Happy Easter

It's a long post from me for a change. 
Here are my BaD blocks for the week, with some Easter Bunnies.  I loved working with my  favourite colours of teal and aqua,  unfortunately the photograph does not do them justice.

My sewing room/office has become my retreat and oasis whilst we are in the midst of some family dramas .
I started the year determined to try some new techniques, so I gave myself a treat by enrolling in an online class on the  Joggles website.  My class is a "Textured and Treated Reticule" by Christen Brown.  I  spent some happy hours yesterday, playing with fabric, yarns and a new product to me called "Texture Magic" which is a steam activated shrinking fabric.

Here are a few shots of my work so far

Twin Needle Stitching with rayon and metallic threads

Using "Texture Magic" on the back - before steaming with the iron

After steaming with the iron - amazing texture!

Couching threads and yarns

On Good Friday my daughter and I took a walk on the beach and poked around in the logs, trees and branches that have ended up on the shore after all our floods.  Some creative people have been making "sculptures" on the beach out of the wood

I'll close my post this week with a shot of my daughter on the beach.  She is on a Gap Year this year, working and traveling.  She  is off to Japan on Thursday for a 3 week holiday with a friend. Japan is her passion and she will be studying Japanese at University next year  It's her first overseas trip without a parent  and she is so excited. I am so happy for her, but a bit anxious as well...my apron strings are getting very frayed , it's almost time to cut them off.

A night away has worked wonders

Last weekend we took our "new" camper/trailer (we bought it second or third hand just before Christmas) for our first night away in it.

We went to one of our favourite places, Hat Head, which is not too far away from home.

We wanted to test out the camper on a short trip in case there were any problems and we did encounter a few that will need a bit of attention, but nothing too dramatic. We also needed to have a little break from the stresses of work and family things.
We went bushwalking and swimming in the tidal creek, aren't these tree roots amazing under the water? 

I forgot to pack a lot of things including half of our dinner ingredients but that didn't matter too much as I had remembered to pack the chocolate!
Whilst away I had time to give my block choice some further thought and I have decided to keep going with my square rainbow blocks until I have enough for the quilt and then I will start making a different type of block...not sure what yet, but I have plenty of time to ponder on that.

I feel much happier now I have decided to continue with the rainbow blocks, especially when the fabrics I ordered arrived in the mail yesterday.

Almost done

Machine quilting on the last day of my break.

I popped it on the spare bed for a photo and all it needs now is a label and it will be on it's way to my customer :)

Summer holidays and sewing

It's Summer time here in Oz and most of my bookkeeping clients have been closed for the Christmas break so I have been indulging in some sewing.  

This mess is the start of a denim quilt for my Stepson who is about to leave home and start University.  I was inspired by this quilt on the Piece N Quilt blog .I ripped up the denim into lengths and by the time I had finished, my sewing room and I were covered in a fine layer of denim "dust".

Some days later I finished the quilt top.  It's just draped over a bed to test the size.

I plan on backing it very simply with flannelette sheeting as it is a very heavy quilt already.  I may even use a flannelette sheet, although I doubt there will be any in the shops at this time of the year.

In the meantime, I have received my first commission to make a quilt similar to the baby quilt I made in December. It will be a single bed size for a teenage girl.  The pattern is by Elizabeth Hartman at Oh, Fransson!. 

Here is the fabric

 


 

Day 363/366

I have finished the baby quilt and now have an order to make another one :)

Days 353 to 362/366

We are getting near the end of our challenge and I have obviously lost count of which day is which.  I think I have the correct days now... better late than never.

Day 353

My home baked Christmas gifts of Almond Shortbread and Mini Christmas cakes.

Day 354

Here I am at the office of one of my clients with my basket of goodies.

Day 355

This was an unusual sight this afternoon.  The hang glider was soaring above the ocean on the right, but then swung inland and flew above me with a cheery wave.

Day 356

My craft group had it's Christmas night out last night and we swapped our Secret Santa gifts.  I was lucky enough to receive this little gnome and his garden,  made by my talented, creative and very dear friend, Mary.

Day 357

This is the best crop of tomatoes we have ever had.  My daughter made a delicious pasta sauce with a few kilos and we still have lots more on the bushes to pick.  Soon we will have an abundance of cucumbers....I think we will be giving a lot away.

Day 358

Coco took a much more mature approach to the Christmas tree this year.  Last year she raced up and down the tree, creating havoc, this year she decided to sleep in it.  As you can see, she was not impressed to be woken up with the camera flash.

Day 359

I bought this ornament last year in honour of my daughter's performances the Christmas ballet, The Nutcracker.

 Day 360

Merry Christmas everyone.  I wish you peace and happiness.

Day 361

A much cooler day and perfect to do some quilting on the baby's quilt.  The baby arrived on day 358, a few days early, so I really want to get the quilt finished.

Day 362

In the mail today - photos and letters from the children we sponsor through the KCC Slum Project.  My step daughter spent 3 months working with the project in Kenya, during her gap year in 2009.

Days 340-353/366

Its not called the silly season for nothing! I have been taking photos whenever I can ,but have not had time to sit down at the computer for long enough to upload them.   Here are a couple of week's worth of photos  :)

Day 340

It was a beautiful morning's walk down to the sea today.
Hmmm which way would you rather travel on the sea?  Paddling or riding in a comfy boat.

Day 341

Received one of my favourite magazines in the mail today!

Day 342

I had to alter a costume for my daughter for her final ballet performance with her dance school.  Can you tell who she will be?  Here's a clue - she lives with 7 Dwarfs ;)

Day 343

 

I had forgotten I had made these last year.

Day 344

I love the fan shapes of these grass seed heads.

Day 345

My daughter was dancing the role of Snow White (yes you guessed correctly!)  in her last ballet concert.  I had planned on taking a shot of her on pointe before the concert, but to be honest I was feeling a bit down about it all coming to an end.  Anyway, after the concert and a few tears from both of us, I asked her to put her shoes on at home out on the back steps.  I did a bit of fiddling with the photo for fun, but I can't remember exactly how I produced this result...silly me :)

Day 346

After an early start to the day courtesy of the cat (grrr), I managed to do a little bit of piecing of the baby quilt before I set of to work (yay!). Here it is laid out on the floor.  Thank you Coco the cat for a bit of extra creative time.

Day 347

Day 348

Day 349

All in a day's work.  I was taking photos to post to my client's facebook page (he sells showbags).  I just couldn't get either Scooby to look at the camera :))

Day 352

I have had this big idea to make my clients mini christmas cakes and biscuits,now I have just got to put the idea into practise.  Here is the dried fruit I am preparing.

Day 353

Breakfast time and I am feeding one of our blue tongue lizards some banana :)  I am just about to embark on a day of baking cakes and biscuits.  I will show you the results next post and in the meantime I hope to get on the ipad tonight whilst everyone is watching TV and visit all your blogs.

Days 332- 339/366

It's getting harder and harder to take a photo everyday, I carry my camera around everywhere, but haven't seen anything new to capture for a while.  I will just have to keep looking!

Day 334

We have been waiting and waiting for our Hoya plant produce a flower, it has had buds for months and something is finally happening.  There are about 25 buds that are starting to wake up.

Day 336

Wow! It has been worth the wait, isn't this magnificent?

Day 337

Nearly finished...

Day 338

Fabric to make a little quilt for a baby.

Day 339

Finished!

Days 275 -281/366

Day 275

I visited the Camden Haven Quilters exhibition with some friends.  I was very taken with the quilting on this log cabin quilt.

Day 276

Cutting out some scrappy patches for my UFO

Day 277

Baby bananas.

Day 278

The mornings are quite smokey from back burning for bushfire prevention.

Day 279

Driving home from work, there was a vivid red sunset.  This was the best I could do with my mobile phone.

Day 280

Ho hum, I had too much housework to do so didn't get a chance to take a photo.  Here's another quilt from the Camden Haven Quilters to enjoy instead.

Day 281

It's blowing a gale today but this little fellow was quite snug on the lower limb of the tree in our street.