A win & a Community Quilts activity

Hi everyone. I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend & those of you living in Perth & surrounds are getting some quilting/stitching done indoors where it is not wet & cold!

As promised, here is a pic of the beautiful hand-dyed fabrics I won in the door prize at our monthly WAQA sewing day a couple of weeks ago. All the pieces are roughly 10" square. I love them as they are so bright and colourful. Now I just have to work out what to use them in.

We were also invited to create a crazy patchwork Christmas placemat as this month's WAQA Community Quilts activity, rather than creating a quilt block. I am the first to admit I am not very good at crazy patchwork but I am reasonably happy with the outcome and would probably have another go at it one day. The placemats will be given to elderly people in aged care facilities to help brighten their festive meals through the Christmas season.

Unfortunately I have been fighting what seems to be the flu for the last few days, so there has not been much progress on any of my other projects. I did, however, pull out all my kids prints and solids to start getting ready to make Miss M a patchwork song bag. Cutting will commence tomorrow if all goes to plan.

Hopefully I will be feeling 100% by the end of the week so I can really enjoy the Claremont craft fair! Caroline Sharkey is the guest artist & I am soooo looking forward to meeting her.

Have a fantastic week everyone.

Cheers,
Tracy

FNSI and a fat quarter

Well, for all my excitement at a night of stitching I actually didn't get a huge amount done. First we decided to go out for dinner. Then I decided it was high time to work on getting Miss M to sleep through the night. This meant a long night ahead so I knew I needed to get to bed early.

As a result, all I completed was the 3 words stitched on the bottom of this quote.

If you are getting a little de ja vu, you may have see my earlier post about this project. I have already made it once, although the wall hanging is not quite ready for show and tell. I loved it so much that I decided to make the pattern up into a cushion for my niece who is at boarding school, for her birthday. Once finished, I'll post both pics.



I also have to share a beautiful little fat quarter I picked up from The Quilt Fairy at our WAQA sewing night this week. It's gorgeous.

In my next post I'll show you how lucky I was at the WAQA sewing day! I won a beautiful pack of hand-dyed fabrics in the door prize.

Hope you all enjoyed FNSI. To see what everyone else got up to, check out Wendy's blog here.

Happy stitching,
Tracy

Awesome Free Pattern

I've been doing some web browsing - Quilty free videos, fabric stores etc. - and came across this gorgeous free pattern at the Moda Bake Shop.

Here's a link to the pattern, designed by Heather Kojan Quilts, if you're interested - Peppermint Swirl Christmas Tree Skirt

Happy quilting,
Tracy

Projects & Holidays

Wow, I can't believe a month has gone by since my last full post. It was a frantic month but that's not unusual around here.

Our annual pilgrimage to Marble Bar was brought forward a week unexpectedly but luckily I was able to give my friend, Suzanne, her quilt before we left. She loved it. I was also able to finish my contribution to my embroidery group's entry in the Embroiderer's Guild of WA 2014 exhibition. It was close, but I managed it!

The theme of the piece is embroidery through time with each participating group member creating or recreating a clock in embroidery. My piece was a recreation of a rock clock, made from a piece of Pilbara rock, by a very close family friend that was given to me for a birthday present. It has no hands as it is going in the centre of the piece.

Unfortunately the pic doesn't really do it justice. However, if you would like to see the piece in person the details of the exhibition can be found on the Guild's website here.



We had a wonderful week in Marble Bar once we got there (it was a 1 1/2 day car trip). Miss M absolutely loved getting down and dirty, and playing on the tractor, 4 wheelers and other vehicles.

Driving the tractor with Dad - so much fun!

I started a novel and read Gloria Loughman's book 'Illuminated Landscapes'. Now I'm all inspired to play with threads, fabric and stitches to create a quilted Pilbara landscape. So I also spent a fair bit of time taking photos of the landscape, at different times of the day, to help capture the images, lines, shadows and highlights for future reference.

Some of the beautiful colours in the surrounding hills

After another long trip home, and a bout of gastro (yuk!), I was able to settle down to a little crafty activity last Friday night. I saw this being done at the Osborne Park Textile Traders. I've been dying to try it and was really pleased with the result. Even better, it took less than 2 hours to make.

Take 2 pieces of Polar Fleece and lay them wrong sides together. Cut along the edges at even spaces, with all cuts being the same length, completely around the fabric. Tie each pair of 'tabs' together to create a fringe.

Miss M's polar fleece blanket - owl print and blue fabrics

It was a fun little project to finish off a (mostly) fun and productive month.

 I hope you've had a good month too. Maybe I'll see you at FNSI on Friday night.

Cheers,
Tracy

Fancy a sewing get-together?

Wendy B of Sugarlane Quilts is holding her monthly Friday Night Sew In (FNSI) for July this Friday.

For all the details & to sign up visit her blog here.

Cheers,
Tracy