Holiday snaps...

Well, it seems that I had a bit longer holiday than I thought, at least from blogging. We did go away for nearly two weeks but we have been back for a little while and I do have to do some swap update posts. All the wonderful people who have sent me things - don't worry there will be news of them soon.

So on the last few days of June and the beginning of July we went up north. ( It's the only way to keep warm.) The destination was Airlie Beach which is the mainland centre which is the doorway to the Whitsunday Islands ( where the best job in the world is).

But we did stop a few times on the way and especially at one of my favourite places - Clairview. This is where the highway and the coastline meet. There's not much there, which is probably why it is so wonderful. It is a great place to look for shells. Most of them are very tiny but still very beautiful. It is a perfect place to stop to stretch legs and get grumpy children out of the car.

And we finally got to our holiday unit at dusk. Who would believe that it was Winter?

A rambling sort of everything post...

Hasn't been a lot of posting going on here, has there?

We've had two birthdays in the house - one son turned 20 and Colly turned 7.

Here's a quick update for June -

We've all been sick. Poor little Colly has been absent from school for nearly a week and even having his 7th Birthday last Sunday didn't quite do the trick of cheering him up. Everybody in the house has also been sick at some time or another this week so there hasn't anything creative going on. We seemed to run out of bed linen and it was raining too so nothing was drying. I still have two wet doonas...

One thing I did learn is that you shouldn't operate rotary cutters when you are sick. Why? Well for the first time ever ( and I know there is always a first time) I sliced my finger with the rotary cutter. I'll spare you the gory details but it did prove to me that when they say don't operate machinery they don't always mean the big things.

Here's a photo of my partner's paper bag swap items. It isn't a good one because when I got the package I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it and started cutting it up. Then I remembered to take the photo so had to do it with the flash which never looks as good. Can't show you what I've done yet though...

It's school holiday time next week here in Queensland.

We're off to the Whitsundays ( Airlie Beach to be precise). I might manage a post before then but if I don't - see you when I get back and am ready to bore everyone with holiday snaps.

This month's BQL challenge....

This month the challenge involved doing a trapunto piece.It measures about 12" x 12". I'm afraid that I didn't really get a good photo here but as I had just uploaded it to the group site I thought it would be a good idea to post here at the same time. Originally I didn't really feel that I got a good definition around my 'puffy' bunnies so I stem stitched around the outline to help. That brought the design out a bit more. Another part of the challenge is to improve our free motion quilting. I am getting there but would like to get a more even arrangement.

I used one of my favourite fabrics this time - it's a Lakehouse fabric with embossed spots. It's one of those fabrics you just want to use in everything. When it came to the binding I wasn't sure and then I remembered that I had both the pink and blue Lakehouse rabbit fabric which also has embossing as well. I had enough to do the binding in either colour but I decided to do it scrappy. Unfortunately you can't see much of the bunnies in the binding.

The idea each month is to challenge us to try new ideas. While I don't always love the task at hand it certainly is achieving the goal of pushing me outside of my comfort zone.

Do I spend too much time on the computer?

A little group of four friends get together every fortnight. We share ideas, solve the problems of the world and and do just a little bit of nibbling yummy things. A few weeks ago Robyn had put together a quilt top for her daughter...


And Dianne had finished a quilt for a 21st birthday present...

Cheryl had made a bag for her mother for Mother's Day.

It is reversible. ( and the pattern is from Whistlepig Creek called Six Pack Stack)

And what did I have to show - I think I had one of my signature squares - and no doubt some new and exciting information I had found on the net. I wonder if I am spending too much time on the computer and not enough time sewing. ( no, don't answer that - I think I already know.)

Time flies by..

Oh dear, it's been a while.....

I've sent in my siggie blocks And made Happy House blocks

and just made it in by the skin of my teeth with the BQL Calendar Challenge.( Each month has a deadline at the end) You can see I used some of the leftovers from the Happy Houses to make the handbags. The colours are just lovely on this range ( Objects of Desire - Moda).

May has been busy so far with secret swap things ( shhh!) and I am working on my BQL Challenge for May at the moment. I don't want it to be rushed at the end.

Another parcel... Spring Swap.

It's been very exciting here with parcels arriving. This one was from my Spring Swap partner Melinda. Ooh, lots of tissues paper wrapping...





And inside one package was a wonderful note book and cover. ( Melinda must have heard me thinking that I needed to have something like this for beside my laptop to jot down notes.)

And there was a cute tin filled with fat quarters and squares. I've got a few ideas here already but I haven't actually made any final decisions.

And check out this fabulous roomy bag with lots of pizazz. It's one of those mesh bags which I've spotted around and loved.

So if you are going to the Brisbane Stitches and Craft show at the end of this month and you see this bag, no doubt it will have me attached to it. Do you think I can fill it?

Valentine's Swap...

I have an apology to make to Jill (no Blog) who was my partner in a Valentine's swap run by Dandelionquilts. I promised Jill that I would post photos on my blog and show everyone. Somehow though the photos were deleted from my camera and didn't quite make it to the blog. So I took some more today and have them here to show. I am so sorry, Jill, that this is so late.
Look at all this lovely sewing love...
In the left corner you can see a page of photos. Jill made a photo collage of the area she lives in, her sewing room and some of her projects. What a great idea! I wish my sewing room looked like hers! Jill, I think you need a blog to show all these beautiful things off.

Here's a cute wall hanging...

And some lovely things for the table... Thank you so much Jill. I loved everything.

and on the subject of the Valentine's swap here's what I sent to Maria .

Sorry that this has taken so long...

Variations on an Easter theme...

2008...
2009...

When you have a good Easter hat design all you need to do is adapt it from

one year to the next.

Easter Swap received...

Here's the parcel I received in the Easter Swap... It was from Shari on the other side of Australia. Look at those lovely Easter ribbons !

And what a great idea - sweet fabrics hidden inside matching eggs.

And the cutest of all was the little house with bunnies,

and look who is peeking out...



There were cookie cutters too but somehow they didn't get into the photos. Thank you so much Shari. I love it. Happy Easter.

Easter Swap...

A few months back I signed up for an Easter Swap run by Julie. The person I was to send to was Vanessa. I wasn't quite sure what to send but I found this cute Easter fabric and had to use it. I just love those bunnies. ( The pattern was from Happy Hour by Atkinson Designs and is one I will be using again)

And speaking of cute bunnies...


it can be found on this..

The button is a Giggle Button and is so cute I couldn't resist using it for an Easter bag.

I hope you enjoy everything Vanessa.

Charm Square Bolster Cushion...

My friend Kathy, who does yoga with me, was having a birthday. I had actually planned this for last year's birthday but didn't get it done ( why isn't that a surprise?) So I decided to get it done for this year.

So to make one here's what I did...

Sew 20 charm squares together ( 4 x 5). This will vary depending on the size of the cushion you want to make, or you can cut them to size later. The insert I used was 51cm X 51cm which would be around 20 inches X 20 inches.


Sew into a tube and hem the ends...

I left a small opening in my seam so I could thread the ribbon through...

Now here's a hint..

I bought a square cushion insert because it was bigger than the bolster insert the shop had. All you have to do is leave it rolled up - But it does help to leave the plastic on at first to help you get the cover on. You can see it is a bit of a tight fit, which is good to make the cushion firm but this helps get the cover on more easily. It still is a bit tricky getting the plastic off but I cut it when I was half way in and pulled it out that way.

Tighten the ribbons at the end and tie up tight.

The end result - one bolster cushion.

In my case the next thing I did was hand it to Kathy as she walked in the door right at the moment of completion, so I couldn't hide it. I suppose you could say it saved me wrapping it.

She took it to yoga the next week and I may have orders - arrgh...


Note : this method really doesn't allow for regular removing and washing as the seams are not ended off inside and I tied the ribbon with knots first. It could be made to do so though with a bit more lining and preparation.

March Challenge...

This is the little quilt I have made for the March Challenge on the British Quilt List. The method to use this month was printing photos on fabric. I used a photo of my little guy on the beach at Byron Bay in winter and once again I dipped into my scrap bag of batiks. I am really enjoying doing this, although I could do without my daughter complaining about the fact that I didn't use a photo of her. I wonder what next month will be.

660 Kilometres and 8 hours

That's the distance and time it took each way to get to Nundle ( NSW) from where I live. Was it worth it? You bet it was !!!!! It was a bit scary being a new attendee and going on my own but everyone was so friendly and we had so much fun I didn't need to worry.

Girl's Day Out in the Country is a perfect description of what it is - a day of chatting, sewing and sharing. Run beautifully by Kerry and with Leanne and Rosie to guide us we had a great time.

Here's Leanne showing how to do her applique project....

which looks like this...

And Rosie's projects were also beautiful...

Oops, sorry about the sideways view

I worked on Rosie's punch needle on the day as well as some of the little stitchery for the needlecase.

Here's the hall where we were working...

And this is the early morning view from the cabin where I stayed...

And here is a happy group of bloggers...
Thanks to everyone for a wonderful time.

One of the reasons...

This is one of the things which kept me busy recently. There were wisdom teeth removed from my 16 year old, a lost filling (mine) and this...

The cast now has a nice blue covering (with green stripes). He is off to the hospital again tomorrow - I don't know if they are going to change the cast or not. He's adapted fairly well which is good and he has loved the attention. I hope that he doesn't think that this is a good way to get attention all the time.

BQL February Challenge

Okay, so I know it is March but this is one of my February catch up posts. I have been participating in the BQL ( British Quilt List) yahoo group challenge. I have been really enjoying it too. This is the one we did for February which was based on a string piecing design.
I was trying to get a rainforest feel however it seems to have more blue in it that I planned. The fabric was from a scrap bag I bought at a local quilt shop.


To try and get a leafy feel I decided to quilt eucalypt leaves on it. I looked at photos of the type of leaves I wanted and drew a few rough lines on the quilt and then filled in the rest free hand( or rather machine).

I actually am quite happy with it and and am enjoying the challenges presented.

The top for March is done - so when it is quilted I will be able to show you that one too.

Just a quick one...

I still have heaps to write about but I have a few minutes on the computer. Now I don't usually put these things on my blog but I did this one this morning and this is what came up.

Your rainbow is shaded blue.

What is says about you: You are a tranquil person. You appreciate friends who get along with one another. You share hobbies with friends and like trying to fit into their routines.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Edit: I have no idea why the colour thing in the box isn't working. However it don't matter - it just makes for a plain old blog post today.
Now, this is just relevent to my life at the moment. Firstly the colours are definately my favourites. I'm not so sure about the tranquil person bit but I'd like to be so that's fine. The next sentence comes very close to home although I'd like to put family in instead of friends ( just an extended family issues that I wish I wasn't involved in and hope it will resolve.) Or maybe it applies to my upcoming trip to Nundle for the Girls Day out in the Country - of course we will all be getting along famously, I'm sure.

And then it says about sharing hobbies with friends - How did they know? Sometimes you wonder how these things like this get something right.

I'm working on my BQL challenge piece at the moment. I haven't even posted about the one for February. It's definately catch up time.