The Label.....

I have sewn the label on my dolls quilt last night. I like to do my labels this way. I went for the blue and red one, thanks for all your thoughts on which one to send dear blog readers. It will be in the mail tomorrow!

August Around the Block.

I'm just scrapping in with the blocks for the August round of Around The Block. It's the last block of the round. Some of us are playing again in September. I have enjoyed this block swap as I sewed with colour combination's I wouldn't normally use and I sewed blocks I wouldn't normally sew. So it was nice stepping out of the sewing square. August's block from MJ was a good example. She wanted an Indian Star block with blue and cream fabrics that she supplied. As it is the last exchange of the swap, she requested that we use a scrap of our own fabric, so that each block has our unique stamp and served as a quirky reminder of the fun we have shared during this block swap! Cool idea! So I used some of my Katie Jump Rope which seemed to go well with the floral brown and cream theme. Hope you like it MJ, I was pleased with how accurate it turned out.

Flick Doll Quilt Swap #9 Finished!

I have finished the binding on the second version of my dolls quilt for the Flickr DQS# 9. I'm really happy with how it has turned out. My partner has been a bit on the quiet side so I hope she is happy too.

I love the back! For the first version I did white thread on the back, but for this one I matched the bobbin thread with the top thread. i think the back looks as good as the front!

So which one shall I send? I have had them both hanging up in the dining room and been running a poll. Grace and Daz like the red and blue one, Milly and I like the pink one. Friends over last night voted 2 for the red and blue, two for the pink! So it is tied. Which one would YOU like?

Book Week!

It's Book Week this week. Technically it is about "celebrating books and Australian authors and illustrators. Classroom teachers, teacher librarians and public librarians develop activities, offer competitions and tell stories relating to a theme to highlight the importance of reading." Now I am all for the importance of reading but who decided the parents would get the task of dressing up the kids in a home made costume to celebrate their favorite character from a book??! Who's smart idea was that?! I got creative for one child's costume, that was my limit!

Grace decided she wanted to go as Scooby Doo. Easy I thought. Pants with a tail sewn in, yep, no problems, sewn a few pairs of pants in the past. Done! The top though, I was worried about the top. Putting a combination of words like children, costume, easy, simple, shirt, top into good old google, I stumbled on this pattern here. Perfect! So Sunday was spent sewing this up and then painting black dots on the back. It was a really easy pattern, gathered at the neck to hide all my dodgy seam match ups! For the paws we painted some white socks brown, decorated a cereal box with some Scooby Snack signage, I laminated a mask printed off the internet and wolah!

I didn't sew a thing for Milly's costume and she looks pretty pleased with herself. Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth hey?

Back to the Sewing?

I have been feeling lately like I am not getting any sewing done. I have been thinking about what is suddenly different in my life eating up all my sewing time and I can't think of anything besides the usual work/household duties/parenting things I do! It has taken me 12 days to sew this last strip on! It has sat on my ironing board half cut for all that time!! That is just plain embarrassing. It measures 60 x 86 inches. I think I am going to get the backing fabric from here. But anyway, it is now sewn on and folded back up while I decided the next stage.... I think my earlier hope for finishing this by the end of 2010 is a dream!

Sports Carnival Day!

It was Sports Carnival day and night last Thursday. Its done a bit differently up here. Its school as normal and then a quick toilet break and the students assemble in their faction groups and march across the road to the local oval for events that wrap up at 8pm. So a 12 hour school day! But they make up for that by having Friday off. What a stunning backdrop to the evening the scenery was.

Matilda's classmates started the events. Have you ever seen such concentration for the egg and spoon race?

Friendly participation and just trying your best was the aim of the preprimary kids!

Grace did her best kangaroo impersonation with the sack race.

But the best moment of the day was watching Grace come third in her running race! Third!!!!! Our kids are unlikely to become sports stars with me as their mother, so I am more than proud and happy with a third for running!

Sew It Together 2011!

No WIP today as the only craft related work that has been going on is exercising my credit card to book flights to go here! I know it's not till March but I was looking online at air tickets on the weekend, just out of curiosity and it wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be. And after some talking with the darling husband, he said just book it! I was so disappointed when I missed out on this year in Melbourne. I know it just wasn't sensible then to go after being in a new town 2 months and the airfare prices so close to the event were shocking!

And I'll be saving on accommodation as I am bunking with this lovely blogger buddy! I'm excited as I get to meet this girl and this girl and this girl and lots of others too! As well as finally meeting the lovely organizer of the whole event! At last!!!

The Last 7 Daizy Blocks!

Allow me to indulge myself with posting individual photos of each daize block rather than photographing them all together. These are the last 7 blocks required to make up the last row of this quilt. I really, really, really would like this one finished by the end of the year.....

DQS#9 Version 1 - Finished!

Well I finished my dolls quilt for Flickr DQS#9. Here is Version 1! Version 2 is still being quilted. One for me, one for you dear silent partner! This is just one block from Aunt Millie's Garden, imagine how stunning the whole quilt would look?

Some swirly quilting.

And some more swirly quilting. I love how the needle has popped a hole in the fabric slightly, kinda adds texture. Not too sure why that has happened though, it is the right sized needle and a new needle. When I give it a squirt with the water and rub it though, it disappears.

WIP Wednesday - DQS#9 Progress.

My darling husband is away at the moment, on school camp with 55 year 7 students (aged 12 and 13). I spoke to him last night and he sounded exhausted! But with his absence in the house, I have set up a second sewing station! One machine in the usual space with walking foot on, ready to sew binding. And my old trusty Brother Super Ace 3 to do the FMQ. Excellent plan!

So I have finished all the white swirls on the pink and purple version for DQS#9. Just have to change the thread and do the blue wheel in the middle, then all ready for the binding.

Talking of binding, just got a little more to sew down and then the red and blue version is finished! Then the decision of which to keep and which to post away to my partner.

Blue & Oranges Square Quilt Finshed.

I finished the binding on my Blue and Orange Square quilt last night. Looks pretty hot from this angle hey?

But not so hot when straight on and the artiness of a fancy angle can't hide the flaws I see. The drag down in the middle row, ekkk! The suggestion of going down and then rotating the quilt for the next line to go down in the opposite direction, for me, that just didn't work. Most of the quilting here is sewing down to the bottom, few reverse stitches, snip, then taking the quilt back up to the top, sewing down to the bottom, repeat, repeat, repeat! If I had gone for a good old boring stipple I would have been in love with this but I thought straight stitching would be so easy. Next time I try it I won't go for white sashing where it looks so obvious! Increasing my stitch length to 3.5 from 3 did help though and also supporting the quilt more instead of letting it drap, that also helped. Thank you for those wise comments blog readers!


These were two of my favourite blocks.... Well now to turn my attention back to my swirling quilting that I haven't touched since here.

PIF From Lily.

And the lovely mail keeps coming! My PIF from Lily arrived on Friday. Its lovely! She must have spoken to the kitchen fairies as I don't have a pot holder, I have been using a folded up tea towel which is very silly. But now I have these beautiful creations. Thanks Lily, so lovely, almost to good to use! I have 3 little projects to finish this week and then I will turn my attention to what I am going to make for my round of PIF.