fabric on the line......

i washed some fat quarters that i received in the mail the other day.... and when i hung them out in the wintry sunshine today, memories came flooding back

hubby and i were lucky enough to spend 2 months in India a few years ago. one of the most beautiful sights, in the midst of the extreme poverty everywhere, are the colourful saris on the lines.

of course, i didn't wash these by bashing them on a rock in the stream - thank God for that! but the sunlight was beautiful and i was transported for the moment.

pugs and kisses
xx

marley's quilt delivered

just a quick update that Marley's quilt was very well received at her Thanksgiving Service on Sunday, which was also very lovely.
I didn't realise how much the quilt would be appreciated until I gave it - Marley's mum was very grateful.....all worth the disaster of quilting it!

pugs and kisses
xx

FINISHED! Marley's quilt

whew! got marley's quilt finished before her thanksgiving service this sunday

i had an absolute DISASTER of a time quilting the thing - if it wasn't a gift that i needed on sunday i think i would have thrown it away!

the thoughts i had on how it would look didn't really work out. i thought i would use the decorative stitches on my new machine to do some lines through the strips of material to follow the horizontal form of the quilt.

but the thread i used (varigated yellow guterman thread) kept breaking EVERY TWO SECONDS! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. so i ended up using straight stitch, a wavy stitch and a zigzag stitch for most of it. the gold ribbon that is on the front (and on the back by the way!) is on there because one of the decorative stitches got so kerfuffled that i had to stop. i then couldn't get it unpicked because it was so densely stitched on top of its self. so a cover up was all i could do......but i think it covered it up ok :) hopefully the recipient will never know :)

pugs and kisses
xx

peaceful garden embroidery completed

here is the finished embroidery - not framed yet, so not technically ready for the finished tag :)



will head to the shops tomorrow to try and find a suitable frame

pugs and kisses
xx

FINISHED! Dino-tail

today i spent the morning working on a dino-tail for the little human's playgroup end of term dinosaur party!!!

i used the mermaid/dino tail pattern from this website - and got some great plush fabric from Spotlight

im pretty happy with it and i think it looks good on him :)

hopefully i can post some photos from the party of him wearing it

pugs and kisses
xx

ooooooooooooo photo of Blush quilt

took some new photos of the Blush quilt in my parents-in-law garden today
very happy with them
i think they look oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
:)

pugs and kisses
xxx

FINISHED! Sheri Berry Christmas wall hanging

happy with the result - used only the fabrics that i won from Homespun that i mentioned previously. love a freebie!

will be a gift for my friend Helen for Christmas

pugs and kisses
xx

Friday Night Sew In report!

project 'friday night sew in' started first thing - the little human and i cleaned up the house and i think he was a little confused that as soon as he put a toy down it was back where it belongs before he could turn around!

dinner was made in the arvo and put in the fridge ready for hubby when he got home. the little human had dinner early too



and of course still found time to laugh at his dad!



then into the bath



and off to sleep. what a good little human!

hubby settled into a comfy chair to watch the footy and i headed out to the sewing area in our shed. i took some extra 'supplies' with me - the choccie hubby bought for me as a surprise (i guess i must have been talking about friday night sew in a lot for him to remember!)



so i was ready! i had two projects i wanted to work on - a disappearing nine patch quilt for hubby to keep him warm while watching the aforementioned football, and the little monsters quilt for my little human mentioned previously

as you can see though, i spent zero time actually cleaning up my craft area before i started :) a very bad habit - but not one to change on friday night sew in!





so i spent some time sorting through my stash for my the DNP quilt - one of the specifications from hubby was that i am not allowed to buy ANY material to make his quilt. so thought i would just sort some lights and darks in blue and brown and have a bash.

these are the 3" squares





and this is the finished DNP block! i was surprised at how complicated it looked, and how easy it was! i followed this tute on line.





then it was time to have a go at making a little monster! love doing quilts like this - choosing colours for characters and seeing their personalities take shape.

here is the pattern - I love Don't Look Now designs - all of them!


and here is my finished monster, compared to the original. isn't he gorgeous!


i called it a night at around 11.30am. the little human still gets up early even if i have been up late (what is the deal with that! he he), but i was thrilled to have a night to myself, to do whatever craftyness i wanted.

SOPPY ALERT (cue violins) - i think one of the reasons it was so enjoyable for me was that i don't have any crafty type friends in my physical world. my love of craft is something that i am usually jokingly mocked for by my family, and not understood by my friends. i have only recently discovered the awesome community that is online - and am loving it! i loved the idea that last night (or today depending on time zones!!) others all around the world were stitching along with me, loving it too! so thanks for organising this Bobbi and Heidi for conceiving and organising! can't wait to read everyone else's reports!

pugs and kisses
xx

buzzy bees

well, here is the photo of jan's garden embroidery as it currently is



you can tell ive been naughty and left the embroidery in the hoop last night - oops :)

last night i did the buzzy bees and some of the rosettes in the tree - not too much more to go

pugs and kisses
xx

marley's quilt

this is for my friend's baby - marley. she is having a thanksgiving service in a few weeks and i wanted to make something personal for her.

i made this quilt from the scraps from the birdie quilt blocks plus some other fabric from my stash. i will have to buy some fabric for the backing and binding though.



have to finish the embroidery for marley's name too - i think i will do some shadow embroidery in black.



will let you know how it turns out!

pugs and kisses
xx

christmas in june?

well, study is over and so much sewing is to be done on my 'day off'! hubby had the little human all day today, and after getting a much needed haircut, i retired to my craft shed and went for it!

one of the projects i have wanted to do for ages is something that uses the Sheri Berry Christmas fabrics that I won from Homespun ages ago - lucky me!

i couldn't find a pattern that suited the prints of the fabrics. and i thought they would suit being 'shown off' not cut into small pieces. enter this wallhanging!



i fussy cut some of the panel to show off Sheri's artwork.



i am happy with it and only have to stitch the binding to the back to finish it off.

pugs and kisses
xx

peaceful garden embroidery

there is something so peaceful about stitching - slowing having a picture come to exist on the fabric in front of you.

i have had a flu the last few days - we were meant to travel to melbourne for the long weekend, but i was too crook to contemplate the long drive there and back with the little human. so we have put it off until the school holidays.
this has meant lots of time for stitching as my lovely hubby has taken care of the little human a lot of the time for me. lovely to sit in the warmth of the heater, under the blush quilt, and just quietly stitch.

i love having something that you can just pick up and put down - and two stitches is working towards something bigger. a good reminder when being mum to the little human!

at the moment, i am working on an embroidery for my mother in law's 59th bday (yes, she of the 60th quilt). she lost her beautiful garden in the water restrictions of the last few summers, and has had to plant a completely drought resistant garden.
she misses her flowers and mostly her hydrangeas - so a permanent, unwaterable stitchery was called for :)

it is well on the way to being finished!
the pattern is from a needlecase that i made a few years ago, and i always thought it would look lovely as a framed piece. i guess we will see!

pugs and snotty kisses
xxx

FINISHED! blush quilt

its finished! im very happy with the final result!
and it is very warm too - i think will keep me very cosy while stitching this winter.





the only thing im not 100% happy about is the binding. have to look at my technique again naptime quilter suggests doing it differently - perhaps ill look at that for my next attempt

pugs and kisses
xx

today's fun!

happy crafty pug today!!!!!
wednesday's is my 'day off' when my lovely hubby looks after the little human. this has been so that i can use the day to do my study - but today i FINISHED my last assignment for the semester - yay!!!
so that got done around 1pm - so i spent the rest of the day crafting!
so much fun!

i finished piecing all the blocks for the birdie quilt - see sample of blocks below. now i just have to work out what colour sashing and border to add.....









i also pieced another strip of the log cabin onto jan's quilt, and i started putting together my 'two buck block' BOM with Thangles from my fave quilt shop "Kornakraft" in Gawler. month 1 done, and month 2 underway. this is easily the neatest block i have ever made - go thangles!

very easy to use - you put the two pieces of fabric together and then sew the thangles strip to them. then cut them up and iron as below...

so neat once you have ripped the paper off the back


and look at those corners lining up! so proud of myself :) he he



ahhhhhhhhhhhh, a happy pug tonight

pugs and kisses
xx

Friday Night Sew In

it is on! its confirmed! you need to go to craftyvegasmom to sign up as handmadebyheidi is busy moving her family across the US! good excuse i reckon!
anyhoo, im in, its on the calendar, and im excited!
join in and lets get sewing!

pugs and kisses
xx

blush quilt top finished!!!

yay!!!
i am pretty happy with it - but it is not at all what i thought it would look like!
that always happens to me with fabric - the colours that are the prominent ones when the whole thing is pieced are not what i expect.
but that is ok! still happy!
so will iron it all and the backing (just doing plain brown homespun) tonight while hubby watches the footy - go crows!
hopefully not too long til ill be posting a finished blush quilt!




im sooooo loving the focus of quilting for 15 minutes a day (as per the sew daily challenge on the quilting forum, see earlier post). things really come together when you do a bit each day!

pugs and kisses
xx

p.s. i have joined the world of flickr. not sure really how i want to use it (i am a bit funny about sharing all and sundry with the world, hence the anonymity here!) but at the moment i am using it to keep track of my finished pieces. it is also a slideshow on my blog - cool!

picture pattern maker

wow! just found the coolest thing online
it was linked in someone else blog while i was flicking around, and now i can't find the original link!
oh well
it is a website
that you can upload any photo to and it will make a quilting pattern out of it - you can choose how many colours and how complicated it is
all for free!
very cool

log on and check out the quilt version of the craftypug photo! a quilt i will definitely put on my to do list

pugs and kisses
xx

i've got that winning feeling, oh that winning feeling.......

i could go on!

but lucky, lucky me! i won a book pack from the Australian Homespun magazine!

this a photo of the books i received laid out on my sewing chair (appropriate seeing as that is where i will read them!)




there are some really great books in there that i know i will use, and some that i would never have bought myself, but i know will extend my craft knowledge

can't wait to read them and then make all the things that tickle my fancy!

thanks homespun!

pugs and kisses
xx

quilting forum fun!

ive been having the best fun in the last couple of weeks on the quilting.about.com quilting forums.

the friendliest people participate and there are so many places to talk about different subjects.

ive taken up the "sew daily" challenge in the Challenge folder - a great way to try and just do 15 minutes a day, every day! hard to do, but manageable (i hope!)

this is what i managed to achieve in my 15 minutes today - i sewed the rest of the blush charm squares together!


then once the little human was asleep, i worked the lay-out out - i am happy with it! i think ill try and find 15 minutes tomorrow to start putting the strips together and iron the rest of the blocking rectangles for the parts in between the charm squares.






pugs and kisses
xx

FreeRice

non-crafty related blog entry alert! :)

i am passionate about many things as well as craft, and one of them is the poor and disadvantaged amongst us.
it can seem overwhelming at times as the problem is massive. but there are many ways to help with this, and i reckon it is important to do something - even if small.

the freerice button leads to a game where you can play a quiz. every question you get right donates rice to the UN World Food Programme - cool!
there are ads that run at the bottom of the quiz and this is how they pay for the rice they give.

anyhoo, have a go, help out a bit, and enjoy!

pugs and kisses
xx

Friday Night Sew In

just found out about the COOLEST thing! Friday Night Sew In! You can register at Handmade by Heidi's blog, or click on the button in my tool bar.

Friday 18 June is the next one, and she hasn't opened registrations yet - so you'll have to check back. Ill let you know when it is

will be great to sew knowing that everyone else is too! Join Up!

pugs and kisses
xx