20 Minutes

20 minutes is how long it takes me to pebble quilt one of these squares.

I have done four and there is another 9 to go. Not sure I'm going to have enough thread and because it's the Australia Day long weekend here, my LQS is not going to be open again until Tuesday!

The quilt is for the baby boy of my best mate. He's doing pretty well given that he is likely to receive it in the next 2 weeks and he's not even a year old yet - a bit of a record on my part! I love the owl fabric. On Tuesday last week I went to Spotlight to have a look at their fabrics. It happens to be where I got most of the fabric for this quilt and to tell you the truth - haven't been a big fan of it! However, I was thrilled to spot enough of the owls to use as a backing - because up until then I had no idea what I was going to back it with! Now it's sandwiched and apart from those last 9 blocks to pebble - quilted. I'm going to bind it with the green fairy frost. I didn't think I had any left so ordered some online the other day. Was looking in my stash for something else and discovered a substantial (ie more than enough to bind the quilt with!) amount! Oops! Not good for my stash in stash out figures! Anyway, I figure if I run out of thread for the quilting I can bind it and just finish off the quilting when I can get hold of the thread on Tuesday. Can anyone tell me why I shouldn't do that?

A Finish!

And hopefully the first of many of 2013!

The pattern for this quilt can be found in AP&Q Vol 21, No 2.

The planning for this quilt started around this time last year. I saw the pattern, loved it, ordered fabric on line, broke my leg and didn't sew again until about April!

Once I finally had it all pieced and sandwiched, I ran into a few quilting problems with my machine and my own confidence. With everything sorted I sat down last weekend and just made myself do it!

And I must say I'm rather pleased with it. The swirls aren't perfect, but they are good enough.

The quilt will be called {Brown}Sugar and Spice and is for a friend who owns a cafe and is due in February. Her cafe is called Brown Sugar and she is having a girl - thus the name!

Yay for a finish!

It Starts Here

I've just done a post over on my other blog about my goals for 2013. Notice I said goals, not resolutions?? Am I just kidding myself? Hope not!

Well the one I didn't mention over there was sewing more - mainly because it's the one I am least confident about...I always plan to sew more, but it rarely happens. Any way, hopefully the BOM and Sew Your Stash Thin challenges will help.

One of my problems at the moment is a lack of organisation. There is nothing worse than wanting to sew but not being able to find what you are after. So my first step is to organise my stash. It's not a huge stash, but it has no rhyme or reason at the moment.

This is it, pulled out of drawers and cupboards and thrown in two tubs. I plan to sort by colour, florals, girls, boys and anything else that makes sense as I go through it. I'm very lucky that back in September my mother in law sorted through my scraps box and bagged them all in different sizes. I'll keep this system for the smaller pieces. Then I plan to put them in plastic see through tubs and store them for easy access.

Wish me luck!

Lucky Stars!

To help with with my Sew Your Stash Thin challenge I've decided to also do

Lucky Stars with Don't Call Me Betsy

This was suggested to me by Car over at Carrose Creations. It's always good to have a sewing buddy!

I attempted the practice block yesterday and have decided that I will be doing the 12 inch blocks, not the 6! 6 is way too fiddly!

Want to join? Click on the link in my side bar - it's only $10 to join!! What a bargain!

Sew Your Stash Thin

I have too much fabric that has no purpose to it! To that end I have joined the 2013 Sew Your Stash Thin over at AJ's Antics. My aim is to finish with less fabric than I started with! First step may be to sort through my fabric and sell/ giveaway the stuff I know I simply will not use! Stay tuned, there could be a few bargains or giveaways in that!

Interested in joining? Click on the button in my sidebar and it will take you right there!

Quilt Camp!

In late November I was lucky enough to go away  (child free!!) with some lovely ladies I had only ever met online for a whole weekend of sewing, sewing and more sewing!!

Quilt Camp was held at Stacey's at the Gap, a little piece of paradise at Cunningham's Gap in Queensland.

I sewed more on that weekend than I have all year! Here's what I managed (apart from a lot of talking, laughing and one or two drinks!)

I can't even remember when I started this eye spy quilt! I think 2010?? When I got to camp it was half a dozen completed blocks. Now a finished top! No idea what I'm going to do with it though!

Earlier in the year, Milly over at Tin Whistle showed us this Youtube clip

Immediately I wanted to have a go - but I didn't have any so I did the next best thing - ordered one! It arrived just before camp so I threw it in to have a go. I think my time was just over 40 minutes.

I used fabric from Moda's Into The Woods - its so pretty!

 Finally I pulled out a BOM that I started back in 2008! This post here from July 2009 states on July 9 I had " cut and sew the last of my two Designer Mystery Block of the Month". Hmmmm. So over three years later and it's still not finished, but progress has been made.

All in all I think I made good progress and look forward to doing it all again next year!

Doll Quilt Swap Sent and Received

I thought I should blog the doll's quilt I sent and the one I received!

I sent this little number to Caz over at The Accidental Quilter

Rainbow Dreams

I used this tutorial from One flew Over and I loved how it came together. I'm always scared of sending something off to someone else so was very happy when Caz was pleased with it.

The quilt I received came from the lovely and talented Carmel over at Solomon Sewing

Poppy Breeze

I love the colours and the light breezy feel of it. The quilting is exquisite and it now hangs at the bottom of my stairs where I get to look at it every morning as I come down - it never fails to make me smile!

I really enjoyed this swap and hopefully may participate in a few more next year...might even run one myself...