It was "Amy Butler Bag Day" at Clare's today with M and Clare hitting Spotlight early for spectacular post Christmas fabric bargains for their beautiful bag creations. They were working with the Amy Butler Style Stitches bag book and I was working on a free Nigella Yoga Bag pattern which is down-loadable from the Amy Butler site. In keeping with the Amy theme, I used decorator weight Love fabric that I had in the stash. Actually, I've used this fabric three times already, once for teacher totes and then my iPad cover and the little cover for work's alternating back up drive. Funnily enough, I had originally purchased it for the teacher totes and realised I hadn't ordered enough....and then had to buy some more! Seriously, this is absolutely the last of it but I haven't wasted a scrap. I've used the last of the big bits of this colour way today....and even then I did some surreptitious joining! The fabric is the Heart range from Love, Trumpet Flowers in pink and Sunspots in grass and is perfect for the pink-sh yoga mat that will live in the bag. It's a birthday gift for my dear friend whom I do yoga with. I'll have to get one sorted for myself...won't we be the stylish two! It will certainly make up for our lack of technique as we hide down the back of the room....did I really say that!
I love this time of year and having some time off work in between Christmas and New Year and catching up on some long overdue sewing. I've had this gorgeous Ruby fabric cut out for a couple of months and have been waiting patiently, finishing off a few other projects before starting this Plus Quilt that has been running around in my head for an age. So not like me to not go diving straight in! But I was very good and even though the beautiful cut pile sat and sat it meant that the other morning I could get started with the layout and top assembly. It feels like the top has only taken two days to make because the cutting took place so long ago! The other reason I'm glad I waited is that this sewing time has given me a chance to really look at each of the prints and decide what to buy for the back. 
I have to say, it's a hard decision as they're all so gorgeous. I'm thrilled with the pattern which I followed from this easy tutorial. It's a great way to show off a range and the Plus construction is very forgiving. The pattern calls for 20 fat quarters and I've chosen the red, green, pink and grey colours from my fat quarter bundle. Here's a shot of the back on this wonderful warm summer evening! 
I have finally finished a little baby quilt I've been working on for some time. I actually took a moment to sit quietly and hand stitch the binding after the hurley burley known as Christmas. This quilt is inspired by this one...and is the third I've made in various sizes and colours. The bow-ties are the Denyse Schmidt 'DS Quilts Collection, Picnics and Fairgrounds' offcuts from my Swoon quilt set in an assortment of solids. Because of their size I made each of the squares in the blocks 3 1/2" which is slightly bigger than earlier 2 1/2" versions. So each of these blocks finish up at around 6" finished.
The binding is a newer edition of DS Quilts, Sugar Creek. Normally I wouldn't have chosen a busy patterned floral like this for a binding but I love how it features all the colours in the quilt and is a juxtaposition of solids featured in the blocks. This quilt is for my cousin's new baby daughter. I haven't seen him for years but thrilled he had a baby none the less! (Any opportunity to make a baby quilt!)
As Adelaide approaches its hottest Christmas since 1987, we spent the night baking reindeer cookies. Baking on a hot night is always tricky when you've got the oven blasting out heat and the air conditioner battling against it. Oh the joy of summer!
Tick off another Christmas ritual....the Santa visit.
We had our Sew & Sews annual Christmas get together earlier this week. This year at a local hotel and the gift giving was rigorous and 100% creative. (Please don't laugh at the little man symbol above our heads! His presence destroyed quite a few photos as the photographer burst into giggles!)
And this year the little girls joined us! Aren't they gorgeous!
And whilst I've been finishing up at work.....someone at home has been cooking up a storm AND doing a splendid job. 
Ahhhh, yes...it is starting to feel a little like Christmas....let's hope there's more to follow!
Haighs has been fabulous with her egg donations. We've had quiche, hard and soft boiled eggs for breakfast and eggs in sandwiches and salads.....and, count our lucky stars, one more each day. Joe took 1/2 doz into work the other day and in exchange he brought home something equally yellow. Sensational citrus! Gorgeous lemons that will be juiced and consumed as part of Joe's daily regime! Oh how I love a good produce swap!
Yey! I'm one, so is R, so is L, so is J, so is S, so is L, so is A, so is little L.....and about 16,912 other Adelaideans!
It's finished! And at 80" square, by far the biggest quilt I've ever quilted. It's so big I struggled to come up with a spot to take a full length photo but seeing as necessity is the mother of invention I'm thrilled I worked out the hanging spot from the batting under the verandah porch! I'll be using that little trick again for sure. So the quilt? I love the pattern. The blocks are large and simple to piece and their beauty appears before your eyes as the piecing comes together. I don't have any favourite blocks....they're all lovely but I do wish I'd been a little more adventurous in my fabric selections. Next time! The pattern is Swoon designed by the very clever Camille Roskelly. You can buy the pattern from the link on her blog. 
The fabric is Denyse Schmidt's Picnics and Fairgrounds from Spotlight in Australia and Kona Snow. And the quilting is free motion stippling by me!
If you've been reading my blog for a bit, you may have read about the chook that pops over the fence into our backyard and spends her day poking around and feasting on snails, dropped figs, our compost scraps and pretty much anything else that takes her fancy. When we first discovered her in our yard 18 months ago it was around Easter time, so we named her Haighs after the famous Adelaide chocolate brand that come into their own around Easter and produce lovely chocolate hen shapes (and fish, frogs, bilbys, eggs, truffles etc...). I don't think she has a name where she lives...but who would know, she doesn't say much beyond the occasional cluck. Lately she's been arriving first thing in the morning. It's rather satisfying to see her at 7.30am....kind of settles us in for the day. She also recognises our blue compost bucket and starts to chase us around the yard before it's deposited. Joe will attest to the pecking of one's foot just because he had the bucket! There was even a day when she gorged so much at our place I had to lift her up to the fence because she was too heavy to fly up to it! However, about two weeks ago we found her nestling in some plants one afternoon and making quite a ruckus. Joe was right onto it. He spotted all the signs. Yep, pretty soon we had an egg. Warm and fresh. Since then we've received a perfect dozen. (Sorry, picture shows eleven but we ate one!) They're picked fresh each day and popped into the carton. It's quite a ritual. I often wonder what her owners must be thinking about her lack of presence and/or lack of laying. My only hope is that her owners don't get onto it.....!
A year ago we had a fabulous Halloween party. Seriously, it was THE BEST! The house was decorated to the enth degree (well let's face it...any spider web hanging from the cornice is perfectly placed...isn't it?). The kids dressed up, the friends arrived and everyone was amazingly ghoulish... Needless to say the ghoulish revelry was enhanced by a couple of very over-priced imported pumpkins that we carved for the party. After carving, we chucked the insides into the compost...lamenting that you didn't actually get much on the inside....but I learnt, that that's the sort of pumpkin that it is. I kept some seeds but didn't hold much hope that anything would come of them....after all they're bred for one-off Halloween events and have probably been kept in a fridge for 6 months before arriving for our October. However, pretty soon the mulch we threw into the compost started to produce sprouts. I kept them going as it was summer here, and the sprouting plants were green and fresh looking. After a while we had an abundance of divine orange pumpkins. We stacked them up....you could dance around them if you were that way inclined. But alas....that was six months ago. Way too soon for October Halloween celebrations and with these imported varieties, there was no way they would last too much longer beyond the time they were actually harvested. So we picked them. We looked at them. We took photos but they soured. So we've buried them. And guess what...they're coming up again. How about Halloween in June?
But Joe, always the practical one thought that seeing as the legs were a bit curvy then rounded corners would work so he set about cutting them off with the jigsaw. Now I haven't yet revealed what I wanted this treasure for.....the shack! So I had no intention of restoring this little table but rather dressing it up to dress it down! After rounding the corners, Joe brought out the belt sander....a tool that scares the pants off of me because of its weight and propensity to gouge. 
The top looked pretty good when he'd finished particularly as I had poured boiling water to remove the last of the candle wax and that had played complete havoc with the previous stain....you'd think I hadn't studied french polishing for three years wouldn't you? I was tempted to leave the top with the wood exposed....but I didn't. I undercoated the whole lot and then popped on a coat of pale blue.
But over the days I had left it to dry I began to think it was too light...almost the colour you would use for a baby's room....so I bought a can of turquoise. I should also mention that I also bought a new hand sander because my other one died, the undercoat, the pale blue paint, brushes and a couple of other implements...so I'm now looking at around $120 and was starting to grumble that I could have bought a *&^%&*$# new coffee table! I spent hours painting this table....I reckon 3-4 weekends worth, coat upon coat to achieve a beautiful smooth finish. And then this morning I 'attacked' it with the 60 grit sandpaper and knocked it all back to shabby. Taaaa daaah!
I also got stuck into a couple of other pieces of shack furniture that I had bought home. Each time there was paint on the brush, I painted these two as well. 
They were both from Ikea and were thrown out a few years back for $5 each. (They were probably only worth $5!) I didn't take a before photo (or a during for that matter) but they were, well.....Ikea-ish plain pine. Now they're beachy. I just hope they don't get scratched in the car on the way back to the shack! Ha!
Here is the complete set on the floor. It's already looking rather large....I can't wait for it to be all neatly sashed and better yet....quilted!
I have finished my eighth Swoon block! The last two have been sitting around for weeks now whilst I've picked up other projects instead. So last night I got stuck into number eight and managed to add it to the other seven in the complete pile. Now with just one more to go and bashing out a blog post in between getting ready to go to work.....I'm wishing the day to go fast so I can finish off the last one tonight! Funny how that happens! Like the others this block features Denyse Schmidt's Picnic and Fairgrounds (Spotlight). Pattern is Swoon by Camille Roskelly.
This little quilt is totally inspired by this one and is an experiment in using small scraps of solid fabrics set against a solid background. It's also an experiment in arcs of straight line quilting which I've been itching to try....and now that I have, I can tick it off my list or reserve it for small projects in the future! Let's just say this kind of quilting is impressive but it is also an exercise in quilt wrangling!
I love how each of these solid colours look so bland on their own but when they've joined a community, they just sing, even the violet! The layout evolved as I joined in the background to make the top....I say evolved because I did make some mistakes in my calculations and cutting and ended up with a sightly different placement to my original plan! But....seeing as I can't remember what that was now, we move on! 
The backing fabric is more of the Ikea birds from the Cecelia range, this time in the coffee colour. I think I've managed to use all the colours now. 
The binding is an aqua spotty negative from Spotlight. Here it is sitting on the little stool rescued from the side of the road. It's had a little aqua makeover along with some other bits of furniture but that my friends it the topic of another post.....
The very lovely Michelle sent me a photo of her beautiful little man lying on his Sherbet Pips quilt. Talk about the gift that keeps giving......!
I think they were smiling at me, secretly thanking me for allowing them to have a bit of a run in the backyard and urging us to look closer. Inside the bathtub was their gift....eggs galore... a dozen in fact! 
And now I'm home looking at the fruits of my labour, some of those shots aren't too bad....back to assignment. Thanks chooks!
Voila! Happy birthday mummy! xxx
This quilt is for my sister in law who has recently experienced a rather nasty work place accident. I won't go into details but we had coffee yesterday and she is saying that she's 50/50...but she's also trying to be extremely positive and wishing for good health for the future. Her accident and recovery is at the opposite end of the bliss spectrum so I'm directing some positive vibes her way so her quilt will feature some of Bonnie and Camille's Bliss range. I've used 4 charm packs of 5" squares which I've had in the cupboard for ages and yielded 168 squares, in a 14 x 12 block formation. This fabric is so delightful it didn't call for any fancy piecing...just join the squares. I love it. It's simple. It works. The colours and prints are divine and the soft fabric has been a pleasure to work with. The top lay on the floor for a couple of days because I loved the look of it. I couldn't stop staring at it, marvelling at its beauty and asking everyone who walked past to agree with me that it was 'just perfectly gorgeous'...(for the record...they did...or is that household coercion?). 
For the back I chose solid stone colour and joined it with some left-over Bliss strips that I had from a 'yet to be revealed' jelly roll project. The quilt is stippled which is something I had got out of the habit of doing but for this size quilt, it was perfect. There were a few little hiccup sections but for the most part, the stippling process was smooth and I kept wondering why I hadn't stippled for an age. 
The quilt is finished with plain red binding and I think this frames the quilt perfectly, contrasting with the back and not fighting with the front.
Normally I would lament giving a quilt that I love like this one away...but I know it's going to a good home and to someone who will love it like I do!
Back in early July I did everything to avoid starting a rather tough uni assignment and ended up making Red Pepper's pieced border quilt top out of my scrap strips. The assignment ended getting done but the top lay in the cupboard until the other night when I after I'd finished basting another quilt I'm working on, I had the right sized piece of batting left over for this quilt. So I basted this one too and because this one is smaller than the other one, I ended up quilting this one first. I love this little quilt. I love how the bright pinks and lime greens pop against the chilled seafoam background. I've also chosen plain and simple Kona coal for the binding as everything else I tried didn't work against the scrappy border. The Kona coal frames the whole quilt beautifully. The back is a lot of fun and features the red hippos from Ikea. The size was just right at 45" wide, so it's all one piece.
Quilt stats:
We've got the red matryoshka dolls, green hippos, blue puppies and pink pussycats. Putting the four together really gave me a feel for how lovely these little premmie quilts are going to be. I love the diamond meeting in the centre as much as the I-spy centres. 
I also made a few metres of rainbow coloured binding. The original fabric was an Ikea stripe and I'd had it cut for something and never used it but it will add a lovely bright touch to Natalie's little rainbow quilts.
I've made one block so far and they're really super quick to sew together once cut. I'm thinking they might be nice distractions in between assignment completion this weekend. The idea is to create little eye-spy centres in each of the blocks. I used this lovely little pussy cat print that I purchased from Spotlight years ago. It's perfect for a little baby. I also have some blue doggie print, so blue will be the next cab off the rank. Looking at it now I realise I should have put the centre print on the diagonal so it ultimately sits straight...oh well, learning curve! I also used Kona Woodrose and some Little House by Annette Tatum polka dots and stripes that have also been in the stash for some time....and that makes me feel good too!
I've finished a quilt! Yeh for me! Now this little quilt wasn't on my original completion wish list but even so, it's a finish and I'm thrilled. And I'm super thrilled with how it turned out too. I've used 12 divine strips from my Sherbet Pips jelly roll, concentrating on boy colours of red, aqua and grey and sashed in white. The centre of each square is a 4 patch of 2 1/2" squares, surrounded by a 1 1/2" strip of co-ordinating solid and finished with a jelly roll strip. The blocks ended up at 10 1/2 - 11". 
The binding is grey and white wide stripe from Spotlight which I really like. And the back is the red Denyse Schmidt Picnics and Fairgrounds argyle also from Spotlight. I also brushed off my stippling hoo-doo and that worked out beautifully without one pucker! Now to bundle it up for a special little boy.
I've managed 12 blocks and have used a mountain of small scraps and almost all of the those tiny bits of white that I can't bear to part with. So whilst the scrap bin is looking delightfully empty, 12 blocks is not enough for a quilt, so I've shelved that idea for the moment. Then I spent two nights cutting out the fabric for 9 Swoon blocks. Swoon is a new pattern by Camille Roskelly and it's beautiful. I had to really get my head around the cutting and fabric matching but now that it's done I have a little production line happening with the blocks. I'm using the new Denyse Schmidt fabric, Picnic and Fairgrounds from Spotlight along with some solids and Kona Snow.
I've made 4 so far. Again, they've been pushed to the side because yesterday afternoon I started a little baby quilt following some surprise news. I'm keeping that one under wraps for the moment but let's just hope that it becomes one of those quick turn-around, highly satisfying finishes! I hope so, I'm back to work on Tuesday and would really like to show something off after all those good intentions!
I finished the binding on my red, white and blue maverick star quilt last night just in time for July 4th. Whilst not an Australian celebration it's fitting none the less. This quilt is for L who seems to miss out on most of the quilts I make. Funny thing is he was actually due on July the 4th which made my obstetrician laugh every time he checked his notes! It took me a while to work out it was Independence Day! The quilt is made from 12" maverick star blocks in a mix of red, white and blue, measures 72" x 60" (6 blocks x 5 blocks) and is straight line quilted (the stripes!). The binding is red and white honeycomb (spotty dot from Spotlight) which I'm a bit addicted to for binding!
The back uses a piece of light blue fabric that I've had stashed for ages, some left overs and a strip of pinwheels that Kay suggested I make out of the triangles cut from the stars. They worked out beautifully!
Construction didn't come without it's problems....including poor measurement of the backing and not realising until after I'd taped it to the floor for basting! All is forgiven though because I just love red, white and blue. It's so crisp and clean looking.
Now....back to that essay....or maybe another unfinished that needs completion!
