First and foremost, a big huge humongous THANK YOU to everyone for sending me your lovely birthday wishes yesterday! You’re all such wonderful friends! My day was perfect!
Tonight, another birthday treat is coming my way! My folks and I are off to the city to see Anything Goes at the Sydney Opera House! Yay! I’ve never seen this show before so hopefully I’ll like it! But I love all of that Broadway singing, dancing and shiz so I’m bound to love it either way!
I’ll do my utmost best to capture some beautiful shots of the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge for you while I’m there! I love my city so much so any chance to share and show her off, I’ll take with both hands! 😀
Apologies for the short post today! I’ll be sure to tell you all about the show and what we got up to in the city tomorrow!
I spent the day rugged up at home (my favourite place) joyfully playing with my youngest nephew and niece! We sung songs, played with balloons, ate doughnuts and built Duplo towers!
Amelia: ‘Auntie, what is that big thing you’re shoving in my face?’ (I took the picture using my big DSLR camera!)Oh, those big brown eyes and pouty lips!! Too cute!Xavier singing his ABC’s!Doughnut time!
More of my family came over this evening where we had our traditional party tea, with homemade chocolate cake, lollies, Chocolate Crackles* and yummy fresh fruit!
And because I work from home (which means that technically I’m my own boss) I gave myself the day off! I do feel slightly bad that I did, as it means that Friday’s tutorial has now been pushed back a day or two! Sorry! But today’s little breather from everything has really helped clear my head and get a few things back into perspective!
Although, I do have one very exciting thing to tell you about! Last night I finalised everything for my next Quilt-Along Series!!! Yay! It’ll be a HST Sampler, made up of nine different blocks, all at different levels of difficulty and layout. This time around I’ll be using a beautiful fabric collection from RJR Fabrics that has some of the most loveliest colours and patterns that I’ve seen in quite a while! As soon as I saw it, I knew it was the perfect one to use for the quilt! I’ll announce what the range is and the whole story behind it once I receive it! Eek!! (Although, some of you might be able to figure it out with some of the clues in the picture below!)
Here’s a sneak peak of the blocks we’ll doing…
I guess this also gives a little insight into how I design and work out all the maths for my quilts! I must always draw them out and colour them in to be able to get a true understanding and visualisation of the block/quilt I want to make! At the moment, I don’t have a date for when this will begin, but know that it’ll be very soon! (Like ‘weeks’ soon!)
I hope your day was as lovely as mine!
xx
*PS. Curious to know what Chocolate Crackles are?? Here’s the recipe if you would like to try them! Every Aussie kid has been brought up eating these, especially at birthday parties, cake stalls, picnics and as special treats!
Chocolate Crackles
Ingredients:
4 cups of Rice Bubbles
1 cup of desiccated coconut
1 cup of icing sugar (powdered sugar)
250g of Copha (a type of vegetable fat made from coconut oil)
3 tablespoons of cocoa
To make:
First, slowly melt the Copha in a saucepan over a low heat.
Meanwhile, mix together the rice bubbles, icing sugar, coconut and cocoa in a large bowl.
Carefully pour the melted Copha into the rice bubble mixture and stir until well combined.
Spoon the mixture into a cupcake tray filled with paper cases and place in the fridge until set.
I feel that for the third day in a row, I should comment on how great the weather has been today as my first few opening sentences… Man, the weather was lovely today! Super sunny, warm breeze and the scent of fresh flowers perfuming the air! Ooo, it was grand! 😀
So just as the title of this post suggests, it’s been a happy Monday! Big collaboration prospects were discussed and organised this morning. (More on that when the right time comes along!) Fun and exciting future projects were developed further (HINT: Quilt-Along!!). A little bit more sewing got done. And I put a quilt on sale in my Etsy Shop!
Yep, my Open Window Quilt I made for the Fat Quarter Shop Blog Hop last week is looking for a new home! It so deserves a place where it can be loved, used and cherished everyday by someone who loves it just as much as I do! The reason I’ve decided to sell this quilt is simply because I have no room for it! Our house has literally been taken over by quilts (every lounge, sofa and chair practically has one draped over the back and/or over its arm!) that I just have no where to put it! So that’s why it must to go to a good home where it’ll be appreciated!
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Ooo, I also got a little bit more done on my Notting Hill House Mini! I stitched on a 2.5″ white sashing around the four edges of the quilt top, then prepared the binding (pastel pink, left-over from a baby quilt I made for my niece last year!) along with the backing (left-over backing from my Open Window Quilt) as well as the batting (white Cosy Cotton, left-over from my Geo Dreams Quilt!).
Right now, I’ve got it to the stage where all three layers are ready for basting and then quilting! Yay! Although, I’m still not sure how I want to quilt it… Criss-cross grid? Straight line? Ditch in the stitch? Dare I say it: FMQ?! Hmm, that decision needs to be slept on and decided in the morning, I think! 🙂
Oh man, the weather today was absolutely lush! The sun was shinning brilliantly, the flowers were in full bloom, a warm breeze rustled through my hair and it was the first day since the beginning of winter where I haven’t needed to put socks on by days end! Yay! Spring is here!
So for today I had planned to get started on what I like to call ‘personal sewing’. It’s those projects where I’m making it simply for me and my own enjoyment. For example, my Pandamonium Mini Quilt was a ‘personal sewing’ project, as was my Pineapple Mini and so will be the patterns I bought from Fat Quarter Shop the other day. And it’s one of those I was going to start this morning…
However, after sitting down in front of my machine I annoyingly remembered that I hardly had any thread to sew with and that I needed to buy some new needles for my machine! I’d been putting off and putting off and putting off going to buy some all week (which is REALLY terrible, I know!), which resulted in me cursing at myself as I sit down to sew and hear/feel that spine-tingly clunk-clunk-clunk of my dull needle piercing through the fabric! Oops! So because I treated myself to a lovely and much needed lie-in in the morning and had the afternoon booked with another event, I ended up at Spotlight buying what I needed 20 minutes before they closed for the day! And by then, my day had been busy enough that my up-and-go had up-and-went!
The pattern I was going to get stuck into was the Notting Hill House Mini by Nedra Ridgeway. I currently have the pattern pinned up on my cork board behind my desk and every now and then I can’t help but look over at it because it’s just so stinkin’ cute!!
A few moments a go, I had a good rummage through my stash for some lovely pastel florals and spots that I think would suit the pattern. I’m still not 100% sure on how the prints sit together and what exact fabrics will make the cut, but I’ll look at it again tomorrow with fresh eyes and see if anything needs changing!
That’s been the day! I hope yours is much more productive in the sewing room than mine was!
Since the day I first shared these darling little pincushions on Instagram last week, lots of requests have come in for me to do a tutorial!
And so here it is ladies! (Ahem…and gentlemen, if you’re reading along!)
Materials List:
A suitable amount of cotton fabric, depending on how big you want to make your pincushion. The fabric I use is DS Quilts, Daisy Mae collection.
x1 large button with two holes in a colour of your choice
80″ (estimate) of DMC Pearle Cotton thread in colour of choice
x1 Straws needle in size no.1 (or any other type of strong hand sewing needles)
Hand full of polyester stuffing
Scissors: Thread snips, Fabric scissors and Pinking Sheers
Lead pencil
x1 small hand sewing needle and matching thread
Chop stick
Sewing Machine
Dressmaking pins
Something round to trace around eg. Jam jar lid, tin lid, plate etc.
The beauty about this pattern is that you can make your pincushion as big or as small as you like depending on the size of the circular object you choose to trace around! Yeah!
If this looks like a great little project that you’re going to make, don’t forget to send me a photo of your finished little (or big!) petal pincushion! I would absolutely love to see how you go!
Happy Sewing, Friends!!
xx
PS. This petal pincushion has been inspired and adapted from a pattern in a booklet that came with issue 52 of Mollie Makes magazine.
Thursday has panned out to be a pretty typical work day for me.
The day started out with replying back to emails and checking all of my social media places and answering comments and seeing what all of you guys are up to.
Then my usual late morning procrastinating set in and I got sucked into watching too many YouTube videos. (We’ve all been there! Am I right?) Well to be honest, I was waiting for my camera battery to charge so that I could get filming my Petal Pincushion tutorial…I had to do something to pass the time! 😀
After lunch, my motivation came back with a punch (I find I work best from early afternoon and into the evening!) and I got the Pincushion tutorial filmed and ready for editing! Yeah! Over the next few hours, I’ll get the major part of that edit done, ready to add the finishing touches tomorrow morning so that I can upload it in the afternoon! So get ready for that!
Also this afternoon, when I was importing my tutorial files into iMovie, I got momentarily distracted by some of the downloadable PDF patterns on the Fat Quarter Shop website. (As one so casually does!) I ended buying two patterns that really stood out to me and that I could see myself easily making! The first is a paper piecing pattern by Zen Chic called Octo!
I’ve always been really keen on making a quilt with a circular type element/design to it. As soon as I saw it, it reminded me so much of this Anna Maria Horner pattern called Spinning Stars. I think they’re very similar!
Gahh! This house is so super-super cute and I can’t wait to plan what pretty pastel floral fabrics I can use to make it with!! Yip-yip!
One other thing that I’ve been up to today is researching and making the final decisions of what blocks will make the final cut for a new Quilt-Along I’ll be doing on my YouTube channel very, very soon! It’ll be a Sampler quilt of sorts and I’m quite sure all of the blocks will have a HST base to them. The only thing I’m really stuck with is what fabrics to use. Unlike my first QAWM series, I want to use a fabric (or fabrics) that are readily available to everyone all across the world. Hence why I’ve been stalking the Fat Quarter Shop of late as well as Kelani Fabrics and Hobby Sew. There are a few fabric ranges I’ve found that I think will work but I’m still on the lookout for that perfect collection that ticks all of the boxes!
So that’s been my day. Well so far, anyway. I still have this post to finalise and publish as well as a tutorial to edit for you guys to see tomorrow, along with half a dozen other important things on my to-do list that I’m casually procrastinating over! Eek!
I hope you’re all having a wonderful Thursday wherever you are in the world!
Whew! What a day! This poor little quilter is ready to dive into bed and go to sleep!
Today was Market Day at my church, where my sister-in-law and I shared a handmade stall full of lovely little knick-knacks, accessories and every other good thing!
Amie and I ready to sell!
Although the day was quieter than expected (unfortunately for us there was a local fair happening at the same time!), we both made a tidy little profit with what we had to offer! Yay!
Things that Amie had on the table included custom made Headband Frames, super sweet headbands with adorable flowers and embellishments, hair clips with dainty little bows and frilly lace plus these really clever dummy (or pacifier) clips made with super cute printed ribbons, studs and fancy alligator-type clips. So clever!
On my side of the table I had a pile of my famous Little Wallets, all of those delightful little pincushions I’ve been showing you the past week (tutorial coming soon!!), fully lined tissue box fabric covers, a few mixed FQ bundles, handmade earrings, bags of buttons, a few craft kits, some old craft books and my Pineapple Mini Quilt. Safe to say the Pineapple came back home with me as did most of the things I made. So because of that, get ready for an influx of stock in my Esty shop! Yay!
I was really happy with the way we were able to set up our table. I used one of my mum’s embroidered linen table cloths as a base to set off the ‘handmade’ aesthetic of our stall. Then I used the Pink Wire ‘Falkhojden’ shelves I bought from IKEA last week to place stuff on and then an array of pretty glass bowls, silver trays and cake stands to displays our wares on. I think it all worked out pretty well!
So now that the busy chaos of getting everything ready for this market day is over, it’s time to finally get my head back into YouTube mode and produce some awesome videos and tutorials for you to enjoy and be inspired by!
And just as a warning: I’m diving-in head first with three tutorials to (hopefully) get out to you over the next week and a bit! Whoo!
Today, the 3rd of September is my beautiful mum’s birthday!
Words really can’t express just how wonderful this woman is in my life as well as my brothers, my dads and our extended family and friends. I’m so proud to say that my mum really is my best friend. (Something I’ve only really noticed these past few months or so!) She knows everything about me, supports and encourages me and is always, always there when I need her for anything, whether it be big or small. She also always knows the right time and the perfect way to snap me back into reality when I’ve been in ‘the clouds’ too long, which is quite a regular occurrence I must admit! Put simply, life is better when she’s around and I don’t want that to change. Ever.
So today, we spent a lovely day together by going out local for lunch, laughing, chatting and being our usual nutty selves. Our dining table has been taken over by glittery cards, pretty flowers, chocolate cupcakes, oodles of strawberries and handfuls of crunchy caramel popcorn! Ooo, yum!!
Tomorrow we’ll be extending the celebrations further when my brother and his family come by for an afternoon-tea-slash-early-dinner party! It’s there, when we’re all together, that the fun, laughter, chaos and big ‘happy birthdays’ are sung! It should be fun, I think!
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Also today I’ve been busily sewing away making some sweet little things for my stall at a Market Day the PWA are holding at my church this coming Saturday! (Actually, I should OUR stall as I’m sharing a table with my sister-in-law Amie, who makes the most adorable little baby accessories!) Ergo, the day has consisted of making the finishing touches to a few new little wallets as well as quickly stitching up some very cute petal pincushions and some tissue box fabric covers! Well, the tissue box covers have only been cut out at the moment. I hope to squeeze in some more sewing tonight and tomorrow morning!
I’m so unbelievably happy with how these little pincushions turned out! The pattern I used was one that came in issue no. 52 of Mollie Makes. Once I read through it and saw how simple they were to make, I knew I had to get into it and make some to sell at the stall! Also, while we’re talking about them, hands up those of you who want a tutorial on how to make one… I’d be more than happy to share with you how I make them!
At the time, I hadn’t written, checked or really had any plans of what to publish on my blog. Guilt set in and I thought to myself, ‘What can I do to ensure my blog won’t be neglected throughout September?’ Then the ‘crazy thought’ happen. As September is a busy month for me, why not set the challenge of writing a blog post every day during the month commentating, chatting, sharing and celebrating all of the good things that are happening!
So that what’s we’re doing! Every day this month you can expect a new blog post from me, giving you more of an insight into my life, my family, my sewing room and what I do outside of it too! The posts I write from day-to-day will vary from super long and wordy to short, direct and to the point. They may be all words, or just all photos.
Like I mentioned, September is super-busy for me right from the get-go! There are birthdays, special weekend celebrations, blog hops, quilt tutorials, shows in the city, a new job prospect and so many ideas to trap and share! And as an added bonus, September for us Aussies equals the start of Spring! Yay!! Goodbye winter worries, with your sneezy noses and freezing finger tips! Hello to glorious sunshine, warm breezes and colourful flowers in the back garden!
So, should we get this challenge under way?
Cheers to a happy, healthy, fun and memorable September!
xx
PS. This edit marks my 200th blog post published to my blog since I first started it in November 2011! Hooray!!
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