Meet Blossom

A little while ago I showed you this:


Well, please be the first to meet...
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Blossom!

After the wandering around the incubator section of the stitches and craft show earlier this year I was inspired to start creating my own softies. While Blossom did not turn out exactly as I had pictured, it is exciting to see something come to life from my own vision. And I really enjoyed not following a pattern and just sewing on the fly!

You never know what friends may be waiting for her at the bottom of the garden...!

what's hot + what's not

Seems only yesterday I wrote the last one, but it's what's hot + what's not time again!

What's hot

Having a cat who runs to the door when you get home from work and reaches up like a child for you to pick him up for cuddles. It's a nice welcome home each night

Body attack classes - at first I thought they were a strange form of torture (and sometimes I still do), but I am slowly becoming addicted to them. They definitely get me going of a morning.

This one is kind of hot and kind of not - A year of volunteering coming to an end - and actually noticing that a difference has been made. I have been part of a youth mentoring program this year, which has been both tough and very rewarding. We now only have the graduation night of the program left and while I am sad, I am thrilled that the girls have done so much and come so far this year.

What's not

having a cat the meows for breakfast at 5am. My alarm goes off at 5:30 - why can't he wait an extra 30 mins?

My sewing machine having not come out of it's bag for 2 weeks now (although it is about to come out. I have to 'pimp' a labcoat for a colleague that is leaving on Friday!)

My best-friend living overseas. She has been in France for over a year now and I miss her dearly. I miss our coffee dates and sitting on the couch with quilts and cups of tea and chatting into the night.


Check out Loobylu's page for more lists

no sewing?

because there has been too much cooking...!


This is the second Sunday in a row that I have spent almost entirely in the kitchen. My goodies from the last 2 weeks have included a couple of loaves of seeded light rye bread

Pizza

Banana toffee pie

Coconut and dark chocolate bread

and lemon polenta cakes

And there's still a veal and mushroom pie for tonight's dinner and lemon meringue pie for dessert.

The diet starts tomorrow...!

Crochet anyone?

I'm thinking of trying once again to learn how to crochet. Mainly because of this gorgeous blanket. I have tried teaching myself through you tube videos, but I just can't get the hang of it...

There is a class in the city next month... maybe I will sign up for it

What's Hot + What's Not

Inspired by Looby Lu, I give you:

What’s hot...

Redwork stitching on calico a la Kootoyoo's The Quilt Project. Inspired by these totally amazing stitcheries, I traced my own this morning and got started on the train to work.

Reliving our recent Europe trip by sharing photos with my workmates. The picture above is of my our early morning shadows in Herepian, France, with my Mother-in-law in the distance.

Homemade dulche de leche on ice-cream – I made a caramel toffee pie on Sunday and we still have some left-over caramel in the fridge - yum yum yum!

Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge – I am going this Saturday with a bunch of very excited young ladies. Hopefully the sun will shine for us.

Winning a huge meat tray at the pub a few weeks ago. Tonight we are having porterhouse steaks for dinner and there are still many more meals in the freezer.

What’s not…

My bobbin thread continually breaking while free motion quilting – it is driving me crazy! That, together with my issues quilting straight lines (which has been suggested to be a problem with my feeddogs), indicates that my sewing machine is probably in need of a service. Bummer.

Not enough hours in the day – I am really busy at work currently so the only stitching that is being done at the moment is on the train to and from work. I’m really hoping I don’t have to go into work this weekend like I did last Saturday.

Work in general… it is beyond frustrating at the moment for a multitude of reasons… If only I could make enough money at home doing my sewing. Although I suspect that would require me to be a fair bit more creative than I actually am. Maybe I could sew samples for a shop - how much fun would that be! How do I get that gig?

For other what's hot + what's not lists, check out LoobyLu’s page

To my sister...

who is moving to London tomorrow...

We'll miss you lots
xxx

To do list...

find some backing material for this one:


and this one...
and finish quilting this one...


It looks to be a fun weekend!

windmills in the wind

I've been terribly slack with posting a picture of my latest quilt - but I finally got outside this afternoon to take some shots and after battling the wind, I got a couple of good ones! And I thought it would be a good entry for the Park City Girl Fall/Autumn Quilt Festival.

I started this quilt a little while ago - during Easter this year actually. I found the white tulip print material in Melbourne when I was there for Christmas last year and knew it would be great in our lounge room which is predominantly blue. After free motion quilting my first quilt over Easter, I got very inspired and starting cutting fabric up for this one immediately. And now it is finally done.

It was quilted by Belinda of Eucalypt Ridge Quilting and I just love how it turned out - thankyou so much Belinda!

I didn't want to buy any extra fabric - hence the pieced back, but I am glad I did it now. It makes the quilting a real feature and I love it almost as much as the front.

And now I am off to snuggle underneath it on the couch and watch the first season of Grey's Anatomy - I love Sundays!

Make sure you pop over here and check out all the other AMAZING quilts in the quilt festival! And grab a cuppa first!

Welcome Lily!

I just heard news that I have a new baby cousin! Lily was born just after 5pm this afternoon - that makes 4 girls of 4 babies in the last 3 years!

I have almost finished her quilt. The top is done, I just need to get some backing fabric so I can get onto the quilting part.

I'm not sure what I will do when I have to make a present for a little boy - I am far too girly! Here's the presents I made for the other three girls.

Yasmeen's Sunbonnet Sue wallhanging


Bonnie's baby blanket

Belle's baby quilt

I made it and I'm not afraid to wear it!

At the Spring Stitch In, I spotted 4 women wearing the same skirt in different colours. Figuring it surely could not be a coincidence, I inquired and discovered that they were all made from a pattern by Make it Perfect call The Versatile Wrap Skirt. So, I bought the pattern, and some cheap material with the idea of making a skirt that I would likely not ever wear out of the house.

But I am pretty damn happy with the results and even wore it to work yesterday - hurrah! Perhaps my fear of sewing clothes has been conquered! Although I should probably try making something with a zip or even a button before I start proclaiming that!

Please excuse the awfully messy room and unmade bed in these pictures! I swear, it is normally perfect (yep, really, definitely, perfectly clean...uh huh).