Sea Breeze Mini Quilt

Tap, Tap is this thing on....... I haven't visited here for quite a few weeks (oops)

Hi Everyone, 

today is my day to share my Sea Breeze Mini Quilt with you all. When gnomeangel 

put the call out for peeps to take part in the quilt-a-long I couldn't resist in putting my hand up calling 'pick me, pick me' hence you are here now.

So without further ado here is my Sea Breeze Mini journey

As soon as I had the pattern I started to consider fabrics, but, like the pattern I was drawn to the solids for this mini, and this is the first quilt of any size I have made just in solids. 

I chose Michael Miller Cotton Couture which I bought from the gorgeous girls at polka dot tea Danielle and Jeanette are amazing and will happily put together a bundle of whatever you are needing, I especially love the MM Cotton Couture, its so soft and so nice to work with. 

at the end of day 1 I had all the blocks cut and the first 4 blocks sewn together

Day 2 I shared a sneak peek on instagram, day 3 and 4 I just admired

it from afar  

Luckily I was sent a reminder that today was my day to share, I came home from

assembly for the big girls and got stuck into quilting my mini. I choose to stitch

1/4" each side of the seams, then I accentuated the triangles by stitching 1/4' on the white

this photo shows the quilting a bit better

we have a happy little visitor staying with us at the moment, sadly

Henry isn't as keen as we are on Annie Dog, today he choose to 

'help' when I stitched the binding on

TA DA my finished Sea Breeze Mini Quilt

(it is actually straight IRL) I LOVE this mini and cannot wait to hang it up

in a permanent spot

I am now planning on doing a bit of size experimenting because I think this would make an

AMAZING QUEENSIZE QUILT

in the same fabric I used for my mini.....

Thanks for visiting xx

Whoops Its been a while

7 weeks to the day since I last blogged

whoops

So much has been happening that I don't know what day it is

most of the time.

So here are some snippets of the last 7 weeks

in very random order

my gorgeous dad went to Melbourne and caught

up with my wild child Josh, he is doing okay, very

lonely, but doing ok

my version of the Social Tote, mine doesn't have the gorgeous

little lining due to the fact I may have missed the

cut down the outside instructions

my current project for Lynette, the cat is out of the bag after her

blog post outing me, I stitch Lynette's designs for her to take to

all the big shows and teaching gigs she does around

the world. Very honoured and I still pinch myself

when photos of what I have made pop up in blogland

this is where I am up to with Midnight at the Oasis

I was a pattern tester

this popped up in my emails the other day a write up in the

Australian Operating Room Nurses Journal all

about my mama

I delivered this baby quilt yesterday to the proud Grandma

I've pulled this out to quilt for a friend who has Breast Cancer

and has to have 12 months of Chemo, she isn't a girly girl so

I thought this would be okay for her

(photo taken by Chookyblue at Nundle)

this is 'Waiting for Santa'

(photo by Chookyblue taken at Nundle)

and 'Love Letters'

which was made by me in a bone tiring, nothing else was done 17 days, 

just in time to be quilted and taken to the USA late last year

I am sure there is more but that is all I can think of at the moment.

We are away this weekend for soccer 'yay' 

Its all fun and games here at the moment.

New Beginnings

there are parts of 5 different quilts

on my design wall

FIVE quilts people, what am I doing

In random order the quilt parts belong to 

1 Dancing Grandmas

2 Wagon Wheels

3 Bring Me flowers

4 Dresdan Plates

5 Secret Stitching project, which is very close to being 

FINISHED

Wagon Wheels, 5 more of the wheel blocks to make

to be caught up

the epp bits for wagon Wheels, 13 more to be caught up

Bring Me Flowers, this is month 1

month 2 is waiting for me to get time to work on it

still need to appliqué the flower centres though

Yesterday was these girlies first day of High School

they were so excited  and had a fabulous day

The short one started year 5 and got the teacher she wanted

happy days

and Henrycat who is put out because he has lost

his normal sunning spot due to the chaos in my

sewing room

I am still here

Time flies when you are having fun

there has been a lot happening in my neck of the

woods, with Christmas, school holidays,

NSW Cuboree and now we are at

the final day of the school holidays.

Christmas last year was a quiet affair

just the hubster, the girlies and our son

we had a lovely day I was very spoilt

we ate too much and played lots

of board games, ds girlfriend joined

us the day after boxing day and we had

them here for a week, which was

lovely.

I received a gorgeous iPad pouch in

Chookyblues secret santa swap, I must take a photo

and share it here 

New Year was also very quiet

we stayed home, watched the fireworks 

at midnight and went to bed, no hangover for me

Sophie and Imogen went to Appin, for the NSW

Cuboree, they had a fabulous time and it was a very quiet

week while they were gone.

Since then we have spent our days lazing around

going to the beach, sewing and just being

sloths in general.

Its been fabulous

Sophie and Emma start high school on Wednesday

so last week was a rush of getting uniforms,

shoes and books. Both girls are very excited

Imogen will be in year 5 this year, I can't 

believe they are growing up so fast, and it will be so nice

to have a lovely clean house again, and food in the pantry

for longer than 2 days.

What else has been happening, there have been some

not so nice phone calls from my sister, I have

wiped my hands of her at the moment, she has said

and done some terrible things that I will never forgive her

for, worst of all, she went running to my dad and

involved him (she is 46 not 14) but dad and I are ok,

my brother and I are ok and she can go to hell in a 

hand basket for all I care at the moment.

We've had a flea infestation, that was pretty gross and we still

can't work out where they came from. Henrycat is an inside cat

who never goes outside or comes into contact with other cats, 

and the dog is an outside dog who never comes inside....

but we fixed it, we bombed the house, twice and so far

so good.

Australia day saw us wood collecting in preparation for winter

today the hubster split it all and the girlies and I stacked it,

another 3 ute loads and we should make it through without 

to collect more or buy it.

Sewing wise I have been busy making another quilt for

Lynette, it will be postal to her at the end of next week

I am aiming for 5/2 mailing date.

I am slowly catching up on my Wagon Wheels BOM

I was given Amities Bring Me Flowers BOM for Christmas

I have made 1 little flower so far, with its partner cut out

waiting to be sewn.

DH and the girlies gave me another Amitie textiles

Quilt kit for Christmas

'Midnight at the Oasis' 

which I am BUSTING

to start, but after Lynette's quilt is done, I have

a baby quilt to make by March, and a quilt to finish for the 

Holman Clinic (where mum had all her treatment) 

to raffle so hopefully 

by the end of Feb I can get Midnight started.

Thats my plan anyway

Sew, Sew Busy

I am looking forward to the school year finishing

just to get a break from the frantic end of

year school happenings

Miss Sophie received 3 awards at the last

school assembly.

The Acc Reader Champion award, which was a certificate

and a book (The Diary of Anne frank), she read

2407198 words during the school year, and received a 

certificate for her effort, and she also received a

certificate for completing the Premiers Reading Challenge

Then last Wednesday was Presentation Day,

Sophie received the

Dr Peter Hendy MP Literacy Award 

(a medal and certificate)

Emma received a Quality Achievement award

Imogen also received a 

Quality Achievement award

We are very proud of our girls

this is the photo we MMS to Grandpa

I haven't been doing very much sewing,

but I am doing a Cross Stitch

its been 13 years since my last

foray into the world of Cross Stitch and I am much further 

along with it than this photo shows.

I also made 90 mini christmas puddings

for the girls to take into school for their class

partys

and these balls were part of their teachers gifts

fiddly but oh so sweet

Wednesday is the bigger girls last day EVER of primary 

school, they are having a Leavers Luncheon

then a disco on Wednesday night, both requested

dresses for their disco, so we bought new dresses,

shoes and hair thingies.....

Our son arrives in the early hours of Monday morning

all the Christmas shopping is done (yay)

well except for me :(

and the girls and I are off to Bairnsdale on the 28th

to drop our boy off at the train station and possibly

do some shopping.

I for one will be so happy once 2013 is done and dusted

its been a shit year!

FNWF

For the first time in ages I joined in with the FNWF. It was rather productive but due to a cub/scout activity today this is the first chance I have had to blog about it

First up is the beginnings of a '12 days of Christmas' sampler, I'm not in a rush to get it done, as long as finished by Christmas 2014 all will be good

Next I worked on a wagon wheel block, only 2 more to make for this month

Tomorrow I have a feeling I am not going to be able to move without wincing in agony, we rode our bikes about 2 kms, then hiked up giant hills another 2kms, before hiking back down the giant hills and biking back to the cars. My feet are so sore and I have muscles I didn't realise I had 😉 

So I am hoping to get some more wagon wheel blocks made and some more cross stitch done.

Iam off blog hoping to see what everyone else achieved.

Slow Down 2013

I can't believe it is Christmas in 19 days, where has the year gone.

I for one wish 2013 never came.

We have had good times and very sad times.

If 2013 never came my mama would still be with us.

So as the end of the year approaches its time to wind

down the school year.

this week the twosome have had

high school orientation

Next week is the end of year presentations for the girls

each year group has around 4 prizes to hand out,

and school notifies the parents whose children are receiving

awards.

Last year Sophie received the Citizenship award for her year

this year, ALL 3 of my girls are receiving awards.

I cannot wait to find out what they have been awarded.

Today Sophie is receiving some library awards!

1 for the most words read this year, well over 3000000

yes, 3 million + words my girl has read.

She is also receiving a year 6 champion something award

so dh and I are off the assembly at noon.

Chookyblues SSCS sleigh has landed

I have opened my ornament

with a gorgeous embroidered angel mouse on the back

and you can just see my christmas day present

peeking out from under the tree 

A HUGE thank you to 

Tonje in Norway and to Chooky and Googy Girl

Yesterday dh and I spent the day Christmas shopping

we are nearly done, just a couple of little things left to 

collect 

Our son (24) is joining us this year, if there was one good thing

to come out of losing my mama is my boy now knows how important

family is.

This year for christmas I wanted to get an iPhone 5 on a contract

I mentioned it to dh who said NO WAY, I didn't need 1

ha guess who got a new pink phone yesterday and it was

in fact his idea, to go into Telstra and look.......

Bless him he really needs to learn to say NO and mean it

So if you had my mobile number you will have to email me to 

get my new number!