happy birthday pippi

Its pippi's birthday today - she is two ♥♥ here she is sporting her birthday pressie - a new collar with a cute little name tag and she also got some yummy chicken biscuits that she just had to chew on while having her photo taken :)

its my birthday today as well and I think I might have cleaned up a bit more in the present stakes !  as well as my dad making me scrambled eggs for breakfast :)

dad also made me this absolutely gorgeous glass mosaic clock - isn't he just so clever :)

and mum gave me the Pies and Tarts quilt pattern as well as all the papers to go with it - with 1600 papers in the kit I think this will be a long term project !

I had a birthday party last Saturday night with all of my family and they got me EQ7 - the Electric Quilt software - and also a supreme slider sheet and some bobbin genies for free motion quilting - so I think my family are onto my quilting addiction !!  wow - I think I'm going to have fun with all of this :)

I also got a couple of bottles of really nice champagne !

It was a really good night and the first time in 20 years that I'd spent my birthday with every family member at my party :)  I was hoping to have some photos but my youngest niece who took the photos on the night hasn't been able to get them to me yet so maybe another time !

anyway, I thought I'd share some of the birthday love with followers of my blog ... I have a couple of extra copies of books that I showed the other day that I thought you might enjoy - Zakka Style and Modern Minimal ...

if you'd like one of them just leave a comment letting me know which one and I'll have Pippi pick two names out on Sunday (australian time) ♥

modern patchwork

Recently I received a digital copy of Elizabeth Hartman's second book ... Modern Patchwork ...

so though I'd share my review of it ... 

Wow – that’s the word I used most when I first opened this book and had a look through – the quilts are colourful and amazing and they all have that wow factor.

Elizabeth presents 12 modern quilts for the intermediate quilter but even if you’re a beginner there are well written instructions and a whole section on construction basics to help you along the way.

There are a few things I love most about this book …

One is how Elizabeth gives colour options for each quilt which is helpful to those who want to use fabrics from their stash rather than purchase new fabrics for a quilt.

Another is that Elizabeth uses a variety of different techniques to challenge the maker while introducing new skills.

The photos are clear and detailed as are the quilt instructions.  Elizabeth’s introduction, notes on fabric selection, and thoughts on the backing of each quilt give insights into her design process which make for interesting reading.

While I intend to make every quilt in this book,

Glam Garlands...

and Looptastic ...

are on my immediate to do list !

Elizabeth's first book The Practical Guide to Patchwork (which I bought a while ago) is a great book for beginners and this second book is a follow up for intermediate quilters - if you don't know Elizabeth you should visit her blog over at oh fransson for some fabulous inspiration and also some wonderful tutorials.

I received this book to review by joining C&T Publishing's Creative Troupe after reading about the Creative Troupe on annabella's blog - thanks annabella !

touring the sunshine coast

my cousin Susan and her husband Ross arrived on Saturday to spend a week with us and today we went for a tour into the sunshine coast hinterland visiting nambour, mapleton, montville, and maleny which are all located on the Blackall Ranges.

it was a little bit overcast but a nice day for being in the car.

we had lunch at maleny and then visited the Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve not far from Malney which is a 55 hectare National Estate listed subtropical rainforest overlooking the Glasshouse Mountains.

it was raining over the Glasshouse Mountains when we got there but by the time we'd walked through the rainforest it had cleared so I could get a good shot !

the rainforest is home to the red legged pademelon and we were lucky enough to see quite a few ...

there are also birds - like this cute little yellow-throated scrubwren ...

and some amazing trees with fabulous root systems ...

and some with elkhorns and tree ferns growing on them ...

I also just happened to see a perfect heart shaped leaf !

tomorrow we're off to the Australia Zoo and although its forecast to rain hope we see some amazing animals :)

free motion quilting

mum and dad arrived home from their cruise on friday so I got mum to help me set up her machine and had a bit of a go at free motion quilting !

Nicky at mrs sew and sow has been encouraging me to have a try and although I've read quite a bit about it I hadn't actually tried - I've realised that when I doodle I seem to do loops so that's what I've done in the sample - I also tried to do stipple quilting but I'll need way more practice for that and I tried some name writing with varying degrees of success - although for a first go I'm pretty happy :)

Mum and I have both signed up for a machine quilting class through craftsy so hopefully I'll learn some things there and I'll be free motion quilting before I know it !

a finish or two

well, a finished top anyway :)  I sewed the final seams on the zig zag quilt this morning - I'm leaving the trimming of the edges until I go home to save the edge seams coming undone - now just wondering how its going to be quilted !

I also finished the block for the May care at do.good stitches today - I'm so glad this is done, after my rocky start !

although now that I've done this block I'm wondering if we needed to do two blocks this month - eeekk - maybe I'll be back with another one soon !

and I received my fabrics for the May design camp 2 block yesterday - gorgeous oranges - to be put together in a rectangle - improv style - what fun :)

zig zag quilt

today I decided to start on one of the many quilt tops I was hoping to get done while I'm on holidays - especially as I haven't done any yet !

so I decided to do the zig zag quilt as I figured I might be able to get it done in a day or two - and I'm nearly finished in just a day!

I've sewn all the blocks together and a few rows and tomorrow morning I'll finish sewing the rows then I need to trim the edges and it will be done - yay :)

I used a tutorial by Crazy Mom Quilts which was really easy to follow and the fabric is magnolia lane by laura gunn.  I'm using the gorgeous big magnolias with aqua (second row) for the backing - they don't chop up into 3 x 5 inch pieces that well but will look fabulous on the back.  I've also fallen in love with the textured plaid in turquoise (third row) - I'll take a photo of the finished quilt in the daytime and hope it turns out better than this one !

I purchased the fabrics at the end of last year after I saw the zig zag tutorial and originally decided on the brown as the background - after receiving the fabrics I decided it might be too dark so went with the mustard instead - I think I made the right decision.

as usual, I had my trusty little helper cheering me on - doesn't she look comfy ♥

zakka style and modern minimal

are you doing the zakka style sew along ?

I decided to join in a few weeks ago so ordered the book and it was waiting on the doorstep when I got home from Brisbane yesterday.  It has some cute projects in it and as the sew along is going until September I figure I'll have time to get some of them done!

I had fun in Brisbane catching up with the family and on Saturday night we went to the autumn salvage garden exhibition opening night at reverse garbage - the items at the exhibition were wonderful and I bought a gorgeous pouch - don't you just love the fabric.

reverse garbage has some great "stuff" that would otherwise be thrown out by companies and they sell it to the public - I'd have some fun if I lived here - there are some amazing items for sale and I picked up a magnet sheet - my sister wondered what I'd bought it for and of course I knew it would come in handy "one day" - but it wasn't until I opened zakka style last night that I realised "one day" had arrived ! the wonderful Nova from a cuppa and a catchup has an itty bitty magnet project

and of course as I have the magnet sheet I got right into it today and made some cute itty bitty magnets with some little scraps :)

my cousin is a saint kilda fan (an aussie rules football team whose colours are red, black, and white) so I just had to make a couple for her as she is coming to visit for a week this weekend!  I'll give the other two to mum - she loves fridge magnets!

another fabulous book arrived just before I went to Brisbane last week - Modern Minimal by Alissa Haight Carlton

so I had a good look through that over the weekend - wow - there are some fabulous quilts in this book - can't wait to try a few - hot spot will be the first one I try...

followed closely by cluster (but maybe a smaller size) !

if you like these books, you might want to keep an eye out later this month as its Pippi's birthday and she might be sharing some presents with my followers - just saying !

May blocks

last night I thought I'd do the May care at do.good stitches block - we're doing a herringbone block from a tutorial by Holly at Bijou Lovely.

I had some strips from a scrap bag I bought at etsy that were the perfect size for the 2.5" strips needed - so I made the first one and then made the second one but of course I hadn't read the tutorial right through to see that there are left and right side blocks and so I made another left one !

not sure what's going on lately but I seem to be re-doing things a bit !  Last night Pippi was wanting to go for a walk and I wanted to get the block done before we went - well, of course, I should have just gone for the walk instead of rushing !

so after doing two left side blocks, I went for the walk and then did the right side block when I got home - all going well until I trimmed the wrong end and of course the strips now don't line up - so I've got two left side blocks and one right side block and no more strips left so I've abandoned that project for now !

looks like I've got another cushion to add to my collection :)

this morning I did the May long distance quilting bee block for Lisa - she wanted a baby block and so I did a wonky star - and it worked first go - thank goodness - I feel so much better now.

and this is a little name badge I did yesterday to wear to my mum's patchwork group - apparently if you turn up more than three times without a name badge you get fined !! well I don't think that's true but that's what I was told :)

so I'm off to Brisbane for a few days to catch up with my family which means no sewing until I get back - I'm thinking the break might be just what I need !!

april design camp 2 blocks

I'm slowly catching up with my flickr swap blocks - only one overdue block to do !

these are the april blocks for design camp 2 - members send fabric out with their requests and Mary wanted a herringbone strip and a strip of solid in each block.

this one reminds me of snakes and ladders

and I decided to do kind of a mountain with a river for this block - not sure if it worked but its different !

I'm off to my mum's patchwork group now - hope to get most of that overdue block done - that is if I don't chat too much !

have a great day :)

feather your nest results

thanks to everyone who voted for my projects in the recent Feather Your Nest contest.

I ended up in the top 10 for the judges vote for my paper pieced clock so I'm pretty happy about that - apparently it was a pretty tight contest too - the winner was Jane of Buzzmills for her recycled paper bird mobile which is such a cute little project and she has uploaded a tutorial to her blog if you're interested in making one.

I was also in the top 10 for the popular vote as well - ended up sixth - which is also great and it was a fabulous experience which I'll do again - but next time maybe I'll start my projects earlier than the weekend before they're due !

x & + blocks

For the April care @ do.good stitches block, Annabella asked for X & + blocks so she could do one or two quilts for the siblings together cause.

I decided to do four blocks and used fabrics from the denyse schmidt range available in australia at spotlight - I got them completed last week and trimmed them up and discovered just before I put them in the post that I'd trimmed them up 1/2 inch too small - yes, all four of them - eeekkk !

so I made some more - I was a bit low on the fabric as I really only got enough to make the blocks and have some scraps left over - I'm not used to paying $16.95 a metre for fabrics !  so of course I had to make another trip to spotlight to get a few more fabrics - I got some orange this time as well.

of course I had my little helper cheering me on while I was sewing !

Over the weekend my mum's machine embroidery group had an exhibition so I helped out in the kitchen for a few hours both days which was fun :)  they had quite a crowd there and I managed to take some photos late on Sunday when the crowd had dispersed a bit and I could move around !  as you can see, there is quite a bit of talent in this group.

frogs and a gecko

appliqued circles

quite a few items on display - notice the old singer

a very cute owl quilt which sold quickly !

would you like a cupcake - for your pins of course :)

so I hope you got some sewing done on the weekend too :)