A Day at the Races....

When your sewing machine has gone in for a much-needed service, what are you going to do with your time when you have the day off work? Well, you could always go to the local races!!!

I have lived in this area for over 24 years now and this is the first time that I haven't worked on race day. It is also school holidays here so some of my teacher friends took advantage of the opportunity to go to the Cup.

My daughter also attended with some of her friends. We loved looking at all of the pretty outfits - on both the ladies and the guys!

My friend was able to get us last minute tickets into one of the marquees which was situated right beside the track so we had a great view of the races.

We had a lovely afternoon, but it sure was nice at the end of the day to go home, take off my shoes (I am not used to wearing heels) and have a bath.

Kirsten.

SSM swap - sent and received!

Now that my secret partner has received her swap parcel, I can post a few more pics!

 I used the Blooming QAYG pillow tutorial to make a pillow for my partner Angela.

 And a little matching Wide Open Zippered pouch using Anna @ Noodleheads tutorial - I made sure I got the "A"  from the typewriter fabric on this side:) 

 

And I saw that Angela also liked ombre so used some of the pink Simpy Color ombre fabric for the binding.

I also received my fabulous package from Leona yesterday too, including a beautiful set of fabric baskets and some lovely DS fabrics!!

Photo borrowed from Leonas flickr photostream

Leona made the fabric baskets using DS Chicopee and some Heather Ross fabrics - I never suspected that she was making for me but maybe all of the Denyse Schmidt fabrics should have been a giveaway as she knows how much I love her designs:)  So thank you so much Leona, and thanks also to Lee (maychappell) for organsing the swap.
Kirsten.

WIP Wednesday

The 3rd quarter finish-a-long is nearly here and I have one last project to sew before my list is done.

 Another of Debbies fabulous triple-zip pouches - just love making these!!

And I also still have the Aus Mod Bee blocks for September to sew up for Julie with these colourful fabrics that she has sent out, but my sewing machine is going in for a much needed service so these may end up being a little late:(

Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Kirsten.

Simply solids September Bee block

After making a bunch of colourful HST's last week, I have now sewn them into the Value HST block for Camilla in the Fallow group of the Simply Solids bee.

I think these blocks are going to make a stunning quilt!

Linking to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory.

Kirsten.

A little Liberty Love!

September is Craft book month at Craft Buds!  I really wanted to make something from the Liberty Love book that I received for my birthday a few months ago, so when I saw that Penny had started up a Marcelle Medallion quilt along I thought that it might be the push start I needed to make one. 

 Alas, between birthdays and sport finals, September is quite a busy month in our household so all I could manage was a smaller project from the book, a sweet little pincushion.

I used some Chicopee fabrics from Denyse Schmidt,  with a piece of black denim for the back of the pincushion - the large white ric rac was in my stash from my scrapbooking days.

I tried to arrange the fabric strips in the warm/cool colours for the log cabin block. 

This was such a fun and quick project - although I do hope to still make the Marcelle Medallion quilt one day!

Linking up with Craft Buds - pop over to see the other lovely craft book projects that have been made. There is also a blog hop with lots of fabulous inspiration!

Kirsten.

No time to sew ...

 In between a busy few days,  I managed to make a quick trip up to Brisbane to visit the Quilts 1745-1900 exhibition at the QLD Art Gallery, just days before it is due to finish. The exhibition included many quilts from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London - the detail in them was just incredible.

My favourite quilt was the one on the right in this photo which is the Military Quilt (William Brayley, about 1880's) - it is actually made up of hundreds of tiny perfect hexagons. 

 Image credits

There are more details about this quilt on the V and A site here.

There was also a modern quilt display with quilts by Ruth Stoneley: A Stitch in Time which was a wonderful contrast to the V and A quilts.  I really liked her Trip Around the World quilt (sorry about this blurry iphone pic).

We have had a lot going on around here recently - our daughters 18th birthday party last week.

Our sons soccer team winning the U15 grand final 4-3 on Saturday. It was quite an exciting match as they led 3-1 at halftime and just managed to score again near the end of the game.

And our daughter graduated from high school on Tuesday. There was a lovely ceremony at her school - she still has to do her HSC exams in about a months time, and then of course attend the Graduation Ball in November. School holidays start here tomorrow so hopefully it will be a bit quieter around here for a while!

Kirsten.

WIP Wednesday

It is school holidays next week so I really need to get started on my bee blocks for this month!

This month we are using these beautiful warm shades of solids to make a very cool HST value block for Camilla. Can't wait to make a start on this - am hoping to at least get all of the HST's made today!

 

Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
Kirsten.

A "Secret" birthday quilt.

I really love the Giant Vintage Star quilt pattern by Jeni at In Color Order. I have already made a couple of quilts using his pattern (here and here) , and decided to make another one for our daughters 18th birthday.

I had a few half yard pieces of Sandi Henderson's beautiful Secret Garden fabrics in colours that I knew Gem would like and knew that this design would show the large scale fabrics well.

After marking lines about one inch apart with my hera marker, I quilted it with some straight line quilting.

 The quilt is backed in a hot pink fabric that matches the fuschia colours in the Secret garden fabrics perfectly.

 This quilt finishes at 60 inches square and is bound  with a lovely blue which also matches the blue in the fabrics. 

Linking to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory.

This was one of the projects on my 3rd quarter list for the FAL hosted by Leanne @ She Can Quilt.
Kirsten.

Eighteen!

 Well I am officially the mother of an eighteen year old! This is a recent photo of Gem in a scarf I crocheted for her as part of my 3rd quarter projects for the FAL hosted by Leanne at She Can Quilt.

And a quick shot of all the birthday loot - she just needs to decide on which dress to wear tonight too!

There is actually a quilt under there which I will show more pictures of next week. We are going out tonight to celebrate with friends and family - my two sons have offered to help blow the helium balloons up but I am not sure if that is a good idea:)

Happy birthday beautiful girl!

Kirsten.

Sew Sew Modern Swap

This week is the due date to mail the items for the Sew Sew Modern swap. The large item I have made is a pillow cover but I am only showing a sneak peek for now as I think that my secret partner would know that it was for her:)

I used the QAYG panels I made last week and Anna at Noodleheads Wide Open Pouch tutorial to make the "small" item. I hadn't made one of these before so hopefully it has turned out ok - I am also not sure if I should have added interfacing to make it a bit sturdier as it seems a bit too soft with just the batting...anyway, these will be mailed off later this week and when my partner receives them, I will be able to show more photos.

Linking to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory.

Kirsten.

WIP Wednesday

Just a very quick WIP post today...

These QAYG panels are going to be used for an item for the Sew Sew Modern swap.

Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Kirsten.

A very special Sunday...

Today is Fathers Day here in Australia, and it is also my twins sons 15th birthday. 

The photo above was taken the day we arrived home from hospital, about a week after they were born - the boys didn't even fill out the 00000 Bonds jumpsuits.

We began today with a big cooked breakfast..

And we have just got back from a lovely afternoon at the beach swimming and playing beach soccer, followed by some ice cream.

Gotta love a fun car trip:)

And the best thing is that later this evening there will be double the cake! Happy birthday boys and Happy Fathers Day - love you!!

Kirsten.