Whats been happening.....

After many days of heavy rain and flooding throughout NSW yesterday was one of those gorgeous days that you just had to get out and enjoy the sunshine so we decided that a drive to Ettalong would be an enjoyable way to spend the day. From our house to the F3 we drive through many lovely suburbs and the street below is one of my favourite areas. The canopy of trees with the sun shining through makes for a lovely photo shot. Pity about the traffic.

About an hour and a half after setting off we arrived at Ettalong and made our way to the Memorial Club which is attached to the Mantra Hotel. Finding ourselves a seat in the outdoor eating area was definitely the right choice to enjoy the lovely view and day. After lunch we took ourselves off for a walk along the waterfront to make room for coffee and dessert.
A friend of mine has just returned from Canada and she kindly bought us back a bottle of genuine maple syrup which obviously called for a batch of pancakes to be made with yogurt, fresh berries and drizzled with maple syrup - we certainly enjoyed breakfast that day.
Some sewing has been done in between all this eating. DH has found his" man bag" invaluable and requested a mini version hence the bag below.
The table topper below was made for mum as part of her birthday present. She loves chickens and roosters - I had bought sometime ago the red chicken wire fabric which I thought was a perfect surround to keep them all in!
Happy sewing all until next time

Oh dear

As I said in my previous post 2012 is going to be the year of using up my scraps as well as trying to master paper piecing. After watching numerous you-tube clips and reading books and magazines I felt that I was ready to tackle this head on today.

Take one

Somehow this does not look like anything that I saw on you-tube or in the books.

Take two

This is definitely nothing like what I saw on you-tube or in the books. I think I had best go and have another look to see why I have something back to front and a side missing. How hard can it be to sew fabric in numerical order I ask you. Obviously very hard for me.

Take three

Looking a little better but certainly room for improvement.

Take four

Now that is looking a whole lot better. By the time I work my way through that pile of scraps I may have worked out what all this paper piecing is about - hopefully.

Hang on - where have all these new scraps come from - I am supposed to be reducing the pile not adding to it.

New Year's Resolution (s)

I like most people at the beginning of a new year make one or two resolutions and in time break them but this year I am going to make 2012 the year of using only what I have in my stash and adding a piece should I not have it for a particular project that I am working on.

Now I know that there are going to be lots of "tempters" out there but I am going to try and be strong and ignore them - see how I go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have also given myself a couple of challenges and one is to use up most of the scraps that I have hoarded over the years - some quite sizeable pieces and others could only be described as "crumbs" . As you can see by the piccy below I have collected quite a few and

after an hour I have gotten some sort of order into them - plains, black and whites, novelty, greens, blues etc. I have also decided that it is time that I learnt a new technique and paper piecing is something that I tried in the past and not had any success so 2012 is the year to master this - well at least give it a go. I think that I have enough scraps to try my hand at paper piecing and also have some left over to actually make a small quilt with them. I will keep you posted on my efforts.

I was a very lucky girl on Christmas Day and was given 8 gorgeous embroidered blocks from my DS and DDIL and they just screamed out cushions to me so on Boxing Day I trimmed them up to 7 1/2 " blocks and joined them together put a contrasting border around them and now I am the owner of these two lovely cushions which sit proudly on our bed.

A New Year also calls for a new bag and I was lucky enough to win 9 fq's at my quilt groups Christmas party and I used three of them to make the bag below. I had bought the handles sometime ago and I feel that they go so well with the gorgeous bird fabric.

Lastly I wish you a happy and healthy 2012 and may it bring good things for us all.

Happy sewing.

Secret squirrel sewing

My blog has been severely neglected over the last couple of months and not because of lack of interest but due to the fact that what I have been sewing was for Christmas gifts and those on the receiving end are readers of my blog.

The first quilt that I was working on was for my son and daughter in law. With this quilt I wanted something that was modern and not florally so I went with a red, black and white theme with a few greys in the mix to add some more interest with the lights and darks.





The second quilt that I was working on was for DH who has a habit on a chilly night while watching TV of trying to tug on a corner of my snuggle quilt and me being me do not like to share my snuggle quilt as I need all the help that I can get to keep warm so the thought processes kicked in on what sort of quilt I could make for a man who has many varied hobbies and interests and this is what I came up with for someone who likes to read, listen to music, travel to the Hawaiian Islands, old trains and sailing ships, cheese being one of his favourite foods being washed down with a drop of either red or white, cats, basketball and something to represent his profession - he is now a retired headmaster.

All three recipients were both surprised and thrilled with their quilts and I was much relieved.

Santa Claus is coming to town

Time for a bit of Christmas sewing and experimenting with the feed dogs down. I have been doing some practice, practice and more practice with FMQ and whilst I am feeling more confident I only feel comfortable using this method on smaller items as I have more control and no weight pulling the sewing down and causing puckers.

I found this Christmas panel and cut in into 4 table toppers - I have already given two away that I forgot to photograph. The first one I did a meandering pattern for the quilting and with the second one I kept the feed dogs down, the open toe foot on and using a variegated metalic thread I "drew" around the border, circle just inside the wreath, Santa, his sack and staff for something different. I must say that I was pleased with the result.

Next to come off the Christmas sewing list is a set of placemats and matching coasters for my SIL. Hopefully I will have some piccies soon to show you.

Happy sewing all.

Our Holiday

Hubby and I have just enjoyed a lovely spring break over the last two weeks which included a visit to our nation's capital city - Canberra.



A visit to the Australian War Memorial shows soliders on parade at the Pool of Reflection

Looking across Lake Burley Griffin to Old Parliament House in the foreground with New Parliament House behind. On the LHS is the High Court of Australia and on the RHS is the National Library.

A closer look at those blossom trees along the promenade of the lake with the Carillion off to the left.

A visit to the Botanical Gardens felt more like a walk in the rainforest in Far North Queensland. The vegetation for a cold climate area was a real surprise.

On the way home we detoured via Bowral for a quick tip toe through the tulips.

After a day a or two at home catching up on the "domestics" we took ourselves off to the city to enjoy the annual spring flower display at David Jones Elizabeth store

The next day found us wandering around the Blue Mountains enjoying the spring blossoms in country lanes

And on a clear day you can see forever.

Only an hour across the Harbour Bridge heading south we found ourselves heading for a day at Botany Bay. Looking at the colour of the sand and the water we could have been on a tropical island.

I did manage to do a bit of stash building.

I also found time to get some sewing in but more on that later as it is "secret squirrel" stuff.

Well all good things must come to an end and it is back to work for me next week.

A finish at last

I cannot believe that I have not blogged for such a long time. Where does the time go to??????? What have I been doing - I always seem to be on the run but not much to show for it.

At last I can share with you a "finish". Several months ago my quilting group was given a mystery quilt to complete and I decided that I would be strong and use only fabric that I had in my stash in case I was disappointed in the mystery pattern chosen. And am I glad that I stuck to my decision as I am not a fan of the pattern called Turning 20 and of course as luck would have it that was what the mystery turned out to be.

I finished the quilt last week and even though I am disappointed in the pattern - I think that the blocks are too big for my liking - it will come in handy as a throw on a cold night as I snuggle up to watch some TV.