One of my fav things...

One of my favourite things is when I have a photo of the quilt with its recipient, in situ.

This is Viola with her Basket Quilt. Look at her rosy cheeks! The colours in her room complement the quilt beautifully.....

I am so happy to see the quilt used and loved....... *warm fuzzies*

What a stunning model! xo Viola...

Basket Case

After nearly a month without sewing, I'm probably more than a little crazy! I've been camping along the Great Ocean Road (at the beach) for nearly a month... I've been at the beach every day.. swimming, boogie boarding, ocean kyaking, walking, beach-combing... even reading! But there hasn't been any time I wanted to get my stitching sandy!! ...And there really isn't any space in a tent for a sewing machine! LOL!

I've been to Rosie's for a little fix. The basket case quilt top wasn't quite big enough. So, I've added borders... and here it is, ready for quilting. After quilting I'll make some 3D flowers to stitch on - the idea being that they will appear to jump out of the baskets...

I'm not really liking the colour in the photo, but I took the photo with my phone....

Christmas Sew-In

Yesterday I made new friends at Susan's "Christmas Sew-In'. Susan and I have been friends via an Australian online group Southern Cross Quilters (SCQuilters) for years. Now we are friends on facebook too. So when she created a facebook event, I was invited... (bonus! Susan only lives an hour away)..

Hmmm.. hand-sewing. It's been a while since I had to prepare anything... I took the vintage flowers stitchery quilt (hand-stitching to attach the binding)... but didn't get much of that done. Hahahaha.

I took part of the Kaffe Fasset mystery quilt I've been working on - I stitched on one star.

This is the only part of the quilt I am allowed to show you, as it will be a mystery project at my LQS.

I took the Basket Case quilt blocks and a Clover flower maker in case I felt like making flowers (never got up to it).

I completed hand-stitching one of the sides of this bag. I'm not going to make the bag. I'm going to adapt the pattern to make a wallhanging with 4 shop fronts in a double-story arrangement. I just love the little stitcheries, but, I know I wouldn't use it as a bag.

These pics are from the Whatnot Bag by Bronwyn Hayes.

I am going to make the Whatnot Wallhanging.

And of course, we ate, we drank (ginger beer for me), we enjoyed a tour of Susan's Christmas-decorated home. Oh wow. Lots and lots of Christmas trees. She takes 2 weeks to set up her Christmas display. I felt so special to be invited.

In Susan's home. We each selected a crocheted snowflake from her displays to take home to hang in our own tree...

Basket Case

Finding a good name for this quilt was really easy!! I certainly feel like a basket case!

I've just stayed up sewing and sewing... I can't put the baskets down!!

I filled six bobbins on a friend's machine. My machine really, really needs to be serviced... Tension bad, bobbins not winding, thread cutter on the fritz... poor workhorse!

A snapshot of a few blocks- each block has 2 borders... and I've joined them into rows.

I think they'll have a little ric-rac and/or ribbon for decoration, and some 3D flowers made with the clover flower maker... I'll keep you updated. *grin*

Oh, and hand-sewing? Mum has quilted my Flower Of The Month stitchery quilt. It's beautiful. I've machine-stitched the binding on... I'm off to a Christmas Sew-In at Susan's today, and I'll be needing some hand work.

Burnout...

I'm love-love-loving sewing at the moment... Definitely have my mojo back... and I'm trying hard to increase the number of finished projects for this year (they are significantly lower than previous years)... but... we won't worry about that...

So, I started the basket quilt. It's made from panels, with borders added around the printed blocks. (It's cheating really, the baskets look like they've been pieced or appliqued on.. Shhhhh...)

Each block has been cut out, following the printed design on the panel. Then I chose two fabrics to border each block before starting to sew.Ok.... it got a bit mad... I kept sewing, and even though my machine is on the fritz (the tension just goes in and out.. I'll be sewing along, and mid-seam the top thread will go all loose)... so I've had to sew a few of the seams twice!!

Then it became later and later at night... and I was still sewing!!

Wow! All the blocks have the first frame on... and I'm trying to fill a bobbin, and they won't fill. Uh-oh.... There's something wrong with the bobbin-winding motor. What can I do? Keep emptying bobbins.

Thank goodness I fill 3 bobbins at a time, and I have about 25 bobbins - most with thread on them at one point or another... There's a message here - stop sewing tonight!! I'm going to go with it... Zzzzz...