It's here, It's here!!

This year I joined up to participate in Khris's FRIEND'S swap and I had a blast! I was partnered up with Sue Stubbings and boy oh boy was I spoilt!!

The following pic is what I sent to her

F- Four fat quarters
R- Ribbon
I- Indulgence, aromatherapy bath crystals
E- Eight DMC threads, rainbow colours
N- Notions, quilting pins,Embroidery needles,seam ripper, thimble,tape measure and a pair of embroidery scissors
D- Delicious Treats,Whitmans chocolate and some chocolate coated frogs
S- Sewing Stuff, A teapot pin cushion and a sewing caddy

 Now for a close up of the teapot and sewing caddy

There is a total of 9 pockets in this

Now to tell you all about the goodies that I received from Sue...where oh where do I start??

F- Fabric,by Denyse Schmidt

R- Rug for a mug

I- Indulgence, lemon hand cream and nail files

E- Elephant Bookmark (all the way from Thailand) and linen embroidery thread

A close up of the elephant

N-Neck Warmer (it really does warm the neck)

D- Delights, handmade honeycomb and Lindt chocolates

S- Sewing Stuff and Inspiration, pin cushion, small stitchery and Quilt Mania Children's Edition 2012 

I told you I was spoilt!
Thanks ever sew much Sue I love all of it!
Thank you Khris for hosting this fun swap.

Finally...

Going back some time I entered a Quilting Mumma's first swap, which was a mug rug swap. Well I have finally received my mug rug. My swap partner Jasmine ended up making me two because the first one got swallowed up by Australia Post :(

This was a delight to wake up to :)


Do you want to know what is inside it???.......


Okay I will show you, cos I am so nice and all!!

Not only did Jasmine make me a mug rug she made me a very delightful zippered pouch, which I must say is gorgeous. Did you know that the butterfly is a symbol of happiness...may there be many butterflies flying around us all.


Well that's me for now cos I have another swap to get finalised and that is the friend's swap that is being hosted by Khristina over at http://sewprimkhris.blogspot.com.au/.

Another swap completed and my sister's 40th

I participated in a Handmade Swap that was held through a facebook group called Quilt Club Australia. The object behind this one was to make your secret swap partner something that she/he would like. You were given their colour choices and their blog if they had one so you could secretly stalk them to try and work out what "something" you could make them that they could really use.


My allocated secret swap partner was Gemma Jackson and the only clues that I was given werethe colours blue and red and that she would like a pin cushion or sewing caddy. I for one was not sure what sort of sewing caddy she would like, so I then had to scour her blog at  www.prettybobbins.blogspot.com to do some research. I dithered between a hand sewing caddy and a sewing machine caddy.

I made both, below is the hand sewing caddy

I was not sure if this is what she wanted and I wasn't sure if it was good enough either??


So then I made this

I decided after much thought to send her the Sewing Machine Caddy and a Sewing Machine Pin Cushion


Moving onto the wonderful goodies I received from my secret swap partner who was not the same person I sent to


Beverly Roberts...I felt so spoilt :)

Beverly made me this awesome tote bag and she threw in a couple of pot holders (that she purchased) and a tea towel.


I have to tell you about my sister's 40th that I have been secretly organising for the last few month's. I really love my big sis, she means the world to me!!


I wanted to make her something that she could use as a memento of her big day and Nomes suggested I make her siggy block quilt/wall hanging, I immediately thought that was the idea that I was looking for. 
I knew that my sister's favourite colour was blue so for the next couple of month's I collected some more blue fabric (cos I am rather fond it also), in total I ended up with 27 different blue fabrics.
The quilt was made up of 30, 7 inch siggy blocks, the 4 corner ones my mum embroidered a beautiful tiger on them

The end result 

My sis had no knowledge that there was a party of people waiting for her to show up. When I saw her face I knew that all the blood, sweat and tears that went into organising her surprise party was well worth it.


After everyone had signed the quilt I had a couple of blanks squares left over so I have a couple small details left to do on it and one is to put a hand print of my sister's god daughter on it and get creative with the other one. I am so proud of me...pats myself on the back :)


Hugs

The Rescue Begins...

I have decided that I will be saving my quilt!


I have been working very hard on it over the last few days quilting the border so I can bind it and wash it, then I will be able to finish the rest of it with the knowledge that it won't fall apart.


Please be kind with your comments about how the bad the quilting is, I am a bit rusty and this quilt is so big it is making my machine look like a toy.
Here are some pics of what the quilting looks like so far...

This is the first border complete

All the small hearts in the sashing are hand quilted

The hearts on the blocks are also hand quilted

Now I need to concentrate on the last two borders, I am so excited to see it come together after seeing it lay around for so long.


I will update again when it has been bound.


Hugs 

To Save Or To Bin???

Do I save this quilt???

I started this about 10 odd years ago.


It was supposed to be finished for our first wedding anniversary back in 2004. This quilt has moved house three times. While we were in Whyalla I didn't have a lot of storage space so I stored it under the bed wrapped in an old doona cover. Well my puppy thought it would be a good place for her own personal toilet...grrr!! So it is in very desperate need of TLC (tender loving care)it has gotten very bedraggled around the outside where the excess batting is,as you can see at the bottom of the picture above.


While my mum and I were sandwiching it we noticed a problem with the border. For some reason, the borders don't want to sit flat... kind of reminds me of ruffle. At this point we had already pinned and basted the baulk of it. An executive decision  made that we continue and that I would quilt it as far the borders and then work out what the problem is and how best to fix it.


So far I have stitched in the ditch both horizontally and vertically. 
I have hand quilted around half of the hearts, with a little less than half to go.


So I ask do I save it or do I bin it????


Any and all advice will be appreciated.


Desperate quilter needing advice

May's BOM for Aussie Hero Quilts..

This month's BOM for Aussie Hero's Quilts is the Hot Crossed Nine Patch, I made six for this month's and this what they look like

All Six

I get such a warm fuzzy feeling from reading the email's that Jan Maree receives it makes it worth while. I thank Naomi for giving me the details for Aussie Hero Quilts cos without her mentioning it to me I would never of known about all the amazing work that  Jan Maree and her angels do. For myself I wouldn't get the warm tingly feeling that comes from reading the comment's and email's that Jan Maree gets from our soldiers and knowing that I was a small part in that gives me a confidence boost. So I say to all  "give it a go", cos you just never know what it could mean for our soldiers that receive them.

Until next time


Hugs

Happy Mothers Day...

It has been and gone for  another year but it won't be forgotten.


I made my mum some handy pieces for her use,good job she has a crafty soul like most of us here in cyber space.


Below are a couple of pics of the carry all tote bag, needle keeper and Note book...which she loves very much, it didn't take her long to transfer her projects from her go green shopping bag to her new carry all.

The Three Of Them

The Outside

The Inside

If memory serves mum's bag has about eight pockets on the outside  and about six pockets on the inside...she should never (with any luck) lose anything again!

Needle Keeper

Notebook Outside

Inside

I was spoilt by my lovely children...they got together and made me a very unique card...it is a bird cage with a card hanging inside of it from a stick


They made it out of Ty wire,solder,cardboard and a random stick from the backyard then they decorated it with paper flowers using brads as the centres of the flowers. The front of the card has a stamped bird on it and the inside reads "Mum, wishing you a lovely relaxing Mother's Day. Lot's of love K, S and D"

Check the heart on top!

My card

I also had a very delicious dinner cooked for me and my parents, the menu was Chicken Schnitzel Parmigiana and Chocolate Bavarian Cheesecake for dessert...if that wasn't enough my lovely daughter also cleaned up the kitchen for me. I ask you how lucky am I? 


I hope all you Mum's here in cyber space had a very enjoyable day and got spoilt like I did.

Hugs