The outlook for 2009 is BRIGHT!

Two friends of mine are expecting babies in late Jan/early Feb - both boys. I have challenged myself to make cot quilts for them using up some of the gorgeous FQs I got for my birthday as part of my online quilting group swap. I was dreaming up all kinds of designs for these two beauties, but, in the end, decided that the fabric is so wild I had to let it speak for itself.I found some lime green with purple fabric for the binding, and will back it in bright orange. I'm going to hand quilt some highlighting in the main feature panel in purple perle cotton, but I haven't worked out how I'll quilt the rest - very simply I think!

The second one will be just as bright, although a little different, as the other fabrics aren't quite as wildly busy. So yes, 2009 is looking bright!

And, very tardily, here is my beatiful bubba at 4 months and one week (I got a bit behind with Christmas and all). He's such a lovely, happy, smiley boy!And a big happy new year to everyone. Let's hope 2009 is good to us all and that the economic crisis isn't as bad as predicted. Also that the Aussie dollar comes back up a bit - Equilter got a lot more expensive!

RIP Tina

I received some sad news today. One of my original blogging buddies, Tina (Tinasquilts) has lost her long fight with cancer. I first happened across Tina a couple of years ago when I was brand new to blogging and quilting. She was making a memory quilt for her husband and extended family after learning that she had cancer with a very serious outlook. We all hoped that they wouldn't need that quilt for a very long time. Sadly, the time has come now where that quilt will mean a great deal more to them. Tina was a lovely, generous lady with a heart of gold, who always made me feel good about my first, tentative steps into the world of quilting. My sincere condolences are with Tina's family.

Pretty blues

One last Christmas craft post. I managed to put this table runner (using mostly Moda Porcelain range blues) together on Christmas Eve (with Carl, Romily and Granddad out of the house for the morning) and stitched the binding down on Christmas Day. I quilted it with wavy lines across the width - they look very effective with the slightly curved edges of the strippy piecing - and they had the added bonus of not having to tie in any ends! It's for Granddad's companion Robina. He delivered it to her upon his return to Bendigo. I haven't heard whether she liked it yet, but Granddad remarked that the fabrics I'd chosen perfectly matched Robina's fruit bowl - so I'm guessing it's now on display in her home!Granddad seemed to love the one I made him - he commented that it would match his decor perfectly. Hoorah!

And still with my head swelling from my new-found fame (hahahaha), the photo and story about our special Christmas visitor will be published in a forthcoming edition of Talking Birds. What a laugh! I am a micro-celebrity in the world of twitters!

Making the news

We spotted this amazing creature in the last light of the day on Christmas Day. He was part of a small flock of yellow-tailed black cockatoos feeding in some wattle trees adjacent to our townhouse. At first we weren't sure what he was, and then we realised he was an all-yellow 'black cockie'. Incredible. I managed to snap a few photos with my telephoto lens and sent this photo into our local newspaper and they ran a story on page 5 of today's edition!

I won't let the fame rush to my head!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! After having to wake Romily up this morning (what a day to sleep in!), we had a lovely morning opening lots of pressies from Santa, Granddad, who is spending Christmas with us, and Grandma & Huppa, Uncle Jim, Auntie Jacinta & Zach, Sam, Darcy and Cody, and Uncle Bill & Auntie Kate (all of whom sent theirs up to Canberra by post - thank you!). Romily was Santa's little helper, handing out everyone's presents and having a wow of a time.

Breakfast was followed not long after by a sumptuous seafood feast (enjoyed greatly by Carl and Granddad, who LURVE oysters, prawns, bugs and crayfish). We're now all heading off for a siesta. Lovely!

(Check out the colour of Tristan's hair! He is getting lighter by the day)

(And Rom's Christmas dress was finished just in time too!)

Cheers! Wishing everyone a happy and safe Christmas and festive season.

Ready for Santa

Finished in the 'Nick' of time. One patchwork Santa sack ready and waiting!

FIL's table runner finished

I'm pleased to report that the table runner I made for my father-in-law is now safely finished and wrapped up under our Christmas tree! I'm really happy with how it turned out!

It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas

I have an announcement: I've finished my Christmas shopping! Yay, thank goodness for that, as shopping carpark rage has commenced. It's a jungle out there. Do you like the look on Rom's face? Think she was a bit overwhelmed? You'd be right!

I've been finding it hard to get in the mood for Christmas, so made myself get my shopping done, put the wreath up on the front door and sent off all our Christmas cards. We're not putting our tree up until THursday, when my Father-in-Law arrives. He's spending 10 days, including Christmas, with us. He and Rom can decorate the tree together. Maybe then I'll have a bit more festive cheer.

In the meantime, I'll put on our Christmas music CDs and try to find a bit of Christmas spirit...I know it must be around here somewhere!

Here are some family portraits we had done recently, including a decent photo of yours truly :)

Table runner top done and dusted

Woohoo this came together really fast. I decided against strippy and went for squares set with sashing. I love how this turned out. (Click for a larger image)
This was my inspiration. It's a cushion mum has on her couch - I just loved the colours together. Of course I didn't go for stars. I decided as my fabric was pretty busy I'd better stick with simple. Also, my father-in-law has a very 'Australian country' style of decor, so I wanted to make something that would both fit in as well as look modern and fresh.

I basted it with basting spray yesterday - the first time I've used the stuff. It'll be interesting to see how it goes through the machine. If it works well, I'm hooked - definitely easier than pinning!

A fairy cute girl...when she wants to be!

Romily went to the 4th birthday party of her 'best friend' Rhiannon yesterday. It was a 'come in your favourite dress-up' party at one of the local kiddie centres. Rom had a great time. As you can see below. She wanted to go as a fairy, and, as she's quite a tomboy usually, Mummy was happy to oblige. I made a 'Claire' dress for Rhiannon. It turned out pretty well. I was a bit scared of doing the shirring, but once I got going it was pretty easy - easier than the ruffle, that's for sure!

Lots of fun paintingParty food!Music timeBirthday girl RhiannonTristan was rolling around trying to see what all the noise was about!

A great time was had by all the kids and Rom was fairly (or is that fairy?) beside herself at being given a party bag to take home!

4SQS5 - sign-ups are open

If you're game, the Four Seasons Quilt Swap is on again...although this time with a twist. Head on over to Margaret's FSQS blog for details.

Baby love

And another little outfit I made has been received by Gabrielle for her new son Owen. He is a very chubba bubba (check out the cheeks), so the clothes actually fit him now, although they're sized 3-6 months! Well, the pants are still a bit long, but I'm amazed that the onesie fits! The fabric is Kokka Robots, bought from Quilt Fabric Delights some time ago. Just perfect for a baby boy! I think Tristan might have a pair of similar pants in his future!

On the quilty front, I'm working out a design for a table runner for my FIL for Christmas. Embarrassingly, he has had on his table ALL YEAR the Christmas-themed one I made for him last year. Therefore it was easy to work out what I should make for him this year! I'm using orange, brown and chocolate fabrics. They're gorgeous fabrics (will post a photo soon), so I am thinking of keeping it very simple and doing a strippy table runner with some stipple quilting to show off the fabric. We'll see. Might chuck a couple of stars in there too!

Getting in some sewing here and there

While I haven't been able to get a lot done sewing wise lately, I have found a little time for a couple of projects I've been meaning to get finished.As part of a long overdue thank you to Gail and her daughter for spoiling Romily with two sets of Dora the Explorer books (and some much-prized Band-Aids!!), I made Gail's daughter an apron, embroidered with the initial of her first name. Xena do you recognise the pocket and binding fabric? (From our birthday FQ swap). Romily was being quite a maniac while modelling it for me while I was trying to get a decent photo!The parcel also included one of my pincushions, an FQ with a print of the Australian wattle flower, as well as the Australian children's book classic Seven Little Australians, which Gail and her daughter are going to read together (just have the tissues handy!). I loved that book as a child. It was funny, sad and very memorable!

I also finished off the set of premmie tops I was making way back here. They're on their way to Darwin.
We've had a pretty enjoyable weekend. Went to the Canberra Yacht Club yesterday afternoon with some friends and their kids. It was great to see the posse of littlies band together and play together (mostly) nicely! Today I took the kids to Questacon, which Romily absolutely loves. She's pretty tired after all of that and is having a nice long sleep while I am writing this post. Tristan's asleep too - so nice to have a bit of time out!

Three months old

Well, I was supposed to post this a week ago, but it's been one of those weeks. Here's my gorgeous bubba at three months of age. Time flies.
And here he is trying to roll...yep, you read it right! He has mastered front to back, but is now desperately trying to go from back to tummy. He's nearly got it!
Oh, and I somehow managed a distinction for my first unit, despite a somewhat dodgy couple of exam papers!

Fab Amitie fabric

What lovely fabrics to go into my planned red/yellow/white quilt. Yum yum. From the fabulous Amitie, where I met the lovely Cathy, aka the fabulous Miss Marzie and also one half of Audrey & Maude.

It's the first time I've 'outed' myself in 'real life' to someone from Blogland! It was very funny.

Me to the gorgeous tall blonde lady: 'Would one of you be Cathy by any chance?'
Blonde amazon: 'Yes, that's me. Why?'
Me: 'Um I'm Lorraine...er, Lily, er Cascade Lily' (with growing desperation in my voice)
Cathy: 'Oh my gosh! Hi! How lovely to meet you!' (with the look on her face going from complete incomprehension, to vague recollection, to realisation!!!)

Then I had to go on to explain that I answer to Lorraine or Lily - my old friends, work colleagues and most of my family call me Lorraine, but my Dad and newer friends call me by my nickname Lily, which I prefer. It's a bit confusing! LOL

Once we got over the awkwardness, it was very exciting to be in the middle of such an amazing store and gushing about all the delectable fabrics and projects which take up every conceivable flat surface (and a lot of hanging space too) in the well appointed store.

I had to concentrate very hard not to be thrown off course away from my desire to get some stripes and more yellows/reds! Fortunately my mum came with me and looked after Tristan and Romily while I shopped! I had about an hour there and could have spent the whole day there if I'd been sans kids!

Methinks Amitie will be a regular haunt for me on my Melbourne jaunts! Grandma will have to do some babysitting :)

Funny photos from my family

I was going through some recent photos, including our holiday snaps (which I will post) and discovered that either I have two funny kids, or I have a wacky sense of humour. You be the judge!

Bleurgh. We're all down with a mystery tummy bug. First me, then Romily, then me again and Tristan, and now Carl. Not fun!