Craftsy BOM Number 2

Finished Number 2 block tonight :

Little bit crooked! Never mind - I'm not real happy with my fabric choices in this one - it's a bit wishy-washy after the blue of the first one I think.  Do you agree?

Some Garden Pics

Have to throw some garden pictures in occasionally, or you will be wondering what's going on!

The Spider Lily is flowering madly - it obviously loves the rain we are having

The Oakleaf Frangipani is covered in flowers as well.  Everything has really appreciated  all the rain we have had lately.

A Little Bit of Sewing

I have started on the quilt for our grand daughter's birthday in March - I decided that I want to get it finished in plenty of time so that I am not rushing madly at the end.  Here's how it is looking so far:

It is a Plus Quilt and I think it's going well.  Another view:

She loves pink, so I hope she likes this.

The Craftsy BOM for February is out - or I should say "they are out".  I have one finished:

I love it!  Do you like it?



New Camera!

Sounds of trumpets and cymbals please!

Bought a new camera yesterday, and I am so very pleased with it!

It's a Canon 550D with close and distance lenses.  I've never had a really good camera before, and really have wanted one for a while.  So now I am practicing and learning all about it - there's a lot more than point and shoot involved, though it will do everything automatically also! And it also can take video movies!

So I just had to take a picture of it to show everyone.

Some New Things!

I'm posting very early today, because it is simply pouring down rain outside and I don't want to do anything else!  We went out to the RSL for lunch today and I had grilled barramundi with chips and salad and it was delicious. I think they caught the fish with a line thrown out the door into the rain when I ordered it! Yum yum

Here is my little quote to myself.  I've only done the top so far, will  back it tomorrow maybe

Here it is hung up on my cork board where it will probably live when it's finished, so I can see it when I sew.

A closer view! It's to remind myself that I procrastinate too much and I need to do instead of thinking about it!

Bloggers BOM

This month was from Quilt Dad, and is quite effective, don't you think?

I think it's really cute!  This quilt will be lovely when it's all put together.

Block of the Month Numer 3

The Sue Ross BOM from Material Obsession is done.  It's Block No 3, the diamond star that I cut out not long ago.

No matter what I did with this darned thing, I could not get it to lie straight.  It's been steam ironed and starched to within an inch of it's life and it still won't lie flat.  I've redone seams until I couldn't redo another one.  It will just have to be quilted out at the end!

Here it is arranged artistically over the sewing machine, at least you can't see the big lump in it!

Now block number 4 is another star! Great!!

One Flower Wednesday

Well here we are again - sorry I missed last week but I was busy away.

So here are 4 little flowers for this week:

all assorted - and then there is this :

Sorry it is not even ironed, but I have done all the diamonds and this is where I am up to - it is a wall quilt, about 19 x 20 inches and I'm about half way there.

So go and visit Karen now, at Journey of a Quilter, and check out all the other flowers!

Sunday Snippets

So now hop on over to Tinniegirl's place and see what others snippets are about.

Hi, I'm Home

Thank you for all the good wishes and things went well in hospital, so I was allowed home on Friday after the bronchoscopy.  Have to see the specialist again in 2 weeks.  It's always great to get back home again.

So I've been doing some hand sewing and some more Oh My Stars blocks.

So my hand sewing has included lots of these little devils - I don't want to see another sequin any time soon, though I have really enjoyed using them on this project - to be shown at a later date.

Stars stars stars, I'm doing all the big ones first, and now I've lost count of them. Never mind.

Dress Up Your Roll No 1

Let me introduce you to the Outback outhouse Roll Cover - my first entry in the competition with Quiltjane.

I measured my roll, and then cut out cardboard templates for the 4 walls and roof, which I then covered with batting and with my chosen fabric and madly sewed them all together.  Well nobody said the cover had to be round! This is just my first idea, there are more to come!

So meet the Outback outhouse!  Ta da da.......

Every outback dunny needs climbers over it, and this one comes complete with redback spider!

So there's the two views, I'm going to load them onto the Flickr site now - wish me luck in the competition.

Tomorrow I will be back in hospital for a few days for investigations - I will take my laptop and hope to be able to keep in touch.

Sunday Snippets

So hop on over to Tinnie girl and see some more Sunday Snippets

More Diamonds Done

Along with other things (which I can't show you) I have done more diamond gluing this evening:

17 more diamonds finished and drying.  I think I'm getting into the swing of this now!

Diamonds and Stars

I have been worrying about this glueing of my diamonds, I'm concerned that by the time I get them all glued that the glue on the first ones will be loose and I'll  have to start over.

So I have upped the ante and decided I need to do more diamonds each week - maybe even each day if I have time so I don't have to worry about such things.

So I sat down this evening and this is what I did:

10 more diamonds glued and drying.

Can't keep everyone in suspense - here is what they are for:

If you can read this, it is the Material Obsession starter blocks - Striped Diamonds.  It will make a really nice wall quilt won't it?

I must have been overworking my brain today, or I am heat stroked and in shock  - I really cannot think of any other reason I would have done this after glueing 10 diamonds!

Can you believe it??  I can't.  I think I'm sick, we've been having some really hot weather the past few days ( like 37 degrees celsius)  so I reckon it's cooked my brain!  I've cut out all the diamonds for this star for the Sue Ross BOM, and I'm not even over the last star with diamonds. 'nuff said, I need to go and lie down!!

Sewing Morning

Well being Thursday, we met together for our sewing morning.  Or at least 2 of us were there - the good ones.  I did get lots done, and Anne helped me with squaring up blocks, which puts me ahead of the game at the moment.  Here's what I did

I have these magic red climbing daisies on this tree, and some climbing grape hyacinths on the other!  Haven't finished the second tree yet, it needs some branches and leaves to break up the purple, and then some more bushes and flowers in the garden, and we're ready to go!

Hexagons and Diamonds

I've issued a challenge to myself to finish 2 hexagon flowers and 2 diamonds by Wednesday of each week.

Here are my flowers

assorted of course

and here are my diamonds

They are quite large diamonds and I am glueing these ones.  If I find anyone is interested, then I will start a linky group here for diamonds, if not then I will just post them with my flowers, just to keep myself encouraged!

Hop on over to Karen at Journey of a Quilter and see what others have been up to this week.

Some Swaps Received

I am a member of the Quilting Block Swaps Australia group, and here are some lovely blocks I have received

This one if from Helen in West Australia.  Thank you Helen, it is perfect.  This block was December's block.

and here is the January block from Bobbie up near Toowoomba.  I love it.

Bobbie also sent me some cute charms, it is obvious she has read this blog because look at what she chose

Aren't they absolutely adorable?  I can see a fused art quilt using these cute charms!  Thank you so much Bobbie.

Now there are lots of things I am working on and I can't show you pictures, or I would have to kill you!

I will show you 2 pictures when I hear they have been received by the others.  The first is Bobbie's
Card Trick block for January.  Shall I make it well known right here and now that I will never make another one of these!

If you are not happy with what I have done Bobbie, you'll have to let me know and I will send you the fabrics to make another OR I will do the Log Cabin for you (I really don't know why I didn't choose that one to start with!)

So anyhow, that will be posted tomorrow so Bobbie should receive it by the end of this week.

The second thing that is leaving tomorrow is my New Year Cracker Swap.  It's all done and waiting for the trip to the post office!

I'm currently doing a lot of handwork on a few things, the striped diamond quilt and a clutch purse which I need to have ready for my friend Jean at sewing on Thursdays.  The 19th January is our Swap Clutches Day.  Should be very interesting, I'm sure Jean will love hers.  I hope.