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29 July 2012

more blocks and purses too !

I had a fabulous weekend of sewing - its so nice to be back in the sewing room again !

I finally got the purse done for the in the frame purse swap - phew - just before the final deadline too !!


It took me a while to work out a pattern for it - in the end I kind of based my pattern on one by Lisa at u-handbag - I'm pretty happy with the finished purse - but I'm very glad I did a practice one first though - I got some glue on the fabric !


I also made my secret partner a hexy needlebook and some magnets to go inside the purse :)


for the june long distance quilting bee Pat asked for a flower block and I made this applique flower and finished the buttonhole stitching today.


I also worked on my first Star of Africa swap block - we are doing blocks that represent our country -  Patti asked for bright colours and an 8 1/2 inch block - I decided to use green and gold for the background and added Uluru - I was going to do strips for Uluru but found this fabric that reminds me of an aboriginal painting so I thought it suited well - I'm thinking of adding some embroidery as well.


luckily I'm not at work tomorrow so I'll be able to finish off my needlebook for the ratz swap that has to be posted on Tuesday and I hope to get the July long distance bee block done as well - then I'll be caught up with all my swaps !

I'm loving sewing in the new house - there's way more room and its so warm and clean !!  and the view from my sewing room looks out over the paddock across the road where they keep sheep and some cute little lambs :)

hope you had a great weekend too :)

25 July 2012

bee blocks

this is my first post from my new house in town - after nearly 5 days of moving and cleaning I'm in and nearly sorted - well the sewing room is pretty organised and that's the main thing !

after the moving I then got a pretty bad flu that put me on hold for most of last week - I only just started feeling better last Sunday so things have been a bit slow in the sewing department.

this week I finally put a label on the mini quilt I made and finished back in June for the care @ do.good stitches swap so I've mailed that - my secret partner is in Australia so hopefully she will receive it very soon !  I found the fusible web that I knew I had somewhere but I suppose it took the move to find it!


also this week I made the July blocks for the care @ do.good stitches group - Karen asked for gemstone blocks from a tutorial by rachel at stitched in colour - in aqua and red - I think they'll look fabulous together in a quilt.



and last Friday I finally received the wonky stars - the last of our wonky blocks swap - I received a special little block from Nicky - the orange and blue one (top left) and some other nice little stars - they're so colourful together !

now just have to think about putting all of those wonkies together into a quilt.



this weekend I'll be in the sewing room catching up on some projects due by the end of July so I'll be back with a few finishes on Sunday.

14 July 2012

it's my red, white, and blue day !

welcome to my day on the red, white, and blue blog hop :)


this is the third hop that I've been on with Madame Samm and this one is being coordinated by the lovely Jane who was my swap mama in the wonky houses swap over at flickr so I feel like we're family now :)  so thanks for another fun hop !

for this hop we're making either 10.5 or 12.5 inch blocks and of course they're red, white, and blue - there have been some wonderful blocks on show over the past 13 days and there's still a couple of days to go so if you haven't been following along you should check them out :)  the only thing about being at the end of the hop is seeing all of the blocks that I could have done but didn't think about !! 

anyway ... my blocks are 10.5 inch and I changed my mind quite a few times about what I wanted to do!


I knew I had to make something with the blocks as I definately didn't want to have any orphans and I wanted to do traditional blocks - there's just something about that colour combination that makes me think traditional !


so I decided to do a small quilt just with a churn dash block and cut up the red and blue polka dot then thought it might just be a bit too much with just this block so I had to come up with some other ideas with the already cut fabric !



so I've ended up with four blocks - a pinwheel, a sawtooth star, and two churn dash blocks - I'm going to make a little wallhanging with the pinwheel, sawtooth, and a churn dash and I think the other churn dash will become a cushion!




I'm looking forward to doing some first time free motion quilting on the wall hanging - maybe some pebbles or loops to soften those lines :)



thanks for dropping by on this Bastille Day - I know the French will be celebrating with red, white, and blue today too !


and don't forget to take a peak at the other hoppers joining in today :)

09 July 2012

fabric and purse frames

my lillybelle fabric win from Katy at I'm a ginger monkey arrived today - its so luscious - can't wait to get some more of the lillybelle in my fqs blogger's choice bundle at the end of July - then I can finally make a start on the hexy mf quilt-along!  notice the little cutie that I'll be fussy cutting and Katy's little moo card :)



I also received some fabrics from Venezie Fabrics - they had a closing down sale with 50% off everything - so quite a bargain that just couldn't be missed !

My purse frames finally arrived today too - I was starting to get just a little worried - I've only got two weeks to get my purse done for the in the frame purse swap - eeekkk - and with moving house this weekend I'll be really pushing to make the deadline !


I've started packing and already have my new sewing room planned out so hope I can get into sewing soon after I arrive - well, that's the plan anyway.

I'm moving into town after living on a farm for the past three years - I'm going to miss the peace and quiet and the sweet birds and kangaroos (I think pippi will really miss the kangaroos) but I'm excited to be moving to a really nice house with all the mod cons !

thought I'd post a photo I took last week of the full moon still high in the sky at 7am !



I did some last minute sewing on the weekend as its my day on the red, white, and blue blog hop on 14 July - yes, smack bang in the middle of moving - but I've got my blocks done and I'll probably cheat just a little bit and do my post earlier !

so hope you can drop in again on Bastille Day :)

02 July 2012

design camp 2

its my month as queen bee at the design camp 2 flickr group so this weekend I made my sample block and cut and packaged fabric to send away.


I decided to go with the mod mosaic block by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Fransson that I've been wanting to do for a while.

as I had to send fabric to 11 people my main concern was having enough of the same fabric to send out so I searched my stash and discovered some yardage of hot pink and lime green Kona solids and I started from that - then I spotted the Patty Young Blossom which had orange centres and so I added some orange as well - luckily the last two FQS blogger's bundles I received had some great pink, lime, and orange fabrics from Patty Young as well so I managed to get enough fabric together to send out.

I've given my fellow campers a warning that they might need their sunglasses on while making the block!

I'm going to use hot pink as the background for the front and I hope to have some blocks to use on the back as well - with the lime green background.  I've also tracked down some more of the monaluna orange spot to use for the binding so it will be one pretty bright quilt !  Just the thing to snuggle under on cold winter nights :)

Also on the weekend I finished the May and June design camp 2 blocks so I could send those off with the packages !

Mims sent some fabulous orange fabrics and asked for an improv block for May


while Tiff's June block request was for an improv robot.


The robot took a while to put together but I'm pretty happy with the end result!

hope you had a great weekend :)

01 July 2012

red, white, and blue blog hop

Its blog hop time again - this time its 10.5 or 12.5 inch red, white, and blue blocks - what else for July !

This hop is being hosted by the wonderful Jane and there are 100 hoppers on board !

I hope you can visit everyone's blogs to see their red, white, and blue blocks - there will be tutorials and giveaways as well !

my day is on 14 July - so I'll see you then :)


Red White and Blue Blog Hop

July 1st

July 2nd

July 3rd

July 4th
July 5th

July 6th

July 7th

July 9th

July 10th

July 11th
Nancy R
July 12th

July 13th

July 14th
July 15th

July 16th
PolkaDotClassic