I fell in love.....

.....with this gorgeous quilt, from the current issue (107) of Quiltmania.....

It is called 'Brinton Hall', and the minute I saw it, it really was one of those 'I love that so much' breathtaking moments, and I do just adore it - but, sadly, let's be honest here LOL, at the rate I sew it would probably take me about 15 years to make it..... 

It is going to be published in 2 parts, so I am anxiously awaiting the next issue.

Nevertheless, as much as I love it, I decided I absolutely could not start it until I had finished a few other things first, and given my sewing stuff a good sort and tidy.....

.....only to find myself on Friday saying to my lovely friend Gabbie, hey, let's do THIS quilt together..... *insert rolling eyes*.....

Gabbie was at my house on Friday, and while we were looking at some things on pinterest, she saw this Kim Diehl quilt and loved it, and I remembered the pattern had come out in one of the American quilt magazines some time ago, which I just happened to have....  I dug it out to give to her, and of course, as all good friends do, I offered to join her!

As it happens, I have been looking at Kim Diehl quilts a lot just recently and had literally just the day before started a 'Kim Diehl' board on pinterest.  I love her designs, but I really love how she uses colour, and puts colours together.  

So it kind of felt a bit 'meant to be'..... particularly when Gabbie realised she had the same magazine
at home too! 

I think we will break it down into sections and do a bit each month, a bit like a block of the month, so hopefully there is a good chance it will get done.....

In the meantime, I have started playing with the layout of my hexie blocks, and I am having fun.....

xx

fridays.....

Apart from the obvious reason, Friday is my favourite day of the week. It's the day I go to sit n sew at my LQS, a couple of times a month it's either FNWF or FNSI, and I usually meet up with my sister or a friend 

for coffee or lunch.

At sit n sew this week, Gabbie shared her amazing and beautiful quilt she has been working on. I LOVE this, the colours are beautiful - and I have claimed first dibs on it if she ever gives it away!!

This week Gabbie was also working on her small quilt which is in gorgeous colours too.....

I have been working on my pincushion kit which Sue kindly sent me - perfect 'Tania" colours, thanks Sue!

Unfortunately progress is VERY slow going as my hand is still quite painful, but I will get there in the end.....

Hopefully at some point it will look something like this -

Last night of course was FNWF which I spent trimming my hexie blocks so I can start putting them together

...and starting a small secret project involving these,,,,,

~

A little while ago I joined instagram, and while I haven't put much on there, I shared these photos of some things I have loved doing recently -

...a fun visit to Typo after my last oncology visit

I just LOVED this 'fox' calendar so it came home with me - aren't the eyes amazing!  And it goes from Aug 2015, right through to Dec 2016

a fun coffee date with my gorgeous niece...

a freezing, frosty morning spent tucked up in a warm bed with a snuggly puppy and playing on pinterest

... and reading this book which I am really enjoying.

Hope your Friday was fun, and I wish you all a fantastic weekend

xx

christmas in july ~ the gifts I sent....

These are the gifts I sent to Nanette in the Christmas in July swap -

a Christmas Cushion - I realised afterwards there is no "D" in Christmas for Decorations lol!  Or I guess it could be "H" and "T" for Hanging Things!!

a Star and Holly table mat

 

and an Inspirational words, Star wall hanging

I also sent a vintage style Christmas mug, but forgot to take a picture of that- but Nanette has one on her blog.

I must admit I was happy with what I made, but very relieved all the same that Nanette liked them too!!

Thanks again to Cheryll for the Christmas fun!

xx 

christmas in july ~ completely and thoroughly spoiled.....

.....by Anthea, in Chez's Christmas in July swap.  I just love everything she sent me, and she was/is so generous!

You may know, if you read Anthea's blog, that she and her family are going through a very sad time at the moment, and I wish her much love and lots of hugs. Anthea has sent me some very lovely, kind and thoughtful emails since I was diagnosed with cancer last year, and I have felt very glad to know her online, and felt quite excited my swap gifts were from her.

Here are the gorgeous parcels, wrapped in lovely paper - yes I unwrapped them while still in bed!

 ..... and here are the gorgeous things she sent me -

gorgeous 'Holly the Dolly'.....

a  lovely 'T' ornament.....

and this sweet bag.....

I got a lovely giggle out of the little note Anthea sent with her bag  - if you can't read it, it says 'a fun little goody bag... do wish someone 'piece' or 'peace'? (Take a good look at the words on the fabric!).... 

maybe it's Christmas fabric for quilters lol!

and these are gorgeous - a 'surfing Santa' knife, an angel snowglobe, and a 'Candy Cane Lane' candle 

I just loved them all.  Thank you so much Anthea!

And now I'm off for a cuppa and a lolly or two..... 

back tomorrow with what I sent to Nanette

xx

a lovely weekend.....

A lovely weekend was had here with good friends and some sewing just for fun.

On Saturday, Patch and Quilt here in Gisborne held a book launch for Irene Blanck and her new book 'Focus on Applique', published by Quiltmania.

Last year Irene had an exhibition of her quilts here at Mary's shop, and they are truly exquisite.  You can see some photos here.

Irene's new book is beautiful, with many gorgeous projects within its pages.

Tracee, Marg and I meet up with some of our 'City Girl' friends, Elyte, Marina and Anne, and as always, it was a fun day filled with much laughter.

Elyte, Marg, Irene and Tracee

Tracee, Anne and Marg in deep quilty discussion.....

Hmmmm, is this fabric going to work.....

Three lovely ladies... Elyte, Marina and Irene

Irene ready to sign her books, with Mary and Ashleigh working hard behind.....

We ended up making a day of it, meeting at 10.30 for coffee, then

off to the book signing, then out for lunch.  I really had the most enjoyable and fun day, it was wonderful.

Elyte, Anne, Marina and myself have signed up for a 'Clamshells' class in August with Irene, and I am really looking forward to it.

Some sewing just for fun was also done.  I have been wanting to make some small fabric baskets for awhile now to hold the million and one scraps accumulating around the house, with each basket colour matching the scraps it will hold.  During the week I searched out some patterns, and decided to give this one a go, by Rachel Griffiths of PS I Quilt.  This was obviously quite a small basket, but I made it in its original size to practice the construction, and then played with the size to make a bigger basket. 

Two baskets later.....

I was really happy with these, and they are really quick and easy to make - the qulting of the fabric takes the most time.  You can see that the first one is quite small compared with my rotary cutter. I was really happy with the second one, but I think some more pattern tweaking is in order, to end up with a size about half way between the two.

I really enjoyed making these, and the pattern also has an option for handles, so they also make a cute little gift bag.  More of these little baskets are now definitely on the to do list.

Hope your weekend was as much fun as mine! xx

ouch.....

I love to watch my nephew play basketball, and try to go each week.  Yesterday his Mum had something else on and couldn't take him (for the first time!), so I took him down.  15 minutes into the game, my nephew pulled up in a lot of pain, having rolled his ankle.  All the local doctors had closed by that time, so with lots of icing it overnight, my sister took him to the doctor this morning.

Possibly broken, or severely damaged ligaments.....

Ouch.... x-rays tomorrow, and crutches for the next few days at least.....

Hope you're not in too much pain sweetie.....

two small finishes.....

I finished this mini quilt last weekend ~ it was my second attempt at hand quilting something, and I was happy with how it turned out. This pattern is from 'Prairie Children and Their Quilts' by Kathleen Tracy.  Thank you Tracee for the gorgeous hanger!

Back in May, I joined in with Chookyblue for her 3rd birthday Chookshed party - apologies for being a little late in posting about it (I was internet-less and camera-less for a little while there!).  I spent the birthday weekend working on a birthday gift for my lovely friend Marg - this cushion, a Gail Pan pattern, but with a different stitchery, also a Gail Pan design, appliqued on the front.  The front of this cushion is also hand quilted, but with big stitches.  I did forget to take a photo, so have borrowed this one from Sue.....  I must admit, I was very happy with this bit of sewing!

The cushion and the stitchery are from Gail's book, Patchwork loves Embroidery', which I love.  I have stitched a few designs out of it, all waiting to be made into something soon....

Back in March I went with a few lovely friends to a sewing day with Gail Pan and Ramona Hermann, which was a fantastic day out.  Sue has a great post about it on her blog here.

Back soon!

xx

a challenge or two... or three.....

Well, I'm going to be a busy girl.....

 

I have signed up to two challenges/quilt-alongs, as well as organising one of my own..... must be a glutton for punishment... and possibly a little overenthusiastic!  Fortunately, these are year-long quilt-alongs, so I do have some time to organise myself!

 

They do sound like lots of fun though, so here are the details, if you feel inspired to join in too.....

 

Firstly, my 'Simple Shapes' QAL...

 

 

I recently borrowed this book from my local library, and loved it; I find Kaffe Fassett's use of colour and pattern very inspiring, and it occurred to me that it would be a great basis for a quilt along.  I was originally inspired in this idea by a blog post written by Kim, and with Kim's permission, I used the same idea for this project, as it sounded like so much fun.

 

 The idea is, you choose a quilt out of the above book that you want to make,

but it must be kept secret…..

 

The quilt is to be made over a period of 12 months (now 11 months....), with the ‘big unveiling’ on Saturday 20 June 2015 - 'in person' for the local ladies, and a cyber unveiling for those elsewhere.

 

I thought this was a good book to use, as they are all quilts made with basic shapes, and with many of them there is no great level of difficulty for those that may not have so much experience with piecing.  I also think the quilts in the book lend themselves to being made in any style of fabric, and can be made to a size that suits you.

I invited a few friends to join me, which they did, and many of them, and myself, have now purchased the book and are ready to start creating wonderful quilts.

So, if you would like to join in, please do; and of course, if you want to invite someone else to join in who you think would enjoy this QAL too, go right ahead -  the more the merrier! And Kim, who wrote the blog post that inspired me, is joining in too.  So far we have ladies joining in from Australia, New Zealand, USA and UK - which for me personally, is very exciting!!

What do you think?  Are you in?

 

Another challenge currently running, with the unveiling on 29/30 August 2015 is 'The Gisborne Quilters Great Shirt Challenge', organised by my lovely and fun friends, Tracee and Marg. 

 

 

Details of this challenge are on Tracee's blog, here.

 

The third quilt-along I have joined in with is the 'Quilt like an Eagle' project, organised by Audrey and Angie.

 

 

Although I am here in Australia, every Fourth of July I admire all the lovely patriotic red, white and blue quilts on so many of the American blogs I enjoy reading, and I often see fantastic 'eagle'  quilts.  Audrey and Angie had each always harboured a desire to make one too... and thus the Eagle Quilt QAL was born.

 

A blog has been started just for this quilt-along (must remember to do that...), and lots of ideas are already percolating..... 

 

The 'show and tell' for this quilt along is on 4 July 2015.

 

Phew!  Three fun QALs/challenges, and lots of fun to be had, and with a year to make a quilt - or two..... maybe you might be inspired to join in too!?

flimsies, minis, and pinnies.....

A little catch up on the latest sewing adventures....

 

A flimsy completed over the last couple of days - more to come on this one later in the month.....

 

 

Minis have been sent and received - thanks once again to amazing Swap Mama Cheryll!

 

this is the gorgeous mini I received from Sisbabe Stitches, and I love it.  It is very hard to see, but all the seams are sewn over in lovely decorative stitches.  And I love the saying; the first time I read it, I felt like I could relate!

 

 

And this is the mini I made and sent.  I won't reveal to who it was sent, as I know they have not been able to check their mail over the last week or two, but hopefully it is there waiting for them when they can.....

 

 

Don't these thread colours just look gorgeous together?

 

 

And my first project out of my new Gail Pan book, the 'Bloom' pincushion - I love this book, I want to make everything in it!

 

 

I did sign up for FNWF with Cheryll last week, with plans to again spend it with Sue, Tracee and Marg, working on our Underground Railroad quilts.  Most annoyingly, a migraine prevailed and I was out of action. So there is some catching up there to do - more on that soon!

xx

some more randomness.....

I've been having a lovely time, over here in my little corner of blogworld.....

 

some more lovely quilts from the Sunbury Quilt Show... 

I LOVE minis.... and here is a whole display of them!

 

 an amazing 'Farmer's Wife' quilt

 

 another of my friend Carolyn's beautiful quilts

 

enjoying being at home...

 

a relaxing Sunday morning in bed with some knitting and my favourite magazines

 

 a delicious fruit loaf

 and some cheese & chive scones

 I really enjoyed this book

 

and this one

 

and browsing through this one

 

there has been some sewing...

catching up on my 'Market Day' quilt along sewing 

and watching...

a gorgeous series, I just love it
 

there have been beautiful sunrises...

 

and happy mail...

bought with birthday money, I have been waiting for this with

barely-contained excitement.....

 

and lunchtimes from work spent at home having something
warm and yummy to eat ~

 some delicious risotto - I am so lucky that my job is only 5 minutes from home 

life is good.....

 
xx