A whole month?

Wow! This last month has flown by, I'm sorry I haven't  updated, truth is there is nothing crafty to update about, I've been having a bit of trouble with my back lately and it stops me from getting to close to the machine, very ouchy, and then as soon as I think its all good to go, it starts up again. Frustrating. Hopefully I will be back again soon with some sewing to show off. In the meantime, here's my favorite ever flower photo, that I took probably around this time 2 years ago, Spring tomorrow!!!!!

July Bee Blocks for Pam

Pam's blocks for July are the last ones for BSPDU, and the last ones for me for a while too. Ive really enjoyed being involved in both Bee Seam Piecing Down Under and The Australasian Bee, Ive learnt a lot and
"met" some awesome people.

Finished!!!!!

Quilted and bound, I am in love with this quilt!!! It came out so lovely, soft and wrinkly, I'm looking forward to snuggling up with it on the lounge :-)

I can't quite make out the print on the back but it is the same as the cushion back below.

When I was cutting the fabric to send off to the Bee girls, I somehow got it into my head that they would need a 3.5" square.... yeah not sure how that happened, but it worked out well in the end, I whipped up the front of this cushion cover a few months ago, then added the borders from scraps the girls sent back to me, it is quilted with quite a loose large stipple compared to the quilt which is tighter and smaller.

I love this backing fabric, I had originally bought it with the intention of making myself  skirt, but it is just not a colour that I would wear, there was however just the right amount for the quilt and the back of my cushion.



We had Charlie's birthday party on the weekend, we had a lovely afternoon with her best friend and her (same age) Aunty. I knocked out this chocolate cake in the morning, you can't quite tell in this pic but the mound of strawberries in the middle was quite large, it was polished off pretty quickly I can tell you!!



In other news, I cut 8 inches off Miss Jocie's hair last night, she is such a cutie <3

Kitchen Window Quilt #2

The second quilt made from the blocks that the awesome girls in Bee Seam Piecing Down Under made for me! Unfortunately I ended up having to make 2 more blocks for this one, and with not enough kona charcoal for the frames, I decided to think outside the square (hehe) and go with a dark hot pink, (I think its Kona Pomegranate but I'm not sure) I'm really loving the effect!! This one is for ME!! Ive got the backing, binding and batting all ready to go, I just need to pick up some thread, I'm going to meander this is a light grey to match the Ash sashing, hopefully in the next week I'll have a finish to share :-)

!!!!!! TEN !!!!!!

My biggest girl turned 10 today!!

But she's not too old for tricky candles (magic re-lighting ones at that!!)

Jam and Cream filled Lamington cake....... oh yeah!

Gotta love this face, I think she liked her pressie!!! (and seriously I love these dolls!! I want one for myself so bad!!)

Finished Top ~ Fanciful Flowers in Wonderland

It was super difficult getting a photo of this quilt, its huge!! 86" x 94" in fact! It will be a long time before I will be able to show it finished, its going to be hand quilted, I'm hoping though it will be done by the middle of next winter, we'll see.

Snow Globes for Sue

With the beautiful hand-dyed backgrounds and our choice of fabric for the snow globe, this quilt is going to be very very interesting to look at, Cant wait to see how it all comes together :-)

Working on Wonderland

Not the best pic ever lol! This is my Fanciful flowers in Wonderland quilt, that I've been working on, on and off for about 18 months, I finished the last applique block yesterday and wanted to lay it out to see how it would look. This quilt pattern is from Material Obsession one.The fabric is Wonderland by momo. I couldn't help myself though and altered it a bit to work as a queen size quilt, I also used a jelly roll and layer cake for most of the fabric with only a couple of the prints in larger half yard cuts. All the applique is needle turn, and very very far from perfect, rustic is a more fitting term! I still have to trim the flower blocks, sew them all together and add the border, but I'm not in a rush this one is a slow burner :)

Australasian Bee, Spiderweb quilt Finished!!

The Front.

The Back.

Close up.

My finished quilt using the blocks made by the amazing girls in the Australasian Bee.
using the tutorial at : alamodefabric.blogspot.com/2010/06/spider-web-quilt-block...

finished size is approx 50" x 60"
Fabrics used are vintage sheets, white cotton broadcloth and a mix of modern fabrics from my stash. Binding is a vintage sheet and backing is another vintage sheet. This quilt was made for  Laura, and she LOVES it!!!!!

May Bee Blocks for Emma

Emma asked for blocks of our choice, with the only stipulation being that they "read" as yellow. I love love love this style of block, and I've done it a few times over the course of my two bee's. I can't wait to see this quilt come together, its going to be lovely and bright and sunshiney!

I'm still here!

Kitchen Window Quilt from Elizabeth Hartman's "Practical Guide to Patchwork"

Blocks made by the awesome girls in Bee Seam Piecing Down Under!!
frames are Kona Charcoal and sashing is Kona Ash, fabrics include AMH Good Folks, Meadowsweet, Kaffe and Prints Charming, There is still another identical quilt coming together as well, the backing for this one is under construction and I plan to quilt it with an all-over stipple. 


In other news, My course has pretty much come to a standstill talk about over my head! I'm now looking for work instead. There has been quite a bit of hand sewing happening but I haven't taken pictures yet. I've also been spending a fair bit of time volunteering at our school's canteen, which I absolutely love! All the girls are doing really well, growing bigger and bigger all the time.
 I hope to get back into blogging regularly again now that I've sorted out some big life decisions (study vs work).
I hope everyone out there reading this post is doing well, and getting in plenty of sewing time :-)

April Bee Blocks and some new Ink!

First up, April is Abigail's month in the Australasian Bee, She opted to very generously donate her blocks to charity, so these blocks are going to be made into a quilt for a victim of the Christchurch Earthquake.

April in Bee Seam Piecing Down Under is my month (yay!!) I pulled my small collection of Good Folks and added a few more fabrics that I thought worked well, then while looking at sneak peaks of the quilts in Elizabeth Hartmen's "The Practical Guide to Patchwork" (I couldn't wait for it to arrive!) I saw her Kitchen Window's quilt and fell hard, She even used Good Folk in her version! so I muddled out the measurements (which are wrong by the way!) and started cutting up packages,  My book finally arrived (seriously it took a month!) figured it was close enough and sent them out as is. I'm already seeing what the girls are making for me in our flickr group!

I've used Kona Ash for the sashing and Kona Charcoal for the frames.

And yep I said on here once before I'm addicted! This one is designed by me, their are 5 small dots on the side, representing my daughters, and the heart itself is for my wonderful husband, we got a tattoo each in march in honour of our 6th anniversary (together not wedding). His is a total nerd tattoo, it is "Kelly" in binary, love that man <3 (and the going joke is, if (god forbid) anything ever goes wrong, he just needs to add a couple more 1's and 0's to make it an error..... boom boom!)

Ta Da!!!!!!! The Flea Market Fancy Monster Quilt!!

Theres not a lot left to be said really.
(90" square)
Still trying to come up with a better name, monster just sounds so ugly!

The Journey:
Finding the fabric. 29/01/10
Finished the Flimsy. 20/01/11
The Back. 03/02/11
The Sandwich. 09/02/11
Quilting. 02/03/11
Quilt Saviour. 21/03/11

A bit busy...

Last week I started a course through OTEN, Diploma of Architectural Technology.
Last week I left a window open in my bedroom while I went out to do the school run and do a few errands, when I got home my front hall had water half way down it, my bedroom door was covered, my bedroom floor had water so deep it went over my feet when I stood on it, the opposite wall, 3+ metres from the window was wet. My mattress was wet. Thankfully, my FMF quilt with its lovely bamboo batting layer soaked up most of the water that hit the bed..... It was sooooooooooo heavy.
On the weekend we pulled back the carpet and hired a de-humidifier, it sucked out 30-35 litres of water out of our room, the carpet is dry, the mattress is dry and my house no longer has that putrid wet dog odour.
Today, I was supposed to be studying all day (its a distance course) instead I spent most of the day cleaning up after poor little miss Jocie who seems to have caught a tummy bug. I expect it to go through the rest of us over the coming week. Joy.

I'll be back soon...... maybe after the weekend? Hopefully with the finished project pics of my FMF quilt, maybe ill change its name....... mattress saver? nah.... any ideas??

Quilting Bee Blocks for March.

This block was on my 'one day' list. Note the "was". Yep making 2 of these has cured me of the need to ever make any more. Its a lovely block, don't get me wrong, I love hst's, I really do. Its just this block, it nearly got  the best of me. Nearly. It was so much more time consuming then I could of imagined, probably 3 times the amount of time that I normally allocate. But the result I think is worth it, and I really cannot wait to see this beautiful beast put together, and at 16" per block it is going to be huge!! I was short less then an inch of yellow so the second block isn't finished. I'm sending it home to be fixed :)

These blocks were based off a quilt by Rita at Red Pepper Quilts, and requested by Nicole in Bee Seam Piecing Down Under

Bronwyn from Whippet Good, requested rose blocks for her turn in the Australasian Bee. She sent out a great mix of pinks and greens, How freaking adorable is the carrot fabric?!

I managed to knock out 3 blocks, the pink is 9.5" the green is 9" and the mix is 6"

I had it in my head that I wanted to do a really really small block, like 2" but In the end I couldn't get my head around it, so 6" was the smallest I could really go with this one.

Love the three blocks together, they totally match Charlotte's quilt!

In other news, Ive finished my FMF quilt!!!! I slept under it last night for the first time!! You can see a sneaky peak over here. I just need to get some decent pics and do a round up post on it.

Under the needle.

I'm just over the half way point of quilting my FMF monster. I'm really happy with the medium grey thread I chose, and the quilting itself is looking pretty good. (I don't do perfect!)

I'm also trying to decide what I should have the Bee Seam Piecing down under girls do for my month, in April, I keep changing my mind, any suggestions?

Bee Anything!

It's Erin's month in Bee Seam Piecing Down Under and she requested....... anything!! as long as it was at least  10.5 inches. Unfortunately I forgot to do a final measurement (oops) but the above block turned out around 13" square or was it 14"... I'm really happy with it though, I added in the floral/dotty piece of good folks and it really helped this block pop!

This one I'm a little unsure about..... I was winging this one just a little too far out of my comfort zone, or maybe it's just that I'm not used to working with purple? Oh well Hopefully Erin likes it. This one was (I think!) 11" or 12" eek. I can't believe I forgot to measure!

For the siggy block, I just grabbed a hexie out and machine sewed it straight down, that green dot is one of my fav fabrics, simple but oh so me!

After I packed these into their envelope I prepped my sewing area, ready to start quilting my FMF quilt, my normal set up would not of worked for a quilt this massive!!! I'm hoping that it wont take too long to quilt, and  I'm also hoping the weather cools down enough soon for me to attach the binding! I'll probably post some "in-progress" pics during the week. Hope everyone is having a great weekend xx

Happy Birthday to you, and you, oh and to this little blog too!

We started off on the 23/01 making cupcakes for Laura to take to preschool the next day.

Then on the 24th January Laura turned 5!!!! (please excuse iPhone pic we had issues lol)
She freaked opening up her leapster explorer, and has been playing it quite often ever since!

She was at preschool all day having a blast with all her little friends, when it was time to have the cupcakes, she insisted on passing them out to all the kids! Then after dinner, we had her cake of choice, choc sponge with whipped cream in the middle and on top, and don't forget the strawberries mama!!!

This has become a new tradition, an eating the cake all by myself pic!!

Then... on Friday (11/02) It was Imogene's turn!!  8! how did that happen!!!! Honestly she really did love her presents (as do I! I want one for myself!!) I just missed the happiest face!

Imee requested a fish and chips picnic on the town green, it was a lovely evening, the food was great and the girls had a blast, (and yep I made that quilt, it is my first and honestly that's the most you will see of it, eek!! what a mess it is!)

Imee asked for a pavlova, and who am I to deny a gorgeous girl a bit of pav? Berries and smarties topped this one off, and what an awesome combo that turned out to be, yummmmmmmmy!!

Had to put this pic up too, so lovely <3

Imee had a birthday party the next day, we had 4 girls from school and my besties daughter, they were such a lovely bunch, we had a great time! This cake was a bit of a hit, when I cut it to reveal a rainbow the girls squealed! (I did a 6 colour marble cake) oh and I tricked Imee when it was time to blow the candles out, the are "magic re-lighting) candles, lol it was soooo funny!!

And now this little old blogs turn, the 12th of February marked 2 years!!!
So Thank You to everyone out there that has read, is reading, and will ever read!!
This mummy is going to keep on making for a long time to come!