Little quilt....

I wanted to do try doing a disappearing 4 patch with some small patches

... it turned into a little quilt

about 6" square and has gone to a friend who is doing up her pink sewing room...

... and I am putting a bit more energy into getting my alphabet bears sewn...

L is for Love, and Lavender

This is the cake I made earlier this month for Hubz to take to work .... 

(I found the picture in my files!)

fun, easy and I believe it tasted good too ... basic chocolate cake inside

Righto, Gotta Go... I am doing a few secret things at the moment .... hmmmmmmmm

April's Stitch-A-Long blocks....

The Stitch-A-Long hosted by Chookyblue and trusty sidekick Susan is doing Anni Downs new quilt pattern "Nature's Journey"

This month there are two little circles

(these blocks are 3 1/2" square)

.. two bees....

....a  dragonfly ....

(6 1/2" blocks)

... two flowers....

... some cherries ....

... and a star ....

I am enjoying playing with these blocks and doing a bit of fussy cutting

using French General 'Lumiere de Noel' fabrics...

Chookyblue is hosting a retreat at the end of this month.... anyone can go at no cost (except for your materials and your wine, and your snacks etc)  .... it's a virtual retreat ... pop along HERE to read more about it...

Also Chookyblue's friend Jewells are looking for some quilts to be donated to people who have been flooded in NSW... read about this HERE...

Little Beds.....

I had a special request for beds for dolls and other stuffed toys... for a certain grandiegirls birthday this month....

Happy 4th birthday Maddy.... we love you lots ...

I had some happy scraps from the 'strip' quilt... and they were perfect colours for a princess's stuffies....

... a little bunny slipped in there.....

an assortment of little beds ....

I also put in one of these pretty little zippy bags to hold those special treasures princesses have.....

this is an older pic now but I love it

Haha... even a princess has to be silly sometimes?

Maddy's mum sent me a picture with the little beds in use.... so sweet 

they were all exhausted after a day at the Seaside and picnic lunch

Righto, Gotto Go..... I've got paperwork to sort out today... yeuckkkk. 

I'd rather eat birthday cake.

April FMQ challenge....

Thanks to Darlene at QuiltShopGal for hosting another quilting challenge...  this month the guest tutor was Christina Cameli from A Few Scraps..... I have been reading her blog for a while and now with this challenge I ordered one of her books... it arrived last week and I got straight to work....

With my new book in hand I chose Option #3 on this post HERE which was to make a cushion using any of Christina's designs in the book....

(There are a lot of pictures but I am showing steps in my creation ... just skip to the end to see the final cushion)

I have some sand coloured fabric and I wanted to give it a watery type feel in the quilting....

Here is the cushion top marked, sandwiched and pinned with guidelines for my first pattern....

This design is called Tideway...

I get frustrated with stopping and starting... I make kinks!!!  If I start a lot slower and concentrate it is better... (but I have a tendency to visit la-la land when I have been concentrating too long!!)  

... on one of the back sleeves I did this design called Sylph..... ( I think I chose it for it's name as well as it's look)

... I need to slow down and concentrate more on doing the pebbles... not so good on the 'travelling'

.. and on the other back sleeve I did Lithe .....  I found this one nice and easy and calming to do.....

I used a thicker glossy embroidrey thread for the main quilting... then I wanted a bit of sparkle for the water in the Tideway quilting so I pulled out this HUGE cone of fine metallic thread

(tension needed to go to no tension at all and the cone is so big it sat on the table instead of in the thread place on the machine)

 .. you can't see the sparkle in the picture - it is quite subtle... but I did like the look of the finer thread for this part ....

... so I added another few lines of quilting with it into the back cushion sleeves....

(I think I went a bit overboard quite honestly)

... all three pieces with the extra bit of bling added.... and a picture of Christina's book

I finished off the cushion just with very gently rounded corners....

... it is a bigger cushion this time with 20" sides. This is the back showing the two different designs

.. and here it is at my favourite place to sit on the veranda....

I was going to put it in the gift box but Hubz has claimed it....

I am pleased with my new book.. there are heaps of ideas and Christina gives brief but clear instructions on how to do them.... with plenty of pictures (I do like pictures)

You can join the challenges any time if you feel like learning and practicing your FMQ.... QuiltShopGal always has lots of links and information ...

Righto, Gotto Go.... Darlene has a linky for all the participants in the challenge so I am off HERE to have a look see what others have made... there is always such inspirational quilting .. and we are all learning....

Friday Night Sew In.....

Ta muchly Madame Wendy for hosting FNSI.....

I went to my fortnightly sew in with the gals so it was fun to cyber and reality sew with friends ...

The evening started with a glass of one's choice and some nibblies and I got straight to work on my binding.....

sewed and sewed and chatted and listened till it was time for tea... and a snack....

It was a very productive few hours (must have been fortified by the snacks!!) and here is my finished Scrappy Trip Around the World....

This is the second of these that I have made.... and I use any colour strips ... very scrappy and lack of colour coordination....

... this was made using Bonnie Hunters Tutorial found HERE....

The backing is a recycled doona (duvet) cover which I love.... and I quilted in each block in the orange peel style....

(easier to see it from the back)

Righto, Gotto Go... I'm off HERE to see what others did ..

Friday... it's Friday...... wooohoooo...

Over the last week Jane made up some cloths from old towels... she and I share an interest in recycling materials when we can..... You can read about hers HERE 

I have been trying to clear out and use fabrics and things I collected over the use for 'in case' I need it one day....

... one drawer had quite a bit of this rather shappy chenille... it's not a very fluffy one and you can see there is a fair bit of wear  in parts of it....

I did use the parts that were in the best condition in my recycled wool and chenille quilt 

(pattern my Toni and one of my favourite snuggly quilts)

Like Jane, I just curved the corners of squares and overlocked the sides... very quick and I have a very healthy pile of wash cloths now....

(I also had some white towelling 'scraps' so I used them up too)

(this is only part of my healthy pile!)

.. thanks Jane... another space cleared out ....

.. and tonight is.....

 

hosted by Wendy 

I'll be joining a group at The Quilters Angel... Kris will be there too... and I'm going to be working on this binding that I've had waiting for ages ....

... and today I have cut out fabric and will start tracing these pictures....

De started making this and now there are a few of use who have joined in... This is Natalie Bird's (from The Birdhouse)  In My Garden quilt and there are very sweet stitcheries....

I got this pattern book about 18 months ago so this is just the right nudge I needed to get it out and use it

Most of the pictures are being shared on a facebook page HERE if anyone is interested....

Not too late to sign up for FNSI and join us all... just go HERE