My birthday girl

Cute isn’t she ? 

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“Fallen Star”

Done and dusted.  Hooray.  It feels good to have finished this quilt.  No pattern used, just my initiative   The main fabric is my failed Spoonflower fabric, designed by Nathan.  Hence the name “fallen star”.  Hard to seen in the pics, but the tiny stars are sequins that sparkle in the light.

I think the back is almost better than the front.  I have to admit, if I could start it again, I’d do it very differently.

Look, even labelled properly

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Funny how things change

Ian was checking out the blog this morning, as he does occasionally to see what I’ve been writing about (probably to see if I’m blogging mean things about him, but he’d be disappointed, cause he’s wonderful) , and he commented on how much the blog has changed since i started it a bit over a year ago.  The question is has it changed because I’ve changed, or am I blogging to a different audience?  I think it’s a bit of both really.  I do a lot more craft now than I used to, which could be a result of the inspiring blogs I read (see the links in my sidebar), or maybe I’ve found my niche.

 

I have noticed that apart from my Mum, who is a regular reader and commenter, that about 90% of the comments I receive are from other quilters, so maybe I’ve adjusted my blogging to receive the most comments. And lets face it, we all like to know we’re not just talking to ourselves in cyberspace, and it’s nice to have our work admired.  So the dilemma, do I go back to the original intent of blogging to keep family in the loop, and also as a record of our life on the lifestyle block?  Or do I keep blogging about quilting?  I’m going to try to even it up a bit, and do some of both.  So friends and family, expect to hear a bit more about our lives, and quilter’s keep looking for pretty pics of quilts in progress or finished (and believe me, there are lots to come)

 

So on that note, here’s the blogging about the weekend…………………

 

It’s Lilly’s birthday on Monday, so on Saturday she had a few girls here for a sleepover party.  5 eleven year old girls sure can make a lot of noise   I took the girls out to play mini golf and then swimming.  I had so much fun with them.  The girls were great, she had four friends, all from different schools, but all had met here at previous birthday’s of Lilly’s.  They just all got on so well together, and it was fun to watch them all interacting.  I think they are all at a great age, where the are not too grown up yet to be self conscious.  Ian stayed home and made the cake and got the food ready, while babysitting Cameron.  It was fantastic to be at the pools without Cam, I spent the whole time the girls were swimming in the spa, not having to worry about any of them. Bliss.  Then we all went home, they were noisy till dinner was ready (a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party), then they all chilled out watching a couple of movies, then were a bit noisy till i told them to shhh.  All was pretty quiet by 11.30pm.  Not too bad.  They slept in the lounge, and I let Cam in to play with them at 7.30am.  All Lilly’s friends are just fabulous with Cameron, and spoil him rotten when they are here, there is always someone to play with him, or take him on the swing.  So anyway a great time all in all.  Lilly had fun, and still has pressies to open from us in the morning (nothing huge and fancy, we are weaning the kids off big pressies).  I have promised the girls that i will take them all for a midwinter girls day out in a month or two.  I might as well make the most of it while they still like me to take them out.

Oh, and the quilt is 99% finished, binding all done, just need to make the label (yes fans, my very first label for a quilt), and figure out how to attach a few other embellishments. There might be pics here tomorrow.

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Free – at last :-)

Haha, the Visa has gone.  No more buying things we can’t afford, no more paying sucky interest.  It was a bit strange going out today, knowing that if there wasn’t money in the bank we couldn’t buy things, but quite liberating too.  When our bank gets the new Visa Debit cards in a few months we will get one, so the I can purchase things online, but at least i will only be spending my money, not the banks  

I had a voucher here for a shop up in Karori called Inky Pinky, so I went there today and picked up this cute little felted zip up purse

What do you think of my binding?  It’s nearly complete, just half the binding to hand sew down and a few more embellishments to add. 

I picked up some bamboo batting today, I’ll be using it for Kalila’s quilt.  It seems pretty thin, I hope it’s warm enough.  At least the quilt will be big enough to double over if it’s not.

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Progress

I’ve had a bit of time to work on the spoonflower quilt.  I got all of the large stars appliqued on and I’m about half done with the quilting process.  Just a few bits to add after that and then binding.  I can’t quilt for more than an hour or two at a time, otherwise I get RSI   Hopefully it will be finished by the end of the week.

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Taking care of business :-)

Well, thanks to having Ian at home all week, and the kids back this weekend (helping to amuse Cam), I managed to finish Kalila’s quilt top.  I’ve changed my mind, now that it’s bigger, I really like it. The pink is now more dominant than the yellow, which is what I was aiming for.  Sorry bout the bad pic, but it’s really big and I didn’t want to take it outside for a pic in case it got dirty   I think I will quilt it with pink variegated thread.

I’m waiting on funds to come through for the batting and backing, so I’m going back to work on one of my quilts in the meantime.  Wish me luck.

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Nothing fancy

but seriously functional   Okay, I know they are pretty boring to blog about, but it feels great to get a job finished (knowing I can now spend the money I was paid to make them).  Waterproof overalls.

I made Cam some of these last year (as well as some of his friends at Playcentre), and just can’t believe how fantastic they are.  Made from Hydrotex fabric, they are completely waterproof.  The only time Cam got wet was when he was playing with water and poured it down the front (right up by his neck, so the water went inside).  I made them huge enough that they fit over layers of winter clothes, and they have a double cuff, one goes inside the gumboots, and one outside.  Cam has walked through knee deep water and still had dry feet. 

 

These ones have no decoration, as I made them very afforable for a TNNer, Cam’s have a seal on the front. So these are off to their new home on Monday, as well as a bunch of other things that need posting. 

 

So, I was thinking of making another pair of these, and having a giveaway   Know anyone who could use these?  I make them to fit approx 2-3 years, but can make a smaller pair.  What do you think?  I would do a fabric giveaway, but I love everything in my stash, so none of it’s going anywhere

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Bloggers quilt festival

Amy over at Park City Girl is hosting a bloggers quilt festival (link in my siderbar).  So, even though I am by far an amateur compared to most quilty bloggers I read, I thought I’d enter.  I only have one quilt that is made without a specific pattern, so that what I’m entering. If this was being run in a month or so I might have finished the quilt with my spoonflower disaster fabric, but it’s not done yet. 

 

So here is my quilt. Just a simple coins quilt (though I didn’t know it was that pattern till well after I’d made it).

Made from white quilter’s muslin, cotton batting and a charm pack of Moda’s ‘All about colour’. This was also the first quilt that I have stippled myself.  I did it the hard way, by using a rainbow variegated thread.  I’m very pleased with the result.  It’s only cot sized, so it lived on Cameron’s wall for about a month, until a few weeks ago when I donated it to Playcentre to be raffled off for the fund-raising for new playground equipment

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Just relaxing

Not as much as Cameron though   We grownups tend to keep our pants on most of the time.

Nathan and I had a play (with Ian’s help) on Corel to figure out how to blur the boy bits in the picture.  Much better. Cameron has a real aversion to having clothes on at the moment, and runs round without clothes on every chance he gets, demanding to take his clothes off as soon as he gets out of the car if we’ve been out.  Lucky we are having a run of great weather.

I’m almost half done on Kalila’s pink quilt.  I might have picked an easy to follow pattern, but there was way too much cutting involved for my liking.  It’s looking pretty good, but I have to say I’m glad it’s for someone else, the colours are a bit pale for me.  I like them brighter.  Anyway it’s coming along.  Not much else is getting done

Look at all the pieces still waiting to be put together.

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It’s quiet :-)

It’s very quiet here tonight, been like that most of the day.  Lilly is away at a girls only camp, back on Friday.  Nathan is staying at Nana and Kev’s till tomorrow, then he’s spending Thursday in Wellington with Matt.  Matt went home to Wellington today.  I think it would have been a bit different had we been completely child free, but it’s nice all the same.  Cam went to bed at 7pm. We made the most of being mostly childless and got Thai takeaways for dinner, it’s so much cheaper to feed just two of us

 

I’m not really making the most of quiet time though, I should be sewing, but no here I am blogging and catching up on the blog reader.  The pink quilt is coming along, I picked an easy pattern, but it sure was heavy on the the cutting.  242  white rectagles, 132 (or so) 2.5 inch squares and 110 four patches. Whew.  I’m not feeling the love for it right now.  I really prefer bigger pieces that come together quicker.  I did get both pairs of overalls cut out last night, so just the sewing to go on those.  Hopefully I can get in some sewing time tomorrow. 

Here’s a pic of yesterday morning (7am), typical Autumn weather and viewing   Some days I love it here (some I don’t), but this is great!

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