps and wraps and wraps!!!

Close up of his tail feathers, silk and organza ribbon embroidery with some ostrich feathers out of Lesley's feather duster thrown in!!

Another class at Sovereign, A Summer Garden, surface stitchery. The background is all french knots.

The Kangaroo Paws are needle weaved.

Silk Ribbon Embroidery