A starburst quilt in the making

Hi all,

I have been working on a quilt for my youngest little fella. I wanted to use a fat quarter pack of Cruiser Blvd by Riley Blake that I bought a while ago as the main fabrics and I designed a quilt on EQ7 that I hope will be okay for fat quarters.

These photos were taken with my phone and you have probably already seen them if you follow me on Instagram. So this is the fabrics and a draft of the quilt, although I have changed the quilt slightly since this photo was taken.

This is the first block I made. I have made a couple more and I love the way it is looking so far!

But production has come to a grinding halt because I am sick :( Tonight is the first time I have felt some what normal for a few days. To cut a long story short, I have been fighting with a bacterial infection in my upper respiratory tract for a couple of months now, 3 lots of different antibiotics, lots of tests and x-rays later it is still there. So early Friday morning, 2am early, I end up with the worst headache of my life and end up in emergency. They do a CT scan and threaten to do a lumbar puncture but the headache starts going with the good painkillers they gave me so I got to avoid that last painful procedure. I am thinking the headache might have been from the prednisone the GP put me on but I have no proof, the Dr at the hospital told me to stop taking it and gave me different antibiotics to take. I am slowly feeling better but seem to have a bit of a cold now.

Life….what can you do but go for a ride!

One good thing out of it all – the boys got to have a sleep over with their grandparents and I got to get a good nights sleep. Yay!

One bad thing to come out of it – I missed out on seeing the 1700–1945 quilt exhibit at QAGOMA in Brisbane. It finished today. That is what I get for leaving it to the last minute.

Hope you are well!
Til we meet again, Jess

This didn’t happen over night!

Hi all,

This year has been a crazy year, in February my oldest son was diagnosed with Asperger’s. His diagnosis took about 6 months from the time his grade 1 teacher let us know something might be wrong, he had diagnostic and IQ tests at school before he was referred to a pead for the diagnosis.

In June our youngest son was also diagnosed with Asperger’s. And my husband who sees a psych for depression has been told that he more than likely has Asperger’s too.

I am just telling you this to explain why things have slowed down on the creative front. The diagnosis doesn’t change who your child is, they are still the same, it gives us options for therapies and school programs. It also makes life busier!

However, I do have two finishes to share today! These have been months in the making….there are weeks when the sewing machine doesn’t even get looked at!

This is my mini for Christine’s Scrap Challenge. It will be auctioned in early October, I will let you know the details when I have them. This was started in July and it has about 550 pieces, a lot for a quilt that is only 25” square.

  
I asked for quilting ideas on Instagram and Bree suggested diagonal cross hatching. I love the texture it gives the quilt!

The quilting on the back looks great too, almost a double sided quilt!

And my other finish actually never touched the sewing machine….just needle, thread and the hot glue gun!

This is a pincushion. I used a free stitchery from Red Brolly and the timber bowl was turned by my uncle.

 
I don’t know if I want to put pins in it, it is too pretty.

 
I hope I haven’t overloaded anyone with information, it actually felt good typing it and I considered deleting it all but I am putting it there because the more I talk about it the more I find others in similar situations and it is good for us all to know that we are not alone!

Til next time,
Jess :)

Sweet Pouch Swap

Hi all,

Round 2 of the Sew Delicious Sweet Pouch Swap, now that’s a mouthful! LOL has just wrapped up. My partner has received her pouch and I have mine so now I can show some pictures.

This is the one I made for Laurel.

I used Noodlehead’s wide open pouch pattern, the medium size for this one! Need I say again how much I love this pattern? And it lends itself perfectly to a little embellishment - the dresden plate on the front.

I added a pieced strip to the back too. I used a print from Sweetwater’s Noteworthy range for the main fabric and Kate Spain’s Cuzco mini charms for the dresden and pieced section. I put in lots of Cadbury goodness, what is more Australian than Cadbury?!

This is the beautiful pouch I received from Laurel.

I love, love, love the fabric! It is the Bucket list print from Sweetwater’s Noteworthy range. The pattern for this pouch is here …. and I definitely want to try making one too!

Lookee what was inside! Lots of candy and fabric yummyness! I had already eaten the Lindt chocolate bar…..sorry ;)

Bye for now,
Jess