The last day of Blogtoberfest! What a month! We had the good and then we had the bad. Now we have the end. To say farewell to October I leave you with 416 inches of binding ready to sew on to the Highlight Quilt.....
This one is from Donna. It is the only one that is horizontal, I'm thinking I'll add it into the backing for some interest.
This one is from Louise. I like how she has the house material is graduating from dark to light. And the tree, love the little tree!
Nice and simple this house from Susie. The girls love the zebra!
This one is lovely, from Lynn. Who wouldn't like to live in a four storey house?
Part 1 saw me receive these beauties and part 2 I got these lovelies! So combined together is all this! There are still two more to come, I'm happy to wait. Thanks girls!
Thought I'd do a post on how I make my labels. There are lots of ways to make a label, but this is the way that I like to do mine. I design them in a program called Quark XPress. We only use that program cause 1. We have it loaded on the computer and 2. I know how to use it! You could do it in Word or Photoshop, I just prefer Quark. I do mine on an A6 document and like to do two labels at once, save paper. I use Matilda's Own Inkjet Printable Fabric. I got a pack of 10 sheets from the craft fair back in May for $11.95, I have 4 left in the pack.
Then I print it out on our little old Canon printer. It's just an ordinary inkjet printer!
Then you peel the backing off the fabric sheet, iron some vliesofix on the back of the label, cut it out to size, then peel the backing off the vliesofix, then iron it into place onto the back of your quilt. Couldn't get any shots of the ironing action as it kept steaming up the camera! I didn't used to iron vliesofix onto the back, but it just helps to hold the label in place while you blanket stitch it on.
And wolah, during one episode of City Homicide you will have your label sewn on! I like to use two strands of DMC thread. Love to hear how you do your labels.
Remember here I had to stop quilting the Highlight quilt? I have put it under my machine again and finished the last 50 cms that needed doing. Didn't take as long as I thought. It measures a whopping 93 inches square! Now to square it up and sew 372 inches of binding on.....
And this is my second block for Lara. This block is called Carol's Star. I found it on the Quilter's Cache site, home of a gazillion quilt blocks galore!
My fabric from Lara arrived on Friday for the November round of Around the Block. I know November is going to be a busy month personally with family and work stuff, so I got stuck into the first block today. She wanted twirly things. Hope you like this Lara!
It was Grace's class's turn to host the school assembly today. They had a theme of "mini beasts" meaning insects as that is what they have been studying lately! She went as a grasshopper, green leggings and a top and a huge pair of green butterfly wings - wolah, grasshopper Grace.
And to make it the best assembly of the semester, she got another merit certificate! When I read it I thought huh? Is that my child?? Delightful personality, attitude and work habits? Outstanding role model? Her work exemplifies this? Really?? I am as proud as punch that she is doing well at school and enjoying it...... must be doing something right as a Mother as some days all I seem to do is yell like a broken down record at them.
Finished! I ended up removing one of the blue blocks. Unsure about giving it to the Mother In Law now as some of the blocks are really out in the rows matching up. And others are spot on. I'll quilt it and see.
Well I am continuing my Chaletgirls Block Swap Quilt. I seem to be possessed with just finishing it. There is no time frame to get it finished, MIL's birthday is in early January so it would be nice to have it done by then I suppose..... I have all the blocks laid out on the lounge room floor and the family has strict instructions to walk around them at the moment! I'll admit I have taken out about 10 blocks as the colours were too dark or too busy. So I think those ones will go on the back. Hope that doesn't offend any of the girls that participated in this great swap. The black ones in particular just are too strong, they just scream "look at ME!!!!" so I have put them aside and made some more blocks of my own in softer pastels, to blend in. Finding softer pastels in my stash was a challenge!
I've added in some pale blue which I am uncertain about. Sometimes I look it and go, yep, lovely, blends in, works nicely. Other times I think ekkk! There are 5 blue blocks, scattered about to balance. I'm not packing this one away till the top is done!
I signed up for a PIF over at the lovely Lily's blog. I've never done one before and Lily's work is beautiful.
I'm after a quick and easy sewing project I don't have to think too hard about. So I pulled out my blocks from Chaletgirls Block Swap and started sewing. I'm thinking 7 rows of 7, soft pastels.... and I think I'll give it to my Mother In Law for her birthday in early January as she did admire the blocks as I was pulling them out the envelope when I received them all. Maybe if she's lucky.....
I haven't done a Sunday Stash post for ages! And I'll admit if I wasn't on the Blogtoberfest train I wouldn't be doing it! But I am so lets drool together over some Kaffe Cabbages. I have these three prints and am not ashamed to admit I do not dare cut the yellow or blue! I have taken a 2 by 7 inch slitter out of the red though.....
I finished the binding on my dolls quilt for the EBDQS#3 today. I'm pleased with the quilting, glad I took the plunge and did the flowers instead of just straight stitch.
It's on the bigger side of a dolls quilt, 25 inches square. But seeing as though it is being used for an actual dolls quilt I thought it would be good to be a little larger so they could wrap their doll in the quilt.
Another close up. Just have to do the label then in the mail. And this will be the last swap for the year!
Meet Luke and Banjo! I don't know which one is named which though. They are Western Grey Joey's, about 8 months old. They weight just over 3 kilos each.
Mum volunteers at a local wildlife reserve once a week, but she is a full time Joey Nanny. These guys are maybe the 4th lot she has looked after. The history is always hazy. Their mother's are killed either accidentally or on purpose and luckily someone eventually thinks to check the pouches and finds these guys. Apparently Luke and Banjo were put on a passing truck from the road side, handed into the truckies neighbor who knew someone at the reserve who handed them in and then they found themselves in my folks backyard.
They are bit like having a newborn! Mum has to feed them every 3 hours although at night they sleep through.
They love snuggling in their bags and as you can see, the girls love snuggling them! They love helping Mum feed them and get them in and out of their bags. They understand they are wild animals and that when they get bigger they will go back to the reserve for awhile longer and then they will be released to the bush again.
And this is the latest addition to the family, Rosebud. She is also a Western Grey and weighs only 750 grams, she is so young she hasn't got any fur on her body. Mum has only had her for a few days. She let the girls hold her but the flash on my camera freaked her out and she scuttled back into her bag after this shot.
My apologies in advance. It is day 15 of the Blogtoberfest, I am halfway there, starting to struggle a bit with witty and entertaining craft related posts! I feel another dodgy tutorial coming on!! In the meantime, read on to see how many teatowels Helen purchased today!
Despite going to Textile Traders twice within 20 hours earlier this week, to stock up on pellon and sewing machine needles, you know the stuff you still need but isn't as pretty as fabric. Despite that spending spree, today Spotlight had 20% off storewide and so I went childfree with my Mother to shop! We promised no fabric buying though as the ques on these days are a nightmare. I purchased boring things like 4 teatowels, 2 satin pillow cases for the girls, some modelling clay for Christmas stocking fillers, some ribbon and lots and lots of thread! Its just so pretty. I haven't used this brand before, QA Thread it's called. It says it is a machine embroidery thread, 100% polyester...... such pretty variegated colours. 1000 metres of each! I'll give it a go. Anyone had any experiences with this thread? Love to hear.
I went for the flowers. First I practiced on this.
Then I practiced on this....
And then went for the real thing.
It seems like day one of term one was only yesterday and now here we are on day one of term four! The school year has zoomed by! This is my last term of Matilda in two full days, next February she will be in full time school. Mixed feelings there, happy for her as she loves school and is a bright little spark, sad cause all my babies will be at school. Growing up to fast.
Matilda took a drawing for her teacher this morning. Grace took a mantis she found on the weekend, its in the tupperware container she is holding. She named him Max. Max the Mantis, of course. That white long bit at the end? Thats his skin shedding! Ewwww!
I have finished the top the EBDQS #3. It is a simple design but graphic and fresh with a twist, whatever that means! I have altered the colours again.
Now to quilt it. I don't know whether to go something fancy. Bit of stipple then a flower?
Or something like Louise did on the beautiful dolls quilt she made me. Wavy straight lines?
Hello. This is my birdie. I cut him up and then with Mummy's help we sewed him onto this blue sky with a sun. I sat on Mummy's lap while she sewed and my foot pressed the black thing on the floor that makes the machine go. When I am 7 I am allowed to have a go by myself. Matilda and I are allowed to play with Mummy's scrap material but not the material in the drawers. I like cutting up material, it is fun.
This year I picked this one. I called it Bricks and Mortar, it was from a pattern. Started in late July and finished in August 2008. I love it cause it was the first quilt I made for me. And I love it cause it took me two weeks from cutting to sewing the label on, the top took 24 hours to sew. I remember the joy of Grace being at school and Milly being at her only day of day care that year, popping Pride and Prejudice (the BBC version of course!) on the DVD player and just sewing, sewing,sewing!
The label says its for me, so I can't give it away!
I like how the business of the prints just speak for themselves.
Stipple with rainbow verigated thread.
And the back of pieced strips. As I write now the girls are snuggled under it on the couch watching morning TV. Might take advantage of the quiet and check out some of the quilts at Amy's festival. Great start to the day.
So here's the main spread. My eye first went to that little bubbled bit on the bottom left. I pointed it out to Daz this morning and he said "What bubble bit?" and I wonder if I hadn't of mentioned it, would you have noticed? I did have trouble with my walking foot at the end and in real life it isn't as noticeable as here. Me being fussy I suppose. Otherwise I think the layout looks fantastic! Homespun took the photo, I sent the quilt to them for all the shots.
And here is the bit about me. I sent a selection of quilt photo's over, they got to choose which ones. I'm quite chuffed they choose the doll quilt I made for Tine in DQS#5 and my placemat swap with Sarah. My blogging buddies are a great support to me and I am thankful to have meet lots of lovely ladies along the way that have become friends. You know who you are!
Here is Daz holding up the creased masterpiece.
And here is the back. I was quite pleased with the back. Great way to use up extra strips.
And to complete the mail, my parcel from equilter arrived. The Aussie dollar is so strong in the US at the moment, seems a shame not to go shopping. More swirly fabric. Have no idea what I will sew with this, add it to the stash.
