Sneak Peek & FSQS

I've had a couple of people asking me why I've been so quiet.... Most unusual for me, but I have been busy and productive. Before I get into that I wanted to share with you the lovely parcel I received today from Lea in Japan. When I emptied my letter box the name didn't ring any bells, then I read the postcard that was inside the mailer, and I thought "Oh my, someones sent me something and I have no idea who this person is" How embarrassing.... Now if I'd held onto that thought a little longer everything would have been revealed to me. This is the lovely quilt Lea sent for the Four Season's Spring Swap. Isn't it just too cute for words? Thank you so much Lea, I just love it. She also included a lovely little bag of Japanese sweets and bubble gum, hmm have to hide them or eat them before Hollie comes home.

You may remember in my last post I listed my WIP's and the order in which I thought I'd tackle them. Well how quickly plans change. I decided to have a quick look to see how many more of the embroidery blocks needed to be stitched before I could put it all together. (That wasn't my plan when I wrote up my WIP list). Hmm only 5 more blocks, now how silly would that be, to put it on the back burner when it was so close to being finished?
So for the last few days I've been finishing up the stitching and today I spent the majority of the day working out a layout that I felt was pleasing to the eye. Decided it needs one more embroidery block, which I'll sit and do this evening.

I've also been thinking about a business name, and have come up with one that I hope is original and catchy. More on that later.


Happy Stitching, and thank you for taking the time to visit with me.

Giveaway

Not from me, but if you jump on over to My Favorite Things Kerry is giving away a pattern. Tell her I sent you.
Now if a pattern isn't quite your style then perhaps you'd like to receive a lovely quilt. If that's the case then pop on over to Julie's blog, she has a scrummy quilt to giveaway.

Happy Stitching.

WIP's

Do you ever get that feeling of being overwhelmed with the number of projects you have in various stages? I'm almost at that point, so I decided before it got out of hand I needed to do something about it. I love to start new projects, like most of us do, but I used to be a good finisher. Time to get back to finishing. I think what did it for me, was while I was shopping last week for fabrics my sweetie asked if this was for another ufo.....ouch.....
I've spent the last couple of days basting down the little applique pieces for these borders and corner squares. I'd like to finish this one first, but who knows what will happen...

Once I get all the hand work done on that one I'd like to return to the embroidery quilt and get that finished and get the pattern written up. There aren't many blocks left to do to have this one completed.

These little nine patches are an ongoing swap with Bren. Six blocks per month, so that's an easy one to keep up with.

Once I have the applique and the "Love" quilt done I'd like to get back to these. They have been sulking in the sewing room for quite a long time. When I pulled them out to look at them I noticed on the large block (which took 40 hours to stitch) that it's turning a little yellow. I've had them folded in the dark. Any suggestions how I can solve this problem? I almost cried when I saw it, and I'd hate to have to re-do this block.

I mentioned a few posts ago about making a quilt for Luke, for his 30th birthday. Here's the start on some of the blocks. They all need to be finished off with a plain black, and I've decided to go ahead and follow Andrea's directions for the quilt as you go method. These have been fun to make, not too much brain use involved....

Then there's these little log cabin blocks that are so much fun to make, I loose track of the time when I sit down to stitch these up.

Of course I can't show photo's of the PIF gifts I have in various stages of progress, but they too need to be completed and sent out to their new homes. As well as all of this, Miss Hollie will be home in a month, and I'm busy getting graduation gifts made for her 5 class mates and trying to figure out where I'm going to move everything to, from the sewing room when she's home.

So if I don't post for a while you'll know I'm busy stitching away. Although as I'm known for my chatty ability I can't imagine I'll be too quiet.

Happy Stitching, and thanks for spending time with me today.

Lovely Blogs

Just a quick post today, I'm supposed to be busy in the sewing room, sewing up log cabin blocks. I wanted to let you know about a couple of blogs I stumbled across.
Barbara Brandeburg has some beautiful quilt and bag patterns, and soon to be released is a gorgeous apron pattern.
Valori Wells another designer has a lovely free quilt pattern on her site.
Hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

Happy Stitching.

Machine Quilting ?

Thank you to everyone who gave me advice and ideas on irons, ruler sticky aids and towels and kitchen tools. As it happened my "sweetie" was off work yesterday so we took advantage of the time and shopped. I just couldn't bring myself to spend huge $$ on an iron which could have been put to fabric shopping. So I purchased a lovely Sunbeam iron at a fraction of the price of a Rowenta and hubby is picking up the nonslip thingy for my ruler on his way home from work today.
I was inspired by this quilt when I first saw it last year. AmandaJean has the ability to make a design that is simple in construction, to look elegant and sophisticated. Every time I looked at it I wondered who I could make a similar quilt for. They say that duplicating someone else's work is the highest form of flattery. Then it struck me, Luke, my son, will be celebrating his 30th birthday next Valentine's day, and as he doesn't own a quilt, what better gift than this design done in blacks and whites. So the process has been started, the blocks are being made, and then my mind went to the quilting of it. My gosh it's going to be huge, too big for my poor little Janome Gem to cope with. I don't particularly want to send it out to be quilted. Then I wondered about quilt as you go. I've never used this process for quilting, opting for the more traditional quilting method of sandwiching, basting and quilting.
So before I leap in head first I'd like to ask your advice on this process.
Have any of you used this method?
If so, did you find it a successful way of coping with a huge quilt?
Did it all piece together accurately?
Would you recommend this type of quilting for a large quilt?

Any and all suggestions will be extremely appreciated.
Happy Stitching, and once again thank you for taking the time to answer my never ceasing questions.

Soft Mail, Irons, Towels and Rulers

I've had some lovely soft mail yesterday and today. I know it's been said so many times before, but it's something we should never forget, blogging friends are a true blessing.
This lovely parcel arrived yesterday from Caryn. I'd entered her giveaway for an Abe Head square for my civil war blocks and was one of the lucky winners. When the envelope arrived I was a little baffled at the size of it, then I opened it up and found, not only the lovely square I'd won, but a sweet little appliqued kitchen towel, a very yummy piece of CW fabric a candle and a lovely little scissor Pal. Thank you so much Caryn, your parcel was such a lovely surprise and the contents are very much appreciated.

Today's mail brought a parcel all the way from Christine in Ohio. Christine had very sweetly offered to send me some black and whites. I was expecting scraps, so you can imagine my joy when I opened the box to find these beautiful fat quarters sitting neatly tucked inside along with the little card. Thank you so much Christine, you have truly blessed me, and these fabrics will look wonderful stitched into Luke's quilt.
Now is the time for some of my questions. Who better to ask than fellow quilters. Below is a photo of a little quilt pattern I won some time ago. Yesterday I started and finished the first of a couple of reversible aprons for Jenna's birthday this year. I thought I'd like to make up a nice kitchen parcel for her. I'm not sure if those acrylic type bake ware products are available in Aussie yet so I thought I'd get a couple of those and applique these little cupcakes onto some pretty pink checked kitchen towels. So this is where the question comes in ( long winded aren't I?) Does anyone know where I can find these towels in a pretty pink check, I'm also looking for pink kitchen tools, like spatulas and measuring cups and have absolutely no idea where to look. So if you could point me in the right direction, I sure would be one happy mama.
My iron died last week, fortunately I always keep a cheap $6 spare in the cupboard, so it's doing the job, only just, until I can shop this weekend. The last iron I had was a Braun and I liked the functions on it, it was nice and heavish, turned itself off every 10 minutes etc. I looked at Hancock's at the Rowenta irons, and have to say I just about had heart failure when I saw the price. $100 for an iron....... So what are your suggestions, is the Rowenta iron a good investment, or is there another iron you would recommend?

Last question, I have a large 16 inch square ruler that has absolutely no grip at all, the darn thing slips and slides all across the fabric. So trying to square up a block with it is next to impossible. Is there some type of product I can use to put on the back of the ruler to stop the slipping, without it interfering with the ability to use the ruler?

Happy Stitching, and thank you for taking the time to help me out with these little dilemmas.

Bits and Pieces

Another visit to the dentist tomorrow morning. Gosh I'll be happy when this dry socket decides to behave and life gets back to normal, well as normal as it gets around here.
Janet over at Wildcraft Farm is having a giveaway, a lovely free stitchery design. So hop on over and read the details.
All the spots for my PIF have been filled, but there's still spaces with Lorraine and Janet although I'm not sure if Janet has posted about it yet. There's also Caryn who hasn't had any bites so far. So you see there's still lots of spaces to be able to join in on the giving.
In the next couple of days I hope to have a new tutorial up for you all. No hints, no sneak peaks this time, you'll just have to wait and see.

Happy Stitching, and thanks for visiting with me, I do appreciate all the comments and emails.

P.S. Angela is having a giveaway on her blog, so pop on over and say hello.