Walk a mile with my walking foot

Up until now I've been very reluctant to quilt using a walking foot. It stems from my early attempts at quilting with my old Husqvarna with a regular foot. Scary, high heart rate, lumpy, bumpy, irregular stitch length quilting! I'm surprised I'm still interested in quilting after those early days!

But my friend Kay who's just started quilting a few weeks back and like me is completely self taught from books and the internet exclaimed how easy it was. So my little 2 1/2" square checkerboard quilt is experiencing yet another experiment.......straight line quilting using a walking foot and I have to say, Kay is absolutely right. The walking foot is great! I don't know what I was afraid of!

Whilst I was up to my armpits (any one who quilts knows that's really true!) in quilt top, R decided that she was bored on the last day of the holidays and wanted to cook something. The outcome? Bill Granger's Cherry Tart. She did it all herself leaving me to my sewing. I'm so proud of her and it didn't taste half bad either. Perhaps our own little masterchef in the making?

Out of this world

When Claire announced that she was off to Japan and 'would we like anything?', Clare and I immediately said 'anything Super Mario' as our boys are huge fans.
Claire didn't let us down and returned with the most amazing piece of 'Galaxy' fabric for each of us. I pushed aside my idosyncratic 'I can't cut it, it's too lovely' habit because I knew exactly what I was going to do with my bit.
The girls at Patchwork on Central Park had given me a copy of their 'Birdsong' quilt pattern on my last visit. It's the perfect pattern for a feature print. Super Mario and his mates surrounded by strips of primary colours, heaps of fun and really easy. Most of the fabric is from Spotlight, including the blue and yellow star fabric used on the back and the binding and there's a little bit from Hetties Patch too.
L loves it and can't wait to start using it. He and R have their slippers on (a wonderful purchase from our recent girls weekend in Melbourne) and are rearing to go!

Sew and Sews Do Melbourne

What a fantastic fabric blitz the Sew and Sews had in Melbourne last weekend. So much so, we've created a blog to share our adventures.

Sew and Sews started last year. A weekly catch up of like-minded girls, each bringing our crafty projects along and learning new skills like quilting, bag and soft-toy making and generally speaking, worshipping art of the fabric stash....not to mention a few glasses of champagne, cups of tea and Ivana's fabulous baked treats.

That leads us to Melbourne! Cheap flights from Adelaide to Melbourne and the weekend was born. Some new fabric finds like GJ's in Brunswick, Ziguzagu, Richmond, for divine Japanese Kimono silks and cottons and our old fave, Patchwork on Central Park, Malvern. Not to mention the Camberwell Market on Sunday morning meeting the lovely Elizabeth with her buttons and trims and the 'wool man'. (And the Lego man for the kids back home!) Getting it all home was a little scary as our carry-on was limited....but we managed to scrape through.

Here's to many new projects and planning the next adventure!