Fabric for animal friends

I went fabric shopping on the weekend, for the little softies I'll be making over the coming weeks. I didn't buy 'proper' quilting cotton, but the next grade down, which is much cheaper (obviously). I'm pretty confident it'll be just fine for this project though - and I loved the colours and variations. I'm making five kitty/bunny/bears, so it should be fun mixing and matching the colours/patterns. Should be!


I thought I'd also post a couple of photos of my increasingly wacky daughter, who is now firmly a Vegemite lover. (For those of you who don't know what Vegemite is, it's an 'Australian delicacy' - a condiment/spread you can put on toast - it's savoury and a very little goes a long way. Not many non-Australians are fans, but most Aussies are raised on it! It's made from yeast extract, among other things, and is chock full of Vitamin B. A bit like Promite or Marmite, but not at all sweet. You can see from her cheeks that she's pretty keen!

(Gotta love those blue peepers!)

I dropped Wonky Geese around to baby Campbell on Sunday. My friends just loved it, so I'm very pleased I made it for them! Campbell promptly had a little milk spew on the quilt, which horrified his parents, but made me giggle. I told them that it was his now, and he could do what he liked with it. His mum looked very relieved when I told her the quilt is machine washable!

I got a little bit clucky (again) today, when I went to visit my friend, who's in hospital with her brand new, one-day-old gorgeous little bundle of joy Molly. She is so sweet and I had a cuddle for about 20 minutes. Heaven! No quilt for Molly though - my friend is a bit short of $$$ right now, so I opted for baby clothes instead. Molly will also get one of the softies. I did have fun buying baby clothes again - they're so little and gorgeous.

I'm off to Melbourne yet again tomorrow and Friday for work. Then overnighting with my parents on Friday night and back to Canberra on Saturday. Little wonder I'm so tired all the time. My doctor is sending me for a battery of blood tests next week to see what's going on with me - I haven't been quite right since I had food poisoning/gastro at Christmas time, so he suspects Glandular Fever (mononucleosis) post-viral fatigue. Ah well, who knows what it is - hopefully I'll start to feel 'myself' again some time soon!

Wonky geese is finished. Finally!

Ta da!

Only took six months!

Haven't ironed it yet. It washed up well this afternoon. I am very happy with how it turned out. Will deliver it tomorrow after it's dry and ironed. I hope it gets a lot of use.

No quiltmaking for a little bit for me - I am going to be making a couple of 'patchwork' bunnies (like this one), kittens and bears (like this one) from a pattern designed by Hillary Lang from Wee Wonderfuls instead!

Hope you're all having a good weekend.

Old Macdonald Had a Farm

We had a lovely time at the farm, until, that is, Romily, Carl and I all came down with colds and Romily woke up crying at 1.30am Saturday night, having vomited lunch and dinner all through her bedclothes, including the quilt I so lovingly made her last year! I spent half an hour scraping it clean and rinsing. Gross. So, we called it quits after lunch on Sunday and came home a day early, leaving the rest of my family to spend another day hanging around with the lovely animals, gorgeous scenery and way too much food!

Carl showing Romily what pedals are. And Romily deciding they're way too complicated! This is in front of the guest accommodation.

Oldest of four nephews Zach with my sister-in-law Jacinta

Romily is one plucky little kid. Here she is patting the 'nice horsey'.

Grandma and auntie Jacinta help Romily feed one of the two abandoned lambs being hand reared by the family

The toy bikes and tractors were a big hit with Romily and her twin cousins Cody (on the left) and Darcy.

All the littlies enjoyed patting the animals - large and small. Guinea pigs on the left and black dog on the right.

Afternoon tea in front of the campfire. The cake was a big hit with Romily, as you can see from the telltale icing sugar on her nose!

With Uncle Bill.

And Tim Tam the deer.

Romily was a clingy little thing all weekend. No doubt due to her cold. As endearing as 'Mummy...hug' can be, it wears a bit thin after 48 hours straight!

Hay rides in the back of the ute were a hit with all the family - big and small!

Romily playing hide and seek in a cupboard in the shearing shed.

A budding farmer on her tractor?

And I rode a horse for the first time in my life! I loved it. It was so much fun. I don't look too bad do I? (That hand is the farmer, who stayed pretty close!)

A portrait of my brother Bill.

And yet another photo of the very adorable Romily :)

Eeeieeeiooooh!

Colds are receding, drugs are a wonderful thing, and it's back to work tomorrow.

The yellow fabric arrived from Fabric Shack - hooray. They even threw in a couple of freebies. Now I can get Campbell's Wonky Geese finished. Just in time, as the new Australian Quilter's Companion May issue arrived today, chock full of inspiration for the next project!

Tagged by Joyce!

I've been tagged by Joyce to tell you seven things you didn't know about me. Let's see...

1. I was in the Australian Army for three and a half years
2. I played the flute for five years
3. I can't do maths, other than basic arithmetic - although I pick up foreign languages pretty easily
4. I have a Master of Strategic Affairs from the Australian National University
5. My favourite author is Dorothy Dunnett, who wrote the Lymond Chronicles - for lovers of historical fiction with a romantic vision
6. Sewing machines and I have a very sad history - I broke so many of them in Year 8 craft classes that I was banned from machine sewing and had to do everything by hand!
7. Jersey Caramels are my favourite lollies. Ever.

Now it's Simonetta, Tina, Jenni, Tracey, Steph, Tracey and Duyvken's turn!!

Have a good weekend everyone. I'll be back next week to share our adventures at the farm!

Hope all the mummies had a great day

I certainly did! The morning was spent in Melbourne with my wonderful mother (and father) and then I flew back to Canberra and spent the afternoon with my gorgeous daughter (and husband). Doesn't get much better than that!

I was in Melbourne over the weekend to help my dad celebrate his 60th birthday, which is actually this coming Saturday. We had his party last weekend because this weekend we are going to all meet up at this fabulous farmstay:

www.hanericka.com.au

Seven adults and five children. It should be a blast!!!

Grandma made sure Romily is ready should it rain. Do you think she likes it?

I like to clean!

You may not realise at first glance, but yes that is a toy vacuum cleaner! It is in fact a Miele brand toy, an exact replica of our real appliance. Just a pity that it's not a working model!

You missed a bit Daddy!

Romy does seem to love the feather duster - and becomes quite distressed when we try to put it away!

Oh yes and we are encouraging this behaviour! Isn't it lovely at this age where they want to 'clean, clean?'

(No border on Wonky Geese. Realised the fabric I had picked out was wrong, wrong, wrong, so have ordered some bright yellow plain fabric from www.fabricshack.com - let's hope my experience is as good as Jenni's.)

Quilting is d-o-n-e!

Click to enlarge all photos - but don't look too closely!

Hooray! I stayed up a wee bit late last night and finished the freehand fans on Campbell's Wonky Geese. I am consequently too tired tonight to do the binding - it will have to wait until Wednesday night now.

I am very happy with how the quilting turned out - at first I was a little worried about combining machine quilting with hand quilting, but I think it really works with this quilt. The machine quilting was my first non-straight-line quilting, and I'm pretty happy with it too.

Brave me showing the back view!

I am looking forward to getting the binding on and finished and delivering to baby Campbell who is now five months old! Ah well, you just can't rush these things :)


A good weekend here. Very quiet - a trip to the zoo yesterday and Carl took Romily on a bike ride, with new bike rack on the car and new kiddie seat on the bike - they both loved it. I am still very tired - I was in three different cities with work last week and all the travel caught up with me. I've finally managed to catch up with all the blogs I subscribe too - although I didn't leave as many comments as I would have liked. Just not enough hours in the day!

I have a very busy week coming up - I'm losing a day and half of productivity to get some mandatory training done, so it compresses an already busy week into three and half days. I'd better be on the ball from minute one tomorrow morning!!

Ersatz pin cushion

Lots of very talented crafters out there have been posting over the past six months or so about the fabulous pin cushions they've made.

Well mine is obviously not up there, but it's recyclable, which makes it nice and green. Actually, it's nice and brown. It's chocolate!

I find that my pins stand up beautifully in it when I'm at the machine. I can't keep my pins loose with a curious toddler around, so they have to go back into their packet after every use. So, all I really need is a temporary pin cushion. And then I get to eat it afterwards! The best of both worlds methinks :)


Campbell's Wonky Geese is coming along really nicely - I am on the last three-four fans, so should be able to get the binding on either tomorrow or Monday night. Woohoo!