All pinned and ready to quilt.

I'm so pleased with the way this little quilt has come together and it's been fun working with just stripes for a change. I've decided to make it into a largish throw cushion for our lounge, although I'll have to be careful to keep it out of the direct sun as I don't want its vibrant colours to fade. Unfortunately it's probably going to have to wait till friday to be quilted as I'm working tomorrow and going out of town on Thursday for some last minute shopping for Amelia who is going away for an Easter camp.

There were lots of little seams in putting together this quilt and it occured to me that I could share a little technique that I do to help keep the seams nice and flat which makes for easier quilting. Sometimes when locking seams together you end up with a seam twisting in different direction at each end as the lefthand seam is in the above photo. When this happens I clip the seam as I have done on the right of the photo which means I can press it nice and flat. I used to think this was a quilting no-no but really its just like clipping a curved seam.

Working with stripes and flowers.

I should really be working on other things like the 'quilt as you go quilt along' that I recently joined but I was looking through my fabric collection, as you do, and found some triangles of striped fabric that I remember cutting up quite a while ago (maybe a couple of years ago!) and I felt inspired to have a play with them. I added some more stripes that I've purchased since and have cut up another 200 triangles and randomly sewn them together into squares. Today I'm going to have another play and sew them together. I think it will end being made into a cushion or a little quilt. When inspiration strikes you have to go with it don't you think?

I have also made flowers from the yoyo's and flowers shown in this post. These will be made into another project that I'm slowly beavering away on in the evenings.

Whats inspiring you today??

Blogger Awards!

I've just been given this award from Deborah and also from Marguerite (a few weeks ago now). Thanks so much ladies. Nice to know my blog is appreciated!

The rules of accepting this award are:

1. 
   
   Thank the person who gave you this award.  Thank you again!
2. 
   
   Share 7 things about yourself.
3. 
   
   Pass the award on to 5 bloggers who you have recently discovered and you think are fantastic!
4. 
   
   Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.

I have also been given this award from Cheryl of Felt so good. Thank you so much for the 'Circle of friends award' ! The rules of acceptance are similar to the above award and as they came so close together I shall combine them.

Okay here are 10 things about me that you may not know...

1. 
   
   I love to travel if only funds would permit it more...I travelled a lot when I was younger and single and loved going to places where the people and their culture were completely different.
2. 
   
   I enjoy getting out in our garden and often find myself out there for 3 hours instead of 1/2 an hour because one job has led onto another .
3. 
   
   I need to exercise! It's great thinking time for me and I often solve problems or dream up ideas while on a run or out on my bike.I enjoy seeing how far I can push my self physically which is why I like long distance running and cycling.
4. 
   
   I like to scrapbook photos from our travels or just everyday photos of our girls. I enjoy the creative process of it but also like the idea that I'm creating a photo story of our lives.
5. 
   
   I am the youngest in my family and have 2 older brothers.
6. 
   
   I love a good book and enjoy seeing our daughters engrossed in their books.
7.  I  love to sew and just be creative in my little sewing attic!!
8. I love to bake and cook and enjoy trying out new recipes. I have quite a collection of recipe books too!
9. My favourite colour is ...... it's hard to choose because I like colour in general but going by the colours in my lounge its blue and green. ( Think colbalt blue, turquoise and pastel lime green)
10. I made my first quilt when I was 15 from fabrics that you sent away for. No specialty quilting stores back then!

Now to nominate 5 blogs - I'm nominating 7.

1. 
   
   Peek a boo - Sandy 
2. Life Scraps - Diane
3. Ariane's Crafts - Ariane
4. Sew many stitch's later - Lara
5. All things crafty - Georgie
6. Works in progress - Deb
7. Sewing tales - Karen

Hope you enjoyed getting to know about me a little more.

A matching set!

These are the fruits of my husbands labour over the last few months. He's been busy organising makeovers for these three vehicles and now they are all finished and ready to be given away at this years annual Beach hop festival. It's the 10th anniversary this year so it was decided to give away a classic car (the buick stationwagon), a hotrod ( a 1930's Roadster) and a Harley bike. All painted the same vivid blue with white interiors and accents. Pretty cool huh! Beach hop starts this Wednesday and runs through until Sunday. Some cool cars have already started arriving and by Wednesday there will be that unmistakable hum of V8's around Whangamata. Even if your not into cars you can't help but admire their beautiful paint jobs and the hours of work and on-going care these cars are given.

Make my husbands day and tell him how great they look!! 

Jumping on the hexagon wagon...

Thought I'd have a play with some hexagons and make a pincushion or two. Two because I had a hard time deciding on one fabric combo. I thought these would take me one evening to do but um no they took a bit longer than I anticipated. Started them yesterday and finished them off this afternoon after spending most of the day in the garden. Still having lovely summery days but definitely getting a little cooler at night.  Anyway I'm pleased with the end result and  I think they're kinda cute.

And this is the reverse side. I've had the rooster fabric for a few years now and the white fabric with the roses comes from a swap I did with 'Lara'.

Still more scraps...

So after finishing my string quilt top I didn't expect to still have so many fabrics strips leftover but I have enough to make at least one more largish quilt. I was wondering what pattern to go for when Penny at Sewtakeahike decided to lead a quilt along for her current project which is using a "quilt-as-you-go method" I have always wanted to have a go at this method and as I have the strips all ready to sew, this was really a no brainer. There is a flickr group to show everyone's progress and if your keen to join along too check out Penny's post on it here.

A bargain to treasure...

Yesterday Mum and I went to Hamilton to pick my Dad up from hospital. As he was not going to be ready till after lunch we took the opportunity to do some shopping.

Mum need to go to the "Trade Aid store " to purchase some of their 'fair trade' drinking chocolate which is Dad's favourite. Trade Aid is a shop that sources handcrafted goods from mostly third world countries and is run by volunteers. They sell all sorts of things from fairtrade foods to rugs , jewellery, baskets plus traditional childrens toys etc...and everything is beautifully crafted. We spied this beautiful wooden sewing box high up on on shelf. The shop assistant lifted it down so we could check it out properly but as it was priced at $100 it was above my budget and my birthday isn't till October. So we purchased what we had come in for and then as we were walking out I saw another box exactly like the other one but heavily reduced down to $40 due to a damaged hinge on one of the lids. I couldn't believe my luck and didn't think twice about buying it! I love it!

I'm not sure which country it was made in or the wood used but it has a beautiful grain. I actually have a sewing box like this except it is bigger and nowhere near as beautiful as this one. I can remember my Grandmother having a box similar to this one and although I was left her treadle sewing machine (blogged about here) I somehow never recieved her sewing box. This sort of makes up for it but it would have been interesting to see what she kept in it.

The beautifully carved ends of the box!

A string quilt top!

EIGHTY string squares ready to have their paper torn off to sew into .............

............this quilt top. I finished this late this afternoon after spending most of the day helping out my DH with Beach hop stuff.

I've got to say that I loved the process of making this quilt right from recieving the fabric from some ladies over on the ORBC flickr group to choosing groups of fabrics for each of the squares and then seeing it all come together. The worst bit was taking off the paper before sewing the squares together. That took the looongest time but hey the end result certainly made up for it. I am planning on adding a 1 1/2" border in the white but still thinking on how to quilt it. If anyone can recommend a good quality batting and where to buy it that would be great and it doesn't necessarily have to be local.

And one more photo because I like this one.

I'm linking up with Amy's 'Sew'n'tell Friday' too this week so go on over and check out some other great finishes for this week over here or click on the button over on the righthand side bar.

Crazy, Busy!

Just want to apologise now if you not into cars but this post has no sewing items in it. I'm not really big on cars either but I can appreciate a nice classic car when I see one. Being married to a car crazy guy I can't avoid them. I know I may have mentioned this before but my husband is on the team of an annual festival here in Whangamata called 'The Beach Hop'. This festival is all about celebrating the 50's and 60's and involves lots of beautiful classic cars, hot rods, cool rockabilly music, dancing and of course people dressed up in the fashion of that era. (And if you not into any of that it's great to just 'people watch'!) It attracts over 100,000 people to our small town and takes a lot of my husbands time to help organise it. We are 2 weeks away from this years festival so things are getting a little busy around here and next week it will be crazy busy and that means not a lot of quality sewing time.

This year it the 10th anniversary and instead of one vehicle being given away there will be 3! This classic surf wagon is one of them. It's just been given a new paint job so looks all shiny and new again. Check out what it used to look like here.

 Don't you love the names they gave cars back when this was made! Also being given away is a Model A Roadster hotrod and if you don't want a car you can win a Harley. They are all matching with the same colour paint. You can learn more about this festival over here.

I promise my next post will be full of lots of sewing goodness!!!

A little update...

I've been cutting out these fabric flowers.....

....and making lots of yo-yos to go on another little project for Amelia's room.

And today I made a few more squares for my string quilt. Tomorrow's a no sewing day as Amelia's competing in a regional athletics day so  I'm going to be there to cheer her on. And no sewing this weekend as we are going camping further up the Coromandel peninsula so I hope the weather stays fine.