Boxing Day Reading

I always feel a little flat on boxing day, usually I have my Dad over for Christmas lunch on Boxing Day but he didn't come this year so 7.30 came and I stayed in bed and finished off the latest Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum Book Lean Mean Thirteen. As usual I couldn't put it down and was killing myself laughing (in tears at times) most of the way through it. Finished that off a 10.30 and finally got out of bed.

Luckily it was a pretty slow day in the household, the kids were in the pool and we just lounged around. I looked over one of my Christmas presents which was Collage Discovery Workshop by Claudine Hellmuth and it is absolutely fantastic. After reading through most of it I have searched the Internet for supplies and have pulled out a box of family photo's many of which date back to my great grandfather and mother and have found some ephemera and lots of old style photo's that will make great collage subjects. My other Christmas pressie was a Beadie Bag which I wanted to try and organise my beading supplies which are growing by the minute.

Chrissy Aggies

I saw some striped Aggies in a florist a few years ago and as I had a few white flowers come out in the garden this year I decided to have a go myself. All you have to do is put them in a vase with red food colouring and after a couple of hours the veins turn red (or in my case pink as I only had Rose pink food colouring). I'll try and remember the pillar box red when I do the food shopping for Christmas Day. The flowers in the background have just been added to the vase but it won't be long and they will be striped as well.

My Favourite Christmas Event

I know I know no posts for nearly a month and then two in one day. Had dinner with the quilting girls last night and it is my favourite thing to do at Christmas and I had to post a picture of the wonderful gifts I got. Lovely home made biscuits from Sally, yummy fabric, button, scissors and chocolates from Sue and Kay made three skinny bags for things which fit one inside the other out of lovely Kaffe Fassett Fabric (will have to think long and hard what special things can go in these) and more choccies. These are always my favourite gifts because they are either hand made or very thoughtful personalised bought gifts (one day my family will get this). I Forgot to mention the Lime Green Shoe ornament from Sue which is probably really hard to see because it blends in with the bag in the picture which I love to bits.

The final Spesh Gift

I promised the forum girls a close up look at the quilting I think you will be able to see it from this picture and the other is the quilt before the binding has been put on. The blocks were 24" square and I thought it would be a quick quilt to make up... yeah right... better not go back into project administration because my job estimating skills are way off. Just glad I didn't leave it to the last minute to make it like I did with the Christmas Stockings I made for my friends for Christmas. I had given my self one afternoon to do these but they took a bit longer than that but I think they were worth the effort.

The Cat was for Kay because she just love cats and at one of our Sparkle meetings she said that she wanted a Cat on a stick (not this one but this pattern was heaps better) and Sue and Sally got the Santa ones. Hopefully they weren't tooo prim for them. Will have to make a Santa for me one day too but for now I might just have a rest for a few days. Have nothing that has to be done until Christmas Day food shopping so I will be having a quiet week.

Advent Swap

I know I know I haven't written in such a while but I have been soooo sooo busy. My Advent Partner has been opening her swap a bit sooner than the rest of us because she is going away on holiday so now I can post the pictures of all the things I made for her. These are just all the made items, there were bought items as well but I didn't bother about taking pictures of those. Tomorrow I will post pictures of the stuff that has been keeping me busy since the doggy costumes.

Who Let the Dogs Out

Last night was the big concert for my son's school and the dog costumes were unveiled. They held up well and kids looked pretty dog like.

All the mum's in the class said that we had the best costumes so they must have been ok but they were probably bias. I got to the concert early thinking that we had a lot of kids to do face paint on, only the Mum with the face paint was late but we made it in plenty of time. 19 kids with painted faces in 20 minutes (might even be a world record. I think I was more nervous than the kids. Well glad that is over with now I have to start thinking of making christmas presents ugh... is it ever going to end.

Wishes and Lilies

I have just finished a stitchery by Leanne Beasley, Wishes and Lilies, it was one of the patterns I purchaed while at Loxton earlier this year. I think I will have it framed as Leanne has this as one of the options in the pattern and I think it will look stunning. Just got to find somewhere to get it done or maybe I should have a go myself. I was lucky enough to have a piece of fabric that matched my favourite red thread DMC 902 to use as the border.

The Dogs have left the building

Today I handed all the costumes over to my son's teacher and the kids did a dress rehearsal with all their ears, tails and spotted T-shirts. We had our final working bee yesterday, 7 mum's sitting at my dining room table sewing on patches of fur to white and black t-shirts.

Today was the first day for a month that I didn't think about ears, tails and spots just hope there isn't any wardrobe malfunctions on the night.

Dogs Ears

I volunteered to help make costumes for my son's school concert. I also donated a heap of stuff from my sewing room which I was quite happy to get rid of. The kids are going to do a medley of dog songs so I have been making 22 sets of dogs ears and tails. I have had help with most of it but the ears are a bit difficult to attach to the headbands so they are pretty much left up to me and the Bernina. I broke 4 needles last night but ended up finishing all but the last 5 ears because I didn't think the last of my needles would cope with the fur fabric that make up the last few. Off to Spotlight this morning for more supplies and then fittings this afternoon. Hopefully for Thursday's sewing bee with the mums from school all we will have to sew on is some spots on t-shirts and it will all be over.

Living in a Vacum

I have been experiencing internet problems this past week so I haven't been able to post on my blog or send emails until Wednesday last week and even now my connection is pretty flakey at best. This morning I couldn't email again and only had limited access to the internet so fired off another complaint to my service provider this time asking for a discount on my monthly access fee because this is not what I am paying for.

I will be turning 40 in February and my husband keeps asking me what I want and I have already told him but he doesn't like the price its one of those Canon 400D's I figure if I don't give him any other options he will have to get it for me. He also want to know what I want for Christmas and I took care of that this morning with a big order of books from Amazon so hopefully I get them in time.

The kids have been wanting to put up the Christmas decorations so I hauled them out this morning and we have put up a couple of tree's this year. It still needs some finishing touches but it is a good start.

Christmas Pageant 2007

We were up really early yesterday to head to town for the Christmas Pageant. We caught the train and as we are the second to last stop before the trains heads back to town we took the trip down to the last stop which was lucky because there weren't many seats after the hoards got on at the last stop. By the time we reached Woodville station it was like sardines.

It was quite warm in Adelaide yesterday 30 degrees, but luckily my husband works on the main route of the pageant so we were able to see most of it from a relatively comfortable spot though the air conditioner wasn't on and our window was in full sun the kids ended up going to the other side of the building so that they were in the shade. We headed down for the last 10 floats and to see Santa going past.

They estimated that there was 375,000 people at the pageant yesterday and there was an absolute sea of people everywhere and lots of tired, grumpy kids at the end. We followed the swarm to the train station and made into seats by luck for another game of sardines down to the beach.

Busy Busy end to Week

Yesterday I had a very full day, the Adelaide Craft and Quilt Fair in the morning and then Costume making for my son's class in the afternoon.

All I really wanted was beads from the craft fair and I achieved that with lots of glass pearls, bicones and square beads as well as a few feature beads and a fabulous lampwork bead by Sharon Griffiths from Beads Indeed, its not a very big bead but it is lovely. I think I will splurge on some swarovski pearls and crystals to go with it.


On Wednesday night I was introduced to Angelina Fibres and decided that I had to get some but it would have to wait until after the fair, but there was a stall Unique Stitching and she had Angelina Fibres and lots of other mix media bits and pieces to try so I got some of those things as well.
What I understand about using the angelina fibres is that you make fabric from the fibres by spreading them out and then ironing them between two pieces baking paper. I also got some dyed wool and dyed silk, and a kit with some luminere paint which you paint on fabric and heat set and they don't stiffen the fabric. Hopefully I get to have a play on the weekend but as I am writing this the kids are discussing the Christmas Pageant and Sunday is looking to be busy as well. Oh well it can wait ...

Girls Night In and would you believe Mumps

The Girls Night in was a great success and we raised $225 (this figure may go up because a few no shows and going to donate as well). I think we had about 15 ladies doing craft or just sitting chatting and reports are that everyone had a lovely night. So we will have some stuff to sell at the craft stall in a couple of weeks. I made mobile phone doodahs (that's a technical term) and I have sold a few already to the girls at the party so will have to make a few more. I probably would have been a bit more productive if I hadn't of had a couple of wines (which I don't usually drink) before most of the girls got there big mistake.

Had one of those weeks you know the ones you would rather forget and then my daughter started screaming at 8 am this morning that her ear was hurting. As fire engine was coming to playgroup and she really wanted to and it was what I thought just an earache I let her come but we had to leave to go to the Dr. who diagnosed her with the Mumps which she has been vaccinated for so hopefully it will only be a mild case but looking on the internet today she will not be going to kindy for the whole of next week. So a quick detour to playgroup to let them know the wonderful news, luckily she didn't eat fruit with them all or cough or sneeze on anyone she was too miserable to join in.

My first attempt at Collage Art

I have been wanting to try to make collage pendants for a while. I have purchased a few but I thought that I could probably do it myself. I found Christina's Craft which is an online shop for scrapbooking and altered art here in Australia. They had all the bits a pieces, the glass and even some little frames so you don't have to get out the soldering iron, though I have also bought some copper and aluminium foil to do the soldering thing too down the track.

The picture I used is of my Mum. She was quite young at the time and there was a set of 4 and they were taken in a park somewhere. I found the photos when I was going through a heap of my Pop's things and I had put them away to use in something. Just like me, mum liked bright colours so I thought she would have appreciated the setting. I might do another one of these for my sister for Christmas, her's will have to be blue.

Gathering of Friends

Never Never take a 4 year old to a craft fair even if you think it might be a good bonding experience. She was feeling a bit poorly and I thought that she would be ok she usually pretty good when we go shopping but she just didn't have the staying power. When I go to these things I like to take a stroll around work out where I am going to spend and then jump in. It was clear right from the begininning that this was wishful thinking on my part. So I ended up spending most of my money at Kirsty Campion's stall and didn't have much by the time I got to the Rustic Tarts. Did get one of Christina's Altered Pendants and one from Town and Country as well as some Christmas Tag's which I am going to use a Chrissy decorations and of course the Willow have been wanting one of these for a while now. Lydia said to me for the 100th time "Can we go now? But first I really want the princess" (the doll on the left hand side). How she spotted her I do not know from half way across the hall and she was burried behind a few other dolls but she pick her out and she was a bargain at $7.50 so she came home too. The Funky Monkey is for Lydia for Christmas.

I am hosting a Girl's Night In tomorrow evening, it is a Craft theme, luckily a few have pulled out so I feel less stressed than I was feeling at the begining of the week. Playgroup girls are going to put to work to make stuff for the Playgroup stall at the local church fete I really should be cooking at the moment but thought I needed a break. Here is the display I have put on the buffet to get the girl inspired (most of them are uncrafty so it will probably just intimidate them.

Dr Who's No 1 Fan

It was my son's birthday the last week of the school holidays and as we were having the party at the Beach House we decided not to have the party in the school holidays when the place is just feral so it was today which was pretty hot in Adelaide so the place was packed anyway.

Daniel is a huge fan of Dr Who (obsessed would be the word) so we had to have a TARDIS cake, and appropriate invitations and lolly bags. Here is the results. I think the cake turned out pretty good, I must admit I did stress out about it a bit but Daniel thought it was fabulous so at least it past the test.

So we had eleven 7 year olds plus my 4 year old daughter. I am really glad we decided to pay the extra and have a hostess as she was great and always made sure we had all 12 kids in tow and made sure we padded out the 3 hours with the activities that were included. So my bank balance a lot lighter and my feet a tad tired I think it was a hit with the kids.

The only thing was I forgot my camera so I am really glad I took these photo's yesterday, because what is left of the cake aint pretty.

Finished Quilting NOT

Here are my excuses: it is school holidays, my son turned 7 this week and I have been a bit under the weather. But I did manage to finish quilting the Nick of Time Quilt or NOT as the Sloanies are calling it.

Apart from the excitement of starting a project my favourite part of the quilting process is this. Yes it is trimming the batting away after the quilting. You see I hate putting on binding don't know why well yes I do it is probably because my quilts are usually huge and it take so long this stage takes about 2 minutes and the quilt looks crisp and clean with all the threads and frayed bits cut off I love it. Here is a close up of the quilting, probably should have done more quilting but didn't have a pink to match so will put the binding on and quilt the pink later when I can get to a quilt shop unshackled by kids.

I have used a polyester batting which I am trialling as my husband hates the weight of my quilts. I usually quilt a quilt to within an inch of its death so that also adds to the weight. It is a Matilda Batt called O So Soft and it is actually quilt nice to work with doesn't feel polyester at all , it drapes really nicely and it is nearly weightless so the complaining may stop if I put one of these on the bed.

It's Spring

One of my favourite spring time flowers is Geralton Wax. They are the perfect drought tolerant plant, I don't think this bush has been watered since last summer and it is absolutely magnificent this year.

I have two bushes. One (the lighter pink flowers) we bought at the Native Plant Sale which is held I think once a year. The way they are cultivated they are virtually guaranteed to out grow plants that you buy in a garden shop. Within 12 months I had a large bush covered in flowers. The other bush is still tiny and it was just bought in a standard pot and is only 50cm high and there is only 6 months difference in planting. The original is about 1.5 m all round and has been butchered every year after flowering. Now it is just a pink ball.

Might have to head back to the sale this year (if I haven't missed it) and get some more they just look fabulous.

Ta Da

Finished the Nick of Time quilt top. If only I had the backing fabric the quilt could be finished.

Note to self make sure you square up all the blocks before putting connector corners on instead of just half the blocks.

Nick of Time

The big sew a long is about to start in the US with Pat Sloan's group. I didn't see me staying up to burn the midnight oil on this one so I started early. All the Starlet 1 blocks are complete and Starlet 2 blocks are all done minus the connect a corners but I did finish a couple so I could put the first group of 4 blocks together. Mine will be 4 X 4 not the full 20 as suggested in the pattern.

To all the Sloanies hope you have a fun weekend sewing.

Shopping Trip

Yesterday I headed down to Hetties Patch because on a previous visit I had seen some fabric I just had to have to do Gail Pan's BOM Seasons. Gail's original quilt uses lots of repro and burgandy and greens but they really aren't my colours so I decided on these for a nice fresh crisp look.

As I was about to leave the store I spied some pinnies all made up and decided that I just had to have the pattern.

I started it last night and finished the final touch this afternoon. Unlike the pattern I decided to make mine reverseable with a slightly different pocket configuration on each side. I used Robyn Pandolph's Chateau Roccoco which I have sitting in a basket for quite a while and didn't know what to do with it.

In the Nick of Time

I finally have some sewing I can show you. This is a pattern I worked on this afternoon. The pattern is Nick of Time by Pat Sloan and the fabric is from the new colours of her 2007 range Sweetbriar. The quilt is supposed to be very quick and it is. Took me less than 15 min to cut the strips and a couple of hours this afternoon when I should have been doing housework, I sewed and got half the blocks done minus connect a corners which I will do when the rest of blocks are done.

Pat is having a sew-a-long this weekend to complete this quilt I think on her blog but I couldn't wait and needed a bit of a creative surge which has been sadly lacking recently.

Bicentennial Conservatory

Been a bit under the weather this last week but came good in time for a couple of things with the kids. On Thursday my daughter had her kindy sports large gold star medal at the end.

On Friday I headed into the city with my son's class to visit the Bicentennial Conservatory to watch a talk on mini beasts (invertebrates for everyone else). Here is a picture of the outside of this magnificent building.

Inside there is a path that takes you through the middle then up through the canopy. The next picture is of a Jade Flower which is an unusual shade of blue. On the forest floor there were piles of the spent flowers. This picture was taken from the upper path , so I was probably 3-4 metres up in the air.

The Noisy Pitta Pitta (birds introduced to help keep down the insect population) were quite tame and weren't afraid of the children making lots of noise through the forest and we were able to get close up.

The mini beast talk kept all the 6&7 year olds enthralled and they got to hold a rainforest cockroach which was as big as their hands.

We rounded out the day with a treasure hunt through the botanical gardens with 10 questions for the kids to answer as they made their way back to the main entrance. As you can see from the photo's it was a beautiful day in the low 20's and I slept very well on Friday night.

Girls Night In

Girls Night In is another initiative of the Cancer Council. The idea is that you have a Girls Night In in October and donate money that you would have spent on a girls night out. So the hubby is away for the night and my mother-in-law will have the kids and I am going to throw a Girls Night In. The Theme is Craftin and Bitchin. I decided on the craft theme because I am looking after a craft stall to raise money for the playgroup that my daughter attends and thought it was a good way to get lots of the mums to join in and help make some things to sell instead of just a couple which is what happened last year.

The idea is that they bring any craft (embroidery, scrap booking, beading whatever) that they want to do and I’ll set up a couple of tables OR they can just bring themselves and enjoy a yummy supper and good company.

I will dangle a couple of my best recipes and enticements like my Lime and Passionfruit Syrup Cake and my Lemon Butter butterfly cakes and maybe a few more from my book of tricks. Hopefully it will be a fun night and we will raise some money for the Cancer Council.

There's a frog in my pond oops sorry pool

We had a visitor on Friday afternoon in our pool. We are about 3 blocks away from the local creek but on occasion we have visitors like this one. Luckily there wouldn't been much chlorine in the pool as we really haven't got it going for summer yet. As you can see we took him down to the creek and set him free. The frogs are very vocal at the moment, it must be spring hopefully we will get more rain before summer so that the creek doesn't dry up like it did last year.

I haven't posted much of what I have been doing lately but I have been working on a few things. I am involved in a advent swap with the Passion for Primitive forum that I am a member of. Unfortunately my swap partner has been known to look at my blog so I can't post any photo's to spoil the surprise. As there is only a few more weeks till we have to post them off (first week in November I think) I need to do a few more items before I can rest easy. I will take a photo of all the items and post them after Christmas.

Lydie the Ladybird

Had to share my latest acquisition "Lydie the Ladybird" as soon as I saw her I had to have her. Lydie is my daughter's nickname so of course she had to come and live here with her namesake. I got her on the Choccy Crow website and it was made by the very talented Marion from the Rustic Tarts. I think I might end up hanging her in my daughter's room because at the moment she is a bit low down and Lydia would like to play with her.

The Adelaide members of the Choccy Crow trader will be having a Gathering of Friends in October if you are in Adelaide on that weekend you have to go. Entry is FREE and there is always lots of unique beautifully made goodies, I even won a door prize last time which was fabulous.

Great Father's Day

Why do my kids manage to always sleep in during the week and then get up at the crack of dawn on the weekend. That is what happened on father's day, so tripped down to the local cafe which is on the beach at Grange and had a lovely breakfast as it was a beautiful day here and then a walk along the beach was in order. We had had some rough weather during the week and there was lots of stuff washed up on the shore which my son was intent on bringing back home with him, we talked him out of it.

Had a great day at work yesterday, they finally got a new computer after 7 years and just in the nick of time. The hard disk had been failing for weeks and when the tech transferred the data he had trouble, then I wanted to fire it up to check something and we couldn't get it going at all. So two years of nagging finally paid off. I spent all day loading software and getting internet and email working, got told off for using the phone line for too long I think the next nagging will be they should have broadband. But I love playing with a new computer!

Cloth Paper Scissors

Ohhh this magazine is deadly, just got mine in the mail today and again for the 3rd time in a row I want to try all the techniques and get lots and lots of supplies. And there are heaps of great links to wonderful website that I am going to have to visit and be tempted even more. It is by the same people that publish Quilting Arts another fabulous magazine that I am going to have to subscribe to as well.

Now all I have to do is find the time to fit these projects in as well.

I'm a Little Sad the Harry Potter Has ended

I finished reading the final installment of Harry Potter yesterday afternoon. Which was a good thing because my husband was about to toss it out because I spent every waking moment with it over the weekend. I must say I really enjoyed it but I am sad that it is finished and you get the tantalising bit at the end when they are all grown up and all you want to do is know more (well I do anyway).

Now I had better go back to doing some sewing I think. I saw the new blackbird range this morning at the Fat Quarter Shop, might have to get a bit of it, I really love there cross stitch pieces, great for background for applique. The range is called Madiera and they have a block of the month also which is very tempting.

Gotta Love Jelly Rolls and Charm Packs

Wow what a great innovation the jelly roll is. You get a tiny smidge of each fabric in a range and you can do lots with it. The sawtooth stars in my quilt from last post was made with a charm pack and jelly rolls. Last night a saw a wonderful quilt made from 1 jelly roll all that was needed was a few set in triangles and borders, which the quilter had found in her stash. All it was was strips sewn together then triangles cut from 45 degree then sewn together to form squares and it looked absolutely fabulous and it only took 6 hours to make.

Is it Kinda Cheating?

The quilt police would probably say yes. Using just fabric from just one range. I guess it is, it takes the hardwork out of choosing colours that go well together and the light and dark thing. I usually buy quite a lot of ranges but then I usually mix in a bit here and there from the stash. This time I didn't because I just loved the fabric.

Here is my version of Leanne's Quilt from the Loxton Road Trip.

I went a bit mad with this range Roman Holiday by 3 Sisters. I just loved it and I ended up getting a lot of it including a couple of charm packs, a jelly roll which I shared with a friend and 3 lots of 2yard lengths for borders. Now all I have to do is decide what will be my final border. Might put a thin border round the stars first. Looking at the picture I am leaning towards the border strip I think I might leave it for a week and then go and have a fresh look. Well No 3 Project is almost done.

No 2 Finished

I finished the bag yesterday from the Road Trip, it is just the right size to take to quilting group, I added a bit to the size of the pattern. Once all the hand stitching was done it was really quick to put together, love the handles. It is a bit different from the original but these colours are more me..

I have been spending a bit of time searching the internet for Glass Beads at a good price for one of Viv Robinson's projects which was a table cloth which she brought with her to Loxton. It featured 500 faceted glass beads instead of french knots and it was absolutely stunning. Well I sourced them and at excellent price and quite a few friends have joined in and so this morning placed an order for 3000 beads. Just hope they bag them in 500 lots don't think I really want to separate 3000 beads.

Project 1 Finished

Here is my version of Viv Robinson's project from the Loxton Road Trip. Haven't been able to actually attach it to the basket (the weave is too close) so it just might rest on top for now.

I should finish all the hand sewing on the bag tonight if I ever get off the computer, and I have sorted what I am going to be doing to Leanne's quilt top to make it bigger just have to get a spare bit of time to lock myself in my sewing room, plus I have to stop starting projects in between. I have started another quilt and a bag in the last two weeks (very naughty).

Received some mail today, new book from Pat Sloan, Take the Fear Out of Color and one of her patterns that I have been wanting for quite some time I love the fact that she now takes orders direct from Australia.

I have been tagged by Leanne and I have to list 8 random things, the rules are as follows:

RULES - Post rules before giving the facts - Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves - People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules - At the end of the your blog you need to tag eight people and list their names - Leave them a comment on their blog, telling them they have been tagged and not to forget to read your blog.

I don't do the tagging thingy but here are eight random facts about me.

1. I religiously watch Friday night crime night on the ABC.
2. My favourite colour is hot pink, followed closely by lime green.
3. I always collect at least 15 - 20 m of fabric for a quilt. Yes my stash is at this present time totally out of control and exceeding my storage space.
4. I love love love to shop.
5. I gotta have gadgets (if it is new and to do with quilting I probably have got it, latest purchase is the yo yo makers and I hate yo yo's, but mine are hot pink, electric blue and lime green so they must be cool).
6. I get really bad motion sickness in fact I drive everywhere, but recently found wrist bands with pressure points on them which allowed me to travel in the back seat on our Road Trip to Loxton with no pit stops.
7. I had a breast reduction 3 years ago and lost 1/2 a stone in a day.
8. I rarely drink but when I do it is only Jim Beam and coke.

Pat Sloan Club 2007

Had my Pat Sloan meeting last night, haven't had one for a couple of months so we were a bit behind. I really love all the different patterns that we are getting this year, just haven't managed to get on to them yet. I really love the quilt for August Little Blue Bird which we won't get for another week or so but I think I will have to to make that up straight away.

Here are a couple of quilts that I have made using Pat's patterns. Pat has a great blog which she posts to every day. And the great thing is that her online shop now ships to Australia so I can now get which ever pattern I want when I want it and her books as well. Pat also has a free newsletter which you can access from her website with recipes, and a free block of the month on the back which started in July.

I just got notification that I will soon be receiving her new colours of her latest fabric range. It includes lots of pinks and browns so I know I am going to have to order some more of those fabrics but I don't know what I am going to do with then yet. Maybe Old Blooms which is a pattern I have been wanting for a long time and finally got it a few months ago.