Where are the butterflies?

Most of the fabric in this block are made from a Hoffman's challenge fabric from quite a number of years ago now - it's a stunning butterfly print. I've used it for the main flower fabric and the urn... 

love love it..... The other fabrics are from Kaffe Fasset Collective, Reece Scannell woven cotten and the wonderful felted wool...

This is another block from Lori Smith's "Flowers for Mackenzie". I am going to combine blocks from 2 quilts to make one with my favourite blocks.

Little House of Kaffe

This block only needed hand stitching around the wool felt windows and door. And now it's finished already! 

Mostly Kaffe fabrics, and I love it...

How do  turn these pictures so they are not sitting sideways? With the old version of blogger this didn't happen....

Lost and Found

I've been rummaging in the "caravan stash" and found a few blocks I had finished and hadn't blogged... Gah! This is why I started the blog in the first place, to keep track of my projects. I am kicking myself for not keeping a record of when the blocks were finished. I do know these were finished before April 7 2014, as I have a photo on my phone from this time...

Looking back I see I haven't added them onto the blog anywhere yet. And so suddenly there are quite a few finished blocks in the Homage To American Quiltmakers series, and more that are ALMOST finished, but just need tweaking.... you know, some emphasis, or a little bit of stitching... and I am in the mood to stitch them.

I have this old game plan... I don't need to finish everything to start something new, but I do like to finish one thing... this way the number of UFOs never increases, but it never really diminishes either... 

How it works is I feel inspired to finish something as I am soo excited to start something new. I'm planning to start quite a few baby projects soon, with new arrivals in the family... very keen!

I just finished this house block this morning... and now there are 6 fully complete blocks.

 Oh! How I miss photoshop! I don't have it installed on my laptop, and the photos lack a certain zing and clarity....

Here are the 6 completed blocks, with more to come soon...

Blog cruising

As I've been blog cruising, I've found a wonderful free pattern for red cardinal bird decorations - these would be great for Christmas!

Kaaren from the Painted Quilt shared the pattern, and I am posting it here as a bookmark for myself - and perhaps you'd like it too.

I just looove birds in quilts and stitches.

And another free tutorial for a thread catcher on Fabric Therapy's blog.

I am excited to sew! sew! sew!

The Love Tree

And this is a block from the other pattern - "Hugs and Kisses From Mackenzie".

Why has this picture gone sideways? Please comment if you know how to help me fix this...

I plan to put my favourite blocks from the 2 quilt patterns into one quilt. I wonder how many blocks I will make!

After appliqueing the gentleman under the Love Tree, I didn't think he was quite as distinctive as he deserves. A little bit of embroidery outlining his figure, and an angelic glow for his lady have made all the difference.

I am so glad to be on broadband to access the blogs and become inspired by the work of others once again. It really makes a difference to me, and that is one of the reasons why I started this blog to begin with - to inspire others as much as they inspire me.

With all this browsing I found a terrific page on the Moda Bakeshop Blog with the Best Recipes of 2014. I hope you enjoy drooling as much as I do.

Tree of Life

It's been an ill household here with flu and spew in practise... we spent a lot of time in the last few days sleeping, resting on the couch and watching movies - enforced rest.

 ..

 I picked up my applique blocks and very excitedly I have finished one already.

More pics here to show close-ups of embroidery work added.

This block is from the Lori Smith pattern "Flowers For Mackenzie". I am combining blocks from that quilt, and from "Hugs and Kisses From MacKenzie". I'm not really feeling like warm country colours, as it's so warm here all the time in North Queensland where I live now.

It's rainy season here - which means it's wet and the foliage is green and lush.

I'm using brights with Kaffe Fasset Collective fabrics, and some hand dyed felted wool. I adore this Tree of Life block.

Ka-ching! Ka-ching!

 It's been a long time since I bought sewing patterns like these - usually I'd make up the pattern myself. That's only partially because these patterns usually retail at A$19.50 each...

Spotlight had a sale this week: 3 patterns for $10. That's $3.33 per pattern. Wowsers, what a saving.

And so now I have plenty of patterns in the caravan stash... but not enough fabric... hmmm....

Drool time.

Aaaargh! me hardies!

 Rhette is off to a 5yo birthday party this week. It's a pirate themed dressup. The invitations were rolled up like maps and the edges were burnt. Pretty cuuute!

I figure Jaxon likes pirates, so I've made him this bunting as a birthday present. Oh so cute!

 I think bunting is going to be one of my new-phase-addiction thingys... I've already bought for 4 more lots of bunting... Oh my!

The caravan stash is clear out of ribbon - such a shame, I have 100s of metres of ribbon in the shipping container, it's only 3,000km away!!! Feels like a waste to be buying ribbon... but oh what fun I am having.....