Bloggers Quilt Festival - "Great Barrier Reef" Neptune quilt

Amy is hosting another Bloggers Quilt Festival so I thought that I would share a quilt that I made this time last year. I had bought a FQ bundle of Tula Pink's Neptune from the Craft and Quilt Fair in Brisbane last October as I loved the colours in them, not realising at the time that these gorgeous fabrics were so much sought after!

 When I got home I started looking for a pattern to use these in - I wanted something fairly straight forward though as this was only the third quilt that I was going to make. Then a few days later I saw the "Abracadabra" PDF pattern on Ros Mirringtons blog "Bloom" that she had just released and decided that it was one I could probably manage.

This was a great pattern as I actually can make  2 quilts from it - a bed size as well as a lap size. I just did straight line quilting along the sashing and borders.

 When I bought this fabric I chose it because of the lovely teals, greens and coral colours in it which matched our doona cover and it wasn't until I began sewing that I discovered the "hidden" sea creatures in amongst the designs - the seahorses and turtles are my favourites..

 I backed and bound the quilt in a dark blue batik like fabric which reminded me of the swirls of deep ocean waves. I think the simple design of this quilt shows off the gorgeous fabrics well.

 So head on over to Amys blog to see all of the other beautiful quilts and read the wonderful stories behind them.

Kirsten.

Winter Stitching

The lovely Sarah at Fairy Face designs has invited us to make a list of sewing projects we would like to achieve over the next few months but as I am in the Southern Hemisphere it should really be "Summer Stitching" so here goes:

1. Finish my Amy Butler starflower quilt – I have received the ½ m piece of flannel that I needed to finish off the backing so I have basted it all with my entire box of my 600 pins. Just need to finish the quilting and binding now! 

2. Start my table runner for the Modern Christmas Table runner swap – feeling a bit very behind on this as some ladies have finished already but I have the fabrics here now so should be able to start next week!! 

3. Make a christmas decoration for the above swap too 

4. Make a quilt for a baby due early next year – not sure if it is a boy or a girl but I have specific colours in mind so have been “collecting” fabrics for this already.

5. Make a “plus” quilt with the DS fabrics – after making a small version for the DS DQ swap , I would really like to use these fabrics to make a full size quilt!

6. Make a “Surf” themed quilt for my BIL and his wife who are lucky to live at the beach and are very keen surfers. We picked up a really cute pattern at the Craft Fair on the weekend and a few more FQ to make the blocks and should be able to use up some stash fabrics too.

7. Make a fabric basket or two for Christmas pressies

8. Finish my "Quilt Process" mini quilt that was buried under a pile of fabric and I had completely forgotten about it until I found it the other day!

 9. Make a quilt for my friend V who should be back visiting here over the holidays – pattern selected and fabrics ready to go…..

10. I would like to make a quilt with predominantly red and aqua as I really love this colour combo - maybe even one of these.

Also, I am with Sarah in wanting to be in round 2 (if there is one) for the Solids swap –  I really loved working with just solids!!

There are probably no doubt a few more things that I would like to do but it is often too hot to do much sewing, especially quilting over summer. Linking to WIP wednesday at Freshly Pieced:

Kirsten.

Craft Fair and a Kindle cover

My sisters-in-law and I went up to Brisbane on Saturday for the Craft and Quilt Fair, then spent the rest of the weekend at the Gold Coast and did a bit more shopping at Pacific Fair. It was a great girls weekend away whilst the hubbys stayed and watched the kids (and the indy 600). 

We enjoyed the craft fair - there were a lot of lovely fabrics for sale (although prices varied greatly!!) and some beautiful quilts on display too. I went halves in a Little Apples Layer cake with one of my sisters-in-law, and I also bought a few FQ of christmassy fabrics & some more for a black,white and red quilt that I am making soon:

 I had been lucky to win some passes to the craft fair from Voodoo Rabbit on facebook a few weeks ago so we made sure to visit their stand at the show as I wanted to pick up some more echino as I had a specific project in mind! 

 

My brother got a kindle for fathers day, and it is his birthday in November so I decided to make him a kindle cover from the echino bicycles as he does triathlons:

I found a tutorial the other day on Whip Up for a gadget pouch so I have based the cover off that, and have lined it with some lime felt to make it soft on the inside.

 

Linking to Sew Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations and Fabric Tuesday @ Quiltstory.(buttons in left side bar).

Kirsten.

An "Authentic" quilt

 It was also my Dad’s birthday this week, and it was a very special one for him as it was his 70th! We are having a family get together next weekend when I will be able to give him the "Windfarm” quilt that I made earlier this year from a pattern by  Cheryl Goss of Willowberry Designs.

My maiden name is “Mills” and these blocks remind me a bit of windmills too so I thought it was quite fitting for him to have this one.

I do think that the “Authentic” fabrics are just perfect for a “guy” quilt - especially one who loves Sudoko as much as my Dad does!!

And there were a couple of pillows to go with it that I made using the leftover HST”s from the border.

These were the start of my current HST addiction………

  Linking to Pillow Talk for October at Farbstoff:

Kirsten.

WIP Wednesday # 18 - Amy Butler Giant Starflower Quilt

I am still working on my Amy Butler Giant Starflower quilt using the tutorial by Jeni from In Color Order. This time I cut 18 inch squares which almost used up the entire FQ, so this top is huge (about 70 inches square) now it is all put together!

Then I realized that I didn’t quite have enough backing using the flannels as I had purchased them from a US etsy seller so they are yards rather than metres. I did however, find a great Aussie shop where I can get another half metre of flannel to finish off the backing and it should be here next week – I don’t think I would have had the patience to wait for a few weeks to get more from the US, and it will be far too warm here to be sewing with flannel in November. 

Linking to WIP Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced :

Wishing my hubby a Happy Birthday for today too! And that means Chocolate mud cake for dessert tonight:)
Kirsten.

Happy mail day!

I was very surprised when this parcel turned up from Holland today as I wasn't expecting anything from the Auspost delivery guy!! It looked so nice all tied up together - I didn't want to couldn't wait to unwrap it though!

 The most amazing package from Wendy (wen_ot) with the lovely 3D pinwheel mini quilt and some pretty goodies in my favourite colour:)

 These little owls in their fabric nest are so cute...

Although the pin wheels may take a few days to recover from their 3 week trip from the Netherlands to Australia.......

 And the quilt matches the wall in my dining room perfectly - I'll hang it properly later on but I wanted to take photos right away.

Thank you so much Wendy - it is just gorgeous!!! Can't wait to see all of the other finished quilts in the DS DQ swap as they are due to go out by the end of next weekend.

Kirsten.

DS doll quilt #2

Just wanted to take advantage of a lovely warm and sunny Sunday afternoon after a few days of very stormy weather including a lot of lightning, hail and thunder to take a photo of my (second) finished mini quilt for the Denyse Schmidt Doll Quilt swap.

 Because this one is being sent overseas, I wanted to mainly use the fabrics that were released exclusively in Australia.

 And also tried a bit of handstitching although I am not confident about the result.....

I really like the effect of the "plus" design and hope my partner does too as it will be going out in the mail this week:)

Linking to {Sew} Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations, Fabric Tuesday @ Quiltstory (buttons in sidebar), Little Quilt Monday at Pieceful Life, and I am also entering this mini quilt into the Celebrate Color event at Stitched in Color for October.

Kirsten

Wednesday WIP # 17

After making one of the lovely giant starflower quilts to give for a birthday gift, I really wanted to make another one to keep for me:)  I have decided on some Amy Butler "Love" fabrics which I think will be ideal for this design as they are fairly large scale prints more suited to large blocks:

 So far I have just cut the FQ into large triangles and will try and piece the quilt top on the weekend.

I was originally thinking of using the blue fabric in the bottom of the first photo as the backing but remembered that I have a few yards of Amy Butler Love flannel which would be perfect on the back.  I haven't used flannel before though so am a bit nervous about using it - does anyone have any tips on sewing with flannel?

 Linking to WIP Wednesday with Lee at freshly Pieced.

Kirsten.

Fuddy is not Duddy!

I saw the "Fuddy is not Duddy" challenge on Naptime Quilters blog on the weekend and seeing as my kids think I am actually a Fuddy Duddy, thought I'd have a look to see what burgundy, green and brown fabrics that I may have, and not surprisingly there were a few:)

 

I chose some of these and a neutral in an off-white/ivory solid to make a doll quilt in a design that I had bookmarked from Jessica's blog  "A Little Gray" which was made for her by Amy :

Some of these fabrics are fairly recent releases (the burgundy DS Winding Roads) but without them I would have been stuck for that colour.

 And the backing was some nice brown trees which are very autumny looking so I am also going to link this to Celebrate Color at Stitched in Color.

 I really enjoyed doing this colour challenge as I used to do a lot of similar colour challenges when I did scrapbooking and they do get you to think outside your usual colour choices and combinations.

Also linking to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory, and  Little Quilt Monday with Elizabeth at Pieceful life.

Kirsten.

A Bloggy award

Last week the lovely Chelsea from Pins and Bobbins was sweet enough to give me a versatile blogger award. I am most appreciative of this as I have only been blogging for a few months and in that time have met so many fellow bloggers who may comment on posts or are part of swap groups. And it means that there really are other people out there reading my blog too. There were just a few requirements for me to do regarding the award :

1. post about the award, thanking the person who sent it your way and linking back to them
2. list 7 things about yourself that others may not know
3. list 15 blogs you're passing it on to
4. let those bloggers know you've picked them for the award

So here are 7 things about me - they are probably all quite lame but it is hard to think of more interesting stuff.

1. I am terrified of snakes so rarely go camping in summer anymore although I used to love it
2. When I get mad I swear – usually in the car and at my sewing machine (common theme - machinery!) and have occasionally done so in front of my kids, and even worse,my parents :(
3. I am a huge “Glee” fan ie a Gleek
4. I really like to read before I go to sleep and will sometimes stay up till the early hours of the morning reading if it is one of those books which you can’t put down   eg . Twilight :)
5. I collect elephants and have them in various places all over the house
6. I got a tattoo on my 30th birthday - I did think about getting another one for my 40th but that is long gone now!
7. My favourite number is 7

And here is my list of blogs that I am passing this award on to as I think it is a nice way to find new blogs and be inspired by the wonderful crafty goodness that you may not have seen yet. Some of these are ones I have found recently and I also wanted to include a few fellow Aussies too:

1. Amanda http://www.acraftyfox.net/
2. Amelia http://stitchnbits.blogspot.com/
3. Debbie http://happylittlecottage.blogspot.com/
4. Janelle http://www.thejanellewindcollection.typepad.com/
5. Katies Corner http://kakorner.blogspot.com/
6. Keera http://live-love-sew.blogspot.com/
7. Kelli http://kellispieces.blogspot.com/
8. Krista http://kristastitched.blogspot.com/
9. Leila http://wheretheorchidsgrow.blogspot.com/
10. Leona http://oneygirl-myquiltingadventure.blogspot.com/
11. Melanie http://www.texasfreckles.com/
12. Nikki http://sewquine.blogspot.com/
13. Sarah http://fairyfacedesigns.blogspot.com/
14. Susan http://canadianabroad-susan.blogspot.com/
15. Toni http://hoosiertoni.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much Chelsea for this award!

Kirsten.

(PS: I do have something else that I need to acknowledge and shall definitely do that soon too.)

WIP Wednesday # 16

I have made a start on the second DSDQ mini quilt and am using the Denyse Schmidt Picnic and fairgrounds fabrics along with some solids this time.

 I really love this design and hope my partner does too:)

 Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced:

 Kirsten.

Sunday Stash #4 - Tanya Whelan

Tanya Whelan is a designer for Free Spirit fabric and she has released some really pretty fabrics as well as some lovely patterns for Grand Revival designs.  I was lucky to get a bundle of her gorgeous Dolce fabric earlier this year and it was my first FQ fabric set. I love all of the fresh colours and designs in this fabric but I haven't used it yet as I am waiting for the "perfect"' pattern to show it off:) After seeing this recently though I am thinking that Swoon may be just the right one.

 And now she has a book coming out at the end of the year:

 It will be available from Barnes and Noble and Amazon and hopefully we should be able to get it in Australia not long after it's release on 27th December 2011. I might put it on my christmas wish list as my parents often give me some money to spend :)

Kirsten.