One, Two or Maybe Three?????

At this stage, late afternoon on the last of the month, I am don't think I will have any more completed projects for this month; and certainly nothing quited and bound. I have, however, done alot of work on other WISPs that are much further along.

First off is My Delilah quilt top that I showed a peek of a few posts ago.

Just LOVE those colours......

This is a BIG quilt, and it's not finished yet; nah, no more piecing but something special that I will share when I get it done.

Thanks Peg, for having Plain White Tees on your playlist, love the Delilah song!

This is the end result of my Woodlands charming jellycake.

Two quilts.

OR

One reversible quilt.

Not sure, any thoughts????

The second top or the reversible back.

A close up of the centre.

What have you been up to lately?

More of the Dark Side

Looking around my sewing room, on the shelves and in the cupboards; and even in those closed up boxes stacked under the bench; I have been reminded of so many more darker fabrics that I have here, partially made up or waiting to finished.

Over the years I have made up a few of Hatched and Patched designs, Anni tends to use more earthy, country colours but she can still surprise you with what she uses.

Some Portobello Road that I am having a play with

Some Louisa that I am using to make up Joypatch's Braids and Diamonds quilt later in the year as a present.

This is quilt as you go, which I haven't done before so I am very excited at having a go at this!

The weather here has been pretty miserable lately, overcast, drizzly and very windy. Not a lot of rain in it. The south-eastern corner of QLD has been having ALOT of rain. Visit 'Little Men in My Library' to see what it has been like up there. NB You will have to scroll down at least one post.

What are your plans for the weekend????

The Dark Side

Yes there is a dark side, a dark side to my fabric choices!

I felt I had to show some as it seems recently I have mostly shown brights and florals.

I love so many fabrics that I can't pin myself down to one sort.
Above fabrics by Jo Morton

Above and the two pics below are Charleston V.

Gorgeous pinks and browns.....

Below some yardage

Some more darkish colours in my first hand quilting attempt

still no further on this one.....

Last but certainly not least.

This is a peak at a quilt top I finished this morning.

SOOO excited about this one.

This is the one I HAD to change the borders on.

The original borders are now the outer borders and the quilt is RIGHT now, looks fabulous!

When we have a sunny day I will share a better picture.

The fabrics are Nature's Chorus by April Cornell.

My daughter, JessieGirl, located where our new kittens have been hiding. In the hay shed all nice and snug. A few hours after the discovery I looked out the door to see Master3 trying to give a kitten to another cat that was asleep on the verandah. *chuckle*

When I tried to talk him into taking the kitten back he declared 'MINE MINE MINE, MY CAT'. (never argue with a three year old, it just frustrates you).

He did eventually take the kitten back, and I had a peak at them tonight.

ohh so cute.

They have just opened their eyes and there are five of them.

Setting the Record Straight

I have had a few emails and thought I should clear something up before it gets out of hand.
I apologise as I realise now that I wasn't very clear in my last post.
A couple of posts ago I showed some baby quilts I had made and commented that I have some news regarding them but I can't reveal it yet.
A blog friend made a comment on that post about twins. I emailed her and also put the comment on my blog that the secret news wasn't twins.
It is nothing to do with babies and I am not pregnant!
Right now I am having a good laugh, as hubby would not be impressed but I wouldn't mind too much. I think having five in six and a half years is enough for the time being. The youngest is 2 yrs old and the eldest is 8 yrs old.
Another week should see the secret news.

Piecing

I have been busy piecing lately so have nothing substantial to show as nothing is finished. I ahve decided not to quilt a quilt this month as I want to have some flimsy tops ready to take to the quilting course with Deborah Louie that is very early June. *grin* Besides I did two complete quilts last month, even though they were smaller than normal two quilts is two quilts!

There is one border left to piece for the quilt I am making from Woodland Bloom then I will stitch them on. After that I need to piece the backing. I love reversable quilts but also keep in mind that not every quilt lends itself to being reversible. This one does! hehehe don't mind my threads, I will trim them shortly.

These flannels are by Valerie Wells and are her 'Sole' range (hope I got that right K). I have been admiring these for sometime but it wasn't until recently that I 'realised' what I wanted to do with them. This afternoon I cut them out while my kindy age daughter spent some time enjoying Starfall online - great site.

Also while my little kindy girl was online I spent some time unpicking part of a quilt top. This way I was productive and available for her if she needed me.

The quilt top I had to unpick was almost done about six weeks back but when I stood back to look it the border fabric was oh so wrong. I HAD to change it. So that meant ordering more of the fabric I NEEDED to replace the border with. Now that was not an easy task. It is April Cornell Nature's Chorus and the particular fabric (pictured below) was quite hard to locate both here and in the US. Such a vibrant colour. Love it. mmm love so many different colours and patterns you couldn't pin me down to just one! You know I have TWO bundles of reproduction fabrics here now, civil war type ones.... oh just soooo nice! I haven't decided yet what I will do with them but it will come to me all of a sudden one day!

This scrumptious sweet roll is Soiree by Lila Tueller. Again bright lively fabrics. Gosh it seems this post is full of them! I shall have so show something entirely different tomorrow!

This roll has plans that includes Christmas for a few people, *grin* it's so exciting making plans to make things for other people.

Thankyou for all your comments about my baby quilts, I am a little behind in my emails so will get back to you all soon. No it isn't twins, but I always wanted twins. With five children now I am not so keen for twins, gosh they wouldn't fit in our car!

Baby Quilts

Here is a pair of baby quilts that I made last month, called 'Baby Woodlands'.

Woodlands because of the rail blocks resembling tree trunks of a wooded area, and the baby part because it is only a small wood!

I used a WeePlay jellyroll, love American Jane's fabrics and stunning colours. Also love the era that they represent.

I have more to tell you about these quilts but it will have to wait until next week as I have a few final bits to sort out before I can share everything.... it's very exciting!

Now time till the end of this month is limited. I am having trouble sticking to my organisational list for sewing. From my list I need to be making a bag for a friends birthday and quilting another baby quilt that I have finished the top for.

I want to leave the baby quilt until June because I am attending a quilting workshop by Deborah Louie and think it would be great to have a play with the baby quilt after attending the workshop, you know - a quilt that is a quilt but not so big as most!

So in order to stick to my personal challenge I need to quilt something and bind it this month. I have another quilt (rather large) all basted ready to go. This is fine. HOWEVER I also want to finish piecing THREE quilt tops before attending the quilting class, so I can take them along.

I am really torn as to where to put my priorities at present. Which to finish first.

Time is another factor. With our winterish days I am not finding any (or very little) time to sew in the afternoons and tend to not want to of a morning or evening due to it being so cold in the study where the machine is. These are the times of day I want to snuggle up with a book..... My daytime hours seem to fill fairly quickly with chores, schooling and generally being with and looking after the five children. My next two weekends are gone, no time for sewing when I am needed elsewhere for all day.... soccer and cattlework.

*grin* OK OK OK I hear you, I need to be strict with myself and resist the book snuggle time, and get sewing! Mornings and evenings are the time I need to make use of to get all this sewing done. I have HEAPS to get done in the next fortnight. *grin* better get cracking!

Out of curiosity, how do you manage your sewing time? Is it when it takes the urge, a regular time or do you have to schedule it strictly????

Bec xxx

What have I been up to in my down time????

With no computer for almost three weeks I have been kept busy and haven't missed it as much as I thought I would have. We have made some adjustments with schooling and my procrastinating child is now working alot better, YEAHHH! I have also been able to spend more time sewing.
Last month, April, my finishes were the Christmas in July swap; and yes I have it finished early so I can't show you until my secret swap partner has recieved her parcel in July.
I also finished two baby quilts which I will post about in the next day or two. One of these is for a dear friend who recently had a baby girl.

I also finished a swap for Rhonda's Down to Earth blog, it was a useful swap consisting of two potholders and two dishtowels. It was direct swap and not everybody in the swap had a blog. I got to know my swap partner through emails and this was fun. I decided to use primary colours for her and I was FINALLY able to email her last night and she was totally thrilled with what I set her. *grin* I was so pleased; LOL esp as I have decided now that after making two sets of potholders in the past few months that they aren't my favourite thing to make!
This is what I made her;

The waffleweave for the dishtowels was rather thin but it was all I could get, so I wrote to K that I didn't think they would be very practical but hopefully were nice to look at!

Cute picture panels!

I recieved K's swap parcel to me yesterday and will share it with you tomorrow - can't show everything in one day, have to save something for tomorrow!

This month I have been working on the quilt I am making from the Woodland Bloom range. I have the big block together and am up to pieceing the borders. My deadline to get this in one piece is the end of the month. Quilting can wait for another month as I have another quilt to quilt this month.

Since March when I visited Kerry at Cottage on the Hill and bough some gorgeous flannels I have been working on them. To date I have one row together and the blocks ready to join for the second row. I have four more rows to put the outside block borders on. It is a BIG quilt and this is why it is taking me a while (amongst other things) to get it done. It is approx 90" x 108". yup, BIG! *grin* mmm nice cuddly flannel for these cold days and nights.



Last week I used some Aviary sweet roll strips to make the Moda bakeshop's little bag for my mum. As I only put batteries in the camera today I didn't take a picture of the finished bag yet. ummm I actually have to find some velcro for the fastening as I wasn't sure what sort of fastening mum would want so left it without one and asked for her preference, this will be fixed soon. So here is a picture of the strips BEFORE I made the bag. Gorgeous colours and roses....

I also FINALLY made the market bag from Leanne Beasley's travel book. I have been wanting to make this bag for ages and ages. After being at Nundle and seeing M and A's market bags I was on a mission to GET MINE DONE! * you can their bags on Leanne's blog in the Nundle 2009 sidebar picture album*

After so much procratinating the bag was REALLY quick and easy to make, definately going to make some more.

I also finished off a baby quilt top for my sister wh is due at the end of this month, I will share this one soon too.

Looking forward to catching up everyones blogs in the next few days! I have been wondering what everyone has been up to.

Bec xxx

I have learnt some patience

*grin*
23rd April the video card went in the computer and we finally got a replacement card installed late this afternoon. I have now been online for approx 5min and have something like 100 unread emails in my inbox!
Boy have I been patient this past17 days. *sigh* wondering what everyone has been up and wanting to share my adventures - sorry they will have to wait until tomorrow for some photos.
So I AM BACK and VERY EXCITED to be back! Email me, leave me a comment - I am very pumped at the moment!
Bec xxx