Quilt from Krommama!

I received squishy mail from America today, my mini quilt from Krommama arrived! Its just beautiful, I love it!! It is resting on my table as a runner at the moment, looks great! I love how we both made a mini quilt with stars without knowing it!!

This star here I feel like is a long lost friend as its the same fabric I used on my mystery quilt. And a Jan Mullen binding too! Very sweet!

And also some fabric scrap goodies, thanks Sarah! I especially love that paisley print on the bottom, lovely!

*sigh* A great swap indeed.

Krommama's Quilt!

Remember back here when I blogged that I had finished two maverick star dolls quilts? One for me and one for Sarah, Krommama on flickr not to be confused with Sarah who I am doing the swap with that I mentioned in the last post.... If you click on the link it goes to a great shot of her table with all her placemats on it and some yummy pizza! Anyway, now it has safely arrived on her table, I can blog it.

I was pleased with the back. I had enough sides left over to make up a square block big enough to put the label on in the square. Didn't think to take a photo when I had finished though....

Some detail of the quilting. I am loving that Jump Rope Katie fabric at the moment, I seem to be including it in every quilt sewn.

And here it is with its "twin". Mine is hanging above the ironing board at the moment, really need to move it to the wall.

K.Q.I. Sneek Peak for Sarah

What do you do when one swap has finished? You start on the next! I posted my flickr quilt off today and got started on this....

Here's a sneek peak of something I am working on for Sarah. We are doing a little 4 way swap over the year between Lisa in New York and Kristza who lives in Budapest. With Sarah in Canada and myself in Australia, it's an international swap! It's looking good so far, making two this time.... We have some loose rules, is that a house I see in the top photo?

Flickr Doll Quilt Swap #6 finished!

I finished sewing on the label to my flickr dolls quilt swap last night, yahh! When I started out I was intending to make two, but then kinda fell out of love with it and stuck to making one, but being a true Gemini, maybe I should have made two, it's grown on me and I'll admit I'll be sad to see this leave my sewing room.


I followed Marlene's lead and ended up doing a bubble style of quilting in the white. You can see it better on the back here. White on white, not so good in the world of blogger.


I did have a small heart attack when I pulled it out of the washing machine after washing it. The red had run on the white in just a small area. I was so cross! Luckily I had a satchet of this Run Away Colour Remover for occassions just like this...... I soaked it for an hour, washed it again and wolah, the run had dissappeared, thank goodness or otherwise I would have been making another one after all.

Now to package this up and send it off to it's new home.

Highlight Quilt Started....

I love school holidays! No school runs which means uninterupted sewing! The girls are happy playing outside building fairy houses around the birdbath and watching Madagascar 2, the latest movie on high rotation in our house. I love watching that movie too, definitely lacking on the cracking, my friend.

What better holiday activity can one think of than to sew a queen sized quilt for ones bed! I only have two other WIP's for our bed, lets start another? This one is nice and easy...

So I have spent a day cutting up Amy...... into rectangles and squares.... and then added a strip of homespun to make each of the blocks. The pattern I'm using is this one here, its called Highlight. I'll call it that too, till a better name strikes me.

Then rearranging it lots of times, I wasn't liking how the dark blue grey strip was saying look at me, look at me so much. I decided too, to add an extra block to the sides, so it will drap down more on the side of our bed.

And here is the top nearly finished! Its massive, 76 inches square and I still have a border to add! I'm definately getting this one professionally quilted.

Chaletgirls Block Swap #2

I've finished sewing my second lot of 9 patch blocks for Chaletgirls Block Swap. Once again it took longer to work out which fabric to choose than actual sewing! But thats okay, fabric is meant to be fondled.

I have these blocks for Leah. I found this fabric quite hard to match up. Such a bold pink and those black polka dots are big! My favourite is the black and white print. Followed by the rich red Kaffe floral.

And these for Creative Controller. I will admit that when I saw this print in the flickr group I thought ewwww, what can I do with that print? But it was such a delight to pair this fabric up! I even cut into my beloved 30cm strip of Jump Rope Katie because it just looked so hot!

There you go girls, hope you like them. Coming back in the mail tomorrow to you Sheridan!

Bloggers Quilt Festival!

I just discovered over on Amy's blog she is hosting an online blogging Quilt Festival! Such a cool idea! The idea being you choose your favourite quilt and tell it's story.

I'm dragging out this favourite finished back here in August 2007. I think this was the first disappearing 9 patch I did.... I think the tally is now up to about 4? I love it, such an easy and striking pattern, a great scrap buster too.

Look how quickly it went from just a 9 patch here...

To slice and diced here!

I machine quilted an echo stitch around each of the squares, they came down to 3 and a quarter inches when finished.

And then I used masking tape to get such straight and even lines in the borders.

I think maybe I like this one as I don't do many boy quilts and this one went to a friends new baby boy, her fourth child after 3 beautiful girls, that deserves a quilt!

The Pink!

I had a very early knock on the door and a thump of parcel hitting the doormat this morning which always causes great excitment! It was my swap quilt from the Monochromatic 4 Seasons challenge. I opened the package to find this beauty titled "The Pink" from Marlene, and I was blown away with it! It is just stunning! My colour of choice was pink and my season was Spring. Marlene had even sewn a hanger in the back so I could immediately hang it on some dowel and take these snaps in the backyard. I have to rearrange some wall space to find a spot for it inside, its getting to the too many quilts, not enough walls stage....

I just read on Marlene's blog that the flowers here was a photograph that she printed out onto EQ fabric sheets, its amazing, I wouldn't have realized that at all. Love the quilting detail, its just beautiful.

This bit is my favourite! Little bubbles!! I think I have found the answer to my quilting for the little birds in a tree quilt I was pondering in my last post. I'm going to give this a try.

Thanks again Marlene, it is fantastic! And thanks to Margaret for running the swap too.

Flickr Dolls Quilt Progress....

Well thank goodness for Easter is all I can say, chocolate and sewing time!! We are having a lazy Easter at home, watching Mama Mia lots (one of Grace's favourite presents from her birthday stash and if you loved the movie too, you must click on that link!!) and eating chocolate. It's from the dairy food group isn't it?

I have brushed the dust of my dolls quilt for the flickr swap. I have echo stitched in white around the birds and the branches of the tree's. Something is still lacking though, the white is too white although I usually love white. I need some texture, I'm thinking of stippling really tight squiggles? Or maybe bubbles? Quilted white bubbles? I have to pin it up and ponder for a few more days till the lightbulb goes off.

But the deadline to post is fast approaching at the end of this month and this baby may be going overseas so I may have to post it earlier......

I have a question to ask that I have been meaning to ask for ages. Does my blog banner at the top there go out of the box on the right??? I am puzzled cause it does in Firefox but not in Explorer. Just a quirk on my monitor or is this happening worldwide??

Loved and being Loved

Loved and being Loved.

When I am gone, release me, let me go.
I have so many things to see and do.
You must not tie yourself to me with tears.
I gave you my love, you can only guess,
How much you gave me in happiness.
I thank you for the love you have shown,
But now it is time I travelled alone.
So grieve a while for me, if grieve you must,
Then let your grief be comforted by trust.
It is only for a while that we must part,
So bless the memories within your heart.
I will not be far away, for life goes on,
So if you need me, call me and I will come.
And listen to your heart, you will hear,
All of my love around you soft and clear.
Then when you must come this way alone,
I will greet you with a smile and say,
"Welcome home".

Well the funeral was yesterday, we drove into the carpark of the funeral home and Milly pipes up with "Is this Nanny Biscuits new home?" *sigh* Before I could find the words to answer that one, Grace said "No silly, Nanny Biscuit is with the angels, this is where her funeral is."

I read the above poem a friend emailed me and I wore Nan's necklace. Actually we all wore one of Nan's necklace's. The girls had on some pink plastic chunky beads, usually the fiddle with them and ask for them to come off within 10 minutes of being put on, but they wore them the whole day. I was so nervous reading, my hands were shaking, but I was standing behind a podium so no one saw. I wasn't nervous about doing the actual reading, nervous that I was going to start sobbing while speaking, but it was okay. Because the kids used to call Nan, Nanny Biscuit, the minister incorporated that into the service and brought out a bowl of biscuits for the great grandkids to come up and have one, or in Milly's case, three! Then at the end, we all went outside and released colourful balloons that were around the coffin and podium during the service. Looking back it was a really nice way to end it as we walked out with the anticipation of releasing balloons, trying to let them go together and then watching then float high and higher in the sky.

Now its time for me to continue with last section of line 12 of the above poem, for life goes on.

Happy 6th Birthday Grace!

I know technically its not your birthday today, it is tomorrow but we are celebrating today as tomorrow our thoughts will be elsewhere.

Happy 6th Birthday Gracie! You love swimming. You love going to Rottnest. You think everyone holidays in Rottnest, little do you realize how lucky you are there! You love drawing and colouring in. Out of all the presents unwrapped this morning, the new Bratz pencil case caused the most excitment! You love walking to school. You usually run to school and I have to call out wait for us Grace! You love your sister. When we told Milly off this morning for opening one of your presents you answered thats okay Mummy, she'd just helping, I'll let her open my present.

6 years old.... Where has that time gone? Happy birthday Grace, we love you very much.

Hello Homespun!

I posted this satchel this morning. I'm going to have a quilt published in Homespun!!!

There, I can say it at last, it feels like I have been holding my breath. I am still pinching myself! I've been working on it for the last few months, the little brown birdie that has appeared here and here will be part of the quilt featured. Now it is in the mail I can share. I didn't want to say anything before cause part of me didn't believe it was happening or I didn't want to jinx it all.

But I think now it is happening.... it's now on its way to Sydney and then the wait till October when the edition comes out to see how it all looks.

Fabric ban broken.....

Thank you all for your lovely comments about Nan's passing away. *sigh* The funeral is not till next Thursday, we are waiting for some of my cousins to travel in from other parts of Australia. Can I be excused if I say I just don't want to talk about it today. I feel I need to blog though as I keep coming in here to see Nan's face in the last post's photo. And I made a terrible fau par last night when I came home from work and Dad had dropped off some paperwork from Mum for me and I read it and then said to Daz "So do I call Nan about this?" and then realized I can't hit "Nan" on the phone auto dial anymore....

So what is a girl to do at a time like this? Fondle fabric thats what. I did admit, what 2 weeks ago, 3? (Is it that long??) that I was on a self imposed fabric buying ban. Well I didn't last as long as I intended.... Opps!

This 6.5 yards of yumminess arrived from here last week. I brought it the day before my self imposed band though so this doesn't count! I purchased with the intention of making a stacked coins quilt for Matilda's bed. But thought it needed some plain homespun to go in with it, break it up.

So on Monday (after we visited Nan in hospital and left in tears knowing it was most likely the last time we'd see her alive. By we I mean Ads and I, no kids, no husbands, just 2 sisters visiting their Nan,) we went fabric shopping on the way to lunch. I got my homespun and was suprised to also find 3 other Amy Butler prints there as well. So I just had to break the band!

So all stacked up together it looks like this! Busy, busy, busy!! Stacked coins pattern out the window, won't work.

So now I'm thinking it's too mute for a quilt for Matilda's room, so I am going to add it to the list of quilts to make for our bed. I found this pattern in the fall 2008 edition of American Patchwork and Quilting, nice and bold and quick blocks, should really show off the prints.

So after the next week when things have calmed down a bit, I'll get the rotary cutter out again...

Rest in Peace Nan.

My Nan lost her battle with that horrible disease starting with C earlier today. Thankfully in pain no longer and in a better place.

We have lots of beautiful memories and I have taken lots of photos over the years of her with the girls for us to remember her by. This is one of my favourite shots, Easter 2005 with Matilda.

Rest in Peace Nan. You will be missed.