12 days

    

8 days down and I am actually quite please with what I have achieved. I have conquered my fears of FMQ and quilted E’s Cot Quilt. No pictures as yet as I need to wash it to remove all the blue pen marks. In the meantime here is a sneak peek of it waiting to have the binding hand stitched down.

I have also sewn together the Pram Quilt for Lachie’s new pram just need to sandwich and start the hand quilting in pale green perle thread I think.

Here is a close up showing the material, it was taken out night so the full picture is a bit washed out by the flash

I have also started the next stage of the Charm Square Quilt Along which is putting the blocks together, here is my first one, 1 down – 24 to go.

I wonder what else I will be able to get finished before I start back?

19 days till…..

my maternity leave finishes…  then I will go from spending all my time

with this

 

this and

this…..

to having to include 15hrs a week with this as well, hope I still find time for my sewing.

Between now and then I have a few things I would like to try and get done. I need to quilt E’s Cot Quilt, I have been putting it off as I had originally planned to just echo quilt around and inside the blocks, but as I decided to make a pieced back I realised that this would look odd. So with some encouragement from some lovely friends from MMQG I have decided to have a go FMQ it. Wish me luck.

I also need to get Bastian’s cuddle quilt sandwiched and quilted, this is going to be quilted quite plainly so should be easy enough to do, except for the fact that I am using Minky as the back.

I also need to sew together L’s Pram quilt, sandwich and start hand quilting it.

Along with keeping up with the Charm Square Quilt Along and everything else I want to do 

Swaps, Shopping and Stuff

With the August MMQG sewing day happening tomorrow (7 Aug) I thought I should blog the name tag that I made and received at last months sewing day. My sneak peek here included some paper in the left hand corner, did anyone spy that. As everyone seems to be in love with hexagons at the moment I decided to use hexagons for my name tag and made this one for Cathy

This is the one I received from Bec

I have also been making a few purchases lately. Firstly I went to Melbourne Craft & Quilt Show a couple of weekends ago and was very restrained in my spending. I got was Janelle Wind’s first book Pieces of Me, and a this kit to make Melly & Me’s Fat Quarter bag 

I have to admit that I am quite proud of myself as I have already made one project out of the book, started and finished it all in one day. One of the reasons why I purchased this book was for this specific project.

Isn’t it cute, it is a cover for my Iphone and has a small pocket on the front which is the perfect size to hold my ATM/credit card and some loose change. I have also order some fabric from this lovely store to make two bags out of this book.
Actually I have purchased quite a lot from that store recently as well as the fabric I have three Christmas related kits on there way to me, a advent calendar, reindeer stocking and Christmas wreath. There were all part of QFD Christmas in July online event so I am unable to post photos of the patterns but if you have a look over here you can see some pictures of some of the projects I got kits for. Another purchase I made from QFD was this lovely soft flannel

I am going to team it with the FQ pack of Ginger Blossom that my lovely EB friends gave me as a thankyou for running the Round Robin Swap last year. I plan to make a half sq triangle quilt like Esther’s using the flannel as one half of the sq and the cotton as the other half, hoping it will look as I imagine.
I have also been working on the Freckled Whimsey Charm Pack Quilt along and am now up to date.

150 1/2 square triangles

75 four patch blocks

Finally if you like the look of my IPhone cover, don’t forget that I have a PIF open at the moment and you never now I might make one for you :)

Pay it Forward & Quilting Kindness

Sometime last year I signed up for a Pay it Forward with the lovely Kayscha. To tell you the truth I had totally forgotten that I had signed up for it and had not got around doing my part, which was offering the Pay it Forward on my blog.

Last month I was extremely surprised to find this lovely parcel waiting for from Kayscha along with a note apologising for not getting her PIF out on time.

Thankyou very much Kayscha it is a lovely package and I have started to use the thread already it is the perfect color for my Charm Pack Quilt. Sorry for taking so long to blog it there was a very good reason however.

That reason is that now I would like to offer my blog readers the option to participate in a Pay It Forward. If you would like to be in please leave me a comment and the first three comments will receive a hand-made gift made by me sometime within the next 365 days. All you have to do is share the love and pledge to do the same on your blog (make three people something within the next 365 days)

But (and I am borrowing this bit from the lovely Car )IF I don't get any takers to play along with the pay it forward (I realise this meme has been doing the rounds & some people have probably paid it forward time & time again...)

I do solemnly pledge that I will choose THREE random people who have commented on any of my posts both current and future. If you want to share the blog love, then by all means you can do so, but you are in no-way obliged (consider it ME fulfilling my pledge) so come on.


NOTE: if you want to Pay it forward, please say so in your comment, if not just comment as usual!

Another finished quilt

Yes ladies and gentlemen (not sure if there is any gentlemen reading my blog but you never now) I have finished another quilt. This one was started early 2008, the quilt top was completed April 2009 and was quilted May 2009 it has been sitting folded since then waiting to have the binding attached. Well thanks to Joy's Finishing Stitches Challenge I have finally finished it. So introducing

Grandma's Magic Bag

The actual name of the pattern is Granny's Magic Bag but I decided to change it to Grandma's as that is what my Mum is to me two boys and also what I call my Dad's Mum. 

After I finished hand sewing the binding down I moved on to another new project :) this time the Charm Pack Quilt-along that I have mentioned previously. While watching the final of MasterChef last night I drew the diagonal lines on my 75 plain charm sq  and paired them up read to sew

and this morning I got a chance to sew them either side of the line to turn them into this

Now I just need to find some time to cut them apart and trim them back to 4.5" squared before Sunday.

Tropical Flight

I did it, I actually did it.... finish a quilt that is and not just a quilt top but a properly quilted, bound quilt. Okay the quilting was professionally done but still I finished, just have to do the label and it will be able to delivered to a very sweet little girl to whom it is intended.

Introducing Tropical Flight

The quilt pattern is Birds in the Air from "Elm Creek Quilts" using Sweet Pea by Windham Fabrics.

Here is a picture of the back which shows you the quilting better

Finishing this quilt means I can enter the Finishing Stitches challenge for July.

I also received the material for the Charm Pack Quilt Along during the week

The material from the left is binding, main border, inner border and charm squares for blocks

Lastly here is a picture of my beautiful little boy who is now 3 mths old

Hectic

That is what my life is at the moment, so today once the little boy was sound asleep and the bigger boy enthralled in watching his latest obsession I made myself a treat

and decided it was about time I update you on what I have been doing.

So what have I been doing......

Not Much......

Andrew has been spending crazy hours with his pet work project which has left me feeling like a single mum at the moment, not a nice feeling I can tell you. Mind you we have plans for this weekend once it all over, talking Bastian to see Toy Story 3 on Saturday and then I am escaping for a day of sewing on Sunday.

So apart from being Mum, which is a job I love don't get me wrong and working on the paperwork required to help get this up and running there has not been alot of time for sewing.

For last months guild sewing day I decided to start a new project... yes ladies and gentleman, my name is Kirsty and I have a slight problem. I like to start projects...... and never get them finished. I decided to start the "Life is a Celebration" Block of the Month that is running in the homespun magazine in 2010.

The first block is finished

Wonder what I will work on next....

I have also been doing working on a name tag for a swap run by MMQG 

Here is a sneek peek of my starting supplies

I really need to get a move on with that one as it is due on Sunday.

I have also decided to join in to a quilt-a-long. I bought a Frolic charm square pack with the name tag swap in mind but once it arrived I decided that I wanted to use it in a quilt for myself, so when Kelli posted that she was going to join in I decided to get another two charm sq packs and sign up myself. Should be fun.

Oh I have also decided to join in here, not actually planning to make anything at the moment, just get some patterns for future use.

Now I just need to find the time to get it all done, and be a fantastic mom to my two monkeys of course