A quilt for Indigo

My beautiful sister in law gave birth to the most adorably perfect baby girl last Sunday, and of course as a super excited Aunty who quilts, the perfect gift of course was a quilt!
 I'd had a star quilt in mind since my brother first rang to give me the news that they were expecting, I waited to find out if I was getting a niece or nephew before I did anything though, and by then I was working and just didn't get to it till after Christmas.
 I'd seen a couple of interlocking star quilts round the blogosphere, so when I finally sat down to work out what I wanted to do, I kept going back to those, I pulled a stack of fabrics from my stash, then edited, pulled a few more, edited again, pulled a few more.... well you get the drift, it took me hours just to pick the fabric!!
Finally worked them out, worked out the size of the quilt then ducked into spotlight for the background, backing ( Denise Schmidt) and binding, and sat down and started cutting, it felt so good to be starting a new quilt, and I just kept going and going until it was done. The quilt arrived up north yesterday, and they loved it!!
I stuck with my usual all over stipple, but changed things up with the rounded corners and bias binding, its approx 40"x44" just perfect for a baby quilt that later on can be used as a child sized lap quilt.
I was half way through sewing the binding on when I read about the Sparkle Punch Quilt Along! mind you I tend to graph out all quilts before i make them weather from a pattern or from my head, I find its the best way for me to get my head around fabric requirements, and to work it all out.

Sorry I haven't replied to comments lately, or commented on any of your blogs, I'm back at work again now, and life is just crazy with my house of girls, one of these days ill get back to blogging and commenting and replying the last year has just been a blur of change for me.

Is anyone still out there?..... I finished something!

Kitchen Window quilt #1, Yes I finished the 2nd one first (months ago!) this has been sitting on my sewing table just waiting to be bound since august, around about the last time I blogged actually, So much has happened since then, my life is completely different now, I got a Job!!!! I'm now the canteen manager at the girls school, which as I'm sure you can all imagine is perfect for me, school hours plus I get to see the kids during the day, and keep an eye on things for that matter!

Backing.
I've also lost 15kgs since July, woohoo!!!! this puts me back at a very healthy weight for my shape and height and I feel so much better for it! (My fitness Pal) and life has changed at home too, as I'm now a single mum. The school holidays are almost half way through already, and I'm missing work, but also loving being at home with the kids and being able to get some stuff done, including sewing again!



So this post is all a bit of a ramble, it's been so long since I posted, I feel like I'm starting all over again.
So anyway... The blocks in this quilt were made by the girls from Bee Seam Piecing Down Under, and I've posted about it numerous times already so I wont go through it all again, I'm really happy with both my quilting and binding on this quilt, both are the best I've done so far, Its destined to live on the lounge with its twin for the cold winter nights that at the moment seem so very far away!


I also made a new quilt, from start to finish in a couple of days, its only a little baby quilt for a very special little one that is due to arrive any day now, My first niece!! I'm so excited!! I cant wait to be an auntie!!



A couple of little sneaky peaks for now, I'm sending this off to my brother and sister in law tomorrow and once it arrives ill do a proper post. Hopefully I will be around more often again, now that I'm a touch more organised, I have another quilt on the go already, I'm making it up as i go along, but the intention is to make something a bit more arty for the wall above my bed or somewhere in my room anyway.

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 :)