Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Happy Christmas!

It is Christmas Eve here so I have hung by our fireplace {with care....} the QAYG Christmas stocking made using the fab Falling Flakes tutorial by Imagine Gnats . 
Hopefully in the morning this will have a little something special hiding in there:)
Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!
Linking to the 4th quarter FAL with Leanne @ She Can Quilt.
Kirsten.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

A "Secret Santa" Pillow.

For the past few days, I have been following along with the Cushion for Christmas blog hop hosted by Ms Midge - if you haven't already checked out all of these fabulous pillows then you can do so here.
So when we decided last week that we would do a "Secret Santa" gift swap among my husbands family for Christmas I thought that I would make a pillow for the secret recipient whom I happen to know loves giraffes:)
I already had a panel of Cori Dantini's "Hello World" fabric here with the cute giraffe print, and I used a selection of fabrics which had either some orange or yellow in them to include in the scrappy border.
I just did some simple echo quilting around the panel then trimmed the top back to finish at 18" 
The backing is a neutral calico-like fabric which has giraffes subtly printed on it in white.
I might have to make another one of these soon as it is perfect for lazing about in the hammock with a good book on a hot summers' day.
Ms Midge
Linking up with Ms Midge and Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory.
Fresh Poppy Design
Kirsten.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

We have a Winner!

Thanks to all those who entered the Sew Mama Sew giveaway!
After a quick consult with Mr Random.org, I am happy to announce the winner of the SMS giveaway.
Congratulations to Laurie who said:


117 
Laurie
I love black and white prints - trying to incorporate those more in my quilts.
I have emailed Laurie for her postal address and will be mailing the bundle off this week.
Kirsten.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway! *CLOSED*

Note: Giveaway now closed at 195 comments - winner announced shortly.

As part of the Sew,Mama,Sew Giveaway Day/week, I have a bundle of 6 FQ  to giveaway!
 These fabrics include a variety of different text prints in black, white, cream and blue.
  • I am more than happy to post internationally too, so please leave a comment below. If you like, let me know how you might use these text prints in a sewing project.
  • This competition closes at 5pm on Friday December 13th PST which according to the time converter is 12pm Saturday 14th December 2013 here in eastern Australia. 
  • The winner will be drawn randomly later on December 14th and contacted via email so if you think you may be a "no-reply" blogger then please leave an email address in your comment so that I can get in touch with you. (Note: there is a great tutorial here by Adrianne @ On The Windy Side about "How to Stop Being a No Reply Blogger" if you want to check it out!)
  • How to stop being a no-reply blogger
  • And usually I try to reply to comments but it gets a bit crazy with the Giveaway Days so I may not get back to everyone, but please know that I read and appreciate all of your comments.
Good luck and thanks for stopping by - hope to see you again!
Kirsten.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

WiP Wednesday/Thursday

I am a little late with this WiP post as we had thunderstorms rolling in all afternoon yesterday so it was too dark to take photos.
 This week I am trying to finish off the QAYG Christmas stocking as well as a birthday present.
I have used the Falling Flakes stocking tutorial by Imagine Gnats for the stocking and have all of the quilting done now.
And these pretty Millefiore fabrics have been sewn into strips to make a couple of scrappy trip along type blocks from.
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
Kirsten.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Catching up...

I started making the red and white feathers blocks for Belinda last week but have run out of some of the white solid for now, so immediately got started on the (now rather late) September blocks for Jules.
Julie sent a wonderful variety of colourful fabrics and asked for blocks finishing at 16.5" using this quilt as inspiration.
And these four are all 8.5" each -  this is going to be such a vibrant and fun quilt!
Fresh Poppy Design
Linking to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory.
Kirsten.


Monday, December 9, 2013

Christmas table runner

Late last week I received the Christmas runner from Leah (pugglelogic) for the DUDQS.
I love the trees at either end, and the stripey binding is perfect!
 Leahs dense quilting looks amazing - she added in a couple of these tiny quilted stars too.
I have our little Nativity tree on the runner for now...
And the other side is just right for my countdown tree. Thank you so much Leah for such a lovely runner.
Kirsten.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

WiP Wednesday

I have fallen a bit behind on some bee blocks from September and November but luckily December is a "bee-free" month so I am hoping to catch on them all in the coming days.
For the AusMod Bee, Belinda has sent out some lovely red and white fabrics for us to make her some of the Anna Maria Horner feathers blocks...
After a few hours work this afternoon, I have the feathers cut out ready for the white background. For those of you that were interested, one of the bee members organised these fabulous acrylic templates to be made by Lisa at Sunset  Seams - they make the cutting so much easier!
And I also managed to post off a couple of swap packages for the DUDQS4 yesterday:)
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
Kirsten.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Down Under Doll Quilt Swap

A couple of swap items are now ticked off my "to do" list!
This is the mini made for the DUDQS using the Scrappy Sprouts tutorial by Tracey at Tracey Jay quilts.
I chose to make it even scrappier by using different coloured fabrics on each side and it ends up just over 17 x 20".
Also done is the Christmas Table runner for the same swap which finished at 16 x 48". I echo quilted this and bound it in a red and white stripe that reminded me of peppermint candy canes.
Just need to add in a few little extras before I mail these off early next week.


Fresh Poppy Design
Linking to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory. Kirsten.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Off to the Ball...

Over the past few months my daughter and her friends have been busy with her HSC exams, and after they were all finished last week the students attended their much anticipated Year 12 Graduation Ball.
The students usually organise some type of fancy or unusual transport to arrive at the formal 
(stretch limousines, hummers, fire trucks, boat trailers, horse and cart, even a double decker red London Bus etc...) and then walk up the "red carpet" surrounded by fellow students, friends and families.
We hired this lovely old 1928 Model A Ford locally - it has been fully restored but now has a V8 engine so we could hear it coming up our street!
The jacarandas always flower here at exam time (late Oct/ early Nov) and although there are not many still flowering this late in November we did find one to take a photo under. 
Gemma has had a minty/aqua coloured dress in mind for a while now and found this dress on a US site "Promgirl". It was really beautiful and even with alterations it cost much less than we would pay here as most of the formal dresses come from the US anyway! 
And her partner managed to find an embroidered shirt to wear which suited the vintage car perfectly.
We had thunderstorms and even hail every afternoon in the week leading up to the formal, so were lucky the rain held off until later that evening so we could take a few photos.
 And lastly a family pic - after a fairly busy day with hair, nails and makeup, we had a wonderful evening
The day before the formal I received these gorgeous flowers from my family as a "thank you" which was a lovely surprise - I am quite sure that when the boys graduate in 3 years time, that it will be a lot less stressful! 
Kirsten.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

X factor pillow swap: X and + pillow

Last week I showed you the beautiful pillow I received from Brooke (Pitter Putter Stitch) in the X factor pillow swap, so now I thought that I would share more on the pillow I made now that it has reached it's new home at Pam's place. 
This round had a Low Volume theme and at first I thought that I would not have enough LV fabrics to make a pillow from...
Then I decided to sew some X and + blocks which was also the bee block I chose for my round of the Simply Solids Bee earlier this year.
I made 4 blocks which finished at 10" each using a tutorial from Ariane quilts, with some linen to make the "+" part of the block as I really like the texture the linen adds. Then I just did some simple straight line/echo quilting.
For the back I used a cute dotty bird print and the pillow was finished off with a grey stripey binding ending up at 20" square.
I have participated in all 7 rounds of this fab swap and have recieved such a wonderful variety of pillows from the following lovely ladies: Low Volume pillow from Brooke (Pitter PutterStitch), Cocktail Party pillow from Rachel(woodenspoon),Broken chain pillow from Cottilello, Hexie pillow from Amy (AmySewVT),  Fractured Jet Lag pillow  from Stephanie (spontaneous threads), Squares pillow from Leanne @shecanquilt,Circle squared pillow - Lisa (incorgiable2). (PS: the Scottie dog and owl aren't from the X factor swap but are up there to keep an eye on the pillows to make sure the kids don't throw them on the floor, as they are not usually lined up this neatly).
And these are the pillows I have sent off in return. The next theme is "Log cabin and Text" and is not due until 25th January 2014 so there is plenty of time to get sewing if you would like to join in.
Fresh Poppy Design
Linking to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory.
Kirsten.