PS too Busy

I tried to add these photos earlier however through the combination of me and Blogger it wouldn't work. Here they are again.

With regard to the Irish Star diamonds, Kathy and I have decided to swap 10 when we reach 100. Much fairer as Kathy ALWAYS finishes before me and so she would have to give me MORE of her diamonds. Talking of Kathy, who 'phoned today to tell me that her diamond total is ........... (drum roll) 96. Or something so damn close to 100 that we might as well call it 100. I have 76 and 42 in the process of being made. So that is ...... a lot. Over a 100. Just got to go down to the donga and sew the tackers. The picture above is of the 42 partially pieced diamonds. Do you know that it was raining so hard and for so long the other day that I got stuck at the donga. Busting to go to the toilet and STARVING. All the time I have been taking my umbrella - not so this time. I couldn't wait any longer so I emptied a storage bin of fabric and stuck that on my head. 80l storage bins not only store things, they can be used to stay out of the rain. Sounded nice - the rain hitting the bin as I was walking along.

I decided, as you know, to take part in the 365 Insanity Challenge of Leanne Beasley fame. So far so good. I have managed to write one every day since 13th July, nearly twenty days. I tried out the new Clover 6mm Fusible Bias Tape Maker. Worked really well once I reduced the temperature of the iron - I nearly burnt the thing to b****** - and so petite and pretty as well. I mean the tape that I made.

I have ordered the Clover YoYo makers in the various sizes. Why don't you make your own YoYo templates I hear you ask? I can make YoYos in my sleep and believe me I have. Three children in just over four years, I was at the coal face a lot and it wasn't pretty. Anyway they are now doing heart shaped YoYos. I am a sucker for a heart, so this week they should arrive and I will try them out and put them on my Insanity Challenge for you to have a look at.

That's it - a quilt top is calling me to 'come and quilt' and I'll piece more strips on those diamonds while I'm down there.......but don't tell Kathy.

Busy, busy, busy

Finally the Raffle Quilt for the Field of Quilts is finished and tickets are on sale. It's all downhill from here. This weekend the FOQ Quilt will be on display at the West Australian Craft Show held at Claremont Showgrounds.

The FOQ will this year be on Sunday 30th September. Note day changed from Saturday to Sunday to placate all those Aussie Rules following patch workers. They can watch the grand final on Saturday and go to a quilt show the day after.
These patterns are from One Song Needle Arts and are 'Janice With Attitude'. Worked well. I used two layers of wadding - Hobbs 100% Organic Cotton Bleached and Hobbs Polydown - to get the trapunto look and that was where the McTavishing came in and flattened out part of the loft. Even with the two layers the quilt is still beautifully light and supple.





Nearly all the borders are on Sue's quilt. The vertical border is just sitting there to give the impression of what it will look like.

Chaos and Harmany

Here is a quilt that I want to share with you that I eventually gave to my Dad as he loves it. This was free BOM available through Patchwork Planet that my friend Kathy and I kind of did together. If you can call doing something together when the people live ~200kms away from each other. As per usual Kathy streaked ahead and finished and I finished ....... later.

Most of the quilting designs on this quilt are free handed and because I knew that it was for Dad I could be as extreme as I wanted with thread choices. So I tried out complimentary colours and different freehand thoughts.

I really like what I did in the borders - I just marked the diagonals on the sashing side and the outer borders and feathered my way there and filled in with the sun thing when I had created the 'v' from the feathers. Whenever I see this quilt, I always run my hands over it and smile. It has gone to a 'good home'





Here are some bigger shots of the stack 'n' slash that I posted earlier. These are for you Swooze. There have been so many of these quilts made in the area where I live as they are very quick and easy and can be made using fat quarters and some border fabric, although Bev didn't do this with hers and also added an interesting stain glass window effect using a thin strip in the slashes.

Just Procrastinating

This is a photo that the youngest sweetie took of himself posing with the gift that he gave for his Poppa's 70th Birthday. A bit less Lego. Yay! We have a vast collection of Lego - however I am impressed that the Lego interest has lasted with an 11 yo and a 9 1/2 yo. Long may it continue.

Hmmm. I remember when I first learnt of the word 'procrastination' and I had a moment of frisson when I understood exactly what it meant. Well I am procrastinating. Everyone else in the house is asleep and this means that it is very quiet and there is no mother, just a woman on a computer, drinking her first water of the day(that sounds odd) I'll rephrase that. Drinking her first glass of water, for the day. Got to keep the system flushed! There was a visiting Sweetie here yesterday and as it was raining I pulled out the Indiana Jones Trilogy that I had been saving for just an occasion. Looking back, I must have been about 16 when Dad & I went to the cinema. I was amazed and I still am amazed as it was all done before the days of CGI. All the Sweeties were squirming in their seats with the excitement of the films. They watched the first two yesterday and as there is a different Sweetie coming over today, I don't know whether they will watch the final one. The Final Crusade was released in 1989 and I can't remember seeing it, I am sure that we all will sit down at the end of the day and be thoroughly amazed again.

After all that spiel what am I avoiding - cleaning! If I start making too much noise they will get out of bed. The school holidays have been really good for the boys and I, just to spend time together without having to be anywhere at a certain time. They get to sleep in which I really feel at their age is so important. I remember reading somewhere that children grow when they are asleep and they mostly grow in the spring. I always thought that it was summer that they did most of their growing. However they are getting some much needed z's.

I have installed a Stat Counter on my Blog as I primarily wanted to know where my visitors were coming from. I was delighted with the result and even had visits from Newfoundland and the Isle of Man(that is where my maternal grandmother's family came from). So I'm stoked.

I'll post more later today. There is a quilt that I would like to show you that I did a while ago and ended up giving to my Dad as my oldest (and grumpiest) Sweetie here took offense to it. He thought that it was OTT - just how I like it - and my Dad thought that it was the most marvellous quilt that he had ever seen. So I'll post some photos later. I need someone to hold the quilt up so I can get those pictures with all the quilt.

Grumble !@# I'll start cleaning now.

What A Wonderful Day

I had a fantastic day yesterday - here was some of the presents that I received yesterday - thank you Kathy. This present was wrapped up in the lovely chartreuse fabric, and then in the 4M! of measuring tape fabric. Honestly it was like pass the parcel, and I was the lucky one who was able to unwrap it all. The case is beautiful with origami fabric flowers. The foundation pieced diamonds are from Keryn Emmerson (see the link at the side) and it is an attempt to reduce some of the stash, which we are doing kind of together. I think Kathy has sewn about a gazillion and I have now done 45.