More felt hearts!

I have been slowly beavering away with these hearts most nights after the girls have gone to bed and have finally finished them. They were inspired from the heart ornament I made my friend "Jayne". I just jazzed them up a bit with some more simple embroidery and beading. They look quite Christmasy but I think they would also look nice all year round.

Have cut up my fabric into strips for the wonky log cabin quilt along and I'm now ready for the fun part of sewing. However I'm determined to finish quilting my zigzag quilt before I start another quilt. I'm over half way now so hopefully by the end of the week I'll have something to show for my hard work. I've had no puckering on the back of the quilt so I'm really pleased with how well the basting spray has worked.

Round 3 of quilt along

These are the fabrics I've selected to make a wonky log cabin quilt which is 'Round 3' of the Old Red Barn quilt along group on Flickr. I was itching to use some of my new fabrics but also wanted to do a bit of de-stashing of my quite significant fabric collection. So I compromised. Six of these fabrics are from the Hoffman Peacock range and were bought back from the States by my husband 2 years ago and most of the others have been in my stash for some time. I am lucky enough to have a neighbor who is a dressmaker and sometimes brings me over offcuts of pure cotton fabrics. So a couple of fabrics come from her. It feels good to use fabrics that I've had for a long time.

I decided to make another pillow for my parents lounge to go with the other ones I made a while back. I made it a few weeks ago but as my Mother doesn't know about it yet and reads this blog I couldn't put it up here until now. We are going over for lunch tomorrow for Fathers Day so will be able to finally surprise my Mum with it then.


It seems to be Giveaway time in blog land at the moment. If I had the time I could spend all day entering giveaways. I did find time for this giveaway though......just couldn't resist these fabrics.........Fig tree honey bun, jelly roll AND turnover. Click on this link http://www.fatquartershop.com/Fig-Tree-Quilts-Fabric-Moda-Fabrics.asp to have a look for yourself.

A little bit of machine quilting

I have finally started to machine quilt the zigzag quilt. I'm just making it up as I go along. I got it basted last night using basting spray for the first time and also used safety pins to make sure the layers stayed together whilst quilting as I have had trouble in the past with puckering on the back but so far it all looks good. I'm hoping to get a lot done tomorrow as I have no work (hopefully as they often ring up at the last minute wanting me to come in) Not really complaining as its good to have that extra money but how's a girl meant to get any sewing done around here.

10 years today!

It was Caitlin's 10th birthday today. I can't believe our youngest is into double digits already. She was super excited about this years birthday and has been counting down for a month. Instead of a party we are all going to Auckland Zoo plus one of her friends. Caitlin has always been into animals and even used to let grasshoppers crawl all over her when she was really little. Choosing a friend to take to the zoo was a bit of a dilemma as she has quite a group of close friends . After school today we had an impromptu afternoon tea with 4 girlfriends. I whipped up this cake this morning before work then decorated it this afternoon with a few lollies (actually quite a few lollies). The afternoon tea then stretched into dinner ( homemade pizza) then birthday cake for dessert.

The Tote Bag

Finished this Tote Bag today. It's good to get this bag finished as I've been working on it for some time now. I knew what I wanted it to look like but it took a while to figure out how to put it together. I kept putting it aside in the "too hard pile" as you do. Its the first time I've made something like this from scratch with no pattern to go by so I'm feeling pretty proud of my achievement. Its a nice casual bag made from my quite large collection of batik fabrics. As I wasn't sure whether it was going to turn out how I had envisaged I used fabrics that I wasn't too attached too. So maybe next time I might use some designer fabric. I think it could do with a couple of pockets inside and maybe a matching make-up bag.

As you might have noticed I've been 'renovating' my blog. I really wanted to have 3 columns but now that I have I'm not entirely happy, so it's still a work in progress. Any tips and hints would be gratefully accepted. Been playing around with 'html' but don't really know what I'm doing. Big learning curves happening around here. Have also added my photo so you can put a picture of me (and my girls) to my words.

Direct from the USA!

My husband's been travelling around the States for the last 5 weeks so I have been VERY busy looking after our 2 girls, working part time, cycle training for a 200km event coming up in 2 months and trying to find time to do a little bit of sewing when I can. I've been staying up way too late trying to get things done and to just enjoy some me time. We were expecting my husband to arrive today (Sunday) but he decided to surprise us by arriving home Friday morning. It was a lovely surprise although I had my suspicions when I hadn't heard from him for a couple of days. He got into town just in time to attend a funeral of a lovely old guy well known in our area for his generosity around our community. The girls were so pleased to see him when they stepped off the school bus that afternoon.

As you can see he brought me back lots of yummy fabric to drool over and play with. There is a great little fabric shop in Bakersfield, California called "Strawberry Patches" that he has been to 3 times now. They have got to know him (I guess because of his strange 'kiwi' accent) and are very good in helping him find what I've asked for . He got some gorgeous "Patty Young" fabric (above) from her 'Mezzanine' range and below is some sweet little fat quarter bundles. I love how they have used tulle to tie these fabrics together. Almost too pretty to use.

And of course I HAD to get some more "Heather Bailey" fabrics. These are all from her 'Pop Garden and Bijoux range except for the one hiding at the back which is from her first range 'Freshcut'. I actually ordered these from her website ( along with some 'trash ties' and some scrapbooking stamps) and had them sent to our friends in Reno, Nevada where my husband stayed for a few days. This way I saved on shipping costs a bit.

Noddy ( yes that's my husband's nickname) was over in the States to buy an old Buick and organise it to be shipped back here to NZ. This car is for the annual "Beach Hop" festival that he helps to organise each year in our little town. He had a great time over there driving this cool car around to promote the 'Beach Hop' at car events such as "Hot August Nights" in Reno and the Land speed racing on the Salt flats at Bonneville to name a couple. I am looking forward to this car arriving over here not only because I get to ride around in it until next years Beach hop ( where it will be given away) but it has some yummy quilting magazines and books inside it that were too heavy to be brought back in Noddy's luggage.

This week I'm looking forward to fitting in alot more sewing than I have been able to lately. Oh and more blogging time. I hope this extra long post made up for my absence over the last week!

Tea Rose Home Giveaway!

Sachiko from Tea Rose Home is celebrating her blog anniversary with a lovely and generous giveaway. This cute as a button pin cushion, a bag made from moda oil cloth AND a moda charm pack are being given away to 3 lucky winners. So go on over and have a peek around her lovely blog while you're there.