Sewvivor - Ms Midge - Melissa G

Family Ever After have launched their third SEWVIVOR series, and this season is the Quilter's Edition.  Ahuh!  

It has taken me a couple of weeks to work up the courage to write this post and throw my hat in the ring, but here I am.....

I LOVE a good challenge!  I love being thrown a curve-ball or a quilt-ball shall we say.....  I have been told I am a "quilt-churner" or prolific quilt maker, and have on many occasions whipped together a quilt in a day.  So, I think if the judges were to throw in a Survivor like challenge of say, eating a kilo of chocolate whilst winding a bobbin and burying threads - I'd say I could manage that!

So, if you will, read this post with the background sound of Destiny's Child and Beyonce, belting out:

"I'm a survivor, I'm not gon give up, I'm not gon stop, I'm gon work harder; I'm a survivor, I'm gonna make it, I will survive, keep on survivin"........

The Quilt I have chosen for this auspicious occasion is my Butterfly Bloom Bloom Quilt.  Some of you who have been around here for a while may very well remember it?  I finished it over a year ago, as a gift for my daughter Chelsea.  When I was debating which quilt to enter, I ummed and ahhed, but then took in to account what the Sewvivor rules tell me:

         "Be sure it is your best representation of you, your sewing skills, and your                                                                                        creativity!"

Although I have "grown" as a quilter in the past twelve months, I feel this quilt represents the beginning of a real LOVE for quilting and the entire quilting process.  This was my first quilt-along (with Lee from Freshly Pieced) and it challenged me in ways I did not even think possible!  It was the first time I'd thought, really thought, about fabric selection and the way it can change the look of a block.  I mean, who knew there were low and high volume fabrics?  And tones???  I almost gave up before I even began!

 

It was the quilt I really got the hang of free motion quilting on!  

 

I had a ball adding in words and butterflies.....

 

I also went to town piecing the back.

 

It was also the first time I appliqued scraps of fabric to a quilt.

 And lastly - it taught me all about the importance of precise cutting and piecing!

So - there you have it!  Consider my hat thrown!  I'm looking forward to watching Sewvivor unfold - regardless of whether I'm in it or not - I will be sewing along!

A Tale of Two Dresses

Every day, I receive a gazillion emails in my inbox.  They vary from the all important special sales online to recent blog posts from my faves.  Every now and then, there will also be an actual typed email from someone I know!  But, a few weeks ago I got an email telling me about a new pattern........and I kept that email because I loved the look of the dress, but had SO lost my passion for dressmaking that I didn't know if I would buy it, let alone make it.  

Fast forward to earlier last week.  I had some free time.  That does not happen very often.  I wandered in to Lincraft in the morning to get some denim for a new bag - only to find out that ALL of their fabric was half price!  BINGO!  So not only did I get denim, but I also found a couple of gorgeous lightweight cotton prints that would be nice for dresses.  It was right about then that my plans for bag making flew out the window.....

At around 2.30 in the afternoon, I started two dresses for my girls.  Not only are my daughters five and a half (the half matters you know) years apart in age - they are also poles apart in dress sense.  Miss almost five year old Chloe is a princess/barbie loving girly girl.  And Miss I'M TEN! Chelsea is trying to decide whether she is a high fashion supermodel or a beanie wearing goth....... Soooooo, here is the tale of the two dresses......in photos.......

Not so special just hanging around!

I finished both dresses around 8pm that night!  Hence the dodgy iPhone pics of the girls!

I guess I wanted to show you how different a dress can not only look on the hanger, compared to wearing, but also in the use of different prints and fabrics!  The little version (actually, it is TOO little - the sizing on this pattern was a tad small, so I've bought more of the bloom fabric to make her a bigger size - dress anyone??) is a poplin bordered print.  Perfect for this style of dress!  The bigger version (which falls beautifully below the hips - perfect sizing) is a lovely soft voile.  It's the first time I have sewn with voile, and it was great to work with!

Needless to say, both girls loved their dresses!  Now we just need the weather to switch over to Spring and they will be able to contemplate wearing them!

If you like this pattern, you can purchase it HERE.  It was pretty damn easy to follow, and the finish is neat and tidy.  There are also some beautiful options to change the look of the dresses.  I will certainly be making many more of them.

Have you tried any new patterns lately?  Sharing is caring!

xxx

PS - Have you entered my GIVEAWAY yet?

Butterfly Bloom Bloom Pow - Blogger's Quilt Festival

I only learnt about the Blogger's Quilt Festival a few weeks ago......wow!  If you, like me, want to know more, head over to Amy's Creative Side and be amazed!  Literally a festival of quilts.  A feast for the senses.  And much to see and learn!  You can nominate quilts from the 17th - 24th May and then vote for your favourites in each category from the 24th - 30th May!

I am entering my beloved Butterfly Bloom Bloom Pow.  It is my most recent finish, and dare I say - my favourite!  You can read my original post HERE.  But tonight, I'm going to gush a little more over this baby!

I decided to join Lee from Freshly Pieced in her quilt along - my first ever!  And on the 11th of April, began this beauty in ernest, hoping it would turn out "ok".  Just under one month later - it was finished! I followed the quilt along week by week, and in that last week decided that I just HAD to have it done in time to give to my daughter who was turning ten.  I finished with a couple of days to spare.

I chose to surround the blooms with a big white border....

Which then lead to loads of free motion quilting!

Once deciding on its recipient, I got creative....

And ended up with around eight butterflies throughout.

The pieced back is nothing like I had planned.  The zig zags are scraps from cutting out the blooms.

I appliqued them on to the homespun with a funny stitch that made it a nightmare to do!

But was very effective.

In the afternoon sunlight.

To say my Chelsea girl was thrilled with her quilt would be quite the understatement.  She has slept under it every night since and says it's the prettiest thing she's ever had!

The Details:

Quilt name: Butterfly Bloom Bloom Pow
Finished size: 73" x 61"
Fabric: Valori Wells Cocoon & assorted fat quarters & Homespun
Thread: Aurifil 50wt #2000
Machine quilted by Me on my Bernina 430
Group/Category: Bed Quilt

Thanks so much for popping in!  If somebody had of told me twelve months ago that I would be entering a quilting festival - I would have had them scheduled!  But here I am.  
Have a great weekend!

W.I.P. Wednesday #19 - A New Block in My Repertoire!

I don't have much to show in the way of W.I.P.'s this week.  So this will be very short and sweet!  The last few weeks of W.I.P. Wednesday have been taken up with my Bloom Bloom Pow quilt.....but I have finished that baby, which you can see HERE!

Remember the huge wholesale order I got for cushion covers?  Well, the owner of the shop in Bali was in Melbourne over the weekend, so I sent her home with the first dozen finished!  And here they are sitting pretty in her store.  They look even better with the inserts in them!  Now......only 104 left to finish!

And this is my other W.I.P. for the week!  My first even X and + block.  I have joined in a Japanese X and + block bee over at A Yankee In Queen Liz's Court.  Patti is an absolute crack up, and the bunch of ladies involved are all over the world!  I need to churn four of these babies out each and every month, so I need to get my skates on!

That's all folks!

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

W.I.P. Wednesday #18 - What a doozy!

Well what a mammoth week I've had!  I was very excited to see Lee's directions posted early Friday morning for putting the Bloom Bloom Pow blooms together, but alas, did not get around to finishing my part until yesterday!  When I started placing it all out on the weekend, I wasn't entirely happy with how it was looking.  I felt like it was too "slim".  So yesterday, I banged out a couple more blooms.

First attempt - 12 blooms

Finished product - 14 blooms!  I was so utterly pleased with myself when I'd finished putting this top together!  I'm really excited to get this baby up to single bed size, and figuring out how to use all the "scraps" to bring it all together.

I love this view.  Sooooo Pretty!

Now my points are far from perfect, but really not too bad!

Another WIP I played with, is my bee blocks for my month being queen!  I chose THESE tutorials, and asked the ladies to use some nice bright scraps and Iron grey homespun.  I LOVE how this looks, and am looking forward to working out the right placement for them.  It is going to become a quilt for our lounge room.  I was sitting in there the other night with a fluffy throw rug on and said to my husband that we needed a quilt for in there.  To which he responded "I'm pretty sure you can fix that!"

So scrappy and yummy!

And this below my friends, is what would be commonly known as "mind numbing production line".  My darling Mother has popped zips in the backs of nearly all 116 cushion covers, so yesterday I spent three and a half hours squaring them all up and sewing them together.  I got through 40 of them!  Just waiting on the extra special labels to arrive so I can bind them all!  I'm getting there.....

And my last WIP this week?  Well, it involves a visit to the car wash.  You see, last week when driving Chloe home from creche, she was complaining of a sore tummy.  Which she does ALL THE TIME.  I changed the subject, and she told me she was going to be sick.  I told her she wasn't going to be sick "don't be silly" I say.  And she vomitted.  In my car.  All over the floor upholstery.  Sooooooo, after several attempts of cleaning and getting the smell out myself, I took it to the car washes for a steam clean.

Only problem being that I got in it today after being locked up all day whilst I was at work, and got that faint little whiff of spew.  Fail.

And that's my week!  I have lots of plans for the coming week, but have no idea how I'm going to manage to pull them all off!

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

W.I.P. Wednesday #17 - Bloom Bloom Pow Wow

Last week's WIP is continuing.  I've been singing Black Eyed Peas on a way too regular basis but have just stopped short of shaving half my head and digging out my old Reebok Pumps.  This quilter can't quite wrap rap whilst cutting quilt blocks!

So this is where I left off last week.  All the blocks pieced and ready to rumble....

Over the weekend, I very carefully unwrapped thy golden 60 degree triangle ruler and steadied myself for some serious cutting action.  To say I was nervous would be an understatement! I read and re-read and then read again Lee's instructions.  I felt a bit like Santa, checking my list, then checking it twice.....  The first cut was certainly the deepest!

Once I got in to the swing of things, cutting these rows of triangles out was relatively easy.  I'm quietly excited about the "waste" zigzags up there - wondering if I can incorporate them somehow in to the back of the quilt?  Hmmmmm.  So, this picture above is what the rows SHOULD look like when cutting out.....

And this my friends, is how it SHOULD NOT look.  This was the first of my half blooms being cut, and as you can see - I royally stuffed up!  It took me a few minutes to work out where I had gone wrong.  Basically, when you get past singing Boom Boom Pow, you need to move on to a bit of Destiny's Child - To the left, to the left - the print (in my case here the pink) of your background needs to be to the left of your cut triangle.  Does that even sound like it makes sense??  Well, there was a reason why this was stuffed up.....

When I pieced the half blooms, I put the strips on incorrectly.  In the above photo you can see that there is one slightly smaller rectangle on the left of the middle row?  Well, that row should basically be flipped.  And then I would have been able to get my three triangles cut AND have the pink to the left of the triangle.....phew!

Anyway, I have rectified the issue, and was able to unpick and re-piece the offending blocks, all but one, which has had to be re-made!

And this is the end result of all that cutting!  Aren't they delicious?

I saw Kristy over at Quietplay on IG today playing with her blooms, so I joined in!  Don't they look awesome?  And they are also surprisingly quite large in size!

A bit more eye candy.  I can't wait for Friday's instructions, and to get my sew-jo on!

And that's all I've got for you friends.  But what a beautiful WIP it is!  You know it's not to late to join in the fun!  Head on over to see for yourself.

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced!

W.I.P. Wednesday #16 - Patience is A Virtue?

Last week I showed you my Bloom Bloom Pow cutting all finished.  It was hard to wait until Friday for the next lot of instructions, but once they were up - I headed straight for the machine!  This quilt along is fabulous, even more so because I have absolutely no idea what I am doing!  I have literally just had to follow the instructions by Lee and cross my fingers.  Another great part of it is the Flickr group, where you get feedback about your progress - including Lee's!  Good to know I'm doing it correctly.....

These were my first two blocks.  It's hard to imagine, but each block gets cut in to triangles and makes up a bloom.  Strange yes?

And after a few hours sewing, this is what all the blooms look like put together!  I seriously could not be any happier with my final fabric selection!

Up close and personal.  Aren't they divine?  I've chosen to make the cot size, however, I'm planning to use the finished quilt top as a bit of a centrepiece, and work outwards to make it single bed size.  My eldest daughter "only" has a rag quilt made by me - so I am hoping to make this work as her "real" quilt.

And this is my other piece to show and tell this week.  It's a big old row of chevrons, to soon be attached to my fly by the seat of my pants quilt. I think I've worked out what I want to do with this quilt.  I want to make it rectangular.  This could be wrong, but I'm just winging it.  So the chevrons will go across the top and bottom of the square.  Watch this space.....


(Apologies for the crap photo, but lighting has been shocking in Melbourne of late!)
I've said it before, this range of Sarah Fielke fabrics are just beautiful.  But as I have mentioned, I am no mathematician, and was two HST's short in width for these rows.  A quick trip to Spotlight fixed that - and you will be impressed to know that is all I bought!  Well, except for some stretch fabric (GASP!) for a little experimenting.

And this is what I made!  Some teeny little harem pants for a little baby boy.  He has hip dysplasia  and is wearing a brace, so his Mummy asked if I could make some pants for him.  They are far from perfect, and I will be the first to say stretch fabric and I are not the best of friends, but hey - they fitted him!

That's all folks.  I'm trying to be very patient waiting for my weekly instalment in the quilt along.  But it's VERY HARD!

I'm linking up with W.I.P.  Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced!

Biting more than Chewing

You know that old saying "biting off more than you can chew"?  I am quite the expert at this.  And despite telling myself every time I am in this muddle that I will not do it again - I do.

So.  This is where I'm presently at.  I have signed up to TWO QAL's.  The Bloom Bloom Pow over at Freshly Pieced and the Texas Teardrop at The Quilting Lodge.  I've managed to completely surprise myself and am up to date with the first.  I have not even managed to think about fabric for the second.  I think I am going to have to shelve it for now, and Pin it for a later date.  I've also signed up for The Fat Quarter Shop Myster BOM, which starts in a couple of months.  I've been looking forward to it since registering earlier this year.  Can't wait.  As long as I have the time!

Still in quilting world, I have my QCA bee #5, which I'm thankfully managing to keep up to date with.  March was my month as Queen Bee and  I've been absolutely thrilled with all the blocks that have arrived so far, only a few more to go and I can think about how I'm going to turn them all in to a quilt.

In very exciting news, I was invited to take part in an awesome paper piecing bee!  I was quite chuffed to think that these fab ladies think I'm up to the challenge, so I've taken it on, and will quietly crap my pants each month that the blocks are chosen!  I've just received my first block today and am laughing myself silly on the inside, but am determined that I will. get. it. done. properly.  Stay tuned.

And in HUGE news, I was approached a few weeks ago to supply an amazing homewares store overseas with cushion covers!  Not my quilted cushions, but some really fun, bright coloured cushion covers that the owner requested after seeing the fabrics I choose to work with over at Ms Midge.  After picking myself up off the floor, I punched some numbers and spat out a wholesale price, which was enthusiastically agreed upon, and last week ordered 75 yards of fabric!  Soon after hitting "finalise purchase", I had a mini heart attack wondering how I would get 120 cushion covers made and sent by the end of May?  I'm happy to say I called on good old Mum, who I am now outsourcing to, to help me in the construction to speed things up.  Soooo, from June, if you're in Bali, pop by Kody & Ko and check out my fancy cushion covers.

As murphy's law would have it - what has been a quiet time in terms of orders for Ms Midge - the same week I signed off on the above deal, I had an influx of orders and enquiries.  I am now madly trying to get myself organised and get all orders done and dusted before my huge fabric order arrives and all hell breaks loose!

Do you ever bite off more than you can chew??

W.I.P. #15 - Bloom Bloom Pow!

Another W.I.P. Wednesday on a Thursday - It's Wednesday somewhere in the world!?!

This week saw me embarking on my first ever QAL (quilt along for those who just raised an eyebrow).  I'm joining in with Lee from Freshly Pieced, and making her Bloom Bloom Pow quilt.

It took me much thinking, over thinking and then a bit more thinking to finally decide on which fabrics I would use.  And also which size I would make.  I ended up opting for the Cocoon range by Valori Wells.  It's been sitting on  my shelf waiting for the right project!  I also chose to make the baby size quilt, due to the fact I won't have much time over the next month or so.

The result of a few hours cutting!  I've gone with Cocoon for the big petals, and a whole eclectic mix of prints and plains for the bloom's background.  And this afternoon I'm cutting the white.

Tomorrow, Lee will give us the instructions for piecing - I'm VERY excited!

It's not too late to join in, I've joined a fab Facebook group for some of us taking part, which is great for bouncing ideas around and a good laugh! Let me know if you would like to join in too!

I'm linking up with W.I.P. Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced!