Sew It Together

Saturday was BIG fun for me!!!

Cindy and Sophie picked me up at 8:15am. ("Bye kids!" "Bye Mummy". Dash out the front door before someone starts crying). Picked up Tanya and headed off to town for a lovely day of crafting.

Row 1 (L-R): Abbe & Julie; Bec; Cass and me; Corrie; Fi and Bianca
Row 2 (L-R): Gypsy & Liesl; Holly; Jodie; Karen; Me &Cindy
Row 3 (L-R): Nikki & Lara; Jodie, Trash & Fi; Nikki, Cam & Cathy, Sheridan & me; Tanya

60 of us gathered and stitched and chatted and laughed and generally had a lovely time.

I joined in with Cass's sample swap and, in addition to the gorgeous items I received in the swap, I picked up so many lovely bits and pieces from the many fabulous sponsors.
I am truly a lucky girl!!

In addition to meeting lots of new people and having a very fun time, I was a woman on a mission on Saturday. I arrived with all my raw materials (fabric pre-cut) to make a quilt and I was determined to finish it within the day.

And I did!!!
Using vintage sheets (thanks again Kate) and some beautifully soft linen, I pieced the quilt top ...

... used another vintage sheet for the backing ...

... did some straight line quilting ....

... and bound it with some solid pink Kona cotton.

All in one day!!
Very proud of myself.

After stitching the final stitches, I was able to relax a bit and do some more chatting, meeting and greeting.

Then up to Gypsy and Liesl's hotel room for more gossiping and stitching (Gypsy finished her first quilt top on Saturday. Hooray!!!) and on to the dinner where this non-drinking girl had a pina-colada and a lot of fun!!

Thanks so much Sheridan for organising this fabulous event.
Please put my name down for next year's event in Sydney. I'm stitching my bells on as we speak!!


Andi :-)

World's easiest softie!

So I went to Stitches and Craft in Melbourne last Friday.
I spent most of my time chatting with lots of other lovely bloggers and spending a MASSIVE amount of money on new fabric and other 'stuff'.
Thank you to Jodie for helping me to store the rather heavy loot bag while I continued to shop.

Wouldn't you know it, I completely neglected to take any photos but you can check out the action here, here and here!

Anyway, my daughter has a party to go to tomorrow (while I'm hanging out here) and I needed a quick gift.
Then I remembered these gorgeous panels (by Lisa at The Red Thread) that I bought last Friday.

Less than 15 minutes later, I had this:

Backed with some pretty red vintage flower fabric:

I think it will be very happily received.

In other loot news, I also bought some cushion panels from the lovely Lara at Ink & Spindle and here are my new-look living room cushions:

Craft makes me happy!!


Andi :-)

Only 2 more sleeps!!

I am rather excited about Saturday's Sew It Together aussie-bloggy-crafty-meet-up organised by this fabulous chick!

I have my name tag, courtesy of the fabulous Ms Curly Pop herself!!

In addition, Cam popped in the parcel a sunglasses case I had spied on her blog and simply HAD to buy!

Thanks Cam. I might be the funkiest name tagged (and glasses wearing) belle at the ball!!!

And ... because I'm a complete sucker ... I joined in with Cass's sample swap that will be happening at the event and have made these ...

They're only little but I hope will be enjoyed by the recipients.

Hope to see you there!!!
If you will be there and we have chatted in blog-land but not in real life, please come over and say 'hi'. I'll try and do the same. I'm crap at names and might only know you by your blog name but it will be fun trying to put faces and names to blogs and much admired projects.

Counting down!!

Andi :-)

Let your hair hang down!

I haven't been able to stop singing this song while making this quilt for little Edi (rhymes with Evie).
(Those of you who didn't grow up in Australia might not recognise the song but it's an absolute Aussie classic!!)

I chose the Kona solid fabrics using my handy colour card that I won over at Lorraine's place.
Thanks so much Lorraine. I'm sure it will come in handy for many a future shopping trip!!

Picture taken from Lorraine's blog

The front features Heather Ross's 'Princess and the Pea' fabric together with a couple of her other delightful prints.

Also included are some of my other favourite fabric designers including Denyse Schmidt, Anna Maria Horner, Prints Charming, Valori Wells and, of course, Jennifer Paganelli.

I used Jess's binding technique which is the same as Rita's approach up until sewing the binding down on the back.
At that point, Jess flips the quilt over so she can actually see what she's sewing at the back and uses invisible thread in the bobbin.
Brilliant!!!!
 

                                        
I really enjoyed making this little quilt. I hope the new owners enjoy it too!!!!

Andi :-)

Pay it forward

I have finally sent off all 9 'Pay-it-forward' gifts.

One of them was given a little earlier than the others as it accompanied a birthday present back in March.
Kate is a lover of both horses and pincushions so I made her this to add to her growing collection.

In addition, she received her PIF gift ...

A covered notebook with a tiny hand-stitched hexagon flower as embellishment.

The remaining 8 were sent off last week.

Each with a matching notecard.

I hope they are enjoyed by their recipients and I look forward to hearing about their own PIF's.

In other PIF news, I received a gorgeous bag from Kerri a while back and it has taken me an age to post about it.

I

Image taken from Kerri's blog

Thanks so much Kerri.. 

I love it and hope you are continuing to have a wonderful family holiday!

Hope you all have a great week.

Andi :-)

Beehive - May

This month Julie requested modern log-cabin style blocks with extra 'surprises' in the logs.

Having the flexibility of adding splashes of colour within the logs enabled me to be a complete tight-arse with the fabric and I hardly wasted any fabric at all.

 I love the collection of fabrics she sent. I must find out what that green is. (Maybe a Kaffe shot cotton???).
I must have some!!!

Hope you like them Julie.

In other news, I am COMPLETELY behind with a whole lot of posts I have been meaning to do and will try to get to them in the coming week or so.

I'm off to Stitches and Craft on Friday. Wheeeee!!!!
See you there?


Andi :-)