There's Nothing Nicer

Than a trip to Gail B's
to pick fabrics for a special project!

Don't You Love . . . . . .

. . . spending a lovely time in your sewing room working on 

a special project! Just need to add the borders.

Don't you hate it when you realise you don't have 

enough of the blue fabric to bind the quilt! I'm probably short about one and a half strips from a fat quarter.

I was wondering if anyone might have a little left over in their stash. It was from a fat quarter bundle I bought at Spotlight a few years ago. If I can't find any more, I'll try doing single binding, something I haven't tried before.

Some Loveliness!

We had lots of lovely traders at the Quilt Show. 

I was very good and just bought a little fabric.

Gail Pan's new range, Among the Flowers is so sweet and I picked up a couple of fat quarters. It was so lovely catching up with Gail. I also got some of this yummy strawberry fabric from Bonnie and Camille's Hello Darling range.

Then this Tilda bundle kept calling me! I kept going back and in the end, the Tilda fabric won and came home with me.

Of course I didn't really need these but I just 

had to have them! I'm sure you all know that feeling.

This weekend I'm going to relax and do some stitching. There's a special swap gift I have to work on which is due tomorrow. I'm running late but I know my partner won't mind. Hopefully, it will be worth the wait in the end!

I'm very behind with my blog reading as I've been so busy. I've been quickly visiting without commenting, 

so if you haven't heard from me I hope you 

don't think I'm ignoring you!

Blogging Friends Are So Generous!

 One of our swaps for the Friends Having Fun Swaps this year is wool. I mentioned that I will have to start collecting some as I didn't have any in my stash. The lovely Fiona (Bubz Rugz) offered to send me some.

A big fat satchel arrived! I don't think Fiona could have stuffed any more in! Now it's got my mind working thinking about what I will make my partner. Thank you so much, Fiona. It was so lovely of you to start my stash!

 Yvonne from Yvonne W Designs recently had a giveaway of a button set she used for her Triptrych that is in the January edition of Homespun. I was the lucky winner. How pretty is the paper the buttons were wrapped in!

Here they are. Yvonne makes gorgeous buttons and brooches, as well as designs lovely patchwork and stitcheries. You can see them here.

Thank you so much Yvonne. 

The buttons are so much nicer in person.

Some Lovely Things To Share

 As if I haven't been spoilt enough, Mel gave me these gorgeous gifts. I have the perfect spot for the NOEL blocks in the gap under the television where a dvd player should go. There was some pretty fabric and DMC threads.

 I had my eye on this book at the Patchwork Tea House when we were there last week. Lucky I didn't buy it 

as Mel already had a copy for me.

 Kris Kringle was very good to me this year too (twice). 

I got my first Tilda book. I've been seeing all the lovely projects being made by on-line friends. 

Have you seen Doodle Stitching, The Holiday Motif Collection? Oh my gosh! There are so many wonderful little stitcheries in this book. I already have Doodle Stitching, The Motif Collection but I think the Christmas one is even better. There was a bundle of Christmas fabrics too.

And look what I got for my second KK! Bonnie and Camille's Designer Select FQ Bundle of Miss Kate. What a lovely addition to my Bonnie and Camille collection.

Do you remember Austin's Christmas cake?
We cut into it on Christmas Day and straight away you could smell it. It was very moist and full of fruit. I don't eat fruit cake myself but from all reports it was delicious.

The power went out for a couple of hours yesterday.
Oh no! No xbox! 

It's amazing how much fun can be had by playing
a board game. In case you're wondering,
that's Austin's lovely girlfriend, Paris

What was I doing when the power went out?
I was on a roll putting my FQS BOM together. While waiting for the power to come back on I pinned everything I could and marked my lines on the 100 squares ready for making the flying geese blocks. Hopefully, I'll get back to it today.

Playing With Fabric!

 Do you remember these bundles of Scrumptious?

The ones the girls gave me for my birthday last year.

 After just admiring them in the cabinet 

(you know how it is, Sharon), I have finally opened 

one of the bundles as I wanted the red for the centres 

of some Dresden plates I have made. 

I have been thinking about what I will do with these 

as I want to make a special quilt for myself. 

I think I've made a decision but you will have to wait, probably until next year, to see what I do with them!

I've been playing . . . . .

 . . . . with my Go Cutter. 

Over 160 tumblers cut out in no time!

All laid out ready to start sewing.

I am using the extra 17 fat quarters of 1930's I had
to buy back in 2010 to get the needed red fabric 

to finish my Double Wedding Ring quilt. 

You can read about them here, here and here.

Friday Night Sew-In Results

 No sewing done here at all last night!

 But I did finally unwrap my Ruby jelly roll.

I'm sure you can guess what I'm going to make. I got all the coloured fabrics cut out and sorted into blocks.

 Here are my sixteen blocks, all bagged and ready for stitching. Now I just have to cut out the white fabric.  It was getting too late to start on the white but that shouldn't take me too long. I think the longest part was choosing which fabrics to go in each block.

So a very productive night for me!

I hope everyone else had a great night too.

Friday Night Sew-In

 Are you joining us for the Friday Night Sew-In?

I'm going to be playing with this!

One Sneak Peek Revealed!

 

You may remember this sneak peek 

from a few posts ago.

 

It was this table runner I made for Simone. Now that she has received it, I can show it to you. The fabrics are Central Park by Kate Spain.

I got lots of stitching done on the weekend but,

 of course, it is more secret sewing! 

So nothing else to show you at the moment.

But I can show you what I bought this morning. Fabric for a special project. It's not secret sewing, so you'll get to see it soon! Well, once I put it together anyway!

Some Sewing!

Yesterday Noel took Mitchell and Nelson up the country to collect wood. Austin stayed home with me as he wasn't feeling 100%. So while they were working hard collecting this, I was working hard sewing for the present drawer!

 A couple of mug rugs.

 

Thread catchers!

There was also a fair bit of secret sewing going on but of course I can't show you that yet!

Last week I received a surprise birthday package from Leona of Leona's Quilting Adventure. A fat quarter of the prettiest fabric, along with some needles. Thank you Leona for your lovely gift.

A couple more wins!

Recently I was lucky enough to win a prize from Annie of Annie's Ruby Slipperz for her Mystery Monday. Instead of Annie sending me five fat quarters, she organised for a voucher for me from Quilt Fabric Delights. Annie worked out what it would cost for the five fat quarters and postage to Australia and gave me the same value in the voucher. Some of the fabrics I liked were on sale and I ended up with seven fat quarters. Well, actually six fabrics but I got half a metre of the little Santas! A bit of a mixed selection, I know but they all appealed to me.

Thank you Annie. I've already got a couple of projects in mind.

I also won a double pass to the Better Homes and Gardens Live Show from Lisa and Sarah of A Spoonful of Sugar. Noel and I are going to head off there on Sunday which should be nice. Hopefully, we'll get lots of great ideas. Thank you Lisa and Sarah.

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately and agree with them about the new, hard to read, word verification. You'll be pleased to know that I've now taken it off my blog.