Please don't enter this giveaway....

I want to win it!

Kellie over at Don't Look Now is having another gorgeous giveaway to celebrate the release of more patterns in her delightful signature style. Even if you don't win, you'll be able to make your own!

Vintagey (?) giveaway

My aunt recently passed on some items from when she used to sew that she'll never use again. Since they're not quilt-related, I'm never going to use them either. So comment and let me know if you're interested in the books, the patterns or the fabric and notions (or all!) and I'll pop them in the post. Sorry, but Australian residents only, unless you want to pay postage.

Click on an image for more detail.

The fabric includes poly-cotton, rib knit in various colours, and some other pieces, most of substantial size. There's also a selection of bias tape, elastic, chalk, press-studs and a self-covering button kit.
The patterns all appear complete:

The Sew for Baby book on the left has the patterns in the back:

Seaside Swap

Not a lot of sewing has been happening. Since the computer crash I have wasted many valuable quilting hours searching for my EQ5 disc to reinstall it, to no avail. I'm about to give up in frustration; I've practically turned the study upside down - although a nice side-effect is that the room is rather tidier than it was!

And today I swapped the seaside quilt for the real seaside. Simon's parents had a house at Goolwa (only about an hour south) for the weekend, and we joined them for lunch, cockling, and dinner.
James was right into collecting the cockles.

But Eleanor wasn't keen on the water coming and going, and played in the sand.

She did eventually gain some courage, but got bogged!

Since I was behind the camera the whole time, this is about as close you'll get to a shot of me:

I tried to get a photo of all our feet, but James was distracted by something!

Warm fuzzies

Kathleen from Magik Quilter has just featured some of my quilts in a post on her blog. Kathleen puts a lot of effort into hosting a number of large photo pools on Flickr, such as Fabric, Patchwork and Quilting where you can find thousands of quilts to feast your eyes and inspire. Go and have a browse.

Proof and progress

First, proof for Helen that what she saw was a few squares of fabric, attached through their own clinginess:
And that they have now been moved!!!

Next, Seaside progress. I've completed the water - that involved replacing thoes pieces I mentioned - and I did as planned with the waves breaking on the beach. I'm now piecing the beach. This will get some embroidery and small applique later, too. So far I have thongs and sunnies left, then a barefoot trail across the waterline to a bucket and spade (there's a very wide seam allowance at this point, to allow for changes when the whole lot goes together). Next I need to build back up the beach to some bathing boxes and grasses.

And lastly, some delicious FQs from Nadine of Dreamweaver's Quilts because I happened to find a few odd characters on her redeveloped website. Check it out, her quilts are incredible, and I can't wait to see what her book will be. Her daily quilting tips are great, too. The FQs came all the way from Germany with some equally delicious chocolates. Thank you Nadine!

Seaside 2 progress

I've been building my next seaside quilt from the bottom up. Click to see a larger view. Each section is divided into planned segments to free-foundation-piece, then the whole thing gets foundation-pieced. Taking a photo is a good way to assess it, and I can see I want to go back and change a few pieces before I continue (the bubbles and the two pieces with fish on a pale background towards the top). I'm a but stuck how I'm going to to transition from the water to the beach. I have a fabulous waves-on-the-beach print but it's much greener, and not wide enough. I might just piece it, then join it applique-style over the edge of the sand with a curved edge, then FMQ to blend it. As you can see, I've done the setting sun (which will go above the beach) but am not sure how, with what fabric I have, to achieve the evening sky I had planned.

Mess

This is how the study looks these days! I've been so busy sewing, I haven't had the chance to sort everything away again. The ironing board is usually in the living room, but I brought it in for something where I needed to press frequently and keep things in exactly the right position and orientation. And then James and Eleanor keep bringing toys in - and leaving them!
This was my sewing table later last night; seaside fabrics pulled out for my new quilt. I got them all out and separated them into piles for different sections of the quilt.

But each piece needs to be 'auditioned' individually, and fussy-cut, so the whole piece of fabric gets tossed open, and there's no point folding it until I'm sure I wont be using it again. What a glorious mess!

In the foreground is one of the sections I'm foundation-piecing. I've now done about half of the water section, but that still leaves the beach and the evening sky with a setting sun to go.

DQS6 start

This is the palette for my DQS6 quilt.

I've made the quilt base; a lattice effect using Sandi Henderson's gorgeous Farmers' Market fabrics, and the pink/red print (from the same range) is just placed behind to show how it will work as the binding. I still have some applique to add, but am stuck on what colour to use for part of it, and as drawing isn't in my skill-set, I need to find a suitable image to trace.

Crash!

Our computer completely crashed yesterday. I had an IT expert here for close to 5 hours today (lucky it was a flat-rate!) and he has managed to get it going again, make a few improvements (hopefully Explorer won't crash so frequently), and restore our emails, files and, most importantly, photos (although most of those are backed up on our external HD).

But all my internet favourites were lost, and I'm trying to remember and find them. At least with bloglines I still have all my blogs to read! And all my email contacts have gone, so if you think I had your email address, please email me (rather than comment here) so I can have you back in my contacts list.

I'm feeling a little lost; settings have changes, files have moved, and it's not quite what I was used to. Oh, and although I did lots of sewing last night while I couldn't use the computer, I stepped on and was stung by a European Wasp this morning - and it's the all-important sewing-machine-pedal foot! So I'll give sewing a rest tonight while I find websites and adjust settings.

Usual blogging to return soon.

Drifting

My 4SQS5 Monochromatic Challenge quilt 'Drifting' has arrived at Tami's so now I can share the whole quilt. I actually forgot to take a photo of the whole quilt after adding the crystals. Tami specified blues or greens, and spring.

My inspiration was blossoms drifting on a gentle spring breeze into a serene, secluded pond.

The blossoms are appliqued using white fabric, and quilted in pale pink to give that tinge of colour. I hadn't anticipated this 2-layered one would curve during quilting (it's 2 layers of white, joined by vliesofix and satin-stitched and closely trimmed) but I love the three-dimensional effect; much better than if it had remained flat as expected! It did take some creative packaging to get it to the US un-flattened, though!

I bought a hot-fix crystal applicator ages ago (after I received 'Believe' from Margaret), but hadn't had the perfect project for them until this.

And here's the back; just to prove the pink was indeed added through quilting and therefore within guidelines!!!

Tami has blogged it here and you can see the whole quilt with the crystals. I'm so glad you like it and that it suits your studio, Tami!

Now I'm looking forward to the next round of this swap, whatever form it may take! Thanks again, Margaret.

Constellation Consternation

This is my completed quilt for the Bushfire Quilt Project. All the quilts will go to people affected by the Victorian Bushfires in February 2009.
I initially sent Tia 8 star blocks and binding for 3 quilts, but this has taken a little longer, and will be in the mail tomorrow.

I wanted to make it big enough for a single bed, so used the same 12in star blocks, but in a 5x7 layout. I had planned a light background, but couldn't find a suitable fabric. The consternation comes in because I realised part way through that black and red might symbolise fire, but I think this might appeal to a teenager or a boy more than other colours, and a lot of the blocks seem to be more girl-oriented.

I did a stipple over the whole thing, which used way more thread than I'd expected - 1.5 x 500y reels! I ran out late one night, but luckily am starting my own thread-stash (latest count, almost 50 large reels) and had another the same so I could continue. It certainly gave me lots of stippling practise!

This afternoon I took it out to the bridge over our (now rather dry) creek for a photo-shoot before I mail it off with everything else tomorrow.

I hope it will provide warmth and comfort to someone.

Tropical Ice

This is a commissioned quilt I have just finished and will be posting tomorrow. It's called Tropical Ice because I designed the pink blocks surrounding the centre based on the pineapple block, and the bluey background looks so icy.

Jess mentioned she loves Peter Rabbit, so I used some of the fabric left over from Eleanor's play quilt in the star centres.

Here's the block I designed:

I really like the effect, and have drafted several other quilts using the same or a similar block in different colours and layouts for use one day.

Most of the quilting is stippling in the background, plus a little in-the-ditch, and some radiating lines across the logs.

Stash Sunday - bypassing a quilt and straight to the stash

Here is the rest of the Surf & Sand and coordinating prints which arrived during the week.
But they ended up not working with my chosen design, and I've gone back to my original idea.

And having seen this fabulous stripe (from Sunflower Sunrise) in Lily's recent post, I had to pop in to Spotlight and get some myself:

Stash = 1.144km

Whoops!

I suppose I shouild think myself lucky I didn't break a needle on it!

The good news is, after 1.5 large reels of cotton (with a little unpicking!) and the most stippling I've ever done in one go, my first bushfire quilts project quilt just needs the binding and label attaching.

Preview for Jess

This is another commission I've been working on. The photos were taken before the border was added, and it is now almost completely quilted, so it shouldn't be too much longer.

I designed the four pink blocks surrounding the centre myself, inspired by the pineapple block.

Stash Sunday - just in time?

I seem to be good at deciding I want certain fabrics just as the range is disappearing from shelves.

Exhibit A: Surf & Sand from Marcus Brothers. Inspiration finally hit as to how I could make another beach-themed quilt for my new niece due in a couple of weeks. It's not going to be anything like the beach scene I made when Zoe was born, but I had neither the inspiration nor the time for that. And although I know my sister-in-law will hate me for this, I'm hoping she's late like last time, to give me amore of a chance of getting the quilt done. You see, it took 4 US online stores to get the full range I wanted, and there's still one parcel to arrive.
Exhibit B: Posh by Chez Moi for Moda. I've been umming and ahhing over this for ages, but when I had 4 separate envelopes to fill, I snuck in bits of this where I could find it.

Stash = 1.124km.

4SQS5 peek

Here is a peek at my 4SQS5 Monochromatic Challenge quilt which from tomorrow will be Drifting overseas to its new home.
I took full advantage of being able to quilt using different coloured threads to give these blossoms a tinge of pink.

And added a bit of sparkle, testing my previously unused bejeweller.

This is from the back:

I hope it's new owner likes it!

Stash Sunday - sporadic

I've decided from now on, I'll share any 'new arrivals' as Stash Sunday posts. This week a bulging box from Desperate Quilters, mostly some newish ranges:

"Juliana" by Sue Zipkin for Clothworks:
"Delilah" and "Delilah Wheels" by Johnny Karwan for Clothworks:
"Rocket Scientist" by Keir Beyer for In The Beginning Fabrics
"Swanky" by Chez Moi for Moda (and a couple of snowflakes):

Stash = 1.109km