the home of...

2012-01-18T07:30:00.000+11:00

This chair and a couple of others that match sit under my pergola by the pool. They had white covers which didn't stay white for long, with kids, and the cat, who has long black fur, the white cushions were sending me slowly insane. Something had to be done. Along came Amy Butlers Home Decor fabric range called Love.

Now, I have had the fabric since it came out. So quite a while. I took one of the covers off one of the cushions. Yes that was fun. Then I put it back on. That was even more fun. It didn't quite go back on as easy as it came off. With that a few more months went by, cursing the cat and his black fur. Then, I packed up my metres of "Love" fabric, my cushions, and headed off to see my friend Kat, who sews for a living. She sews everyday for money. Me however, does not. I sew because I "love" it. I knew if I sewed these cushions I would no longer "love" the "Love" fabric nor sewing. So, it was worth paying Kat to sew them for me.

And what a job she did. I am so in love with these cushions, I sit on them everyday. I swear, if I see my cat on them, it best run fast..... :-)

I can, and will make the matching cushions to go on the chairs. I can cope with cushions. If you live locally and want Kats number, message me, or call into my bakery, her cards are there!

Jelly Roll Quilt

2012-01-17T07:30:00.000+11:00

I made this quilt for a friend just before Christmas to give to her daughter. The range is Sophie by Moda and is a nice bright range for little girls. It was a nice quick quilt to make, and I love working with girly fabrics.

There is a little peeper in there too in a matching blue fabric. Its a little hard to see in this picture, and is also backed in a fabric from the same range.

PJ Shorts

2012-01-16T07:30:00.000+11:00

Martha hates to have left over fabric in her stash, it drives her nuts. Unlike me who has fabric squeezing out the windows and doors of my house, Martha does not. She uses everything wisely....I wish I was like that!

So, along come some pyjama shorts for Miss Claudia with some cute ric-rac detail.

I wouldn't mind a pair myself...with a bit of extra length, dont think I have the legs for short shorts ;-)

Love them, so cute.

Scissors!!

2012-01-15T07:30:00.000+11:00

Its amazing what you find on your computer when you go through your files. Yesterday I told you the story about my drowning iphone. Well, I must have uploaded photos before I decide to teach it to swim, as I found photos of what I sent to my swap partner Peta.

Now, I didn't accidently forget to wrap a strip of fabric, that's just hiding her address obviously ;-) My swap partner Peta was from Perth, and I made a little fold up type needle case with a pair of scissors and a matching fabric fob.

The scissors have their own little spot to sit, and the other side has two spots that can hold needles or pins.

I also put in a Christmas pattern of Anni Downs. I hope Peta loved her parcel as much as I loved making it.

Needle Case Swap

2012-01-14T07:30:00.000+11:00

Last year Martha & I joined a swap. It was Marthas very first swap. Now I know I am very late posting photos of our swap, for which I deeply apologise. But there is a funny story to go with that.

I take most of my photos on my iphone. (Because I am such a great photographer, I need all the editing help I can get, and the iphone has some great editing apps)

Anyway, I was out scooping the pool of all the leaves with the phone in the bra part of my swimmers, as you do. The pool was looking good. All leaf free. The wind comes up and blew a leaf onto the water, so I lean over and get it. Plop goes the iphone onto the pool step. Oh jeepers. That cannot be good for the phone.

Who would have thought iphones cannot swim.....

Photo's of needle swaps cannot be retrieved from drowned iphones.....

So this is what Martha received from her lovely partner. A little pouch to hold it all in!

A scissor holder, a pin cushion and a needle case. It even has her name on it!

The scissor holder is embroidered also and it all matches and fits into the pouch to take away on retreats. Very handy and in fabrics that Martha loves.

The sad thing is, that with the unfortunate demise of my iphone, I lost the photos of the gifts that we made for our swap partners...and their details. Its very sad how much information I had on that phone. Lucky for me I had the phone insured and Optus replaced it immediately. So once again I am snapping photos on my new iphone....just not cleaning the pool with it in my swimmers, and its not allowed to go swimming this summer!!

(PS...just have to find the photos of my gorgeous gift now on the computer!!)

Aunt Grace is done

2012-01-13T09:00:00.000+11:00

Last month I showed you my 1930's Aunt Grace quilt that I was sending off to the quilter, well here it is, back from the quilter, all bound and labelled.

I officially love it even more. But it was never for me. It was always for my gorgeous cousin Kelli. I started making it for her on a night I knew she was going through something really personal & tough. That is the date I put on the label. Its significant. I knew a quilt would cheer her up when I gave it to her. It wont take away the pain, but I knew how much she would love it. I knew how much I would love to give it to her & how much I would enjoy seeing her smile. She has a gorgeous smile.

I gave Kelli her Circle of Love quilt tonight. As predicted, she loves it. She was very excited & so was I.

Hello there everybody!!

2012-01-12T21:34:00.000+11:00

Firstly, Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year. I sure did. My family & I spent Christmas & the New Year at the lovely Nelson Bay and went to the beach lots and lots, ate seafood, and relaxed all the time. It was oh so lovely.

We are, however, back to realty this week, but I am enjoying being back in my own bed, and back to my sewing machine. Oh how I missed that machine.

Martha has been busy over the Christmas holidays and whipped this quilt up from start to finish in four days. Now that includes sending it off to the quilter! That is an amazing turnaround for us country people, and let me tell you, Martha & I are not sharing our professional quilter with anybody. She is brilliant, wonderfully talented & super fast. We don't want her getting super busy, as we might have to wait longer than a week for our quilts, and that would be terrible for us! Hahaha.

I love the colours in this quilt, and the contrast with the white borders. The fabrics are Riley Blake I believe. I could be wrong, as I haven't asked Martha....she would be tucked up in bed by now, so I can't check. So please correct me if I am wrong.

This one is a gift for a friend of Marthas...I wonder if she checks this blog??? I don't think so :)

Bird Bucket

2011-12-06T07:00:00.000+11:00

I found Janelle Winds book while going through a tidy up of my sewing table, as you do, and got the urge to give her bucket a go. I changed the design a little by adding her bird design to the front instead of the houses, which saved a heap of time. I just used fabrics from Spotlight, which are fresh and bright. This is the large basket, which is smaller than I thought from the picture in the book, but I am happy with it. No idea what I will use it for, but its cute, and looks lovely and my white Ikea sewing cupboard.

I just need to make a couple more to match.....I have plenty of left over fabric. Surprised?

Ruby by Bonnie & Camille

2011-12-05T16:30:00.000+11:00

I am a fan of Bonnie & Camille fabrics so when they released a new range recently I must admit I rushed out and purchased quite a bit of it. Surprised? I thought not. So, what to do with it now...

I started with a charm pack or two, and thought I would make a new sewing machine mat. But it's a bit cute to be hidden under my sewing machine....so maybe I need a new lounge quilt. Plus I have a few too many charm packs for just a sewing machine mat ;-)

Did I also mention that I am showing you all these photo's of charm squares sewn together as I've been playing with an early Christmas present....called an SLR camera!!! Anybody who has ever read my blog, seen my photo's, knows I cannot take photos. So, I will tell you, I have it set on every auto setting possible. I even have a book, "SLR for idiots". I must read it while laying on the beach at Christmas.....

So, with that said, be prepared for some dodgy, boring, holiday & fabric photo's while I practice my photography skills....

Sewing machine mat

2011-12-05T16:25:00.000+11:00

My sewing machine mat, cutting mat bag and sewing box all match nicely, but are all a bit dated, well not dated, but I'm sick of them. I made them quite a few years ago from Mistletoe Manor. I still love them, but I think I need some new bright ones. Do you agree?

This bag holds my rulers, mat, cutter & just about anything else you need to carry with you. It's nobodies real design, it was made up along the way with some help from a lady in Warren.

Below is my sewing machine mat which I copied from Peg & Dale & whipped up at Ridgecrest quite a few years ago out of scraps. The sewing box I saw online at Fat Quarter Shop & well, it matched everything else, so I just had to have it......

Now to show you my new mat.....give me five minutes, I have been busy today!!!

My sons Army Graduation 2nd Dec 2011

2011-12-04T18:55:00.001+11:00

Last week we all travelled to Wagga Wagga to attend our eldest sons graduation from The Army as an Avionics Technician. For the last two years he has been studying at the RAAF base and has completed about 105 exams, hours of study & prac and is about to leave Wagga now and be based in QLD, alot further away from me :(

Here are a few photos of our boy, who was looking as handsome as ever in his dress uniform. We were, and are extremely proud of him, and shed a few proud tears as we watched the ceremony. (He is the skinny Army boy on the right if you don't know him.)

As the March out is for all the ADF, Sailors, Air Force & Army marched out together, as they all train & live on base together on a daily basis. From now on, Jarad goes to an Army base to continue his training.

After the official ceremony we went inside for the graduates to receive their certificates and reports.

Then it was time for family photos....I wont bore you with the 27,000 family photo's that were taken. here are a couple.
Serious photo.

Token silly family shot....the PG rated one ;-)

PS....I had lots of blog post photos on my iPhone, including Martha's & my needle swap photo's....then my iPhone went for a swim in the pool. Well who knew that iPhones couldn't swim??? Anyway....I have retaken some photo's and you will be happy to know I will have some blog posts that relate to sewing coming very soon :)

I am in Loooove...again :)

2011-09-26T09:56:00.000+10:00

Remember the quilt from this blog post well its back from the quilter & has its bind on, and I am in love! Unfortunately, so is Miss Maddilen, & its now taken pride of place on her bed....hmm, how many quilts do my daughters need, really???

I am so happy with the red spotty backing...I just LOOOOVE red spots. I know they're on the back, but it's very important that the back looks as good as the front in my book :)

Oh, and more spots on the bind, hehe. Those ones are from the infamous Spotlight :)

Aunt Grace Quilt

2011-09-25T11:00:00.000+10:00

The quilt is finished and ready to be quilted. I have really enjoyed this quilt and have already cut out another ready to make. This one is for my cousin who just lost her dad, I'm sure she will love it as much as I do. I just cannot wait to get it back quilted. I think I will back it in white to keep it simple.

Nundle

2011-09-24T10:38:00.000+10:00

Recently Martha & I travelled to Nundle near Tamworth for the weekend, (where we learnt to crotchet, in a previous post) and while I was there, I purchased enough fabrics to make a new quilt. Surprise! Surprise! Anyway, the fabric are Reproduction 1930's, the range Aunt Grace. Martha actually made a similar quilt while we were there. (Still waiting for her photo of that so I can show you)

I decided to do mine a little different to Martha, and did raw edge full circles on white squares. (I'll tell you what Martha did when I get the photo's)
First, I had to search the house for something perfectly round that was just the right size to fit on my already cut 5" white squares. So, I head straight to the tupperware cupboard. Bingo. I knew I would find something there! Mad a template from template plastic, and then made 80 lovely circles.....

While in Nundle I also bought a design sheet. Now, why, oh why, have I not purchased one of these before now??? I had to pin it to the curtain. The same curtain that WAS about to be disgarded as it is the only curtain in my house. But as its the only place I can hang this ingenious piece of fabric, that curtain aint going anywhere just yet!

Block allocation is 200% easier with a design sheet, I cannot believe it, and would not have believed anyone who said so. You just throw them up there, they stick, its easy to see when one is out of place. No sore back, no sore knees. It fabulous.

Usually, when I do a layout, it takes me hours to decide that I have too many reds on the left, or too many greens together etc. Not with this one. It went together in no time. Impressive.

All I have to do is the next few rows and then stitch it all together! Too easy. I think this quilt is one of the quickest I have put together...all thanks to that design sheet!

Raw Edge Bind

2011-09-23T10:09:00.001+10:00

I made this jelly roll quilt from the Blush range at a weekend away with Club Quilt, a group of sewing ladies. It has a little peeper & I decided to do a raw edge bind on this one which I read about in Bonnie & Camille's book. It makes use of a honey bun strip, so a 1.5" strip, and is simply sewn straight onto the quilt with two rows of stitching. It is a very quick way to do a bind. I am not convinced that I like it for every quilt as yet. But, I have done it on this one, as I couldn't source anymore fabric to match the quilt :)

The backing for this quilt is also a matching Blush fabric & has been quilted by my favourite quilter in Warren. Its a simple Cross Hatching this time.

If you look closely, you can see the raw edge bind. I still need to wash it for the full effect of the raw edge bind.

This quilt has been sold to a friend for her daughter for Christmas, and she has also ordered another one for her other daughter. I best get to work :)

Shopping Spree...oooops!!

2011-09-22T06:06:00.000+10:00

I was near our local Spotlight today with my daughter Grace and I said we might head in there for a look. She was just as excited as me to go, which made me pretty happy. Nothing like hearing someone being just as happy to go there as me. (She is doing sewing for the HSC next year & is just in the early stages of her "love" of fabric & sewing)

I might add that we were there the other day & the shelves were quite empty & we left bare handed, so we weren't holding much hope to see much.....

Then....we saw the new Denyse Schmidt fabrics that everyone on all the blogs have been raving about and that out Spotlight store hasn't had. When we were there the other day & the fabrics were not, I thought I had missed out on them already. But no....there they were. Grace said, "I'll go grab a trolley...." I taught that girl well!!

The rest, I add, is history.....I am not responsible for the photo below. It's Spotlights fault, they had 30% off the fabrics, so what was I to do but stock up. I mean there are two of us sewing now. Anyone who knows me knows how I am with fabric.

Now, I need a new cupboard...or maybe a builder, to build a new sewing room......

All Stars!

2011-09-21T22:30:00.002+10:00

Martha has made this quilt for one of her boys from a Riley Blake range called All Stars. I do believe she made it on our Club Quilt weekend away also, & has it quilted out in Warren also. Lea has done a wonderful job with the quilting. The fabrics are gorgeous and are so boyish. We all know that nice boy fabric ranges are hard to find, but these are lovely.

Now all she has to do is put the other one together for her other son.....get busy Martha! Get busy :)

After school fun

2011-09-21T21:49:00.002+10:00

Maddi, my 12yr old was at the bakery helping her dad, and decided she wanted to decorate a cake as she was bored. As they are these days....
So, she collected a few different coloured icings, a mudcake, some icing bags & off she went. Here is what she ended up with.

I think she may have inherited her dads talents :)

Baby Quilt

2011-08-28T21:52:00.000+10:00

My sons girlfriend asked me to make a play quilt for her best friend who just had a baby boy. I found these cute fabrics at Spotlight & whipped up a quick basic pattern which is great for a floor playmat.

I handsewed a label on the back and parceled it up. Mum & bub just loved it.

Coin Quilt

2011-08-27T09:27:00.000+10:00

I finally finished my coin quilt....I got it back from the quilter a while back, but couldn't decide on a bind, so just had it sitting there looking at me just calling out for a bind. I didn't want a scrappy bind, & didn't have enough of any of the fabrics that are in the quilt, well any of the ones that I LOVE, so I just left it until I found something, or until something found it....A couple of weeks ago, Spotlight had a sale on all their fabrics, so I bought up on their spots. I love spotted binds, and wondered if the hot pink spot would suit this quilt. I am so glad I did, I just love it.

My daughter Grace just loves the quilt and has claimed it for herself...

Martha & I head to Nundle

2011-08-26T08:23:00.000+10:00

Martha & I headed off to a small country town near the city of Tamworth, called Nundle, on our annual sewing weekend. We met up with ten other ladies, four from Gunnedah, four from Narromine & two from Sydney. Martha & I couldn't go last year, so we were really looking forward to this years retreat, three nights away, and two full days of sewing.....absolute bliss.

Our first stop was the Nundle Woollen Mill, as Martha & I decided we wanted to learn to crotchet. Retromummy crotcheted me two beanies for my girls last winter, and then was good enough to post the pattern on her blog, so we had brought that pattern with us, and we were determined to go home with a beany just like Retromummies.

So, I bought some gorgeous wool for a beany for my Maddilen, a crotchet hook, and headed out to Cottage on the Hill and said hello to Kerry & checked out all her gorgeous fabrics before deciding what we were going to purchase there.....

Here is the beany half done, I could hardly wait to get home from the Nundle pub to do some more crotchet, with a cup of tea & chocolate.....but I think Martha & I had a few too many wines at the pub for much crotchet to get get done tonight. Those Gunnedah girls led us astray that night....just one more drink girls, just one more, hmmmm.

Here is the flower I crotcheted....I finally got it! I failed to show you the first flower I did....it somehow ended up with seven petals....not quite sure how that happened, hahaha, when the pattern only has five! Peg did remind me though, that no flower in the garden is perfect, so not to worry :-) Anyway, I did finally learn how to read a crotchet pattern, talk about confusing. It might as well been in Chinese, sl st, ch 6 trb 20, I mean seriously, how can someone read this??

Anyway, Martha & I can now!! Woohoo.

Anyway, here is Maddilen modelling her new beany & very excited about it!

Thanks to Retromummy, who I had to email for help reading patterns on Friday night, thanks Corrie!!

Martha's Skirt

2011-08-25T20:17:00.002+10:00

Martha & I have been very busy in the sewing dept, so look out for the next few days, as I will be posting a few new projects! Please don't fall over from the shock....

First on the list is a new skirt that Martha has made, and here she is doing the classic "selfie" shot in the mirror....I think she needs a few lessons from my teenagers on how to do a selfie ;-)

Hahaha, no seriously, she has done a pretty good job, all she was worried about was not getting her head in the photo, as she knew I'd be posting the photo on here! Hehehe...as if I wouldn't crop the photo?? Hmm...maybe ;-)

Back to the skirt....the skirt is gorgeous, as for info on the pattern or the fabric, I have no no idea. I must find all that out from Martha, and I will edit the post and add it in.....

What you find in the cupboard....

2011-07-25T11:51:00.003+10:00

So while I was searching in my cupboard yesterday I found a cot quilt for my 2.5 yr old niece that was just waiting for it's bind. Ooops. Big oops. See, I have a problem. The bigger problem was that the bind fabric was with it....

So at, midnight when the urge hit, I cut the bind, stitched it on and sat with my daughter, son & his girlfriend who were watching some hideous show called Laguna Beach (They have a Pupil Free day today) and hand stitched the bind onto the quilt so it is now completed!!

Unfortunately, my niece is no longer in a cot. So now all I need is a baby girl who is special enough to receive a nice cot quilt! Please note, I DO NOT want a grand-daughter just yet from either boys, no matter how old they are ;-) Hahaha!!

Hunky Dory

I think this also means I need to make another quilt for my poor niece....maybe she would like the Bliss quilt from the last post??? But my daughter has claimed that one already...oh the dilemma of it all!!

My Sunday

2011-07-24T20:44:00.004+10:00

I spent my afternoon joining my final strips together on my Bonnie & Camille quilt. I am quite happy with how it turned out, but as I finished it late the photo isn't the best....I seem to be always saying that about my photo's. I really must do something about my photography skills. I mean, I have 37,000 cameras & that doesn't seem to be the problem. Maybe it's me??

And, like every quilt I make, no matter how much planning that seems to go into the layout. I always seem to miss something....see those three blue squares that are mighty close to one another, and the three red ones with the same print. It does my head in....

Anyone who knows me well, knows I have a massive stash of fabric in my house, and in that stash you wouldn't be surprised to find a kit or two that I may have bought more than once by accident as I may have forgotten that I bought it. That's how big my stash is.

So when I bought this fabric, I was determined not to let it sink to the bottom, so I bought the bind, the backing & the pattern at the same time. When I don't, the gorgeous "had-to-have-fabric" just gets put in the cupboard while I wait to decide what to make. Then after I make something, it goes back in the cupboard while I decide on a backing, and then I need to decide on a bind....blah, blah, blah.

So here is what I chose for the backing fabric and the bind...
After all that sewing, it was time to pull out my favourite cookbook of the moment and cook dinner, Comfort Meatballs. A perfect dinner for Sunday night.

How delish do they look? So easy and so yummy, another meal that everyone loved. A rarity in our house.

Alphabet Quilt

2011-07-23T05:43:00.000+10:00

I thought I would show you a quilt my sister made for her little boy which has been completely made from her scrap pile and designed & quilted herself. I will also tell you that Lisa is a Design & Technology teacher & so she is in the right field of work I'd say.

Lisa has done some fantastic quilts and blows me away with her work. I spent a few days with her and her family recently and snapped a shot of this one, as I have seen it coming along and was excited to see it finished. The photo just does not do it justice. Each letter has a different embroidery stitch around it in different colours, and the letters just pop out.

It is an amazing quilt, so heavy & warm. He will have it forever.

Now all she has to do is sew another one for her little girl...haha, so get busy Lisa!!

We may or may not have visited a fabric shop or two while we were together, but I'm not saying a word.....because neither of us need fabric.

Pioneer Womans Cooks

2011-07-22T06:06:00.000+10:00

So, on this blog, Martha is the cook & I am not. I mean, I cook & I like to cook, but I don't really advertise it. I own a Bakery & all, but I am not the baker, that's hubby. I used to cook all the time when the kids were little, and then for some reason I just stopped. I used to cook from cookbooks everyday. The one day I didn't. I don't know what happened, I just got over it & stopped.

Martha, a couple of friends & I have been going to cooking classes for about 18months, which is more of a social event than a class & I in the last month I have been getting back into cooking. I have bought quite a few cook books, done some experimenting, and I must say, I have enjoyed it. It does help when the kids like what I cook, maybe that's what turned me off cooking, fussy eaters?

I saw on Retromummys blog a few weeks back this cookbook & it had me intrigued as we have just been to the States and I was after some true American recipes, so I ordered the book. I am so glad I did. I love it.

In the book she tells a story about how she became a country girl after she was raised a city girl, and had to learn to cook all the traditional American meals for her cowboy hubby. The recipes are basic meals and easy to follow recipes. The first two recipes I made were the Lasagne, which is different to our normal lasagne, as it use Cottage Cheese. The only thing I found, which I will change next time I make it, is that it didn't hold together like my normal recipe. I think that's because it only has one layer of lasagne sheets on the bottom, and then another layer on the middle. I think, I will do more layers next time, but the flavour is so good. The whole family loved it, and in my house, that's a thumbs up. We served it with a salad. Even the visitors loved it.

Now, this probably isn't the best photo, i probably should have cut it. But hey, I can't be a cook and a photographer! In the book she says that this cake is the best chocoalte cake you will ever taste and do not waste another day without it, make it today. So, hey, who was I not to listen to her? We had to have it.

My daughter Grace & I made it, and I must say we were lucky it turned out at all, as we were giggling and laughing as we made it, and the pictures and instructions were numbered going down the page.....but we followed them going across the page and wondered why the picture had a nice runny mix when ours was looking like cookie dough??

Hmm, then we realised we hadn't added the water or the egg mixture...we went from step 5, to 7 to 9...oops. So we had no choice but to the go and add the water and the egg mixture and hope for the best!

My husband said, no wonder he is the Baker of the family and not us.....well I am happy with that as I do not have to get up at 2am to make cakes, imagine what I would do to a cake at that hour??!!
Well, the cake was a hit! It tasted pretty darn good for a cake that was made out of order, so it must be fool-proof!! Oh, and it didn't last very long either, I think the kids are happy I'm back in the cooking mode....

You can order your copy of the book here with free postage! (Usually)

Janey's Quilt Part 2

2011-07-21T06:45:00.000+10:00

The 5" squares become four patches and I just love the colour combinations coming together. The red and aqua together is lovely, and I could have easily ditched everything else and simply made the whole quilt from just these two colours.

I'm not too sure about the aqua with the green spot, but there is plenty of it in the range, so I am forced to go with it. I am sure it will work once the quilt is together....I have faith in Bonnie & Camille, I'm sure they know better than I ;-)
This four patch is one of my favourites.

Just playing with the layout before I add the other sashings which will be happening this evening. It's funny when playing with the layout, that no matter where you put the blocks, there is always something in the wrong spot....it seems to take me forever to get it right. (I'll just add, this layout was no where near the final one, see the two blue spot blocks are too close to eachother, among others!!)

Janey's Quilt

2011-07-20T09:18:00.000+10:00

I was travelling through Bathurst recently and happened to have time to call into The Home Patch where I picked up this gorgeous chunk of fabrics along with a pattern for Janey's Quilt. Most of the fabrics are from Bonnie & Camilles fabric range Bliss which is just gorgeous.

So with a free day, and it way too cold to do much else, I decide to get a start on it. Lucky for me I just happened to have to charm packs of Bliss on hand, so I could add a few more 5" squares of my favourites to the quilt and dispose of some of my less favourites, or play around with the layout a bit.
There is nothing quite like a pile of gorgeous fabrics piled up....couldn't you just eat it???

Hmmm....now, I am not one to read instructions, and basically only refer to them as a last resort. Especially on a basic pattern. Now this pattern starts off as a basic four patch with 5" squares, how hard could this be?? Who needs a pattern?? Right? But, I paid for it, so I read it. Haha, you thought I wasn't going to, but I did.

So when it came to the little sashings....(if you go back up to the picture and have a look at the picture, the little strips that are 9.5" x 2.5") Yes well, one would think that as you need 70 of them, you would cut across the width of your fabric strips of 2.5", then cut those little strips into 9.5" strips wouldn't you?? Like how many quilts have I made?? That's how we always do it!! Der!! So for once I decide to read the instructions, and alas, nope, this time we are cutting the strips 9.5" across the fabric width, and then cutting those big strips into 2.5" strips! Now if you are a quilter, does this sound weird to you??

So, while I am trying to work out why Annie has done it this way, thinking maybe its to get the most out of the fabric, without wastage, blah, blah, blah. My hubby is listening, but not really caring....I decide to follow Annie, but I was doubtful. In all my doubtfulness, I measured once and cut it, but I cut at 9" NOT 9.5" ARGH!!!!!! Crap.......

Now what??? Will I have enough of the blue spot?? Oh crap, crap, crap......and crap. Robert just laughs and says, call Annie and order more. Yeah, thanks for your advice honey......as it turns out, I cut it all up and had just enough for all my little strips without ordering more. Phew. So, I still do not know the theory behind cutting the fabric 9.5" across instead of 2.5"across as I ended up doing.....

More photos tomorrow

Bellie Babushka

2011-07-19T21:09:00.003+10:00

Martha has been busy sewing this Babushka which is a pattern by The Red Thread, and she sits proudly on Miss Claudias bed. I have since put my order in for one for both my girls...mind you I'm not sure just how far I will get with that order.....perhaps if I buy her a little pressie on my travels this week she could be persuaded?

I mean, Martha is the one who photographed the Babushka with that sign behind her, "Dream like there are no impossibilities", so that I will ;-)

Miley Cyrus Concert

2011-07-14T08:51:00.000+10:00

My girls love Miley Cyrus. So when it was announced she was coming to Australia my youngest daughter Maddi went crazy. So crazy in fact that she stalked the ticketek website until the tickets went on sale. Unfortunately for me, when they did go on sale, I was in another time zone to Maddilen. But Maddi didn't care, she phoned me at 3am USA time and screamed at the top of her lungs, "Mum, Miley Cyrus tickets go on sale at 9am tomorrow, we have to get them!!! Pleeeeeaaase!!!!"

So there I was at, I don't even know what time, logging onto ticketek in New York buying Miley Cyrus tickets for the girls....I only know one or two of her songs, this is gonna be a fun concert for me.

So here we are at the long awaited Miley Cyrus concert. How excited do they look??

There were so many little kids at the concert, and Miley was by no means looking like Hannah Montana in those suspenders for all those 6 year olds.....

Grace & Maddilen had the best time at the concert, they sang & danced to every song and said "they had the best time of their lives" quote. That made me smile.

MS Red Night Outfits

2011-07-13T08:28:00.002+10:00

I know I promised to show these photos weeks ago, but with the end of the financial year, and Miley Cyrus being in Australia and whatever else has been happening, I haven't had five minutes to blog!

Here is a photo of my friend Kylie in her outfit on the night. Of course we were running late on the night, so we didn't take too many photo's before we left. I think we splashed some wine on the camera before we realised and cleaned it off, luckily!

Well, we decided to have dresses instead of skirts, they just seemed to match our hair and eyelashes better daaarrling!!!!

We were missing one of the girls in this photo as she had raced off in full dress to pick up dinner from the take-away shop for her family! My 12 year old was the photographer/make-up artist on the night here at the house. I think she did a great job. Maddi put on all our fake eyelashes with glue, and helped with glitter eyebrows too.

Nicole in the centre is the one all the fundraising is in aid of, and is missing her feather boa...she was getting a little bit over heated.

Here is my hubby Robert & I, he was dressed a pimp. Everyone who attended on the night had to dress in red. I really dont think those eyelashes do me any justice....plus my wig was sitting a weird angle by that stage!
Mum was the official photographer of the evening and had us posing in all different positions...this was just prior to the pie eating competition getting underway.

Overall the pie & lamington eating competition was very funny, with some very weird combinations coming out. We even had a fellow blogger enter....Dale from Day-days blog entered and did very well with her lamington and sweet chilli sauce I think.....with mock cream. Yummo!! She passed on her pie with oysters & caramel sauce.....dont know why???

Bling, bling, bling!

2011-06-22T09:25:00.004+10:00

This is what I am playing with today, 16mtrs of black tulle & lots of red sequines = fun, fun, fun! All in aid of an annual fundraiser for MS. The event is on this Saturday, June 25th & I am responsible for the committee outfits of which I wear one, so they have to look good. Red is the colour of MS, so sequines it is!!

Look at all that fabric! I have just started so will show you the finished outfits in a few hours hopefully!! I may just have to get out the big girl camera for those shots as the sequins just don't like the iPhone.
See you all in a few hours, a few coffees & a few chocolates later....

PS: The outfits are done!! As much as I'd love to show you a photo, like I'd planned. I need to wait until after Saturday. Can't let the cat out of the bag. So I will post a photo on Sunday of just how good we all look!

Upton, Wyoming

2011-06-21T21:46:00.002+10:00

We were just about at the top of Wyoming and dead smack in the centre when we came across the tiny little town of Upton. Population 827 approx. The first little cafe we noticed had a wood carved moose standing out the front, and we immediately thought it had our names written all over it! This looked interesting, so we pulled right in. The restaurant/cafe was called Remy's & is on Highway 16. I had a feeling once I started giggling at the carved moose, I wasn't going to stop, and I was right. Check this out....

Once inside, everything contained a little bit of "moose-ware", and it felt like we stepped back in time. The decor was from the 70's. The staff were ever so friendly, and laughed at our accents while we laughed at theirs. I ordered a white coffee, and got a black coffee and a very large glass of milk!! Then came the laughing, again, what was with the glass of milk??

They even had a hand-made moose, a moose border, moose statues everywhere. It was so funny, but cosy at the same time.
In the photo below you can see a little bit of the seats, you know the nice orange vinyl from the 70's :-)

Then I went to the toilet.....I wish I took my camera! It was decked out in a completely different decor-dried flower arrangements and hand made dolls. It was very pretty and girly. I wanted to go back to take photo's but thought they might think I had a bowel problem, so refrained.

The thing that made me just lose the giggles was when our meals came out. They were super fast at preparing our food, and yummy it was. But check out the plates.....

Frypans!!! My meal is Nachos if you were wondering, I know, the orange stuff on top is what Americans call cheese. It's not yellow like ours, it's orange. By the time we got back to Australia, I was kinda getting used to it's taste.....now I'm loving our yellow cheesy taste again. But frypans....how funny??

We did enjoy our meal at Remy's, it was yummy, fast, cheap as chips, and the staff were really friendly to chat to. So if you ever find yourself in the middle of nowhere, stop by that woodern moose, and eat out of a frypan :-) It was memorable.

Jelly Roll Quilt by Martha

2011-06-20T13:02:00.003+10:00

I thought it was about time I did a post about sewing, especially since this is a sewing blog afterall. Martha made this quilt with a pattern from a magazine purchased recently....not that you need a pattern I might add. It is a simple jelly roll quilt. The fabrics are just gorgeous, and are from the Sherbert Pips range which is very popular at the moment. I actually have a project just waiting to get started myself out of the same fabrics.

The quilt was made for Marthas niece who was celebrating her 9th birthday last month. Now, usually I do all the labels for our quilts, but this time Martha decided to try the freezer paper method, by putting it through the printer. Wow, what a result?!! Good job Martha! One less job for me, and another for you! Pump them out now sister!! I will be putting my order in ;-)

Orders anyone??? Just email Martha here, I'm sure she has nothing else to do all day, and they are super quick!! Hehehe.....

Lusk, Wyoming

2011-06-19T10:58:00.000+10:00

So all that Wyoming driving must have got a bit boring for Robbie & he must have been trying to "speed" things up.....and got busted by the State Trooper. Hmmm.....by the look on his face he doesn't look too upset with his $88 ticket. He looks pretty darn pleased with himself I think. The State Trooper was the nicest guy, and was happy to pose for a photo with the Aussie in front of the car. I could not believe he asked him! I swear he was speeding just so he could get a photo...he loves the tv show Cops....and yes, he told him he was a fan...

After his brush with the law, Robbie was in a happy happy mood. A great time to come to the lovely little town of Lusk. Which just so happens to have a Patchwork Store, hehehehe. A happy hubby & a patchwork store. A great combo.

Lickety Stitch Quilt Shop, & Robert is the one who spotted it first! What a man??

I did buy a few bits and pieces in this shop which I will show later, but next door to this shop was a little gift shop that Robert wanted to go into to buy a cap. It was a gorgeous gift shop, but everything was new in it & all quite country looking. I went in as well, but wasn't really interested in buying anything. As Robert was paying for his hat, I caught a glimpse of a quilt in the corner in a basket. I went over and had a look at it. It was handmade. I asked the assistant if the quilt was for sale, expecting the quilt to be either owned by the store owner, or quite expensive. She looked at me quite funny, with a look of "why would you want that", and said "Yes, its an antique quilt" and told me the very cheap price. I then went on to say, "oh, its very cold in the car, I just need a blanket on my legs". I got a handmade antique quilt for less than a cotton blanket at target. I could not believe my luck. It is gorgeous.

Here it is at the motel....in case it didn't make it back to Australia in the mail. I did insure it, but you never know!

And here is photo courtesy of my friend Peg. ( I stole it from her blog, thanks Peg)

It is so warm, and heavy. It has a few stains on it, but that gives it history and shows that it is an Antique. I love this quilt. I plan to label the quilt, as it doesn't have a label, as so many old quilts don't. I will put on it where I bought it, and how old we believe it is, a bit of a story I suppose, and hopefully it will last many years to come through my family. It makes you wonder where its been & what its story is.....

Lost Springs, Wyoming......

2011-06-18T10:31:00.000+10:00

Wyoming was not the best State to drive through. It was pretty boring most of the time in between towns. The towns were great, but in between, nothing to look at except these things in the paddocks. (below) It was really really windy, like extremely windy. Blow you over when you walk windy. I couldn't believe how windy, haha.

Anyway, I apologise to anybody who is from Wyoming, but hey, hours and hours of looking at these, was hard to take, just quietly. Anyone out there know what they are?? Robert and I passed the time by guessing. I might add, that after six or so hours, our guesses were getting silly. (I may tell you the less silly ones)

Now, these things were only on the left hand side of the road, or should I say, in the paddocks on the left side of the road, when we were driving North on the Interstate. Weird. So what about the paddocks on the right? Don't they need wind stoppers, or grass stoppers, or snow drift stoppers...or whatever they are?? They can't be cattle fences as they have gaps. They can be moved. Some paddocks only have them for say ten metres along then have a gap for three metres then they start again. Weird. They kept us amused for hours, so maybe they're tourist amusers for long drives.....so I counted them. Joking of course ;-)

Then we came across this sign...surely this is not for real???

But sure enough, there was one house. I did take a photo of the one house in the town of Lost Springs. I felt sorry for the poor person who lived there all on their lonesome and wondered if we should call in to visit? Probably didn't have milk for a cuppa as Lost Springs didn't have a shop & the nearest town was miles away, so I decided to wait for Starbucks...... I wonder if they bought the sign themselves?

Cheyenne, Wyoming. State 6

2011-06-17T22:04:00.002+10:00

Here is Robert at the Wyoming/Colorado State line. We stopped at every state line & took a photo at every state-line sign we could. Now, some we missed and had to turn around and re-cross the lines to come back past the sign, as I was too slow with the camera, or just forgot to get it out, or was asleep....or a truck was in the lane, so we had lots of giggles. Especially when we crossed the State line from Texas to Louisiana & I missed it. The bridge was so long, and to turn around was the longest drive back, it was about 5miles one way and another back, just to get the photo....not thinking Robbie was too happy.

Cheyenne was a groovy town with these funky boots everywhere. They are about 8ft high and have been painted by local artists to show Cheyenne and Wyomings history. They are located all over the city and you can go on a scavenger hunt to locate them all. We declined to induldge in that as we were too cold and hungry, but we did take photos of a few of our favourites located in the town centre courtyard.

More boots...they were everywhere.

A patchwork boot!! How cute?? Fancy me finding one of those without even looking too hard....it had a quilt on it, and a few different blocks. Hmmm, but do you also notice the lovely pile of snow at the bottom of the huge boot?? That shows you just how cold I was. Even though I was wearing my snow coat & trusty beany :-)

Now this horse was made of bits of metal, and was pretty cool. But this photo looks like Robert has his head where it probably shouldn't be.....

Colorado

2011-06-09T11:35:00.000+10:00

Driving through Colorado was absolutely beautiful...and cold!! Freezing actually. We knew the weather would be freezing, and we knew we wouldn't have clothing quite warm enough to cope with the cold weather that Colorado in March would probably throw at us, but we went anyway. I had my pink beany, so my head was warm anyway! Surely we would come across a snow clothing shop along the way, and we could buy a warm coat and some gloves, so we weren't worried. The car had a warm heater so all was good.

The Colorado River was gorgeous. I could have taken 1000 photo's of it. I just wanted to keep getting out of the car look at it, and photograph it. Robert was getting sick of stopping and posing. I just loved it. Dad would have loved it, he always wanted to come here when he was alive. He wanted to go to Denver & Houston and so many places in this country, & I was going to all of them. But I'm sure he wanted to see this river. It seemed to mesmerize me, it was rough and I just loved it. The scenery was just beautiful.

Robert thought he was being funny trying to do the "Where's Wally" shot of me in the photo below.....can you tell he was sick of taking photo's of the Colorado River & me? PS I am only showing 1/20th of the photo's!! Lucky you!!
Finally, after a few hours of driving through snow, we find a Snow Clothing shop in the beautiful town of Rifle, Colorado. How lucky are we that it had 40% off all snow clothes?? Woohoo!! I was so cold that I could hardly breathe as I ran up the hill from the carpark to the store. All Robert could do was laugh at me....nice husband he is!! Trust him to park three miles from the front door, especially when we are dressed in clothes sooo unsuitable for snow weather!! I had ballet shoes on for goodness sake!!! But, my head was warm!!

Here I am in my brand new very swank white 3/4 length snow coat & gloves. I could not believe how much warmer I was once I was dressed in that coat. I walked out of that shop, picked up a big ball of snow and pegged it at Roberts head for laughing at me not being able to breath when we were running up the hill. That'll show him.....he couldn't throw back with his newly operated shoulder, hehehe.
So now we are warm it was back on the snowy road and heading further up the road towards our next state....
That day was dads anniversary, funny we were driving through a place he would have wanted to visit. We were chatting about him anyway.

Colorado sure was beautiful.

Fruita, Colorado State 5

2011-06-08T08:58:00.000+10:00

Fruita is a small town in the middle of Colorado, and we stopped here for the night on our way to Rapid City, South Dakota. We arrived late and wandered across the street to this Mexican Restaurant for dinner.....we were very tired and in silly moods. I had to leave my beany on as my hair needed washing, so lucky nobody knew us, as we were looking stunning. I thought about leaving Fruita off my blog stories...but the Restaurant decor was pretty funny, so I decided to add it in anyway. Funny decor, bad attire, wierd decor, and non english speaking staff lead to an interesting evening.....Photo shots out the front, the look on Roberts face shows the silly mood he was in....check out that grin. It only gets worse!!

Then we go inside and the waiter points to our table as he doesn't speak English....this is gonna be a long night. Everything in the Restaurant is painted in fluro paint, and I get the giggles. So time for a self portrait photo, beany and all. Lucky there weren't too many people in there that night.

Then I decided to make Robert go sit in the opposite booth to pose for a photo...as instructed he pops over to the other side of the restaurant and poses. Just like a little puppy dog....this makes me giggle even more. I ask him to ask the waiter for a Mexican hat, just to make the photo look authentic, so he starts looking for a hat...well I just lose it. The poor waitress comes along and wonders what we are laughing so hard at....it got quite embarrassing as I just couldn't stop. You know those uncontrollable giggles??

Can you see how bright the paint is?? It's glowing in the photo, I needed my sunglasses on it was so bright!

I told Robert he could come back to my booth, so he did just in time for his huge meal to arrive.

We didn't even know what we ordered as it was all in Mexican, but man it was tasty. And yes, the cokes just kept on coming, but what a relief it was to have never-ending diet coke with a spicy Mexican meal!!
Anyway we won't forget the little town of Fruita anytime soon....

Monument Valley State 3 & 4

2011-06-07T09:11:00.001+10:00

Monument Valley is on the border of Utah & Arizona. Parts of it are in both states, so you never quite know which state you are in if you are not a local.

Robert has wanted to go here for years. You know, ever since seeing it in movies, the old westerns, Thelma & Louise....unfortunately when we arrived at the motel, it was dark, so we couldn't do the whole "drive through Monument Valley" thing, that we wanted to that day....but there was always tomorrow!

Now the Motel has only been there for 12 months, its called "The View Motel" for obvious reasons, every room overlooks the buttes in the valley, and let me tell you, waking up with the view is spectacular, and my photos don't do it justice.

This was 6am on our balcony, and all the balconies were a hive of activity. You could see people already out on tours with their Navijo tour guides. We chose to sleep in till 6am.....I was up till I don't know when uploading photo's to facebook for all our family at home to see :-)

The internet connection at The View Motel needs a little attention....you can only get it in the lobby. But the lobby is huge, has a lovely wood fire, lots of comfy sofas, Indian Decorations, and really gets you into the feel of beeing in whatever state we were actually in, Utah or Arizona. Some of the paperwork said Utah, some said Arizona...seems the locals don't even know!!

Those buttes are called mittens....see how they look like a pair of mittens?? Cool hey?

Okay, so I got draggged out of bed, was freezing cold, tired, & looking stunning. Now this photo was taken alittle after the last, but somehow Robert can get light in his photos, and I can't. Lol. And doesn't he rub it in, that he is a better photograher than me!!

So after We got organised and found our Navajo Indian tour guide off we wwnt on our private two hour tour through Monument Valley. Wow! It was amazing. I just loved it. I would go back here in a second. So peaceful and natural.

Now I am here sitting up on this rock, let me just tell, you I had to crawl to this position. It is a skinny rock on a cliff edge that has a massive drop on the front and behind. I might just add that I did not want to get up there at all, but Robert made me get up there as he said it makes a good photo. He wanted me to stand up as well. I just could not do the stand up thing. Robert and the guide were laughing their heads off at me, my hands and feet were sweating. It was terrible. The only reason I got this far was because, Robert, who is afraid of heights, just walked up there, and stood and posed for a photo before me!! So if he could do it, surely I could!! But no. This was it.

Getting off there was even funnier, but I won't go there.....

Now, after we left The View Motel, we started our journey through Monument Valley just like Thelma & Louise, (without the shooting, robberies and the ending obviously) and we searched out a scene from Forrest Gump. We knew it was around here somewhere, so we drove until we found it, looking back, sideways, left & right, until we found it. We thought it would be sign-posted....do you recognise it??

Of course we had to run it....

After we both had a run, got back in the car, drove just up the road 20 mtrs, there was a little sign, "Forrest Gump" Haha, hardly visible.

Heading through Colorado tomorrow.

Bearizona....in Arizona!! State 3

2011-06-06T06:34:00.001+10:00

Driving on the freeway in Arizonia we came across this.....

...how could we just drive past??? Real bears!! Wow, How cool is that??

It is a drive through park, and they warn you, DO NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR. If the bears come over to the car , drive off slowly. How excited were we?? Just a little. A little bit scared, and a little bit excited.

First up we came across Bison. Ok, but where are the Bears?? We want bears!! Although the Bison were pretty cool, and big.....

Next, were the White wolfves. Now, none of these animals are in cages, they are in paddocks with large fences, and we drove over cattle grates into their yards to get to them. Its all pretty cool I must say. We could wind down our windows to take photos, but if they came up to us, up went the window. Yay, for power windows!!

This wolf looked cranky!
Next paddock had Black Bears!! Little ones though....this one was having a lay down. No fear he was gonna come bounding in our window, so down it went. We felt safe :-)

He was so cute, I could have just run up to him and cuddled him...he didn't look scary at all....unlike the wolf!

Then into the next paddock was the BIG Black Bears, and sitting in the middle of the road was this big fella. As relaxed as ever, basking in the sun. Now we had to drive off road to get around him. I was scared at first as we were right next to him on the road, I didn't want to wind the window down for Robert to take the photo as he was right next to the car!! That's how close he was to us. But Robert was saying, it's ok, he isn't moving. So, I figured, the travel insurance is all paid up...he's telling me to wind the window down, I have the master control of the windows, if all else fails, I can quickly wind them up, "just get the damn photo now, hurry!!"

As it turned out, the bear didn't care less, he see's tourists all day long, and was posing for us. Loved it. I reakon he wanted a tip for it....

Here I am posing with a Bear that won't bite, but he wasn't as cuddly as the other ones looked. Behind me you can see the huge timber fence that surrounded the rest of the park that housed some smaller Bears that were in some encosures similar to the ones at Western Plains Zoo, with a water moat along the edge separating them from us. It also included a gift shop, bbq area, toilets etc
In the gift shop was a little humidicrib which had a tiny 3moth old baby bear cub. The cub had been the runt of the litter had only just survived. He was doing really well now, and was ever so cute and fluffy, but was snoozing away in his little warm bed.

Bearizona was a great find, that we just stumbled upon. There is another on in Rapid City, near Mount Rushmore, but it was closed for the season. (We hadn't been there as this stage) Lucky for us, this one was open. It was one of the highlights of our trip.

Tomorrow, the amazing Monument Valley. Our favourite!!

Las Vegas, Nevada (State 2)

2011-06-05T06:10:00.001+10:00

Our next stop was Las Vegas, and the lovely Luxor. I have been an Egyptian lover forever, so there was no choice where we were staying when it came to Las Vegas. Mind you, if I ever went back there, I don't think I would stay there again. Or I wouldn't stay in the pyramid anyway. You see, that big pyramid has one elevator for the first 20 floors, and another for the top half. So if you are staying on the third floor, and your room is on the opposite corner to the elevator, you have one mighty walk everytime you go anywhere. Yep, you have to walk all the way around two sides. Not too far if you are staying on the top floors where the sides are shorter, but we were on the fourth floor, and yes, we were exactly on the opposite corner of the lift. Great exercise anyway. But the rooms were nice, and the bed was huge.

Here I am posing inside the Luxor in the lobby after one of our shows. While in Las Vegas we saw Whoopi Goldberg who was amazingly funny. The next night we went and saw Chris Angel the illusionist, who I wasn't too excited about, but we had front row seats, right in the middle, and he was a bit of eye candy I must say. And let me tell you, I was amazed at what he did. I am now a fan of this man. He sure did impress me, and it wasn't just his tight jeans, and impressive arms & wicked smile. He is quite talented, and unless he has a twin brother, he is super human.

I highly recommend going to see his show if you get the chance.

We also had free tickets to the Bodies exhibition, which I have always wanted to go to (the personal trainer coming out in me). It was brilliant, and so informative. I loved it, all those muscles, so detailed, you could see everything, and all real!! I would go again in a second.

Las Vegas is quite awe inspiring, everything is so big. I did love it on the first day. It amazed me, I had never seen anything like it. We walked from the Luxor all the way up the other end of the strip checking out all the other Casinos, and had dinner along the way, and then back again. We were exhausted. It was about 4 miles each way apparently!! It took us all day. Then we did it again the next day! The only thing I hated about Las Vegas was the people on the street trying to sell the "ladies of the night" and flicking those damn tickets in our faces. We could hardly move as they were pushing into us. They got very painful, and ruined it. I was happy to go on our day tour to the Grand Canyon...until we missed the bus, went to the wrong spot! Oops. Lucky enough they had a spot on the next tour in one hour, phew. I didn't want to waste all that money!!

So then we finally got to the South rim of the Grand Canyon after a scary plane ride, a little bus ride, and a hike. We went onto the Skywalk wearing our special slippers so we didn't scratch the glass of the skywalk, had our photo's and here we are posing some more. But, we weren't keen to get back on that plane.....

And here is that plane......

....not very big is it? It rattled and had gaps between the windows and the glass. Robert & I were in the back row. It held 12 people. We sat in the back row, and all I could think of was that I wasn't going to live to finish my 6 week holiday and get back to see my four children, and what would they all do without their parents???

Luckily, we survived to tell the tale.

See you tomorrow in Arizona.

Madam Tussauds, Hollywood

2011-06-04T01:15:00.001+10:00

Well the next day in Hollywood we visited Madam Tussauds, went on a Movie Star home tour, saw Larry King, went to Universal Studios and had dinner at the Hard Rock cafe. It was a huge day. The wax museum was funny, we were a bit silly in there, posed with all the stars, which I won't bore you with, but I will show you a few of my favourites. My first one is Nicole Kidman. I was disappointed Mr Keith Urban wasn't there, I may not have left the museum if he was, or may have tried to steal him, so perhaps I am lucky he wasn't! They are so life-like. It's amazing.

We were allowed to touch them anywhere except on their faces, they told us how they were made, and that they made their heads 20% larger than life size.....I just can't quite remember why. I'll ask Robert in the morning, & get back to you on that. But the heads didn't look out of proportion at all as a result.

Here I am sitting with Jack Nicholson, who you may think is a strange favourite for me. But it's more of a funny story than a favourite. See how I am wearing some dark glasses? Well some of the models have photo props for you to use to enhance your photo's. These are an example. Well, they were sitting on my seat when I went to sit down, and as I lent over to pick them up, the cigar in his hand snapped off and fell onto the floor! I crapped myself, I thought the attendants would come running as I broke Jack Nicholson, I thought I would have been on "candid camera" or something. I quickly picked it up and positioned it his hand. While all this was happening, Robert is laughing, saying quite loudly, "oh no, you broke it, you are gonna be busted, quick run!!" He thought it was a big joke. I did not, I was just about to poop my pants, lol. Yes, Robert, big joke!

Then another of my favourite was Forrest Gump. Now, I show you this for two reasons. One because you can see my shoes, they are Tula Pink lo-tops, and two because we went to a couple of historic Forrest Gump landmarks in Arizona & Washington DC further in our trip. Which we will refer to later. But how cute is Forrest???

Grandad

2011-06-03T00:51:00.003+10:00

Not long before we left for the States my Grandfather had a fall at the nursing home and broke his hip, had surgery in the nearest town and had been transferred back to our little town to recover. He was a cheeky brat, giving the nurses at the local hospital all the cheek he could muster, but he just wasn't himself after the fall. While we were away the family didn't tell us too much about Grandad except that he wasn't too well, wasn't getting out of bed still, not a good sign I knew, as my Nan (not his wife) had done the same thing the year before. So I knew he should be running around the hospital by now, it had been four months! Nan was chasing me round the Nursing home after four months yelling at me, so I knew the news was not going to be too good when we returned.
I went saw Grandad after coming home, in between a migraine needle or two. He was terrible, worse than I thought. He was only whispering occaisionally. Not eating at all. This was bad. Very bad. The family from the coast had arrived. Crap. Grandads room was full, I said to mum, "well if he wasn't going to die tonight, he's going to think he is with all those people in there!!" When we left the hospital that night, I was last to leave, as I turned in the hallway, I looked back and waved to him, and he smiled and waved back to me. I will never forget that smile. He didn't die that night, but that was the last time I saw him conscious & he did pass away two nights later on the 25th May, 2011.

On a happier note, Grandad needed a wake to celebrate his wonderful long life. So after his beautiful funeral service, we celebrated his life at my place. Well of course I needed a new table runner for the dinner table!!

Lucky I had four half made table runners on the go, as I didn't have five minutes free time to make one from scratch. All this one needed was a bind sewn on, and there you go, a bright happy table runner made from a Verna honey bun. I'm sure Grandad would have appreciated it, lol.

Rest in peace Grandad, you will be missed by many. xx

USA Trip 2011 LA Part 1 State 1

2011-06-02T00:56:00.008+10:00

So do you remember way back when I told you I was going to America for 6 weeks? Well, I've been, I've gone to 17 States if I've counted correctly (and my next few dozen blog posts will see if I'm right!!) But here is the start of our holiday. I visited a few quit shops along the way, and have lots to show you. Don't worry, I will cull the 2000 odd photos down to just a few good ones.

Here we are after 13hrs on the plane, non stop, arriving in LA, all excited. Its 9am LA time, about to collect our car and head out on the right side of the road, which is technically the wrong side of the road for us. Scared, but excited at the same time. Robert is driving, and I am navigating.... with the help of Hertz Neverlost, how hard can this be??? Right?? Haha. That we will see.

So, we managed to make it all the way from LAX to the Disneyland in one piece in the pouring rain. Now the main challenge on the freeway was to not only stay on the right side of the road, but in the middle of the lane. Us Aussies tend to veer over to the right side of the lane. This tends to be a tad dangerous on a five lane freeway full of trucks & cars that have one speed....fast. But, we made it.

Of course, we had to have the photo out the front of the Disneyland House with the MickeyMuse garden....you know, "typical tourist" shot. Did I mention it was raining and we were only at Disneyland to get the kids Minnie Mouse dolls and to say we had been to Disneyland. I think we were there for 2hours......

Here is Mickey Mouse, there is just something about big old Mickey Mouse, I just love him! The line up to have a photo with Mickey was so long, and as it was raining, I wasn't waiting. I let all the little kids have him....but I did manage to grab a shot in between kids.

So after we were "over" the rain and wet feet at Disneyland we checked into our motel at Beverly Hills, put on some dry clothes and headed to Santa Monica Pier where it was dry and semi warm. Well, it was dry, not warm at all, it was windy and cold, but it was dry at least. There were some teeny boppers from Texas swimming in bikinis, because apparently, quote "you do that when you are from Texas" Interesting girls they were.

At the pier we went to Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory store and so began the shopping.....but I won't even begin to tell you about that now. The pier was gorgeous, and that is probably why we returned here on our last days in the USA, but back to that later. The pier has lots of shops & restaurants, game shops, rides & novelty things for kids. And a beach to boot. Beautiful.

We also went a little further and went shopping at 3rd Street Promenade which is a little like the Pitt St Mall in Sydney, but heaps better and heaps bigger. This one goes for about three or four blocks. We had dinner a lovely little Mexican restaurant here.

Funny story;

At the Mexican restaurant, we both ordered Diet coke. Robert was about 2/3 through his and so was I when the waiter came and took Roberts drink while I was sipping mine. We were both shocked, and saying, " What, you weren't even finished it, what a rip off!" Then he brought another coke. I said to Robert, "I'm hanging onto mine till it's all gone" Then, when mine was all gone, I put it down, and the waiter automatically brought me another diet coke without me ordering it. I said, "What if I didn't want another?"

It took us a couple of meals to realise that in the USA, you get free refills on soft drinks. So as soon as you are 3/4 through your drink they bring you a refill, that way you tip them more at the end of your meal. If you are left thirsty, you may not tip as much. Crazy. My kids would love it. Drinks cost us a fortune at restaurants here.

Anyway, I hope I haven't bored you too much.

See you soon,

Karri

NB.No joggers & jeans were worn in this post...they are Tula Pink lo-top pro keds. You never know who you might run into, in the States!

Fabric Frames

2011-02-17T08:46:00.001+11:00

Martha had a blank wall that needed brightening up and she picked up these frames from the store at a reasonable price and thought some gorgeous printed fabrics would look bright and fresh up against the white matt borders and black frames. Such a simple idea with a great effect.

Just waiting for the hubby to hang them, but they look just as good sitting on the side board.

Library Bag

2011-02-15T08:39:00.000+11:00

So we have established that I haven't done any sewing, but Martha has been a little more productive than I. Little Harley is off to preschool this year, and of course he needs a library bag.

Martha has made this one with some oilcloth and a cute little robot stitchery in the centre.

What is sewing??

2011-02-13T20:22:00.002+11:00

I think I have forgotten what sewing is. I haven't touched my sewing machine in who knows how long, other than to dust it. I haven't had time, I haven't been in the mood, I haven't been inspired, haven't had that urge. But I want it back!!

This must change. Why? I will tell you.

I have two daughters, Grace 16 and in Yr11 this year, and Maddilen, 12 and in Yr 7. Both girls have never done sewing at school before, and have both chosen Textiles as an elective! I was so excited and proud. I get to share my love of fabric and sewing with my girls. How exciting!

Now Maddilen has sewn with me before, and has a natural talent. Grace on the other hand, has never shown ANY interest, no matter how much I have tried to encourage her. So where it came from that she chose to take Textiles for a Yr 11 elective, I have no idea, but I'll run with it.

So, first day of term, both girls come home with Textile Assesments! What??? Already? Maddilen in Year 7 is making the basic pyjama pants in class - too easy.

Grace on the other hand, who can't even thread a sewing machine, sew a straight line, or even knows what fabric is, has to design a garment, make it, test different fabrics, do a portfolio including washing instructions etc, and all within the term. Did I also tell you that I leave for overseas in four weeks and she will have to do it herself???? So, I suggested she call on Martha......just up her alley ;-)

And this her first assessment for the HSC.....they are only going to get harder. Is it too late to drop this subject??? hahaha

The floods are here!

2010-12-08T23:44:00.003+11:00

Here in our little town, the river has flooded our ovals, parks and many properties. We have been lucky enough so far that it hasn't come into town. We are all praying that the rain stays away, but it is forecast for tomorrow. The river peaked yesterday at 14.25 mtrs and has been going down today, thank goodness.

The water you see below is normally our park and footy ovals...
This photo shows you just how deep the water is. The water actually went higher than this photo, and got as high as the cross bars of the shed below, before receding.

You can see the cross bars of the footy goals...which eventually also went under.

Hopefully, the rain stays away long enough for the river to go back down to normal.

Remember this???

2010-11-13T22:35:00.004+11:00

As lovely as all this flannel fabric looked, sewn in strips, hanging over a spare dining room chair. I did think it was about time I did some sewing, and finished a quilt. It was probably about time I did a blog post too, so with life settled down a bit and a free afternoon, I set about sewing these strips together.Luckily, I already had the strips numbered, as you can see in the above picture, so the hardest job was already done luckily. I dread placing blocks, as I always seem to get it wrong. thought I might just double check....just to be safe. I love the bright colours of these Anna Maria Horner flannels all laid out on the table. Now to sew them all together.

All done! I love the shaggy flannel quilts, all I have to do now is stitch the bind on and wash it to get the full effect of the shag. I wonder how many weeks it will take me to do that???? Jokes :-)

Retromummy Giveaway

2010-11-12T22:57:00.001+11:00

One of my favourite and most visited blogs is that of Retromummy. I must admit that I visit her blog daily, buy fabrics from her shop, know her kids by name, have met her and converse with her by email regularly. Her blog is entertaining and well worth a daily visit.

At the moment Corrie is running an amazing giveaway, offering fat quarters in each of the fabrics from Rosalie Quinlans "Sweet Broderie" range! So 14 fat quarters!! Just click the link below for your chance to enter in the giveaway, and check out Retromummies blog while you are there!

http://retromummy.blogspot.com/2010/11/sweet-broderie-giveaway.html

St Pius X Fete

2010-10-24T14:02:00.004+11:00

Last week was my youngest daughters Year 6 fundraiser fete at her school. Her stall was a cupcake stall. Lucky for me I thought as we own a bakery....too easy, little effort. But no, Maddi wanted home-made cupcakes for her stall. Bummer. Into the kitchen I had to go...and out came about 48 cupcakes for her to sell...here are just a few.

Some bright yellow ones....

Some pretty blue ones...

Some cute little smiley face biscuits...

...and some little babycakes too!

I did make the cupcakes at home, but stole the icing from the Bakery. Maddilen was happy with home-made cupcakes and shop-made icing!

The cupcake stall was a hit at the fete, and they sold old within ten minutes!!

The Principal of the school has also put a custom order in for cupcakes for a private party....but the Bakery will be doing those ones for sure......I am all cupcaked out!!

Naughty Desserts

2010-10-22T07:30:00.000+11:00

Check out these desserts we made at cooking the other night! Oh my goodness....they were divine, and oh so healthy. Full of fresh strawberries and berries, cream and greek yogurt, and home made meringues. The only thing that was missing was a drizzling of chocolate!! Oh and my cooking partners....Martha & Kylie were on holidays, and the other one was MIA. So I ate them all myselfess. Joking of course, I teamed up with three other lovely ladies.

Of course I had to come home and make the same dessert for the rest of the family to try. It was a hit, and oh so simple.

A few hours in the garden.

2010-10-21T07:30:00.001+11:00

Well if I'm going to be in the garden, I need to look the part!

I got these quite a few weeks ago at the local nursery. I had been eyeing (spell check??) them off for a while, but just couldn't justify paying $95 for bits of rubber that you wear in the garden! Can you tell I am not a gardener??

Anyway, while surfing Facebook, my second hobby apart from sewing, I noticed that same Nursery had them reduced to $49. Well, that, I could come at. There is alot of rubber in them after all, and they are Laura Ashley ;-)

Now I must clarify why I, someone who is not a keen gardener, has headed out to the yard. Below is a plant, please do not ask me what it is as I have no idea, but I do believe it is drought resistant, that a couple of our friends gave me when my Nan passed away recently as a memory plant.

I had to go to the Nursery to buy a pot for the mystery plant above, so got creative and bought some Pansies (as the tag said) and planted around the other plants we have around the pool. (No idea what they are either, but they too are hardy) Notice how the pots match, phew, I like things to be all matchy.
Down here you will notice the original reason for heading out today. Yes it was Nan. When Nan was still with us, she would always talk about the after life. Now, this is a touchy subject with some, but Nan truly believed in the afterlife, as I do. Over the last few months she would always said to me, "Karri, when I die, plant a yellow rose, and everytime it blooms, it will be me saying hello, and letting you know I am there."

So my cousin and I decided to buy one each, and put them by the pool, with a little memory plaque. (We put them by the pool as Nan was chosen to swim in the Olympic team many many years ago and sadly couldn't go. But she loved the pool.)

So that was my few hours in the garden for the summer...now I just have to remember to water them!

Tiramisu

2010-10-20T07:30:00.000+11:00

Each Monday evening during the school term Martha and I, with a couple of our other girlfriends, Kylie & Chris, attend cooking classes at the local Highschool. It's like a step back in time for Kylie & I, as the teacher, Sue, taught us in High School when we were naughty teenagers. Not that we were ever really "naughty" as such, but we did do alot of talking and giggling in class. Hmm, I don't think that has changed, now all that has changed is what we drink with our meals at cooking class!!

A few weeks ago we cooked this!! How yummy was it?? Well I will tell you....it was DIVINE. Well, we partnered up and had half a cake each. Well, I cut mine up in pieces and had a piece each morning at morning tea with a cup of tea.

I will also tell you, this Tiramisu is not at all healthy. I put on a whole kilo that week. Lucky we don't cook food like that every week!

Kylie, however is not a coffee lover, so she did not eat hers, and gave it away to her co-workers! How rude, I would have happily gained another kilo eating her half too!!

Happy 70th Flannel

2010-10-19T07:30:00.001+11:00

I found this flannel quilt in my cupboard half finished and thought that I would finish it for Roberts Aunty who was turning 70 in July. It's amazing what I find in my sewing cupboards when I start looking!!

Here it is on that same windy day as the quilt-a-long quilt. I was in a mad flap that day, getting all these gifts ready. I had to sew binds on two quilts in one night!! Yes, two binds, and two labels! What a trooper. Mind you, I still have two quilts ready to bind staring up at me as I type this....

As this quilt was so old, I struggled to find enough backing fabric to match. But do you believe that I did find just about enough?? I went out to Weigela in Warren, and she had some of the fabric out there. The backing fabric does look white in this photo, but it actually has a print on it. I was actually a little short, but as I had a four blocks left over from the quilt, I added those and managed to have enough. Phew. I do like my backs to match my fronts :-)

Another quilt done and dusted :-)

R.I.P Nan xxx

2010-10-18T13:08:00.007+11:00

What a month...this is my Nan & I in July this year, about a month after I brought her over from Perth to NSW to have her closer to me while she was in a Nursing Home. She was 90 in April in this year.She took some settling in, but we had some good times. On Monday 27th September, we had our usual Strawberry tarts from my bakery for morning tea. She loved her sweets :-) But on Wednesday, she was admitted to hospital with Pneumonia, and I sat at her bedside holding her hand. Sadly she passed away on Thursday 30th September. So quick, so sudden.

So, I have been busy planning Nans funeral, her wake, and all the drama that usually goes with that. All the fun stuff. It's been a busy few months. I kind of don't know where I am at now. I don't need to go to the Nursing home for two hours a day anymore, and eat pies and cakes with nan. I guess I am free to sew now, to do my bookwork, to blog, to do housework or to do whatever. I should be happy, but...

Anyway...

Finally here are the photos of my finished quilt-a-long quilt. It has been back from the quilter for quite a while now, and is actually in its new home in Perth already. I had to take these photos on the windiest day so the fence photo is not the best, but as the quilt is quite huge, it was the best way to get the full effect. It was on its way to the post office when I realised I hadn't photographed it, so had to make do with windy day photos :-(

I chose to use up the left over squares as the bind, as I had quite a few left, and just couldn't stand to waste them. So the bind was made up of alternated two and half inch white and coloured squares. Quite nice up against the white borders actually.

The backing was made up of three large strips of a co-ordinating fabric from the same range, with a smaller strip of white in between. I know, an expensive backing, but as the quilt was going to a treasured family member, I didn't mind so much. I do love the backs to match.

I just love how Lee (my quilting friend) has chosen to quilt this quilt for me. Simple, yet effective.

Quilt-a-long

2010-08-29T18:57:00.003+10:00

So my quilt is just about finished, I have one more row to sew on. I have decided to change the pattern just a little next week. But now my technical problems have subsided, I should be able to photograph the finished quilt tomorrow. Now this photo below is not the best...my 6ft2" assistant was not too keen to be outside holding up a quilt in the cold, in his boardies and shoe-less. (Remember, this was taken a few weeks ago when it was REALLY cold, freezing actually!)

But you get the idea. He just had to scrunch those corners!! Thanks Jakey!

I am here...

2010-08-23T19:26:00.003+10:00

Just letting you know I am still here, but I am having a small technical problem with my memory card and computer. They are not communicating well. I am having trouble uploading photos, and nobody, especially me, likes a post as much without photos.

So, I have quite a few posts hanging about ready to go, just waiting for photos to attach.

I will be back shortly with a new memory card and a re-shoot of photos...hopefully that will do the trick!

Until then...

Photos on Fabric

2010-08-13T12:55:00.003+10:00

I have been sick with the flu for a week, this is my first day where I have felt half human. I am hoping to get to my sewing machine today. No promises though. I am full of Codral Cold & Flu tablets still, and freshly showered, still in my pj's, and heading to the sewing table.

How does the tv advert go, "soldier on with Codrol, soldier on" hmm, I'm not feeling it, the lounge is looking much better, but I will try. All these days at home seem like such a waste, all the sewing I could have done instead of sleeping and sniffling.

A friend of mine has asked if I know anybody or anywhere than prints photos onto fabric. I know we can do it ourselves, but she would like someone to do it for her. Does anyone have any idea where she could get it done here in Australia??

Hopefully I will have something exciting to blog about later today.

Yummy Craisins

2010-08-02T14:02:00.002+10:00

Not much sewing happening in this house at the moment unfortunately that I'm going to blog about. I have however had my nan over today, and when Nan is visiting, I bake. I made these White Choc & Craisin Biscuits. I got the recipe from cooking class last Monday and thought I'd give it a go. They a bit yummy. I will post the recipe below. 150g unsalted butter
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp Vanilla
1 cup Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
2 cups Rolled Oats
1 cups White Choc Chips
2/3 cups dried Craisins

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C, line 3 baking trays.
2. Cream butter & sugar until pale & creamy, add egg & vanilla. Beat until smooth.
3. Sift flour & baking powder together until combined.
4. Add flour, oats, chocolate & craisins & stir until combined.
5. Roll tablespoons of mixture and place on baking trays, flatten with a fork.
6. Bake for 12 to 15mins or until golden. Cool on wire trays

Enjoy!!

Pieces of Me....

2010-07-29T15:42:00.005+10:00

I love getting parcels, but who doesn't?

I saw my parcel was from Retro Mummy, but I forgot for a minute that I had ordered anything. I thought maybe I had won something :-0

Then, I quickly remembered I ordered a book, even though I am meant to be saving for America, (Martha predicted I wouldn't last three weeks with that) So I grabbed a coffee and some choccy slice that I made again today, and headed for the couch.
Here is the book that the lovely Corrie from Retro Mummy sent out in speedy time. Janelle Winds first ever book, Pieces of Me...

It is full of gorgeous bags, quilts, cushions, accessories, stitcheries, everything and in the most beautiful fabrics. Well worth the purchase and sacrifice of my savings kitty ;-)

Now, I am going back for a closer look.

Oops, look what I just bought!!

2010-07-26T17:10:00.003+10:00

I am so over spending hours placing blocks for my quilts, getting a sore back and then sewing it all together, only to realise that I have two blocks sitting adjacent to eachother that shouldn't be.

So, I took it upon myself to splurge out and buy this. Mind you I did have a little help from Andi, it was she who suggested how good it was, as she uses it. So after reading about it again. Yes, I have considered it before. I just bought it. So much for my USA savings. Anyway, hubby wont know, that's the beauty of being married to a baker - he is snoozing when the postman comes with parcels ;-)

Now all I have to do is wait for it to arrive, and have a play!

Happy Birthday to my little sister Chenoa who turns 32 today!

United States

2010-07-25T09:08:00.006+10:00

The big news in our household in the recent weeks is that hubby and I are heading to the US early next year for a 45day holiday, no kids! We are pretty excited.

So, now the hard work has begun on planning where we are going within the huge country and what to see & do.
All we know at the present is what day we land in LA, and what day we fly out of LA. What we do in the 45 days in between is yet to be decided.

Any ideas or hints and tips will be greatly appreciated!!

We have our "must do" list started. You know, with Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Niagra Falls etc etc

Now I am looking into the other must do's...like shopping, at shops like "MJ Trimming" in New York, and heading to New Yorks fabric district.

I found myself the blog, Lindsay T Sews (again) to help me do it.

I am sure Robert is just going to love New York....not. Maybe he can find something else to do for a few days.

I was visiting another blog, Diary of a quilter, and she does a weekly field trip story on Fridays. A few weeks ago she went to MJ Trimming and shows photos inside the store. Looks like my kind of store. Check it out here.

And another place I must go check out while I am there. The City Quilter.

(MJ Trimming is located on 6th Avenue between 37th & 38th, just up the street from Macy's Dept Store.) This is for my reference later :-)

Anyway...as I said earlier, where would you recommend for me to visit while in the States?

Update on Anna

2010-07-24T12:32:00.007+10:00

I am glad nobody is desperately waiting for me to finish my Anna Maria Horner flannel quilt...it has been the slowest quilt to come together.

The pile has been sitting on the sewing table for what seems like months. I mean, it looks fantastic sitting there, all that gorgeous colour & warmth. It would, however look even better sitting across my lap while I blog, but, a girl just can't have everything. Here is this mornings progress. Not much I hear you say. But, in my defense, I hate the snipping of a flannel. So here is my method. I sew two rows, then I snip two rows, then I have a cup of tea and repeat the process. That way, my poor little hands don't get RSI, and I dont get too bored by the process.

So I best get back to it, as I have quite a few more rows to go.

Happy Birthday to Marthas little boy Harley, who turned three yesterday. I am sure he had a wonderful day!

edit: not sure I am liking that dark fabric in my flannel quilt now that I see it online...but oh how I hate unpicking.....

Baking for Stress Relief...somebody stop me!!!

2010-07-23T15:20:00.004+10:00

I was bored and stressed this morning so decided to do some cooking....first I baked the kids favourite. Chocolate coconut slice, so quick and easy....this will last five minutes once they get home from school.I had my nan over for the morning, who loves Blueberry muffins, so I decided to whip up some Betty Crocker boxed muffins. Cheating I know, using a carton where you add an egg and some water, but hey, I did decide to add some frozen berries to the mix, which I popped in the blender first. Can never have too many berries. Nan loved them.

Next on the list was a banana cake to use up the bananas sitting on the bench. I had six bananas that were getting past the use-by date, and the recipe only required three, so I decided to make a cake and some muffins!

So twelve muffins with cream cheese icing and walnuts on top to finish my baking morning off. I have no idea who is going to eat all of these as Nan informs me she hates bananas....might have to take them to the bakery to sell off! My butt doesnt need me to be eating it all thats for sure!

Now Nan, pies for lunch from the Bakery, as I am sick of cooking......

New Headers

2010-07-22T23:43:00.003+10:00

I just learnt how to create new headers! Hence the photo of my daughter in the header...I just made a few new ones with photos of both of our kids...need to clear it with Martha first. I took some cute B&W photos the other day of her kids which look cute done as headers...so you might see them shortly.

I bought a book called...blogging for dummies, well worth the dollars already!! Lets see what else I can learn....

Quilt-a-long Part 7

2010-07-22T15:02:00.004+10:00

Here we are at week 7 of Crazy Mommas quilt-a-long, and yes I am up to date!! Woohoo! That would be a first for me! Not the best photo though, but who cares, I am up to date...wonder if Martha is??? I best find her photo and add it in here. I think the phot I have of hers is for week 6, but never mind. Cant wait to get instructions for week 8...might have to wing it, and go ahead again. Don't think i can wait till next week to get more of this quilt done. I want to get it finished. The pile of squares is getting smaller and smaller....

I received my two charm packs in the mail yesterday from retromummy, of It's a Hoot by MoMo for Moda...how yummy are they?? Scrumptious!! I am in love with them. Am busty to start a new quilt with them. Am thinking of doing a half square triangle quilt with those. Suffering the same dilemma I always do with gorgeous fabric...I hate to cut into them, but will just have to bite the bullet and do it. Must finish my flannel first...all I have to do is sew the blocks together, they are sitting in a neat pile next to the machine just waiting to be finished....

Ok, back to the sewing machine!

Kaffe Fassett

2010-07-21T19:05:00.004+10:00

Remember this book? I couldn't find it anywhere, and Thimbelina helped me find it online for a bargain price of $26 Australian dollars and to top it off, free postage!! Well today, I was travelling back from visiting my son for his 21st birthday, and stopped into a Patchwork shop. A shop I have stopped into before. There staring at me was this book in all its glory...for a massive $120!!! I couldn't believe it. I had to ask the sales assistant if the price was correct, it couldn't be right. But it was. She couldn't believe how cheap I got mine either....thanks again Thimbelina!

Quilt-a-long Week 5 & 6

2010-07-20T05:43:00.000+10:00

Ok so I have been sewing all day to catch up on this quilt-a-long. Martha went full steam ahead and was so far ahead of me, I had to to drop everything today to catch up. No housework, no tv, no computer, no answering the phone and no time for food. Just sewing. Ok, so I did have time for some home made caramel slice and coffee ;-)
This was a progress shot of week five, mind you, I should have ironed it better before taking the photo. But you get the idea. Then below is the photo of the quilt top after week 6 instructions. So that means I am offically up to date as of now. Well, except for the instructions that were posted last night.

But as the quilt seems to be going in quite a predictable fashion, I have been one step ahead, and went along and did week 7 also. So as I knew I would be away for a few days, and was on a roll, I kept on sewing these little pieces together, so now all I have to do is attach them to the piece above and voila, I am up to date again!! Yay! Such a great feeling isn't it??

Once its attached I'll post a progress shot. I will remember to give it a good iron first!! Oh, and I will also post Marthas, as she is up to this stage too.

Quilt-a-long Week 3 & 4

2010-07-19T17:32:00.002+10:00

The quilt-a-long at Crazy Mom Quilts has been going a little slow for me, but I have finally moved along though weeks three and four. Martha was a little sneaky and flew through to week 6 without telling me, and also without taking any progress shots! How rude!! So I wont be showing any photo's of her quilt until I have caught up.
Here is a progess shot of my quilt at the end of the week four stage. Never mind that today is actually the end of week 6. Ooops. But...I have however, caught up today, and am ready to start on week 7 as soon as the instructions are posted.

I will show the rest of the progress shots tomorrow.

(Dont tell Martha, but I have actually already started week 7, I have guessed what week 7 instructions are going to be, and have done it already. I'll teach her for sneaking ahead of me!! Lets just hope I haven't guessed the instructions wrong...or I'll be the one unpicking for all of week 7!!)

Thankyou Retromummy!!

2010-07-19T08:05:00.003+10:00

I have been learning to knit to a scarf, which will end up being for winter 2011 or 12, and was hoping to learn to crochet too. Hmmm....too hard.

Then I got the idea to email the talented Retromummy and ask her very sweetly, in my sweetest typing :-D if she would crochet my girls a hat each. I just knew that she would have them done in no time at all. If the girls had to wait for me to learn how to start to crochet, then how to read a pattern etc, they would never get one.

And look! Voila! Two gorgeous hats thats are being sent out today, the girls are excited, and I am excited as I might just borrow one too :-)

The best thing about Retromummies crocheted hats is that, if you can read a crochet pattern, she has given the pattern away for FREE on her blog. But, there is a rule. You are to use the pattern for private use only, no selling of the products made. So, you can make crochet hats for all your friends and family for gifts. Yay for us!! (Not for me, cause I can't crochet, lol)
So, get crochet-ing

Apron Shirt

2010-07-13T21:19:00.003+10:00

Martha and I were browsing some blogs and found an Apron Shirt Tutorial on a blog called Everyday Chaos and thought they would great on little Miss Claudia & Maddilen, so with a little adapting we ended up with these two little tops. Maddilen decided she didn't want to model her shirt as her hair wasn't done. What a princess...don't know where she gets that attitude from???? Surely not me!!

Claudia posed happily for her photograph, hair done and all....her mother is a hairdresser afterall, so of course her hair was done ;-)

Thankyou to Bridget from Everyday Chaos for the shirt tutorial.

Learning to knit

2010-07-12T07:20:00.002+10:00

So I have been inspired by all the bloggers on here who can knit. I mean how hard can it be?? Hmm, well. It is.
I mean, I have knitted before. I did knit a little jumper for my eldest son, who is about to turn 21 on the 20th....mind you, he never did get to wear it. I kept dropping stitches, getting cranky with it, couldn't read a pattern, taught myself how to cast on etc etc. It was pretty sad really. Well the thought was there. I had great intentions. This is why I stick to sewing, its soooo much easier.

My nan on the other hand was and is a fabulous knitter. She used to knit us jumpers as kids, bootees, cardigans, bonnets, leggins and dresses for all my kids when they were babies. She even did bikinis for my three sisters and myself when we were kids! They were amazing. I'll see if I can find a photo.

Anyway, back to my point.

I just moved my nan, who is 90, from Perth, to my little town, Narromine NSW as she needs to be in a nursing home, and she is teaching me how to knit. Its quite frustrating for her, as she is such a natural, even at 90, with failing eyesight (without her glasses) and me being all thumbs. Its quite funny actually. Well, I went to Spotlight, bought some big needles, mainly so I would get somewhere quickly with the knitting, some wool, and a pattern book. Nan suggested we buy a pattern for a mens beany as my husband is bald at the moment (from radiation) and as its winter, his little head might be cold.

This pattern book jumped out at me.....have no idea why, hahaha, might have something to do with the spunky man on the front. Even Nan thought he was quite alright!! So apparently you don't lose your appeal for "eyecandy" when you hit 90!!

On the front you can see my one hour achievement of knitting...well, you cannot see my loose stitches and uneven tension ;-) There was a method in my madness in choosing navy blue wool for my first attempt at knitting after 21 years!!
Oh, and by the way, I am not attempting to make a beany, nan is. I am making a scarf for Maddilen to take to school, as Robert doesn't do scarves apparently. Nice and simple. She won't mind if I drop a stitch or two or six ;-)

Little PJ's

2010-07-11T07:20:00.000+10:00

Martha made some summer PJ's for some of Claudias friends for birthday pressies, which is a great idea. The kids have so many parties to go to and getting ideas for presents is getting quite hard. So these dont take Martha too long to whip up, buy a little singlet, add a flower to match, and voila, a unique present for a special friend.

I do believe the set below was for Claudia, because if all the friends have nice new pj's, so must Claudie!

I wonder if Martha takes orders for adult sized pj's???

I want this book!!

2010-07-10T07:20:00.004+10:00

I want this book but I just cannot find it anywhere! I have looked in bookshops in Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Dubbo, Orange, Bathurst, the airports, & online. Everywhere! My sister who is a sewing/cooking teacher has it, and treasures it. While I am not a huge fan of Kaffes fabric, I am however a fan of his patterns & techniques.

I am in love with the book.

I think Angus & Robertson in Dubbo has every Kaffe Fasset book except this one. And I want this one.

So, if anyone happens to know an online store that might just have it, or happens to be at their local book store and they have it. Please message me and let me know, so I can buy it. I would be so happy, and will reward the person who finds the book for me to buy first with a charm pack giveaway!!

edit: Tracey from Thimbelina took a mighty ten minutes to find this book!! So, I am happy to say it is on its way to me already, (at a bargain price + FREE postage!!) and Tracey has a Frolic charm pack in her hands as we speak. Thanks Thimbelina!!

So get shopping!!

Quilt-a-long Part 1 & 2

2010-07-09T13:11:00.006+10:00

Martha & I have joined Crazy Mom Quilts in a quilt-a-long which sounded like a lot of fun, a weekly get together for us, and some stitching time to boot. Why not??

Week 1 instructions arrived on her blog, and didn't sound quite right. (Not that we doubted the talents of the clever Crazy Momma!!) but we were a little scared to cut into our yardage of white fabric lengthwise in 2.5"x 60" strips, when we were sewing them to jelly roll strips that measured 2.5" x 44".....sounded a little scary to us. So we decided to wait till week 2 instructions were posted, just to make sure. We couldn't waste 5 metres of white fabric!!

Week 2 came along, the teapot was made, rockyroad was cut, computer on....and suddenly all made sense. Amazing what re-reading the instructions does. How on earth could we doubt the amazing Crazy Momma?? (We didnt really...we were just scared)

So then we were ready, and completed week one's block. Here is Marthas. She is making hers out of the Hushabye range.

And here is mine which is made with the Swanky range by Chez Moi.

The next step on the quilt-a-long was to stitch 31 jelly roll strips with 31 strips of white and the cut them all into 2.5" pieces as per the picture below......it was VERY painful, and my hand was aching by the end. I was up till 4am, I just couldn't stop. I think there are 490 of them!! Yes 490 little pieces.....I was asking myself when I read this, are we mad? Is it too late to pull out?? But I soldiered on. Well here they are...

Then the next step, (because at 4am after cutting 490 little pieces I was delerious and silly, I needed to see what the next step was going to look like!!) I just had to go one step further!

So next I had to add four little pieces to the top and four to the bottom, and stitch them together. Too easy. By this stage of the morning, I was pretty happy to be putting the rotary cutter to bed and sit at the machine. I did control myself and stop at this point. So now I am not too far behind, will do more this afternoon, unless I decide to have a nanna nap.

Surly Seamstress Homework :-)

2010-06-25T22:48:00.005+10:00

I have been away for the last week collecting my grand-mother from the other side of the country, and moving her here into our local Nursing Home. Its been a huge emotional week, somehow I think the fun has just begun....

On a lighter note, I just love blogs. I find it very relaxing at night to sit with my cup of tea & choccy and surf the blogs. Some nights I dont know how I get to some of the blogs, as I go from link to link to link. Anyway, about six months ago, I was blog hopping, and found this blog called the Surly Seamstress I left a comment, as I sometimes do, and I seemed to recognise the lady, couldnt quite put a name to the face, thought I must be mad, how on earth would I know this woman??? Impossible. Then a couple of days later, I had a reply to my comment, and alas, I realised I went to school with the author of the blog! What a small world??

Anyway, Sandra from the Surly Seamstress has nominated me to confess my sins, and in turn, I too must nominate some fellow bloggers to confess their sins. So here we go....

What would be in your perfect picnic basket? I looove picnics, with strawberries, lots of champagne, cheeses, crackers, chocolate, croissants, (lots of 'c' foods there!) and a cup of tea to finish :-)

What is the one place you want to visit that you haven't been to before? I really want to go to Paris. I want to go shopping, drink coffee, eat bread, climb the Eiffel Tower, go to the Museum of Fashion & drink REAL champagne.

What are your favourite/least favourite words? These can be connected to sewing or not. Hmmm, dont know if I have a favourite word, but the kids reakon I say, "its not rocket science" all the time. I definitly have a least favorite word, and its "dunno". I hate it.

If you had to spend 3 consecutive days on the same train, who would you want with you, and why? This would probably be easier to answer if I could tell you who I WOULDN'T want on the train, but I can't. Would have to have the girls, Martha & Kylie (cant choose one). The three days would go by soooo quick. Martha would do the cooking, Kylie would make the tea...and well, I would be the lady ;-)

What's your sewing threshold? As in, what will you let go, what must you absolutely fix? I have more UFO's, fabric & kits in my cupboard than I like to admit that I have. I find it very hard to throw away scraps bigger than 1"x1" ...hence the huge scrap basket in that same cupboard. I find it very easy to throw out selvedges though!! I cannot bear it when I stuff up a project, I cannot bear to throw it out, I save it in my scrap basket....it might come in handy one day. I think I have a problem or two.

What garment/accessory do you wear the most? I live in my gym clothes, probably because I am a Personal Trainer, and that my joggers are so comfortable. I do like to dress up, and when I am not at the gym, I love my jeans.

What wouldn't you be caught dead in? Joggers and jeans together. Either or is great, but together is illegal. Unless of course you are Jennifer Garner of course, she does joggers and jeans very well. I dont. It's very "westy"

It's been fun, but now it's my turn to nominate some fellow bloggers to confess their sins, so go check out their blogs,

Tracy at Thimblina

Peg at Happy in Quilting

Ros at Bloom & Blossom

Have fun girls, looking forward to your answers.

New Bag

2010-06-19T06:30:00.000+10:00

Martha made this little bag for her niece Maddi's 7th birthday, which is this week. The photo isnt the best, but the pther one I took was a little blurry, and this one is a little dark. I figured a little dark was better than blurry. You all know how I am such a great photographer, so this is the best I can do. I had no time for sewing today, so unfortunately, no photos, blurry or dark, of the new flannel quilt.

If you can see, there is a cute little owl button on this bag to match the owl lining on the inside of the bag.

Snapshots of June 15th

2010-06-16T06:30:00.000+10:00

Maddi snapped this photo of me unpicking a few loopy stitches on the very last block of my Anna Maria Horner Flannel quilt. Had to be on the last block!
If I wasn't so fussy with the layout of the blocks I would have photos of the finished product....but hmmm, they will be a bit longer. There must be an easy way to get the layout right, with an even amount of colour throughout. No matter how many times I arrange it...I just cant get it right. I'll try again tomorrow...or Thursday..or Friday.

Martha & I started our Quilt-a-long with Crazy Mom Qulits yesterday, we were a week behind as we were a little confused with week 1 instructions. It didn't take us long to catch up....photos of that later...

Maddilens Cushion

2010-06-15T06:30:00.000+10:00

Maddilen finished her stitchery and turned it into a cushion for her Nan as planned. She decided she couldn't be bothered re-doing the dress on the angel in a brighter pink, so left it as it was. It turned out lovely anyway.

Panic set in this afternoon as we realised we were out of Hobby Fill to stuff the cushion, and had to call on daddy to pop into Spotlight for us while on his "boys day out". Impressed as he was to go to the dreaded Spotlight, he did it for his Maddi Moo.

I took this photo on my phone and Maddilen added some effects to make it look special.

Here is a close up of the cushion. Maddilen did all the sewing herself, she even did her first bit of handsewing, (other than the embroidery) when the hole for the cushion stuffing had to be sewn closed. I dont know if she was too impressed with that part?

The cushion was hand delivered to her Nan as soon as the photos were taken, as she was so excited to finally have it finished. Nan & Pop thought it was fantastic & were amazed that Maddi had made it by herself (guidance & pinning from mum of course)

Snapshots of June 14th

2010-06-14T23:24:00.001+10:00

Marthas little cherubs decorated some biscuits for morning tea, and Jack, Marthas 5yr old did the one with the two blue M&M's & the green jelly bean. Stating, "He was sticking his tongue out" How cute is that? Its just what it looks like, so creative I thought.

Also, note the biscuit with no lollies, 3yr old Harley stole those lollies ;-)

PS...they were quite yummy too!

Anna Maria Horner Flannels...Part 2

2010-06-14T08:39:00.002+10:00

Martha & I have bitten the bullet and cut into the gorgeous Anna Maria Horner Folksy Flannels this weekend....finally. They are so yummy. We have cut them into 9" squares, layered them with some wadding, cross sewn them, and here they are ready to join together to make a large shaggy quilt. The quilt will be 7 squares by 9 squares, so will finish up a good size to snuggle up under on the lounge on a cold winters night.

More photos to come once they are sewn together and waiting for the bind.

Snapshots of June 13th

2010-06-13T20:27:00.003+10:00

Well, I have been a bit slack with this "Snapshots of June" thing already....
Anyway, my sister came over today & dragged me away from the fire to go outside, sit in the sun to eat strawberries and play with our iPhone photo apps where she took this photo of moi. It was such a lovely day, I actually had to peel off a layer as I actually got hot! The fire was still going inside, and outside, the sun was gorgeous. I would never have believed her!

After this, we headed out to Marthas for a cuppa and a little bit more sunshine....however, Martha lives a few kms out of town, so no wind breakers out there like us townies have, so with the little breeze, the sun wasn't feeling quite so warm. The tea & choccy biscuits helped....

Snapshots of June

2010-06-09T22:10:00.006+10:00

Here I am running out of things to post about...so I best get sewing. I have a few projects ready to get started and to get finished, but have limited time at the moment.

I have been surfing the blogs this evening and stumbled upon Janelle Winds blog...as I do everyday, nothing new there ;-) Anyway, Janelle has started posting photos everyday of things that make her happy, or make her smile. So, I am going to try and do the same. I can't promise I will get to it everyday.....my history with posting everyday hasn't been great.

But I'll give it a go.

It might just give you an insight into my crazy life and unusual sense of humour.

Hopefully I don't scare you off ;-)

Here is my first photo.

Ok, so I was planning on starting this yesterday, but I had trouble uploading a photo. Here it is finally. This is my 15yr old Grace, who wouldnt let me take her photo without giggling & hiding under an old flannel....this photo is the best of a bad lot...trust me!

Another Flannel Quilt

2010-06-09T06:57:00.000+10:00

So, yesterday I promised that I would show you my mother-in-laws florally quilt, and here it is. It is a very basic pattern, but with such gorgeous fabrics, that's all it needed. She loved it so thats all that mattered. Jan requested that the quilt match her burgundy leather sofa, and it does match quite well.
This quilt was also purchased at Weigela, (which I still have not googled to see if it is online) but it has the most gorgeous giftwares, clothes and fabrics, and it is well priced. Sue is the owner and is very helpful. She stocks absolutely everything in her store, it is well worth a trip to Warren. Call first, and Sue will stay open for you if she know you are coming. There are also a few other stores in town which are worth the trip too. We usually stop for lunch at the Nevertire pub, which is about fifteen minutes from Warren, they do a great Chicken Schnitzel, chips n gravy! (our favourite)

Flannel Quilt

2010-06-08T06:46:00.000+10:00

There is nothing like a flannel quilt to hide under when its cold outside. So I made this quilt for my husbands dad as a gift for winter. It was a kit I purchased quite a while back from a great store out at Warren called Weigela, which unfortunately isn't online as yet. (I will google it just in case) I thought it was suitable for him as it wasn't too girlie, not floralie (is that even a word??) and the colours aren't even pink!! Which is unusual for me. And to be honest, I didn't think I could fit another flannel quilt in my loungeroom....no honestly, I wanted to give him a quilt, actually I wanted to give them one each, so this is the one I gave to my father-in-law, Greg. Tomorrow, I will show you the one, I gave my mother-in-law, Janice. She was lucky enough to get a pink, florally one, hehe. She like florally by the way...

Love Hearts Quilts

2010-06-07T05:46:00.001+10:00

This is a quilt I made for Maddi & Grace, I made them one each. It has four patches, nine patches and love heart blocks, plus some plain large blocks. I bought the kits from a shop in Warren quite a while ago, surprise surprise. So the fabric range is probably quite old, and I couldn't tell you what it is. Anyway, the girls like it, and have them on the ends of their beds.

Maddilens Sitchery

2010-06-06T05:32:00.000+10:00

Maddilen has been doing a little stitchery for her Nan (dads side) is just about finished it. She has a bit of the hair to go and the halo. She hasnt decided what to make the stitchery into as yet, but is thinking about a cushion.

After taking this photo, Maddilen decided she wants to unpick the dress, and do it in a brighter pink. (Just like I suggested to start with) So once she has picked the cushion fabric we will re-photograph and post again....

Claudias 1st Quilt

2010-06-05T05:23:00.000+10:00

Marthas little girl Claudia has been nagging her to sew for months, and has been sewing bits of scrap together. Sp Martha thought she had better start teaching her how to sew properly, and start her sewing something to keep.
So, along came the coin quilt.

Claudia has done a fantastic job for her first quilt, and I can see she is going to cost her mother a fortune in fabric....double the fabric purchases from now on! And maybe her own blog, she may even be able to teach Martha how to blog??? (And maybe a few tips for me too, hehe.)

Marthas Fresh Cut Quilt

2010-06-04T04:36:00.001+10:00

Martha made this quilt at Ridgecrest also. I know I said that I had posted all the Ridgecrest quilts, but I did find this one...

I am really liking the little green peeper that Martha has added to this quilt. I love peepers right now!
I used some of the left overs from this quilt to make my table runner. (Thanks Martha hehe)

Quilt as you go

2010-06-03T23:40:00.003+10:00

I think I am actually going to give this a go next week on a mini quilt and see if I like it. I am doing this post so I dont forget which blog I saw it on when I actually decide I want to do it. It always happens when I want to show Martha something I saw on a blog...I just can never remember which blog it was I saw it on....

Ridgecrest Part 5

2010-06-03T16:21:00.002+10:00

Just when you thought I had shown all our sewing at Ridgecrest...I found another photo. This is a quilt that Martha made which still needs the ric rac added.

The range is called At Waters Edge. The giant ric rac is a coffee colour, and goes down the centre piece which is a paisley fabric is the photo. So the quilt will have three strips of ric rac down the front.
I am pretty sure that I don't have any more Ridgecrest photos left...

Hair Ties

2010-06-01T06:30:00.002+10:00

While we were at Ridgecrest, Tracy from Thimblinas also showed Martha & I how easy it was to make these hair elastics. We were amazed & hooked. As soon as I got home, I was on Etsy, and within a few days I had everything here. I have every size, and the girls and I have been making hair ties for themselves and their cousins and their friends ever since.

I cannot believe how quick it is, it literally takes about 2 minutes to make one hair tie. I love how it's so easy, that even the kids can do it, then when the kids have a birthday party, they can make the pressie themselves.

These are just a few the girls made the other day out of the scrap basket.

Paper Bag Swap

2010-05-31T04:35:00.002+10:00

Narromine Club Quilt & Dongara Quilt Group in WA decided to have a swap. Each particpant had a partner. We had to send to our partner, three fat quarters of fabric, one of which had to be suitable to do a stitchery on, some embroidery thread to match, a variety of embellishments, a gift to the value of $5, and our favourite lolly/chocolate. Our partner then had to create a gift for us using some or all of our fabrics, threads and embellishments, and return the finished gift within a timeframe (all going well of course!)

My swap partner, Linda sent me three Christmas fabrics, some silver Christmas tree buttons, some gold bell things, and red thread. My gift was some gorgeous embroidery scissors, (thankyou) and some mint lollies. Below is the gift I created using the fabrics Linda supplied. I did a Santa stitchery wallhanging. I added the Christmas hanger as a gift for Linda. I hope she liked it, and hope that she has received her gift. I will add a photo of the table runner Linda made me soon.

That's all for today,

Amy Butler Quilt

2010-05-30T12:12:00.001+10:00

A good family friend of ours turned 21 in March, and I made her this simple quilt from Amy Bulter fabrics. I chose to just sew large squares together so I wouldn't lose the detail of the great patterns in her fabrics. I used two layers cakes for this quilt, so it's a nice big quilt, filled with wool wadding. I also put a little white peeper before the border and finished with a nice white bind. Jessica loved the quilt...and so did I. I almost kept it for myself, as I just love Amy Butler fabrics, and it came up really well after being quilted.

Maybe I could buy some more and make myself one....no, I don't need any more fabric!!

Ridgecrest Part 4

2010-05-29T14:39:00.006+10:00

On Sunday we were a little sad as our retreat was coming to an end for another year. Martha had some left over Fresh Cut fabric that she was giving away, so I decided to make a table runner similar to Thimblinas. (edit Got the correct link here now!) I love the colours in the Fresh Cut range, (I made a quilt last year from it) they are so bright and cheerful, and look great with the white homespun.

I did the strips not quite wide enough though. The strips were 5.5" x 2" I plan to make another table runner from some different colours, so I can rotate them, so will do the next one wider, probably more like 7" x 1.5", which I am pretty sure are the measurements Thimblina used.

It looks great on the timber coffee table, skinny and all.

Ridgecrest Part 3

2010-05-28T11:38:00.000+10:00

Saturday at Ridgecrest I decided to do a quilt that I had to think a little bit about. I used the range from Tula Pink called Plume. I just love this range, and decided to put it with crisp white Homespun, which I just love. The pattern is a Thimble Blossoms pattern called Wild Things.

Space in our cottage was a little short on so I didn't put the blocks together while I was there, but as soon as it's together I will post a photo. I am so in love with Plume right now, and can't wait to see it all joined together with borders.

More Ridgecrest to come....

MS Fun Run Melbourne

2010-05-27T19:23:00.004+10:00

Just a quick second post for today to let you all know I am running in the MS Fun Run on June 6th in Melbourne to help raise funds for MS research. A good friend of mine Nicole was recently diagnosed with MS and will be travelling with me and three of my children and my sister to run the 5kms. We initially aimed to raise $1000 to help find a cure, in the last month we have raised $5223 and counting! (Mind you, our team is still coming 5th!!)

Here we are selling tickets in a raffle for a quilt that was donated by Nicole sister-in-law.

Our running team is called Nicoles Moles...a long funny story goes with that name, which I wont go into now.....but the moral to this post is...I am after some sponsors from my blogging friends. (Thimblina...thankyou for your generous donations)
I am even going to make it very very very easy for you, all you have to do is click the link here, and donate to me. You will notice that none of the members of Nicoles Moles are named Princess Martha ;-) hehe. So, you would have to click on the chicky named Karri...that would be me, lol. Any donation would be greatly appreciated, no matter how small. Please make sure you leave me a little message and your email address so I can thank you personally.

Thankyou so much, all of us from Nicoles Moles thank you already!

Ridgecrest Part 2

2010-05-27T07:20:00.001+10:00

Hello again,

Martha had been busy at home preparing for the weekend & had her Flying Geese all cut ready to go using left overs from her last quilt.

After getting set up, having our first cup of tea and slice while admiring the view of the dam, Martha set to work on her geese, & within no time, she had finished and was recruiting other ladies for the task of laying out the geese on the bed....I ran for cover! Lol.

Its amazing how many flying geese you need to make a large quilt, so Martha needs to get some more fabric and get sewing to get a good sized quilt from these geese. They looked gorgeous layed out on the bed...just need about another 100 of them...have fun with that Martha, haha.

Back later with Saturdays projects.