Scrap fabric swap time again!

Scrap fabric swap time again, yes the EB quilting girls are swaping scraps again. My parcel arrived today and it is full of quilty goodness, including some adorable 30s prints to add to my collection (not sure what project I have in mind for my 30s fabrics - I can't decide!) Thank you to Ursula (no blog) for the lovely fabrics.

And here is a close up of my fav piece - the cows!

Box Swap

I have taken part in a box swap run by Cass from Snailblazer. What a fun idea. Cass made up a box of goodies - fabric, papers, ribbons, hand-made items, buttons, vintage stuff, then she posted it off to the next person on the list, they take out 3 things and replace them with three things and they post to the next person on the list and so on until the last person who posts it back to Cass.

I took out the gorgeous VW bag, a vintage fabric panel and an altered Golden book note book. Ads - I left the magnets for you!

I put in:

- 2 Patchwork mags

- a wallhanging pattern with some furnshing fabric swatches that the animals in the pattern would look cute in

- 5 vintage dressmaking patterns

Lemonade Stand Quilt Swap - Sent and Received!

I have taken part in the Lemonade Stand Doll Quilt Swap organised at Ubercrafty.



I have received an adorable quilt from Katherine in the USA. (Katherine doesn't have a blog that I can find, but if I do, I will link it in here). The pattern is 'cobblestones' and it is a grogeous green and pink. This was Katherine's first doll quilt believe it or not! Fantastic job and is well loved. The back is also gorgeous, using coordinating fabrics from the front. Katherine also kindly sent some lovely stickers as gifts for Kya and Mali. I have just popped a quick pic of the quilt here - The girls haven't seen it yet as they are with Nanna and Honey for the long weekend.


I have sent my quilt off - I made my bright little quilt for Tara - hope that it arrives soon.

Family Resemblance

Do you think that my girls take after their Dad?

I have been having a giggle at this photo which was taken a few weeks ago. Kya calls this "the R... (our last name) face" and tells me that only her and Mali and Daddy can do it!

My DQS received

Happy to report that the Crazy Chook in Boots quilt has arrived at it's new home with Alice in Texas. So glad that it has arrived and has been appreciated.

Doll Quilt Swap 3 RECEIVED!!

I received the MOST gorgeous package from AJ last week (naughty blogegr that I am have only just gotten around to writing about it now.) AJ was so kind to send not one but 2 adorable doll quilts to our home. Knowing that I have 2 little girls, AJ kindly made a quilt for each of them. Now that is quilty love! AJ is actually a friend from EB quilters, so it was special to be matched up with someone that I already know too.

Look at these happy faces:

Now little do the girls realise, but I may soon steal these quilts and start a mini quilt wall in my study (haha - insert evil laugh!)

AJ also sent through our 10 inch square swaps in gorgeous tones (my requests were for brights or 'autumn tone' fabrics). PLUS a couple of lovely fat 1/4s as a thankyou for a different thing that we have swapped! Oh what a lucky girl I am!

Weekend at Solar Springs - BLISS!

I spent the last weekend at Solar Springs Health Retreat with my friend Bron. It was a major treat that I could ill afford, but I thought it may help me avoid falling apart. What a fantastic investment in myself. I had some pampering treatments as well as a natropath visit with a Bioimpedance Analysis. The food was devine, the setting gorgeous, and the activities and treatments wonderful. Highly recommended. I am now on a bit of a mission to eat more healthily and take off some of the weight that has crept on over the last 12 months. My BIA had me at least 12 kg overweight and aging at 38 (I am 35).

Tagged

I have been tagged by Kylie. My first time - lets see how I go!

5 things found in my bag:


1. wallet


2. spare undies for Mali


3. pen


4. lip gloss


5. speeding fine :(





5 favourite things in my sewing room:


1. machine


2. Horn sewing cabinet


3. jars of buttons


4. templates


5. quilting magazines



5 things I am currently into:


1. decluttering my home (watch out EBay here I come!)


2. trying to live a more simple and sustainable existence


3. collecting Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew books


4. my gorgeous kids


5. reading and trying to keep up with my book club books





5 people I am tagging:



I'm not actually sure that I have anyone that reads my blog, so I will make it a 'doif you please' tag. :)

New Heating

My ducted gas heating and evaporative cooling is being installed today! Yipee - our house should now be toasty warm in all rooms all winter long, and cool in summer. The old gas heater has been removed leaving a weird looking hole in the wall and a big cement base, but I will deal with that over time. I was shocked at the amount of dust behnd the heater when they pulled it off the wall - yikes!

Old heater on freecycle to hopefully go on to warm another family this winter.

RIP Mummy Gelly

Tangis' Big Mummy passed away in PNG last week. She had been sick for a long time and finally let go in Alotau hospital. She was a great lady and always made me feel so welcome in the village. I am sad that my girls didn't get to meet their Big Bubu Mummy.

Tangis travelled to PNG for the burial and mourning.

Rest in Peace Mummy Gelly.

Doll Quilt Swap

My doll quilt for the Flickr Doll Quilt Swap 3 has been posted off to the other side of the world. A clue - it is off to Texas. I enjoyed doing this quilt and loved working with the bright fabrics. I tried a few new techniques too - needleturn applique, yoyos and crazy piecing (perhaps not the best idea to try out new things on a swap project, so hopefully my swapee will forgive any mistakes - it was made with love). My machine was also playing up a bit (turned out to be a loose screw on the walking foot) so the quilting is very basic in the ditch.

Thrifting Love

The church near our local shops had a fete a couple of weekends ago and I scored some books I have been dreaming of for AGES! All for 50c each!! I got my hot little hands on both some Trixie Belden books and some Secret Seven / Famous Fives. I LOVED these books when I was a kid and unfortunately gave them away when I thought I had outgrown them. I loved reading and started out my love of books (when I was old enough to read on my own) with Enid Blyton, starting with Faraway Tree etc, then the boarding school books that she did, then FF, then SS, then I moved onto Trixie and then Nancy Drew. Obviously I loved a good mystery adventure! I'm now keen to start collecting them for my girls so that I can share a piece of my childhood with them.

Happy Birthday Sweet Mimi!

Happy 2nd Birthday to my gorgeous little Mimi. You are an independent, happy, strong-willed, smart little girl with a gorgeous, caring and friendly personality. I love you so much Mali Maris and you have brought so much joy to my life in the last 2 years. I can honestly say that you rescued me.
Love Mummy xx

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a lovely birthday on Sunday- 35 Yikes, I feel bloody ancient.

I received a bunch of lovely parcels as part of the EB Quilters Fat Quarter Birthday Swap, as pictured below. My theme wa sneutrals and browns as I am hoping to make a coffees and cream themed quilt at some stage (was thinking a snails trail pattern, but haven't decided yet). I feel so lucky to have great crafty friends whom I have never even met (except for Kylie who used to live in Canberra too). Needless to say I have been doing lots of fabric fondling and I love them all!





Stars - Xena
Brown Flowers - AJ
Red Moda square + charm squares - Helen
Neutral 'twigs' - Cylie
Bone and Blue country print - Bec
Cream tone on tone + brown circular + button box - Kylie
Cream tone on tone + Mr Toad magnet - Cass
Cream tone on tone + parisian cats - Joy
Autumn leaves + brown floral - Adds
Chocolate swirls - Emma
Moda floral - Leah
cream tone on tone + new quilting mag - Natalie
Alexander Henry butterflies + charm square - Lily
The fat 1/4s all piled together
Mum and Dad dropped in (they live 3 1/2 hours away, not like they live around the corner!) with a mud cake and some flowers. I have a trip to solar springs planned, so they gave me some $ to put towards some treatments!! I think that since I have been a single parent, Mum and Dad have made an extra special effort on my birthday to make me feel special - don't you love parents? Mine are the best.

Kaffe Fassett Butterfly Quilt

These goregous Kaffe fabrics hanging on my line are being cut into this quilt. Vicky has made this butterfly quilt once before out of 1930s repro prints and it is STUNNING!

I have to be honest and say that I rarely wash my fabric before sewing, but apparently the new line of Kaffe fabrics shrinks along the length by about 10cm (not apparently, it actually does, as we discovered)

My friend Vicky and I are going to cut and sew together, which will be fun. We have done this before when we were both living in PNG, having a bit of a production line, where we would cut out together and sew together and make one quilt each, staying up late into the night with lots of laughter and cups of tea. We made together the autumn leaves quilts,the scrappy baskets quilts and the pigs quilts, and Freddie's House (almost 6 years ago now). I think that we also did the bugs in jars together. She often reminds me about cutting over 450 little pink triangles for all of the pigs feet and ears!! I will have to do a post sometime soon about the quilts that I have actually made.

Doll Swap Quilt

I have signed up for the Doll Quilt Swap through flickr
I have a design in my mind, butterflies! I seem to have an obsession with them at the moment. Will give some clues as I get started.

Easter

We had a lovely Easter. The Easter Bunny left a couple of eggs and a new bowl and cup set.

I took the girls out to our dear friends, Sandra and Paul's place. Sandra and Paul are my best friend Vicky's parents and treat me as an extended member of the family - always so welcoming and loving. The girls had an Easter Egg hunt there which they loved.

We also had an Easter Egg hunt the next day with the mother's group gang at the park, which was wonderful.