Giving Thanks - Blog Hop Party With Give-aways!

The Quilting Gallery is hosting the Giving Thanks Blog Hop Party!  And although we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here in Australia, I'm jumping on board to THANK YOU ALL for making it worth my while tapping away on the keyboard here.  You see, this is my 448th blog post!  Crazy!  And since I started blogging about my quilting, things have really taken off here - so Thank You!

If you're new to my blog - WELCOME!  You can read a little about me HERE, and have a look at some of my finished projects HERE.  And of course, if you like what you see, feel free to stick around by following me on Bloglovin' or email or whatever takes your fancy!

Now - to the giveaway.  I stood in front of my fabric shelves for a bit this morning and pondered what I would cut up?  And the delightful Flora range grabbed my attention!  So I'm giving away SIX fat quarters of this gorgeous range!

To ENTER, just leave me a comment telling me what you would make with them!  Followers of my blog can also leave a second comment for an extra entry!

Please make sure you are not a "no-reply blogger" so I can actually contact you in the event that you are the winner!  The winner will be chosen via Random.org.  Competition closes midday November 26th EST (Australia).  International entries welcome!

You will find all the participating bloggers in the hop HERE.

And whilst I have your attention - I am hosting a fabulous Blog Hop, starting 1st December!  Check out all the details HERE!  Would love you all to join in, and of course, there's more prizes up for grabs!

Lastly - THANKS again for popping in and I hope to see you again!

Midge
xx

W.I.P. Wednesday - Jelly Roll Stalled

Remember that gorgeous quilt top I finished a couple of weeks ago?

THIS ONE

Well, given my usual form of being able to finish a quilt top and have it quilted and bound within a week, this one has stalled.

I did manage to make the backing for it - which I ADORE.  The amazing blue spot print is from my local Spotlight.  I love how it pops.  I also pieced in a few leftover jelly roll strips for interest.

I also started quilting it.  In fact, I got half way through it before I had to pack it up to prepare food for my family, who for some reason do not stop wanting to be fed, even when I am in the midst of quilting?  What's with that?

Anywho, I am half way through quilting this baby, and I just haven't gotten back to it.  Yet.  I started and unpicked four times before settling on this organic version of a baptist fan (I'm sticking with that description ok?).  And it was actually very hard work pushing and pulling the quilt through.  Soooooo, I need to rev myself up to sit down and get the other half done.  Sigh.

And that's it for W.I.P.'s!  Whilst I was stalling on this finish, I did however get a couple more cushions finished for my BLOG HOP!!!!  Yes, you heard correctly.  In case you missed my announcement last night, I am hosting a blog hop - check out all the details HERE.  And get involved people!  There's prizes!  PRIZES!  Can you tell I'm excited??

I'm linking up with W.I.P. Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced - You can too!

A Cushion For Christmas Blog Hop!

With just FIVE WEEKS until Christmas, I have some VERY exciting news to share with you!  I'm hosting my first ever Blog Hop!  That's right - little old ME!

On the first of December, the Cushion For Christmas Blog Hop will kick off!  Two whole weeks of fabulous bloggers, all whom I love and respect as creative peeps! That's right - TWELVE of the cleverist (that's a word yes?) bloggers I know. Each with their own take on A Cushion For Christmas.  And will hopefully inspire you to make your own!

Last week, whilst toiling away on THIS cushion, inspiration struck. Making quilted cushions is one of my all time favourite things to do. They are mostly quick and easy, economical and give you the chance to quilt to your heart's content - without breaking your back. So I thought "This needs to be shared on a bigger scale"! This is where my social skills came in to play..... I messaged and emailed my quilty friends and asked if they would like to take part in my blog hop and share with you all a cushion you can make in less than a day, wrap up and gift to someone you love for Christmas. And low and behold - they said yes!

I've also managed to round up some WONDERFUL sponsors to provide FABULOUS prizes.  Prizes?  For who?  And why?  Well, I want you all to join in!  And at the end of the Hop, I'd love for you to link up your projects for a chance to win said prizes!  Sound good?

Now, I'm guessing you'd like to know where you'll be hopping yes?  Well, here's the schedule….

Sunday 1st December - Me!  Here!

Monday 2nd December - Gemma at Pretty Bobbins

Tuesday 3rd December - Kristy at Quiet Play

Wednesday 4th December - Joshua at Molli Sparkles

Thursday 5th December - Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts

Friday 6th December - Fiona at Finding Fifth

Saturday 7th December - Abby at Things For Boys

Take a breath……

Sunday 8th December - Lauren at Molly & Mama Makes

Monday 9th December - Jodi at Tickle & Hide

Tuesday 10th December - Adrianne at On The Windy Side

Wednesday 11th December - Rachel at Little White Dove

Thursday 12th December - Gina at Party of Eight

Friday 13th December - Jane at Quilt Jane

Saturday 14th December - Round up of Blog Hop and link up YOUR projects!

I will also have some tutorials in between for tips on cushion making.

So make sure you're following me via Bloglovin or email or Facebook or……well, you get the picture!  Don't miss out!

A big shout out to the fab sponsors of the hop -

Patterns Only - $20 Voucher

The Oz Material Girls - $20 Voucher

Fat Quarter Shop - $50 Voucher!

Polka Dot Tea - Fabric Bundle!

Intrepid Thread - $25 Voucher!

Blossom Heart Quilts - Quilt Patterns!

Quiet Play - Paper Piecing Patterns!

NOW - if you'd like to join in, feel free to grab my button over there on the right of my blog >>>>   You don't have to have a blog to join in, if you would like to email your finished projects, you are more than welcome to!  I have also set up a Flickr group for those interested - HERE.

So, until the 1st of December!  I will see you back here to kick it all off!

The Go To Gift

A few weeks ago, I started thinking stressing freaking out about what the make the kids teachers for Christmas gifts.  Once I remembered I still had SIX WEEKS (cue the hyperventilating), I relaxed and put some proper thought in to it.

Fast forward to today - and I had only a few "have to sew" things in the morning, and once I'd ticked them off, I got down to the task of the first teacher's gift.  My "go to gift" - a cushion.

Isn't she beautiful?  I pinned THIS paper piecing pattern last week, and knew it would be perfect to use for a cushion.  And although I love the original I saw, with the coloured fabric centre, I wanted more negative space for quilting, so kept mine white.  I dragged out my bag of Sarah Fielke scraps - leftovers from my Flying By The Seat Of My Pants quilt - and got the star and borders whipped together in a couple of hours.  This is a GREAT paper piecing pattern for relative beginners.

And then I got my Free Motion on!  These swirly patterns are probably my favourite in terms of free motion quilting.  They seem to be the design I do best - my stitch length is uniform throughout - something I have a bit of trouble with when doing some other designs.  I used a white Aurifil #2024  for all the negative space quilting.  I then took to pebbling the outside border.  I used my recently acquired hot pink Aurifil #1011 for this - and I LOVE this colour!  Now my pebbling is far from perfect, but I quite like it that way :)

I think the straight line shadowing on the inside of the star gives it a bit of a 3D effect?  I just love it!

And the back?  This is from a fat quarter of the same fabric range (if you're wondering what it is, it's called "On The Pond") and was easy to make in to a concealed zipper back.  So neat.

So that's another finish off that invisible list of things to do for Christmas.  I'm happy to say that when Cadyn walked through the door from school today, and I showed him this - his eyes lit up.  He was thrilled when he saw it was for his teacher.  He has a real soft spot for this lovely lady, as do I.  She has brought out the absolute best in him, and he's gone from being a kid that was struggling a bit and was anxious about learning - to a confident young man who is excelling in his work and in her words, is eager to learn.  So, me thinks she deserves this little piece of heaven.

NOW - if you are still planning your handmade Christmas list, I have something coming up very soon, that just may interest you!  Watch this space!

I'm linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday and I Quilt - You can too!

T.G.I.F.F. - Catching Up on Bee Blocks & Stuff!

I spent most of Wednesday catching up on my bee blocks!  I felt like I was starting to drown in them, so knocked them all out…..

Our Queen Bee for Wombat Stew last month was Lara.  She is going to have THE most gorgeous Houses quilt EVER!  Now, take away the fact that the door fabric is wrong way, ummmm, this block is perfect!  I will be sending some of the fabric for Lara to hopefully just appliqué on the top.  I only noticed at the end - DOH!

And the second little house.  I love fussy cutting in paper pieced blocks!

Then it was on to my QCA Bee blocks.  Alex is November's bee and she requested a Bento Box block in low volume fabrics.  First time making one of these blocks, and I really like it!

And Kathryn was October's queen, and asked for a Mondrian block - but with very little direction.  We basically made up the design and measurements ourselves, and were told to use whatever solid colours we had. Would you believe I do not really have that many solid colours in my stash??  I was pleasantly surprised with how this turned out, and I shall look forward to the end quilt top with everyone's different colours thrown in!

I also whipped up a few playsuits.  The Strawberry one was an order - and I always think when cutting out one order, I might as well make a few - production line style!  The Butterflies & LRRH playsuits are for sale on my FB Page.

And last but not least, I got started on some Santa sacks for an upcoming school market night I'm having a stall at.  I don't do markets these days, so thought I'd get some functional and reasonably priced goodies together for sale.  Well, I did some 'market research' on my personal fb page, and next thing I know, I'd sold six of them!  So, another trip to Spotlight yesterday for more fabric to make the market sacks!

A very productive week!

I'm linking up with T.G.I.F.F. being hosted by Quokka Quilts (Go check out her awesome finish!!) - You can too!

W.I.P. Wednesday - What to do with a jelly roll??

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to receive a lovely parcel in the mail from none other than Kate Spain herself!  I was rewarded with such loot after being involved in the Kate Spain Blog Hop hosted by Alyce @ Blossom Heart Quilts.  Apart from the fact it had Kate's actual address on the parcel and then a lovely hand written note inside, I was very excited to find it contained a Honey Honey jelly roll as well as a charm pack of Sunnyside.  After thanking Kate profusely by every means of social media I could, I put the loot away safely for when I found something lovely to do with it.

Fast forward to last Wednesday night when I was talking to the husband about Christmas presents.  I had a bit of a light bulb moment and said "If I get time, I'll make a throw quilt for _______ ". (Keeping that bit anonymous for obvious reasons!).

Thursday night, Andrew arrived home from work to a started quilt top - and promptly laughed himself silly.  "If you have time" he says……

By Friday afternoon, I sent him a photo of this…...

The Honey Honey jelly roll in all its glory!

I knew I wanted to use it for this project, but had no idea what sort of a pattern to use?  So I googled and Pinteresteddddddd until my eyes were falling out of my head.  I then decided to just go with the flow (sound familiar?) and basically ended up with this!

Andrew chose the green for the background, but I added a 1" white border around the blocks before adding the green sashing - SOOOOO glad I did!  I think it make the blocks sing :)

So.  Another Christmas present almost ticked off my non-existent list of things to do.

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced - You can too!

Sew Cute Tuesday - Quick & Easy Projects!

Some of you may remember I received a huge addition to my stash earlier this year?  Take a look HERE to refresh your memories!

Well, this past week has seen me cut in to some of the more treasured prints from my Japanese haul.  These are just a couple of them…...

I made this gorgeous zippered pouch using THIS fabulous tutorial by Noodlehead.  I tried making one last year and failed miserably, so was VERY chuffed with myself this time round.  The fabric is a Joli Pomme print, and is just about my favourite in terms of quirkiness!  I mean, rabbits and owls holding umbrellas with life like apples??  LOVE!  The photos don't do it as much justice as it should have, but I was stuck with my iPhone when photo time came.

I used some treasured Kate Spain for the lining and think it works beautifully.  I love how wide these pouches open.

This was gifted to a work friend on Monday, but I have also managed to make another for a little Christmas stocking filler showcase coming up.  Cute yes?

And then today, I was trying to think of a gift to make for another friend's birthday, and the idea hit!  So I went ahead and made something I'd always thought I'd make "one day" - a teabag wallet!

More Joli Pomme and some Kayo Horaguchi.

And some very contrasting black and white prints for the inside.  I used THIS tutorial and let me tell you - super quick and easy!  Whipped them both up under an hour.  I can see more of these in my future…..

These two little projects are also the beginning of my gift sewing for Christmas.  SEVEN. WEEKS. AWAY. PEOPLE.  I'm trying very hard to avoid making a list of what I need to get done before then, and so far it's working!  Tomorrow I shall be back to show you a very spur of the moment quilt top I put together last week……  Another gift I can almost tick off my list that doesn't exist!  Yay me!

How's everyone else doing with their Christmas lists?

I'm linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday - You can too!