I have been working extremely hard at the sewing table to get this quilt done.

I have fabric and supplies sitting in the wings for a few quilts that I am dying to start. But I have been quite strict on myself to finish some WIPs first.

This quilt is the result of my chaletgirl block swap. During the swap I thought that the cream squares were a little boring and compared to other participants, not the best fabric choice. But once together and framed with a simple cream border, I am pleased with the end result.

I also wanted a simple pieced back using mainly stash fabric. The plan was to do the square pieced border and then use the cream fabric all the way to the edges. BUT ….  the shop that I bought it from didn’t have any left and I couldn’t even find a decent match at spotlight.

I ended up using what I had, which was almost enough, but not quite. The patchy Kokka fabric was a gift from Sheridan for my birthday last year.

To make matters worse I did the maths wrong on the initial centre square. Which is why there is a great big strip of taupe at the bottom to make it big enough.

In the pieced border I included a few labels. There are also pieces of fabric from the other participants with their name written next to them.

I had fun being part of this project and I got a great quilt out of it. This quilt is destined as my “doggo” quilt. I plan on taking it to work when I work overnight to keep me warm.

Thanks Sheridan. Good job. I would love to say that I can’t wait to be part of the next one. But I already am!

I am part of another chaletgirl swap – “Around the Block”.
I have always avoided pink fabric.  I have even been trying to ween my little girl off wearing pink clothes.

But when it comes to wanting to make her a quilt that I know she will love – it has to be pink.

I bought a few fat quarters from australian etsy shop freshfabric.

And a few half yards from another etsy seller fabricsupplies.

Basically for the swap you send fabric to all of the other swap members and they make you a block to your specifications.  I haven’t decided what type of block I want yet.  All I know is that it will be pink.

I have already received and sent back two sets so far.
These square blocks were for Kate

and my wonky house on a hill was for Helen.

I was a little worried about making the house.  I think the trick is to make sure that you cut the pieces straight. I had to do a few seams again because they were a little curved.

I made a practice block first which will eventually become a quilted placemat for my little girl,

and of course I had to make one for my little boy too.

This is what is sitting waiting for me to sew.

16 nine patch blocks for chaletgirls block party

an envelop of fabric to create 2 blocks for the around the block swap

1 robot in pieces ready to assemble

1 mailsack cut and ready to interface and sew

And today is the first of two days final training checks at work. I have been training for over 3 months for this new (to me) position. I would be lying if I said no pressure.

edit- just saw the weather and thunderstorms predicted!

I’d rather be sewing.

Another reason that I haven’t been blogging is that if I had 1/2 an hour to spare I prefered to sew than to be on the computer.

I have been making my boy this escaping bugs quilt by Piece by Number (on etsy).  Sheridan and Susie helped me with the bug fabrics and I ended up with a good assortment.

So when I had that little bit of free time, I would make one jar.

When I finished the jars I made a concentrated effort to do one of the critters every other night.

They are all paper pieced.  It was a huge challenge and a big learning curve but the outcome is spectacular.

Once the critters were done putting the quilt together was just using basic sashing and border techniques.

It is probably the most detailed quit that i have done.  It has embroidered embelishemnts and beads on it as well.  I will eventually quilt this myself.  Probably only very basically – like just the bookshelves.

Another time consumer for me recently was redecorating my bedroom. I made sure that I did it before my hubby came home a) as a surprise and b) it gave me full control of how much I spent and what I did.

It didn’t take much to make it look good.

• a new coast of paint on the walls in a nice cool grey white to cover a horrible “butter” cream colour.
• new furniture from ikea – bookcases, drawers and bedside tables. Nothing too expensive just stuff that was smart and simple.
• new linen – sheets, doona cover, cushions and valance

I am very pleased with the outcome. It is simple and plain and now so easy to keep neat and tidy.

My favourite thing so far is a fabric canvas I made with some  Tegan Rose (ink and spindle) birdie (blue wren) fabric.

To add a little more handmade to the room I am going to make an embrooidery hoop picture, inspired by these cushions.

And a bento box quilt using these prints and a navy solid.

Just a few more things for the “to do” list.

I have just finished round 2 of the Chaletgirl block party.  I already have round 3 just waiting to match some of my fabric stash.

Doing this swap did inspire me to organise my scraps. That and I was avoiding studying … you know how it is.

Now I have a container of little scraps,

a bag of long scraps,

and a box of scraps that are “foldable”.



I have fallen in love with some old favourite fabrics all over again.

I bought the taupe. I bought a little of the cream. I thought the cream looked better. But I wasn’t really happy with either because I wanted to buy linen.

Now I have finished the blocks I have to make a decision. Here they are all laid out on the taupe.



I asked for help and got even votes. Which would mean I would have to make a decision. I hate making decisions, I am a typical libra. Now critical decisions like for work, not a problem. But when it comes to something which really, when looking at the big picture – make no difference what-so-ever, then that is my downfall

The taupe or go buy more cream …..



So I ordered some totally different fabric. Some linen/cotton from lincraft online. I picked a colour called flax. I didn’t want white; cream would be too yellow; wheat would be too brown and beige just didn’t do it for me. Flax seemed like a good compromise.

It turned up yesterday and I think it is ok. Here is a picture of all three (cream, flax,taupe) on a white cabinet.



It is browner than the cream and lighter than the taupe and it has a lovely texture. I think I will probably use this for my sashing and keep the taupe for a another project. Maybe.

Last Friday my little girl wanted to go to Movie World with just her daddy. So I bonded with my son at craftfest for a couple of hours on the Gold Coast.

I ran into Susie (yarnplanner) there, though I am not surprised I was lucky to have seen her.

I didn’t buy much, I wasn’t really that inspired by anything (quilting wise) and I certainly didn’t come across anything new. It is pretty hard though to enjoy a craft show with a 2 year old tagging along.

I bought some more bug fabrics for my bug quilt and now I have a really nice collection. Sheridan bought me some recently when she went to the sydney craftfest. This is them all together.  As she said to me “If you weren’t making a bug quilt, what else would you use cockroach fabric for?”

When looking at bugs I found this pretty butterfly fabric. I matched it with a few other fat quarters. I don’t know what I will make with it but they just appealed to me.

I met Prudence Mapstone in her booth and bought a little collection of yarns to give freeform crochet a go. She was a lovely lady and was very tolerant of my little boy.

I was extremely dissapointed that there was only one other wool vendor there – Morris and Sons (aka Tapestry craft). They had a nice range of Noro and Jo Sharp yarns. They also had some beautiful samples made from the the latest Jo Sharp book Knit 7.

I fell in love with this jumper and cardigan. The patterns are gorgeous and the wool is just divine.  They are definitely on my wish list. But only when I can justify spending $120 on wool for a jumper. Maybe if I knit all of my other stash wool then I will spoil myself. I just bought the pattern book instead so I can dream.

I also bought a beautiful shawl pin from them to go with the new crochet cardi that I have just started.

It wasn’t a bad day. But I do miss going with Sheridan. It is just not the same without her.

Oh Franson is up to the sashing on the quilt along.

I made a trip to the fabric shop (aka spotlight and quilt store located next to it) to get my backing, sashing and binding. I remembered to take some scraps of the blue and brown to match for the back. But I neglected to take any of the blocks to match the sashing.

Oh franson did a post awhile ago about using different fabrics for sashing and other areas of the quilt. I decided to leave the quilt area and wandered into the dress fabrics.

I was looking for a linen, or a cotton linen blend. I couldn’t find any and when I asked the staff I was told that it was a summer line. How stupid.

Anyway I found a cotton broadcloth type fabric that has a bit of a grid texture to it. There was a cream and a taupe. The cream would definitely work and the taupe was a little departure from what I would normally buy. Of course I bought the taupe and now I have buyers regret.

Here are some blocks on a little bit of each.  I could always go back and get the cream. What do you think?

And below shows the remainder of my fabric choices with the taupe.  The lighter brown will be the binding and the blue and dark brown is for the back.

I belong to the Australian Swappers group on Ravelry. There is always a few swaps going on. The latest one that I am a part of is the project bag swap.

These are the ones that I made for my swapee. I probably wouldn’t have picked this fabric for myself, but it has sewn up just beautifully. It is from the Andalucia range by Patty Young (she has a great blog and awesome sewing patterns).

They are now headed south and I was sad to see them go.

I made grab bag,

a small zippered notions bag

and what I would like to call a lace project bag.

It is just a simple drawstring bag (the pattern is from Living Creatively) that I put grommets on. I envisage that you put your knitting in the bag then thread your circular needles out through the holes. Then (I hope) that your lace knitting wouldn’t get tangled up with the needles.

I hope she likes them.