I'm Back!!

Long time no blog and really must hang my head in shame! If for no other reason than way back in April I won one of the OPAM draws. Kris from Tag Along Teddies sent a lovely prize my way.

A lovely little note book, a bag of scrumptious buttons, a delectable mini jelly roll from Moda and a cute heart button.

So, a big belated thank you to Kris for a gorgeous gift.

Since the end of April there hasn't been a lot of sewing going on. A few pencil rolls, but nothing else. My problem has been lots to be started, nothing to go on with! I was struggling to get motivated. Figuring sewing was about enjoyment, I decided to just let it go for awhile, but in the past couple of days, I've had the urge! So today I started a sudoku quilt for a friend's son.

It has a transport theme. Be prepared for more of this in the coming days!

Finishes!!

Yep, I have two finished items for March! OK, the plan was for them to be finished in Feb, but it's such a short month, it threw me out completely!

I will apologise for the photography. It's very cloudy here today and the wind is blowing thanks to Cyclone Hamish. While we are not in the direct path (thank goodness!) we are getting the effects of the edge of it! It has caused us a few problems though - our ferry to the mainland broke down half way over this afternoon and was blown onto a sand bank! It's been stuck since 1.30 and is unlikely to be floated again until a few hours after low tide, so won't be operational again until after 6pm! Thank goodness the barge is still running so we could get home, but that does it's last run at 5. May be a long wait for those coming home from work tonight!

First up the rocket quilt. I'm thinking of calling it Rocket Dreams.
I looooooooove the backing fabric for this quilt! Thanks Kelly for finding it for me! My darling hubby has taken one of the bit rockets off the bottom and done some computer wizardry so it's just a blank outline that I will use to label it. I do wish I had used the backing as the binding as well, but I ain't changing it now!

Secondly is the Sudoku Quilt. It will be called Sporting Sudoku. I did toy with Sportin' Sudoku, but as both myself and his mother are teachers, I just couldn't do it!
No picture of the back of this as it is the same as the sashing and the binding. Have I mentioned before how much I love this quilt??

Finally, while I was outside photographing the quilts, I discovered this little gem hidden away behind the kids playhouse.
I love the colurs and shape. Simply devine!

Weekend retreat!

I'm back from my relaxing weekend on Straddie. No Straddie pics at the moment, sorry, but I forgot my camera and the friend I went with hasn't downloaded hers yet. However, I can show you these two which I have borrowed from the the Straddie Sales and Rentals website, who are the people we rented the house off. Lovely people and absolutely gorgeous house! I'm not going to tell you whichhouse it is - and the reason for that I will reveal later!

This is the back deck. It looked right onto the bay where we could sit, sip champagne and watch the dolphins swim back and forth. Several of them even jumped for us, but never when the camera was ready!!

As you can see, the deck had a lovely big table with outdoor powerpoints! This is where I sat and sewed for much of the weekend!

So what did I manage to get done in this idyllic setting? I sandwiched and quilted the Sudoku quilt and quilted the rocket quilt - which was exactly what I had wanted to get done! Please ignore the threads on this pics, I still have to finish sewing the ends in.I would love to say that I will finish these before the end of Feb, but I just don't see it happening. Looks like I'll miss out a draw entry this month, but plan to make up for it next!

Close up of one of the Sporting Sudoku blocks. I'm really impressed with how this turned out. I will admit to spending a fair amount of time staring at it, sure I have made a mistake somewhere! I just did stitch in the ditch quilting - I think it's busy enough to carry it. I did consider quilting each block seperately with it's main item (eg, tennis racket, football, golf tee) but quickly realised my skills do not stretch that far just yet!
If you've read back through my blog, you will quickly understand that I am not very adventurous with my quilting! The rocket quilt screamed out for something other than my usual stitch in the ditch, so I decided to give echo quilting a go. I also decided on some stars on the sashing. If I'd had more experience, I would have loved to have done the rockets and shooting stars in red, but knowing my limitations, I stuck with white. I'm very proud of my efforts and can see me doing more of this in the future.
And why didn't I tell you where we stayed? I thought I would set you to a bit of sleuthing! I have two prizes. The first is some scraps from my Sudoku quilt. There will also be some of the black and red fabric from the sashing The second is two pieces of fabric from a range I do not know the name of. They are very cute though!
To win you need to go to the Straddie Sales and Rentals website and using the pictures I have posted, tell me the name of the house we stayed in. Now and this is very important DO NOT post the name of the house in the comments section here! Not unless you want everyone to steal your answers! Instead, post a comment here and then send me an email with the title "Straddie giveaway" and tell me the name of the house and your blogger name so I can match the two up! I'll draw it on Friday 27th, sometime in the afternoon. My email, by the way, is kylie dot purdie at gmail dot com

Busy, busy, busy!

I was determined to sew today. I managed to get everything I needed to get done before going to playgroup today, so when we got home, Kira was fed and abed, I sewed!

First I put a border on K's quilt.I was going to do star blocks, but knew if I did, it would take me way longer than I wanted. So I found this starry red fabric and I think it looks quite good! My friend Kelly pointed me in the direction of this fabric, which I have ordered for the back. Hoping it doesn't take too long to arrive because I really want to finish this one.

Second I cut and bagged all the blocks and sashing for my Sudoku quilt.
It's for the sports mad brother of the rocket quilt!

Figuring I was on a roll, I started cutting the frog nine patches.


Before cutting....And after...Sorry for the blurry picture. I didn't realise it was out of focus until I loaded them and I'm too lazy to go take another photo. 10 blocks cut, another 40 to go, then I get to sew them back together!!

In other news, I think this is my 84th post. I'm planning a bit of a give away for my 100th, so keep an eye out for that!