Sunday 27 April 2008

Finished Friday's project.



So here are the girls all finished. I have named them Yumi, Kyoko & Hana. I finished it at about 10pm, and wandered back up to the party to give it to the birthday girl. Just relieved it is done, another thing off the "to do list". Now to bind Alanah's quilt by Tuesday!!! LOL  BFN Lynda

Friday 25 April 2008

What I did on Friday

As is quite typical of me, this afternoon I began working on a present that is required for an 18th birthday TOMORROW NIGHT! And I have made good progress and still have all day tomorrow, so I think I should just make it over the line. The picture above is of all the pieces cut up. You cant tell from the pic but there is 3 stacked  up ready to chain piece. The picture below is of the Geisha's heads all together. I have completely finished all 3 ladies, now tomorrow I just have to put them in a wall hanging. I will add a final picture tomorrow. The pattern is by Margaret Rolfe, and I bought the book from a fellow scquilter for $3. BARGAIN!

The busy week I was anticipating with much trepidation, has largely passed without incident. Though in addition to what I knew I had to do I now have 2 extra's sleeping over tonight. My brother in law is having significant trouble with his back. That leaves my sister baring the bulk of the responsibility for their business and the management of the house and the 4 kids (ages 8, 5, 2 and 7months) I have the 2 older girls tonight to give her a bit of a break. I hope they sleep all night! I am still not caught up on sleep since camp! LOL

While I am thinking of camp; Julie & Bronwyn can you go to my profile, and there you will find a link to email me. When you leave a comment I cant reply and I would love to stay in touch. BFN Lynda

Thursday 24 April 2008

Housekeeping question.....

I often get lovely comments from people who visit my blog, and I would love to reply to them but I cant work out how to do it. Does anyone else who uses blogger know how??

Lynda

PS Hi to both Julie & Bron, thanks for stopping by!

Sunday 20 April 2008

Quilt Camp

Quilt camp is over??!! I can't quite believe that something I have been looking forward to for so long has been and gone. (sigh) I had fun, lots of it and also got LOTS of sewing done. The quilt is not finished, but there was little more I could have done to make it so. I mean I had to sleep, and eat. Boy did I eat! Great food, and plenty of it. I really want to keep working on it right now, but I have finally hit the wall. The other thing I did lots of this weekend was listen, those who know me well know that that is unusual!! It is AMAZING what you hear by the way. LOL

We were spoilt in so many ways, and one of them was with gifts. Karen (Mrs Martin of Mrs Martins Quilt Shop) gave us all 3 little kits each. A needle keeper thing( I think that is what the first one is, does anyone else remember??) A quilt Label kit and a pin cushion kit. COOL!!! Thanks heaps Karen. The weekend was brilliant, I hope you had as much fun as we did! Do you love your job? I know I would love your job! LOL.
 

And then there was the Dear Jane swap, 5 little gifts secretly given over the weekend by an anonymus friend. At morning tea today we got to meet our partners. This is the first time I have participated in anything like this and I was so nervous about how my gifts would be received; Ros from Oz was very gracious and it was lots of fun sneaking around in stealth mode. Now the gifts I gave were really very predictable, but  predictable was certainly not a word I would use to describe the gifts I received. My gifts were incredablity creative, and really threw me off the givers trail well. By the 3rd gift I was convinced that Ros my partner, then the 4th gift threw me for a loop and I thought only Mary would have given me something that mad. But then the 5th was so different again, I began to doubt my detective skill. I was so wrong! Anne had been sitting so close to me all weekend, and we chatted often and she NEVER gave herself away at all. So what did she give me?? Gift 1 - A pumpkin grown in her very own garden. Gift 2 a FQ. Gift 3 - A Jar of homemade rasberry jam, made with raspberries she grew also. Gift 4 - a weird pen, seriously it is weird!! and Gift 5 - Some cool pins with heart heads and a brilliant little timber lady beetle button. I dont know if you will ever read this Anne, but in case you do... thank you so much for your generousity and inventiveness, your gifts were a delightful part of the weekend. Oh and when I showed the pumpkin to the family I was asked when I would be making soup. ( I told you so!!!)



So now domestic duties call, but I will be back in the next couple of days with some pictures of the "quilt as you go" in progress. BFN Lynda

Friday 11 April 2008

It is DONE!


I finished the other 1/2 this morning! Mainly as I rang to confirm my eye appointment to be told I had the date wrong and it is next Friday!!! (I think I was told the wrong date, but you cant argue with them after the fact, there is many reasons why I would not have made an appointment for the 18th!!!!!!) I have now also removed all the pins and am ready to trim it up and bind it, but that will have to wait till DD1 is out or sleeping in as teenagers do. Stay tuned for the next installment. BFN Lynda

PS todays pic is of some wall hangings I made for a good friends daughter for her 18th a few years back. I was really pleased with the way they came out!

Thursday 10 April 2008

Just a quickie!!




I had planned on quilting all day today but stuff got in the way. I felt obligated to do some housework & business stuff first, so subsequently I didn't sit down at the machine until 3pm. I still managed to get 1/2 the required quilting down, which has made me very happy. Will get some done first thing tomorrow, but then I have an eye test at 11am and the drops I need to have will prevent me from doing anything that requires vision for a couple of hours after. BFN Lynda

Monday 7 April 2008

Progress

I am totally exhausted!! First day back at school for the kids so I Dropped DD2, and headed straight up to the church to borrow some space and some tables. It took about 4 hours getting it all basted. I finished just in time to head over to the lounge for bible study. Then back to the hall to pack up, sweep the floor etc. By the time I got home it was about 5pm. I wrapped one urgent ebay parcel so DH could bolt up the the post office with it and collect a box of stock that had arrived also. Then dinner. Then packing 16 MORE parcels 
for posting tomorrow!! Then putting the shopping away that DH had done at some point during the evening, then dishes, NOW BED!!! Oh and did I tell you I have a cold. Not fun! But it has been a productive day, and I am pleased with that. The quilt being all ready for quilting is BRILLIANT. I think I will be able to get to it on Thursday. I am a week ahead of schedule and cant quite believe it! I think I will need May to recover from April, it is shaping up to be a doozy!!  BFN Lynda

Sunday 6 April 2008

Wild Wednesday!

I am sure that everyone knows about the wild weather we had in Melbourne on Wednesday. Although it was pretty nasty here, I believe we missed the worst of it. We did have one little bit of drama, as you can see the cover of the Gazebo in our backyard, well sort of shredded. When the wind started I did at least think to turn the table over and fold the chairs up and lay them down. (The table has gone tumbling around the backyard one other time) DD1 heard a funny noise and went out to investigate, and this is what she called me to see. DH cut it off when he got home. We have a spare ready to put up but will wait till the spring I think.

Work on the birthday quilt is progressing nicely. I have it all stitched up and ready to baste. I plan on doing that this week, at the church on some trestle tables. With my new Kwik-Clip tool, my basting spray and my instructions!!! Thanks to all the lovely Scquilters who answered my call for help. I am now off to press the quilt, and stitch the backing together, so I am ready to go at a moments notice.

BFN Lynda

Tuesday 1 April 2008

Look what came today!!

I have a little story to tell you, and I hope it wont BORE you to tears! LOL My eldest child is turning 18 in 27 days and for weeks I have been pondering over what to give her. Last Friday my sister and her kids were here, and she asked when I might be able to make quilts for her boys. ( I made them for her girls the christmas before last) That prompted a discussion about which of my children still needed quilts, and I had to confess that only 1 of the 4 had one. ( And she only got it this christmas just gone.!!!) Dont you just love light bulb moments, mine went like this. "Oh my goodness, I can make a quilt for Alanah for her birthday!!!" This is the thought I have with 33 days to go!!! Geeze, talk about dense!! Why had this not occured to me MONTHS ago I dont know! So.......I said to Alanah "Would you like a quilt for your birthday??" The answer was, and should I have doubted that it would be a firm YES! So now for a pattern. We looked at the Wave quilt pattern I bought the week before last. Lots of applique, but very simple applique that I would do by machine. OR she says there is this one in a magazine, she even still had the page marked. LUCKY!!!! It was an add for a shop, and the quilt is available in a KIT! Whoo Hoo, and even better it is Super Duper simple in construction and quilting. So I tracked down the phone number and on Saturday, rang the lovely Carolyn at Veronica Violet Stitcheries in Wangaratta. I ordered the kit and matching fabric for backing and explained my pressing situation. She promised to send it first thing Monday, which she obviously did as the kit arrive today! Now April was shaping up to be very busy for me anyways, and it just got a whole lot fuller! I plan to cut tomorrow and stitch on Thursday when the birthday girl is out of the house for the day. Even though she knows all about it, the plan is to see if I can hide it from her until her birthday. I will post pics as I am able, but for now, here is the fabric! The pattern is called "My Old-World Eiderdown", if you visit Carolyn's store you will find a picture there. BFN Lynda