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 :)

My plans for Quarter 3 of the Finish Along

Hiya,

I have decided to add some older projects to the list this quarter. To try and tick off some of those projects that would other wise just keep hanging around.

First up though is the Marti Michell BOM.

I found this half finished apron, how hard is it to make an apron? well this is no ordinary apron.

I haven’t touched this since before we moved to this house, which was before kids….so probably 9 years! Time to finish it!

This skirt was supposed to be made for last summer. Well that season came and went, maybe I’ll finish it for this summer.

I have had trouble deciding how to quilt this gorgeous stitchery….I think I have a plan now, so hopefully I can finish this.

     
This small convergence quilt is half quilted but my thread kept breaking so I gave up for a little bit….I will try using my new setup and see if that works better.

This is a small Schnibbles quilt that I made a couple of years ago, I just need to quilt it.

 
Christine has organised a scrap quilt challenge and the quilts are due to be finished in September so I need to get moving on this.

And finally a cover for our Ipad mini. I also plan on making a matching pouch to carry extra things. 

This seems like a lot, 8 projects and I may not get it all done but I will try to stay focused (LOL who am I kidding?!). I am also working on long term projects too – a double wedding ring quilt and the Afternoon Delight quilt.

Linking to -

Bye for now, Jess

Envelope Ipad Cover Tutorial

Hi everyone!
Wow I can’t believe it has been over 10 days since we chatted!
This is what I have been working on….

I made this Ipad Cover at the request of my friend Christine…This post is probably a bit of a spoiler because she hasn’t received it yet!

I have written up a tutorial for anyone who might be interested.
The Envelope Ipad Cover Tutorial can be found here in PDF form!
(edited 13/7/12, I have removed to PDF from the net for a short time, sorry for any inconvenience!)

As you can see it fits the Ipad perfectly! It has some padding for protection and I used the velcro so that there wouldn’t be anything hard or pointy rubbing against the Ipad.
This is my first tutorial done like this so if you have any problems or ideas on how to do it better please let me know!

happenings…

Hi Everyone!

Yesterday (well over the last few days really) I made something and I am very excited about it…I love how it turned out! I am working on writing up a tutorial for it so I will only give you a sneak peek today…

Now I know of lot of you guys have the item that this is made for but I don’t so for the life of me I hope it is the right size! I guess I should find someone to test it for me…maybe I should just duck down to The Good Guys and try it with one in their shop. Anyway my fingers are crossed!

There has been other things getting worked on too…

The May block for QCA Bee is at the bottom. My new Hugs and Kisses pattern “Rules of Life” is getting started, I have been playing with my Cosmo threads selecting the colours. And while looking for threads I found this stitchery by Natalie Lymer that is almost finished…why does that always happen! So I think I should finish that off first!

My mind is a whirl of creative thoughts and projects…must be a sign that I am coming good! My creative mojo is back!

Sewing frenzy!

Hi all,

I am in a bit of a sewing frenzy at the moment! My mojo is pumping! LOL I hope it sticks around for a bit….

First up, let me warn you that I am still trying to figure out our new camera, it is nothing like the old one which I realise now was fantastic and easy to use. All my photos are fuzzy ….ugh…. very frustrating.

For sewing day last week at Christine’s I took my machine so I could get the rest of the Broken Dishes blocks made…

Since sewing day I have sewn them into the required units for the quilt….I have 15 x light Jamestown Square blocks, 15 x dark Jamestown Square blocks, 22 x half Jamestown Square blocks and 46 x Broken Dishes blocks.

I have made a pair of potholders for my Aunt and Uncle who put us up for a night on our holiday. Just to say thank you!

They are 10” square. I made 2 square in a square (I think thats what they would be called) blocks, cut them into quarters and swapped them around a bit. And ta-da two gorgeous blocks that would also look great repeated for a quilt. I have run out of insulbright now, some more is on my sewing shopping list…I love making potholders!

And as if I need more projects here are two I couldn’t resist…

This is a Colour Block Placemats and Napkins sew-along. I thought I might use up some of my DS Fabrics for this one as I am making 2 sets that will coordinate and be for everyday use. 

This is a stitchery book by Helen from Hugs n’ Kisses. I am a bit late joining this one but I have always wanted to do something like this and the end result is gorgeous!

I am starting with Lesson 2. Because lesson 1’s PDF wouldn’t download with the proper font for the title, hopefully I can go back and get it later.

So there you have it, my ever growing list of WIP’s! I just can’t help myself!

Do me a favour?

Hi all,

I thought I would be crazy a put a quilt in this weeks Quilting Gallery contest….

This is the quilt – some of you might remember it….

It is called Opposites in my backyard.

It is designed for kids and has 3 sets of opposites with removable tags for each set.

Please vote for me! Go here and see all the others too!

Goodness!

Hi all,

I have been feeling a little uncreative the last few weeks. But I think my mojo my be returning! Yay!

Today I thought I better get to work on my block for August for the Bee in Oz.

I made a sample first….

This is called Interlocking seasons and the tutorial is here. The original and my sample are 12.5” square.

This is the actual block for August…

This is 22” square. So HUGE! This is going to be a very dramatic quilt! I have to say I love this block but it is quite complicated and I needed to use the trusty “reverse-sewer” more than once.

Here is something else I have been working on…

This is from Homespun Vol. 11.5, such a funky design by Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches deserved to be finished. I used Make Life fabric for the piecing.

What a fabulous hat - Holding all the essentials for your sewing room!

I love the price of the fruit, if only things were that cheap! I do love her red stripy long-socks though!

I know it isn’t technically finished yet but I am still celebrating!

Birdcage sew-in….

Hi all,

As some of you may already now the Birdcage Sew-in was last weekend. I had every intention of rolling my sleeves up and getting stuck in but due to unforseen events I wasn’t able to do what I wanted.

You may remember the raspberry ripple bag I made – well my darling baby (aka sewing machine) decided to kick the bucket, I really thought if I tried to keep going she was going to blow up. Fortunately it happened during the sewing class, so they leant me a machine to finish the bag and I left my darling baby there to go to the doctors….well the doc called today and she is sick,sick,sick. And it is going to cost a fortune, as she has just turned 2 we rang the maker and complained so we shall see what happens next. It is quite the saga!

So, I decided to tackle a stitchery I designed for the local sewing shops Opposites Quilt Challenge for this year, it is due in november.

I hope this classifies me as participating in the sew-in, each panel has birds….

Can you see what is opposite about it?

This one didn’t get finished, but I’m getting there. They do need a good press too! I am making little tabs that can be put on and off, it is more a hands on interactive quilt, rather than a pretty, display only one!

Sorry for being so long winded! I’ll leave you with a unusual grevillea flower that I really love, I saved the tree from getting dug up when our driveway got done.

Be happy,
Jess

I'm a Winner & a busy bee!

G'day all,

Guess what!?! I'm a winner!
I can't believe it - I never win anything, I have pretty much given up entering giveaways!
This win is from OPAM. Thank you so much Peg and Kris, you are doing a great job hosting this group!

Here is the pic I tried to put on last time...

Meet Josephine the jellyfish. She is the first block form Cheryl's Under the Sea BOM.
Next up is a block from the Homespun BOM. This is one of the small corner blocks.

Can you guess what this is?.....


It is a Checker board with suffolk puff tokens! (can you see the strand of hair? LOL)

The puff's are breeding!

I made this with some help from my 8 year old niece, so it is quite an easy project. What took the most time for me was the quilting. Because we didn't catch all the edges of the squares with the fancy stitches I decided to practice the quilting I learnt at Kellies workshop.

So, there you have it! I have been a busy bee!

Bee Happy,
Jess

PS. Would you like a tutorial for the Checker board?

Dino quilt and new friends.....

Hi all, hope everyone is having a crafting good time!

Here is a pic as promised.....


We made this using a some of a Dinosaur Uproar layer cake. The quilt was inspired by one of the first quilts from the Material Obsession book. Except that we used corner stones because we were using left over strips of white muslin for the sashing. Mum whipped up the matching pillow case to fit a pram pillow.

I also whipped up a couple more book covers....


These are so quick to make. It probably took less than an hour to do these two.

I though I might show you my new friends........

Aren't they pretty?! I have started using them for the "Under the Sea" free BOM - look on my side bar for the link. It is looking really cute!

Bye for now and remember,
Don't worry be happy!
Jess