N'yeeehh ... What's up Doc?

Will be making this pattern ... and other patterns .... available for sale at YouPatch very soon.

Fancy stitching an easter bunny?

Andi xx

PS Linking up with Kirsty's "My Creative Space" today.

Gifts!!

I had a birthday recently. My husband is not so great at selecting a good gift for me so now I send him suggestions of things I might like.

I have wanted an extension table for my sewing machine for a while now but wasn't expecting anything quite this big ...

Nothing that can't be managed with a bit of room re-organising!! I do love it muchly!! Thank you my love xxx

Can you see what I'm sewing on there? Another gift!! A baby quilt in Dr Seuss fabrics for Webmaster John's new baby boy, due in a couple of weeks.

And here it is all finished and ready to be given :-)

Another act of giving I'm participating in is a signature quilt block for Victoria. Her quilt is going to be so much fun once it's finished!!!

Have you received or given any gifts lately? Maybe a Valentines Day gift?

Happy stitching!

Andi xx

YouPatch is live in 5 ... 4 ... 3 ...

2 ..... 1!!!!

We are live and couldn't be more excited!!

Head over to www.youpatch.com and have a play.

Please let me know what you think of the site, the video tutorials, the design pages. I'd be incredibly grateful.

It would be especially awesome if you told us about any bugs or problems you experience with the site. That way, we can go and fix them!!

Andi xx

PS We have a special discount offer for the first few days. Go check it out!!

PPS YouPatch works best on up-to-date versions of major web-browsers: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, even Internet Explorer! YouPatch also works quite well on your iPad, iPhone, and many Android phones and tablets, but some of the fine editing may be tricky. [We're working on it!]

Bug reports most welcome: it's early days!

PPPS Feel free to blog/tweet/post about this. The more we can share it, the more pixel quilt love we can spread! ;-)

PPPPS Eep!! Very excited!!!!!

A friend in need ...

When my dear friend Judy discovered that she would be needing a bone marrow transplant it was a VERY big deal. This procedure involves a worldwide search for a suitable donor (found!!), an intense period of chemotherapy (and all the nasties that go with that) and then a period of weeks (if not months) in the hospital for the transplant and aftercare.

While Judy lives in Melbourne, most of her family are in Sydney. So she has developed a network of friends in Melbourne via her crafting world and through her work as a teacher.

Judy didn't want to spend all that time in hospital without some connection to her friends and crafting community. So she asked a group of close friends to contribute a block towards a quilt that will be laid over her hospital bed to keep her warm and comforted.

Here it is .... all pieced and quilted. The binding is attached on the front and Judy plans to hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt herself.

We selected a floral quilting design for Judy who loves her garden. The long-arm quilter (Kylie Cannon) did a beautiful job!

You can really see the quilting design on the back of the quilt which is a Michael Miller ta-dot in watermelon and grey.

I'm so glad Judy will have her quilt with her during this tricky time in hospital. She won't be able to have too many visitors while her immune system is so compromised so at least she will have her friends 'with her' in the form of this gorgeous friendship quilt.

Have you been involved in contributing to a friendship quilt? Have you been lucky enough to receive one yourself? Such a wonderful way to say "we love you!"

Happy stitching.

I'll be back on Tuesday with BIG news!!!!

Andi xx 

Thanks for the inspiration Amy!!

Recently, the lovely Amy posted this blog post about a gorgeous vintage fabric shop not terribly far from where I live. Isn't it always the way that visitors to your part of the world tend to see so much more of the great places around your home!!

Well, I realised that I would be spending the Australia Day long weekend extremely close to where this gorgeous shop is located and I made a point of heading over to visit. I wasn't disappointed!!

It was an absolute treasure trove of fabric goodness!! If you are in the neighbourhood, do yourself a favour and go visit! Jen is lovely and very accommodating! If you simply can't get there, the online shop and blog are worth visiting too!!

Now, on to other news ...... I know I have been rather absent from this space for a few weeks now and I have some excellent excuses:

• My kids have been on summer holidays which has meant much less "screen time" for me!!
• Any available screen time has been consumed by final tweakings of our new website. Will be launching extremely soon. Much rejoycing!!
• The dog ate my blog post!

Hoping to be much more present in the coming weeks and months.

Happy stitching!

Andi xx

A rather huge finish ... and a birthday boy!!

Many months ago I was on Craft Camp with my crafty besties and Lisa was doing a new craft ... needlepoint! This is a craft I have often thought of as very Nanna-ish but ...knowing what I know about quilting ... how it is perceived and how funky it can actually be .... I knew not to let my preconceptions spoil a perfectly good crafting opportunity.

Sure enough, Lisa was making a cushion cover with a very funky pop-art-ish image of a favourite comedian and it was going to be AWESOME!!

"I can do that", I thought. Next thing I was sending images to Lisa to pixelate for me (this was pre-YouPatch) and buying my supplies. I thought it would be an easy and quick project. I was so wrong!! It was indeed challenging .... and took a VERY long time. The background was particularly tedious as it was highly repetitive and BORING!!!

But I persisted and managed to finish in time for my Jake's 10th birthday. Here 'tis ...

46,656 stitches later ..... I'm very pleased with it but delighted that it is finished and I can focus on other crafts for a while.

In the meantime, happiest of birthdays to my ten-year-old, happy, smart, inquisitive, caring, delicious boy. We love you very much. xxxx

Happy stitchin'
Andi xx