In Situ…

Here’s the deer quilt in it’s new home looking very much at home with the gorgeous W.German pottery.

The Deer Quilt

So finally I got the deer quilt finished and delivered to our friend Lou for her birthday. It was a mission collecting the yummy, out of print, Lush fabrics but I had lots of help from very kind and generous folks willing to part with little pieces here and there. Thanks! Yay!

I was inspired by this beautiful quilt by Jacquie of Tall Grass Prairie Studio and I asked her if she minded if I drew inspiration from it to create something similar for my friends quilt and she didn’t mind at all -  thanks again Jacquie.

I really enjoyed making this one and though I drew out a rough plan it pretty much evolved as it went along. A fun way to make. Jacquie advised me on straight line quilting and she has a great tutorial here….

Here’s my effort with the painters tape before I quilted….! Hours of laying on the floor measuring and taping but well worth the effort and back pain for those nice straight lines!

Mum and Dad arrive tomorrow for a visit, so excited to see them, it’s been almost a year and a half since we were all together. Hoping to have some sewing time with mum while she’s here, I really love our sewing days together.

Back soon

xxx

October and November Anzac Bee Blocks

A bit of a red and black thing going on over at the ANZAC Bee the past couple of months! Above are my blocks for Lynda for October and below my blocks for Corrie for November..

 

 

Coasting Along

I just had a little run on making fabric coasters and found some great little tutorials here and here to get me started. Coasters are a fun and useful way to use up those scraps – I am a bit of a coaster nut and have coasters all around the house as we drink a lot of tea here and it’s nice to be able to plonk it down anywhere.

 

 

The pretty pink and greens ones I sent to my pen pal as part of her birthday gift – she saw some Heather Bailey fabrics while she was visiting and loved them, as I only had scraps left of her favourite, there was just enough to make some coasters – they are reversible but I didn’t take a picture of the other side beofre I sent them off, oops.

A Dorky Koala

He wasn’t meant to be dorky, he just turned out that way……

Pretty cute though and he just arrived at his new home…..

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