happy blogiversary

happy 3rd birthday little blog - yes, three years although I only did three posts in my first year and it wasn't until October 2011 that I really got into blogging - I was in my first blog hop in November 2011 so that was a great motivator :) Actually I think it was around October 2011 that I went "live" with my blog - nothing like a long honeymoon !!  so if I want to get persnickety I could say I've only been blogging for 1 1/2 years but I'm going with 3 :)

I'd really like to thank everyone who has ever visited my blog or left a comment - I'm pretty amazed that I now have over 100 followers on google friends and I also have readers through email and RSS - thank you so much- its really nice to receive so much support from people all around the world and it continues to amaze me daily:)


I've met so many wonderful people online over the past three years and as I usually sew by myself its been so nice to be able to connect with people with the same passion !

so to celebrate and to say thanks for following along with me, I have a copy of Material Obsessions 2 for one of my readers :) its such a great book with heaps of eye candy !  its by australian quilters Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke - and just a heads up Sarah's newest quilting book, Hand Quilted with Love is due out in March - keep an eye out for that one - it looks fabulous too :)

if you'd like to add this book to your library, just leave me a comment by Friday 1 March (australian time) and as I'm about to start on my free motion quilting journey you might want to share your best fmq tip !

giveaway closed - Michelle from Quilts from my Crayon Box was the winner :)
I'll email the lucky reader on Saturday 2 March so please make sure I can contact you :)

good luck and have a great weekend- I'm off to the sewing room:)

happy valentine's day

I thought I'd share my gorgeous valentine's day roses that were delivered first thing this morning :)

hope you have a great valentine's day !

a lovely year of finishes for February

after consulting my wisp list I've finally decided on my a lovely year of finishes project for February - its a pink candlewick embroidery cushion cover that needs to be finished into a cushion.

I actually have two candlewick embroideries that need to be made into cushions plus a stencilled one so that's three projects but as they were started around the same era (mid 1990's - gasp!) I think they should be finished at the same time too !

I made the stencilled bunnies cushion in a crafty class that I took while living in Bunbury, Western Australia, so it was actually made in 1995 - the classes were held one night a week over 6 weeks at a gorgeous little school in the centre of town and we learnt to make all kinds of different things including beeswax candles, marinated feta cheese, and spool dolls, as well as stencilling - it was great fun and I think started my love of crafting :)

I moved to Perth not long after that and discovered the gorgeous Heirloom Elegance in Subiaco - I did heaps of classes at that wonderful shop - ribbon embroidery, wool embroidery, as well as a candlewicking class by Sandie Meldrum who was an amazing teacher (her book Traditional Candlewicking has been reprinted 4 times).

I really loved doing candlewicking and of course I bent the rules and used the pink thread for the second embroidery I did :) I made the first one in the traditional cream on cream.  Both of these cushion tops are dated - the cream one was made in 1995 and the pink one in 1998.

I'd recently been thinking about making some cushions for my couch so when I came across a box of UFOs and these cushion tops a few weeks ago while I was cleaning out my garage  - it was definitely kismet !

When I pulled the pink one out of the box I immediately decided to put a border around it and I found the perfect fabric - like it was made for the design !  The cream on cream top already has a green border with mitred corners and also has a gathered trim that needs to be sewn on - it always amazes me that these ufos are still in good condition with all their bits together, especially when I think about all of the moves I've done - since sewing those two candlewick embroideries I've moved two states and ten houses !!

The stencilled cushion needs a new border - the current one is a poly/cotton blend and old fabric that just wouldn't suit my couch !  I'm sure I'll find something else suitable in my stash !

Linking up to a lovely year of finishes 

fresh sewing day

gee - that month just whizzed past - can't believe its already February !

In amongst all that whizzing - I did do a few things in January that I can show for Fresh Sewing Day.

I've done blog posts for these finishes so I thought I'd just add the photos with links !

January care at do.good stitches

January care at do.good stitches

November design camp2 block

October design camp 2 block

scattered squares

January design camp 2 block

January design camp 2 block

craftsy block of the month

craftsy block of the month

craftsy block of the month

September long distance quilting bee

candlewick cushion

and sew on january block

craftsy block of the month

design camp 2 mod mosaic for me

totally groovy

lucy's pram / capsule cover

 

linking up ...

a year of lovely finishes for January

its finally done - the little capsule/pram cover that I made for Lucy is finished ! and I think its sooo cute:)

I know exactly what took me so long to get this little sweetie finished - the quilting !  it seems that every time I think of quilting I panic !  but you know what - I loved doing the quilting on this little one and it wasn't hard at all.

I've discovered I love doing straight line quilting so I've just got to remember that ! 

When I think back to a couple of minis I made last year I can't believe I hand quilted this quilt...

I was worried I'd mess it up if I did straight line quilting - and now I think how great it would have looked with some straight line quilting like this one...

I'm so glad I did straight line quilting on that one - I think it really makes the quilt !

so now I really want to try free motion quilting and I definitely panic whenever I think of it but I don't want to straight line quilt every quilt I make !!  I just need to remember that I CAN do it and the more I practice the better I'll be :)

I think for my February project for a lovely year of finishes I might have to find something that needs quilting so I can practice fmq :)

I was hoping to post a photo of Lucy in her capsule with the new cover but alas her mother has been a bit busy on the farm so hopefully I'll get a photo soon !

I'm linking up to a lovely year of finishes - the linky party closes tomorrow !

a totally groovy quilt !

yes, it is totally groovy - I've finally finished the groove quilt - the pattern by Emily Cier of Carolina Patchworks that was used for the Totally Groovy Quilt-along - and I LOVE it !

I started cutting and sewing last Sunday - although I'd already sewn all the curved blocks during the quilt-along - and I finished the top last night.

The pattern calls for quite a few pieces and during the quilt-along the girls were talking about adding those pieces up and cutting larger strips - so before christmas I'd worked out all the measurements to sew large strips rather than tiny pieces and it sewed together quite quickly.

I sewed it together in sections then sewed those sections together so it wasn't that hard to do and I'm pretty happy with how my curved pieces turned out - they were the first curved sewing I'd done and I was just a little worried !!

I did the throw size which finished at 63 x 73 so it was a bit too large for my design wall - I had to enlist a friend to hold it up for me to take the photo of the finished quilt :)

 

I used Kona Solids in petal, cerise, azalea, sprout, and eggplant.  I'm not quite sure how to quilt it with my limited quilting skills and I'm thinking about piecing the back as well so there's still some work to do - I'll have to get a move on though as this quilt is one of my projects for the first quarter of this year's finish-along so just having the top done doesn't cut it!

a few more blocks

Last week I made a start on the And Sew On paper pieced block of the month and have January's block sewn.

I also finished the last Craftsy block in last year's block of the month - yippee - now I'll be able to put this on my finish-along list later in the year - I need to get some backing organised first!

and on Friday I received a half done mod mosaic block that was my choice for the Design Camp bee in July last year - Tiff didn't get around to finishing it so sent it back to me and I just added a few blocks and its done !  I'm just waiting on one more block and I can thinking about putting this one together as well :)

tomorrow I'm making a start on the totally groovy quilt - can't wait :)

a sparkling christmas present

just a quick post to show you the christmas present I received from my lovely boss this week!

I went on leave before christmas and when Kay returned to work this week she left a christmas present on my desk !

Its a heat pack made from the most awesome fabric (I'd love to get some yardage!) along with some goat's milk soap and a bottle of Courabyra 805 champagne sparkling wine - Kay always gives the best presents !

I'm thinking the heat pack will come in really handy when my shoulders are tight from free motion quilting !

a little about the wine - its made right here in Tumbarumba by a good friend of mine Cathy Gairn who I've spoken of before as she just happens to have a long-arm machine as well.

The Courabyra 805 Sparkling won trophies last year in the 2012 Citibank NSW Wine Awards and the Wine Wise Small Vignerons Awards for the Best Sparkling Wine and was also named best new wine by the Sydney Good Food Guide !

Its one gorgeous sparkling and it will be saved for a special occasion !

weekend sewing

I'm sewing with the new Janome - yes, I packed up the old faithful Elna (sniff) and put her away and set up Jilly the Janome !

the first block I sewed was the halloween block that I needed to applique and I used the blanket stitch which went pretty well - just don't look too closely at the zig zag chimney - I definitely need some practice!

then I sewed the binding on Lucy's pram cover and also made the strip ties and she sewed like a dream!  This is my a lovely year of finishes project for January - just need to hand sew the binding and sew on the ties so I should make the deadline !

I love the extension table - its nice and big and made sewing the binding on very easy.  My only issue is that it sits a bit higher than the Elna so when I put my chair higher my legs sit firmly under the drawers of the table - so I might have to find another table at some stage but for now I'll cope !

I also finished a couple of craftsy blocks - only one more to do!

The friendship circle block - its paper pieced and its a block that I've fallen in love with - I can see a whole quilt made from this block.

 

and the wonky log cabin block - I had used a fabric for the centre that looked terrible when it was finished a while ago so I unpicked it all and used a plain centre - its still not my favourite block but hopefully it will blend in with the others !

and then I sewed a border on an old embroidery that I'm going to make into a cushion.

Its a candlewick embroidery block that I made years ago - finished in 1998 to be precise - I've even dated it (bottom right!).  My excuse is that I was waiting for the perfect fabric to frame it and I think I've pretty much found it.

I'd been thinking about making some cushions for my couch for a little while and when I pulled one of the boxes out of the garage recently and opened it up I found some half made or started cushions from quite a few years ago, this being one of them!  I'm planning to get the others done very soon :)

Linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes mid month check-in!

the Janome has arrived !

Mum's Janome arrived on Monday morning which was pretty quick as Mum and Dad only posted it from Queensland on Friday - it was sent with Australia Post and they delivered it lickety split and she arrived in good order too - thanks Australia Post !

I'm very excited that mum decided to pass her machine onto me when she bought her new Janome Horizon at the end of last year.

For one it means that I can do blanket stitch applique on the machine rather than doing it by hand which has been the only way in the past (extremely time consuming) as my gorgeous old Elna doesn't have fancy stitches !

I'm planning on learning free motion quilting on the Janome as the feed dogs drop down - there is also a needle down function and a speed control without using the foot pedal (I'm sure that function has a fancy name!).

There are also lots of other stitches that I'm sure going to have fun discovering !  oh, and she has a nice big extension table - I forgot to put it on for the photo !

I'm sure that mum will be amazed that I have yet to plug her in!! I need to do the machine applique on the halloween house so I'll start her up tomorrow :) and now I'll definitely need to make the old Elna a cover so she will be dust free in her new home in the cupboard !

In the meantime, I used the Elna today to make a couple of blocks for the January Design Camp 2 bee - Shelley is making a quilt based on the bright birch trees quilt by AmandaJean of Crazy Mom Quilts.  Its a really fun design that uses strips of small scraps sewn into blocks. I just discovered this quilt recently and have already put it on my "when my ufos are finished" list as I have a heap of tiny scraps that I can use.

I only received the design camp package from Shelley yesterday and I've finished the blocks already so I think that might just be a record for making bee blocks.

I also made a craftsy block during the week - so I'm slowly getting those done - only a couple more to do!

I've got a few blocks to do tomorrow so I'll try out the new machine and she how she goes :)