Books and more books

So what have I been doing?

Not blogging that's for sure.

Trying to keep up with the fabric orders...Bec Clarke Creations

Trying to keep up with the soap orders...Bec's Soap

Sewing...

A flimsy using Amy Butler Love
Pattern from the Book "Modern Basics"

Not quite a flimsy
using a "Spirit" Layer Cake
also from the book "Modern Basics".

Foundation Paper Piecing
I joined a Yahoo Group run by
the most fabulous Carol Doak
We are doing a Mystery at the moment
and it's so much fun.

OK so I am too lazy to go and fix this pic.
the dress Jess is wearing is just an a-line
shift made from an old mens shirt.
It was very easy and she loves
wearing it around the farm.

There is more sewing but I can't find my photo's

And READING!!!!

Go and check out my reading challenge pages
E-Book Challenge
100 Book Challenge

I also just bought these 2 cool books:

My Step-mum had this book when we were kids
She made alot of the cakes out of it for us
when we had our birthday's at Dad's place.
I just hope I can do some of them for my kids.

Everyone is talking about Macarons so I saw this
book and thought I would give them a try.
I have a husband with a sweet tooth so they
should go down alright.

***CLOSED*** Thankyou Flood Relief Raffle Quilt

RAFFLE IS NOW CLOSED, THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO PURCHASED A TICKET.
WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED IN A COUPLE OF HOURS.

Welcome to my raffle if you are visiting from the Make it Perfect blog if not then click on the button below anytime after Sunday and there will be a master list of places you can visit and support the Flood Appeal.




It is now quilted and bound and has finished up a nice lap or baby size quilt at 37" square, I have taken this photo on our clothes line which is in front of our vege garden.  The second photo is of the back so you can get a clear picture of the quilting.  It's basic straight line quilting, it was "organic" with no lines drawn.

I was going to do an Auction but I want 'Everyone' to have a chance to win it.
So...
I will do a raffle.
For every $2 you donate to the QLD FLOOD RELIEF you will get 1 ticket.
For every $5 you will get 3 tickets.

So if you only have $4 then you get 2 tickets
But if you have $10 then you can have 6 tickets and so on.

I haven't been to do a donation to QLD FLOOD RELIEF yet as I have been busy sewing so I don't know if the system gives you a receipt you can send to me but it will probably have to be on an honesty system.

If you have a receipt you can feel free to e-mail it to me: beccaj74 (at) yahoo.com.au

If not I will just have to trust that people are going to be honest when they say they have donated to the cause.

It's simple to enter, leave me a comment here telling me how much you have donated and I will work up a spreadsheet in the order the comments are left and then use good old Random.org to generate numbers at the end of the Raffle which will be Monday 24 January 9am Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

I will cover the cost of postage anywhere in the World.

I also just found this cute little workshop that is only $5 to join and all money goes to the flood relief.


Kim Archer Smile Workshop

See what I made

I have been busy making some thankyou/Christmas gifts for 2 very special girls.

They helped their mum look after my 2 rascals during our local football season this year and I am ever eternally grateful.

I would trust my children with these 2 girls more than I would trust them with some adults. I know some parents wouldn't be too fussed about a 3 and 1yo but I am. There are too many wierdo's out there and just too many things that can happen if you do not watch them.

So after 15 rounds of football where I umpired 2 games per week and even managed to play about 7 or 8 games in between I will be forever grateful that I had a bit of normality to my season and that my children were well cared for.

This is the quilt for Bridget, she is off to Boarding School next year and I hope she will love it enough to take it with her. It ended up about 50" wide x 68" long. I used 12 fat quarters and just a simple stack, slash and shuffle method.

The fabric is "Santorini" by Lila Tueller and was so lovely to work with, I like that the big pieces let the fabrics do their thing.

I quilted it very simply using "organic straight line quilting" as I have seen it names. Simply started in the middle and went straight down without marking a line and just eyeballed it. I was amazed at how straight I can sew when I try hard!!!

CLICK ON ANY PICTURES TO MAKE THEM BIGGER!!!

The dress is for Emily. It's a pattern from Ottobre Magazine 6/2009, #32 Jolie. It's actually a winter pattern but I jazzed it up by making it in the lovely "Summer Song" fabric range. I made the yoke in a different fabric and you can't see it very well but there is a small ruffle at the top of the yoke in a yellow version of the mail bodice fabric, the ruffle goes all the way around.

I must have mis-read the instructions somewhere along the way as I got to the neckline and just couldn't figure out what they wanted me to do. I ended up making some binding using the same fabric as the yoke and the neckline worked beautifully.


I cut it out in 152cm height but it will be too big for her this summer unfortunately as she is a petite little thing.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE AND A SAFE NEW YEAR.

Before I go here is a picture of my kids on Tuesday. It has been the craziest weather lately. Today it's 30 deg and hot. The other day it was snowing on the mountains... go figure.

Oh and I nearly forgot about the "Knights" costume that Sam wanted me to make him the other day. I did a google search and got a pillowcase and was going to do a fancy hem and applique on the front but he was happy with head and arm holes, who am I to complain that I don't have to do more work.

Then there is Jess. I cut this outfit out for her last Christmas but didn't get around to putting it together, thank goodness I cut it out so big as it fits her this year.

The pattern is from Ottobre Mag 3/2009. The dress is #5 Alicia & the pants #2 Cassia. I didn't put elastic in the arms as I thought it was going to be our usual hot christmas. I also omitted the elastic in the shorts lets and opted for the red ruffle instead. This was her modelling the other night before bed, she screamed when I had to take it off. She has had a hair trim since then too and is nice and curly again, not fuzzy.

Then last but definately not least is my gorgeous niece whom I still haven't met because she lives in Baltimore. Isn't she cute. The spitting image of my brother and I don't usuallay say things like that. That's the quilt I made them for their wedding, I am so happy that they seem to use it so much, it's in nearly every photo I see.

ONLINE CLASSES

I keep asking myself where can I find more hours in the day and never come up with an answer.

But still I find more things that I want to do.

One of those things I just had to do was sign up for the R.A.I.L online class in the Roses On My Table group.

The AMAZING thing about this workshop is that for $35USD you get 12 months of workshops. One new workshop every month AND...

get this...

The videos are downloadable so you can keep them at home and watch them in your own time. There are extra instructions that you can copy and paste into a word document and a great group of people that chat, share and help each other.

I love these as I can save them and then take my time and do them at my own pace but Zinnia is always there to help and offer encouragement too.

I am on my second month now which is a gorgeous Memory Keeper box.

I actually missed the very first month that it was held but it is now available as a separate lesson that I am going to go and purchase. The month just past was gorgeous domino pendants, very elegant and beautiful.

I have to say, after purchasing a few online workshops this year there is only this one and one other that I have been fully satisfied with.

The other ones are classes held by the lovely Mary of Green Paper Packages Blog.

She has held 3 and I have all of them and have learnt so much about collage, colour, design, shape and all the lovely elements associated with paper art, ATC's, collage and much more.

The latest class is Collage Basics with Vintage Paper.

Here too Mary is so very generous with her knowledge and encouragement.

There is always lots of free images to work with and lessons that come in downloadable PDF format so that if you are like me and don't manage your time very well you can do it when you get to it but still learn and watch what others are doing on the flickr group.

So if you want to learn more go and have a look, it will be worth your while.

BLOGGERS QUILT FESTIVAL

Hello and welcome to my not so regular blog posting.

This is my 3rd year of entering a quilt in Amy's Bloggers Quilt festival.

Every year there is some wonderful quilts to be seen, and often lovely stories to go with them.

It also means that every year my blog reading list gets a bit longer.

So... here is my entry for this year.

I only finished this quilt last night, it is a gift for my cousin who is turning 21 next week but his party is tonight and I wanted to have it done.

He is a Carlton Football Club Fan (Australian Rules football) so I made it all in Navy & White.

The pattern is a free one that i got from Anina at Twiddletails she ran a Quilt-a-long a while back and i saved all the information and then made the quilt just now.

The instructions were very easy to follow but I didn't want to just cut out 1 square at a time and do it in a week by week format so I put all the information in a spreadsheet and added them all up and cut it all out at once. Thank goodness for spreadsheet, the maths nearly did my head in even with the help.

I am quite happy with the result. Some of my pinwheels are a bit wonky but the majority of them are just great. I did rush a little as I had a tight deadline.

As for quilting I was quite stuck but then I stuck with simple and did a straight line down the middle of each sashing strip. Then I had an idea that I wasn't sure would work. My lovely Janome MC11000SE has a stippling feature so I simply did one spot of stippling in the centre of each block. I was worried it would look strange and to some it may but I think it's a different way to use a stipple, kind of making a feature out it and it adds a strange depth to the pinwheels.

The label is also done on my machine using the letters from the Monograming function.

All up the quilt finished up at about 48" x 62", it is 100% cotton front, batting and backing. The front is simple homespun and the backing is a Michael Miller called Western Bandana in Denim, that is also used for the Binding.

Thank you to anyone who has visited I am doing my best to go and see some lovely quilts also.

September Catch Up

OMG as they say, I can't believe that it has been 6 weeks since I did a blog post.

I don't know where time has gone either, that's scary.

I have been super busy though. We had to go to Sydney for DH to have another operation on his eye, hopefully this is the last one though. It's very frustrating for him.


I have been doing some sewing and this is my finished projects for the month.


This is a little cushion that I made for my cousin's baby who was born in January.






This is the other side of the cushion. The stitchery reads "I don't mind being sweet and small, one day I'll wake up big and tall". It's so appropriate as my cousin is 6'4" tall and very big and strong. I got the stitchery from this wonderful blog: Mrs Moen
she has lots of lovely free patterns and stuff.

This is a little "Mug Rug" that I have made to send away for a swap. I made a different one first but I can't find the picture.




Now to make matters worse I have signed up for 4 more swaps, something I said I wouldn't do this year after overloading at the start of the year.

I have also been getting plenty of new fabric so have a look here, I should have it all loaded up by tomorrow.

Terriffic Tuesday

Feeding Cows in the fog

It's green alright, we have had heaps and heaps of rain but it's too cold for the grass to grow







We have 2 tiny Poddy Lambs right now.
They are only 4 days old.
My mother-in-law makes the coats!!!

Adelaide's quilt is finished.

I machine embroidered it using a lovely butterfly alphabet.

I made it using a "Funny Babies" charm pack and the pale pink around the fabric is Polar Fleece.

It looks and feels pretty good, especially for a baby but I will neve be doing that again. It was a nightmare to sew and I am so proud that most of my points line up.

The pattern is acutally a Table Runner pattern that I lengthened and put 2 side by side.

It is from a book by Heather Mulder Petersen in her book "On the Run"

AND.... Drumroll please....

Here are 2 sneak peaks of my very first ever Mixed media canvas. I will show the completed thing at the end of the month after it has been in a small local Art Exhibition that is on in 2 weeks.

3 July Finishes

Here are just a couple of things that I managed to get finished this month.

I have plenty more in the works but time is not my friend right now unfortunately.


This one is a winner all round.
"Pleated Pouch" from a wonderful tutorial here
It's so cute and ends up about 7" x 5".

This is my "Pleats" piece for the Monthly Challenge over here and it also is a "finish"





This is a bit wonky as I did it in a hurry, it's a camera case that I made for my new Camera. It is really a phone pouch and it's a bit roomy but I needed something quickly and had this cut out.

Next time I will try add a layer of stiff interfacing and some more layers of batting to keep my camera safe.





This next item is a small quilt about 50" square. I made it using 1 Honeybun. It was originally a pattern for a Jellly Roll but I just did it using the smaller strips instead.
I made this quilt for our Football Clubs annual Promise Auction. I was so pleased that this quilt made $90. My best yet.


This is the front and the back of the quilt, I am really pleased with how it turned out









This is a close up of the quilting from the back.
I did a free-motion continuous spiral that goes all over the quilt except for the borders.
Some are big and some are small. Some are not so even but I am getting much better at the free-motion quilting.

June finishes

I only just got my new camera in time. Will post more about that later.
Here is what I got finished this month.


I needed a new bag for my portable projects so I made a drawstring bag with 2 sections, it is pretty big it holds my medium stitchery thread box and lots of scrap fabric.








The pink thing is a swap item that I forgot to take a finished photo of before it went to the USA. It was sent about 3 weeks ago and is about 10" x 12".

Then there is 2 pairs of PJ pants for Sam








This is a lovely little bag that I made for myself with some lovely music FQ's that I got a couple of years ago, it's pretty big, about 18" wide and 12" high with 3 pockets inside and a padded shoulder strap.



And don't forget the Football Quilt

1st Finish for June

This is a project that I started on less than 2 weeks ago. It has a bit of a back story so please read on.

A lovely man who plays football with my husband had a motorbike accident on Sunday 23 May and was airlifted to Melbourne. For a few days it was touch and go as to if he would walk again as he had broken his neck right up at the base of his skull.

We were all very relieved to hear that his spinal cord was o.k. and he was even allowed to go home within a week.

BUT, they cannot operate in case they paralyse him.

SO he has to wear a neck brace full time for the next 3-4 months until the bones heal.

I saw him yesterday and he is very sore and tired and it will take a while for his neck to heal even after the brace comes off as his muscles will be wasted.

BUT he is walking, talking and alive and may even play football again.

When I heard about his accident I just had to do something for him so I designed this:

Don't mind the scribble it's me doing my numbers. Quilting is really good math practice.









And turned it into this:

The Blue side is our club colours (AFL Kangaroos) with his number and some signatures of the players.

The Red and Black is his favourite AFL team Essendon.

It is 60" square and I am so proud of it.



You may ask why I wanted to make a man a quilt, well he has been a very loyal player for a few years. He has done more than he has to for the club and mostly he is a really nice guy. I would do it for others if I needed to try and give them some comfort.

FINISHES FOR MAY

I have been very slack and forgot to post my finishes for the last few months.
But here is what I got done in May!!!
Just 2 small projects, I think there was a 3rd but I forgot to take a photo.

A place mat for the flickr placemat swap.









A little bag with some hadn stitching and some prarie points that I gave away on the recent giveaway day.









HUUUUUGE APOLOGIES to the monthly finish organisers for forgetting to write to them over the past few months about my non-attending, but I am back on track now and will not be that slack again.

Finished in November

I actually remembered to take some photos of my finished projects this month, well I missed a couple but here is the ones I have.
A little purse that I had been asked to make some time ago.

Another little purse for another person

And another purse just for the sake of it, it's quicker to make them in a production line.

2 little doll quilts that measure about 13" x 20" that I made for a doll quilt swap for 2 little girls.

A little quilt that I made for a swap that I made and sent the clock mechanism to go with it.

I hope I am not too late posting this entry.