Parcels and Finished Projects

Last week I sent off some parcels and forgot to take photos, of course! I sent some of the Dreamline Quilt Backing to Alice, the latest issue of Handmade to Diane and of course the Purple Prizes to Deb. They all arrived safe and sound, which is always good to know! And I got my very own parcel from Di yesterday!! I was so excited! Here is what was in it:

I can't wait to start on the paper pieced pattern!! And the seam ripper - well, how did Di know that I lost half of mine the other day, the most important half too. So that will go next to my machine right away. I agree with Jenny that the emery board is way too cute to use, so it will sit next to my machine too :) And the cute little Christmas tag? Someone special will get that this year :) Thank you so much Di!!!!! You are so sweet :)

As for the second topic of this post - finished projects.. well, you'd think I'd have a lot wouldn't you? But even after all that sewing at Alice's it seems I only have one finish so far, which is the bushfire quilt that Cheryl quilted for me! I am going to try to do a post on that tomorrow, so stay tuned...

Oh, I did sew a dress for Elizabeth, yes, phew, there is something else!!! It's a nice simple bright sundress, (sorry the photo is not great):


Now, if I drag something out of the freezer for dinner, do you think I can quickly go and finish Cameron's quilt by midnight....? Let me go try....

Machine Quilting Class

On Saturday I went to the machine quilting class run by Ballarat Patchwork and had a GREAT day! It was well worth going to - I picked up a lot of handy hints and tips. And it was fun!! Much better than watching the Grand Final.. hee hee... although we did finish in plenty of time to watch the end.. poor Saints....

Ok, enough about footy, back to quilting. We had to make a nine patch to practice on, and I of course made mine blue. I think it will make a nice table topper. I traced those patterns with a blue washout pen using Pam's templates.. nice ones. We also had a calico sampler which we played on:



I was feeling quite happy with my doodling, until I showed it to Cameron and he said, "Oh, it's hard to be neat, isn't it?!" Men!!!

I also bought a few things... :) We all bought a can of basting spray, and I got one quilting template and two patterns:

I couldn't resist that cute teddy/blanky pattern by Melly & Me. I also bought some of the Minky fabric to make it with - it is soooooo soft! I can't wait to make it! A friend of mine has the pattern as well, so maybe we will motivate each other to sew it up soon. I bought the doll pattern for Elizabeth - she is on a doll making spree! She has been making her own patterns up and I thought it might be nice for her to have a pattern to follow for a change. She was quite pleased.

Anyway, I had a great time at class. It is so much fun to get together with other women and learn new things. Must do it more often! Have a great week everyone!

Dutch Cheese Biscuits

Kaasstengels

500 g Plain Flour
500 g grated tasty cheese ( I just use no-name) (works better if you grate it yourself)
250g butter
a few tablespoons of water if needed

Mix all ingredients together in food processor until it forms a ball. If needed, you can add a bit of water to help it all stick together.

Make into balls or strips and bake in 200C oven until golden.

Tracy asked me for this recipe and I thought I'd post it because it is yummy, yummy, yummy :) For my US readers, they are of course cookies, not biscuits :) Elizabeth was just asking me if she could make some this week while the boys are away - you know, when the cats are away, the mice will play - or in this case eat yummies!

Catching up...

It is 8 am, the sun is shining and half an hour ago I waved goodbye to my three boys who are off on a 4WD camping trip for the week. Two minutes after they left I was on Nina quilting this:


It is a quilt I started at Alice's for Cameron. Poor guy, he pays for all the fabric and I hadn't made him one yet! Thanks to Alice for letting me work on it nonstop last week, I managed to get the top done and then we used her floor to pin it. My floor isn't big enough!! I've just quilted it very simply as you can see. I will put the binding on and then do some meandering on it as well.

Yesterday I went to Ballarat Patchwork and got the requirements I need for my machine quilting class that is on next week. I can't wait! I'm sure I will pick up quite a few new things. While I was there, I picked up this new product:

It is called Dreamline Quilt Backing and looks great! I want to use it for my mystery marathon quilt. You just follow the lines and when you wash the quilt, the blue lines disappear :) How cool is that? I will keep you posted....

Most of the week has been catching up with things around the house. I did loads of washing, moved the furniture in the kitchen around to try to make it more school, sewing and cooking friendly, and of course helped the guys get packed up for their camping trip. I also spent a bit of time on the phone catching up with friends :) One of my dear friends came around for a cuppa - she was the one who went to Africa. She brought me back this bag:


I tried to take a closeup of the buttons/beads, but it didn't work - they are so cool, they are made with strips of dyed newspaper! So creative.

I've used the bag quite a bit already :)

And on to other news... of course you must have all heard about the new blog on the block : Among the Gum Trees. They are having a whole bunch of giveaways at the moment, so go check it out!!

And something very very, very, very, very exciting for me - I won something from Di!!! A paper piecing pattern as well as a prize for doing her Christmas challenge :) I do love paper piecing! Thanks Di! I'll be looking in the mailbox every day!!!

That is all for today I think. I have more things to write about, including the bushfire quilt, so I shall be back in the next few days... Have a great weekend everyone!

Peace

No, it is not a quilt block, it is what Alice and family are experiencing now that we have left :) No more Wii going nonstop in the lounge room; no more Hannah buzzing away in the sewing room (I miss her!); no more yodeling to scare Brian out of his wits.... We did however leave the sweet stray kitty to miaow outside their back door :)

There is peace here on our little farm too - other than Jules the sheep dog barking at someone who is using the road (how dare they!). I can hear Snowy the rooster tellling everyone to wake up (fat chance of waking the kids up yet!). I can look over the paddocks into the distance seeing a white covering of frost - yes, it is still cold in Victoria!

The flight back home was fairly uneventful. I managed to read a whole Jeffrey Archer. Kept me occupied at least. The bad part was the trip down at Melbourne - turbulence and a bumping landing. I felt sick for the next hour and a half - which was nice for Cameron since I didn't talk much until we caught sight of Ballarat whereupon I didn't stop talking till we got home :)

I think I had the best holiday ever at Alice's these past two weeks :) She spoiled us all! No housework, food provided, and most of all, sewing machine provided to do lots of fun stuff!!!! Thank you Alice, we all had a wonderful time!

And now it is back to the real world :) I need to unpack, say hello to all my animals, dust, etc, etc, etc! It is always lovely to be home though. East, west, home's best :)

Giveaway Winner!!!!

It is time to reveal the winner!! Thank you to all who joined in :) I'm in the middle of packing our suitcases to head home to Victoria tomorrow... happy to go home, sad to leave Alice and family. Isn't that always the way? We hope that one day we will live closer together again...

In the meantime... Alice made the cute purple basket above as the prize for the lucky winner who guessed the closest to what was in Perth the Purple Pig. Isn't it sweet? And I suppose you are waiting for me to tell you who won, right....??????

Tra la la la la.......

Ok, the lucky winner is.........

Greenfumb from Footprint Reduction in the 'Burbs who, with her guess of $180, was closest to the actual amount which was $143.30!

So, congratulations Greenfumb, please send me an email to let me know your address. My email shows up on my profile I think... When I get home, I will send you the gorgeous purple bag with Perth's purple ears.. and probably some other goodies :)

And now back to packing those cases!!!

GIVEAWAY!!!!!

Remember Perth the Purple Pig?

And her sad demise??

And the competition to guess how much was in her? Ok, in the middle of one of these nights it dawned on me that of course I can't give you two entries to the draw because I am not pulling out names, but whoever gets the closest guess to the amount she was holding wins.... please excuse my muddleheadedness :) And only TWO people have guessed so far!! I know there are more people that read my blog, so, come out of lurkdom and join in on the competition!!!

Let me try to make it all a bit clearer: The above pig was made about three months ago, and since then coins have been dropped into her so that we would have some spending money here in Perth. She was VERY heavy by the time we were left :) And another hint, she paid for Dominoes pizza one night.. and there was still change in her.....

The prize:

her purple ears (now who wouldn't want to win them????!!!!)

AND

something much nicer, made in purple, and a much more useful than ears :)

So start those guesses coming, and Di and Carlie, you get another guess because you were both waaaaaaaaaaay too low :) Competition closes midnight Friday, Western Australian time.

Sewing Updates

For those who don't know us, I am on the left and Alice on the right.

The time is suddenly flying by. Poor Cam had to leave yesterday since he has to work tomorrow, and that means we only have a week left! Oh well, should still get some more fun in :)

Alice registered us for the Mystery Marathon and we worked real hard yesterday. We were two hours behind because we are in Perth, but that probably isn't a good enough excuse for not finishing!

Ok, here are photos for those of you who have been asking!!

An explosion of fabric and blocks:



The floor needs a good sweep soon:


I think by the time we got to step 12, the Tasmanians were done :)


Putting it all on the floor, ready to sew together the strips (sorry, missed a few photos in between - too busy trying to catch up with the rest of Oz!):


All sewn together and waiting for borders:

Getting there.. getting there! It was fun! Thanks Helen :)

Holidays...

Oh it is soo nice to be on holidays!! I haven't left the house yet since we arrived on Sat. I think we might be adventurous and visit some quilt shops today :) Must see the important things in Perth, right?

This is what I've been working on so far:


Turning these pretty fabrics into this:


This quilt is called Snake Trails. Come back and see what the next step is :)

And pinning the Great Summer Holiday Mystery quilt:


Now to figure out how to quilt it!!!

I've also been working on some blocks for Nirvana.. will try to take photos of my progress later. In the meantime, better have brecky and get back to the sewing room!

Don't forget the competition in the previous post - the other "something else purple" is going to be really sweet :) Trust me!