Practise, practise, practise.

This is what I now need to do after doing a machine quilting course on the weekend! I did the course at Addicted to Fabric with the fabulous Beth Reid. As you can see from the pictures below, I need lots of practise to perfect my technique, but at least I now have an idea of what I am doing!

OK, so this is the sampler I did. Hmmmmmmm, what did I say about practise. :blush:







Close up of the leaves and gumnuts. Most probably my best work and the one I really enjoyed doing. I can see me doing lots of these!





This is my stippling. Obviously a lot of work needed here too. I can see how this would be used a lot. Quick and effective once I master it!









Beth Reid uses these two techniques alot with her landscape quilting. I love it, but my circles need a lot of work. I've discovered they work better if you are going fast, but if you go too fast it makes it worse! Finding that fine line is my challenge!







This is the bit I did last, so was getting tired and therefore very lazy! The flowers are suppose to have four leaves, but I often only manage to fit three! The other two patterns rely on you being able to replicate what you have done once several times. Did I mention I need to practise?







Finally there is a picture of my new toy - a quilting table for my machine. Very extravagant but oh so nice!

Finished! - Grandchildren Sampler!

I said I would finish it tonight!! Finished about 20 minutes ago. Here is the sampler I've done for my mother.



For someone who doesn't enjoy backstitching, there was a lot on this! I backstitched as I went, I think I would have gone mad if I had left it until the end.

I also took a pic of the backing fabric I got from EQuilter. In the words of a friend of mine - Lush! So the big question now, is what cross stitch do I start next?

I'm still here...really!!

Life has been hectic, hence the lack of blogging. We are trying to get our house ready to go on the market, trying to organise a trip north so we can look for a house to buy up there, trying to maintain a semblance of sanity in a house we only seem to be fleetingly these days as we trip from one thing to another!! While there has been no quilting recently, hopefully tomorrow night will see the completion of my mother's Grandchildren sampler. Stay tuned, I've only got to add the names and it will be complete! I received the backing for my disappearing nine patch, the top of which looks like this:
I have also been doing some sewing of my frogs, but that was at least 10 days ago! Hopefully things will settle soon and more sewing will get done. I live in hope!

What's in a Name? I've been Tagged!!

Helen has tagged me. I've never been tagged before, so lets see how we go!

Here’s how it works:1. Players must list one fact, word, or tidbit that is somehow relevant to their life for each letter of their first or middle name.2. When you are tagged you need to write your own post containing your first or middle name game facts, word, or tidbit.3. At the end of your post choose one person for each letter of your name to tag.4. Don’t forget to leave a comment telling them that they have been tagged, and to read your blog.5. If I’ve tagged YOU (see below), please join in on the fun!

K - Kira is the name of my daughter, so we both have the starting initial of K. It took me a long time to agree to this , even though I love the name because both my husband and son start with L. A little too cheesy for me, but we couldn't agree on another name. Either way, I love it!

Y - Youngest. I'm the youngest of three girls. My poor dad was in a house full of women!

L - Llywellyn is what I wanted to call our son. It had to be an L for family reasons and I love this Welsh name. Leigh (Husband) wouldn't agree. In hindsight he was most probably right!

I - Introverted - something I am not! I'm the person who will spot you standing alone at a gathering and come and talk to you. I'm also the person who will talk to you while in the queue at the supermarket, movies, anywhere! Feel free to tell me to bugger off, I don't offend easily!

E - Easy going. Whatever happens, happens and I'll deal with it one way or another! Stressing doesn't help, go I don't do it!

OK, so now I'm suppose to send this to 5 other bloggers I know. Hmmm, need time to think if I know 5 other bloggers who haven't been tagged!! Be back later to finish!

When is a sewing day not a sewing day?

When you spend the whole day cutting out instead! I'm making a quilt for my son using frog fabrics as the feature. On Saturday and Sunday I fussy cut 30 frogs. I hate fussy cutting!! The results were well worth it though.



Today I spent the day cutting the rest of the fabric. For the record, I cut 162 2 inch squares, 120 2x5.5 inch strips and 71 2x8.5 inch strips. Now all I have to do is sew it together...

More Cross Stitch

Thought I would just add a few more cross stitch pictures. The first two now hang in my bathroom where my two year old exclaims "Turtle!" everytime she gets out of the bath, like it's the first time she's seen it. So cute


This one is called "The Kiss." I actually logged the hours it took me to do this and it added up to over 300. Would you believe I gave it to my sister?


By the way, I've been tagged by a blogging friend! Just a quick note to let her know that I will get around to it, I promise, although I don't know it I know 7 people who blog to pass it onto!

Once upon a time...

Many, many years ago, (3 or 4!) a friend and I did a course on hand piecing. We both wanted to learn to quilt, and our local fabric shop was doing this course. For 6 weeks we would go along and they would teach us a new block and then , at the end of the 6 weeks we had another 6 weeks to finish off our blocks or do extra if we wish. The plan was to then return for what was called a finishing class - a class that would show us how to put it all together into a completed project. About 4 weeks into the course, I had made about 4 or 5 blocks which were in a box of all my quilting stuff. This box was in the boot of my car. In order to get my pram into the boot, I had to take the box out. Doing this one day at the local shopping centre, I forgot to put it back in. The box and all the stuff (blocks, fabric, scissors, rotary cutter etc!) was gone never to be found again. Not to be deterred, I started again, redid the blocks and continued with the new ones. (Remember this was all hand pieced, not machined) Anyway, get to the end of the 6 weeks and we have 6 weeks to continue making as many blocks as we want before our finishing class. I decided on 12. 2 weeks before our finishing class, the shop burnt down. It never reopened. So, for years I have had these completed blocks and no idea how to put them together.
Fast forward to this year and having received only one mothers day present in the last 5 years, I took matters into my own hands and booked myself in for another quilting course. This time it was machine piecing and the shop didn't burn down! So now I knew how to finish my other quilt.
A group of online quilting friends from a website called Essential Baby, decided to set ourselves a challenge of finishing a project we had been working on for awhile by the end of the year. I nominated my hand pieced blocks. So, today I spent the working on it and this is the result!



Two of the blocks in this quilt are a the Grandmother's Garden which I quite enjoyed doing,

and a log cabin, which I am telling you is a bitch to do by hand!



So given the history of this quilt, I was trying to think of a name for it and can't come up with anything catchy. Any suggestions?