wonky stars

the wonky star blocks are the last swap in the wonky house blocks swap that was started by Jane six months ago.

its been a great swap with wonky houses and wonky trees and now wonky stars.

I need to send these off on Monday but I was wanting others opinions - do you like the blocks with matching centres (except two)

or would you prefer these blocks ? all with unmatching centres

I like them both but I'm thinking maybe the unmatching blocks will better suit the other wonky blocks - love that I've got a design wall that I can keep them on while I decide !

I've had fun doing these wonky blocks - I loved making the houses - and I've learnt a heap of new techniques including my first curved piecing and with the wonky trees I used mum's sewing machine to do machine applique with buttonhole stitch which I can't do on my machine (its a bit old !).

I also met some lovely people through this swap including Nicky who blogs at Mrs Sew and Sow so I'll be sad that its over but Nicky and I are in a couple of other swaps now so that friendship will continue.

I'll still keep in contact with Jane too as she is helping Madame Samm by coordinating the red, white, and blue blog hop that starts in July - Madame Samm was behind my other two blog hops - the ghastlies in November last year and the table topper blog hop in April this year - so I'm looking forward to that - my day is 14 July !

anyway, decisions, decisions - I hope you can help me out - I'd love your opinion !

have a great weekend ♥

june ratz swap

I spent some time today making magnets for the june ratz swap.

I made some button magnets that I think are just so cute - I did some practice ones ... the fussy cutting needed a bit of work :)

and then I made four to send away as that's how many little round magnets I had !

then it was time for some itty bitty magnets from the Zakka style book - my secret partner likes pink which is pretty handy as that's my favourite colour as well !

as I made some of these a few weeks ago they were pretty quick to make - just need to do some quilting then sew them up, put in a little piece of magnet sheet and they're ready to go!

hope you had a great day :)

and fabric too !

want to see what was in the rest of the parcels that were waiting for me !!

yardage from sewfreshfabrics....

and this gorgeous art gallery fabric which is the backing and binding for my uber-fest quilt!

a flea market fat quarter bundle from amy at westwood acres....

along with some fat quarters of red tufted tweets, heather ross pink guitars and a loulouthi charm pack - yum :)

and some scraps from starlit nest ... these scraps really come in handy with the swaps I'm in - lots of different fabrics in very useable pieces

and other little parcels with key fob hardware, button making kit, pins, wonder clips, and some iron on vinyl ...

pretty happy with that lot !

now ... off to the sewing room !

swap blocks galore

well, after ten weeks away, pippi and I have finally made it back home and we were welcomed by a typical winter day - I left a 23 degree sunny queensland day and got home to a cold and raining 10 degrees - oh well, its nice to snuggle up in front of the fire :)

and when I got home it was better than christmas with a heap of parcels from the postman !! so many that I even got a box to carry them.

so I thought I'd share some of the mail with you.

I received some wonky and colourful trees from the girls at the wonky houses swap...this swap is finishing up but not before some wonky star blocks are done :)  I love these blocks - they are all done with different techniques and so fabulous.

I also received a very cute owl keyring from Kris in Germany for the May ratz swap...along with a postcard and german chocolate !!

isn't this owl just so adorable - and I love the brown with pink dots - thanks so much Kris :)

another swap I'm in over at flickr is the long distance quilting bee and it was my month in May - I did get a couple of the blocks forwarded to me in queensland but was really excited to see so many more - I'd asked for red (any shade) and white pinwheel blocks and I received fabulous blocks from the bee members - some even made me two !

I just love them ... thanks so much girls :)  my mum decided that she wanted to add a block and I'll do two so I'll be able to make these into a gorgeous quilt very soon.

the fabrics for June's design camp 2 bee also arrived - Tiff has asked for an improv robot block which sounds like fun (if somewhat daunting !) and I'll be starting on it just as soon as I've caught up on the May design camp block - maybe I'll use the no.reply blogger button as my inspiration !

I received quite a bit of fabric as well that I'll show you later as I have to go and thank everyone for the wonderful blocks and of course that cute owl.

I go back to work tomorrow which will be a bit hard after such a wonderful holiday but I need the money for my fabric addiction!

weekend sewing

its been a long weekend here in Australia and I've been working on the geese around the world mini quilt for our care circle @ do.good stitches swap.  I've finished the quilting so now just need to bind and post it off to its new owner !

it was great to have the extra day to get this project finished which I needed as I didn't get back from Brisbane until late Saturday and I played cards with my sister and her friends yesterday afternoon (which may have included some eating and drinking too !)

I also went to (a long) lunch today with my mum and some friends from the "cottage" which is a weekly patchwork get together that I've been attending since I've been here - it will be sad not to see those fabulous ladies every Wednesday.

So now I only have a couple more projects to get finished before I leave on Saturday but as soon as I get home I'll be starting on the June swap projects - it never seems to end but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Hope you got some quality sewing done over the weekend too :)

in the frame purse swap

I've joined another swap ... yes, I can hear you gasp !

but I couldn't resist this one - its being run by my friend Nicky from Mrs Sew and Sow and its her first swap ... Nicky is also being assisted by the lovely Helen from Archie the Wonderdog and of course I suspect Archie will be lending a paw as well (wonder if he's been promised lots of extra biscuits) !


The swap is for purses made with little frames and I've wanted to do one of these for quite a while ... I figure joining a swap is a great way to get these little to-do projects done!

 
There is already lively and fun discussion over at the flickr group along with some great mosaics of purses... although putting together mosaics on flickr seems to just lead me to put more amazing little goodies on my to-do list :)

care circle swap

over the weekend I've been working on another swap item - this time for our care circle at do.good stitches - we usually make blocks to be made into quilts for charity but this month we're doing a swap between members of our group which is a lovely idea from the do.good stitches founder Rachel :)

I'm making a circle of geese mini quilt for my secret partner.

I bought some fabrics (can't wait to get back home to my stash !!) and when I got them together I wasn't that happy as I thought they might be too dark but started making it anyway as I knew my mum would love it - I also bought some more fabrics just in case - but now that the top is done I really like it - I think the darker fabrics makes the circle really stand out on the white background - just hope my partner likes it as well !

I'm going to hand quilt in white perle thread but not sure what colour to bind in yet - maybe I can work out enough of the EQ7 to be able to preview red, white, and blue bindings !

I'm off to Brisbane for a few days again to visit some of my family as I go back home soon.  Pippi is staying with my mum and dad which means I'll be able to do things and maybe get some shopping in without having to worry about her :)

I'll be back in a few days - have a great week :)

may fresh sewing day

gee, another fresh sewing day - they certainly come around fast!

I think I've got a few things done this month and surprise surprise I even managed to get a quilt top done - not bad when I'd hoped to get five done over the past two months ! although I've had the excuse of visitors and the big birthday :)

I've had another fun month doing swaps and learning new things - using nifty little snaps for one and making sure I read instructions and cut more accurately being another !

I hope you made some great things in May as well and join in with Lynne's fresh sewing day.

winner winner chicken dinner

sorry, but I just love that saying - it makes me giggle everytime I hear it :)

its time to draw the winners from pippi's happy birthday post !

I really wanted to have a giveaway for my followers to say thanks for following me and giving me support and encouragement - so I thought why not have a birthday giveaway as I got a heap of great pressies as well !

I purposely didn't mention the giveaway word in the post or the title as I really wanted it to be just for those of you who are regular visitors to my blog - so thanks for visiting and leaving comments ♥

It also meant that the chances of winning a book were pretty good too with just 12 comments - yay !

I know I said pippi would draw the names but it turns out she wasn't interested ! and I have issues adding mr random to my posts (I can't get it to work !) so I enlisted the help of mum and dad and did it the old fashioned way - with names on pieces of paper drawn out of a hat...

drumroll please ...

the winner of zakka style is ... rachaeldaisy

and the winner of modern minimal is ... dolores (who just happened to celebrate her birthday on Friday !)

congratulations rachael and dolores - I'm sure you'll really love your books - they're both fabulous !  I'll send you an email very soon to get your post details.

again thanks to all my very special followers for your kind comments and cheering me on :)

ratz swap

I've joined the ratz (rapid and tiny zakka) swap over at flickr which is a follow on from the doll quilt swap I was in earlier this year - doing monthly swaps with small items of a zakka nature !  We get secret partners allocated in the first few days of the month and have to post our items by the last day of the month - just hope I can keep up.

the first month was may and the theme was key fobs - I made two for my secret partner and sent them off on the deadline day yesterday - nothing like leaving things to the last minute !

I did a wrist key fob and also made a little key pocket/wallet based on those old leather numbers that I haven't seen for quite some time.

hope my partner likes them !

Last week I also made a little card holder for my friend Nicky who ordered some mini moo business cards recently.

Nicky is one of the lucky ones attending the fat quarterly retreat in London this weekend so I thought I'd make something to hold her little cards - I kept it a secret and only just got it in the mail in time - thankfully she received it yesterday !

can you tell I'm loving my discovery of snap closures !

I did attempt to do some free motion quilting on the front but wasn't happy with the result so just did straight line quilting instead - I'm thinking I should start with quilting bigger items until I get some practice :)

things have settled down on the home front after nearly a week of birthday celebrations so I'm looking forward to getting some sewing done over the next week - I've only got a couple more weeks in queensland then its back home to the freezing cold and of course back to work - eeeek !

have a great weekend :)