Block Party

It took me a while to take the leap and join a quilting bee and I am so pleased I did. I am loving it!  It was tricky to find one to join at first but I found this group on flickr which was the answer to my prayers and through it  I found the ANZAC bee. I am constantly inspired by all the wonderful works that pop up in quilting bee blocks and have changed my mind a million times as to what block I want to have made for my month, which is thank fully not until April so that gives me plenty of time to settle on one.

I just found out about a quilt along that’s being organised by the Block Party group  – even more inspiration for bee blocks! Yay! There’s a flickr group too which not only will be showing off  all the wonderful blocks and quilts in the quilt along but  also offers more help in finding a quilting bee group to join or perhaps you’d like to start one and put out a call for some busy bee’s to come and join you. And as if all that bee business isn’t exciting enough, to kick off the quilt along there’s a fabric giveaway too.. go check it out…. but bee quick….

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Wow, can’t believe I almost missed out on this – just in by the skin of my teeth, phew!

Here’s my entry for the Fall Bloggers Quilt Festival…

I made this earlier this year for my new baby nephew Oban in England. It was stitched with oodles of love and posted off to him wrapped up in a great big Aunty Nova hug – can’t wait til I get to hug the little chap for real.

More pics of the embroidery detail here and a super cute pic here.

Thanks Amy for organizing another amazing quilt festival! I’m off to make a big pot of tea and enjoy a stroll around the over 600 entrants and their amazing quilts :)

Have a beautiful weekend

xxx

A deliciously owly kind of a week

What a hoot – I seem to have been surrounded by owls this week – yay!

I received an incredible gift on Thursday from my clever friend Melissa. She is a whiz with wire and creates the most amazing and beautiful scuptures..look…..

Melissa, I adore him, thank you xxx

And just so’s you know if you would like a wire sculpture of your very own, Melissa happily takes commissions.  I can pass on a message to her if you like as she doesn’t have a website yet.

As if one owl coming home to roost was not enough Joycie  presented me with some opp-shopped gold – an adorable tea cosy…..no better treasure for a tea drinking, owl loving gal :) thanks Joycie xxx

After all that receiving it was definitely my turn to do a bit of giving.  Erin had a beautiful baby boy a few days ago and I got to visit him the other day and give him his quilt.

I used the great tutorial over here , pieced together a back using some gorgeous big gingham I picked up at the Opp shop and did twirly wirly swirly quilting that was inspired by the loopy lines on the ‘Spotted Owl’ fabric – thanks for the suggestion Bron x!

ANZAC Bee – September Block

I received Amy’s Amish inspired fabrics a few days ago and a Gee’s Bend postcard which i just love, thanks Amy xxx

Amy is the organizer of the ANZAC Bee and has set the ball rolling as Queen Bee for September. I love her colour selections and her insructions ask for a string quilt. I laid them out on my workbench for a few days , shuffling and rearranging each time I walked past until I was happy with a vague layout. I steered away from the more traditional style  string blocks, knowing Amy is fond of this book and was really inspired by the postcard she had sent so yesterday afternoon I indulged my self in a few hours of sewing and completed my first quilting bee blocks.  A Gee’s Bend, Amish, stringy inspired  mix, I hope you like them Amy xxx

I’m pretty happy with them and if I had to pick a favourite it would be the bottom one, I love how the bright  red works in this one.

Fabric & Mail Love xxx

A little package of cuteness arrived in my mail box this week…..

All the way from England from the sweet Bonita of BeakyCrafts as my Pay it Forward gift.  I love it all, thank you Bonita xxx

I also managed to score a fat quarter of the elusive ‘Lush’ fabric this week for a secret project – so excited, boy that stuff is like gold!  And as if that wasn’t exciting enough there was more fabric joy in my life this week when my dear friend Lou presented me with 2 metres of this gorgeous birdy fabric from Ikea! Oh boy, I love it!

A thank you card is winging it’s way to a fab etsy seller who really helped me out in my hunt for the Lush Fabric x

Have a happy weekend all

xxx

My First Quilting Bee

I’m super excited to be part of a Quilting Bee! Yippee!  Amy from Seven Stitches has been busy organising a bee for us Aussie and New Zealand quilty gals, thanks Amy!  Check out the progress of the ANZAC Bee here.  There’s also a great Flickr group here with heaps of Bee info and current Bee groups etc etc (it’s how I found Amy and her Anzac Bee).

The Quilt Project

In amongst Andy’s brief visit home and my week of girly pen pal fun I managed to get my block finished for The Quilt Project – A mini redwork quilt for the big redwork quilt…

I attached the mini quilt to the base block as I tied the quilt then slip stitched around the edge, leaving a corner free so you can take a peek at the label.   Lots more AMAZING  blocks completed or nearing completion over at the flickr group.

Mostly pictures today, hopefully more words next post…….

Just sent a card to my Dad for fathers day.

mini redwork

I read this post recently and it came at a time when I had been having similar feelings and could relate. Since returning home, life is busy, work is busy and I just sometimes don’t have the ‘bloggy flow’ to post everyday. Know what I mean?  Andy comes home today for a week, I haven’t seen him for 6 weeks so I guess I won’t be blogging much and then my pen pal is coming to visit for a week so again, I guess blogging will go out of the window but you know what, I’m not going to stress myself about it :) I’ll drop in when I can for catch ups (:

I’ve been working on my block for The Quilt Project, after throwing a few ideas around and definately wanting to include embroidery and fabric I started to piece together a mini quilt and doodled some sewing essentials to embroider on the blank squares. I used a heat transfer pencil on tracing paper to get the teeny tiny designs onto the fabric….

Really enjoying this project :) Have you been over to the flickr group yet?  There are some pretty amazing blocks being created over there, go have a peek…..

Keeping on a red theme, I had a couple of birthday lunches last week with girlfriends and made some chocolate strawberry roses to take along…

So simple but effective – pop a strawb on a bbq skewer , dip into melted chocolate, stand in a glass or vase to set, then bundle together, wrap in paper and tie with a ribbon – voila! yum xxx

Todays card is a birthday card for my mum.

The Quilt Project & A Cute Pinny

Very excited to be part of this project!

I’ve been exploring  Redwork Quilts recently as mum and I are currently working on one together so it seemed serendipitous that I should be pointed in the direction of this project (thanks Miya! xxx)

I had a lovely little break from work today when my friend  Kellie called to see if I could meet for a coffee – “of course!” was my reply.  We went to our new favorite hot spot in town ‘Twig & Grace’ and caught up on a week or so’s crafty news and then Kellie presented me with a beautifully wrapped  gift!  Wow! What a wonderful surprise  and inside the gorgeous  green and starry wrapping was a very pretty and super cute  pinny!   Look…

I love it Kellie, thank you xxx

Today’s card is winging it’s way to another niece for her birthday….

Almost the weekend again already?!

Wooooosh ,whizz, zooom – where did that week go? I can’t believe it is the weekend again already!

I wanted to share with you a very special day I had last weekend with my friend Jodie and a group of lovely gals.  Jodie is expecting her first child at any moment and invited us all to her ‘Blessing Way’.  Such a beautiful alternative to the regular baby showers.  We were asked to bring along a bead that Jodie will make into a mobile along with a blessing for the baby.  I found it hard to pick one bead once I had poured my tin of beads out on the table so made up a card of beads each with a little blessing attached…

There are a few sights explaining the history of a ‘Blessing Way’ or “Mother Blessing” – if you want to  google it.

Yesterday saw me  landing in Spotlight to pick up a few supplies – some linen and cord and buttons and homepun for a few upcoming projects….

A trip to a fav opp shop on the way home  resulted in this pair of cute binoculars coming home with me – perfect for those trips to the ballet….

….so compact – perfect to pop in your purse, then, for your viewing pleasure and when you need a closer look , at the touch of a button….

O! Up they pop! Love ‘em!

On the subject of cute, here’s a new addition to my ever growing  herd of figurines, a gift from a friend on an opp shop treaure hunt…

too cute!

Have a  fun-filled weekend!

xxx

Today’s card is a ‘happy travels’ card…..