My Latest Obsession

My habit of not letting a project sit around long is continuing.  I embarked on my Swoon quilt a week ago, and as of this afternoon, I have six finished blocks and four half finished blocks - which essentially means I am almost 3/4 of the way done!  Hoorah!

My body is not shouting Hoorah however.  This chain piecing and assembling really does take it out on your body.  Oh and not to mention the hours spent at the iron, pressing HST's and geese!  But oh well, I'm pretty damn impressed with my progress......

I've managed to fussy cut quite a few of the centre blocks, but I am using fat quarters, and it gets a bit tricky trying to get all the pieces required cut, and managing to leave a 6.5" block of perfection!

Now, given that this will be the first queen size quilt I have made, I am wondering how I am going to quilt it, or if I will even be able to manage it?  I have a beautiful Bernina, however, I already wrestle with single bed quilts, so thinking my muscles may not be up for the challenge.  I've discussed it a little with the lovely quilters in QCA, and have been told to look up Quilt as You go.  Which I still haven't!  The other option is sending the quilt off when it's finished to be quilts by a long arm.  Still a little bit of time to decide, but I am open to suggestions - so fire away!

I'm apologising warning you now - you will see many a blog post from here onwards until this quilt is finished!

I'm linking up with W.I.P. Wednesday - You can too!

W.I.P. Wednesday - A New Project to Swoon Over

Many months ago I bought my much loved FQ bundle of Notting Hill.  It has sat ever so patiently on my shelf, just waiting for me to decide what to do with it and how.  It was bought specifically to make a queen size quilt for mine and my husband's bed.  But I couldn't find a pattern or design I liked enough to cut in to it.  Until last week, when it occurred to me just how much I love the Swoon quilts I'd seen.  So yesterday, when I ran the idea past some quilty friends and they said "HELL YES" I bit the bullet and bought the pattern - and half an hour later I was cutting fabric.  By the end of the day, I had these two beautiful blocks as a start......

Please excuse the HORRIFIC photos - I've just got home from a date night with my husband and only had these IG photos to pull off the computer!

I'm glad I only cut two blocks out to start, as it's been great to learn how the fabrics are going to make or break the blocks.  The one on the left is perfect in my eyes - colour wise.  But the one on the right, well it's a little too green, I wanted the red to be the stand out.  So it will leave me thinking harder about the remaining 10 blocks!  Yep, I'm making 12 to bring the quilt up to the size I want.

I haven't been this excited about a project for a while, and I think it's going to be great for me to do during the school holidays, because I can't really start much without having to stop for one or four of the kids wanting me for something!

Anyway, that's my quick little WIP!  Stay tuned - I'm sure you'll see these blocks featured in many more posts!

I'm linking up with W.I.P. Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced - You can too!

A Fresh Sewing Day Debut

After weeks of procrastination, I pulled out some fabric on Saturday to start on a gift for a very close friend of mine.  And then I changed my mind - a million times over.  So I cleaned the house.  And then when I was ready to think about starting again, the teenager called to say he'd stacked his BMX and had cut himself open!  I relinquished the thought of getting anything done for the rest of the weekend as I sat watching him get stitches whilst he played on his phone.  Yep, times have changed.

Anyway, today I pulled out the wonky star pieces I had managed to cut out, scrapped the other bits I'd started putting together, and used the KISS method (keep it simple stupid).  

Because I'm hoping this cushion will give some comfort to the recipients, I made it European size - approximately 23" square. So it's a big mumma!  The best part about that is there was LOTS of room for creativity on the free motion front.  And this is how it turned out.....

I decided on swirls, and added four small stars to represent family members.  I really enjoy this kind of pattern, it's quite cathartic, and for me - very unplanned and fluid.

I love the way the silver/grey Aurifil thread shines off the navy blue fabric.  Yes, it does show up any "imperfections" in the quilting, but the shine makes up for that!

My next dilemma came with the backing fabric choice.  I had originally chosen a navy and white chevron, but then found this Michael Miller that's been sitting on the shelf for a year or so.  I put it out to my IG friends, and the lovely Alyce voted for this - so that it was!  I'm soooo glad I went with it!  It's also bound in the same print.

I've never been nervous as such about gifting my handiwork, but this is a really special gift, for a really special person (which for obvious reasons I can't go in to now, in case they're reading this post!).  And I really am just hoping it's okay.

So this is day one of the school holidays - and I managed to get this done.  Hooray for play dates and quiet children.

Today I'm linking up with Lily's Quilts - Fresh Sewing Day - for the first time!  If you're new to my blog, have a look around and feel free to leave me some feedback!

T.G.I.F.F. - June Bee Blocks

I've had a reasonably productive week - especially considering I had my four year old niece on Tuesday and spent only half days home yesterday and today!  Winning!  I decided I would get on to the June Bee Blocks - seeing as though there's only a couple of days left in the month.....

This is the block I chose for my month as Queen in the paper piecing bee I am a part of.  When I saw Quilt Jane had made this block in to a quilt, I was in love.  And then spent many weeks thinking how I could "make the block mine"?  With a bit of brain storming with The Wombat Stew girls, and some printing out of patterns, sticky taping and colouring in - I was able to interpret how I would like the blocks to be made.  And I'm pretty darn happy!  Three of the girls have finished their blocks, and they are going to look UH-mazing!  I still am undecided what I will be making from the blocks, but watch this space....

Yesterday I finally tackled Lisa's Herringbone block from the QCA Bee #5.  I'd read the tutorial a million times and really could not make much sense of it!  So bit the bullet and got down to the task at hand.  And was still muddled.  After much turning of rulers and double checking I was doing things correctly, I figured it out.  And I must say, these blocks are striking!

I know I showed you this finish on Tuesday, but I couldn't help myself from sharing again today!  Isn't she sweet?

I'm linking up with T.G.I.F.F, being hosted by the lovely Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts  AND Kristy's Paper Piecing Party over at Quiet Play -  You can too!

Little Red Riding Hood - From My Magic Scrap Bags

I've written so many times about the love I have for my scrap bags.  The bags of leftovers I kept from little clothing collections I made.  Well, today I cracked open my Little Red Riding Hood stash!  I had a cushion to make (I know - another cushion!) and the recipient is a little girl, so what better?

I kid you not, when I say that the entire cushion front is made from pieces out of this bag.....

I only had to break in to the substantial amount of yardage I have for the backing.  And on that note - do you ever forget that you have some amazing fabrics on your shelves?  I mean, seriously, I have nearly all the fabrics in this range - and at least a yard of each???  What the - - - - - - quilt incoming.......

I digress.  Here is the divine little cushion all finished and photographed this evening!

I questioned whether to use the red in the design, however, some of my Instagram friends helped me out and said HELL YES!  I'm so glad they did.  Love. It.

LOVE this little toadstool print!  Finished the back off with an enclosed zipper.  And yes, you can see writing through the back here - I failed to realise that when I photographed it, the cushion I grabbed off the lounge to stuff inside would become visible!  Whoops!

And a little close up of my first attempt at little flowers.  Another free motion quilting experiment, that worked!  I used ye old faithful Aurifil 50wt for quilting, because really, nothing else quite does the job like it!

I threw the design of this together myself, just cutting out the squares 4.5" and then all of the strips and borders are 2", which gave me an 18" finished cushion.  Perfecto!

I'm linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday  - You can too!

Fiji - A Review of Sorts!

A little over a week ago, I was sitting in a hammock, reading a great book and listening to the sound of gentle waves lapping at the shore.  The only thing that could remotely annoy me were the ever present "mozzies", but even they were easily tamed with some local insect repellant.  My husband and I had seven whole days of peace and tranquility.  We had relaxation overload.  We met new friends and learnt a lot about different cultures.  It was an experience that I shall never forget, and one that I would most eagerly repeat, time and time again.  Our "honeymoon" we had waited almost ten years for, was amazing.  So here is my "sharing is caring" post - and a review of sorts - if only to get you all to visit this little peace of heaven!  Enjoy....

Leaving Melbourne at 2am was never going to be ideal, and try as I may, I could not get a wink of sleep!  So we landed in Nadi a bit worse for wear.  Greeted by a lovely driver, we jumped in his car and took a delightful slightly hair raising two and a half hour drive up the coast.  From there, it was a 30 minute boat ride, across the seas to a little island called Beqa.  And on that island was our destination - Lalati Resort & Spa.  Thankfully, we had these beautiful coconut drinks and a foot massage to greet us!  Oh, and singing and smiles from the local staff. 

This was the view from our room.  Literally steps away from the beach.  The sound at night, of the gentle high tide waves, was beautiful.

Looking out to the jetty from the social hub of the resort.  When I say social, I mean it's here that you can sit around with any or all of the other 16 guests.  Yep, the most guests at this resort at any one time is 18.  And I think that's what makes it so. damn. special.  Oh, and the fact there's no children - which was perfect for all the honeymooners and late honeymooners like ourselves!  You can slip in to the water from the jetty and snorkle to your heart's content.  We saw so many beautiful fish there and amazing big blue starfish!

My husband - just hanging around.

Some of the wonderful staff - Ollie, Josiah and Chantal.  They all live in surrounding villages on the island.  And they were all gorgeous souls!  Josiah was most impressed that I could upload a photo for him to Facebook - so he now has a profile pic!

On our fifth day, Josiah took us on a visit to his village - Lalati village.  It's only a five minute walk from the resort, but it was like stepping back a bit in time.  EVERYONE wore a smile.  And the kids were just divine!  We all had a hoot taking photos, singing and dancing.  Unforgettable.

And on this visit, we took a look inside their church.  Fijians are quite a religious bunch, with churches in each village.  This gorgeous little piece of handwork was inside, so I had to get a photo!

This is me with Captain Josiah after I'd been snorkelling.  We took a boat trip out to the middle of the ocean and were dropped on to the reefs.  To say I was shitting myself would be an understatement, but I sucked it up and relaxed.  It paid off.  We saw reef sharks and amazing fish.  The coral was beautiful.

And this is us with a local firewalker.  Yep, these fellas are known for their ability to walk on hot rocks that have been burning for seven hours.  Not even a flinch!

Excuse the grainy photo from my iphone, but this little cherub kept me company during a Kava drinking and dancing ceremony in the village! We had lots of fun taking photos!

There was no escaping patchwork for me!  This darling skirt was offered to me to wear when we went on a hike up a mountain to a beautiful waterfall.  We had to walk through another village to get there, and the local women do not wear pants, only skirts, so to show our respect, we had to wear skirts over our pants whilst walking through.  Certainly doesn't go with my runners!

And this my friends?  This is a photo of two extremely relaxed and re-juvinated human beings!  I took it just before we departed the island and headed back to the mainland.

I left Lalati with more than I came with.  Not in terms of possessions, but my heart was full.  The people I met and the places we visited just re-itereated to me how bloody lucky I am.  And how much "stuff" we have.  We left some of our stuff over there.  Basically because they needed it more than we do.  I wish I could have had the foresight to have taken lots more with us.

So there you have it.  A destination that I would strongly suggest you all get to one day!  

Have you been on a holiday lately?  Where would you suggest we dream of going to next?

Sunday Stash #18 - The Intrepid Thread strikes again!

I made the very smart decision a couple of years ago to follow The Intrepid Thread on Facebook.  And via Newsletter.  And......well, you get the picture.  It's a fabulous online store, and Julie is always throwing in a special here and there!  A couple of weeks ago she had a bunch of fabric on sale, Notting Hill being one of them.  I had a slight kinniption, and NEEDED to order some yardage for the backing of the quilt I am yet to make!  I've had my FQ bundle of Notting Hill patiently waiting for me to choose a pattern - which I am still yet to do - for quite some time now.  And now I have the backing and binding ready too.

Julie throws in a couple of cute charm squares with her orders.

Whilst I was at it, I thought I best fill up the envelope to make the most of the shipping I would be paying on my eight yards.  So I bought the FQ bundle of Indian Summer which I used immediately in THIS QUILT.  I also got a FQ bundle of Kona Modern Quilts.  And when I mentioned in QCA that I was ordering from Julie, Molli popped up and said if I needed help filling that envelope, he would surely be able to help!  So there's five half yards of Notting Hill there too!

The only other additions to my stash this past week have been metres of homespun.  They were used immediately also - which my shelves are thanking me for.

I'm linking up with Sunday Stash at Finding Fifth - You can too!