Piecing, Patching

Good intentions

2012-01-15T14:32:00.000+11:00

As usual about this time of year, I start making resolutions involving stash-busting, and yet every year the situation becomes even more dire than the one before. It is always too hard to resist the crisp newness of brand new fabrics, the exciting new designs that come out, the pleasure of not having to try to match fabrics that comes with buying a set of pre-cuts or fat quarters from a new range.

But this year will be different! I will start making scrappy quilts and will be a bit more prolific about piecing too. By the end of the year, I'll have cleared some room. I promise.

So today I rummaged through some scrap bins and started making some scrappy houses.

I couldn't find a block the size I wanted so had to draw up my own. These are 12 1/2" unfinished blocks. The windows and chimneys used 2 1/2" squares and the doors 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" rectangles, so these were perfect for little scraps.

I put them together without rhyme or reason, totally randomly except for trying to get some degree of contrast between the main house colour and the windows and doors.

I'm not sure how I am going to put them together. I have seen a lot of lovely house block quilts on the web where the houses are tilted a bit wonkily. Or should I make scrappy sashings to use even more scraps? Or not use sashings at all and make them into row or town houses, a bit like the pic above? Or maybe add a few tree blocks in between? Hmmmm, there are too many options, it is hard to make a decision.

I also finished hand quilting my little autum hourglass quilt this week.

While rummaging through scrap bins I found a good quantity of some deep purple, hand-dyed fabric which will be just perfect for the binding, so putting that on and finishing this quilt will be my task for this week.

Happy 2012

2012-01-04T11:07:00.000+11:00

I've spent this morning preserving some produce. Despite the coolish summer so far, and probably as a result of the heavy rain, everything has just been so productive except for the tomatoes which are yearning for some heat. I have been eating spinach and leek pie, zucchini slice, eggplant bake, miscellaneous quiches etc constantly for weeks! And still can't get rid of everything in the garden!

This morning I preserved some zucchini strips in olive oil and pickled some beetroot. To do the former, I degorged the zucchini overnight in salt and cold water, then drained and pressed out the excess water. I brushed the strips with olive oil and grilled. Then tossed them in some cider vinegar, lemon thyme and garlic, packed into jars and topped with olive oil. These will good for antipasto, pizza toppings, pasta sauces etc throughout the zucchini-less months.

This is my favourite project of late ..... a cute little bag made from Ruby charm squares a Secret Santa gave me.

These fabrics are just so fun and lively. I used some ribbon that came on one of my Christmas presents for the drawstring, but I think I'll look in my stash for an appropriate fabric to make some more dainty ones.

I've also put together a small lap quilt made from 80 charm squares and a couple of other fabrics. The fabrics are from the Bittersweet range, a lovely autumny collection. I love the way they appear so radiant and jewel-like when set off by a neutral background.

I'm handquilting this one, and not doing a very good job of it. I'm not using a frame, but even though my stitches are sometimes a bit too taut and the fabric isn't quite flat, I really like the antique, puckered look this is giving it.

Christmas Post

2011-12-16T16:10:00.000+11:00

Merry Christmas to everyone!

The gorgeous little ornaments above came to me in an ornament swap. I was looking for a place to hang them, not having put up a tree this year, then decided they looked very sweet in this bowl of pot pourri in the centre of the table.

I was also spoiled by a Secret Santa swap partner who sent me a wonderful parcel full of goodies, including chocolates, cashews (my absolute favourite treat) divine soap and the sweetest cross-stitch gift tag. It also included this fantastic wall-hanging:

Another thoughtful friend sent me a lovely surprise parcel as well, full of beautiful handmade goodness and vintage charm.

As for me, I just haven't been doing much crafting lately. I put aside my crinoline ladies for a while to work on a set of embroidered puppy dogs instead but I only finished two before putting that aside too. I must get back to work on these, they are sooo cute:

I have been very lax about posting lately and have very rudely also failed to respond to the lovely friends who left thoughtful messages or emails about my posts. I have been going through a bit of a low patch the last couple of months and have just not had much motivation to do anything at all.

Apart from the usual work and time stresses, both of my beautiful pups have had some health issues over the last couple of months which has really knocked me flat and I have just been unable to take an interest in anything. First Sugar was diagnosed with a mast cell tumour of the most aggressive form on her inner calf. It was very small but as they needed to take very wide margins to be sure they got it all, she had to undergo some nasty surgery.

This is a type of cancer that commonly affects Bull Mastiffs (and other dogs, especially Boxers). Many dogs get it but in most other breeds it is usually of a fairly low grade and removal is often effective. However, in susceptible breeds it is often very aggressive and fatal.

Sugar had an ultrasound and it had not spread to her lymph nodes or liver, where it usually mastasizes. However, statistically, for a cancer of the grade they removed, the long term prognosis is not good. They recommended she have chemotherapy but even then the prognosis statistically would not be good long term, and as she is prone to allergies and infections, I did not want to put her through a course of treatment that would shut down her immune system. Besides, she is physically healthy and mentally happy and if I am going to lose her, I want her last months or years to be happy, not to be miserable and sick from treatment.

On top of that, I found a lump on Spice I was worried about but as I was a mess with Sugar recovering from surgery, only got that investigated properly three weeks ago. This turned out also to be a mast cell tumour and, being on her hip, was going to be difficult to remove so we were referred to a specialist surgeon.

Spice had surgery on Monday night and because of the location and because her's had indistinct edges, they had to take a much wider margin than with Sugar so she has a massive wound almost 30cm long with about 40 staples in it. It is a ghastly looking surgery, but she is on painkillers and lots of other medication and it doesn't seem to be bothering her too much. She is refusing to rest and recuperate and wants to run and jump around and play. She is supposed to wear a bucket collar to stop her from licking it, but she has learned how to get that off and thinks she is very clever having done so. She is in a little bit of pain as she is a bit more clingy and needing more cuddles than usual, but it isn't stopping her from doing what she wants and it isn't stopping her from being active!

I am supposed to be keeping her confined until her surgery heals but that is near impossible!

She has also had an ultrasound and her lymph glands and liver are fine at this stage. We need to go back over Christmas to get her stitches and staples out and get the biopsy results which will tell us how aggressive her tumour was.

It has all been a bit of a strain with several vet visits a week for the last couple of months with tests and checkups and surgery and everything else, and wondering how long we have left together. I have pretty much avoided most of pre-Christmas commitments this year, saying no to parties and barbecues etc, just not being in the mood.

But, nasty surgeries aside, both of my girls are happy and feel healthy and playful and energetic and don't feel sick at all, and that is the most important thing. And while the cancer most probably will come back, we can only hope it doesn't do so for a couple of more years at least.

The secret to successful child-rearing

2011-11-10T17:37:00.001+11:00

I recently bought some iron-on embroidery transfers from Grandma's Attic. (Note to self: stop buying crafty things online, remember your car rego is due, Christmas is coming, pups are nearly due for their vaccinations etc! It is an addiction, and you need help!) These were so cheap, and they actually work, giving a clear, crisp outline with minimal ironing on! Unlike my experiences with iron-on embroidery patterns from here.

The above is from a set of 1930s tea towel designs, one for every day of the week. Only, I am planning to make these ones into a quilt, if I finish them all.

I also bought a set of iron-on puppies and herbs, so lots of embroidery to be getting on with.

I was restless on the weekend and started flipping through old, old magazines for some vintage inspiration. I love old women's magazines, especially from the 1940s, even the ads and recipes reveal so much about the period. For instance, lots of inventive and imaginative, if unpalatable, butter substitutes to deal with rationing. And lots of lard - yuck!

But the ad below came from a magazine in the early 60s and I laughed so much at it, I just had to share it - click on it to zoom in:

Drunkenness - the answer to all problems!

A couple of milk jug covers

2011-11-06T10:40:00.001+11:00

Here is one of the beaded jug covers I made through the week. The pattern is one I found on the antique pattern website I referred to in my earlier post (and which I am too lazy at the moment to go and link to). I had enough thread to make another which I did last night, using this free pattern:

I love the little three dimensional flower on this one, although the loops (at least in my version) are a bit biggish and aren't going to stop pesky flies from getting through. Then again, I don't really have any jugs that need covering so I guess it doesn't really matter.

One of the goodies I bought online recently was this little Christmas stitchery book by Natalie Bird. There are twelve 4 inch stitcheries, which can be made into a quilt, pillow or other things as well as another one for a stocking. One of my favourites is this little penguin:

Checking in

2011-11-03T16:46:00.000+11:00

I thought I'd better check in and write a post so my poor blog doesn't feel abandoned.

It isn't that I haven't been doing anything worth posting about, but I certainly haven't been finishing anything. My house is a trail of half-finished little projects at the moment, none finished enough to be blog-worthy. I wish I could take some annual leave and just settle in for a few weeks and do some serious crafting - I have 4 1/2 months annual leave accrued which does not make our auditors and senior management happy, however I'm a project manager and there's no one else to manage my projects so I can't take it right now. Maybe I'll get some time off over Christmas.

Right now I am working on a little crocheted milk jug cover which won't take much to finish so that will be one UFO down. I've also started an embroidered little tablecloth which is one of a bunch of kits I bought in a sale a few years ago for the only reason that they were about 80% off and I thought they were too cheap not to buy, even though I doubted my ability to finish such a project. The one I am doing at the moment is a stamped cross stitch design on linen. The thread is pretty thick and the crosses pretty chunky so it actually doesn't take that long. It is just a little boring. It might take me a bit longer to move this one out of UFO/WIP status.

I've also had a couple of slowish days at work so have spent a naughty couple of hours Googling to fight off boredom. Apart from a few rash online purchases (well, not rash, as they are absolutely gorgeous, but hardly necessary in a house bursting at the seams with craft goods and a projects list about 200 years long. I'll post more about these new purchases soon) I've also come across a couple of fantastic free resources I haven't come across before:

Needlecrafter - hundreds of free vintage redwork and embroidery patterns
Antique Pattern Library - a fabulous library of scanned vintage patterns, especially crochet

Just what I need, more projects worth starting!

And apart from all that, I've been spending more time gardening now that Spring is here which is fun, but eats into my crafting time. My herbs and lettuces and spinaches and rocket and leeks and spring onions are all being very productive, my finger eggplant plants I'd left in since last year and just looked like sad sticks have bloomed back into life, and I've been growing a lot of new vegetable plants from seed. I've just transplanted tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers and zucchinis and am still waiting for some other seedlings to grow and mature to transplant - a couple of more types of tomato, another type of eggplant, rhubarb, beans, and I forget what else. Oh yeah, okra. I've never eaten okra before and am told it is quite horrid, but I wanted to grow something different.

It's Raining Again .....

2011-10-02T10:12:00.001+11:00

so forgive the dark photography! This is the first project in the Cookies and Cream Christmas Club which I finished off yesterday afternoon. Each month we receive a new Christmas pattern and a little gift to help us get started. The above, a Gail Pan design, came with some lovely hand dyed embroidery thread to use in the project. I've already received project four so I'd better get my act together and catch up!

I had mowing and weeding on the agenda today but it has been raining heavily since late last night, so I guess with it being too yucky to do anything else, I might just get some sewing done today.

I heard that my puppies were very heroic last week and scared away two potential burglars. A neighbour saw two unsavoury characters enter my property and walk up the drive toward the house (one, very heavily drugged and swaying). Before they could get to the front verandah my pups appeared at the gate and barked and growled at them aggressively, scaring them and alerting the other neighbours. One man ran away but the other was too drug-addled and staggered onto the front lawn and tried to hold himself up on the front fence, but collapsed. So my neighbours called the police who arrived in force (8 of them no less) and got the unconscious man taken away in an ambulance. He had dumped his drug paraphanelia (syringes etc) on the lawn but there was nothing there they could charge him with and as they did not touch the house, could not prove intent to burgle either. I am so proud of my baby girls for being so clever and brave!

Dresden Plate Quilt Progress

2011-09-20T17:05:00.001+10:00

I started putting together this on the weekend. It is made from a Moda Candy Bar and inspired by the free pattern that came with it, only I have added sashings. I still need to applique 8 half-plates for around the edges and piece them on and am thinking of piecing a star or something from the same fabrics I used in the sashings in each corner to tie it all together. I love Dresden Plates, they always look good.

I love a bit of hand applique and stitchery too, as it is something I can do while the pups are having a nap up against me and we can have some quiet snuggly together time.

Sweethearts Stitchery Quilt

2011-09-17T08:32:00.000+10:00

I finally put together those Sweethearts stitcheries into a quilt. Although I loved the way The Birdhouse pattern put them together, I didn't have enough of the right fabrics, so I did my own thing and used a couple of Amelia charm square packs. I'm not terribly happy with it - I hoped the pinks would stand out more and make it a bit more girly. And I wish I hadn't used the black fabric in the charm pack, it really doesn't go with the rest.

As you can tell, I'm in a bit of a stitchery mood these days! I've got a few more on my to do list. First up, I was so taken with Tarnyia's Little Birdie stitcheries, I am just going to have to join in even though this block of the month is already up to block nine. I was also googling the other day and came across the most divine doggy stitcheries at Bobby Socks Quilt Company - these really gave me a giggle.

Christmas wreath quilt

2011-09-11T12:05:00.000+10:00

I was rummaging through my stash and found these 1930s reproduction Christmas fabrics (the range was called Aunt Grace's Christmas) and decided to use these to finish off my Christmas wreath. I wish I had more of the fabric, I would have liked to keep going and make this bigger. But I refuse to buy more fabrics (except for occasional lapse!) so this little quilt is staying at a humble 26 1/2".

Stitcheries everywhere

2011-09-11T09:11:00.000+10:00

This is the Rosalie Quinlan stitchery I blogged about previously. I've finished the stitching now and need to decide what to do with it. The original pattern has it stretched over a frame or canvas to create a simple hangable artwork, but I'd like to use it as the centrepiece of a small table quilt or wallhanging, or maybe even a gift bag.

And I've put the Leanne Beasley stitcheries into a little runner with gorgeous Portobello Market fabrics.

Some more stitcheries and ramblings

2011-08-30T17:05:00.000+10:00

A couple of Leanne Beasley stitcheries I have been working on, from old issues of Homespun. They were a set of three and I haven't decided if I am going to do the third one or not. I've trimmed these quite ruthlessly so clearly I plan to piece them into something. I don't know what yet though.

I also received some goodies in the mail this week, including a Rosalie Quinlan Christmas stitchery in redwork which I started yesterday. It was quite expensive, but pre-printed on linen which saved me tracing what was quite a complex design. I'm looking forward to making it into a centrepiece or something for Christmas.

I also received a parcel from The Fat Quarter Shop which I had despaired of ever seeing. Their service has always been faultless and my last order, in early July was dispatched in 2 packages within a day of placing the order. One parcel arrived within a week and the other never showed up. I've been meaning to call the post office about it and never got around to it, and to my surprise it arrived today! It was just a few charm packs and things that were on sale. I wonder what stories that parcel could tell, where it has been on its travels. I live in an area with a lot of similar street names - lots of Aboriginal words starting with "B" - so I frequently get mail addressed to the same number in neighbouring streets and go around delivering them myself.

The pups and I spent a happy weekend in the garden, weeding and paving, getting our vegie patches ready for Spring. We were startled by an equally startled frog; tried to work up a level of murderousness to kill a snail but it looked at us too beguilingly so we just moved it to a plant we didn't care about; watched the antics of a Golden Wattlebird who was frolicking around the garden; and found an interesting stone that we like to think is an ancient Aboriginal flake tool. All in all, an exhausting but fun and productive weekend.

Brrrrrrr!

2011-08-20T12:15:00.000+10:00

It's turned cold again so I've been spending a bit of time snuggled up warmly with some hand stitching lately. The above needlecase is from an old issue of Country Threads. And wouldn't you know it, I've just tidied up the house and put the magazine away so I can't tell you which issue or who designed it.

I've also been whipping up these tiny stitcheries which are for for a Birdhouse designed quilt called Sweethearts, which I came across while cleaning last week and I had forgotten I had. (Does everyone else have houses where craft goods are stashed in every conceivable place, so you're constanly coming across a pattern or fabric or half-finished project every time you open a cupboard or a drawer, and wonder who put them there?)

I used a variegated DMC thread in pinks and red. I only had 1 skein and I just had enough to finish these.

One UFO down

2011-08-07T12:20:00.000+10:00

I was really disciplined today - in the mood for a little sewing, instead of starting something new, I actually went to one of my many UFO drawers and pulled out this table runner. It was pieced and basted so it just needed some quick quilting and binding.

From memory, I pieced this simple runner from a charm pack, however, I can't remember the name of the fabric range.

Stitchery door pillow

2011-08-07T12:13:00.000+10:00

My patchwork friend Caz surprised me with a wonderful parcel for my birthday, including the kit for the little Birdhouse door pillow which I made up yesterday. This was a fun quick project and the pillow looks so cute hanging from a door by its rick-rack handle. It has little bells on the ends of the prarie points so I there's a delightful little jingle too!

Caz also sent me a huge and gorgeous selection of vintage doileys, too many to picture here, as well as a cute knitting kit for a toy octopus.

Autumn is random .... and maybe a little ugly

2011-07-24T12:32:00.000+10:00

Long time, no post! My boss has been away for a few weeks at work so I've been super busy and haven't been able to do much more than collapse into bed at the end of the day, so I am way behind on everything else - housework, gardening, crafting, emails, blog reading and of course, blog posting.

But in the little time I have had to sew, I've been back on a stash-busting mission. The above is one of the stash-busters I've been working on. This is a disappearing nine patch with two alternated colour blocks. It's in autumn colours although in the photo they don't seem very autumny at all. The colour placement was really random, and hence it has come out a bit clumsy and maybe a bit ugly. But what the hey, my goal at the moment is to use up fabric, not make anything gorgeous! The above used the equivalent of 18 fat quarters - yay! I still need to trim the blocks and sew them together. That is my least favourite part so I'm having a rest for now.

I'll have to post about the great birthday gifts my friend Lyle gave me too. The cutest sewing basket, a huge pack of mixed blender fabrics, a full quilt kit, a book on colour and composition (which maybe I should have read before piecing the above!), and some geisha panels. I was soooo spoiled! I started the kit yesterday as it was pre-cut and the pattern is super quick with big chunky pieces, perfect for showing off all the beautiful fabrics.

I hope my bloggy friends have been well, and I hope to catch up on your blogs soon.

Random Acts of Kindness Gift

2011-06-04T12:03:00.000+10:00

I got a lovely surprise in the mail this week - a gorgeous gift from Tarnyia as part of Maree's Random Acts of Kindness swap.

Inside these packages were the most wonderful gifts, including this absolutely gorgeous notebook slip-case:

It is just as beautiful inside as out, and has handy pockets in the front and the back:

Tarnyia also sent me a huge box of chcocolates, an equisite lace bookmark, a handy lanyard and some blue thread (I can never have enough blue thread!).

Thanks Tarnyia for spoiling me with your thoughtful and beautiful gifts!

Fun with scraps and orphans

2011-05-07T15:56:00.000+10:00

Yay! I think I finally got some of my mojo back!

I have been really uninspired and unmotivated lately, but today I was just in the mood to sew!

First up, this little yo-yo cushion. I made a few yo-yos in front of the television last night and decided to put them together into a cute little cushion. I really love the pretty, girly colours.

Then I had some fun with some orphan blocks. I put borders around them to make them the same size, and was going to make it into a table runner.

Then I realised the top was almost the same size as some duck feather filled body pillows I bought in a crazy moment on the internet, for no other reason than that they were on sale for 60% off. (Does anyone else do things like that?) So I changed my mind and decided to make it into a big pillow cover.

I've put some ribbon ties on one side as I may tie it to the headboard of my timber bed for extra cushiony-ness when sitting up reading or sewing in bed. Not sure how comfortable this will be, but I'll give it a go.

Don't look too closely at the quilting. I haven't tried to free-motion quilt in a long time, and I was never much good at it to start with. The quilting on this though was a shamozzle even for me! I should have practised on some scraps to get my rhythm first. Although, I don't think I ever got my rhythm when quilting this, so it probably wouldn't have helped. Back to straight line and grid quilting for me!

Or even better, tying! Last weekend was rainy, and the only plans I'd made were outdoorsy so they were cancelled. So after houseworking (as little as I could get away with), I spent some time on an old quilt top tying. The quilt top was one I made almost 10 years ago. It isn't great - I was making it up as I went along in rounds, and some of my calculations were less than inspired, so some of the borders terminate in the middle of a pattern or block. My calculations were also so off that I planned to make it 240cm square, and it ended up closer to 280cm! I'd basted it, and started trying to quilt it but soon came to the realisation that it was too big for me to quilt on my little sewing machine. And I didn't feel it was good enough to bother sending out to be professionally quilted. I've got it out of the cupboard and played with it, given up, and put it back, many times over the years. To the point that half the basting was coming undone and it was in a very shabby state.

Last weekend I had the brilliant idea of trying to tie it instead of quilting it. And so far, it is working! I spent a fruitful few hours in front of the TV with the quilt over my ironing board, lowered to a good working height. The weight of the quilt over the edges helped hold it taut where the basting was coming undone, and the ironing board gave me a nice flat surface to work with. It's about half finished now and can't wait til its done. No photos at the moment, but will take some soon!

Hexagon progress

2011-04-24T11:53:00.000+10:00

I'm having fun with my hexagon cushion cover. I spent a couple of hours yesterday hand quilting the hexagons and hope to start quilting the background later today. Not sure how I am going to quilt it yet, but knowing me, probably just some easy grids.

I also finished my jumper this week. There are a couple of wonky stitches which really show in the chunky yarn, but I think I can fix it. I am happy with it because I never finish any large knitting projects, so I am just impressed with myself that I finished it at all!

I spent a little time weeding the vegie gardens this morning and putting in some winter seeds. I surprised a lovely, plump frog though so had to stop so I didn't disturb him. I wanted to take a photo but he was a bit upset with my attentions, so I decided to come inside and leave him alone. I think frogs are beautiful.

Works in Progress

2011-04-17T09:28:00.000+10:00

It was a wet and miserable day yesterday so I spent a happy hour or two playing with those rainbow coloured spot fabrics I posted about previously. I had originally planned something plain, quick and strip-pieced but I was in the mood for some hand piecing in front of the TV so started these paper pieced hexagons. I don't know that I'll have the perseverence for a quilt top, but I have been promising my Mum some big cushion covers (as in 80cm+) for some months now, so maybe these will become a part of those.

I didn't have any die cut commercial papers, so I went to this site I have used before which I think is quite wonderful. You choose your shape, then your dimensions, then it generates a template for you in PDF. I printed off a few sheets, gave them a quick spray with adhesive (actually, the nearest thing to hand was quilt basting spray, but it worked quite well), smoothed them out on old manila folders and cut them out. I chose 1.25" which was the edge size of each hexagon, and got 11 templates to an A4 sheet. Quick and easy!

I've been doing a lot of knitting lately. I still haven't pieced together the grey cabled sweater I was making, but I have started several more projects since then. My favourite is this short sleeved sweater in a deep forest green:

The yarn is Jo Sharp Silkroad Ultra and the pattern is a free one from the terrific Lion Brand website. I bought some end of lot yarn from the Jo Sharp shop which was 40% off thinking I'd make a simple vest, but changed my mind and started making this which is bigger and ran out of wool (I bought a pack of 10 balls). This yarn is discontinued, but I was lucky enough to find another online shop which stocked it in the right colour. It most probably won't be the same dye lot so I am just going to have to cross my fingers that it will be ok. It better be, this is turning out to be a very expensive project!

The yarn is lovely to work with though, soft and supple and doesn't pill and has a very slight sheen. I also bought some in grey and am nearly finished a vest. Again I'm not sure I'll have quite enough, although it will be close.

With all this knitting I think I have developed knitter's thumb! My right thumb has been painful for more than a week now, and I can hardly move it. I have pre-existing RSI in my wrists, so I am used to them suffering if I knit or crochet too much, but thumbs?! Is this normal?

Ooh I'm spoiled

2011-03-31T16:04:00.000+11:00

My friend Beryl, who has spoiled me so much already with lovely magazines and books, saw the gorgeous tray mat Bev made for me as part of the Colour Swap and gave me this beautiful tea cup and saucer to go with it. Oh, I will look so dainty and civilised with my very own tea set! The tea set is just sooo pretty with delicate violets and butterflies. It goes beautifully with the mat. Thanks so much Beryl! You are too good to me.

I also received my present from Heather (also no blog as yet) as part of Jewell's Easter Swap. I certainly wasn't going to wait until Easter to rip it open! I got lots of yummy chocolates and these gorgeous gifts:

The tea towel is a lovely generous size and the fabric band has the cutest Easter print. The dishcloth is too nice to use on dirty dishes. I wish my knitting was this good. Oh, and don't you just love the hand-made gift card?

I finally finished my Easter swap presents to send to a mystery person who I won't name because she won't have received it yet. I hope she likes it. I feel I could have done much better. My inspiration has just been lacking of late.

I finished this little tea towel I blogged about previously, by giving the bunny a collar and adding a couple of rows of pretty braid:

And I gave up on knitting dishcloths so made two crocheted ones. They don't have an Easter motif but they are in bright spring colours, so I hope that counts.

Along with these little presents, there are the mandatory Easter choccies and magazine finishing off the Easter gift.

What I've been up to

2011-03-26T10:46:00.000+11:00

I haven't been doing much crafting of late, so my blog has been abandoned for quite some time. I just lost my enthusiasm and motivation for a while, but I think it is on its way back.

I have been knitting this cabled top, the pattern for which was in the latest Better Homes & Garden magazine. Although I love the look of handknits, I am not a very quick knitter, so I very rarely finish any big knitting projects I start. This one knits up super quick though, so even though I only started this on Monday, I just have the sleeves to go now and they are short so they'll only take an hour or two.

I'm using the specified yarn which is Moda Vera Shiver. I kind of wish I hadn't. It is acrylic for one thing (I'd never buy an acrylic jumper!) and quite pill-y so I can't imagine this top is going to look new for very long. Also, the pattern called for 12 balls, so I diligently bought 12 balls. I was wondering why it looks as though I am going to have 4 or 5 balls left over and double-checked the pattern - it called for 12 x 50g balls. But the yarn comes in 100g balls so I have twice as much as I need. And my last whinge is that, unlike most patterns with a cowl or long neck, the pattern doesn't reverse so it shows on the fold-over, it is meant to drape naturally so the outside is still the outside. My neck is a bit big and floppy (the top neck, not my neck!), and making it drape right takes some care. If I were to do it again, I'd probably change to smaller needles for the neck to make it a firmer, tighter knit. Still, my fingers are crossed it is going to turn out ok! And one good thing is, I also overcame my fear of circular knitting needles in this project.

While I was at Spotlight looking for the yarn for this top, I also splurged on these bright and cheerful rainbow coloured spot fatties:

I am thinking something simple and quick and colourful. Maybe chunky four patches or nine patches with bright white sashings.

But my project for this weekend is going to be my washcloth and tea towel for Jewell's Easter Swap. I have been fiddling with ideas for weeks now, making false starts, becoming discouraged with ideas half-way through. I'm now running out of time, so I think I am going to be doing something wth these bits and pieces:

In the last week, I've changed my mind completely about taking a redundancy and accepted an ICT Project Manager job at my place of work. I realised I was only planning on rejecting it and leaving to make a point and to stand on my principles - which eventually were not good enough reasons to make myself unemployed. I officially start next week and will be moving to a new office and have been told they've been waiting for me to make up my mind as they already have about 10 projects that need managing that will be landing on my desk next week!

I've also said goodbye to my faithful old Suzuki Swift and welcomed this Toyota Corolla into my home:

I think it will take a while to get used to. It drives and feels so different. I had the last car for 10 years and knew it so well parking and everything was a breeze. I have no spatial awareness of the size of this car so it just feels weird and I have to concentrate and check mirrors etc to do anything and in the blind spots have no idea whether I am going to scrape against anything. I guess I'll just try to drive it as much as I can to get used to it.

Colour swap parcel arrived!

2011-03-07T16:47:00.000+11:00

I received a wonderful package in the post today filled with all these beautiful blue parcels, tied with gorgeous ribbons and labels. This was my gift from the lovely Bev Cooper, as part of Maree's Colour Swap!

The rules for this swap were we had to include a food, a fat quarter, some thread and something pretty in our swap partner's preferred colour. Mine was blue, as you can see. The fat quarter is just gorgeous, and the ricrac will come in handy. I am very impressed though with how clever Bev was in finding blue food!

And I was a bit gob-smacked at the beautiful gift Bev made for me - a wonderfully embroidered journal cover with this pretty matching bookmark:

Bev's machine embroidery is just incredible, just perfect. But there's more! She also sent me this gorgeous tea tray mat:

Which is way too nice to slop tea all over, so I think it might soon be found hanging on my kitchen wall.

Thanks Bev! You made my day with your generous and thoughtful gifts!

I haven't been doing much crafting at all lately. With everything going on right now, I just haven't been in the mood at all. But a couple of weekends ago I did go to the markets, bargain-hunting, with my good friend Lyle and bought this timber quilt rack.

I like the little cut out heart motif.

Lots of swapping going on

2011-02-20T10:11:00.000+11:00

This is my lovely Valentines gift from Christine. I apologise for the poor photo, but these are gorgeous magnets with lovely little poems on them. They read:

The wind through my heart
blows all
my candles
out.

And:

The wind blows through the
doors of my
heart.
It scatters my
sheet music.

I've been trying to practice my washcloth knitting skills lately, in preparation for Jewell's Easter Swap. I think I still need a bit of practice!

My colour parcel is on its way to its mystery recipient. Her chosen colour was Red, so she'll have a bunch of red fat quarters, some red thread, red ribbon, red iron-on decorations and some Malteser eggs. I can't remember what colour I chose so I'll get a surprise when I receive mine!

I think I've let most people in my address book know, but in case I missed you, please note that I have changed my primary email address to the below:

UFO Thursday - Pretty little quilt centre

2011-02-17T09:49:00.000+11:00

I'm not sure when I started this quilt. Several years ago, anyway.

The centre medallion is button-hole appliqued and it features a star in each corner.

I think I started this with visions of a nice big quilt and was making it up as I went. And somehow, I stopped at this point.

UFO Thursday - Where did this come from?

2011-02-10T09:44:00.001+11:00

My friend Beryl has given me a good talking to about being so lax in posting on UFO Thursdays! So I am backdating a couple of entries to get myself back on track. Thanks Beryl!

Now, I had a bit of a rummage through some drawers to find some UFOs to post about and came across this little quilt top.

The embarrassing thing is, I can't even remember making this one!

The sewing is not too great - a few corners don't match and is a bit of easing to fit in evidence. So I imagine this was a pretty early attempt.

It's been a while

2011-02-05T09:51:00.000+11:00

It's been a while since I posted due to one thing and another. So I have missed a UFO Thursday and lots of other things, so I hope to catch up a bit now.

Can I just say that Telstra and iinet both suck? I have had a line fault for a week and a half now. At first only my ADSL internet connection was affected so I logged it with my provider iinet - I knew it was a line fault, but as Telstra have previously disabled ADSL on my line twice before, I knew from experience that they would not accept this straight from me, it had to be logged by my internet provider. Now my phone is also completely dead and has been most of the week. I have now spoken with iinet half a dozen times, logged it with Telstra three times who keep telling me there is no line fault so it must be my equipment (hey, I work in IT Support and have tested with various equipment, and know my line is dead!), and I still have no landline or internet. Neither company responded within the time frames they gave me - I had to keep calling them and chasing them up. I also had to take a day off work yesterday to stay home and wait for a technician who was here about 30 seconds and told me my line was dead and left - which is what I had told them in the first place so I don't see why I had to stay at home all day waiting for that. I also have to stay at home all day today waiting for another Telstra technician to show up. Sigh. As you can imagine, I am pretty ropable and am firing off complaints to everybody and their dogs, including the Ombudsman.

In the last 8 or so years, Telstra have disabled ADSL on my line twice; accidentally given my landline number to somebody else; screwed up the patching so everybody in my neighbourhood was receiving someone else's calls and someone else receiving ours for several days. My line has been scratchy and fuzzy since I moved here - sometimes it is unusable so I have to hang up and call people back on my mobile - but despite logging this several times they keep saying it is my equipment, although I have tried several phone handsets. In short, Telstra's service has been appalling.

I've never had too much trouble with my ISP iinet before now, although their customer support staff have always seemed lacking in knowledge - they just read through scripts, often asking irrelevant questions as they don't seem to understand the technology. But as I have not had too many faults before this hasn't worried me too much. This time their lack of experience and incompetence has really shown.

I guess on top of that it has been about 40 degrees all week (100+F) and without air conditioning I haven't been sleeping very much. Today is meant to be the worst day of all.

And on top of that our restructure at work is getting to the final stages and a lot of good people are being treated very horribly. Those that are leaving are having to fight for, and prove, their legal entitlements - it honestly seems like the organisation hopes we are all too ignorant to know our rights and that we won't challenge them for our full payouts. I think I am going to be offered a job in the new structure, however with the way things are, I don't think I can stand working there any more. It is causing me a lot of stress and I think I need to leave for the sake of my mental and physical health.

**End of long rant**

Luckily, someone has lent me his wireless broadband account so I am back online.

I shouldn't be showing this as it is still winging it's way to the house of my Valentine Swap partner, but I don't have very much else for show and tell today. I had fun making this washcloth - I don't normally enjoy knitting but this project was about the right size for me to tackle.

And I enjoyed making this little bag to put the pressies in.

UFO Thursday - Teddy Bear Quilt

2011-01-27T08:52:00.003+11:00

I love this teddy bear pattern. It is from this massive quilt block archive and is so much fun to make. I've made a few in different colours but I do like this nice bright one.

However, I think that is why it is a UFO. I don't normally like bright colours, so don't have many in my stash, so have never finished this.

UFO Thursday - Patch and Chat Mystery Quilt

2011-01-15T08:52:00.000+11:00

Today's UFO is another mystery quilt, this one designed by one of the talented former members of the online quilting group I am in, Patch and Chat.

I was so excited by this challenge, I made two - one in this colour scheme and another in blue. I think the blue may be finished as far as the piecing is concerned, but I don't know where it is! This one needs at least the final border on, I think. I will have to try to find the instructions.

And get an iron onto it, obviously!

UFO Thursday - Mystery Quilt

2011-01-13T08:39:00.001+11:00

I am being a bit naughty and backposting this UFO Thursday post, and I will for the next post too, because I missed them! (Today is Australia Day!)

I have been enormously busy with work and other things, have way over-committed myself to too many things and well, a million other excuses. But I'm back on track now.

Today's UFO is a mystery quilt that a dear friend in Indiana, USA, sent me many years ago. It had many parts - 20 or so from memory - and each installment came with a new chapter in a mystery fiction story as well as a new classic block.

I haven't counted my blocks, so not sure where I got up to. I'll have to spend some time matching the blocks against the installments.

I think I came to a standstill because I ran out of a good mix of blues, and never got around to getting started again.

Flood Appeal Auction - Pass it On

2011-01-11T20:04:00.001+11:00

Just wanted to share that Toni C of Make it Perfect is coordnating an auction to donate to flood relief efforts.

I think we're all amazed and shocked at the devastation that is happening in SE Queensland, which just seems to worsen and worsen, day by day. And I know we all want to do our little bit to help. So please check out Toni's blog above and partipate in her auctions either as a donor of handmade goods or a bidder.

Does anyone know of any other appeals happening around blogland? Maybe somewhere where we can donate goods?

UFO Thursday

2011-01-06T07:31:00.035+11:00

I have joined up for Cookies and Cream Craft's UFO Thursday, which involves posting about a UFO once a week. I've also joined the Stashbuster's 2011 UFO Challenge, which involves actually finishing some UFOs, so hopefully some of the UFOs you see here every Thursday will join my finished list for 2011!

This is one of my favourite UFOs. I love the fabrics and design of this quilt so much. I sooo wish I could finish it!

It looks finished from a distance, as last time I got it out with the intention of finishing it, I put the binding on. But look closer and you'll see it has lots more quilting left to do. Unfortunately, I started hand quilting this one quite heavily. I've hand quilted around all the blocks so I felt it was stable enough to risk binding it, but I have only echo quilted around half the stars, and chose a very labour-intensive 1" cross-hatch for the borders, of which I have only done one! There are dozens of hours of hand quilting remaining to be done.

I started this quilt probably five or six years ago using the Wuthering Heights range, and pieced it in a single day. I truly hope this will make my finished UFO list for 2011, but I doubt it!

First UFO finish for 2011

2011-01-02T12:55:00.000+11:00

I've finished my first UFO for 2011! It is just a small lap quilt, an experiment in some foundation pieced string blocks I made a few months ago. The quilt was pieced, and quilted (although rather badly!) so today all I had to do was make and sew on some binding.

I also added a few buttons at the intersections of some of the blocks to give it a bit of interest.

So that's one down ..... and I don't even want to know how many to go!

Happy new year to my bloggy friends

2010-12-31T12:06:00.000+11:00

This will be my last post for 2010, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to wish all my bloggy friends a very happy and safe new year. Thanks for inspiring me with all your beautiful projects, and for your kind and thoughtful comments on mine.

I've spent most of my spare time this week gardening, so I haven't achieved much craft-wise. The only thing I've made are these doggy placemats from some sweet puppy fabrics I bought on sale a month or two ago.

This one is for Sugar and Spice's indoor water bowl. (They have a bigger one outside, but if they're indoors, like to drink inside and tell me off if it is empty).

And these are for two little doggy friends of mine, Benny and Banjo, for their food bowls. They're little boys, so I hope they don't mind the girly pinks.

I spent Christmas Day with my parents, sister, brother in law and niece, who all gave me lots of lovely presents. 2 year old Olivia unfortunately stole Sugar and Spice's presents, unwrapped them, and gave them to her toy dog, but I managed to get them back and bring them home for the puppies.

I also brought home turkey and ham for their dinner, and this huge ham bone which the pups spent a happy hour or so demolishing:

Spice even managed to chew it in half so Sug could share it.

I've spent yesterday and today mowing, weeding, expanding the vegie garden and moving compost. That scruffy grassy mess behind Spice in the photo above no longer exists, and I'm ready to plant more vegies. I've picked the worst days to be in the gardening mood though, with the weather suddenly heating up.

I've also somehow managed to get an eye infection. I thought I got some dirt in it yesterday, but last night their was an infectious looking yellow lump under my eyelid. This morning my eye was swimming in infectious fluid, and almost swollen shut. I look like I've been punched in the face. I went to the local doctors but they were closed, and couldn't face spending half the day in the waiting room of the big medical centre, so went to the chemist who kindly examined me instead and gave me some antibiotic eye drops. So I don't know if it was something in the garden that infected it, a stye, or what. As half my family have come down with conjunctivitis too.

Luckily, I hate going out on new year's eve and have stayed home the last few years. I hate the crowds, I hate not being able to get a taxi to come home when I want to, I hate being hungover on new year's day, and I find it a very depressing event too. Plus there are always lots of fireworks around my area, so I like to stay home with the pups who find it a bit scary. So anyway, it is lucky I have no plans, as I look quite leprous with my swollen eye at the moment so would have had to cancel them anyway.

Bags and bags of bags

2010-12-24T10:11:00.000+11:00

I've been pretty lax with my Christmas shopping this year, so am trying to make up for that by whipping up some quick handmade gifts to bulk out the parcels! I've got today off work to prepare for Christmas, and this morning I made these two little cosmetic purses for my Mum and sister.

They are mirror images of each other, so the blue one is lined with the pink fabric and vice versa.

Last weekend I had a test run with cosmetic purses and made these two for myself.

And a couple of weeks ago I made these festive bottle bags for some alcoholic gifts, from the wonderful fabric given to me by my secret Santa Anne Heidi.

I've also whipped up a couple of summery tote bags from charm square packs. This one was from a Bliss charm pack given to me by another secret Santa!

And this one from some charm squares I have been saving for a special occasion, as I love this bright funky range!

Sugar decided to help herself to her Christmas presents last night. I don't know how, but she can smell a squeaky toy a mile away! Lucky I have some bones and treats for them, and also bought them a roast chicken this morning, so I can debone it and make them a special chicken breakfast of the meat and skin.

I keep a box in the kitchen which I put my recyclables in, so I'm not constantly going out to the recycle bin. When Sug was a pup, she used to love to grab the plastic PET bottles and chew the lids off them. In fact, whenever I went to the fridge for a drink, she would wait expectantly for the bottle, and I'd have to explain to the disappointed pup that it wasn't empty yet. And on one memorable occasion she stole a full water bottle I had carelessly placed next to me on the floor, and chewed the lid off that, spilling water everywhere! Every so often she lapses into puppy behaviour, as you can see above, when she stole an empty bottle and spent a happy few minutes chewing the lid off the other day.

Spice is a bit of a puppy too sometimes. This morning she climbed up beside me on the edge of the bed to try to convince me it was time to get up, and suddenly lost her footing and fell off backwards. The bed is quite high, and she is quite heavy, so I thought she was going to break her back so I lurched out of bed to try to catch her ....... with the end result, that we both fell out of bed and landed heavily on the floor, a bit stunned, but thankfully neither of us are hurt. And we were in a good position to have a good cuddle to settle our nerves and check each other for bruises.

Santa's been again

2010-12-18T09:07:00.000+11:00

Santa has been to my house again, this time my Secret Santa from my patchwork group Patch n Chat. And yet again I have been thoroughly spoiled!

I just adore this beautiful stitchery needlebook, and the little scissors with strawberry keeper are so cute!

And I was really spoiled with another perfect stitchery, this gorgeous Christmas angel ornament.

On top of that, a lovely Raslie Quinlan pattern, the cutest wooden buttons and a beautifully made cupcake pin cushion in lovely wool felt. And that soap just smells divine!

And yes, there was more! A charm pack of the sweetest fabrics, and three little Christmas ornaments. Thanks "Secret" Santa!

Something from the past

2010-12-14T16:52:00.000+11:00

A while ago I bought some second hand books from a market, and from one of them fell this old postcard which someone must have been using as a bookmark, dated 1908:

Although I found it fascinating, I put it aside and promptly forgot about it. I came across it again the other day while cleaning and wondered what to do with it.

I thought perhaps I could find the descendants of the recipient or sender, and send it to them. But a quick Google, a brief look at the Births Marriages and Deaths registry, and even a white pages search, failed to turn up anything. So then I Googled Tumut history and came across a historic society, and a family history group.

I emailed the latter to see if they would like it and a very nice lady replied and said they would. She didn't know of any Bryans, but knew of Springfield, which had been a large property out of town. She said she'd try to find records of the sender to add to their family history information, or if they couldn't, they'd pass it on to the historic society.

So as I'm about to post the little card off, I thought I'd take a couple of photos of it and share it.

For those with poor eyesight, it is dated 17-4-1908 and is addressed to a Miss M Bryan of Springfield, Tumut. The text says, "Well I hope you are all well. How is Chas getting on at the store? Father and I had a bad time on board although the sea was very calm. We had to wait until Tuesday eve on account of the strike. Landed at Ballina ..... Thursday morning then 21 miles of coach to Lismore. Everyone on board were sick. Well I will conclude with kindest regards to all, Percy”. What a fascinating snippet of history!

It's amazing what you find in books. I often buy second hand books from fairs and markets and often come across letters, appointment cards, children's drawings etc being used as bookmarks.

Also, I forgot to post a pic of the gorgeous ornament Noela sent me with my Christmas swap parcel. It is so gorgeous! And did I mention how perfect Noela's stitching is? I'm a bit jealous! She has kindly sent me a link to the pattern for this one which I haven't had a chance to look at yet, but will soon. It really is exquisite.

Thanks Noela!

2010-12-13T11:26:00.000+11:00

I received a wonderful collection of presents from Noela of Quilty Bits from the Blue Room, my swap partner in On My Verandah's Christmas swap.

Firstly, this gorgeous little bag, so beautifully sewn and in such lovely fabrics:

And it came with an equally delightful matching notebook wallet:

Then, lots of lovely sewing goodies. Scissors, fat quarters, embroidery floss, buttons, and a lovely Hugs n Kisses stitchery:

A great magazine to read, while enjoying the tea and coffe and chocolates also included:

And some lovely lotion and exfoliating gloves:

My camera battery was running slow, so I haven't even pictured the gorgeous ceramic Christmas plate Noela also gave me. Thanks Noela, you have really, truly spoiled me!

Aren't quilters some of the most thoughtful and generous people in the world? I joined three swaps this year and so far have received two parcels full of the most beuatiful and thoughtful gifts.

Born free

2010-11-28T19:46:00.000+11:00

I haven't done much this weekend. I have just been so tired and without energy or motivation. I think all the hell of work at the moment is just taking its toll. I've spent a lot of time cuddling puppies.

So I will share a little bit of the crafting I did last weekend, when I was in better spirits. While hunting for something else, I came across some signature blocks I made for a get together of the online quilting group I am a member of several years ago. It was a lovely occasion - it is a small group who met online by chance, and deliberately kept the group small to ensure we could share personal things and chat off topic. Most are Australian, but from four different states, and one from New Zealand and another two from the US. So it was quite a feat for every single member to make it to this gathering.

Last weekend, I finally started to put my blocks together:

I still have a couple borders to do, but at least it is a start.

Other interesting news this weekend is my friend Michael returned from a visit to Cambodia and Laos with some interesting stories, and lots of goodies for me.

Also, while putting my bins out tonight I saw a tiny frog under my bin, near my mandarin tree. So I was very happy as I thought all the outdoor tadpoles had all perished. This one was about the size of the indoor baby frogs, so probably from the same batch. And he had found a good spot, full of tiny worms and bugs and quite damp and with lots of ground foliage to hide in. So I released five of the indoor frogs there to be with their long-lost sibling. A bit sad, as now I will never know what becomes of them but I know it is the right thing, and now I've released some, I think I will be brave enough to take some of the others to suitable creeks and locations around the area. They're still babies, but they need to experience life in the wild. Sob. I love them and I will miss them.

Here is a somewhat blurry photo of one taken a couple of weeks ago:

Naughty!

2010-11-21T11:54:00.000+11:00

That's the answer to the question in my previous post!

But I did have the sender's permission!

So here are my fabulous goodies from Anne Heidi. So my three craft items ened up being a measuring tape in cute matching case, some gorgeous mercerised cotton yarn which will be wonderful for crocheting, and a collection of some of the most gorgeous Christmas fabrics I have ever seen! My two Christmas items were a lovely silver snowflake ornament and a lovel carved reindeer ornament. I also scored a cute Goin' Sewin' pin. And my one recipe was for some very yummy sounding glazed carrots. All in a beautiful tote.

Here's a better look at some of that fabric:

It's the kind of fabric that you just itch to start playing with, so I know I will be making something with this before Christmas.

Thanks again Anne Heidi for your beautiful and generous gifts.

Naughty or Nice?

2010-11-19T17:14:00.000+11:00

Am I lucky or what? I received this parcel in the mail today from my 3-2-1 swap partner Anne-Heidi in Norway.

And here is what was inside:

Three tantalising presents and a delicious sounding Christmas recipe.

So the question is. Am I naughty, and do I open my presents? Or am I nice and wait til Christmas?

Well, for now, I've compromised. I knew one would be a lovely Christmas themed tote, so after a lot of squishy-ness testing, selected the right parcel and opened that one.

And what a gorgeous tote it is! Beautiful fabrics, lovely stitching, and it is nice and roomy to use for Christmas shopping.

I am going to try to savour the remaining parcels for a little while longer. I may not make it to Christmas, but I promise to try to hold out until December before opening them.

Thanks Anne-Heidi!

Not much other news to report here. I am feeling much better after my nasty illness, although work is still quite stressful and demoralising. We had a union meeting today and there are bad things happening in other departments too.

Almost all of the tadpoles have become tiny frogs now. I'd like to look after them for a little bit longer to let them become bigger and stronger before they go to live in the scary, dangerous wild but they are getting quite difficult to look after. Cleaning their habitat has become quite an adventure as they are very good at hiding now, and also know how to jump. And I think as frogs, they are so much more fragile and delicate than tadpoles.

I try to avoid touching or interfering with them as much as possible but this week, two of them died. It was very upsetting as in 8 weeks of raising them from tiny specks to tadpoles to little frogs, they have all survived up until now. I just don't know what happened to these 2 gorgeous little things. They looked healthy and fully formed, and weren't sick looking or injured. They were just lying there dead when I got home from work. I guess none of them would have survived to this stage if I had let them dry up in the puddle they were born in, but still, I can't help but think I am to blame and something I did caused it.

Also, Sugar has started taking an interest in them. Or if not them, their food! As they are now frogs I've been gradually introducing a more carnivorous diet (dried blood worms) on top of their lettuce and kelp flakes. The worm food has quite a smell to it and as soon as I opened the container she started getting quite boisterously interested in goings on. A few days later I was on the computer and had been listening to her crunch on something for a while before realising I hadn't given her any bones or biscuits, so I went and found her on the sofa with the cannister of flakes which was now badly chewed and all the flakes were either on the floor or in her stomach. Reminds me of when she was a puppy and she was the worst kleptomaniac and used to steal EVERYTHING and chew it to bits including shoes, mobile phones, books, toilet rolls, bath mats, sewing machine attachments and TV remote controls. But she hasn't chewed up anything in ages, so the fish food must have smelt really good.

Beautiful surprise, and cute little froglets

2010-11-14T15:16:00.000+11:00

I got a lovely surprise in the mail last Thursday - this gorgeous little cushion cover from Toni.

I bought the matching quilt from her some time ago and didn't know there was more to come, so it was a lovely surprise.

And on Friday, I received my copy of the latest Patchwork & Stitching in the mail and there is the cushion cover right on the front cover. So I am feeling very fashionable right now, owning something beautiful from the front cover of the latest issue of a magazine! Thanks Toni!

I've spent much of this weekend wandering around with a camera in close reach. The little froglets are starting to emerge from the water and experiment with squatting on branches and burrowing in mud. Everytime they see me coming though, they hop off and swim away. Add that to the fact that they are still no bigger than my little fingertip and it is almost impossible to photograph them!

This is the best I have been able to do. You can sort of see one froglet well partly submerged in the water to the left of the can, and a couple of others in not so mature a state behind him. You probably can't see, but there are also two in the mud near the base of the plant.

I just think they are the cutest things in the world! Except for puppies of course.

A couple of projects and a tadpole glimpse

2010-11-12T18:01:00.000+11:00

I guess I shouldn't be showing this tote bag, as it is off to my 3-2-1 swap partner Anita on Monday. But I'm not really happy with it, so I want to publicly apologise for it to Anita, and say I hope the pressies inside make up for the crappy tote.

I did have something much nicer planned for you, and something that met the "Winter" theme brief much better, but I have been quite sick the last couple of weeks and my project just fell so far behind I knew I woud never complete it by the posting deadline. So I had to quickly whip up something else, and unfortunately, this is it.

So I am really sorry, but I have some lovely pressies to tuck inside which I hope you will enjoy.

Also, here is a Christmas table topper I finished hand quilting a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't show up nicely in this dark photo but the fabrics are very festive with gold accents.

And here is a small glimpse of some tadpoles, some of which have back legs. This was taken a week or so ago and now they all have big strong back legs and several also have front legs, so they are officially froglets now. They have now been re-homed to a larger tank with interesting climby things and hidey things so they can learn to use their new legs and conceal themselves cunningly. Once they learn to walk (hop?), sadly, they'll be ready to be re-homed again to the great outdoors. I don't want to take them down to the creek until they have all their limbs working so they have a better chance against predators. Although I've only been fostering them, I have grown quite attached and am quite scared about them surviving independently with all sorts of frog-attacking and eating creatures around.

Apart from being sick with flu and bronchitis and respiratory infection lately, I've had the stress of an impending restructure of our department at work. Morale is very low and some colleagues have even had to have time off work with stress and depression related illnesses due to it, unable to walk through the doors without falling into tears or anxiety. Throughout the process, information has been with-held from staff and misinformation given, so no one is really clear where they stand. In many ways the process being followed doesn't make sense, and doesn't even follow our internal policies or legislation, so it seems as though they just want to blatantly get rid of all the long-term staff en masse, as these are the staff on the higher salary ranges and with the most costly entitlements. It is very hurtful and demoralising to those staff who have given their all for years - often working twice their required hours and taking on additional duties and responsibilities with no additional remuneration - being treated as though their contribution has not been appreciated or valued. In fact, treated as though they themselves are not appreciated or valued. In many cases, it is not as though the jobs do not exist any more, or the skills these people have are not required, so it certainly makes it personal and impacts upon the confidence and self-esteem of the people involved. Some of whom are great at their job, great to work with and committed to the organisation. What a thoughtful thing to do to people just before Christmas.

They've got legs, but they don't know how to use them

2010-10-30T12:19:00.000+11:00

My tadpoles that is! The bigger ones have miraculously grown back legs! Even though I expected this to happen I can't help but find it truly amazing!

They're very difficult to photograph, so in lieu of that, here are some photos of Sugar and Spice napping on the sofas.

I haven't managed to get much crafting done lately and I really MUST with Christmas fast approaching. I've been working quite a lot and on the weekends doing a lot of gardening. Which is what I should be doing now too as the lawns need mowing and the vegie garden weeding. But I have a pinched nerve in my hip which gives me an excuse.

One thing I want to do is try my hand at some decoupage with these gorgeous serviettes I picked up cheaply in a junk shop.

Christmas Angels

2010-10-19T17:56:00.000+11:00

I couldn't resist Toni's pattern in the latest Patchwork and Stitching and had to give it a go!

These little angels have little wings on their back, and a little bell on their collar. They look a bit elf-ish in the colours I chose, so may experiment with big ears on the next batch!

A couple of Christmassy things

2010-10-10T09:33:00.000+11:00

I've started working on some of my Christmas projects. Some of these will end up being for some of the Christmas swaps I am in, so I guess some teaser shots like the above will start becoming more prevalent here!

Last weekend I worked on some tiny gift bags, in traditional Christmas colours:

And some bright funky Christmas fabric bags:

I also went to the markets with Lyle a couple of weeks ago and scored lots of bargains, including this cute little rustic cabinet for $1, which I have put to use in the kitchen to store some herbs and things:

I'm having trouble with Blogger today. My upload photo link has disappeared from my New Post toolbar. So I've had to manually upload these photos to Picasa and dust off my rusty html skills to embed them. I wonder if anyone else is having this problem?

Garden Spoons from Julie

2010-09-28T16:09:00.004+10:00

Thanks very much Jewells for the gorgeous garden spoons you sent me - I love them!

I bought some from Julie a while ago - Basil, Sage, Mint and Thyme. They were so lovely I asked if she did any others.

She didn't, but surprised me by making them especially for me, as an early Christmas present!

Aren't they great?

I haven't taken photos of the earlier spoons yet because, apart from the mint, the others aren't doing well yet, but now it is Spring they should be thriving soon.

Not much craftiness

2010-09-25T13:59:00.003+10:00

I've spent the last few weekends in the garden, getting everything ready for spring, so I haven't managed to do very much crafting at all in quite a while. With all of the Christmas swaps coming up, I'll certainly have to change that!

But I'm really excited about getting my vegie gardens going again, and looking forward to all those fresh tasty vegetables. I already have an abundance of herbs including parsley, rosemary, oregano, chives and mint. I am hoping the coriander and basil I let go to seed last year will self-seed and grow back on their own. And in the last couple of weeks I've planted spring onions, lettuce, rocket, English spinach (to be harvested and eaten while still young in salads), silverbeet, leeks and cucumbers. A snail ate most of my cucumber seedlings before I came up with the idea of making cloches out of plastic Diet Coke bottles cut in half, so this morning I planted some more seeds in pots on the windowsill including more cucumber, two types of pumpkin, zucchini and two types of tomato. I'll transplant these in the garden when they're big enough.

My biggest excitement today was when I was out planting, I found a swarm of tadpoles! My house is very old and near the outdoor tap there is an odd concrete culvert-type thing. The pipe which drains the water away is a couple inches above the base of the culvert, so it is often filled with sludgy water. Well today, it was full of tiny tadpoles! I've heard a frog in there before, but haven't managed to spot it, so don't know what type.

I was worried they wouldn't all survive there, being so many of them in such a tiny bit of stagnant water, and also having two big lizards living in the garden right there. So I decided to put some of them into a fish tank and see if I can raise some of them myself.

So off I went to the nearest aquarium shop and the very helpful young man sold me some algae-type flake food and some stuff to de-chlorinate tap water to fill the tank with, and also gave me lots of good advice. He said when he used to keep tadpoles, he would soak lettuce in boiling water to soften it, chop it up very fine then freeze it in tiny portions, to feed them with. He also discussed the finer points of water aeration and tank hygiene with me.

So I have given them a little of the flakes, and a little softened, chopped up bok choy (as I didn't have any lettuce!). I've been watching them for a while now - I am quite anxious about them - and a couple of them have become brave enough to have a nibble at the food. They are so tiny though, they are hard to spot unless they are moving, and most of them are hiding in the gravel and under their decorative rocks.

When they're a little bigger I'll take a photo! At the moment their bodies are smaller than the head of a pearl pin, so they would only be little specks in a photo.(The pic is above is one borrowed off the web - my tadpoles are much smaller and cuter!)

First Christmas Swap of the Year

2010-09-16T20:13:00.003+10:00

Like Jewells, I've been keen to join some Christmas swaps and was pleased to see some new (to me) ones this year so I could join in some I haven't taken part in before.

I've just "met" my Coffee Time Stitches 3-2-1 Winter Tote Bag swap partner who will be sending to me, Anne, from Norway who has a gorgeous blog and seems like a lovely, talented and friendly quilter.

This is an "open" swap in that we'll know who our partners are and get a chance to get to know them before Christmas.

I'll be sending to Anita from The Netherlands, who also is a talented quilter from the accomplished projects on her blog! So I'll be getting in touch with Anita soon.

Windy Fathers' Day

2010-09-05T10:51:00.002+10:00

I never did get around to posting a pic of my finished stitchery cushion, so here it is. On my favourite wicker chair with my other favourite stitchery cushions!

It is Fathers' Day here, so will be seeing my Dad later. It is also VERY windy. It was raining yesterday so I did my washing today, and it was quite a struggle trying to hang it out! I'm hoping my underwear doesn't go flying off into the neighbour's trees. I'm really sinus-y too today because of the wind.

Getting a bit Christmassy

2010-08-21T10:35:00.003+10:00

Sadly, my holidays are rapidly drawing to a close and I am not looking forward to going back to work next week.

The time has just flown by and I just didn't seem to get as much done as I would have liked to. I've done a lot of gardening, a lot of spring cleaning, a couple of fun day trips (blogged about by my friend Lyle) and a little bit of sewing.

This week I've spent a lot of time comforting Spice whose allergies flared up badly again and she ended up with a swollen face and a neck she had scratched the hell out of. So an emergency trip to the vet and with lots of cortisone, steroids and anti-biotics (as she scratched herself so much she got a severe infection) she is back on the mend and much happier. I'm just so glad I have been on leave so I was able to stay home and look after her.

Anyhow, on to crafty stuff, this is what I have been working on this week in between all that - Christmas gift tags and/or decorations:

These are fun and quick to make while watching TV with a couple of big pups snuggled up to you. And at this rate, I might actually be ready for Christmas on time this year .... last year I didn't even get around to sending many cards!

After making them I dunked them in a tea and Parisian essence mixture to antique them. Then decided to dunk my stitchery from the previous post too so it is looking nicely shabby now too and I hope to finish it up this weekend. I still need to attach ribbons to the gift tags and hope to get to that too today.

Fabric covered notebook

2010-08-16T09:09:00.002+10:00

I'm still not sure where I'm going with this stitchery. I've added some borders in a courthouse steps sort of design and hand quilted. But still need to decide whether it is a cushion or wallhanging!

I've also been experimenting with covered notebooks. Here is a closeup of my first attempt:

There's a couple things I'd do differently next time, but I guess it was a learning exercise. I got these vibrant fabrics from Spotlight the other day while hunting for border fabric for my blue and white quilt.

A couple of stitcheries

2010-08-14T09:01:00.002+10:00

Here's what I've been working on over the last week. I have been looking through old magazines for fun little stitcheries to do while I catch up on DVD watching:

This one was in an old issue of Homespun and is from Cinderberry Stitches. In the magazine, it is turned into a wallhanging. I'm not sure if I am going to do that, or make it into a cushion instead.

I also made this stitchery, and can't remember for where it came from:

And made it into a simple hand quilted cushion.

Almost there!

2010-08-06T12:15:00.003+10:00

I spent all day yesterday and this morning on this quilt top. I still need to add another border but I need to find the right fabric for it so will need to go shopping this weekend.

I don't normally like making big quilts. I just don't have the room for ironing, laying out, pinning. There comes a point when it starts becoming a bit of a wrestling match, when every row starts taking half an hour to pin on to sew, when I start getting entangled and tripping over between the ironing board and the sewing table, when I wonder why my sewing machine is dancing on the spot and find a dog sitting on the other end of the quilt top ..... you get the idea. It is too HARD!

I also managed to run over my finger twice with my rotary cutter in the making of this one and will probably lose half a finger nail.

This one is going to be 250cm square, so it will be a nice bed sized quilt. I'm glad I persevered, even after it stopped being fun, but I'm also glad I can soon move on to something else.

Changing the subject, while at Bunnings getting medicine for a sick orange tree and mulch for the vegie garden the other day, I came across these little cuties:

Aren't they cute? They were less than $3 each so they were hard to resist. I noticed a couple hardened tradesmen in the queue with them too!

The sun is shining

2010-08-04T09:26:00.004+10:00

My friend Anne popped around yesterday and gave me these lovely blooms, that started opening up overnight:

And yesterday, I finished off this old log cabin quilt I pieced years and years ago. My quilting is a bit dodgy. But that's okay, because it goes with the dodgy piecing! I was quilting through the centre of each row and the rows were of varying widths, the borders a bit fluted and well, it's not a very good quilt. No wonder I never quilted it before.

But I think the quilting hides a few of its flaws.

Did I mention I am on annual leave for a couple weeks? I had so much leave accrued they have been harrassing me for months to take some, but I have been too busy. Work finally quietened down enough for me to oblige. So I have no excuse not to finish more projects, which is my aim. Today, though, the rain has finally cleared so I am going to do some gardening.

Jelly roll sampler quilt top finished - sort of

2010-08-01T10:07:00.002+10:00

I've finished my jelly roll sampler quilt sort of. Sort of because I realised I wasn't going to have enough of my chosen fabrics for sashings and borders, so decided to quit while I was ahead and stop at 9 blocks.

It's a nice lap size at this stage. Gee it's hard to get quilt photos in this house. There's always the occasional dog walking through and giving the quilt top a bit of a road test.

I've received the next two installments of my Faeries in My Garden Gift of the Month. I still haven't finished the first few! But here is a little embroidery from the one I am working on now:

One thing I am finding a little frustrating with these is the iron on transfers for the embroidery. In short, they don't work. I've re-read the instructions, followed them diligently, and they still don't work. In the above, I managed eventually to get a faint transfer after about 20 minutes pressing. Some of the others haven't worked at all. There's always the option of tracing them, I guess, but some of the designs are quite tiny and intricate, making it rather difficult.

That's the only dispute I have with this GOM. The patterns are lovely and the instructions very detailed.

What I've been working on this weekend

2010-07-25T13:46:00.003+10:00

I bought a set of lovely blue and white fat quarters recently, on sale. They're from RJR's Redwork Bluework Revival range and have a nice mix of small and medium scale prints; florals and abstracts. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but started out making a few experimental four patch blocks, then played with arrangements.

And this is what I've decided on.

The only problem is I've inexplicably decided to make it a big queen sized quilt, so only have half the amount of fabric I need to finish it. So I'm going to have to go shopping again ......

Birthday pressies and reversible apron

2010-07-24T11:09:00.002+10:00

I got a bit spoiled by my patchwork group secret sister for my birthday with lots of lovely goodies, including this gorgeous Mary Engelbreit pincushion:

Excuse the dodgy photo, the pincushion is so nice I didn't want to take it out of its packaging! And I also received this lovely Singer tin:

I also spoiled myself and went on a bit of an online spending spree. It's hard to resist all the sales that are on sometimes! I got stacks of gorgeous new fabrics - just what I need!

I made a reversible apron with two of the fabrics:

And here is the other side:

Yum! I was going to make this as a gift but I made a couple of little mistakes in it (I was making it up as I went) so I am not happy enough with it to give it away. Luckily, I bought A LOT of yummy fabrics so I can give it another go. And this one can live in my kitchen as it looks quite cute hanging up:

Crazy Patches and Other Things

2010-07-05T10:48:00.003+10:00

I've been having fun with Victorian crazy patchwork this week. These are parts of a bag which is the latest in the Faeries in my Garden Gift of the Month club. So far I've just made the back and front of the bag:

This has been a good project for doing in front of the fire on these cold nights. And it's been a great project for practising some of my rusty embriodery skills too.

Apart from that, I've been catching up on my Jelly Roll sampler blocks and am now up to date, although another one comes out today.

Only 3 more blocks to go and then I can start putting it all together.

This can't be normal

2010-06-30T20:22:00.002+10:00

There should be a rule that you don't have to get out of bed if the mercury is below 0 at your normal rising time and even in the house you can see your breath in a little cloud in front of you.

I live in Sydney. Not Melbourne. Not Antartica.

So imagine my surprise when not only is my car covered in ice this morning, but that my hose is frozen so I can't hose it off and melt the ice. And that when I do, in my morning stupor, finally figure out why despite putting the tap on full power nothing is emerging ,and manage to find working tap and buckets to try to melt off said ice, the water just freezes on contact .... not melting the existing ice, but adding to it!

So that despite preheating the car during the whole long and involved process of trying to find unfrozen water to turn into sheets of ice on the windows, it takes almost my entire drive to work for the defrosters to clear more than an orange-sized hole in the ice to enable me to see where I am going.

It is just not natural!

Bits and pieces

2010-06-20T14:16:00.002+10:00

I finally finished 9 blocks for my scrappy string quilt and put the first border on. I'd like to make the final border scrappy, foundation-pieced too but I am a bit over this technique now, so am putting it aside for a little while.

Another thing I found in one of my scrap bins was a stitchery. From memory, this is an Ann Dimmer pattern from one of the magazines (maybe Handmade?) and was made into a bolster cushion. I made the bolster cushion for a friend once, but this time, made the stitchery into a normal square cushion with some scraps from the same bin.

I had a good time at the markets this morning with my friend. I got some vegies, bread, books and a pile of old doilies from a woman who had a mountain of them for 50 cents each! I bought 9 of them because that's all the change I had.

I realised I had too many vegies when I came home, so I've been doing some preserving this afternoon. I've got some skinned red capsicum strips in oil and herbs (yummy antipasto stuff) and some eggplants degorging waiting for the same treatment. I also have a big pot of vegie and lentil curry on the stove, with green beans and cauliflower in it. It smells good, so can't wait for dinner!

Anything Goes

2010-06-14T09:13:00.003+10:00

I've started trying to use up some of the scraps in my various scrap repositories and this is what I have come up with.

Gee, it is slow going though. I only made 6 blocks yesterday afternoon.

I am foundation piecing these string-y blocks. I started using paper but got sick of having to tear it away so started using fabric foundations instead. I know it will make quilting a little trickier, but I love the way the additional layer of fabric gives the block such stability and an extra layer of warmth.

I can't really call it a string quilt. Some of the "strings" are a couple of inches wide! So that's the reason for my post heading - anything goes with this quilt. Any fabric, no matter how ugly or how little it seems to go with its neighbours, or how crookedly cut it is, is going in, and the fabrics can be of any width at all.

Mess, mess, mess

2010-06-13T11:14:00.002+10:00

Last weekend I finished those bright jelly roll blocks I started some time ago and put them together into a little lap quilt (shown below in sad, un-ironed state). I did intend to add a final border of 2 1/2" squares but somehow between last weekend and now, I have managed to lose half of the scraps I had left over! Would you believe it?

Well, yes you would if you saw the state of my sewing room!

I wish I was as organised as others and had everything in neat little drawers. Some of it is, but, well, there is SO MUCH that the drawers overflowed years ago.

I use my dining table as my cutting, organising and everything else table. The piles of fabrics and assorted scraps just pile up until people come over for dinner and then I hastily stuff it all into a plastic tub or bag and hide it away in my sewing room. Then I forget about it and the whole process starts again with new fabrics. So you see, I end up with dozens of bags and tubs filled with who knows what. Like this:

This tub included some stray blocks, assorted scraps of both fabrics and wadding, plastic bags, cord, a strange leaf, a bedsock and a pair of tights. So my task for today is to rummage through a few boxes and try to sort things out, or at least think of a great scrap quilt to use some bits and pieces up.

And lastly just a cute photo of Spice having a nap on the sofa yesterday. She is so gorgeous!

A bit of spoiling

2010-05-30T09:57:00.003+10:00

I decided to spoil myself a bit and joined up for Faeries in my Garden's Gift of the Month subscription. A bit late, so I was thrilled to get the first two month's postings this week and couldn't wait to start the adorable coffee plunger cosy and heat mat. I love these pretty pink fabrics!

I made the plunger cosy yesterday. There it is, lying flat above, and below is it wrapped around .... well, a cashew nut jar, as I don't have a coffee plunger.

If the weather gets wild and wet this afternoon as they are predicting, I'll be staying inside and working on the matching heat mat.

I've also been a bit spoiled by friends and colleagues this week. The lovely roses above are from a good friend, for no particular reason, isn't that sweet? And the flowers in the coffee plunger photo at the top are from a gorgeous bunch given to me from some work colleagues - I recently retired from our Social Club Committee due to work commitments, so the remaining Committee members gave me some beautiful flowers as a thank you for the work I put it in the past.

Cot Quilt

2010-05-24T09:03:00.003+10:00

I finished by cot quilt yesterday. I just quilted it very simply, in diagonal straight lines. And sewed on the binding snuggled up in front of the fire and a DVD.

This fabric (Birdie) is so cute. Lots of sweet flowers and birdies flitting arond in bright colours.

Autumny Weekend

2010-05-23T11:47:00.004+10:00

It's getting cooler here in Sydney and we are just a week or so from winter. It's been a nice quiet weekend, so I've had the fire on and it has been so lovely and cosy and have done some crafting for the first time in a while.

I finished off this little jacket for a colleague's new baby girl. Beneath it is a cot quilt I also pieced together yesterday and hope to get started quilting today.

I need to catch up on my Jelly Roll Sampler blocks too. To start with I was impatient for the next block to come out, and now I find I am two blocks behind!

Happy Mothers' Day

2010-05-09T10:59:00.003+10:00

Happy Mothers' Day to all the Mums!

I haven't been doing too much crafting the last couple of weeks, being very busy with work and other things, but one thing I did manage was to finish this crocheted vest.

The pattern was from Garn Studio (Drops Design) - my favourite online resource for knitting and crochet patterns. And the yarn was Thorobred Scheepjeswol Granada, an unevenly spun, textured cotton, which I picked up at the markets cheap a year or so ago.

Christmassy star quilt

2010-04-25T14:45:00.003+10:00

I pulled an old quilt top from the embarrassingly large pile of unfinished objects today and finished quilting it and sewing on the binding. This one is quite small - about 120cm square - so it was quick to finish off.

I can't remember when I made this quilt top but I do remember it started as a rough sketch on some graph paper which is how I like to design things.

Two for the price of one

2010-04-17T09:56:00.004+10:00

How's that for value? With the left over jelly roll strips I used for my many trips around the world baby quilt, I was able to make another generously sized cot quilt.

I finished piecing this one this morning and will start hand quilting this one later on today, similar to the previous one:

So it has been a productive morning, and it is only just now 10am.

Jewell's Giveaway

2010-04-15T16:41:00.002+10:00

If you haven't aleady, go and visit Jewell's as she is having a very lovely giveaway. While you're at it, check out those great spoon markers she made and petition her to start selling them - wouldn't they look cute in the herb garden!

Jelly Roll Quilt Along Block 4

2010-04-14T17:14:00.002+10:00

Caught up with the fourth block in the Jelly Roll Quilt Along tonight. This was a nice, quick and easy block to make.

A nice thing about this quilt along is that a different designer designs each month's block and Moose on the Porch gives a very informative introduction to each one. It's a nice way of finding out about some crafty designers I never would have heard of before.

Baby steps around the world?

2010-04-13T17:44:00.003+10:00

Gee, my last post was a little blaah, wasn't it? I wanted to pop up a photo of the cot quilt I was making on the weekend but it was cold and dark and couldn't get a good photo and I also was feeling tired and washed out and couldn't think of any words.

Still feeling blaah today, and with daylight savings over, it is still darkish when I get home from work, but decided to try again with a photo now the quilt is finished. Still blurry and dull, but what the heck.

So I finished hand quilting this little cot quilt last night and I just love it. I think the block is called "Many Trips Around the World". It probably isn't the best block for pastels, without sharp contrast. I don't care. I still like it!

I hand quilted it in the direction of the pattern to try to emphasise the movement of the block. I don't know if that really worked, but I do like the look of hand quilting. Even my hand quilting. Which is a little uneven and tends to wander around off it's path.

The other good thing is these lovely fabrics which turned up in the mail. So pretty in pinks and stripes and gingham and polkadots.

Just a couple of pics

2010-04-12T08:54:00.000+10:00

A bit of a moan

2010-04-07T16:29:00.004+10:00

I've got so many ideas in my head right now, and not enough time to do them! I had a bit of retail therapy last night and ordered a few things from Honeysuckle Cottage to feed my patchwork fervour. If you like Stargazey patterns, they have several designs at the moment for less than $4 - something like 70% off! I was just looking for discounted background fabrics of which I found many .... too many.

Is it just me, or do you think there should be more to life than working 10 or more hours a day, coming home exhausted just in time to ready yourself for the next day to do it all over again? Why aren't there any jobs requiring you to play with puppies and fabrics all day?!

Easter Show Quilts

2010-04-02T15:04:00.006+11:00

I went to the Royal Easter Show today, which is Sydney's biggest annual agricultural show held at Homebush Bay Olympic Park.

It was a tiring day traipsing around, but we had a good time. Some of the highlights included a fashion show by design students from Armidale, tasting lots of produce in the fresh food pavillion, patting some lovely goats and being snuffled and licked by beautiful piglets.

And of course, looking at all of the crafts was a big feature too. There were some beautiful knits, crochet items and lovely patchwork and applique. I took a few quick photos below.

Block 3

2010-03-31T17:55:00.003+11:00

I quickly whipped up the third block in the Jelly Roll Quilt Along and I am really happy with how the colours go together in this one.

It's interesting looking at all the other blocks other people are making in this Quilt Along - the fabric choices can make the same blocks look completely different.

I night-sewed this one so again I stuffed it up a little, but not enough to make me unpick and not enough to be noticeable! Those who are doing the block will see my mistake.

Some orphan blocks found a home

2010-03-23T09:52:00.005+11:00

A couple of weeks ago, during the never-ending attempt to clean up my sewing room, I came across a lot of orphan blocks including a stack of disappearing nine patch blocks in lovely pastel florals.

So I quickly put them together into this very large table runner and did some quick in the ditch quilting to finish it off rapidly.

Here is a close up with my new/old bowl which I decided to use for a fruit bowl, as it is just the right size for four or five pieces of fruit which is about what I have in my house at any one time.

I also came across this crocheted jug cover I had forgotten making. Instead of beads, it has little colourful buttons around the edge.

I have been feeling like the above picture the last few days (except not so tidy looking, imagine wilder hair, weepier eyes and a snottier face). I don't know if flus are getting more severe every year, or if I am just getting older and feeling them a lot more, but I have been miserable.

Today I am feeling a lot better, although I didn't sleep much last night as I was up coughing most of the night and when I did fall asleep I was having strange, vivid dreams. I wonder what was in the cough medicine I was diligently chugging all night? Or was it the gallon or so of green tea I drank to soothe my sore throat? So I was exhausted this morning and decided to have a second day off work, but I should be feeling well enough to return tomorrow.

The good things about being sick are that :

I've been doing some crochet while in bed or watching TV;
I've lost a couple kilos I had put on over the last few weeks as I have been too busy with work to eat healthily and have just been snatching gulps of junk food when I can
and that I've been able to spend more time with the pups who have been giving me extra cuddles and cheering me up with their antics.

Crocheted Jacket

2010-03-21T15:29:00.002+11:00

I finished crocheting this little jacket for my neice Olivia today. It is from this pattern here, but I used two strands of a Lincraft brand 5ply acrylic - one strand in pink and one in purple, and also added a little flower in the pink. This was a nice and easy pattern to make, mostly worked in one piece so there was minimal joining to do.

And some puppy photos, just because Sugar and Spice are such beautiful angels, and they make me smile.

I bought some gingham flannelette sheets recently and I think the pups like them.

Jelly Roll Quilt Along Block 2 and Some Crochet Things

2010-03-20T11:04:00.004+11:00

I finished my second Jelly Roll quilt-along block today:

For some reason this block gave me a lot of headaches, even though it isn't that complicated. I normally have a rule that I don't do any piecing on weeknights after work. I usually find if I do, then I make a lot of silly mistakes because I am tired and my mind is on other things. This week I ignored my own rule to my peril, and ended up having to unpick twice. I finally put it together properly this morning.

If I do feel like doing craft at night, I normally stick to embroidery or crochet which are a little less difficult to stuff up and easier to undo if I do!

I was looking for a pattern to make my little neice something for her birthday but instead came across a beginner's crochet book from Patons with some easy, thick-yarn projects I had forgotten about and made a couple of adult things from that instead.

This scarf is just a nice weight and sooo soft, made from Jet which is a wool/alpaca mix, and with such a chunky yarn it was very quick to make too. I hate the very cold weather, but I am kind of looking forward to it now with a new scarf to wear!

Also with Jet is this beanie and wrist warmer set. I still need to make some little flowers for the beanie. The wrist warmer, or fingerless glove, wears like this:

I've got the flu at the moment so am feeling a bit sorry for myself. I had a pounding headache for two days, but now am just snuffly and lethargic. I mowed the front lawn this morning and the sun and heat and exercise have made me feel a bit better.

Another UFO bites the dust and some trash n treasure finds

2010-03-14T10:38:00.003+11:00

I've been working on finishing this UFO I found while cleaning my sewing room (and OMG I keep finding more and more UFOs!). I think I started this one as a cot quilt for someone but it ended up being bigger than I thought so it ened up smallish lap sized.

I'm thinking this design would be a good scrap quilt to use up small pieces of fabrics and would one day like to do a multi-coloured one.

I've been to Blacktown Markets with my friend Lyle this morning and found lots of little treasures. We were lucky as it was drizzly yesterday but we woke up to a fine, sunny morning and now that we've finished shopping it is starting to get a little overcast again.

I love this iron shelf with painted roses. I am trying to decide where to put it. It goes really nicely with the blue wall above my fireplace, and the yellow wall in my kitchen.

I also bought this pretty bowl. I don't know why, I don't normally collect porcelain bric a brac. For some reason I just liked this bowl.

It is by Johnson Brothers from their Australian factory so I don't think it is very old and probably not very valuable, but I think it is pretty and it cost me $3 so I am happy.

I also bought a cane wine basket for no other reason than it was $1 and some cushions from this lady whose cushions I love. She sells big, firmly stuffed cushions in pairs for $6 and today had these huge cushions (nearly 80cm square) for $4 each. I think she used to be a dressmaker so just uses things up from her stash which is how she does them so cheaply. The polyfill alone to stuff one of the big cushions would be nearly $20 worth. So I bought a few to use to make patchwork covers for.

Jelly Roll Sampler and Flannel Quilt

2010-03-07T13:19:00.003+11:00

I am so glad Kris at Dandelion Quilts posted about the Moose on the Porch Jelly Roll Quilt Along, as I never would have found it otherwise.

It looks like good fun and will help me do something different with a jelly roll from my stash - I normally do quickly rotary cut and chain pieced things with jelly rolls.

I am using Patisserie by Fig Tree Quilts. I was worried the fabrics wouldn't have enough contrast but I am pretty happy with my first block (above) even though a couple of my seams don't match properly.

Sug finally found another napping spot yesterday and I got back to basting my quilt. I have really lightly quilted it with in the ditch stitching. Just enough to hold it together really. I've had trouble getting my tension right the last few times I've tried to free motion quilt, so just wanted something quick and easy this time.

It's been a while

2010-03-06T10:31:00.004+11:00

Well, it's been a while, more than a month I see from my last post but I'm still here! Things have been very busy with work, so I have just been a bit exhausted and haven't been getting much crafting done.

I'm still determined to finish up a few UFOs though and this morning decided to baste this flannel lap-sized quilt.

But Sug had other ideas, so I decided to stop and do a quick blog post instead. Hopefully she'll find something more interesting to do in the mean time. Or find a cosier place for a nap.

I hope her feet are clean!

And More

2010-01-31T22:17:00.004+11:00

I got a little more done today with the discovered unfinished projects, in between a few chores and visits etc. I turned one little hand quilted stitchery block into a mini quilt to hang on a wall:

And finished this little bag which I had already pieced and hand quilted and just needed to applique on some bands to hold some ribbon ties:

I don't think I ever told you what was wrong with Spice from a couple of posts ago. The next day after poking and prodding some more, I finally worked out it was her tail which was so sore and making her miserable. We went to the vet and after a thorough examination the vet didn't think it was broken, but it was swollen and hot at one point so she prescribed some anti-inflammatories and after 2 days Spice was back to her normal happy boisterous self. Thank goodness. These pups are such a worry sometimes but I guess I should just be thankful that they are so happy they wag their tails so crazily they injure themselves sometimes.

Just adding another pic in:

Some more discoveries

2010-01-31T09:20:00.004+11:00

I've been poking around my sewing room a bit more this weekend, and found many more abandoned projects - some lone blocks, stitcheries, even an experiment in sashiko!

I'm thinking I am never going to get to the bottom of the mess in my sewing room!

But I did turn that little sashiko scrap into a pin cushion and that big Dresden plate into a cushion:

So slowly, I am making a bit of headway in my cleanup!

Finishing stuff

2010-01-26T09:29:00.005+11:00

I think one of my goals for this year is going to be to try to finish old projects laying about the place .... and there are so many of them. Whenever I'm hunting for something I come across another one. So my other goal is to clean up my sewing room, and the first step is to finish a few abandoned projects.

This is one of them, a small log cabin quilt. The borders don't really go but I've also given myself a few rules about finishing things without buying new fabrics, so my new mantras are "near enough is good enough", and "whatever it takes to finish it".

I spent yesterday sewing binding onto both of these quilts, plus another big quilt even though I haven't finished quilting that one. I think it is quilted enough for the batting not to shrink any further. I started hand quilting it a couple years ago and then abandoned it. I'd like to finish it though, there is just so much quilting to do .... and my fingers hurt from sewing on three bindings. I even have a blister!

I found this great site with some free stitchery patterns a few weeks ago and printed off a few that really appealed to me but so far have only completed one (above) which I antiqued with some Parisian essence.

Note: Thanks Tanya of Tanya's Prim Thyme Designs for correcting me. The above is actually one of her patterns, available for free here: http://www.patternmart.com/pattern/9045/Free+Prim+Crow+Stitchery+Pattern

It is Australia Day todayhere and everyone will be off to celebrations. The biggest thing around here is at Parramatta Park which is where some of my family and friends will be today. I don't plan on going if I can help it, Spice is a bit down today and won't let me out of her sight. She's eating, so I don't think she's sick, but I think she may have hurt herself somewhere as she is sad and she was whimpering a little last night and wanting to be cuddled all night. I can't find any injuries, so maybe she just pulled a muscle on our walk yesterday afternoon. I hope it is just that. There is nothing sadder than a puppy who has lost her wag.

The Never-Ending Honey Bun

2010-01-03T15:07:00.007+11:00

I have been making such great use out of the Glace Honey Bun my Secret Santa Sheryl gave me for Christmas. I've managed to stretch it to make a generously sized table runner, a cute little bag and now I've used it to finish my heart stitchery off into a big, comfy 20" cushion.

I need to give it a wash - somehow during the making of it, I managed to get orange juice on my stitchery, as you can see more clearly in this photo ...... why do these things always happen to me?

I've full of ideas for new projects at the moment. It has been a while since I have been this enthusiastic about sewing. I think having a break from the stress and hell of work has caused it. Unfortunately, I'm back to work tomorrow, so hopefully my inspiration will not just fly out of me again like air out of a deflated balloon : (

Humid stormy day

2010-01-02T12:43:00.002+11:00

It's not terribly hot here today but it is horribly humid, very energy-sapping. And there are rumblings of thunder in the distance. A typical summer's day in Sydney I guess! It's not much fun doing housework in this weather, but of course, it's not too bad for sewing.

I started this little heart stitchery pattern yesterday while watching TV, I hope to finish it today, then I'm not sure what I'll do with it:

And today I've been playing with a Jelly Roll making these simple cross blocks:

I've sewn all the strips into pairs, and am just working up the energy to press the seams and cross cut them.

I've been a bit lazy in the vegie garden this summer. The weather has not been conducive to gardening the last couple of months - raining for days so it is hard to get out and do things, and blazing hot at other times. I have planted tomatoes and lettuce which are doing well, and the herbs and spinach are still going strong.

I had forgotten though that I had planted some beetroots some months ago in the side garden which I rarely venture into. So I was surprised to find a bunch of huge beetroot in amongst the weeds! Some were starting to get a bit old and wood-y in texture, so I decided to pull the whole lot and pickle those which were still tender.

I'm not a huge fan of beetroot - I like it occasionally on a salad sandwich or burger, but don't eat a lot of it. My Dad loooves beetroot though so I imagine most of this will go to him.

Finished runner & bag

2009-12-31T13:16:00.005+11:00

Well, I guess it did turn out to be a runner after all. I've been having fun hand quilting it so I now have bruised, scabby fingers - I just can't seem to get the hang of thimbles. For a while there I developed quilting callouses which helped protect them but I haven't done much hand sewing for a while so they have gone. In desperate times, I wrap Elastoplast around them as a makeshift thimble!

It needs a bit of a wash as the quilting marks are still on it, but here it is anyway.

I've used some of the remaining strips from the same honey bun to make this sweet little bag.

It has pleats at the front, a pocket inside and a magnetic snap closure. I'm really pleased with it. These fabrics are just so lovely and although they are Christmass-y they are not so Christmass-y I couldn't use these all year round.

Rainy day sewing

2009-12-28T12:09:00.004+11:00

It's a wet day here, so a perfect day for staying indoors and sewing.

Do you ever just start playing with fabrics with no idea what you're trying to achieve? That's what I've been doing today. I started sewing the Glace 1 1/2" strips I got for Christmas into sets of four, then cross cut and started sewing together ..... with still no idea what I was making.

A small quilt? A cushion? A bag? A runner?

Well, it ended up this shape so I guess it is a runner or a wallhanging or could even be an extra big, long cushion ..... I still have no idea what I am doing!

The fabrics are so lovely though it has been a pleasure putting them all together.

Thanks again Sue!

2009-12-26T09:00:00.003+11:00

I've opened by CB Secret Santa gift from Sue in New Zealand and was thrilled to get this gorgeous bag. I just love it! The buttons and sweet tassel finish it off beautifully. Thanks again Sue! Unfortunately in the post-Christmas mess that is my house I have misplaced your card and letter so can't link to your blog right now.

I've spent a few lazy hours in front of DVDs lately, doing some cross stitch. This trivet was a kit I bought from Herrscheners. It came with this plastic trivet you put your cross stitch into, and then some corkboard for the base which makes it sit nicely as well as covering the messy bits.

I also bought a set of 4 coasters with the same idea, but fruit and berries themed. I am sure I'll find a few hours these hols to start them. I love crafts which not only give a beautiful product at the end, but are useful too.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T16:38:00.007+11:00

Merry Christmas to all my bloggy friends! Hope you all have a great day.

I've "had" Christmas with my family and friends already so we'll be having a quiet day on Christmas Day which will be great - it will be nice to have a sleep in and a relaxing day!

I couldnt't resist giving the pups some of their presents early. They got new indoor mats:

And new squeaky toys:

They still have some more toys and treats to open from Grandma on Christmas Day.

Secret Santa Visits Again

2009-12-17T16:44:00.004+11:00

A Secret Santa has visited my place again today, this time from Patch n Chat. I have been truly spoiled again by some beautiful gifts.

I received some wonderfully fragrant soap "Coming Up Roses"-scented; a gorgeous little tissue holder made by eClare's Patch; a Glace sweet roll; a lovely pattern and this beautiful cushion. Oh, I got some yummy looking chocolates too but it is sweltering here today so I popped them in the fridge. I ate too much today already to even be tempted right now.

I am so impressed with the gorgeous cushion. I love the way my Secret Santa has used the fabric designs to inspire and embellish. The tiny suffolk puffs mirror the circular designs on the main fabric, and the border fabric is cleverly used as a lattice quilting design. Very clever and effective!

I also received my Christmas gift from my Mum and Dad today - an exercise bike I wanted. So I spent the last hour putting the thing together which involved a lot of cursing and swearing, but I finally got there although I'm not sure I put the tension thing on properly. I am quite pleased with it but of course, after putting it together I was hot, sweaty, sore and cranky ..... so I only rode it for a minute to test it. It said I did 0.25 of a kilometre. It's a good start I guess!

We had our team Christmas lunch at work and I ate too much and got a sore belly, plus it was really hot, so I was feeling unwell and came home an hour early. I was going to stop in at the post office on the way home to collect another parcel but a sudden storm hit as I was driving and I could barely see in front of me so I came straight home. Of course, the storm disappeared when I got home and is back to being hot and sticky. Then instead of resting my sore belly I wanted to put my bike together so I'd know if all the bits were there and it worked, so I am a bit exhausted now.

But all in all, not such a bad day, especially because of my generous and talented Secret Santa and despite being zero on the GP scale this morning (which I will explain another day).

Market finds

2009-12-13T09:54:00.003+11:00

I went to North Rocks markets with my good friend Lyle this morning and bought a pile of second hand books, some yummy sour dough bread and other things including this fly trap plant:

There are two Venus flytraps and another one I don't know the name of - in the top right hand corner of the picture. It has fine red hairs on it with a globule of a gluey substance at the end of each strand which I guess catches unwary insects. I have to stop teasing the Venus flytraps, or they'll starve - it is so hard to resist giving them a little tickle to watch them close.

I also got these gorgeous little knitted Christmas ornaments. This talented woman also had whole knitted nativity sets including camels, and some lovely reindeer as well:

Lyle also gave me my Christmas presents early, and as usual he spoiled me rotten. One of the gifts was this chameleon I have been admiring at Blacktown markets for ages. I'm trying to decide which wall to hang him on.

And lastly, just thought I'd share that the "no puppies on the new sofas" rule is going really well, as you can see .....

Gee I'm Spoiled

2009-12-10T17:07:00.002+11:00

This gorgeous fellow turned up in the post today, a surprise Christmas gift from my talented friend Toni. He is so soft, made of the most cuddly and beautiful flannels. The stitching is just exquisite, and he is just so adorable I will treasure him! Thanks so much!

A bit of sewing

2009-12-06T09:38:00.003+11:00

I did a bit of sewing yesterday for what seems like the first time in ages. I put together this little quilt top from a Mill House charm pack and jelly roll. I'd thought I'd bought some yardage of this fabric as well, so planned a couple of big borders, but it seems I didn't. I don't want to buy any more fabrics for a while, so I am going to have to search through my stash to find something else that sort of goes. I want a plain 2" border and then a scrappy 2" border - I have enough of the jelly strips left to make a border of 2" squares.

Sorry for the bad photo - it was a bit breezy and it was so bright I couldn't see the viewer on my camera, so just had to aim and shoot a bit blindly! It's lucky the quilt got in the photo at all!

Just a few weeks ago, I was complaining that with all the rain and hot and cold spells my back lawn was incredibly lush that I was constantly having to mow. I'd mow one weekend and by midweek the thick green grass was up to my ankles again. Recently, we had a couple of 40 degree (105 f?) days and it didn't take long for the grass to suffer. At least I won't need to mow as often, I guess.

Poor Sugar has been diagnosed with a thyroid condition so has started taking medication for that. She seems a bit brighter and more energetic already but she has been a little sick since starting it. I am not sure if it is a coincidence or not as she has always had a sensitive tummy but she's thrown up three times in the last week - and that's the ones I know about (because they were in the house). She doesn't seem to feel off colour though. We're due back at the vet in a week or two to check the thyroid levels again.

Long time no post

2009-11-28T11:10:00.004+11:00

This is the gorgeous Christmas ornament I received in the Chooky Blue Secret Santa swap from
Sue in New Zealand. Her stitching is just beautiful!

Sue also sent me this gorgeous keychain fob, which my photo does no justice to whatsoever. It is very clever, all folded fabrics.

Sue also sent bandannas for the puppies. It is really hot here today so they wouldn't cooperate with photos - this is the best I could do!

And I still have another pressie from Sue to open on Christmas day. Thanks Sue, for your beautiful gifts!

Some patchwork friends pointed out that Bonnie at Quiltville is starting a new free mystery quilt. I love Bonnie's quilts and her instructions are always so clear and well illustrated. I sometimes balk at some of her quilts though cos I am a bit lazy and like simple, quick quilts and often hers will say things like here is how to make a 3" half triangle square and then ... "and now make 300 more of these"! At which point I get a little faint. Although her quilts are beautiful, so the effort is rewarded I guess.

But I'm working my way up to this challenge and am thinking of using these Portobello Market FQs (poorly illustrated below) if I calculate I have enough of them.

I bought the full FQ set of this range some time ago along with a pattern which used them. And since then I've misplaced the pattern so I can't remember what I wanted to do with them! I haven't used them, in the hope I'll find the pattern or remember vaguely what it was, but that hasn't happened so I may as well use them up.

New sofas

2009-11-07T13:18:00.003+11:00

I was really thrilled to receive my new sofas this morning. My previous sofas were saggy and uncomfortable, as well as dirty and leaking stuffing. I have a bad back so I wanted a firmer sofa as well as one which was more compact and narrow so it didn't overwhelm my small living room.

The puppies aren't allowed on the new sofas, but Sugar already managed to wipe a drooly chin on one. So now I've covered them up with quilts to protect them.

Thanks Anna!

2009-10-13T16:30:00.002+11:00

I received a lovely parcel from Anna for JellyWare's Washcloth Swap.

Anna made a gorgeous orange crocheted washcloth in a lovely soft, textured cotton.

And my seeds were some lovely lettuce and tomato varieties - I can't wait to get these planted. Anna also thoughtfully included some yummy dark chocolate - how did she know dark is my favourite?

And did you see this little fellow in the photo?

Unfortunately my photography is even worse than usual today, but he is the cutest little knitted brooch.

Thanks Anna for spoiling me!

Cute dolls and a hand towel

2009-10-03T12:51:00.003+10:00

I've been having fun testing Toni's upcoming doll pattern, and although the pattern isn't released yet she is kindly letting me post pics of the two I made.

This is such a fun project to make, the possibilities for different variations are just about endless.

I spent yesterday, still sick, watching DVDs and crocheting this hand towel for my kitchen. Try not to notice my dirty oven! I like this hand towel so much I found I haven't been using it - I still keep drying my hands on an old tea towel! So I'll have to try to break that habit.

Some Eye Candy in Pink

2009-10-01T08:41:00.004+10:00

I had a day off work yesterday with a throat infection (although I am sure they would have loved me to be at work, seeing as though I was quiet for a change!) so spent a little time sewing in front of a DVD. I made the little sitchery on the weekend and decided to make a little hand quilted bag out of it. This is the front. Still have to do the back.

I bought another of Toni's gorgeous quilts and was thrilled to receive it in the mail today. Her work is just so beautiful I don't know how she can stand to give them away!

Toni is the absolutely master of blanket stitch - it is all by hand but so perfect and even.

The quilting pattern is so cute, with little butterflies flitting about. And I just love the embroidery on this border (above).

I posted off my washcloth swap pressie last week and Carol has received it. She has a lovely blog, with lots of nice projects on it.