LOOK WHERE I'M GOING!!!

I'm going to Adelaide with my cousin Janelle from Warrnambool to this fantastic event. I wanted to go last year but didn't really have anyone to ask (I forgot to ask Janelle of course). So this time I emailed her straight away, she said "yeah lets do it" so we are.

I love my family more than anything, but a girly weekend away stitching and shopping is just what I need at the moment.

JUST A LITTLE PROJECT I'M WORKING ON

I'm making a small quilt for each of the kids to put in their "treasure box" for when they are older.

Each quilt will have embroidery of drawings, numbers and spelling from their first year at school when they were 5 years old.

Here's how I'm doing it:

Firstly find those school books and drawings that you simply can not throw out, spend lots of time going through them and thinking about how far they have come, sigh!!!! Pick out your artwork.

Now it's time to transfer those precious pieces of art to fabric. The way I do this is to use my glass sliding door as a light box, great for during the day, not so great at night. The pictures I wanted to transfer were on coloured papers and I couldn't see them through the fabric so I copied them onto white paper first, then on to the fabric with a water erasable pen.

Remember to be true to your child and their drawings and copy them exactly as they are no matter how strange they may look. I love the quirky drawings, the back to front letters and numbers of a 5 year old.

Stitch around the work, I'm using three strands of DMC, colour 844. I like this colour as it's a dark grey/blue and looks nice of the cotton/linen I'm using.

When finished stand back and admire your child's artwork and think of a design for a quilt to incorporate it into. Rinse off the pen under cold water and wait for it to dry.

Of course you can turn it into whatever you like, I'm choosing a quilt as I have so many of these treasures I want to add.

Have fun :)

KITCHEN WINDOW

Quilt top is finished, I'm hoping to quilt it this weekend. The pattern is from Elizabeth Hartman's book The Practical Guide To Patchwork.

BABY OWLS

Today I took a peek at my ever-growing pile of quilt tops and picked out my baby owls top to quilt.

I free-motion quilted this one with wavy lines down and across the quilt. I really like the organic look.

I love this Wendy Slotboom treasure map fabric. I'd been holding on to it for a while now just waiting for the right quilt to use it on.

This quilt will be available in my Etsy and Madeit shop in the next couple of days along with lots of other goodies.

NOTEPAD WALLET

I think these are great for shopping or in your bag, on hand, when you need to jot something down.

SWAPS RECEIVED

Here are a couple of things I've received lately from Flickr swaps that I'm involved in.

SPICING UP THE KITCHEN from Terrie: Flickr name - chocolate isthe best medicine

MUG RUG SWAP from Julia: Flickr name - little girl quilts

DQS10 (DOLL QUILT SWAP) from Jamie: Flickr name - stitch_girl

Aren't they all just stunning, I'm one very lucky girl :)

RANDOM TUESDAY

Finding yet another way to store stuff. These drawers are for my market supplies.

The beginning of a quilt for my best friend who lost her mum to cancer last year. Birds have a special meaning to her and the connection to her mum and I hope that this quilt can give her some comfort when she's having a bad day.

More Far Far Away fabric purchased on a really good special.

Cute prints for market totes.

Something I am finally going to do, it will probably take me a few years to complete but that's okay, I'm not in any hurry. I will 'mod' it up a bit using aqua, red/orange and white.

New Books

Some goodies I picked up at our local quilting day held once a year in a different town. The book has some really good ideas for gifts in it.

A NEW SKIRT

I really felt like making something to wear today and decided on a skirt from Toni Coward's book, Make It Perfect. There are 2 skirts I really want to make from this book and today I tried the Gelato Skirt.

I was amazed at how quick this skirt was to make, the instructions were so clear and easy to follow and I love the end result.

I'M HOME

We had an amazing arts and craft market today. I was really busy all day and certainly didn't expect to be as the date had been changed and the weather was terrible. My friend Naomi contacted me and asked if she could use a little bit of space on my table to sell her knitted beanies. Of course I said yes, it's great to have someone to chat with and to be able to give you a toilet break! I've ordered a slouch beanie from her and can't wait to have it for the long cold winter I think we will have.

I sold out of most items once again and have a couple of orders to fill this week also. I'm tired, cold and very happy that so many people appreciate what I do.

9 DAYS INTO THE MONTH......

and I'm finally posting something. I have been really busy with my jobs and trying to get lots finished for the market tomorrow.
New pencil wraps

Scrappy pouches

burp cloths and comfort rugs

Headbands

Quilts

Just a few more things to finish up and I'm done.