Weekly Round up #2 - The Heat Wave Edition

As I sit here with leggings on (don't judge me - my top is covering my arse) and revel in the cool breeze, I can look back on the week that was and say "THANK GOD THAT IS OVER!"  You see, us Melbournians (and a few other parts of Oz) suffered through an exhausting week.  Five days in a row over 40 degrees (104+ farenheit) and we were all pretty much ready to crawl in to a rabbit hole and expire.  Thankfully the husband and I took the plunge a few months ago and invested in refrigerated cooling in the house.  We may be broke, but we were cool.  When inside.  On the few occasions I had to venture out, it was hideous.  Absolutely hideous.

Anyway.

I did manage to make a few things, buy a few things and ponder a few things.  For your viewing pleasure....

I ordered my divine Botanics bundle before Christmas.  And I seriously nearly hyperventilated when they arrived this week!  The colours and textures in the prints are just to die for.

Just because I don't have anything else to do, I decided to jump on board the Aurifil Designer of the month challenge.  Pat Sloan is the hostess with the mostest, and has a fabulous Facebook group! I fluffed around for a few hours trying to decide which fabrics to use, and then stumbled across my much loved Terrain scrap bag.  And that was that.  January's block can be found HERE.  It is a fabulous spool block, and I loved putting it together!  It also reaffirmed how much I love Terrain, and sent me in to a tailspin trying to track down more, so that when I've finished the full year of monthly blocks, I can put a quilt together.  I grabbed a bundle from #thegreatfabricdestash on Instagram.  Oh. My. Lord.  Did you all see that fascinating spectacle???  I swear I wasted at least a couple of hours that day cruising through everyone's destash photos, and freaking out at how big some people's stashes really must be?  Anyway, I also managed to find a fabulous store in NSW for us Aussies, who also has Terrain available, and at a very reasonable sale price!  You can find it HERE.

The freaking out continues as I put together all of my little Chloe's school items.  I was uber impressed with her fabric choice for her library bag!  I was gifted this gorgeous butterfly print from my Tokyo Bff.  Chloe was most impressed with my choice of pink Aurifil thread to free motion her name tag!  Win win!

My search for the perfect bee block continued.  My month as Queen is March, and I wanted to be organised.  I kept coming back to the block that was designed by Kate Spain for the Fat Quarter Shop's mystery BOM.  I made the block a few weeks ago, which you can see HERE.  So I took a leap of faith and emailed Kate last week, asking her permission to use the pattern for my bee.  Got a lovely reply, and went forth to experiment!  Now, if you just saw the original block, you would agree they look COMPLETELY different!  My vision for the bee blocks is for each bee member to choose a colour, and make this block in the different tones radiating outwards, from light to dark.  I wasn't sure if it was going to work, but I am really really happy with how my aqua/blue block turned out!  I spent some time last night searching online for a version of this pattern that isn't on paper.  If you have seen it on the interwebs, please let me know!  It would be far easier to point my bee to an online version, than scanning the paper pattern or re-writing it in PDF form!

And last BUT definitely not least in my week....... I received my Wombat Stew Secret Santa gift!!!!  Yes, it's a little late, but given that my Santa had an international move to contend with over the holidays, I was very patient.  That doesn't mean that when I saw the package in the post box and saw Gemma's name on it, I didn't run, hands flailing in the air, then ripping the parcel open?  No, not me.  What can I say??  Gemma is one of my closest on line friends, and she has made me the most beautiful sewing machine cover ever made!

Every single part of it is divine.  I spent last night staring at the free motion writing on the sides, writing down the words Gemma had shared.  Some of them I have had to write ? because they've disappeared in to the binding, but like a true sleuth, I shall deciper them!

 

This is the INSIDE!?!?!?  WHA??!?!?!!?  As usual, Gemma has managed to incorporate her beautiful free motion quilting in to the project.  Sigh.

Thank you so much Gemma! I absolutely adore my gift, and I look forward to another fabulous year of being a wombat, and getting quilty with you and the other ladies! xxx 

So that's it my friends! In a nutshell. Another weekly round up, because school holidays are still in force. ONLY TEN MORE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm off to the beach house (sounds fancy yes?) tomorrow, with the six of us stuffed in to our car, and trailer full of bikes and crap behind us. Five days of relaxing and sitting around. Who am I kidding? Five days of refereeing children at a different location..... I AM looking forward to it! Have a wonderful week, and I will see you all back here next week with another round up! I'm sharing this all over the place, cos I can! You can too!