Heat = Slow

Well I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas  - Ours was the usual busy mayhem, but much enjoyed and the kids more than happy. I think I enjoy Easter more, is that very Bah Hum Bug of me?. With School finishing and having our summer break, then shopping and preparing for christmas food and the usual kaos - Im very happy to sit down on the 27th December and Relax, possibly read a book? and add to that 30c + weather. Ok I'll stop my complaining :)

Above is a Beautiful bunch of Christmas Bush that my Lovely Father gave to me on Christmas Day, The other half of the bunch was put on my Mothers Grave, she passed away 2 years ago - she loved christmas and always made sure we had some christmas bush in the house - Its a nice reminder that Christmas should be a bit more about our Family and friends, My special quiet time on the 27th Dec is a nice time to reflect relax and enjoy my Family. 

On a quilting note the Fantastic Kim Bradley has finished machine quilting my two quilts and I picked them up today - Im hoping to take them with me on our family holiday up the NSW Central Coast to finish off the binding. Must say I am very Happy with Katie's Quilt. I think its fresh and colourful with just a little quirky-ness with the tea cups.

Today is a scorcher at 32c so far and I'm sure as the day goes it will get hotter and tomorrow is predicted at 40c ! Thankfully we have a pool and a big shady tree, so thats me and the kids sorted.

Thats it for me - This Year anyway.

 New Years Eve for me will entail a walk down to our local park with the kids at 9pm to watch some Sydney Harbour fireworks and later a Small beverage with the husband at midnight to toast our year that has been and our year to come.


Love and Best wishes to you all and thanks to everyone who helped and supported me this year (you know who you are)

Xx

Scrappy Quilt - Quick update

Final quilt for now - I think....at least till christmas is over 

What do you Think?

I love a scrappy quilt, might be a bit of a fiddle - but it uses all the much loved bits of fabric and looks great 

Hope your all getting your christmas stuff done (unlike me)

Xx

Can't Keep secrets

Im awful at keeping things to myself, especially when it comes to keeping projects quiet, I get so excited about them that I cant help talk about them or show pictures of them - this is one I have been holding onto for a while. I thought I did really well considering I started the design process some months ago.
 I was going to wait till it was quilted and binding done, but i just couldn't wait.
I designed all the fabric myself and had it digitally printed then designed a quilt to really show up the Text in the fabric.
I Love it and I am very very happy with it. If you look closely the Text is actually the names of my kids and the numbers are their dates of Birth.
I'm going to start making these for people, Custom printed fabric with Text of your choice then made into a heirloom quilt. 

This is the back of the Text Quilt, I added a bit of Yellow to it.
 This one is going to be Machine quilted and I have designed the pattern which is going to be used to quilt it - I'll be very excited to see this one finished.

Im still waiting on one tiny bit of fabric to finish this baby off, I have five squares done, just need to finish and add the sixth square and then it's done!
I have enough fabric to make this one two more times in single bed size, so give me a yell if your interested, usually takes me a month to fill an order. I really like the colour combination in this one.

Thats me done for the weekend - slowly but surely catching up and finishing

Waiting Waiting

I'm not always good at waiting - actually I'm not good at all at waiting. I have three projects on the go and all three are missing the final bits of material, which luckily I tracked down and am now waiting on. I have my Text quilt, the girly pink and linen and my wonky crosses ....... all waiting to be finished. Christmas time really is a tricky time to get things done! post is slow - shops are busy and my Favourite Machine quiltest (not sure thats a word) is very busy.

So onto another project!! that is not at all christmas related (did I mention I haven't done any christmas shopping?). I do like the idea of a spotty quilt.

Onto the much discussed boy Quilt, I've sorted all my boy Fabrics and I'm kinda surprised..... Didn't know I had so many.

and this is it i think?
What do you think?
I'm not usually a yellow person but I think Im going to try it,That dark fabric is a grey but it's come out too dark in the picture.
I'll keep you posted on how it's going and Promise I will try to finish my other three quilts, not to mention the binding of two other single bed quilts. although I did finish one single bed yesterday - 4hrs of binding and very happy it's done and ready for use.
Please tell me Im not the only one who has unfinished projects coming out my ears.....

Xx

Been Busy

I have been kinda busy......... But more with kids and life than quilts. 


We had our last day of Pre-School today for Miss 4 - hence the Reindeer Feed, and tomorrow School is finished for the year hence the 100 bags of Reindeer Poo* for the older kids to share with friends. 
I also made white chocolate tree's, 50 to be exact - for the staff who look after all the above mentioned kids. White Chocolate with pistachio nuts turkish delight and coconut. 


I did as you can see make 1 tea towel........ not that great considering I have 12 more to make, oh well - Maybe tomorrow.


Xx


*(not Poo - actual chocolate melted with lots of lollies) 

Coming up Roses

My quilting may not being up to date - but my roses are looking Fab! I love this one its called the sunset rose.


I did a bit of sewing today - but frankly it was way too HOT! 30c and steamy - not quilting weather at all. 
I'm at a stand still with both my current projects - Im waiting on material because as usual Im short by just a little......
I put in my order last night with one of my Fav online Fabric shops http://www.pinkchalkfabrics.com/ they always have a great supply and ship really quickly.
I also did a bit of a sort of all my fabrics (most of which I had forgotten about). Boy quilt is definitely next - No flowers or pink aloud (my 6yr olds rules).


Xx

The answer is blowing in the wind

When I start a new project i usually have some idea of the general shape, I determine size (King size, single bed, throw etc). I'll then have a look at my Material and figure the best way to show the fabric.

Some fabric's are beautiful on their own and don't need much else - others need a mix up.
I tend to experiment with a block - cut up material and lay it out - see how it all works together. I also find taking some photos of the material mix helps me to map it all out or see what might be missing.

This is my current (or I should say one of the many) project. I wanted to show up the beautiful small patterns on the two pink materials with some simple lovely linen.

I decided on 2.5inch strips to show off the detailed pattern and anchoring these fabrics with a 6inch square of Linen in the middle and eventually linen surrounding the squares and being the base fabric.

This is what I did last night and Im planning on doing 6 squares all up, I really find it  "extremely" helpful taking Pictures as I go and looking at it on my computer screen. Its also a nice way of tracking progress and having a photo log of the process.
Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I always have my camera out!
Natural light is great for looking at the colours and just checking that the colours are right.
Our good old Hills Hoist clothes line is perfect for my decision making, not only is it one of Australia's most successful inventions it's also my out door design tool - it answers many of my design dilemma's.

as I said in an earlier post Im stashing fabrics for some more boyish quilts, whilst Im collecting I find it helpful to take a picture of what I have, That way I can look at what goes or doesn't go. Its also a good thing to have with you when your out and about and buying more fabric to try and add to what you have rather than buying a whole new scheme (which I may also be guilty of.....)





Well back to work for me
Xx Siobhan

Christmas is coming - quick!

 Well this weekend marked the start of the silly season for us, drinks on friday night - dinner on saturday night and community christmas concert tonight at the local park with the kids. Our Tree has been positioned (although not decorated as yet) and the smell of our fresh pine tree is wafting through the house.
I do love christmas, but with little ones I find it a lot of work........ I keep telling myself that the kids will get bigger and help eventually.... wont they?


On that note Im not powering through my projects as expected but I did pop into Material Obsession yesterday to check out "swap day" (which I was too late for at 3:30pm - oops).


I have been on the look out and collecting Boy fabric, and sitting in the fat quarter box where these lovelies and of course I couldn't resist just one more bright pink to add to the growing collection.........


Hopefully this week Im far more productive
Xx

My Precious ............

I was building this with all the scraps from Katie's Quilt but then decided it looked to good all on its own - so Voila a new quilt front! Im enjoying the idea of just sew things together,  Im usually a bit of a stickler for uniformity. Im very interested to see what it looks like all quilted and with binding...........

and here we have a sneak peak at my current project, using my most saved pink paisley fabric - I bought it about 2 years ago from Tessuti Fabrics and thankfully bought 3 meters worth - but still once its used its used!!!!
It can be sad and exciting using up a Fav Fabric especially when you know it cant be bought again. Im being extra cautious cutting this one - no room for error (I've probably just cursed myself)

I have a terrible (or wonderful) habit of buying lots of fabric for all sorts of projects which may or may not transpire. I know this is a common issue. 
My Nanna has a fantastic sewing room filled wall to ceiling of boxes of fabric - I have a feeling Im headed in the same direction.........


Well here is to a good day - hope all thats on your list gets done, my list keeps carrying over to the next day (and possibly week!)


Im thinking of a quilt along - What do you think?


Xx Siobhan

Catch up on the last few months......

Earlier this year I headed up a project for our local school , here are some images and one of the Magazine articles we managed to get.

Tree of Life Quilt

Here are two quilts that I did for a friend who had twins, I asked for friends to do blocks and put it all together.

Baby Nicholas Welcome Quilt

My poor little machine doing some binding

and this is Katie's Quilt! I have just put it into be machine quilted by Kim Bradley. I'm writing the pattern as we speak!!

There are many many more quilts for the last few months - Ill get onto loading an album I promise.


Lots to catch up on and many many projects to share!!


Xx Siobhan