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.

CRAFTUMI

No not some strange new language.

A fantastic new place for Aussie craft suppliers to sell their Supplies and Tools.

They can be commercially purchased supplies or handmade supplies but you can sell them here as long as you are in Australia.
Purchases can be made from within Australia or from International buyers too.

It is actually designed by the "Made It" crew who do a wonderful job of getting Aussie Handcrafted items on the web.

So go and take a look and support Australia a wee bit more.

CRAFTUMI

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.

A catch up

I have been flat out lately so much has been happening.

I had 3 wins of wonderful prizes.
I won a yummy Flutterby charm pack from Ryan Walsh I can't wait to look through my patterns and use this.
I won a beautiful piece of sun dyed fabric from Delia which will be very carefully planned into something special
AND
I won a lovely book from Angela which is just very special as she originally won it from the author and it is signed too. It is really lovely of Angela to share the love once she was finished with this book and I will make sure that I do the same.













I received some amazing fabric that I have listed on my OTHER BLOG and in MY ETSY STORE












We had a couple of sunny days when the kids and I could get outside on the lovely green grass that we have at home.
This is how farm kids play...

Sam on his bouncy ball with the Rams looking on in surprise.








Jess with the kids best friend, Sophie is the most gentle kind dog you could ever imagine, she's not real good with the sheep or cattle but you could trust her with the kids lives.
And yes I do dress her like a boy on the farm because we have so many clothes from Sam that I am not going to ruin new good clothes.



This one because he is just quite angelic when he wants to be.







We have also had a stack of rain, which is good, it's still a bit cold for it to have any effect on making the grass grow and there is just mud everywhere but it's lovely


Visiting Cows







Let's take a walk Soph...








We have lots of lovely little lambs...very cute








Then on Saturday this happened. I was happy to be asked to play my 3rd game of netball for this season when they managed to find a fill in umpire for me but then I go and do this...
I don't think it's broken, I had some x-rays yesterday and am off to the doc tomorrow to find out what's up but I will need at least one weekend off.
Such a bummer, my umpiring is going really well and I was going to get to play some more games before the end of the season.
Now I think I will stick to umpiring for the rest of this year.

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

Adelaide and her Daddy

I can't take photos a the moment because I need a new camera.

BUT

This is my brother James and his gorgeous new little girl Adelaide...

She is 1 month old today!!!

Fathers Day

Yes I know it's not here in Australia at this time.
BUT
It is in the USA.

Where my lovey brother is celebrating his first fathers day with his gorgeous 1month old daughter Adelaide.

I have some photo's of the 2 of them somewhere in my old computer which is not playing ball right now but I have something really beautiful that I was just reading that I think everyone should read.

It is written by a dad who sounds very much like my lovely husband is with our children and I am 100% positive that my brother James will be just the same with his daughter.

READ THIS

it's just beautiful.

Back later with photo's and things when I have a new camera that will work.

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.

I AM AN AUNTY!!!!

Introducing

ADELAIDE ROE (surname left off deliberately)









Who was born in Baltimore USA on 24 May 2010









Isn't she cute!!!
This will be winging its way to her in August when my mum goes to visit.
It will be put together by then though, this is just a sneak peak.

SMS Giveaway Winner

Now I notified the winner on the weekend but it has taken me all this time to get the parcel of goods together and take a photo.
The winner of my Sew Mamma Sew giveaway is......

SARA

She has a lovely blog so please go and say hello, she has some really cute cows too...

Here is a picture of what I will be sending to Sara. It's a terrible photo I know bit I was having camera issues that I wasn't patient enough to fix this morning.


There is an Australian Craft Mag, they little bag and some yummy fabric.






Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by and entered my giveaway.

Dont' forget that I have another blog here where I will showing all the goodies that I am now selling, there is new fabric arriving soon and I will be previewing everything and taking orders at the blog or you can wait for it to be listed in my Etsy store.

BLOGGERS QUILT FESTIVAL

It is the 3rd Bloggers quilt festival
and I have chosen a quilt very dear to my heart to share with you.

This is a quilt that I made for my Dear little boy Sam.

This is Sam when he had just turned 2.






I specifically purchased a "Silly Safari" Jelly Roll to make him a quilt for when he went into a single bed.
I used a pattern from a Jelly Roll book and I was worried that it was too bright and wouldn't promote a restful sleep so I surrounded it with the medium blue sashing and the dark blue borders and backing.
Now some of you may be thinking that the borders are so big and it looks a little odd but it fits so perfectly on his bed. The coloured bit sits perfectly on the top of the bed and the dark blue provides a perfect amount of overhand so that it covers him totally even when he rolls around (which he tends to do alot).

I was quite heavily pregnant when I was making this quilt as Sam was 2 in April 09 and Jess was born March 09 and I wanted to get it done before I went to hospital.
The quilting is very simple. I quilted in the ditch around the log cabins and then some wavy FMQ on the large borders. It's not the best FMQ and I have learnt alot since then but he loved it and he moved into his "Big Bed" in February 2009 without a whimper.

This quilt also won 1st place in it's category at our local show, don't get too excited it's a very small show but it wasn't the only quilt in it's category so I was happy, I got the news in hospital after having Jess so it was a celebration all around.

So that's my quilt, thank you to anyone who stops by and I hope you enjoy the rest of the festival.

Anyone who is waiting to hear about my SMS Giveaway's please stay tuned, I am waiting for the kids to wake up so I can get all the goodies together and take a photo.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

***NOW CLOSED***

THANKYOU FOR ALL THE WONDERFUL 131 COMMENTS WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON!!

I have decided to do another giveaway here on my personal blog.

There are heaps of giveaway's happening in blogland this week just visit here here or here at SEW MAMMA SEW

It's very simple to enter my draw.

Leave me a comment, just say hi whatever you want to say and you are entered. One entry per person and I must have a way to contact you, either through your blog or leave me an e-mail address or check back here after 11am Friday 21 May Australian Eastern Time.

COME ON WE ARE SO NEARY THERE, I HAVE SO MUCH STUFF TO GIVEAWAY!!!

What can you win???
This









Or this











A full 1/2 metre of quilting weight cotton. Just so you can get a perspective on the size of the flowers the piece there is folded up to about 15cm square.

More Fabric, for every 50 people that comment I will add another item to the list. I will update with new photo's as we reach a milestone.


We are getting close to 50 people (I changed it from 100 to 50) I want to giveaway more fabric.

So here is the 2nd piece. It is a whole 1/4 metre of quilting weight fabric in a lovely pale lavender with little flowers all over it.





WE DID IT 50 PEOPLE, SO HERE'S ANOTHER BIT OF FABRIC...












ONE PERSON WINS THE LOT DON'T FORGET AND I AM GOING THROUGH MY GOODIES AND THERE WILL BE MORE TO COME, PATTERNS AND MAGAZINES!!!.

PLUS go here for my other giveaway

DO YOU EQ???

I don't but I may have to start

A brand new version of Electric Quilt Software is coming out soon and I will have to get myself a copy.
There is so much you can do with EQ that your quilt designing and colour choosing will be a breeze.

You can design new blocks, put old blocks together, work out how much fabric you need. See what what your colour scheme looks like.

Basically one big design wall for your quilting pleasure.

It comes with everything you need to get started, just install it into your computer and and the world is your quilting oyster.

For more information you can go here or here.

My First Sponsored Giveaway (Australia only sorry)

I couldn't believe my eyes when I received an e-mail from the lovely Maree at Buyster Lighting.

She approached me asking if I would like to tell people about their store and offered a donation for a giveaway on my blog.

Of course I said yes!!!So all the lovely people out there who read my blog can have a chance to win a $50 voucher to spend in their table lamp section

You may like something traditional
You may want something to jazz up a little girls roomMaybe you are a fan of flowers
Perhaps your decor has an Asian ThemeOr just like a funky Noodle LampYou can find plenty of great products for $50 and under in this section or you may want to go a little crazy use it towards something really decadent.

Either way you will find something that is sure to suit you and your home.

I have had a look at the selection of lights over at Buyster Lighting and they have some beautiful things. They are an Australian company with fast delivery all over Australia for in-stock items. They also offer free delivery insurance on all orders with a...

check this out...

"NO QUESTIONS" 30 DAY RETURN POLICY.
How often do you see that???

So, if you think you would like to be in the draw I have a couple of ways for you to enter.

1. Just leave me comment telling me what your favourite time of day is (just to make it interesting to read them all).

2. For 2 extra entries... yes 2... blog about this giveaway, don't forget to tell people it's for Australia entries only. I know some people find this painful to do but I know that I don't have a very big following and I want more people to know about the lovely Maree and Buyster Lighting.
Then come back here and leave another comment telling me you have done it.

3. You can tweet about it too if you like for another 1 entry and then leave a comment with a link to the tweet.

4. You can also brag about it on facebook for an entry and come back with the link to let me know.

5. If you can think of any other way to spread the word I would like to know. Come back and let me know and I will give 3 extra entries to any other creative form of word spreading.

That's it folks.
Get busy and tell everyone you know.

I will close entries on Tuesday 11 May at 10.30am AEST. I will then have a winner drawn by 6pm that same day.