Something way too exciting.

I will start by saying I have always been a bit jealous of ladies who have a history of quilting in their families. They have quilts their mums and grandmas and even their great-grandmas made. The quilting tradition passed down through the family with tales of family quilting bees etc. How great would that be ? As far as I knew I was the only quilter in my large family - my mum was one of 8 children and my dad one of 6. I once worked out I have 43 first cousins - nearly all of whom have married and had children themselves.



Anyway 3 of my mums sisters emigrated in the 1950's. Two of them have since passed away. But my Auntie Lal lives in Australia and I recently met her when she came over for Christmas. There is my mum, auntie Lal and my uncle Len left now. My uncle and mum arranged a surprise party for auntie Lal. If you like you can read about it here. I so much enjoyed meeting her - she is a lovely, lovely lady.



Whilst chatting one day at my mums house with my auntie she gave me the exciting news that her daughter and grand-daughter were quilters too. Hurray - my very own quilting relatives - lol ! Just before auntie Lal returned to Australia - a bit later than planned because of the snow - I made up a couple of fat quarter bundles for my cousins. I popped in a little card with my email and blog addresses. At the weekend I had something very exciting happen - emails from my cousins Sarah and her mum Gail and guess what ? They are bloggers too !! So cool - unknown bloggy cousins. Here are their addresses Sarah and Gail. I've also had emails from Sarahs SIL Roseanne and a friend Isabella. I'm way too excited to meet these ladies and you know a funny thing - whilst reading through the comments on Sarahs blog a lot of these are my bloggy friends too. Amazing !


Onto quilting - in my last post I mentioned digging out a UFO. This one - which was made from leftover strips I'd cut for a piano key border from another quilt.



After a bit of applique - simple borders and even simpler quilting it's done.






Here's a bit of a close-up of the stripy binding.





Turned out well and although it doesn't have a home yet I'm sure I'll find some-one who would like it. Neighbours had a baby last week and had it have been a girl would have been ideal. But not to be - they had a little boy.



Actually one of my cats seems to love this and keeps snuggling up on it wherever I put it. Too nice for a moggy I keep telling him - lol !


Lastly thankyou so much for all your lovely comments over Jess's troubles. I must say I had to blink hard when reading through them. What smashing people you all are. Now the worst case scenario has been ruled out I'm hopeful we will find out the cause - we are definitely looking into Celiac disease as suggested by Howdy and a few others. I have discovered there are a couple in the family who have this.


With a bit of luck I have few hours uninterrrupted sewing time ahead. I have beef stew and dumplings in the oven for our evening meal - yum !


Take care xx

Well.....

If you've been reading here for a while you'll know this is first and foremost a quilting blog. I don't post much personal stuff at all. But I want to share something that may explain why I've been so quiet lately. If you're not interested skip to the pictures a bit further on.


My daughter Jess ( 18 yo ) has been having a few medical problems lately. To put it bluntly she has been passing large amounts of blood from her bowels. So we have been busy back and to the hospital and doctors for some time. Blood tests came back clear. So then she had to have an endoscopy - small camera placed you know where. Still inconclusive. Next step was biopsies testing for cancerous cells. Then a wait for results. I have been a wreck and unable to concentrare on much. Anyway I'm sure you'll understand the sheer relief we felt when they came back normal. I feel so thankful - it is a huge weight lifted I can tell you. Although we still do not know what is causing the bleeding at least it is not what it could have been. So happy I could cry - in fact I have - rivers !!


So - onto my sewing - been doing a little. Found a nice little wallhanging pattern in this book.


Here it is.








Just summed up how I've been feeling lately. There seems to be so much bad news lately - the bush fires in Australia are so shocking beyond belief. ( I am waiting for payday to make a donation.) Sometimes I think people look at our hobby as if we are mad - they just don't get it. But I'm feeling that if we get pleasure from doing something in this occasionally terrible world of ours it can only be a good thing.


Here are the first couple of bom from Ellies quilt place. I don't think I'm embroidering the months names - may do something else.




Now I've got all that off my chest I'm going to dig out a UFO and put a bit of applique on it. One of the things I want to do this year is lose my fear of applique. That and grow my nails - lol ! Jess is doing a college course in Beauty Therapy and has booked me in for a manicure. I have always been a nail nibbler and you would not believe how hard I am trying to stop. Bad habit I know.


Take care xx

Busy NOT quilting !

Boo hoo - poor me. I've worked my fingers to the bone these last few days but NO sewing at all. It all started when Jess (18yo) decided she'd had enough of climbing the ladder into her cabin bed that she'd had for a few years. So she ordered herself a new double bed and then went the whole hog and wanted a complete re-decorate in her room. The bed was supposed to be delivered in 7-28 days so the website said. Plenty of time........ Then we had a call to say it was in stock and could be delivered in 5 days...


Heres where good old mum came in - lol ! So I have spent the last few days dismantling Jess's huge metal bed - walking across the landing to re-assemble it in Patricks room where previously I had dismantled his cabin bed and sorted out all his half ton of toys. Then we got to painting Jess's room - working our way around the furniture that is already in there etc. I am whacked. The new bed has arrived this morning and we are all straight now. Patricks bed has been freecycled and I managed to squeeze in an extra table into mine and Jasons room. This will be ideal for cutting out my fabrics. Honestly it is looking more and more like a sewing room with a bed plonked in the middle - lol !!


Anyway without further ado just look at my gorgeous mini quilt from Carolyn.


I love it so much - wonderful work and so sweet. Here's a close-up of the pretty fabrics and tiny, tiny little stitches.





The book has been read and much enjoyed.


The only thing missing from the picture is the chocolate covered pretzels that Carolyn warned me were addictive. You know what - she was right - lol ! I just couldn't leave them alone til the lot were gone. So yumptious...


As you will gather I'm behind on all sorts of things but they are in hand so if you're expecting something from me I'm onto it.


Paula has signed up for my PIF but I'm still hoping for another 2 to sign up.


Now I'm off to do some sewing so I've actually got something to blog about soon. Take care xx

Pay it forward

I rrecently signed up for another round of the PIF thing working its way around blogland. I have done this once before and enjoyed it so here we go again.

I signed up on Rachels blog and here's how it goes if you don't already know. For the first 3 people who sign up for this I will make a hand-made gift. There is no great rush as the rules say this can be within the next 365 days. I will definitely try and do this sooner. Whoever signs up needs to do the same - i.e post on their blog and make gifts for 3 people. Anyone interested ?

Rachel very kindly gave me an award too. I have tried to post the picture here but for some technical reason am unable to. I would ask DH but I don't want a 2 hour explanation - lol ! Thanks Rachel - I will do my best to carry this on soon if I get time. Busy doing some re-organising of the kids bedrooms which started off small but has escalated.

Next post I will show my lovely quilt and gifts from Carolyn in our swap.

If anyone is interested in the pattern for the hexagon sewing box please email me.

Swaps

Look at my fantastic bag I got from Fiona as part of our little belated Christmas swap. It is so lovely - I am very pleased to have it. I think I will use this as my wip bag - ready packed with some hexagons and thread etc so I am never stuck for something to do when I'm waiting about in the car. The fabrics are very pretty and the handles just make it.

It was full of gorgeous goodies - all wrapped up beautifully.

Thanks Fiona - definitely a case of better late than never. My fault we were late as that blinking flu wiped me out for 3 weeks.

And here's my little quilt I made for Carolyn. She has it now so I am safe.

Just after I posted it I realised one of the little extra gifts had wandered off and so I will be sending that on this week.

I am still working on my Double Delight. As I thought because I decided to make extra blocks I was going to be short of the brown fabric. But fear not Karol-Ann came to the rescue as she had some in her stash and kindly sent me some. As Patrick would say - cheers big ears - lol !

I have more to say but no time now. See you soon .

Here is my version of Bonnies latest mystery quilt. As you see I largely went with her colour choices but changed the 9-patches from pink to blue. Fingers crossed it turns out as lovely as some of the others I've seen. I originally decided not to make such a large quilt so thought I would make half the amount of blocks - 15 instead of 30. But now I've changed my mind and am doing 24. I THINK I have enough of the dark brown fabric - it will be close. I have loads more of all the others. The indigos were a gift from Karol-Ann . And I have been biding my time waiting for something special to use them in. Hopefully I will get a lot more done this week.

Whilst doing the obligatory New Year sort out of my sewing stuff I came across a small pile of abandoned hexagons - ready basted and all. So stitched them together and appliqued them onto this stripy stuff ready to hand-quilt. Not sure what this will be - maybe a table mat. At least they'll be used. Can't remember what they were originally intended for.

And here is what I made Fiona for our swap. I think she liked it - lol !

Which opens into this

Although a bit fiddly they are nice to make.

I am all out of time and need to shift myself. I am going to try and post a little more often - as with us all time is our enemy.

See you soon x

I'm still here . .

but don't seem to be getting much time to post. I have a few things to share but for now I'm just trying out some new camera software so the next picture is just a test. It's my naughty kitty - Tizer..

I have my swaps posted so hopefully I can show pictures soon. I am sewing away on Bonnie's mystery quilt. I'm currently on part 3. Do you think I resisted looking ahead ? No chance - lol !