Just a Quickie!!

This is just a quick post to update you all. I'm finding it quite hard to keep up with everything these days so I apologise for posting so infrequently. With kids, work, Audrey and Maude amongst lots of other things life is pretty busy!

And speaking of Audrey and Maude I'm here to announce our latest patterns.

Poppy and her Puppies

and

Robot Boy and Robot Girl

And to celebrate our new friends we are having a giveaway.  So scoot on over to Audrey and Maude and leave us a comment.

Playing Catchups

Firstly, thanks for all your lovely comments about the train quilt. It is wonderful to have it finished and be able to get on with the next bunch of projects.

I have so much stuff to post I have been putting it off!  And this week I have been very busy and too tired to do any posting. So here goes - be prepared for a long photo heavy post.

After patiently waiting for several months my gorgeous little Doll Quilt 3 Swap quilt finally turned up last week. Yippy!!  Isn't it absolutely stunning!! Wonderful colours and a lovely design by the very fabulous Laura Jay. I have offered it to my girls for their bedroom wall as we are rearranging things and it will look perfect with all their red and aqua.  

And check out the sweet and very intricate little pin cushion she sent with it.  I LOVE it all! Thanks so very much Laura Jay - you can relax now, all is well.



And how weird is this - my Doll Quilt Swap 4 quilt turned up on the very same day!  This little beauty was made by Ros and is to be hung in Daphne's bedroom.  It is so very pretty and very us. Ros also included some absolutely gorgeous ribbons that are also just the right colours!  Thanks Ros.



And here's more that I haven't had time to photograph and blog about.  I have participated in the Sassy Apron Swap twice now and haven't posted either apron - so sorry!!

First up is my most recent Summer apron from the very lovely Lucy Byrd who runs the Sassy Apron Swap.  It's a great design based on an old pattern and is the first apron I have had in this style.  I really like how it does up and plan to make a few of these myself.  Most people I know request full aprons and this is a lovely version.  Thanks Lucy.



And even more embarrassing, I didn't post this sweet little apron which I received in the Spring round of the Sassy Apron Swap. It is from Suzie and is super cute with the lovely Kristen Doran fabric and little flower appliques. Chloe fell in love with it instantly and as her dreadful mother has never made her an apron - true - she has claimed it as her own. Thanks Suzie and sorry I took so very long to post a picture. Don't worry everyone I did thank all of these people via email when I received them - I'm not that bad!!



And last but by no means least, my little doll quilt from the Lemonade Stand quilt swap. This was made by Mary Whidden (can't find a link) and is her very first attempt at a quilt. Having just completed a two day course in machine quilting, I have to say I'm really impressed with what Mary did without being shown how and how good are her joins. It is now being hauled around and used on various dolly's which is as it should be. Thanks Mary.



I haven't reported in about the lovely little girls class Cathy and I did last week at Amitie. It was a lot of fun and the girls were hilarious and really lovely. A couple of favourite comments were "boys can't multi-task" and "don't you love reading so much that your mum has to get mad at you to stop reading and come and eat your dinner". Gorgeous!

Here they are hard at work.







And proudly displaying the finished product.



Cathy made lovely pink meringues.



And I made pink cupcakes.



We think it was a big success and look forward to doing some more kids classes in the future. Speaking of classes, I attended a two day machine quilting class at Amitie with Deborah Louie. I shall report on that next post, this one should keep you busy for at least a few days!!

I think I can, I think I can......

Actually I know I can, I definitely can!! I finally finished the train quilt!!!

Lochie, the lovely recipient of this quilt, is turning one tomorrow and I thought it was a fantastic deadline to work to. We had a yummy morning tea to celebrate today and I presented the quilt after finally finishing it last night.

I found this lovely Michael Miller 'I think I can' fabric not long before Lochie was born and thought it would be perfect for a vintagey style cot quilt for him.



After mucking around with ideas for ages I finally decided on a 'four patch square on point in a square' out of lots of fun prints and a nice not too cream quilter's muslin. Not sure what the technical terms are here and I'm sure there are proper quilting people out there going "what!!!" But I know what I mean.

I quilted it with two squares in the four patch and triangles in the triangles.



Then I fussy cut all the different versions of the train. I quilted this square in various ways and hated them all. Then my mum suggested I do a diamond and it was perfect. I really like that it follows the line of the square on point beside it.



Somewhere during the designing phase I decided I would quilt train tracks around the border to finish it. About five versions later I'm really glad I did.

Right down to the little engine - it's the Lopez Express of course!



Finished with a slightly wonky label that I like even more now the quilt is washed.





And folded up ready for wrapping.



I had even bought him a train card to match!



Happy 1st Birthday sweet little Lochie!