Sewing kits for a cause…

Hi all,

You only have a short amount of time left to do some sewing kits or even bits of a sewing kit for the New Beginnings appeal. I am sure anything will be appreciated!

I have to say I LOVE these Little Letter Needle Book envelopes. Check out Kelly’s tutorial at Em Ay Kay Ee, it is so cute and really quick to make.

 
Set one. The tutorial for the sewing caddy can be found here. I left out the hand embroidery because I am painfully slow and I wanted to get them done in this life time!

Set two. The scissor keep is just two 1” hexies sewn together with a bit of stuffing to fill it out, then a button on each side to pull it in. And a bit of ribbon or ric-rac sewn into one edge.

I made matching 1/2” hexie flowers to put on the front of each draw-string bag. 

They went in the post today to Jenny. I hope they will bring some joy and hope to someone who needs it. 

Another Little Quilt Swap 5

G’day maties!

Today I decided to finish my quilt for the Swap.

 
I based it on a tutorial for paper pieced string quilt block. Except I made blocks much smaller, about 2 1/2 inches square instead of 12 inches.

The fabric range is “Pure” by Sweetwater, don’t you just love their fabrics! The text prints are adorable!

Anyway, I love how the brown and blue work together in this range. I’m not huge on muddy colours but I quilt like how this quilt turned out.

This is the back. Don’t know the name of this fabric but it matches so well!

Finished size is 11 1/4 x 8 3/4 inches.

A Momentous Day

Hi all,

Today TP took one of those steps that really requires talking about.

He is growing up so fast, I can’t believe that he is now at school. He is wearing a uniform. He suddenly can brush his own hair because “I am a big boy now!”.

 
Ready to go….he helped pack his lunch box and then just wanted to get going. (He wouldn’t let me take a better photo at school, so this is it. That is BW in the shot too.)

Getting settled in. There were a few activities they could do while they waited for the day to begin.

He was complaining of a pain in the belly when we arrived, I’m pretty sure it is nerves because he said that a bit with kindy too, but I might get it checked if he keeps saying it. We don’t need him to have an ulcer before he is 10.

There were no tears! Which was fantastic. And all night he has been raving about how much he enjoyed it and loved it. I hope that feeling sticks around for a while.

I know I don’t usually go on about my family, but to me this is a really big occasion. I’ll be back in a day or two with some sewing related goodness!

Gotta get some of this!

Just thought I would let you know about a fabulous giveaway!

Isn’t it lovely?! Go and enter the giveaway at Lila Tueller’s blog. If you don’t feel like it don’t worry – more chance for me to win! haha

Have you heard?

About Quilts for Queensland?

You probably have but if you haven’t go on over to Retro Mummy and see what is happening!

Corie is doing a really great thing here! I believe Christine is also helping out! I have started digging around my stash seeing what I can come up with.

Oops! Forgot to give you a link to the new Flickr page Corrie has started for the quilts!

Mr Magoo has left the building!

Hi all,

One of my bestest friends had her 3rd baby boy yesterday by c-section. So he was a week early and already weighed 9pd 10oz, imagine if she went overdue!

Meet Mr Magoo. A playful little monkey designed by Melly and Me.

What a poser! I used some brown fabric I had in my stash and some of my Make Life fat quarters for his tummy/ears and shorts.

  
A cute little softie for a cute little bubba!

I hope everyone is keeping safe and dry. Don’t forget to put some support behind the efforts I mentioned in my last post!

We are okay…

Just in case anyone is wondering how my family is doing in all the flooding that is happening in Queensland.

I am watching the footage on TV right now and thinking that the pictures I am going to share are nothing, I mean they can not even come close to the tragedy that is still unfolding.

We live upstream of Caboolture, a city north of Brisbane that is experiencing flooding and evacuations. My brother has evacuated his house which is very close to the Caboolture River, so I am concerned for him and hoping he is okay.

This is looking down at our dam. The overflow is going off to the right, it is roaring like a river and about 3 feet deep.

We have had 200ml today, not to mention that yesterday we got about 200ml as well. These photos were taken during a lull in the rain. It has been really full on all day, we got woken at 5am with a massive storm and they just keep coming all morning. We have been flooded in for most of the day.

TP is running through a puddle that half an hour before covered the whole driveway and was about 8” deep.

This next photo was taken by a relative of mine and it really made it hit home to me how bad it was in our own area.

This is in the Morayfield shopping area and this building is home to my local patchwork shop, Sew This and That. I hope they got all the machines and fabric out….

I can only imagine the devastation elsewhere in the state, having 2 young sons of my own I find it really sad and heartbreaking hearing about the children that have lost their lives. I hope people take care and heed the warnings as Brisbane gets inundated over the next couple of days. 

If you want to help with the Flood relief efforts fellow bloggers have come up with a couple of ways….

 The Gum Tree Designers are asking for your help.

There will be many hundreds of crafters who have lost what is their joy, their hobby.

In our own small way we want to help, and we need you to come along side with us.

We want to collect, and then distribute, a 'New Beginnings' sewing kit for those who need to start over with their craft. We will be posting the kits in bulk to the various quilting groups in each town.

and

Toni from Make it Perfect is organising bloggers to have auctions and proceeds will be donated to the flood appeal.

Both of these ideas are great and I will definitely try to make a couple of sewing kits.

Lots of hugs for everyone,

And stay safe!

January Bee and Swap

Hi all,

I am in a Bee called “Bee in Oz”. January is Emma’s month (I can’t seem to find a blog for Emma, if you know it can you let me know?). We could do any block we wanted, using her fabrics with a splash of red.

This is my sample block. It is a Nosegay block taken from the book Material Obsession. The fabric is the Where the Wind Blows range.

This is the real block. I hope Emma likes it. I love her colours!

The other thing I am in is the Inchy Flower Swap. We actually started in December and a couple even started in November. I asked for fresh modern fabrics.

This is the first two I have received, the one on the right is my Welcome flower and the one on the left is my December flower.  

This is the flower I made for my swappee for January. She requested citrus colours with a white centre. The green is a bit more citrusy in real life.