WIP Wednesday - Week 46 - Overlocking, Eye Candy and D9P ongoing...

Well my 19 day challenge continues. With now only 11 days to go. *ekkk!* I got this beautiful rusty red homespun for the border, photo here doesn't do it justice. Just gone for a simple 4.5 inch wide border. Have it all sandwiched up here and I started to quilt it after this shot was taken, going for the simple and quick approach of just quilting around each full square, I think that will work.

The lovely Leah asked about overlocking the edges of your quilt before binding, so this photo is just for you Leah! Just overlock as normal. I have ready a small zig zag stitch works too. Try it, let me know how you go!

I had some fat quarters arrive that I won off ebay too this week. 8 different prints from Valori Wells, a range called Sole. Just found out that she has a blog here. No idea what I'm going to sew with these goodies though, sure I'll be inspired soon enough!

My Friday with my D9P 19 day challenge!

Now that Mrs K's quilt is under control, just the binding to hand sew down and the label, thought I'd set myself one last challenge for the year and sew a quilt for the kindy teacher assistant! She does as much work as Mrs K, why shouldn't she get a nice present too? Last day of kindy is on the 13th of December, leaves me 19 days to finish this. Can I do it? If I pick an easy pattern should make the deadline, lets do a Disappearing 9 Patch!

So I started this afternoon. Laid all the squares out. There was 45 in this pack, but I've only used 36, might incorporate some in the border, see how I go. So even though I laid them out above, when I sewed them together, it looked nothing like the layout! Don't know how I went wrong there, blame it on the heat, it was a shocking 38C today here in Perth.

So now the fun bit, sewn up into 9 blocks, out comes the rotary blade, cut, cut, rotate, rotate and sew back together again! And wolah, the centre of a lap sized quilt. I purposefully didn't leave any yellow around the outside as I'll use that colour for the border. Unfortunately I don't have anything at all in my stash that would go with it, so I will just have to go to my local material shop on Monday for a look to see what I can find. :)

WIP Wednesday - Week 45 - Overlocking binding on Mrs K's and Rainbow Log cabins!

Well have had a rather prodcutive week, have two WIP's on the go at the moment. I have 95% finished the quilting on Mrs K's quilt and last night sewed the binding on. Decided to overlock my edges which was a tip picked up awhile back to hopefully make the binding lay a little bit flatter when its hand sewn down. It has been a bit funny working with these soft colours, at first I wasn't sure but now, well they have grown on me!

Since the weather is warming up here, Grace is sweltering under her doona, but I can't get it off her bed, oh the tears! So I have been inspired to get back into these log cabins. After all the dithering about the layout back here and here in June, I decided to go for the option on all the reds in the centre forming a cross. And am thinking a hot pink 3 or 4 inch boarder.....

And amungst all that, I still have found time to get some more material for the Humming Mini shop. Check out some new yummy prints here!

WIP Thursday - Week 44 - Sandwiching Mrs K's quilt

Another week has slipped by and once again my WIP Wednesday post is falling on a Thursday! Opps! Lately though each week that passes, reminds me that it is a week closer to school finishing, term 4 is only 9 weeks long! I have to get Mrs K's quilt done by the end of the term! So I picked a light lilac tone on tone boader and then sat down to sandwich it. I can't get my little bowl of pins out without Grace coming over to help. "Can I do it too Mummy? Nanny lets me!" So I let her pin away on the extra wadding bit at the side. I pondered if she was going to be a quilter earlier this week, I think so! As you can see by the tape, I'm going for just a straight diagonal quilting pattern, keeping it simple!

Cass's lovely bag!

Arrived home yesterday to a package on my doorstep, don't you just love it when that happens! And I was even more excitied when I realized it was from the lovely Cass! She has been running a Pay It Foward idea and my comment was selected as a gift to be paid foward. I must admit when I commented in her blog I didn't realize I was in the running, but lucky me now! I meet Cass through Essential Baby and have formed a strong friendship due to a love of sewing, fabric and having eldest daughters the same age. I'm going to Sydney in March and can't wait to meet her in real person! We are buddies on Facebook too and always score 97% alike in silly quizes like "Summer 2007 movies" and "Life's Priorities" so we are going to get along like a house on fire I'd say!

But back to my lovely bag! The print is just stunning, so me, colourful and bright but still with black in it. I love how she has positioned the birds on the front of each side, very clever! And I love the stripes inside and the little pockets! I immediately emptied my old bag and piled all my stuff in it, thank you Cass, its stunning, I love it!

And a photo of my two pirates! Today at Grace's kindy was Pirate Day, she has been waking every morning for the last two weeks asking me "Mum, is it pirate day at kindy today?" At last I could say yes it was! Doesn't she look cool? Milly had to get into the action with a bandana and a plastic sword too. Must say this year at kindy has been the best fun. Ahoy maties!

Congratulations Jules!

Mum belongs to a local quilting group which holds its meetings at a place called Liddlelow Homestead. They do other crafts there as well, like painting and pottery and this weekend was an open weekend for everyone to exhibit their work. So despite it being 35 degrees today, I left Daz at home mowning the lawns and bundled the girls in the car to go see "Nanny Chook" and her quilt! She always has a few projects on the go (who doesn't?) and this particular quilt she was usuing up her stash of Aboriginal prints. Every time I went to her place, she'd take me down to the sewing room to show it to me on the wall and well, Mum and I call a spade a spade, so I always said to her, hmmmmm, don't know about the prints Jules, like to layout though!

But good thing I'm not a judge then as it picked up a second prize! In what category I didn't ask! Naughty daughter am I! I snapped this shot of her and Grace in front of the quilt in question. Matilda was in the hallway refusing to be in the shot! Look how grown up Grace suddenly looks, hair in plaits and not wearing pink. Wonder if either of the girls will follow in Mum's and I's footsteps and take up quilting. Time will tell....

WIP Friday! Week 43 - Mrs K's layout....

Well after me dittering about with different layout possibilities the other week here, I ended up going back to my original plan of triangles the same print. Which leads us to the above quilt top..... I have 16 blocks of 2 triangles sewn together so am thinking that might be enough for a runner for the Kindy Teacher Assistant?! I am going to add a 3 or 4 inch boarder of just a plain colour, maybe the darker green in some of the leaves and then that is it, a simple lap quilt for Mrs K. Of course I don't have anything plain and suitable in my stash, not in pastel tones anyway, so on Monday after work before getting the girls from daycare, there are 3 fabric shops on the way home, I'm going to visit them all!

Doll Quilt Wrap Up

Well after 2 months of signing up and sewing, today was the big unwrap day for the EB Quilters of the 2007 Dolls Quilt Swap! 12 of us signed up, we all agreed to open on the same day for a bit of fun and I recieved Corrie who sent me this sweet quilt below. I love it! One figure is Grace and the other Milly! It is just so cute, I do have a weakness for wonky log cabins and Corrie's use of colour is perfect!


And she also enclosed a selection of yummy fabrics, thank you Corrie! The one on the very right, that's my favourite, definately inspiration for getting back into sewing the girls some summer twirly skirts.

And my swapee was Lily. I followed her guidelines of liking rasberry and lime green, well sort of... is pink rasberry? And I tried really hard to get it to a particular measurement, I'm an inch out on the top, but spot on across. So here is my effort, hope you like it Miss Romily!



And seeing as though it has been a focus on dolls quilts lately under the machine, I made this one for my neice Cate who was 5 on the weekend.

Happy 3rd Birthday Matilda

Miss Milly Moo was 3 yesterday! 3! Wow, such a big girl already. Doesn't seem like yesterday since I was writing this post last year. The below photo was taken minutes after her birth, a C section hence all the tubes hanging off me and the bewildered look on her face saying huh?? I was nice and cosy in there! Look at her perfect little toes though as she tries to kick me! Have always prided myself on my neat feet, no freaky long second toes for me and Milly!


And here she is 2 weeks later in that quilt that her Aunty Ad made her. Has bit of an old man's look on her face still. And below we have her 3 years later, all ready to attack those smarties on her cake! She is a joy to have in our lives. I still remember at my 20 week scan being told she was a girl and the nano second I had of this intense dissappointment that she was a girl instead of a boy, but it was a nano second and now I can not think of anything better than having 2 girls. :)

We had a great day yesterday. I asked her what she would like to do for the day and she said catch the train to the museum! So thats what we did, took along my Dad for back up support as the city with a 3 and a 4.5 year old solo? *shudder at the thought!* It was fun, we had a whirlwind visit to the museum, checked out the essentials, the frogs and the dinosaur. Lunch at Hungry Jacks for the girls, Japanese for me, Chinese for Dad. Went then and looked at one of the large department stores Christmas display and then it was time to catch the train home again. Happy 3rd birthday Matilda!