A Bigger Finish!

 "The Chook House" quilt is finished! This quilt is for the back of our couch. I just can't seem to get the colours right in the photos. It is so much nicer in person.

 

  Molly wanted to get in on the act!

 This photo's taken inside. Don't know if it's any better really!

 I was able to piece the left over bits for the backing. I added the fabric with the pumpkins as an extra. I bought this from Walmart when we went to America back in 2005. I just had to have it but never knew what to make with it. It just went in well for my chicken quilt.

 My lovely friend, Leanne Kaufmann, quilted it beautifully for me. I asked her if she could quilt it to look like chicken wire. How great does it look! Just like you're looking through the fence!

I had a lovely win over at Vickie's blog (Vickie's Crafting). It was a surprise prize and look at what I won! A gorgeous Bronwyn Hayes stitchery kit. Australia Post were on the ball. Vickie lives in Humpty Doo (yes, it's a real place) in the Northern Territory. She posted it Tuesday and it was in my mail box on Thursday! Thank you so much, Vickie. I love doing stitcheries and this is one I haven't done before.

Well, I'm off to NOTYQ for a day of stitching and friendship. 

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

A Couple More Finishes for August OPAM!

I've finished two more Christmas hangings (well, they were actually finished about 3 weeks ago but I hadn't had a chance to post about them). This Christmas Tree stitchery was a free pattern from Gail Pan. 

This hanging is a pattern from Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched. I just love this one and I even needle turned the applique onto the background! A lot of my friends know "I don't do needle turn"! I really enjoyed it and I'm feeling confident to try some more! I just need to get a hanger for this and it will be already for hanging up at Christmas.

I was lucky enough to win these two charm packs from Leanne of Lizzie the Quilter. Thank you Leanne. I'm looking forward to making something with these.

Only one more sleep and we're off to our bloggy get together to meet Shez! It's not too late to join us. See this post for information.

Back from Retreat!

 Simone V and I headed off straight after school drop off! We had a lovely morning chatting as we drove up to Gisbourne, Kyneton and Castlemaine, where we met Jennifer and Simone M. After our retail therapy for the morning we went to a little cafe and had a very nice lunch. After lunch we went to Haberdash, a shop which Melody (The House on the Side of the Hill) had told us about. There was just so much to see. Lots of lovely vintage haberdashery. You didn't know where to look first!

 

I thought this little vintage display was very cute.

    

Simone busy shopping!

It was then back down to Myrniong. We set up our things in our rooms and then onto the sewing. I had a very productive weekend. I think I might take my machine again next year as I got a lot accomplished.

My Tis The Season is now finished. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

I nearly finished this little hanging but I must have dropped one of the strips of binding at home.

I've been wanting to make a sewing machine mat, like the one Maria (Life on the Block) made for me last year, for a friend. Another project ticked off the list!

I saw this bag pattern by Sarah of Fairy Face Designs on her blog. It is called the Charlotte Bag and thought I'd like to make it. I even had some of the same fabric The handle fabric isn't showing the true colour very well. It's not quite so fluoro looking.

 To have a break from the machine, I prepared some more of the felt brooches I made for Melody and Michelle so that I had some hand work.

I got three finished!

Libby arrived with a birthday present for each of us that Maddy had sent down from Queensland. Maddy had knitted all of our group a gorgeous scarf. This is my one which matches my red coat so well. Thank you Maddy.

So a very productive weekend. One Christmas wall quilt, a mini quilt, a sewing machine mat, three felt brooches and lots of shopping, eating and friendship. Thanks to all the girls for a great weekend.

Only 364 more sleeps until the next one!

12 Inch Mini Quilt Swap

 

I joined Cheryll's 12" Mini Quilt Club Swap and the theme was "Welcome". Today I received my quilt from my secret partner, O'faigh of Oldbury Cottage. Isn't it gorgeous! I just love the fabrics she has used.

 

Here's a close-up of the teddies. O'faigh has painted them and then added some stitching. Aren't they so cute!

This is the mini quilt I have made for my secret partner. It's all ready to wing itself to it's new owner's home. I hope my partner enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it for her.

 

A close-up of the bee buttons.

My mini quilt looks lovely on it's stand sitting on my treadle machine cabinet. Don't you agree?

Thank you O'faigh for my beautiful little quilt and thank you Cheryll for organising this fun swap.

OPAM 2012 Finishes for April

 Time to report again for my OPAM 2012 finishes.

 The Easter hanger for Melody.

As ANZAC Day was so cold and wet, I did a bit of sewing. Three aprons to add to the present drawer!

So a total of four finishes for April. Although I did get those five stitcheries stitched on our holiday, they haven't been put into anything just yet.

A Play with my Baby Go!

I finally had a chance to play with my new Baby Go! I cut out about 18 flowers in just a few seconds. There was a little preparation done first so that took some extra time.I ironed Vliesofix onto the back of the fabric first and cut the fabric to fit over the three sizes of the flower dies I wanted to use. I removed the backing paper prior to cutting. Next I layered 6 pieces of fabric over the blades and hey presto, 18 flowers cut out and ready to be ironed onto background fabric!Now for some experimenting with laying out the flowers. I'll have to think about what I'll do with them. I can't imagine how long it would have taken me to cut all those flowers out!

Sewing update!

Last night I finished adding another row to my Double Wedding Ring quilt. I've decided to add one more row and make it 5 x 5 rings. So, another few hours of cutting and sorting out colours coming up! Please excuse the bright sections where the sun is. And of course, as soon as I hung it on the line the breeze came up!

Tomorrow is baby Ethan's Naming Day. I've made him this little wall hanging. I got the idea from his birth announcement card.
His mum told me that this is the theme for the day, so I decided to make an appliqued version.It was certainly very tricky appliqueing the goggles!Plus I've also been working on some of my Santa Sack pressies for Maria!
No peeks there though!

RAK ready to go!

I joined in Maree's RAK (Random Act of Kindness) swap and I was given the month of June to send my parcel to someone special. I'll be popping these into an envelope and sending them off in the post on Monday.
Hope my person likes her surprise!

Thanks to everyone for their get well wishes to Austin. We'll be having his ankle x-rayed again on Monday. Hopefully then he can start putting a little weight on his foot and slowly get rid of the crutches.

On the sewing front, I've been working a bit on my double wedding ring quilt. Had a small disaster on Thursday night at guild. I was pressing one of the rings when horror of horrors, it left some black marks on the white centre. I managed to get most of it off but I'm going to replace the centre. It's very hard to see but I will always know it is there. After spending all this time on the quilt I don't want to regret that I never replaced the piece.

I had a lovely afternoon yesterday sewing. But I can't show you anything yet as it's for my partner in the 2011 Santa Sack Swap.

A couple of finishes

Thread catchers.An early Christmas hanger. This was a kit I bought from Anam Cara in Kialla Lakes (near Shepparton) a couple of years ago. It's finally done!

Of course, I've also been working on my double wedding ring quilt and a few other bits and pieces.
I've just received the latest issue of Homespun - The Go Green Issue and my Dee Dee Dolphin is pictured in the Reader's Showcase section. It's very exciting seeing your work in print. It must be so much more exciting to have your own design in print! Maybe one day I will too!

Our new camper, a wedding gift and a win!

We finally got to try out our new camper a couple of weekends ago.
We went to Lancefield. It poured all the way there and then the fog set in.
We worked out how to set everything up and I'm sure we'll get quicker setting up each time.The next morning turned out to be a lovely day. Here we are all
packed up ready to head back home. Before we left the kids
had a ride on Uncle Ian's tractor.There's Mitchell, Austin, Nelson, Alice and Uncle Ian.

One of the girls in our quilting group, Vivienne, got married in December.

Our little group consisting of Simone M, Simone V, Jennifer, Libby, Madeline, Claire, Debby, Jenni and Anita (hope I haven't left anyone out!), decided to make them a bed runner in the Double Wedding Ring pattern.

Everyone contributed fabrics from their stash. We had emails with
"Secret Women's Business" going back and forward for weeks without Vivienne knowing!

Here's a close up. Anita quilted it for us. It's very handy having a
professional quilter in our group!!!

The label was embroidered by Jennifer. She did a wonderful job.

Finally, I had another win last week. I won this lovely book from Heather of Creative Confessions. I also got some hexagon papers to go with it. It is such a lovely book. Thank you Heather.