W.I.P. Wednesday - Triangles Continued....

This baby has been sitting on my shelf, patiently awaiting the arrival of more grey spot, to continue on with the epic-ness that a gazillion triangles sewn together is!  Well, it's arrived - and yesterday was a very productive one!

I'm incredibly proud - and astonished - to say that no points were harmed lost in the construction of this quilt top.  They are all fully fledged pointy triangles!

Given that this is to become a king single sized quilt - I'm doing some guesstimating in putting it together.  I'm definitely over half way, I'm thinking I have around four more rows to go!  It's going to be a very big bundle of yum.

I've had lots of questions on IG and FB in regards to sewing triangles - so once I've wrapped this quilt up - I will be posting a tutorial of sorts here for you all.  I know that when I went in search of ideas and tips for sewing triangles, I had to gather info from a few different sources.  Hopefully I'll be able to put all the information I found and used all in one spot!

I'm linking up with W.I.P. Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced & And Sew We Craft Linky - You can too!

The BIG Swoon Reveal!

The day has finally come - I can share my biggest finish with you all!  That's right - my Swoon is done and dusted!  I managed to bind it on the weekend, and Saturday night, got my little minions to work, using muscles they never thought they had.  This baby is HEAVY!  I could have waited for delightful sunshine and dry skies - but you wouldn't have seen photos of it for about a month - Melbourne's Winter is in full force at present!  So, without further ado - here she is - "Swoon".....

Bella the cat appreciates a good quilt when she sees one.

Minion's muscles fading fast.  I LOVE how the pieced back shines.  And I LOVE the fact that you can hardly tell where I have joined the prints!

But most of all, I LOVE the beautiful quilting that Jeanette over at Gone Aussie Quilting did for me!  This is the first time I have sent a quilt away to be quilted.  It took me days of looking at digital designs, making a short list, and then asking my quilty friends for their votes, before I went with this vine design.  It is literally PERFECT in every sense.  I didn't want a dense quilting pattern, I wanted it to skim over the blocks and not take away from their brilliance.  I think my choice has achieved that!

And here it is on our queen size bed.  I took a gazillion 50 photos that night, but thought I would spare you!  I could sit and look at this quilt all day, but alas, I have other quilts to make now.

Through the process of making my Swoon, I've had many people ask me if it is a difficult pattern?  My answer?  It really is a fairly simply pattern to make.  It is made up of HST's and Geese, and a bunch of squares and rectangles.  The cutting for the blocks is a little tedious, but once I made the first block, I then worked on three blocks at a time, chain piecing them to make the process run smoother.  The blocks then came together relatively quickly.  In fact, I made all nine blocks in around four days.  Yes, they were big days, but it's very do-able!

In the details:  Machine pieced and machine bound.  SIZE - The finished size of the pattern is 80" x 80", I made my sashing 5" wide, which brought the finished size up to 90" x 90".  As you can see, that is plenty big for a queen size bed!  It will shrink up a few inches on its first wash, and will still be big enough.  FABRIC - I used Notting Hill by Joel Dewberry.  I bought the entire fat quarter collection - which you can still get HERE, HERE and HERE (just to name a few!).  This pattern is perfect for fat quarters - you only need 18 in total.  QUILTING - Jeanette from Gone Aussie Quilting is situated in New South Wales.  I posted the front and back to her, and she supplied the batting.  She has a TONNE of digital designs to choose from for her edge to edge service.  And she has a fabulous special price for quilting Swoon quilts.  And she's also super quick!  If you're in the USA, there is a special quilting offer for edge to edge quilting from a lady in New York.  If you join the Swooning on a Hop Along Flickr group HERE you will find that offer too.  And if you want to buy the pattern for yourself, you can find it HERE.

So.  Where to now?  More quilting I guess!

I'm linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday AND Show & Tell Tuesday - You can too!

Sunday Stash #4

A very exciting edition of Sunday Stash for me today!  I placed an order a couple of weeks ago with an Etsy store I had never used before, basically because they had what I wanted, and once I have in my head what I want - I then need.  So thank you to Westwood Acres on Etsy for making sure my new love was delivered safely and in a timely manner!  Even if Australia Post did then stuff it up and deliver it to a completely different address!  Thankfully someone was looking out and the incorrect address happened to be the ONLY school Mum I know in our newish area!  Hoorah!

So I present to you my fat quarter bundle of Joel Dewberry's Notting Hill.....

Fabric Love, on Flickr

These are my favourites in the range.  The colour palette is sublime. 

Favourites!  On Flickr

Stacks on, on Flickr

I bought this bundle after a few days of consideration.  I would love to make a queen size quilt for our bed, and this my friends will be the starting point!  I have no idea what sort of a pattern I want to use - so suggestions are most welcome!

Love A Freebie! on Flickr

And everyone loves a little freebie yes?  Teeny tiny pre-cut squares - nice!

What's new to your stash?  I'm linking up!

Sunday Stash @ Finding Fifth

PS. Don't forget to check in for ALL details of the

SEW FAB e-pattern bundle sale!

Dolly Drive

Nope, I'm not talking about the magazine I spent hundreds of hours flicking through in the 80's, I'm actually talking about REAL dollies!  Am I going bonkers?  No!  Although I very well may just do that now that I have committed myself to making a doll/softie.....

The lovely gals over at The Sewing Library (I know, I know - I'm a sewing geek!) have organised a fabulous Dolly Drive, and their aim is to provide Australian Children's hospitals with 1000 dolls and softies to donate to sick kiddies.  Fabulous yes??  They have teamed up with the amazing Sarah from Dolls and Daydreams, who just happens to design amazing little dollies and sells the patterns.  BUT, upon further investigation today (yep, I'm a bit late to the party) I've discovered Sarah also has a blog called Dolly Donations.  It's a fabulous blog with lots of great stories of dolly drives throughout the world!  And last Friday she wrote a post about our Aussie drive.

There are many, many amazing doll makers out in the world, and my kids are very lucky to own a few themselves, which is great, because I have never had the urge to make one......until now.  I have just purchased this gorgeous Nesting Dolls pattern, because quite frankly - the idea of sewing and stuffing little limbs makes me extremely nervous!  If my attempt at softie making is successful, then I shall make a couple to contribute to the cause.  And if it's a big fat fail - I will still contemplate sending it off (with an apology letter !) because the dolly drive is not about perfection, it's about chipping in for charity!

If you would like to join in the drive (1000 dolls/softies by the 1st of March!) please pop on over to the TSL Dolly Drive 2013 page and get stuck in!  I will be sure to keep you all posted on my progress or lack thereof with this little project!  I'm thinking Ms Chelsea may even like to join in the fun!

Another Nanna Post

You may have read this is some form, somewhere, somehow on some sort of technological gadget, but I only received this via email today.  So, sticking to my seemingly Nanna-like behaviour of late, I am going to share it with you.  It literally made me laugh out loud.  I am also going to copy and paste it on to the 13 year old's Facebook and may even "tag" all of his friends in it?  Or would that make me REALLY look like a Nanna?  Enjoy....

  

   
   "If you are 36, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways...yadda, yadda, yadda 

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of forty (PLEASE NOTE - THIS IS THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR OF THIS - NOT MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!), I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.  You've got it so easy!  I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!  And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it! 

1) I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet.  If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!! (how many of you know the Dewey Decimal System???

2) There was no email!!  We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen!  Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there!  Stamps were 10 cents!

3) Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us.  As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

4) There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes!  If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

5) Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!  There were no CD players!  We had tape decks in our car.  We'd play our favourite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless.  Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby!  Dig?

6) We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting!  If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

7) There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!!  Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!!  And then there's TEXTING.  Yeah, right.  Please!  You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

8) And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was!  It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!!  You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

9) We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics!  We had the Atari 2600!  With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'.  Your screen guy was a little square!  You actually had to use your imagination!!!  And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen.. Forever!  And you could never win.  The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died!  Just like LIFE!

10) You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing!  You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!!  NO REMOTES!!!  Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

11) There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning.  Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

12) And we didn't have microwaves.  If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove!  Imagine that!

13) And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long.  Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort.  And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

14) And car seats - oh, please!  Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on.  If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See!  That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten!  You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in the 1970's   or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 40 Crowd"

Relate much?  Or are you a young whipper-snapper whom this makes absolutely no sense to?

Clearing out the Cobwebs

The holiday is over.  The sun has disappeared (well, it had until today).  My tan is fading before I've had the chance to show it off to anybody who cares.  The exhaustion is lifting.  And my sewing machines have been dusted off.

Last week I used my time wisely.  I began tidying up my sewing space - taking the photo albums, uni textbooks and other crap out of the wall unit and re-organising it to accommodate my rapidly growing collection of fabrics and all things sewing related.

I happened to post a photo of my activities in a sewing group I am in.  And the most wonderful thing happened.  A lovely new friend of mine commented that the wall unit I have (from IKEA) has a desk attachment which works beautifully for sewing.  So I took my time worked up a sweat on the iMac searching IKEA's website looking for said desk attachment.  And found it.  Wow.  The twenty minutes that followed this discovery went something like this:

Screen shot of IKEA website MMS'd to husband to show how wonderful it was.

Reply from husband saying how wonderful it was.

Reply to husband saying I just got paid my penalty rates from working Boxing Day.

Thumbs up from husband for trip to IKEA.

Me climbing in car - childless - for trip to IKEA.

Angels singing as I wandered - childless - through IKEA.

Desk attachment purchased and taken home lovingly.

It's hard to believe that one little comment can lead to a complete overhaul of one room in a house.  But it did.  I can honestly say I would never dreamt of having the amount of room I now have in my sewing space, and I am thrilled!  Husband was very happy when he returned from work to find, not surprisingly, that I had pulled apart our desk to remove the return that we I no longer needed, and had roped in my 13 year old son to take all unwanted furniture out to the garage so I could put together my new love-child desk!  It's Uh-mazing!!!

The before and afters, which still really do not show just how much space I have now!

So, thank you to Bernii from Shnuckylove for the "heads-up"......I am a very content woman!  It was tried and tested yesterday with Ms Brother and Lady Huskylock...and worked wonderfully!

Ps.  Bernii makes the most gorg-wah ruffle bums - go have a looksy and tell her I sent you!

A quick Holiday post!

Hello to you all from the sunny Gold Coast!  I have been MIA......and to be perfectly honest, this is the first time this year I have popped in to my blog!  I thought I would give you a quick update on our holiday adventure.....

It didn't start off so well - our 12.20pm flight was cancelled at approximately 12.10pm!  Thanks Jetstar!  We got on to a 3.40pm flight....but that was also then delayed for over an hour.  So our 1.20pm arrival on the Gold Coast actually ended up being a 6pm arrival!  Needless to say, I am thrilled we are returning to Melbourne on a Virgin flight.....

The kids after a long day spent at Melbourne Airport, and finally arriving in Queensland!

Arrived to our beautiful little abode that we now call home, a gorgeous house within walking distance from the divine Broadwater.  I am extremely lucky, and grateful, to still have wonderful friends from childhood here on the coast, so we are staying at one of my friend's Mum's house!  She has it set up beautifully for all six of us, and the kids loved all the personal touches she has added for them.  Read: x-box, dolls house etc etc.

Day one of our holiday saw us trek to Seaworld......seven hours later, we trekked home.  Kids had a blast, and the husband and I were wrecked.

Day two was rather relaxing.....wandered down to the broadwater for a swim, had some lunch at home and then off to another friend's house for a swim in their pool.  My Dad also came over that evening for a visit!  Needless to say, I don't see him often living two states away, so it was nice to sit down over a meal.

Day three was Movieworld day, aka exhaustion central.  Long queues, and very warm sun made for a long day.  We bribed the kids to leave early with a promise of a swim at the beach - which we did follow through with!

Day four (dragged ourselves out of coma state) Wet N Wild.  Probably the best day amusement wise.  Our youngest son, who we have found has an aversion to anything mildly steep, speedy or fun, finally found h is theme park niche.  Water slides, it seems, are not asthreatening as other amusement park rides.  Phew.  We left resembling drowned rats approximately five hours after arriving.

Today.  I very sneakily (ie. didn't tell boys my plans) took the two girls with me to meet up with one of my cousins (well, not a blood cousin, but cousin all the same) who lives in Paris, and happens to be on the Coast at the moment.  I haven't seen her for around 20 years, so we organised a rendevouz over FB.  Drove the half hour to Currumbin beach, wandered between the flags where she said she would be, and gave up looking for her after 20 minutes.  Girls had a wonderful swim and play in the sand, whilst I got sunburnt because I failed in my search attempts to remember to apply sunscreen to myself.  Currently feeling the results of this now as I sit at computer typing!

Not much else planned for the last few days of our journey.  Oh, except for a beach bbq with lots of friends tonight, perhaps a day at Seaworld's water park tomorrow, a christening on Sunday (I'm going to be a God-Mother!) and flying home Monday.  Yeh, not much planned.....

I hope you are all thoroughly enjoying 2012 so far.  I will need a holiday when I return to Melbourne.  But the odds of this happening are zero!

Jelly Belly

Given that I have absolutely no sewing to do at present, I have succumbed to cruising the bloggy world.  Well, succumbed probably isn't the correct term - as it is certainly not a pastime I loath!  I love reading other people's blogs - about their lives, their hobbies, their trials and tribulations.  And tonight was no different.  I have just read BigWordsBlog post.  And I must say, it has struck a cord.  Bianca, the blogger, bared her soul in that post.  Her soul, and her belly.  It is something that I can honestly say, I would never do.  So I am hi-fiving her for doing so!

I know that anyone who knows me - from the outside - would wonder why I would never show my belly?  They would probably be thinking "she's so thin, she doesn't have a belly".  Or something along those lines.  My closest friends, I would hope, would understand.  You see, a lot of the general public see a person who is thin, who does not generally struggle with weight issues as not having any body image issues.  "You're so skinny", "God, I wish I could have four kids and have your figure", "If I looked like you I would wear a bikini"........these are just some of the hundreds of things that have been said to me in recent history.  What these people saying these things do not know is that my body is NOT perfect.  My figure is NOT perfect.  I bare the scars of four pregnancies.  Most of them I got during my first pregnancy, 13 years ago.  My divine 9pound, 9ounce baby boy stretched my stomach way beyond its capacity, and as week 35 rolled around and I dared to hold a mirror under my belly, I was aghast at what I discovered!  The stretch marks went right over my belly button, and therefore half way up my belly.

I too, like Bianca, used the creams, the lotions that made promises of stretch marks never turning up.  I too, like Bianca, had gestational diabetes with my second, third and fourth pregnancies, so only gained a minimal (well if you call 9-12kilos minimal) amount of weight - but still suffered immensely with problems due to my little frame.  And yet, nothing I did changed the course of my body's destiny!

A personal trainer, many years ago, post first pregnancy, told me that it didn't matter how fit, how healthy, nor how thin I was - that bit of jelly belly that wobbled over the top of any muscle mass I had left there, would never go away.  I was devastated.  I was 25 years old, and was divorced.  How on earth was I ever going to meet a wonderful man who would accept my belly for what it was?  Well, first of all, I had to accept my belly for what it was.  And funnily enough, my acceptance came through my amazing husband's acceptance.

My belly is what it is.  My figure is what it is.  Yes, I am thin.  No, I do not have a problem with my weight.  But I do have my imperfections, and my issues with my belly.  I just choose to hide them.  I won't ever wear a bikini again, but I'm at peace with that.  I have four amazing kids to show for the scars I have, and I would never taken them back for a pancake flat tummy!

None of us are perfect, and the sooner we all realise that, maybe we will ease up on ourselves, and cut some slack?  I'm not on my own, am I?