Pin it to Win it!

I'm not sure that Randi from Fresh Squeezed Fabrics knew what she was getting into when she decided to run a Pinterest competition.. I'm pretty sure that she's going to end up going broke from all the free fabric that she'll be posting out! Free fabric did you say? What are you talking about? Haven't you heard?

Well, the deal is this: Check out Randi's etsy store and pin any of her fat quarter bundles onto one of your pinterest boards. Get your friends to re-pin it so that you end up with a number of re-pins equivalent to the $ value of the bundle (eg $15 = 15 re-pins), and then you receive your bundle for free! Seriously? Seriously. The catch? You've only got until the 27th September (Thursday). Totally achievable!

The two bundles I've got on my wish list are (sadly, I can only "win" one! But I'll be happy either way):

Please re-pin:  http://pinterest.com/pin/150237337540556582/ 

A gorgeous berry coloured FQ bundle featuring:

Quilter's Linen in Lavender, Robert Kaufman
Number Games in Bikini Pink
Empire Weave in Garnet, Heirloom
Foliage in Outplayed, Outfoxed
Tufts in Outsmarted, Outfoxed
Dumb Dot in Candy
Jewel in Dark Blue/Purple, Outfoxed
Kona in Candy Pink

Please re-pin:  http://pinterest.com/pin/150237337540556637/ 

The "Perfectly Perched" full line of fabrics by Laurie Wisbrun for Robert Kaufman. Super cute, and I just can't get enough of those chairs!

If you have your own pinterest bundle you're hoping to win, please leave me a comment with the link to your bundle and I'll re-pin yours too :)

Here's to free fabric, ladies and gentlemen! (And thank you for running an awesome incentive, Randi!)

Sisterhood of the Travelling Stash, Part II (Farrah)

A few months ago I was lucky enough to be a part of the inaugural Australian Travelling Stash, "Sasha" organised by Cassie from Cass the Coolest. Sasha came to visit me quite early on (I was the second person to receive her!) and I've been following her evolution as she has travelled around the country. I'm really hoping that once she's returned to Cassie, Cass will decide to send her around again!

Sasha was so popular, and such a success amongst the Quilt Club Australia girls that Bronwyn from Stop that Owl started another travelling stash, dubbed "Farrah" (happiness) the Fat Quarter Stash. Bronwyn sent Farrah off with 50 assorted fat quarters, and she's been doing making her way across the countryside. Since I had enjoyed participating in Sasha's Stash, I couldn't say no to participating in Farrah!

Farrah arrived on my doorstep on Wednesday, which was a *lovely* surprise! She'd just been to visit Waverlee from Little Guinea Pigs.

A healthy 1.974kg worth of fabric!

 Oh the anticipation! There's something divine about getting to unwrap presents, isn't there?

 Once I'd unpacked Farrah I got to sort through and pick out all the pretties! Some of the fabrics were just so soft and lovely to the touch. It was a hard decision, but I finally narrowed my choices down to  17 fat quarters that I just "had to have".

Look at those pretty fat quarters!

A tower of pretties, all for me!

Once I'd made my fabric choices I had to raid my own stash to refill Farrah's coffers. I hope they find a happy home in someone else's stash!

Bye bye baby!

Farrah as she was when she departed - 2.006kg

 I mixed my fat quarters in with Farrah's, bundled her back up and got her ready to post off to her next stop... I can't tell you where she's off to though, it's a surprise!

Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle Competition

The lovely Laura from Quokka Quilts (another Perth girl, just like me!) is having a competition on her blog where you put together your "own" fat quarter bundle using fabrics from the Fat Quarter Shop and then make up a pretty mosaic, blog about it and go into the draw to win your fabrics! And not just the fat quarter bundle, oh no! But a HALF YARD of each of your fabrics! Woohoo! Talk about excitement.. the whole of the blogging world seems to be posting fat quarter bundles (or atleast, they are on my feed..)

So here is my bundle.. my inspiration was Lily Ashbury's Summer House line, I just love that fabric :) The pinks and greens are colours that I've wanted to have in my lounge room for quite some time now, so if I won my FQ bundle I would love to use it to make some cushions, throw rug/quilts etc. It makes me think of Spring time :)

I used the following fabrics:

1. Summer House Pink Lemonade Rosemarie Yardage SKU# 11442-14 
2. Daisy Dance Pink Tiny Flower Buds Yardage SKU# 7534-22
3. Sweet Shoppe Pink Petals and Vines Yardage SKU# 3650-26 

4. Heart Garden Medium Pink Swirling Swirls Yardage SKU# 11908-98

5. Me and My Sister Favorites Green Swirls Yardage SKU# 22045-38 
6. Sugar Hill Cotton Green Scattered Roses Yardage SKU# PWTW049-GREEN 
7. Babysaurus Green Geo Diamond Yardage SKU# 106101-06-3
8. Annie's Farm Stand Green Mini Rose Yardage SKU# 10062-Green
9. Summer House Bright Blue Rosemarie Yardage SKU# 11442-18 
10. Folk Heart Blue Teardrop Floral Yardage SKU# 30393-70 
11. Pam Kitty Morning Blue Buttons Yardage SKU# LH11011-BLUE 
12. Stitch Organic Blue Stitchin' Swirls Yardage SKU# 11900-4 
13. Kona Cotton Candy Pink Yardage SKU# K001-1062
14. Bella Solids Amelia Blue Yardage SKU# 9900-167 
15. Bella Solids Summer House Lime Yardage SKU# 9900-173 

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.

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!

What a busy week!

So it's only been 2 days since my last post, but boy have I been busy! I might have to split my last 2 days into a couple of separate posts just to make things a bit neater & tidier...

First things first though, following on from Tuesday's post about the local friendship quilting group..

I packed up my bags with all my dies, Flo (the GO!) and some scraps, as well as my Christmas fabric, table runner pattern and my Hedwig owl (just to give them an idea of what you can do) plus some lunch and colouring books for Blossom. We turned up about 40 minutes into the day, and Blossom chose an unoccupied table for us near the corner windows (great views!)

The first thing I did after settling Blossom was to check out the display set up by one of the local quilting shops (there are two that alternate each month to come along and display their wares) which was clearly a big mistake as I went from browsing to thinking about buying a $3.50 "scrap" bag, to buying 4 fat quarters for $20, to going on a $75 spree in the space of about 10 minutes (I had to take Blossom to the restroom in amongst all the action!).. but I think it was money relatively well spent... I bought:

4 fat quarters

Three of the fat quarters are to go with my other Christmas fabrics for my table runner.. not because I need more yardage, but for more variety and to break up all the different hollies.. the end one is a forest green with a gold kind of basket weave, then a beautiful cream & gold poinsettia and finally some red & gold baubles. The last fat quarter is a beautiful gold star pattern that was too gold to go with my other fabrics but I just loved it and I thought it would go nicely into Bean's Harry Potter quilt (perhaps the Griffindor crest? or a border? or something else..).

7

A gorgeous travel cutting mat & ironing pad

Cool idea, yes?

Then the girl next to me was looking at this beautiful portable cutting mat & ironing pad (looks like an A4 notebook - I wouldn't have given it more than a passing glance!) and once I realised what it was, I just had to have one.

2x bags of "Allsorts"

 Then I figured that seeing as I was supposed to be doing a demonstration of my Accuquilt GO! for the group I could justify some scraps to play with and add to my stash.. and as an added bonus I ended up with quite the matched set of fabric scraps (below) between the two bags, as well as another two pieces of fabric in the right colour scheme to match the Christmas table runner.

Co-ordinated scraps

I was about to pay for all my bits and pieces when I noticed their pile of fabric panels and decided to sift through them "just in case".. initially I found a cute reindeer kiddie Christmas panel, but then I found an Advent calendar style panel. I've been wanting to buy/make something like this for about 2 years now and just haven't come across what I was looking for. With this one you button a decoration on each day until the tableau is complete, perfect! (And let's just add ANOTHER project to my list...)

The main panel

The daily decorations

After that I decided I had to walk away. Right Now. Really. So I went back to my table and started sorting out scraps to see what was there and what I could use with my table runner. My fabric range for the table runner is now looking pretty good...

My Christmas table runner fabric collection (so far!)

Now don't think that because Blossom and I were sitting in a corner by ourselves that we were lonely.. quite a few of the girls that I'd met when I was going regularly (3-4 years ago) came up to chat and express their disbelief that Blossom was no longer the 6 week old baby that she'd been the last time they saw her.. and there was a visiting quilting group on the table next to me that were there to gift some charity quilts to us to distribute to local victims of the bushfires that went through our area back in February, and they saw Flo and asked lots of questions (before my demo) about what it was and how it worked etc.

After lunch and show & tell it was my 15 minutes of fame.. and let me tell you I don't think it was my finest hour! I mean, I'm sure it was ok, but I know I could have done better if I'd realised that Lyn was actually serious about making me do a demonstration! All the girls loved the GO! and were amazed by how quickly it cut the shapes. The most frequently asked questions I was asked were:

1. Do I sell them? Err, no... Oh really? You should! (Yes.. certainly something to think about..)

2. Can you use it to cut fabric with Vliesofix? (My understanding is yes, but you must count it as a layer. I must have answered that question a dozen times - every time I finished answering someone else would walk up and ask the exact same question)

After my demo it was pretty much time to pack up and go home, so as far as *doing* anything constructive I didn't really do much.. unless you count sorting out/purchasing fabric for my table runner constructive. But I had fun, and they were really keen for me to come back next month (and with my crafty friends ;)) so it was a pretty great day overall.

After picking Bean up from school I then went and spent a couple of hours in my craft room being constructive, but that's a story for the next post!

I love the first Saturday of the month!

My mother-in-law is a very talented lady. Put simply, she makes soap - but what she does is so much more than that! Not only does she make natural olive oil soap from scratch (as opposed to melt & pour etc) but she also makes a range of face & body products that smell divine. And once I a month I get to immerse myself in her beautifully scented world when we pack up the car and head to the local village market day. You can find Wildthyme Natural Soap on their website, facebook and etsy.

Yesterday was one of these days, and I must confess I spend the whole month looking forward it! The weather forecast predicted showers throughout the day, but we were lucky that the first "real" rain that we experienced was at about 1:30pm (which admittedly put a premature end to the day, but only by about an hour).

My new holly fabric

One of the things that I love about going to the markets is seeing all the other things that people have made. The girl who has the stall next to us makes sock monkeys. They're super cute, but they're designed more for decoration than vigorous play so I don't think they'd suit Blossom & Bean! Not to mention that while I think they're gorgeous, they don't look hard to make, so I probably wouldn't buy something that I could make myself (if they were up to being played with in the vigorous fashion that Blossom & Bean employ!). BUT, she also had some gorgeous holly print fat quarters for sale and I have a small holly obsession so I bought the fat quarters as well as a couple of larger pieces of holly fabric she had with her. Guess who will be finally getting around to making their quilted Christmas table runner this year? Oh yeah! (I've only had the pattern since Blossom was about 2 months old!)

Another girl near us prints onto her own fabric that she then turns into rings, necklaces, earrings, bookmarks, notebook covers and so much more. I didn't realise that she actually printed the designs on to the fabric herself until I went to buy my MIL a necklace that she'd been eyeing off (and wouldn't buy for herself) and got talking to the girl about her beautiful designs.

Table runner pattern

And yesterday afternoon I discovered another hidden gem. While walking to the carpark  to collect the car so that we could pack it I got distracted by a stall selling painted signs and doorstops and key hooks etc. Normally while I think these look pretty I wouldn't stop, but yesterday she had these really lovely recipe book covers. It was a set of wooden panels that had plastic pages in between so that you could just slip in your own recipes, and she'd painted them with these cute chickens and roosters. I'm not a super chicken-y person, and if there had been one with flowers or something on it I probably would have bought one.. I might ask her next month if she would paint me a non-chicken one!