Milly visits Santa.

I know its not even December yet.... but we have a Santa photo! Milly has been scared of Santa since, well forever! Her first Christmas she wasn't even two months old so no problems that year, but the last two years, she wailed and wouldn't go near him and last year she actually hid behind the pram while Grace had her shot taken. So this year I have been talking him up, she declared "Now I am 4 Mummy I'm not scared anymore!" and sure enough yesterday out shopping we went over and said hello to the jolly man. So proud, she walked up to him, said "Hello my name is Matilda and I'd like a lava lamp for Christmas thank you Santa."

We'll see what we can do Milly Moo!

WIP Wednesday - Week 42 - Labels and the Twin DQS#5

Well I have sewn these labels down and have this quilt all packaged up to send tomorrow for this swap. All done till round 6, which will be when? Who knows, after the fuss and excitment of Christmas is over I hope. I made a twin for the one I am sending off, of course! I can't bear to send anything away without having a twin for me. Pink and a Micheal Miller Floral. Another addition to Milly's bedroom wall.




I was really happy with the quilting on this one. I only quilted on the white, if I sewed really close to the wonky squares, not quite in the ditch, just really close, it sort of made the squares puff out. Cool!

And finally here is this weeks progress photo of the Squid Eye. Nice chunky yellow quilting this week! Two more squares completed, onto the 5th. Not that bad for a girl with a puffy sore finger.

Thank you for all your comments and well wishes about my finger. My GP decided not to cut it off and has put me on antibotics and some presciption only pain killers. Much better already. :)

AJ's Mystery Quilt Top Finished!

I finished this quilt top over the weekend, it is AJ's Mystery Quilt. Well it is not longer a mystery as it is finished! It's the biggest thing I have sewn for ages! I had to peg it to the clothes line to get it all in the photo.

I used up every single pin I own! I realized after I had taped the backing down that I had run out of spray adhesive, so I have sandwiched it without, pinned every 6 inches which I hope is enough...

Now I just have to wait for this to get better before quilting it. I pulled a cuticle back about 10 days ago and thought it would heal by itself but its getting more painful each day and if I accidentally knock it against something, the pain brings tears to my eyes. I have just googled finger cuticle infection and supposedly if I don't get it seen to my finger will fall off! So off to the GP we go tomorrow. :(

Sunday Stash - Week 7 and Give Away Day!

Stash Sunday! What a day! Is there a better day of the week?? Well actually there was this week, Thursday to be exact when I picked up the above fabric.

Spotlight was having a 3 day deal that if you brought $100 of whatever, you'd get $40 off. Hmmmm, I thought, I do need more wadding! And a Superman outfit for a Christmas pressie for this little man, so I went in! Just had to get half a metre of these Lakehouse spots, the spots are metallic and the yellow was too pretty to leave there as well, its like a golden yellow, don't know what I'll do with it, but it helped get my total to $102 so I walked out happy. Which that in itself from Spotlight is pretty amazing! The last two visits I have left empty handed and cross. Hurry up Aussie Dollar and get high again against the American dollar so I can shop online!

Also while I am here, book December the 3rd into your blog diary as Sew Mama Sew are hosting a Give Away Day! Basically you offer a handmade item made by yourself to be given away and on the day you do a post about the item and pick a winner from the comments left. Fun! I have something here already made but you'll have to pop back on the 3rd to see what it is!

WIP Wednesday - Week 41 - A pinwheel!

I must admit I haven't done much sewing this week but I have whipped up four of the above blocks. I dusted off the instructions for AJ's Mystery Quilt finished back on WIP Wednesday, Week 9. (Embarrassingly enough in that same post is another quilt top finished and still waiting to be sandwiched! Ek!) These blocks are going in the corners of the Mystery Quilt, then just a wide long plain border of this Valori Wells fabric purchased back in April and then all done, ready to sandwich. That's the plan anyway..... I'm really hoping to get this done for a shhhhh shhhhh secret squirrel occassion early in the new year. I'll say no more!

I promise I won't bombard this blog with a photo of the Squid Eye quilt every time I take a stitch, but thought it would be fun if I made myself a little mud map to track my progress, just to keep my interest up. So all the wobbly drawn lines in Photoshop? That is where I have quilted.....

Stash Sunday - Week 6

Just a little Stash Sunday post today. I have these squares sitting on a shelf in my sewing area and they just look so pretty I can't bare to use them. I cut up two little squares for the Blogiversary Mini Quilt of a green and blue print but then folded the fabric back up, ironed it and put it back in this little pile. That's not strange is it?

Let the Hand Quilting Begin.....

Ohhhhh, this is going to be harder than I thought. This metallic thread is a PITA to work with! Each strand frays into 6 seperate strands again... Its fiddly, took me like 2 hours just to do these 4 outlines, can you even see them in this photo? Am I imagining they are there??

WIP Wednesday - Week 40 - The start of hand quilting the Squid Eye!

Just a small ekkk as I typed Week 40 as the title of the post! Ekkk! Look at this view into my sewing room! This is what I see as I stand at the door. My flickr dolls quilt ready to wash and label. Lisa's lovely mini of triangles. A stuffed doll Grace has been asking me to sew the arm back on for months! That blue and green quilt top I made in August for no real reason, waiting to be sandwiched and quilted. I thought I might use it to practise stippling on? Or just diagonal lines? Anyway, something for another day.

With the end of the year approaching I want to finish two projects before starting 2009. Being a bit ambious maybe, but you have to start somewhere. I had a mantra in high school, the sooner you start something, the sooner you finished it. And I want to finish this quilt and the Squid Eye Quilt!

All I had to do was sew an inch strip around the top and it was finished and then spent the day sandwiching it and hand basting it. I want to hand quilt this one. I have never attempted hand quilting before, I'm after a long term hand work project to take along to the girls swimming and gym classes, something to work on when we go to Rottnest and I can't take my machine, something to do at night in front of the telly when I don't want to do any machine sewing. So I have decided to tackle this one as it will most likely be a wall hanging, its big, 50 inches square. Wonder how long it will take me? I picked some pretty metallic DMC threads to contrast.

I have hand basted it with just a strand of DMC thread, that took 2 nights! I figured I couldn't use pins as I'll need the pins before I am finished I am sure. Daz was watching with interest as I was doing it at the dining room table, although he had his "she's crazy but I'll support her in her little hobby" face on and when I said I'm hand quilting this, he raised his eyebrows and I made him promise to remind me what a good idea I thought this was in a few months/years when I am cursing myself for even attempting this!

Last Nights Sewing and a Small Stash Sunday.

Last night I turned off the computer and actually sewed! Too many night's I just sit on the net looking at blogs and flickr and admiring other peoples amazing work and dreaming and then next thing I know its midnight and I have done no sewing! So last night I turned it off and sewed. The TV was on in the background and Rockwiz was on, Daz loves that show. One of last nights guests was Tony Hadley. *sigh* I loved this guy in the 80's in early high school, had the Spandau Ballet poster, t shirt, the album, *sigh* Hearing him sing True again had me stopped in my sewing tracks. What a classic, just had to find it on You Tube and paste it here so I can simply play it over and over again while I post it.


And so when he had finished singing I returned my attention back to this little dolls quilt and finished it! I ended up going for strippey binding cause there is something so yummy about stripes on binding! I especially like the back, I did it white thread on purpose, add a bit of contrast. I sewed down the binding today.

I have sewed down the binding on 2 sides to my second version of this design in pink and oranges. Once again undecided which one to send. Typical Helen....

And for Sunday Stash seeing as thought it is Sunday, I got this fat quarter from Ads today from Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy range. Very nice indeed.

"Why do I find it hard to write the next line? When I want the truth to be saidddddd. I know this much , I know this much is trueeeeee!

EB Dolls Quilt Sent!

Well as Mands has recieved her quilt I made for her, I can post a photo. Her preferences were familiar, something bright and modern to hang above her sewing area. It was a journey as I did start out with a colour pallette which ended in this quilt. But then when I finished I thought too bright so I picked out these colours. Being the Mum of two girls as well, one can never have enough pink and purple in the house!

This one was also in the running but as I was quilting it two of the light brown seams popped out. The result of making my fabric peices too small and edges being too close to the foundation paper lines! Arg! I fixed it but it wasn't swap worthy so Milly will get this one on her wall in her little collection.

It was a great swap. Shall we do it again next year?

EB Dolls Quilt Swap Recieved!

Today is the day! The grand opening of the second annual EB Quilters Dolls Quilt Swap! I recieved this cute little quilt from Ingrid K. Its a chalk board quilt! Sew many projects, sew little time, never a wiser word spoken! And its sew true Ingrid!


The blanket stitching is lovely and I love the spotty binding! Its such a unique idea, chalk board material, its kinda hard to write on and washes the chalk off perfectly, its amazing, I didn't even know such stuff exisited. Thank you Ingrid, its just lovely!

Usually I don't let the girls near my fabric with a texta or pen but in this case, I gave Milly a pencil of tailors chalk and away she could go! We'll make a quilter out of her yet. Thanks again Ingrid.

WIP Wednesday - Week 39 - Wonky Dolls Quilt Progress.

Its about this time of year when I do a WIP post and realize its week 39?? Nearly in the 40's?? Where has the year flown too again? I have finished the top for my FLickr DQS#5. Its wonky! I have started to quilt it which is making it go even more wonky! But its supposed to be wonky, embrace the wonkiness!

I have done just a straight white stitch in each of the white squares, making the coloured squares pop out. And then some random straight stitching in that white space. Little bit arty, little bit modern. My swapee said she liked that sort if stuff, here is hoping!

But because I always like to make two dolls quilts in a swap, one for me, one for my swapee, one to stuff up first before I do the real thing, one just for the fun of it, one just because..... Well I sewed up this one too, in a different colourway. Hot pink, orange and a floral I love which I have just enough of to do this. So this is on the backburner while I turn back to this one to work out the binding...

I was thinking the same Jump Rope Katie print as I used in the blocks. That was the first thought. Then had a rummage in the orange drawer and pulled out some stripes or another floral, bringing in a lighter orange/yellow? Hmmmm, I am unsure about this. I left it all drapped over the ironing board last night hoping that when I had a look this morning I would be inspired, but nope, still scratching my head. Am leaning just a little towards the stripes. What do you think out there in blogging land?

Stash Sunday - Week 5.

I have reached the last drawer of my stash tower! Rather a mixture of fabric in this drawer, sort of the stuff that doesn't belong anywhere else. A growing collection of black and whites. Some browns, some florals, some stripes, some charm square packs. And these funky chickens!


I have made two quilts from these chickens, I got the squares off ebay ages ago and then a few weeks after they arrived I discovered the print at my local patchwork shop, sold by the metre for like a third of the price! Anyway I still have 8 different chicken prints to do something with.

Ads arrived back from Melbourne yesterday bearing gifts! A pile of Spotlight Fat Flats which funnily enough I did pick up the pink, green and yellow one at my local Spotlight last week only to put them back at the last minute as I didn't really need them. Well I need them now!

And look what else! These stunning Kaffe Fassett charm squares and white on white to make this cushion. Beautiful fabric, ugly cushion, think I'll make something else! Thanks Ad, I'll be popping that in the bottom drawer till then!

Our 4 Year Old Mini Milly Moo.

*sigh* Today I become the mother of a 4 year old, how did that happen? A beautiful, funny, loving little Miss who is constantly amazing us with how fast she is learning and she hasn't started school yet. She is a joy to have as a daughter. Looking back through all my photos to make this mosaic made me realize I'd do it all again in a flash as she was such a delightlful baby.

"Hey Milly, you rock!"
"No Mummy, you ROCK!"
"Milly rocks!"
"Mummy ROCKS!"
"Milly rocks the best!!"
"Okay, okay, okay, okay! We both can rock."