Meet my new Brother!

I have the best Mum on the whole wide world! Seriously.

Spotlight had another one of their $10 VIP coupon promotions running last week, so Mum and I caught up for coffee and a chat followed by a trip to Spotlight.. Because really, who wouldn't want to hang out with their mum at a fabric store?

As a bonus, all their Easter stuff was 50% off so we bribed the kids by letting them go crazy with Easter decorations and craft projects! Smart, yes?

So while we were wandering around looking at the "boring fabric stuff" I noticed an embroidery machine on their clearance table. A closer inspection found it to be a Brother Innovis 750d embroidery machine. A quick google on my phone revealed that it had a retail price of around $1100ish and some excellent reviews. Did I mention it's also the Disney model? Strictly for personal use of course, but that's fine - there are plenty of small children in my life that have birthdays and Christmases coming ;)

Source: Brother.com

The best part is that the clearance price was $299! Too good to pass up, and my Mum agreed.. she offered to purchase it for me! A quick phone call to my husband (so he could confirm that it was a machine "worth" buying - which he did) and we were on our way to the checkout. The husband had confirmed that aside from the memory cards that can be purchased it was all good to go as far as purchasing online digitised embroidery designs and making up our own designs and loading them on. Woo!

My 2 day stash ;)

The not best part was that we were so exhausted by the time we'd decided to buy the machine that Mum and I didn't think about buying embroidery threads & stabiliser, so we had to wait 2 days until  Monday so that we could finally fire it up and try it out! Although on the up side, my husband is SO excited about this machine (so much so that you'd think it was *his* new toy!!) that he even came to Spotlight with me to buy thread and stabiliser which means that I have rather an "impressive stash" for someone who has owned her machine for less than a week. He's also purchased Embird Embroidery Software with all the extras (because have I ever mentioned that he's a Software Engineer  and loves all things software related?) and has spent the last 3 days digitising designs for the kids. I think he knows more about my new machine than I do!

*My* first attempt, using one of the inbuilt designs.

Our second embroidery design, purchased from Designs by Juju

2x finished muslin bunny rugs for my brand new nephew (name blurred)
Designs both from Designs by Juju

Infact he's declared that everyone we know will now be receiving embroidered gifts for the rest of forever. Sooooo amused. Meanwhile, I haven't had any time to quilt because I've been too busy "helping" him play with "his" new machine! But I need to get cracking on the quilting because I'm SO close to finishing the Harry Potter quilt top and it needs to be quilted, bound and finished by the 1st May  (Bean's birthday)... although now I'm sure the quilt label will be a little fancier!

The husband's first digitised design (of a certain pig Blossom requested, who shall remain nameless)

Attempt #1 - about 6 attempts later, we've ironed out the kinks in the dress!

I wanted to give my new machine a name (I was thinking Daisy) but my husband has "forbidden" it - he thinks it's silly. I pointed out that all his computers have names (server names), to which he replied that once it could be logged onto over the internet, then I could name it. But we don't have to tell him that I named it anyway, right?

Daisy might seem like a weird name to give a *Brother*.. but it's kind of appropriate.. when Blossom was littler the way she pronounced her brother's name came out sounding like "Daisy", so Daisy it is!

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!

Catching up..

Goodness me! I've just realised that it's been a month since I last posted about something crafty on here! It's not for lack of crafting, let me tell you! Infact, it's probably exactly why I haven't managed to post.. aside from the fact that it's "that time of year" and things have been super busy with end of year concerts and parties as well as half a dozen birthdays, I've been spending quite a bit of time focussing on the actual crafting which has left significantly less time for the blogging. I've been lagging behind badly on my blog reading, too - falling asleep on the sofa has become my new normal.

So here's some of the stuff that I've been doing this last month...

Crochet "wine glass cover" #3 - about 3 rows to go.

My first completed "Split Drunkard's Path Star" (will blog tutorial)

2 stars plus the tumbler medallion.. Harry Potter Quilt still in progress

Quilt for Blossom's Kindy teacher, who is retiring.
Each child in the class decorated a square, and I put it all together.

Back of the teacher quilt.

Christmas table runner, complete!

I just love the backing fabric.. might even pretend it's reversible ;)

I also broke my fabric ban.. it all started so innocently.. with a voucher for $40 off at Spotlight when you spent $100... and I needed more fabric/batting for the quilt for Blossom's teacher, so it totally didn't count towards the fabric ban.. and my husband decided that I should make some "Minecraft Creepers" for Bean & Blossom (like these) so I had to buy fabric for those (because I seriously need ANOTHER project that has to be finished in time for Christmas!) and my SIL decided that she wanted a jungle themed quilt for her nursery instead of Peter Rabbit, and I found a gorgeously perfect panel..

And most people would leave it there. But not me... once the flood gates were open, it was on. It didn't help that there were a whole pile of Black Friday sales being tweeted left, right and centre... The first thing I indulged in was a 21 FQ set of Riley Blake's Delighted from The Intrepid Thread, which reminded me how much I love fabric designed by The Quilted Fish so I went hunting for some more Sweet Divinity to go with the fabric that I bought a couple of months ago (which will be turned into a quilt and accessories for Blossom's new room when we finally move)... and I found what I was looking for at two separate etsy stores.. A total of 10 yards, made up of 10x Sweet Divinity fabrics, 9x Sugar & Spice fabrics and the "Quite Contrary" Green Stripe by My Mind's Eye. Yes, way more fabric than I will need to make Blossom a quilt, given that I already have 5 yards of Sweet Divinity (5x fabrics).

My Christmas present to myself

And then I went back to Spotlight and bought myself a walking foot, some coordinating fabric for my SIL's baby quilt, some more fabric for the teacher quilt (because my backing fabric was an inch short and I decided just to buy another piece than mess around) and then decided that I was all binged out.

More holiday shopping

On Saturday I went back to Spotlight to check out what other quilting fabrics they had marked down - not with any particular expectations, mostly just curiosity! (And of course, the lure of their birthday celebrations - the kids were keen to get a "showbag" and have their faces painted)

As it happens I managed to find a co-ordinated range of fabrics "Tulips in Bloom" all on sale! Initially I'd set aside some other fabrics, not for any particular project but because they were cute (including a pink polka dot that I just HAD to have anyway - pic right at the bottom of the post) but there was this one fabric, a brown and blue floral that kept catching my eye... so I pulled it out and then noticed some other fabrics that matched.. checked the labels.. yep, same range! and started hunting for others. This was my final selection:

Tulips in Bloom, Blue & Brown

You might be able to just see the rabbits & birds hiding in the design

Tulips in Bloom - "Leaves"

Tulips in Bloom - "Petals"

Amusingly enough, the light blue "Petals" fabric is the one that I'd purchased on Thursday to make the Pillowcase Top for Blossom!

Co-ordinating homespun

Doesn't it look lovely? I can't wait to start cutting!

I was only going to buy 1/2 metre of each fabric because I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but then I decided that I would use it to make a quilt top for my husband and me, which meant that I would need probably closer to a metre of each because we have a king-size bed.. and at $6/metre, why not?!

The pink polka dot that I just couldn't walk past

All up I had close to 13 metres of fabric, and for the bargain price of $72! Now all I need is a design..

Holiday shopping trips...

I've done lots of shopping this last week.. whenever we head up to visit my grandparents there is a standard list of places to visit:

* The second hand bookshop

* Katies 

* Rivers Clearance store

* Good Sammy's (thrift store)

* Spotlight (I know this sounds weird considering there are two Spotlight stores within a 30 minute drive of my house, but it's just what I do!)

This trip Mum and I added the local quilting store, farmers' market and the regional patchwork & quilting exhibition to our list as well. And I must say that we've had a very "successful" trip so far.. we head home tomorrow and we've actually managed to cross almost everything off our list! While I haven't specifically taken photos of the other things I've purchased, I found a top & 2 pair of pants at Katies, 2 pair of sandals & 2 shirts for my husband at Rivers, a Fred Bare pinafore and a pair of Clarks shoes for Blossom at Good Sammy's and we managed to trade 2 and a half bags of our own books in at the bookstore ($100 instore credit) for a bag of new books with no extra to pay! Woohoo!

But I *will* share with you my fabric/sewing related purchases with you:

Spotlight shopping trip #1 (Thursday)

 The local Spotlight was having a sale, with 30% off new release Christmas fabrics, buy 1 get 1 free patterns, $6 off Fat Quarter bundles and $6/metre clearance quilting fabrics (amongst other things!). It also turned out that today (Saturday) is their 5th birthday celebration, so they were running other specials/prizes/activities today and haf even more quilting fabrics still to be marked down so of course I had to schedule another trip for this morning. But more about that in a moment (or another post if this gets too long)..

Have I mentioned I have a thing for Holly fabric?

Pillowcase dress & pants pattern & fabric

 I found some cute strawberry print fabric on the quilting cotton clearance table as well as some blue checked fabric and another blue fabric that coordinated nicely (not the same range specifically) that I just couldn't walk past but couldn't justify without a project.. so I went and trawled through the pattern books for like an hour until I found 2 patterns that I thought I might like to add to my immediate project list. The first pattern was a pillowcase dress/top/pants collection that I thought would be lovely to make for Blossom. The top fabric (above) will be the main fabric for the top, with the strawberry print as the contrast panel at the bottom (see image D below) and the blue check fabric will be the pants, again with the strawberry print as contrast. I still have to go looking for ribbon though.

Another apron pattern - I plan to make design B 

Much as I love the apron that I made, I think it's too pretty to use every day, and I had originally wanted more of a smock type apron so when I found this Kwik Sew pattern I decided it would be perfect. I plan to use the strawberry print fabric I bought a while ago (before I found the rose print fabric and got sidetracked).

$6.95 - bargain!

I'm not sure why I bought the "Flat Fats Bundle" aside from the price, at $6 off it came down to $6.95 which made it hard to pass up. The top fabric is the same as the one I used for the beaks on my Hedwig the Owl blocks, and it makes me think of my friend Phillipa's daughter Miss J who LOVES orange.

And last but not least I found this cute Belle cross stitch pack for $3 so I thought I might do it up for Blossom to hang in her new bedroom.

I'll post about today's shopping trip later - right now I have to run off to buy wine and go to a seafood BBQ at my Aunt's house! Yummo!

Quilts for my babies (Part 2)

I was pregnant with Blossom while I was making Bean's quilt, so naturally once I finished his quilt I knew that I'd need to make another quilt straight away. This time I found a pattern from Lincraft (and let me tell you that I didn't have anywhere near as many problems with that pattern!) although I purchased the fabrics from Spotlight. The design was a little more complex than the one I'd made for Bean, but I was feeling much more confident and adventurous! (And when I say complex I feel I should point out that it wasn't very complex - just different sized squares and rectangles!)

As usual, I didn't follow the pattern exactly because I wanted the quilt to be about the same size as Bean's, and that meant that I had to play with the layout a little and add some extra blocks to make it fit the approximate dimensions.

I really enjoyed putting Blossom's quilt top together, and I absolutely LOVED the butterfly fabric. So much so that when I saw the same fabric in pink some months later  I just HAD to buy it to make some sheets for her cradle. I wish I'd bought more! Of course, by the time I'd finished my quilt top it was time for Blossom to make her appearance and it hadn't been quilted. Eventually when Blossom was about 6 weeks old one of the ladies at the quilting group very generously offered to take my quilt top and quilt it on her longarm quilting frame. She chose a lovely curvy wave design which was much better than anything that I could have come up with! One day I'll learn how to free motion quilt, but that's a project for another quilt...

Once I got the quilt top back it took me about 6-8 months to complete the binding, but eventually I did! Why did no one ever tell me about stitch in the ditch until AFTER I finished my quilts??
Both Blossom & Bean love their quilts, and it still makes me feel warm & fuzzy to see them in use. As I mentioned though, Bean is outgrowing his quilt and sadly, so is Blossom. So I guess once I've finished the Harry Potter quilt I will have to come up with a new quilt design for Blossom. Perhaps something in the divine Riley Blake "Sweet Divinity" fabric that I ordered from Stitch Steals.

One of the other things on Blossom's bed is a cushion (Laura Ashley fabric) that my mommy made for me when I was a little girl. She also made me matching curtains for my room. I don't think we still have the curtains, but it's kind of sweet that Blossom has the cushion on her bed now.