More Catch Up

 Another Hatched and Patched project finished off. 

This is Petite Sewing Kit and all I had left to do was put the bag together, I don't know why we put off finishing things when there isn't much left to finish! 

 This is a baby quilt that is now bound and awaiting the arrival of a friends first grandson.

Fabrics are Pure by Sweetwater and the pattern was Verna by Kate Spain.

 I'm so very pleased with how it turned out, though it is looking a little wrinkled here in the pictures...

This is a finished project.

It is a surprise, my birthday gift ready to post closer to the birthday, for the online Friends in Stitching group that I am part of. I am so very pleased I was able to get this done just prior to having the baby because if it was now there would be no way it would be finished any time soon!

The fabrics are Aviary by 3 Sisters and the pattern.....you will have to wait till later in the year to know that and see the rest of it!

catching up

 Since I last posted I got lots of stitching done the first two weeks in April. Haven't done any since because I've been busy with a new baby son. He is just gorgeous and is very much doted on here. 

 Down in the garden, blocks one to three finished except the two paper pieced dresdens and needle turn heart. 

 A small table topper in repro fabrics.

love the colour combination...

 A new bag for me, wool by Hatched and Patched. This was a special order kit as I wanted blue.

 Another Hatched and Patched project! 

Shellie's Bag.

Another special request for the colours - I loved the colours in the quilt from the book 'the world as it should be' so requested these. Made this bag up Easter Sunday.

This is our nappy bag.

A frugal project here, the sort that Mr Busy loves.

A change mat made from a worn cotton baby blanket and flannel bunny rug.

Quilting over a few weeks

Lately I have made the choice to quilt/sew over blogging, I couldn't do both with my limited time/energy of late. My full time nausea that I had for both first and second trimesters of this pregnancy dissappeared when I got to third trimester, so I set about to get done what I could while able. Until this week Mr Busy had been away for eight weeks in a row, sometimes only home for two nights/one day before leaving again, though this didn't increase our chore load much it is a relief to have him home again. Add this in to numerous appointments for myself and the children, home schooling, keeping on top of living in major renovations, preparing for a new baby and being rather tired. 

So this is what I have been up to in recent weeks.

Finally finished is the Sheep quilt for DS. I started this quilt back in 2007. It sat for a long time just pieced as I wanted to put tractors on it instead of the sheep. Then DS was calling sheep 'heep' and we were coaching him to put a 'shh' in front of the 'heep', so I then put the sheep appliques onto the quilt. LOL, that brought more delays as with the quilt top together and the appliques needing to be stitched down I didn't want to do this, so the quilt sat again for ages until late last year (2012) I decided to baste the quilt and do the applique/quilting in one go. I just worked on a little bit at a time and got through it; I even had the binding on and stitched down before the quilting was finished - this nice.

The quilt was in Australia Country Threads magazine vol 8 no 1 and is designed by Roz Leadbetter of Country Cupboard Designs. The original quilt was 40 inches square with 8 sheep appliques but I increased my block numbers (now 12 sheep) to make it larger.

A little boy is loving having this on his bed finally!

 Butterfly Garden is almost quilted. I basted this almost two weeks ago and basting on the floor when 34/35 weeks pregnant isn't easy; in fact it left me feeling so tired and achy that I'm not basting again till after the baby comes.

 Here are the other quilts I have been working on in the past few weeks, they are all quilted and are waiting for me to hand stitch down the bindings. The top three are for babies that are due soon to friends/family of ours. The second from the bottom is a Fig Tree quilt for my neighbour who had breast cancer a few years ago (I may be slow but do get there eventually!) and the bottom quilt is the QS Luna Notte quilt for our bed that was basted twelve months ago, so it will be on our bed this winter. I don't recommend leaving quilts basted with pins for too long, a lesson learnt!

 Three more quilts that I was hoping to have basted/quilted before the baby comes, but it isn't to be as I can't baste on the floor anymore. These will just have to wait a bit longer!

These quilts are; Little Macca's Farm for my youngest DS. the 'lolly' quilt, for DS who has the Shheep quilt I showed above. My Friends in Stitching BOM from 2010 for DD who owns the Floral Bouquet quilt in this post.

Once these are quilted I should only have 7 quilts left to quilt! I tend to like putting the tops together more but with quilting my own and having such a large pile to quilt I had to make this priority; and I have enjoyed finishing these quilts off.

 last week I put together my hand quilting hoop that I bought from Anni at The Home Patch (Hatched and Patched) over a year ago. This quilt is the cheater cloth from Bonnie and Camille's Bliss fabric range. I ditched all the straight bits but did a terrible job on the circles. So much for putting together a quick to make quilt! A while back I decided that I would hand quilt the circles in as the quilt doesn't feel finished without the circles being done. It has been years, 2004, since I did any hand quilting......

 Floral Bouquet in Sunkissed is finished.

DD loves it and was over the moon to put it on her bed in her new room (well for a short time anyway). As you can see there is no proper flooring (cyrpess floorboards need to be laid) and no window trim; there are also no doors either.

DD moved into her room so her brother can move from our room to make room for the baby. She will have to move out when Mr Busy lays the flooring down, but in the meantime she is loving having space to herself.

 Such a pretty quilt and fabric range....

He Ming Hos

 Today I made a mug bag, this is a birthday present for a friend of mine.

The pattern was a Hatched and Patched pattern, Kylie told me they went together pretty easy but I still put off making one - turns out she was right! Even the circular base wasn't a drama and usually I avoid these like the plague! I bought these fat quarters from Cottage on the Hill a couple of years ago; so pretty....

 This gorgeous bundle has been partially cut and in very slow progress. I pulled it out the other week and now have the top together and it is all basted ready to quilt. This was Lynda's helpful suggestion; baste as soon as possible after completing a quilt top to try to avoid the top collecting dust. I am good at procrastinating over quilting quilt tops; currently there are 7 waiting to be basted plus two basted in the last week or two. I am sure Lynda's suggestion is going to help me.

This is the quilt from the bundle. It is made from two Hemming House jelly rolls, only the two jelly rolls. The centre square is pieced from two 4 1/2" strips. I kept aside strips for the binding and only had to purchase backing in addition to the jelly rolls I bought from Sarah ages ago. I loved the colours in this range, the blue/teals in particular so I chose these to be the square centres and the binding. Strip wise and colour wise this worked out well. The quilt is 64" x 80"; it was almost 64" x 72" as I didn't have enough blocks for another row; I needed two more. I didn't want to not use all my blocks so I pieced two patched blocks from the offcuts/scraps (you can see a black one in the middle bottom of the photograph) to get that extra row. There is very little wastage from the jelly rolls, mostly small pieces that are less than 4 inches long - I was so pleased as this quilt was a challenge to myself. Actually that's how long this quilt has been in the works; I was working out the mathematical side (how big to make the squares and how to divy up the colours) in between dumping truckloads of rubble off up the paddock while Mr Busy was on the traxcavator. I had most of the kids in the truck with me and would fiddle on paper while waiting for the truck to be loaded, Feb 2009.

I played with words for this quilt and called it 'He Ming Hos'!

To update, I am still slowly hand stitching Butterfly Garden and My Town. I have half of the rows for Floral Boquet Sunkissed together. This weekend I am doing a leadlighting course (again! they are fun) so will have a lightshade to show you next week. I made one of these last year and it is easy to see why this craft gets addictive!

Piecing in Progress

After all my applique preparation last week I have been busy piecing. Got a bee in my bonnet about getting something DONE so I got to work! 

This is Anni Downs 'Simple Pleasures' quilt top, minus the stitcheries. I have used LuLu, a Maywood Studio's fabric; they have such lovely fabrics. I also left off the prairie points from the light border. This is a cot sized quilt and that is possibly what I will use it for, as a gift; or maybe a large table topper. Not sure yet, but it does need quilting!

I seem to have an ever growing pile of tops to quilt, does this happen at your house too?

A friend recently suggested that when the top is finished I get in and baste it ASAP. I think that is a great idea, and worth having a go at.

This is a Sunkissed jelly roll that Kerri sent me a little while ago as a thankyou for me helping her out with fabric for a quilt top that was from an older range and difficult to source. That is a frustration. With so many new fabric ranges coming out it is hard to keep up with them, they date really quick and it is often hard to purchase yardage or pre-cuts once they have been out a few months.

Anyway I ummed and ahhed over what to do with the Sunkissed jellyroll. Something that I DID consider purchasing but I kept deleting my cart as I didn't NEED it! So it was a fantastic choice of Kerri's to send me.

I finally settled on making 'Floral Bouquet' from the Jelly Roll Quilts book. I have wanted to make this quilt for ages but keep putting it off; and seeing Lynda's coming together was inspiring! Late last week I cut it out, was so nice to have found a white jelly roll in the cupboard so there was a little less cutting than if I had yardage. The next day saw me have the blocks together and at present I am stitching the blocks and rows together. I need to speed up a little as it is lying out on the floor and the floor is getting dirty....a design wall sounds great about right now!



This is Maypole by April Cornell, it's been around a couple of years. I bought this as a kit to make a braid quilt but lost the desire to do so but wanted to make something from it. I had no idea what until I saw Peg use the same jelly roll to make a Chinese Coins quilt with white sashings/borders. It was stunning!

That's when I knew I had to make 'Floral Bouquet' with it, and for the last twelve months or so this has been waiting to be made up! It's cut and ready to go now. This is for one of my daughters, the bright colours suit her so well.

Here is a block from the 'Sunkissed Floral Bouquet'. It looks so so pretty. Just right for the DD it is for.

Found It!

 I knew it was here SOMEWHERE!

I finally found where I misplaced the purse I made at GDITC Nundle 2011, it was tucked SAFELY in the side pocket of the bag I had there....duh!

I chose to do something simple for the purse applique and had this finished on the day. This is a  birthday present for DD JessieGirl later in the year. Loved making it and I love working with wool, it is so forgiving!

Seems like this week has been applique preparation week here at my house. I have got 5 blocks ready to machine applique for 'An Angels Story'. {Yesterday I thought I had 6, can't count} I did start this quilt a few years ago, using Simplicity by 3Sisters but frustrated myself ith how I approached the quilt making and ditched the project, NEVER to return. However seeing Sandy's quilt and another 'An Angels Story' at GDITC 2011 I was re-inspired to make this quilt. This time I have 'Fresh Cottons' by FigTreeQuilts. This time my plan is to prepare all the blocks, machine applique, hand stitch then piece the quilt top. Fingers crossed that this doesn't get ditched again! is anyone else out there making 'An Angels Story'????

 Kylie is about to start this quilt using 'Martinique'......

FIS Hatched and Patched

 This is what Kerri made for me, the gorgeous 'Smell the Roses' bag from Anni's book 'A Gardeners Journal'. I love the teal/blue fabric she made the bag from....so rapt to recieve something so beautiful! Thanks Kerri! I have used the bag on every trip to town since recieving it; lots of room inside!

This is what I made for Razzy. I made her up a sewing set using patterns of Anni's from here and there; tied together with the same stitchery/applique pattern. The bag is 'Petite Sewing Set' pattern, the needlecase is a 'Simple Stitchings' pattern, the scissor fob was in the book 'Simple Pleasures' and for the pincushion I used a pincushion pattern for the shape and enlarged the red bird stitchery (''In the Life of a Bag" book) and made it into a wool applique. I even used some of the fabric that I used to make my 'Gardeners Journal' quilt. Love what I made, it was fun making up a sewing set.

I can't believe how long it has been since my last post, I have been laid up though. Had a minor surgery on my foot and the stitches only came out yesterday so I am still hobbling about. I have done only a little sewing, and that is secret sewing for a FIS birthday. I have the bookwork for the farm up to date and have been reading alot. I recently discovered Julie Klassen. So if you are a Jane Austen fan you will love Julie Klassen. Another recent favourite is Cassandra Clare....eagerly awaiting the next book in the mail!

What are you reading?

GDITC 2011, belated

 Gareners Journal quilts and quilts in progress

 Our table, with Anni and Kerry.

Tracey, Anni, Paula, Bec, Jo, Kerry

Janice, Kylie, Alison, Tracy

 Friends in Stitching online group

Dawnie, Peg, Kerry, Kylie, Pauline (TAS represenative), Bec, Chookyblue, Tracey

 Bloggers at Nundle

 The swap gifts from Saturday

 Hard at work on our purses!

I did finish my purse, but it has gone missing since I got home. Not sure if I have tucked it away for a certain DD's birthday that is up and coming; or if some little fingers has tucked it away amongst his toys.... I will show you when I find it....

Aunty Al is taking the pictures.

 Time to smile!

Coming home.

Not much room in Aunty's car with what we bought......

More pic's on Aunty Al's blog.



Harry's Zoo

Harry's Zoo

I bought three of these quilt kits while pregnant with my third son; thinking I would make the three boys the same quilt. Anni put in different fabrics for the borders so as they wouldn't get mixed up. I spent alot of time cutting and appliquing for one quilt then, with the busyness of life with five children under six along with a teeny tiny house I packed my quilting away. Fast forward four years and as you know, children grow up quickly. My eldest DS, MR Z from yesterdays post, didn't want a Harry's Zoo quilt any more. I still have the one appliqued and ready for machine stitching but really didn't think I wanted to make more than one at this time. So I advertised on my blog and sold one of the kits.

Karen from Brisbane (non blogger) bought it, and in no time at all (less than a month I believe) she has put together the quilt top. Doesn't it look fantastic!

Makes me itch to finish mine off now....

BugzRugz also recently made up a quilt kit I had bought to make up for MrZ, Animal Party. Also looks fantastic!

Now why do these kits sit in the cupboard for often years without being made up, then with the transfer of hands they are done oh sew quickly????? LOL. I guess that's quilting life for you.

I recieved my FIS Hatched and Patched swap parcel in the mail today from Kerri, I have put it aside ready to open Friday night. Very exciting!

Lovely Things....

 I don't know where the rest of March went, nor do I know where nearly half of April has gone; but I do know that time has slipped by far too quickly since I last blogged, and I have so much to share!

Earlier in the year I was in a colour swap that Maree from On My Verandah organised. I sent green things to Cheryl and I recieved pink things from Toni. Gorgeous pink things. There were also a number of yummy pink things (lifesavers, marshmallows, turkish delight to name a few) to eat but they didn't make it to the picture. The parcel arrived on a day I needed a pick me up. I had just arrived home from doing a 10 hour return trip to pick up solar panels for DH; I had four of the children with me and a hellof a load in the trailer; and big mountains to drive down....fun day....so Toni's parcel put a big grin on my face when I got home!

I forgot to take a pic of the greens I sent.

 Toni covered the buttons herself, gorgeous bits...Thanks Toni!

 Another swap that I was in recently was for the Girls Day in the Country at Nundle last month. We had to make something designed by Hatched and Patched (the guest tutor) with a size limit.

Having just finished my Gardeners Journal quilt I used some of the beautiful border fabric to make this needlcase, LOL, with a GJ stitchery - love the ladybug!

 This is the inside of the needlecase.

A lovely lady named Di, who has recently started stitching recieved the needlecase I made; she was so excited!

The swap gift I recieved was made by my friend Dawnie! She made Anni's dog pincushion, which I love. I don't have one of Anni's pincushions for myself though I have made a few, so this is just fantastic, I love it thanks Dawnie!

This parcel is yet another swap parcel! The online stitching group I am in has also had a Hatched and Patched swap (no size requirements). Opening night is Friday next week. I made for Razzy in the group and my parcel was posted to her yesterday. Can't wait to see if she likes what I made! I had lots of fun making this swap gift, did something a little different but still within the guidelines. Will share these swap gifts next weekend.

Please forgive me for not putting links in, the internet is running pretty slow here this afternoon.