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!

Fussy, Fussy, Fussy...

Amy of Seven Stitches requested square/rectangle in a square blocks for February in the Australasian Bee.

I love the gorgeous Retro kitchen fabric she sent out for us to use as the focus, very very cool!

I can't wait to see what the girls make for her, I love this style!

I should of posted this last time! Here is my FMF sandwich, yep that's the entire lounge room floor covered, much furniture moving was required to create that much space!

And (not that you can see it that well) here is a pic of my new earrings bought from Early Bird Creations, Skip over and have a look at her Etsy shop, to see the gorgeous and funky stuff she makes! I'm lucky enough to get to see her beautiful jewellery regularly at my local Artist Markets. Oh and I've just found her on Facebook too. No connections, Just a very happy, repeat customer!

A Bee Block and a Back.

A bubble block for Ange, Australasian Bee.

And the back for my flea market fancy quilt, I wanted it to be reversible and I'm pretty sure Ive achieved that, The fabrics are all from the Flora and Fauna Range by Patty Young, The binding will also be from the same range, ta dot in ebony. The quilt is sandwiched, thanks to my wonderful husband Mark, who helped me, this one is rather large at 90" square, and it took 1.5 hours to pin baste it, I dread to think what state my back would be in if I had of done it all by myself!!

Not much else happening here, The big girls have gone back to school, Charlotte is in year 4, in a 4/5/6 enrichment class, with a very fantastic teacher who we have known for a very long time. And Imogene is now in year 3, in a 3/4 with a new teacher to the school, who seems to be absolutely lovely! Laura has settled back into her 2 days of preschool, and has already brought half the sandpit home with her!! Miss Jocie is at home with me again this year, and I'm looking forward to some fun days together. I'm in the process of filling out enrollment/application forms for a diploma in architectural technology, so it should be quite the year for education!