Bargain hunting, Swooning and FMQ

It's been a pretty busy fortnight here on the home front.. Mum and I took the kids up to see my grandparents for a week so we spent our time beating the heat down at the beach! And really, it was HOT. The first 3 days were hot, humid and crazy and the water was a welcome relief.. then came the thunderstorm which finally brought in the sea breeze for the next 3 days.. until it got hot and horrible again the day before we left! But overall it was a lovely holiday. Of course while I was "away"  Spotlight decided to have a VIP sale where you got a $10 voucher to spend for each day of the sale  so mum and I made sure that we managed to fit in a few visits to make sure we got our money's worth ;) I managed to come out of it with some fabric that has been catching my eye for months..... at the bargain clearance price of $4/m!

Even better, when I got home I managed to find a couple of the other fabrics in the same range at my local Spotlight store so I think I ended up with about 9 different fabrics in the range overall. I also managed to pick up a June Tailor 12.5" square ruler & some of her plastic shape templates (star, heart, circle, flower, leaf) at 50% off, some Christmas quilting fabric & panels cheap on clearance and some other random fabrics that I'd had my eye on. Now I just need to find the perfect project for my pretty yellow/grey "Sunny" fabric!

I've also joined in on Katy's Swoonalong, so at yesterday's craft morning playdate I cut pieces for my first block and today I completed it! These blocks will be for one side of the quilt that I've been planning to make as part of a marriage quilt for my husband and I. I purchased the fabrics back in October specifically for my quilt but with no real design idea in mind.. I had picked out a couple of star blocks that I'd been thinking over but once I saw that Swoon block it was just a case of deciding whether to use these fabrics or the fabrics I'd chosen for the other side of my quilt.

I've been working on my project for the Quilters with Modern Tools "GO! Ahead and Show a Little LOVE" AccuQuilt Blog Hop.. the blog hop will run from 13th - 18th February. The line up includes some of my favourite bloggers - I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with! And I hear rumors that there will be giveaways - yay!

Feb. 13 Marjorie from Marjorie Busby Quilts
Feb. 13 Ariane from Ariane's Crafts

Feb. 14 Connie from Quilting by the River
Feb. 14 Linda from Living 4 Quilting

Feb. 15 Lisa Marie from Scraps of Life
Feb. 15 Marilyn from North Hill Quilter

Feb. 16 Alicia from Heirloom Quilting
Feb. 16 Marjorie from Marjorie's Busy Corner

Feb. 17 Sharon from Craizee Corners
Feb. 17 Snoodles from Lily Pad Quilting

Feb. 18 Stacey from Driving Miss Stacey
Feb. 18 Tracey from The Peony Teacup (me!)
Feb. 18 Paulette from Sweet P Quilting and Creations

Do you want a sneak peek?

I decided to join Samelia's Mum's Name Game Swap at the last minute, so stay tuned for sneak peeks of the mini quilt I'll be making for my swap partner!

And last but not least, I finally got around to having a go at SewCalGal's 2012 FMQ challenge..  I read somewhere that felt made an excellent practice fabric, so I thought I'd give it a go before moving on to quilt sandwiches.. Here's my first attempt:

Front side

Back side

I boxed myself in a couple of times, and then my bobbin ran out and I decided that seemed like a good time to finish for the day. With a little more practice I think I  might even be able to turn out something that looks like leaves!