A hoot of a day

What else can you do on a wintery Sunday in Adelaide?  Sew Owls of course.  I cant believe how cold and miserable the weather is for this time of the year.  So I decided to spend the entire day tucked away in my sewing room. With Kate Ceberano on the ipod I was all set.

First I made this cute Owl softie with a pattern I purchased from the lovely Robyn (visit her blog http://daisyquilts.blogspot.com/- she is the co ordinator of the fun colourful Fridays).

 Next I made an Owl themed block for Melody who is hoping to make a quilt of owl blocks, either pieced, appliqued or stitchery. (pic on the swap group blog).

When I got up from my chair for a stretch and to make a cuppa, my cat Josephine decided to nap in the warm spot I had left, so I could not resist a pic of her either. 

too busy to sew- too busy to blog but FNS is coming.

Sorry ladies, I have not left for the moon.  I have just been so busy with family life (and sadly work) that I have not done any sewing or blogging this week.  I do try to keep up with everyones blogs but have not had the chance, so a big hello to everyone. 

I hope to get my sewing mojo back this weekend. And I WILL be sending out all the November partners this weekend - a several hour job as you can imagine. - where did October go.

But before I sign off- I have to mention not to forget to sign up for Friday night sew in - there is a great give away if you participate this month - whoo hoo.  I plan to make some birdies with the pattern that the lovely Melody kindly posted me.  So fun fun fun. And if I get time I can work on some UFO's and my hand appliqued bees on my Bee my baby quilt.

ps, here is another pic of Leonardo.  I managed to spend most of Monday with him which was bliss

Quilted hugs, Sue

Orange Friday

Orange is such a happy colour, and so it seems its a colour I have quite a bit of in my wardrobe.

I do love to paint my nails orange, and I wear a coral shade of lipstick.  I own a fabulous orange leather Coach bag that was a special treasured gift to me a few years ago from DH.  I have quite a bit of orange clothing from scarves to necklaces, and dresses to jumpers. 

I do not however have much in the way of orange in my quilting stash, only Mrs Perkins who is a new member of my quilting life. I like to eat orange fruit especially the lovely mango's that are now in season.  

However I have to say without a doubt our 2 most prized orange items are the Pro Hart print that we had personally signed by Pro before he passed away, and our beautiful orange precious stone parrot that we purchased at the top of Sugar loaf mountain in Rio de Janiero.

Lovely gifts in the mail today + Halloween celebration

I am popping this post on here as the block has already featured on the block swap site, but not the extra goodies.  A big fat fluffy purr to Rosemary for her lovely blue and white china star block that arrived in the mail today, with a fabulous piece of the fabric for me to make my own version of this block.  That was very generous of you Rosemary, thank you soooo much xx

Also I received another lovely surprise from Mary C from Canada.  When I posted Mary's block to her I also sent her an Australian scenes 2012 calendar, and as a thank you she sent me a Halloween card - my first ever !! As well as two lovely Scotti dogs and one cat to use on a future applique project.  Thank you Mary that was very thoughtful of you. xx

Hooterville Owl quilt complete

Just in time for my 3 grandsons to share.  I pieced Hooterville some months ago, but managed to finish of the quilting this past weekend and sewed on the binding on Sunday evening.

As you know my Sons baby Leo is in town for 2 weeks, and my daughter Sheree (Auntie Sheree) had a day babysitting him today, so my 2 step daughters brought their baby sons to help (its the first time the 3 cousins have been together),  I wish I was there to enjoy the day too.  But the girls all had fun playing with the 3 little boys.

Showing off my grandson

My adorable baby grandson Leonardo lives in Townsville (and I live in Adelaide).  I have not seen Leo since he was 2 weeks old, but he is spending the next 2 weeks in Adelaide with his mum while his dad (my son) is at Puckapunyal army base in Victoria learning how to drive armoured vehicles.

I know they say Nanna's are biased, but he is simply gorgeous.

And the winner of my first give away is....... Drum roll....

Beth Dasecke from Queensland.  Congratulations Beth, you have DH to thank for pulling your name out of the hat (vegetable colander).

I have picked out some cute prints to send you 3 fat quarters and 3 remnant pieces from eye spy quilts I have made.  I hope the lucky little girl that you make this quilt for gets a lot of joy out of having it.  I cant wait to see your post of the quilt when you get it all done.

On another note, the first buds on my Seduction roses are opening, and I am constantly amazed at how perfect the flowers are so I wanted to share them with all of you. 

Remember, try to always make time to  "smell the roses" ..

Results of my first Friday night sew in....

Thank goodness for DH organising dinner and Foxtel for screening Scarface (for the millionth time), as this left me with a blissful evening in my sewing room

I have to confess I got to work early as I started around 5pm, but I am so pleased to have had an indulgent night of sewing, hot chocolate and marshmallows (DH bought them for me).

Not only did I manage to get Mrs Perkins completed, I also managed 2 pin cushions and one scissor keep thanks to Cheryll's inspirational afternoon making these. 

GREEN FRIDAY

Most of these pics are taken from around my home, but the water lillies and frangipanni were taken from a holiay when I went to visit my son in Townsville.  I dont seem to have a lot of green around my house, although I always claim this to be my favourite colour. 

Sorry for the double ups, I didnt realise I had done this till I posted it :-)

Getting ready for Friday night sew in

I have my pattern ready and have picked out my fabric.  Jammies are ready to go, as is the hot chocolate- (note to self )- buy marshmallows. 

Looking forward to indulging in a night of creative sewing.  Very excited !

LAST CHANCE TO PARTICIPATE IN MY GIVE AWAY

Hi ladies,

If you have not already done so, please post a comment on my first ever tutorial to go into the draw to win 5 eye spy fabrics - that you get the choose the theme of. I will try to make these fat quarters or fabric of a similar size.  See my tutorial post for more details.  The winner will be drawn this weekend.  Good luck to all that have entered.  Sue xx

Original post Monday October 4th.

Welcome to my sewing room

After seeing Crafty Pugs, new sewing room, I accepted her invitation to share my room with you all.

My room became available about 4 years ago when my son Jarrod fell in love with the lovely Katherine and they bought a house together and he moved out.  The very day I was helping them move I drove past a second hand store and a Horn sewing cabinet was for sale at the bargain price of $50.  I had an old Bernina that I had got for my 18th birthday (almost 30 years ago), and no quilting fabric.  I have since upgraded to the Bernina 440 QE with thanks to the Government stimulus payment

The following weekend was the Large quilting show that is held at the Showgrounds once per year so I went with a friend, bought a pack of country fat quarters and a pattern and made my first quilt - Roosting Roosters.



Here a few shots of how my room looks today.  I am just waiting on my daughters partner (who is a carpenter) to put some shelves up for me to store my growing stash of magazines.



Fabric stash all in colour co-ordinated boxes

Sewing reels and thank you cards





 


View from where I sit



Inside the robe my wadding and finished items ready for giving



Enter the room - design wall on left



Mags and buttons



BEST BLUE BITS

Well Blue Friday is coming to an end, it how nice to come home to these little treats.

A big BLUE box of Baci chocolates (from a very happy vendor of DH)

An ebay purchase of natures Notebook fat quarters in BLUE and Yellow (to finish of my Lap quilt)

And my Fat Quarter Shop of the month range of BLISS featuring some lovely BLUE prints.

Blue Friday

Here is my first Coloured Friday,

 I have been rummaging around my house and photographing all things blue (including DH's chest).

  I think I may even wear blue to celebrate.

I AM A WINNER !!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you to Crafty Pug for your recent bloggy give away. I am stoked that I have won this lovely magazine.  I have never bought this one before, so now I will have another mag to get a subscription to :-)
Also, thank you for the fat quarters of lovely rich fabrics, they will go nicely in my stash that I am saving to make a reproduction quilt. (one day).

I am also having a bloggy give away.

look at my Tutorial post for details on how to enter.

First Friday night sew in

I have read about all of these Friday night sew ins, and looked at all of the lovely projects the other ladies have done - and now I have joined in.  So Friday 15th is my debut.  I have a Melly and Me Giraffe pattern I am itching to make so thats my project.

Jigsaw EYE SPY quilt tutorial + free giveaway

Hi there, I received quite a few comments on the jigsaw Eye spy quilt so I photographed each stage of the making of my second one to post in a tutorial format.  As I have never posted a tutorial before, and I am assuming most people that are viewing this post are quilters there may be a few steps, that are basic missed in the process so please forgive me for this. 

So here we go:

1. Chose 16 fabrics to make the body of  your quilt - and its a good idea to have it age appropriate and themed.  For instance I made this quilt for a 3 year old girl so they are semi nursery little girl appealing fabrics, but you could do all animals, or trucks or bugs for a little boy.

You will need 9.5 inch square of each fabric + about a 3 inch square to make the tabs.  Not all squares need a tab so if you have one or two fabrics that are not large enough that's ok.

2.  Lay them out in an appealing form,  I made mine have a diagonal row of yellow print as I intended to use a yellow peeper border and yellow binding.

At this stage either take a photo of the lay out or make notes so when you begin to join the blocks you do not get them out of order. 

3. Now decide which blocks will have tabs,  draw them on visofix and iron onto the back of the chosen fabrics.  Make sure that you have them the correct way up before ironing them so they are not upside down when sewn onto the squares to form your jigsaw puzzle pieces. 

  

4. When you are happy with the lay out iron the cut out tabs onto the adjoining pieces and start sewing the blocks together into pairs and then into rows.  

5.  Now sew the four rows together ensuring that the corners all line up.  You should now have 4 rows of 4

6.  The next part is the tricky part.  You need to outline each piece in black bias binding.  I purchased 10 meters and had about 10cm left over when I finished.  If you have lots of tabs on your puzzle pieces you will need a bit more, but use this as a guide.

7. Working in strips along rows, perhaps starting where you have a long stretch of seam before you hit a tab and use black thread on your machine and bobbin (so the stitches are invisible).  Gather and pin your work around the curved sections easing the bias as you go.  As you come to the corners to start going around a tab, mitre the fold as you would when binding a quilt.  Stitch the fold flat.
.

8. Make sure that you stitch on BOTH sides of the bias binding.  Stitch any puckers, folds or gathers flat as you go.

9. When you have done all the horizontal strips repeat this process for the vertical strips.  After this step is done, give your work a good press.

10. Now you can add your peeper borders, choose a contrasting colour to highlight one of the colours in the quilt. 

I chose a sunny yellow for this quilt.  Measure the quilt top across the centre and cut four strips 2.5 inches wide.  Sew two strips to each side of the quilt and press. Now sew two strips to the top and bottom of the quilt and press. 

11.  Almost done, Time to add the outer borders.  I cut my border strips 6 inches wide, the reason was it showed the print up quite well without repeating it, but the width of this border is up to you.  Add them in the same order as the peeper borders.  Press seams when done.

12.  Now its time to quilt.  I have not taken any photos of this step, but on the first eye spy jigsaw quilt I made I quilted in the ditch around the inside of each bias strip.  I then did a large open stipple on the border.
I will be quilting this one in the same manner.

13. When binding the quilt, I will be using the same yellow that I used in the peeper border.

14.  As its an eye spy quilt, and I have made this one for Kai, I will be labelling it as K is for Kai.....  as her cousins quilt (as featured in an earlier post), is labelled G is for Giaan.

15.  Have fun.  and if you have got this far reading this post you are eligible to enter my FIRST EVER GIVEAWAY.  Simply post a comment on this blog about the eye spy quilt that you intend to make and who the lucky recipient to go into the draw to win 5 EYE SPY fabric pieces, large enough to incorporate in this quilt pattern.  Let me know if you will be saving girl, boy or animal prints, so I can match the give away to your stash. 

LONG WEEKEND = SEWING TIME

Don't you just love long weekends,  I do.  Especially as in my job I often have to work Saturday's so this gives me 2 days all to myself.  Today, (once the washing is on the line), I plan to lock myself into my sewing room and get my October swaps done, and hopefully get a UFO well underway.  Who knows I may even have a chance to start another quilt from my wish list.  With twin babies due next March I certainly am going to be busy with nursery quilts again.  Stay tuned for postings on here or the swap blog of my handiwork.