A third of my Life...

Yowsers – It’s been 2 weeks since my last post. Work is sucking the life out of me at the moment. As I come closer towards the big 3-0 (gasp) I realised last night that I have been at this company for a THIRD OF MY LIFE. Yes, ONE THIRD. Kinda scary actually.
I’m working late into the night most nights which means no craft time – hence the lack of things to blog about! However, my pattern making course is going really well and I hope to get some serious sewing done this long weekend.

I also have some grand plans for a new project - it's in very early development at the moment, but I'm excited.

For now, I’ll leave you with a picture that makes staying up late to finish presents worthwhile. Remember this quilt? I'm so glad to see that it’s appreciated and loved…

Quilting progress

For a hand sewn quilt, I'm quite happy with my progress actually!! I only have around 15 days before neicephew is due, so i need to get a wriggle on!

I roughly laid the plan out on the floor last night and I like the way it's going to look. The cream squares indicate where the Beatrix Potter "scenes" fabric will go. The "scenes" are gorgeous and are basically taken straight from the books with tales of Tabitha Twitchett, Jemima Puddleduck and others.

The background will be a cream or cream check material to match the alternating diamond in the leMoyne star below.

In the middle of the star I've made a yo-yo with a well-sewn in button from Grandma's stash. The yo-yo protects the button edges so neicephew doesn't pull it off!

I needed the central yo-yo (or Suffolk puff - i think i like this name better!!) as there was a gaping hole in the middle because the template I used was for "folded" machined edges, but I used it for paper piecing instead which meant there were no "points" to match up in the middle

My Creative Space Thursday

Today, for My Creative space I've decided to post my English paper piecing that Amy taught us at Brown Owls, AND the baby quilt I've been working on (as I've missed several "creative space" days!)

Here's my very first paper pieced shape. I still need to remove the pink tacking thread.



I thoroughly enjoyed paper piecing. It's time consuming but you end up with perfect pieces and you it's a "take anywhere" kind of craft. I bought a great jelly roll at the Craft fair, so I think I'm going to use it to make a whole "grandmas garden" quilt done by hand.

Then there's this quilt top that I've finished.


Amy's quilt was my inspiration for this one as I finally let loose with my quilting (rather than having everything perfectly even). It was meant to be for my soon to be niece or nephew but I think it's just too bright for a newborn bubba. So I'm going to finish it and put it away for a while then give it to them when the baby's 1 or 2 and they can use it as a bright floor mat or something. I love it, but when I saw the colours of the room (pale greenish and cream) I decided to change my mind.
Plus they love Peter Rabbit and I found a whole heap of Beatrix Potter fabric at the fair:)


EDIT: I was taught to paper peice by this lovely girl whose tutorial can be found here

IT'S FINISHED!!!!!!

I Promised myself that I'd get this finished before the wedding - and I DID IT!!!! IT's my very first quilt that I've completely finished. I am sooooo proud of myself!

You can see Steve in the background sitting on my sewing table, just watching everything I do.


Ps- I bought a metal quilting foot from eBay and it is soooo much better!! Note to self - never buy plastic sewing feet.

My Creative Space Thursday

My Creative space this week, it filled with tissues, butter-menthols and codral clod and flu!!

I decided to drag myself from the couch to the table yesterday in an attempt to make myself feel a bit better from this nasty cold. As I only have 16 SLEEPS UNTIL THE WEDDING!! (OMG!!) I knew that I had to face my fears and finish this quilt so I can give it to the bub for her christening! I surprised myself and actually did a REALLY good job of machine quilting! I had visions of puckering, gathering, pulled stitches and general disasters, but it's turned out really, really well!!

Well that was until my sewing foot, decided to go a bit wonky and move itself under the needle which meant I sewed through plastic! Once I had done that, the needle continued to gravitate towards that hole and I kept on sewing through the hole. I used my bejeweller hot stick thing to melt that little bit of the plastic away, but it's sewing all wonky now.

Has anyone else ever had this problem?? Is it possible to quilt without this foot?? I only have ONE ROW to finish!!! I'm soo frustrated!!

Onto more frustration......because of my lurgy filled body, I had to say No to the Brown Owls meet last night. I was soo sad because I had been looking forward to it since the last one! Anyway, they were learning to crochet, so I decided to try it for myself.

I definitely haven't done it correctly though, because all my corners rounded themselves up.

So, it's now become a raspberry beret for my beloved Blythe

This is a great game, thanks Kirsty! If you want to play, hop on over here!

Quilt nearly done...

Well the top is done, and I've pinned it all together and I will start quilting it tonight! I’m a bit nervous as this the first proper quilt I’ve done. I’ve been doing a bit of practise on some scraps so I’m hoping it all works!!
The baby is being christened just after our wedding so I want to be able to give it to them before we go on our honeymoon.

New Quilt

From the Queen of starting things and not finishing them, comes ANOTHER QUILT!!!!!!


These fabrics will be used in a new baby cot quilt for peanut (my soon to be niece/nephew). As we don’t know what it’s going to be I’ve decided to make it in bright yellows, greens, aqua and purpley pink. I think it’s going to look quite funky.

It’s going to be a wonky log cabin, as I was totally inspired by the ones that Amy @ Badskirt made. The monkey is fussy cut from a piece of material that has all wind up toys. So I'll pick each toy and make it the centre of the square.

I'm really excited about this one as it's different to what I've done before. And I am promising myself that I will finish it in ONE MONTH. Dear readers, please chase me up and make sure I get this one done in my timeframe!!!!

As for not finishing my other projects....
I can finish the corners of this quilt now that I have some cute fabric,
And I'm going to take this quilt to MO (as mentioned in the previous post)

A quilting we will go....

Slow but good progress with the quilt for a friends baby. The bub is now 3 months old now, so based on my progress, she'll be in year one by the time i finish it!!

Nah, I hope i get it done within the next month - before manic wedding stress kicks in!! (not that Mr Honi or I have been one bit stressed with the planning so far. It has been surprisingly calm and easy!!)

I'm going to put pictures in each of the four corners.

Easy as A..B...C

Well actually, it was super time consuming to cut out 52 letters and score them all in preparation for the 2 baby quilts.

Now I just have to sew them all onto the white backing and quilt them. One little bub has arrived 10 weeks early (and doing very well) so I need to start sewing super fast so I can give it to his mum and dad!

This is the aftermath on the lounge and coffee table. I think Mr Honi is quite sick of my nightly tracing and cutting ritual, and the continual "little bits of thread and fabric" strewn all over the carpet...

Babies Quilt

Two very close friends are having babies at the end of this year, so I have decided to make them each and alphabet quilts.


These are the letters that I made this weekend.
And this is a mock up - but I won't be using this material - i just wanted to see how it would all look.

and this is a close-up of the quilting. I just used a swirly pattern. I didn't draw it out. I just moved it around the sewing machine filling in all the spaces.

One girl knows what she's having, and the other one doesn't. I'm not too sure what the colour schemes are in their baby rooms, so I was thinking of simply having a white background, and then rainbow coloured letters. This quilt from "Last Minute Patchwork and quilted gifts" book gave me inspiration.


I REALLY want that book - and I got REALLY annoyed the other day at Borders. They said they had one in store but it was no-where to be found. It really bugs me when people can't put things back in the right places!!