Happy Leap Year!

Well it only comes around every four years, so it's worth a post don't you think? Haven't posted for a while...have been feeling wrung out this week. Have had a long, hard week at work, so am very pleased the weekend is here.

We had a really busy weekend last weekend. First up was a pirate-themed birthday party for the three-year old daughter of one of my friends. I made Romily's first dress-up outfit - she loved it!
I also made part of Charlotte's birthday present - my take on the pencil roll. But with wind-up crayons instead. I had to rescue it from one of the other party guests - who took quite a liking to it and tucked it under his arm, ready to abscond!
The party was lots of fun and all the kids particularly enjoyed the treasure hunt.

Later that day we took Romily to the Canberra Show, where she enjoyed checking out all the animals, received her first showbag and had her first go on one of the rides!
Many of my blogging buddies have been talking about the change in seasons and the long-awaited arrival of spring. We're just starting to see the opposite down under, with the first leaves starting to turn, signalling the arrival of autumn (fall for you North Americans!). We've had our first cold nights and morning dew and the first hot air balloons of the year are up in the morning sky.

We've been having some amazing weather to go with the seasonal shift - spotting these two amazing sights out of our windows during this past week:

I'm a little teapot part two

I just realised I forgot to post a picture or two of the finished teapot 'trivet' I made for my FIL's companion for Christmas.

She was thrilled to bits to receive it (even though it was a leedle bit late!). Poor thing still hasn't had the operation to remove her gallstones, although she's on the countdown now, as she has a date of mid-March. Fingers crossed she gets the medical attention she needs without any more delay.


Anyway, as you can see, I handquilted the whole thing, and used Perle 8 cotton for the first time. Boy that was a challenge to get through all the layers, seams and try to maintain stitch length. Thankfully the quilt police won't be looking at the back of it!


Didn't remember to measure it either, although it's around 20" by 13". Turns out Robina has a modern, funky white teapot, so the trivet and teapot are in pride of place on her kitchen bar. (That is not her teapot above - it's one of mine!)

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Thanks for all the quilt love on my first attempt at abstract. It was lots of fun! I was also finally inspired and motivated to join the Canberra Quilters - my first meeting will be on 6 March. Debating over whether I will take anything for show and tell! Probably not, as I've given all my quilty stuff away apart from the sampler quilt I made for Rom's bed and the unfinished landscape. Doubt it will be finished by then, as I have a disappearing 9-patch cot quilt to start and finish by then! Maybe that will be finished and I can take that! We'll see.

Wow!

I had a great time on the weekend - I went to a two-day quilting workshop with Beth & Trevor Reid, renowned contemporary and abstract quilters who live in the Canberra region. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will have seen some of their work here. Here's some more of their work and more. I just love it!


While it was liberating and thrilling to learn an entirely new technique and a new way of looking to nature for inspiration, the best part for me was finally trying out free motion quilting! I had been a big chicken and not tried it - to be honest it scared me! But, with a bit of expert tutelage from Beth, off I went and I don't think I'll look back.


Each of the 11 workshop participants (all women - no surprise there!) created a wall quilt, although not many of us actually finished - and that included me. BUT, we did all choose the kind of quilt we wanted to make, drew a sketch of what our quilt would become and went for it. All 11 quilts were completely different - I love that about quilting.

For my quilt, I was inspired by a photograph of the Australian outback, which set an electric blue sky against an ochre coloured landscape, with a huge boulder in the middle ground, which had split in two.

I really wanted to challenge myself, so I limited myself to four really bold colours/six fabrics. The result is abstract and pushes the boundaries of landscape quilting. I'm not sure how well it works, but I just love the effect of the heavily quilted sky, as well as the FMQ circles giving texture to the boulder.


We learnt how to paint fabric with fabric paints (the red fabric in the above photo has been painted with a green, to give more depth to the distant mountains), experiment with limited palettes, and learn how to do raw edge appliqué using Viesoflix. We learnt about layering for effect, using fabrics you wouldn't ordinarily think of (like organza) and painting fabric to get different effects.

It was lots of fun!

The quilt still needs quite a bit of work. The trees, tree trunk and shrubs are yet to be quilted. I think I'll also drop a couple of 'rocks' into the foreground to give it a bit more depth. Here's a view of part of the back of the quilt - there's about half a kilometre of thread in here already :o

Once it's finished it'll go into Romily's room - she's already claimed it :) It'll take me a little while to get it done though, as I have some other more pressing deadlines looming!

Hope you're all having fun out there in the land of Blog!

I am Elizabeth Bennett

You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of ridiculousness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed.

Take the Quiz here!

And do you know what, Carl is definitely my Mr Darcy :)

Happy Birthday Carl and Happy Anniversary too!

February's a busy month for us: my mum's birthday was last week (I won't embarrass her by telling you she turned 60!) and yesterday was Carl's birthday.

We had a birthday lunch with my mum when we were down in Tassie and yesterday Romily and I sang happy birthday to Carl over a yummy chocolate cake I made for him.


Today also marks four years since we said 'I do' and what a busy four years it's been. Here's to many more!

If you'd like to read the story of how Carl and I met and fell in love on an expedition to Mt Everest, click here, here and here.

Megan Z from Growing Notes has finally received the miniature quilt I made for her as part of the Four Seasons Quilt Swap. She said she really liked it and already has it hanging in her bedroom! It was so much fun being part of the swap that I think I'll sign up for the Spring round.

Thrilled to the back teeth!

Funny expression that, but not so priceless as the look on my face when I got home from work yesterday and discovered a parcel waiting for me - yes, I received the quilt made for me for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap.

I am the luckiest girl in the world, for my swap partner was none other than Quilting Bebbs! I was so thrilled because I had admired the quilt on her blog and she had indicated that her quilt recipient didn't read her blog so I sadly thought it wasn't me! (Click here and here to see how she made it)

I was doing my little happy dance like such a crazy woman when I realised she was pulling my leg and I was indeed lucky enough to receive her beautiful 'dancing snowflakes' quilt.

It is really as beautiful, if not more, in real life than it is in pictures on the web. The piecing, is, of course, perfect, and the quilting is wonderful. I am in awe of Anne's machine quilting prowess - I am such a chicken - I must try free motion quilting one day. Anne, you may have just inspired me to give it a go!

Anne, thank you so much - I am really thrilled to the back teeth!

Woohoo - nausea is GONE!

While I'm still waiting for that famed second trimester burst of energy to hit me, I am VERY pleased to report that the nausea has gone! Thanks for all of you who wished it away for me.

And yes, we've told Romily. Of course, she doesn't quite get it, but understands it quite well for someone who's only two and a half! She came along to the scan and I'm talking to her about what's going on. She knows that 'there's a baby in mummy's tummy - just like Romily was in mummy's tummy'. I reckon that's pretty good. And she just loves babies, so I think she'll be a great little helper to me when bub #2 makes its entrance.

She is still such a little doll. Really interested in books and 'reading' right now. So a big thanks to Doodlebug Gail and her daughter for sending Romily four Dora the Explorer books all the way from Canada! Romily loves the books, and they are learn-to-read books with mini-pictures embedded in the text. Rom is cottoning on to this idea quite well...she has also just about memorised a couple of them already! Thanks Gail :)

I finally downloaded my photos from Christmas and from our holiday. Here's a photo of my sister-in-law with the messenger-style bag I made for her. She really liked it. She loves blues, and she was impressed that I'd made it myself! It's another one from the Flea Market Bag pattern I blogged about here and here.


More holiday and crafty photos to follow soon!

Thanks and Four Seasons Quilt Swap (Winter) revealed

Thanks everyone for your best wishes following my announcement of our exciting news! I told my work colleagues today, most of whom were very happy for me, but a couple were concerned about who'd do all my work once I disappear on 12 months' leave!

The big plan is for Carl and I to swap back once the baby is born, he will return to work, and I'll be back home as a full-time mum for a year. After that I'll go back to the office, but will also start looking for a job in Tasmania. It's all systems go!

Still haven't had a chance to go through our holiday snaps, as I have been madly finishing off the Four Seasons Quilt Swap for Winter 2008. Having had such terrible and debilitating nausea for the past six weeks made it a bit of a trial to get it finished by today's deadline, but finish I did!

I'm pretty confident the person receiving this quilt doesn't read this blog, so I'm happy to reveal my handiwork here:

('tis actually square - 19" x 19" - but my terrible photography doesn't make it look so!)

And detail of the hand quilting - only used as a highlight this time - and I used no.8 Perlé cotton for effect:


The design is a reverse appliqué - a Hawaiian appliqué - an idea I got from the book 'Rags to Rainbows' by Miranda Innes (an oldie but a goodie). It was a little bit fiddly, and some of the edges frayed slightly, but I like how it turned out.

Here's the back:


And a detail of the label:


If you're wondering how it's done, I got a Hawaiian snowflake design from the Internet (there are literally dozens of sites with templates for kids to cut out of paper), printed it, traced it onto some fusible web, fused it to the navy snowflake material and cut out the snowflake. As it's a reverse appliqué, the 'snowflake' is discarded. But I liked it so much I stuck it to the back as a label!

Once you've cut out the design, you fuse it to the background fabric and voila. I did a tiny zigzag stitch around the design to secure it to the fabric and then hand quilted inside and outside the design.

It's a technique I've not tried before, but I quite like how it turned out. Let's hope my swappee likes it too...

We're back...with some news!

We're back from a lovely holiday at the bottom of the world...well, not quite, but the bottom of Australia anyway.

We had a lovely, relaxing time, although I wasn't that much fun, as I have been suffering from all day nausea and fatigue for about the past six weeks. Yep, you guessed it, I am pregnant!

We had our 12 week scan today and here is baby number two:

Will post more soon, but I have to get my Four Seasons swap quilt finished tonight and in the mail tomorrow. The dreaded morning sickness has played havoc with my sewing, so the pressure is on to finish.

Also back to work tomorrow. Will upload photos from holiday soon!

On pleasure bent again

Yes, it's nearly time for us to hit the road! On Saturday we will jump in our car and head on down the highway towards Melbourne (around 8 hours).


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We'll overnight at my parents' house and the next day take my 'baby' brother Bill out to lunch with his partner Kate in celebration of his 32nd birthday. We haven't seen them since September, so it will be lovely to catch up. After a leisurely lunch we'll say our farewells and head down to Station Pier, from where the ferry to Tasmania departs.


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Romily is a little excited about sleeping on the 'big boat' - it should be interesting - we're in a four-berth cabin for the overnight voyage. Once we arrive in Devonport we'll hit the road again, this time for a three-hour journey down to Hobart.


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After stocking up on supplies we drive a little bit further to a little hamlet on the coast called Kettering, from where we catch yet another ferry - this time it's only a 7-minute journey! Another 45 minutes later and we will arrive in the picturesque Adventure Bay.


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It's like stepping back in time and we can hardly wait to get there. We have 10 days in Tasmania and we're really looking forward to it.

I've been sewing like a woman possessed, but unfortunately have run out of time to post all my finished projects! I'll be sure to photograph them all before they're wrapped and packed for the journey and post some pictures at my leisure upon our return in around two weeks' time.

A new finish for the New Year

Happy New Year!


We farewelled Carl's Dad last Thursday - we all really enjoyed his visit - Romily in particular, but after 11 days he was very keen to get home and we were of course happy to have the house back to 'normal'. Don't get me wrong - he's an absolute pleasure to have come and stay, but there's nothing like being able to walk around your own house in your knickers, if you know what I mean!


Thanks for your comments on my last post - I guess when you put them all together like that it looks like a lot! I think a lot of us are probably more ambitious about the number of projects we'd like to complete than we can actually manage :)

Anyway, I did finish a project I started last year - some baby shoes and matching appliquéd onesies for a friend in my mother's group who had her bub just before Christmas. I was anxious to finish the present, as she makes big babies and this one was no exception! Over 10 pounds (5 kg) - yeeouch! I wanted to get the gift to her before Liam outgrew it all :)

(Click to enlarge)

Both ideas are from Stardust Shoes patterns - freebies available here and here. You could make endless numbers of appliquéd onesies - they're actually pretty easy, you can customise them any way you like and they look great! Let's just hope they all still fit!

We had a very quiet New Year's Eve and Day - I spent most of it sewing! I've also finished the second of three table runners, as well as finished off the teapot table mat. I'll post some pictures over the weekend.

I was back at work Wednesday through Friday this week and have all next week to get through before we're finally off on holidays! I can't wait - I really need the break. Work has been very busy these past nine months, and while I achieved a lot, I need some downtime with my family. Not long to go now!

Annual Crafty Wrap-Up

A few fellow bloggers have rung out the year with a review of their crafts for the year. I thought this was a good way to look at what I've accomplished this year. Not as much as some, but, then again, I work 40+ hours per week and am the mum to a very busy 2 1/4 year old!

For Quilts4Leukaemia - these blocks were made into a beautiful quilt by the very generous Clare for Kezia, a little girl who needed some TLC.

The first quilt I made for Romily - it's on the end of her bed now :)

Wonky Geese - made for a darling little boy named Campbell

Jeans from Ottobre I made for my nephew Zach

The first batch of softies I made for various family and friends' children - I also made one for Rom :)

Rom's cowgal coat - it has a matching hat too!

A *gasp* white dress for a toddler. She's actually quite a clean little kid!

More softies...I made five in all.

More jeans, this time for my twin nephews Darcy and Cody

My take on the British Strippy Quilt for the EB Quilters Doll Quilt Swap in October

An extra doll quilt I made, which went to one of the girls in the swap.

A gorgeous little sun dress I made for my friend's baby Erika

A romper for a little boy named Atticus

And finally, the table runner I made for my Father-in-law for Christmas.

I have several other projects in the works - some of which were supposed to be finished by now but are not! Ah well, best laid plans and all that.

There's always next year!

Happy New Year to all my friends out there in the Land of Blog. Cheers!