A Day at the Park

This poor quilt has been waiting for it's binding since June! Finally it's finished and the day was right for some photos ... with lots of 'assistance' from Oliver, the resident quilt inspector!

 I received the fabrics and pattern as a kit from Sarah's Fig Tree Club.

 

 Strawberry Fields is still one of my favourite Fig Tree ranges and this quilt was quick and easy to piece. 

I love the large florals in the borders especially the one with the white background. 

I used the strawberry fabric, again on a white background, for the backing. 

Leanne quilted this one too. Yesterday I cut some fabric ready to start piecing Speck, this month's project for AYOS. Hoping to be back soon to show how it's looking.

Red and White Bag

This is a bag I made recently for a friend's birthday. She had requested something in red. Nearly all my red fabrics have white too so I hope she liked them.  The pictures were taken late afternoon and the reds look more muted than they really are.

I used a tutorial be Sherri of A Quilting Life. This is the second one of these bags I have made ...

and I'm sure it won't be the last. It is a beautiful sunny Spring day here in Penguin today. Hopefully the first of many more.

Dimestore

With all the busyness of eisteddfods and the end of term and the accompanying tiredness which always seems to envelop me, I missed the August Schnibble Parade over on Sherri and Sinta's blogs. Therefore 2 weeks late I present Dimestore.

I LOVED making this little quilt.

I used my favourite red on white spot from the Sweet Shoppe range for the background ...

and lots of pinks and reds for the sashings and blocks.

The pinks and reds are mostly Lakehouse fabrics including Annie's Farm Stand ... 

 

and Pam Kitty Morning.

There's also a little bit of Flower Sugar by Lecien.

 Where the blocks intersect, I used a spotty Japanese fabric that I purchased at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair from a store called Kelani.

So now I am waiting for this month's pattern to arrive. We are making Speck, one of Carrie's new Little Bites patterns.

After a few requests, I have turned off Comment Verification so I hope that makes it easier for those of you that were struggling with it. Have a great day.

Louise

Way down in deepest Africa by the shade of the bongo tree,

Lived an elephant, her name it was Louise ...

Well that's how the song my little preppies love to sing goes anyway.

I won this gorgeous creature made by the very talented Jodie of Ric-Rac during Janelle Winds' recent birthday celebrations.

She is so beautifully made.

I love the flower appliqued on her dress ...

 which is lined with pretty spotty fabric.

 Just look at those cute toes ..

 and nose!

 I am very happy Louise came to live with me.

A big thank you to Jodie and Janelle.

Tali's Quilt

My very special niece Tali recently turned 12. Tali's favourite colour is lime green, (just like me when I was her age!) so I had to make her a lime green quilt.

 

I used the Apple Crate quilt pattern from the Moda Bake Shop.

  

The greens are from lots of different ranges .. I have been collecting for quite a while ... and the white with a tiny green spot was a Quilt Soup fabric by Barbara Jones called Simply Sweet.

 

 On the back is Penny Lane by Deena Rutter for My Mind's Eye, a Riley Blake fabric. It is my favourite fabric in this quilt. The gorgeous quilting was done by my friend Leanne.

  Well, I made it to the end of term and am now enjoying school holidays. For the first few days I was still too 'brain dead' to do much stitching ... I just didn't have the concentration to do much at all. BUT now I am ready to get stuck into my HUGE pile of UFOs and start on some swap gifts that need to be completed between now and Christmas. This morning I read somewhere that it's less than 12 weeks to Christmas ... eeek. Have a great day wherever you are. I'll be back soon.

Mint Julep

Block 2 of the Fat Quarter Shop's 2012 Designer Mystery Block of the Month is Mint Julep by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings.

I used the Folded Corner Clipper to cut all the flying geese units ... love this tool.

 

 I am having some computer issues at the moment ...grr. It is also the Devonport Eisteddfod this week so I may be MIA for a while. 

Shopping

I've been too tired after work this week to do any stitching at all so today I thought I'd share my purchases from the Burnie Friendship Day. These adorable red scissors in a cute little red pouch came from Sarah at Patchworks Plus. I'd seen them on Sarah's website and they were even cuter in real life.

 Other purchases from Sarah were a Vintage Modern jelly roll ... a bargain at just $30 and ...

a few more pieces for my Tilda collection.

 I also chose a few fat quarters, from Julie on the Wells stand, to add to  my grey stash.

Hoping to get into the sewing room tomorrow and work on a few UFOS. Bye.

Roundabout

For this month's Schnibble I chose Roundabout from Another Bite of Schnibbles.

I used the Pom Pom de Paris fabric range by French General.

 
While I LOVE these fabrics, I'm not sure they were the best choice for this pattern. The 'roundaboutness' kind of got lost because of the low contrast between the background and block fabrics. I really wanted to use the plain pearl French General fabric but didn't have enough in my stash.

Regardless, it was an easy pattern to put together and I'd love to make another using the layer cake option.
 
While making Roundabout I tried out my Folded Corner Clipper ruler. It does away with the tedious job of having to draw lines when adding a triangle to a corner. 

 
As it says on the packaging, 'by trimming the corner first, you identify the sewing line and trim in one step.'

There are also no little 'ears' to clip off after you press back the triangle. I found it very accurate and will definitely be using this tool again. I purchased mine here.

 Finally, here's Oliver having a wash on my cutting mat. He seems to do this every time I get it out! Weirdo!

Scandinavian Rose

Have you seen Rosalie Quinlan's new BOM Scandinavian Rose. As soon as I saw a picture of the finished quilt on Rosalie's blog I knew I wanted to make it. 

Sarah had the patterns for sale on her stall at the Burnie Friendship Day. Throughout the day I kept picking them up and looking at them longingly. By the end of the day (and with 'encouragement' from Cathy) they were mine.

Each block is preprinted onto white hanky linen and as soon as I got home I started stitching.

I am using a pinky red DMC thread - no 3831.

I am thinking of using some of my Tilda fabrics for this quilt. Fabrics by a Norwegian designer in a quilt called Scandinavian Rose seems quite apt. 

Feeling a bit better today .. thanks to everyone who sent well wishes ... they seem to be working.

A Work in Progress

February's Schnibble, which I didn't have time to make at the time, was I.S.T.H. (Insert Snappy Title Here).

At the end of each month if I have finished that month's Schnibble top I've tried to work on I.S.T.H until the  pattern for the next month is announced.

I'm using Rural Jardin, one of the earlier French General lines, which has lots of lovely blues and reds.

 

 I really love the fabric in the setting triangles. Here's a closer look ... yummy.

I've spent the last couple of days at home with a scratchy throat and yucky cough .. no fun. The good part is that I've had time for some hand stitching on another new project. Pictures will follow soon.