Just Showing Off......

I received a phone call from Chookyblue this evening telling me to get onto my blog as she had something to show me that I didn't have? How did she know?? What was she talking about? She sent me the link/address to add a signature to my blog..... Isn't she clever? I've added and fiddled with it a bit myself and just love it...... She may have missed her calling..... I had better watch out, she may have sent the bill in the mail. LOL !!! I'll try and add some sewing over the weekend....... Have a great weekend.

Enjoy Sewing Dragonfly-Crafts

Great blogging tip

I've recently found this wonderful blog, Leni & Rose. Today I dropped in and found that Michelle has posted a great tip for all us bloggers. You can find out, via google, who is/has linked your blog on their blog. You can even sign up for an email to alert you of this. What a great idea for all us sticky beaks out there and so we can see who follows our blogs if you don't already know.

He loved it......xx

I finally finished the label for my Dad's Shaggy Quilt and delivered it this afternoon.

3 weeks late but who's counting.

We arrived to find Dad curled up on the lounge with last years birthday present, one of my fabulous quillows. Oops, it was late too......
Well, he loved it. He loved the label, He loved the quilt and it matches with his lounges too. We laid it on top of the quillow and this is where we left him. Snuggled with his quillow & quilt.
Dad you have a heater.....

Thank you to everyone for your previous kind comments about this quilt.
It was so nice when my Dad praised me on ALL my wonderful sewing.
My Mum would have been so proud of me too.
The only daughter who didn't do sewing as an elective in High School.
Now this is why I love to sew xx

Handbag Organiser

I got to use some more of my beautiful Amy Butler fabrics today at Club Quilt. I whipped up these easy little Handbag Organisers. I got the idea from this great Mother/Daughter team. I used this easy to follow pattern from The Giving Flower. I've managed to get a few made. I've joined a few fabrics together to get the length. The one below is my first one and it's all mine. I've got it in my handbag already......
Thank you to everyone for your previous kind comments. I've nearly finished attaching the label to my Dad's quilt and the bandaid is off my finger and it is getting better. I do receive a few "non-reply" bloggers, particularly Kellie??? She doesn't have a blog but is a regular commenter on my blog. Kellie could you let me know your email address so I can reply to your regular lovely comments. Hugs Fiona

Sewing with Amy Butler

Well her fabrics anyway....... Gaizie made a mat for her sewing machine last weekend and I copied some measurement then made one myself one using the gorgeous Amy Butler fabrics I received recently from Coryn. I wanted to make something for myself that I would see everyday and enjoy these beautiful fabrics. This was the ideal project...... Details of the pockets.


Junie Moon has also made one recently.... and has added some links for the pattern if your interested.

It was also such a lovely Autumn day today, we decided to take out puppy dog to our local Leash-Free park. Our dog can't go leash-free as he runs away and doesn't come back.

Max didn't quite get the gist of it all

Doesn't help when Mummy treads on you....

There was another fenced off section that we took him to and let him go "leash-free" he loved it and followed us anyway.

We will certainly try this again.

ps. That is a car wash in the background. We also washed our car and this car wash ran hot all day.

Shaggy Quilt Completed

I can't say Shaggy Quilts have ever been a favourite of mine but now that I've made one and a flannel one, I think they could become my new favourite.

I love the flannel and the colours are so bright.

Quick and Easy after all the preparation.

Binding on but hasn't been washed to shag it
Washed and washed and scrubbed and washed.

I have a front loading washing machine so it was a bit too gentle on my shags.
Now all I have to do is add a label and give it to my wonderful Dad.

More Ridgecrest Photos......

Look at these busy ladies. There were photos of everyone but my camera had a glitch and I lost some......

Just some of the many projects that were created, started or finished on the weekend. It was so nice to see how everyone had all their UFO's out to finish. We won't mention how old some peoples were.......

Our Peg was on a roll with these great charm pack quilts. Peg also finished Rosalie Quinlan's Rebekah Amy's Quilt. It is just beautiful. (Bottom Left Picture)

I'm sure there will be so many more photos over at Club Quilt blog, Happy in Quilting & Day Days & Gaizie's blogs too.

Quilting is a dangerous hobby.....

Well it is for me...... This is what happens when you put a new blade in your rotary cutter. Thank you to Doctor Carolyn for patching me up. I had a couple of pain killers and back to finish making this quilt. Inspired by this quilt from this book. This is another one of my pj flannel quilts. It will be backed with polar fleece fabric and the binding will be red. Back to that soon. The pattern didn't include a border but I felt mine was a bit busy and needed the border to frame it and to make it a bit bigger.

I finished putting the border around my Moda Spring Fling quilt.

That was all my projects from the weekend. I thought I would get more done but it's amazing how much time they all take. We did stop to eat and sleep - sometimes.

Thank you to the Club Quilt ladies for the most enjoyable weekend. We are booked again for next year. Count me in for sure. xx

Ridgecrest Sewing Retreat

This was our wonderful little house for two or three night, depending how long you stayed. There was not a shortage of food and this was just our morning & afternoon teas. Lunch & Dinner were provided.
Here we all are, hard at work, busy making our beautiful quilts.
This was my first project for the weekend.

Flannel Shaggy Quilt for my Dad's late 70th Birthday present.

I'll be back with more beautiful photos of quilts and scenery.
Now I must get to bad to my day job.

Cheaper Alternative - Quilting Gloves

I bought this magazine the other day with a free DVD in it about machine quilting. I started watching it and realised that she was just using some Ansell HyFlex rubber gloves. I took note of the name and couldn't believe it when I found them at my local supermarket yesterday.

They were only $4.00. Now don't get me wrong, I don't buy everything cheap and nasty but I thought if this professional quilter uses them then I'll give them a try. They come in all different colours, the Club Quilt ladies were saying how their white gloves got fithy so I thought I get black. Hope they don't mark the quilt. I'll let you know how they go.

Change is as good as a holiday......

Isn't that what they say..... God knows I can't get away for a holiday. Girlie weekends away is all I can manage at the moment.

So what does a girl do you may ask? She gets a new do! Of course.

I went to the hair dressers before going away to Nundle but there has been no time to show "me" off. I did however send the girls I was meeting a sneak peak as I thought they may not recognise me. My hair needed a good 3" taken off and then my hairdresser wanted to give it a rest from the bleeching...... So Brown with Red streaks is what I ended up with.

BEFORE

AFTER

Yes I'm having trouble trying to straighten it all the time but it then lasts a few days. I've got to train that fringe (bangs) to go to the side now...... That's trendy..... Apparently....

Happy Mother's Day.......xx

My day started on my own as my kids slept in...... That was ok as I had lots of fabric cutting to do. I was given two beautiful presents from my gorgeous children. I will not share the photos of me in my pj's, no hair done, no mascara......

My presents were my very own design layout sheet like Club Quilt use here. My son gave me the money to grab it myself. (And he wanted the change back)

My daughter gave me this lovely De Lorenzo pack. Shampoo, Conditioner & Brush that comes in this great carry bag. Of course she got me the PURPLE pack. Yes girls this is the surprise I spoiled on her. (Short story - I found that she spent money and made her tell me what it was for) Oops.....Then it was off to the cemetry with our beautiful bunch of flowers for my MUM xx. Gosh flowers are expensive.....

The kids then caught up with their Spare (Step) Mum and I received this lovely present too. Great hat box (I'll put my latest quilting project in it) Cadbury Roses Chocolates and a tea towel their half brother made at his preschool.

While the kids were visiting there and their paternal Grandmother, I slipped out to Club Quilt to swap the Round Robin. I can't show you my latest addition as I think the recipient may be a lurker but I can show you just the part I added. I used a few of those gorgeous Amy Butler Fabrics.

Of course our Mum's weren't forgotten about at Club Quilt either. A present of chocolates wrapped in this gorgeous fabric.

I've been madly cutting up more flannel pj's for more quilts. This is the next one in progress. The keyhole pattern from my previous post. So much more cutting to do before I go to bed.

I hope everyone else had a lovely Mother's Day too or just a great weekend for all you Mum's in the Northern Hemisphere. xx

What I heard at work Today.....

Kellie, started a new topic on her blog so after my day at my "real" job yesterday I thought I could join in. I hear lots of things but I can't repeat them on my blog, I work with guys.

There was one thing that happened that I can share.

I received a call from a guy who was desperate to get a window repaired for his mate before he got home that afternoon as he was drunk the night before and broke it.

He had tried a lot of places around town that wouldn't help so I felt sorry for the guy and advised that I would see what we could do and ring him back.

After working out that we had time to fix it today, I rang him back on the landline.

F = "Hello Tim?"

T = "Yes!"

F = "It's Fiona from **** about the broken window"

pause

T = "How did you get this number"

F = "Errr you just gave it to me 5 minutes ago"????

T = "Oh, I thought I gave you my mobile number"

F = "No, you checked on your mobile for your mates home number"

derrrrrrr (He was still a bit drunk from last night - or drunk AGAIN)

F = "We can come around to fix that window, now I'll just check the address again"

T = " ** Baird Drive, Flat"

pause

I hear a door open

T = "Flat 4"

Tim had forgotten the number and had to open the door to check what was on the front door.

LOL !!!!!!

This cracked us up for the day.........

Good ole' Tim offered the guys extra money for coming out.

I told our guys that it should be my money, they said "No, we gave Tim your number for a date tonight"

Gosh I've got great friends at work...... NOT! (Don't panic, they didn't)

Thanks for getting to the end of my random post xx

It's Mother's day here tomorrow so I'll have more tomorrow night.

Amy Butler Fabrics & Homespun Magazine

Look what arrived in the mail today..... I love my postwoman, if there are parcels that are too big for my mail box, she puts them in a larger mail box I have so I don't have to go back to the post office.

This huge parcel of Amy Butler fabrics arrived from my dear friend Coryn again. She is putting an Amy Butler fabric quilt together and these are some of her leftovers. They are just gorgeous.

She also added some great quilt pictures for inspiration..... I can't wait to make something from these.

I am cutting up all my Flannel PJ's from yesterdays purchases as they were all washed and dried today. Not sure what pattern I'll make yet.

I picked up the latest addition of Homespun today and look who is featured. Leanne Beasley WOW! There is also a great quilt pattern Autumn Leaf Flurry by Brenda Smith of Serendipity Patchwork & Quilting featuring Keyhole Blocks. This is something I could use for all my flannel scraps. So much to look at. Goodnight, I'm off to bed with it now.

Purchases from Nundle & Elsewhere.....

The photo above is flannel fabric for my Dad's shaggy quilt, Thanks to Jodie for finding a second lovely Singer sewing tin or I was going to have a huge cat fight with her to get hers off her, height has it's advantages......LOL ! The smaller tin contains four reels of cotton.
Boiled lollies and lollypops for the kids....... God knows they wouldn't like it if I bought fabric home for them..... Bonus, I get to eat them too.
This last photo is one of the generous prizes Kerry organisedon the weekend. A lovely Moda Homewares carry bag & purse with a diary as well.
Then I ducked into an op-shop that is not opened on weekends and look what I found. These great flannelette pyjamas for another quilt. I'd like to make a couple so this might be enough. They are in the wash now, so I'll take some closeup photos later.

This next photo is some great fabrics I bought online. Very cheap for 4 x fat quarters, just for my stash.

It never ceases to amaze me, the generousity of bloggers around the world. Daisy Chain was cleaning up her sewing room/fabrics and found this fabric and of course thought of me. I will have to look at putting a quilt together using all my different dragonfly fabrics. I don't have any of this one.