Good things come to those who wait!!

About a million years ago - well more like nearly three - I started a quilt for my Mum as a gift for her 70th Birthday.

Remember this?



I finally gave it back to Mum in January after taking an incredibly long time to quilt it and it has been happily living on her bed since.



But... I didn't take any photos and finally I found the time last week.



It took me quite a while to quilt because I kept changing my mind. So after much unpicking I finally settled on the leaf pattern for the sashing and really like it now.



This lovely quilt design is a slight variation of the Vintage Comfort pattern designed by my lovely colleague Judy Newman. Judy has finally started up a blog called a very fine house. She makes all sorts of wonderful quilts and things so go and visit and say hi!



I really like having a close look at this quilt as it's one of the first quilts I ever made and finished (finally). I can really see how much my machine piecing has improved and how much my quilt making in general has improved and evolved.

Now, on to the next one!!

I heart Liberty!

And linen and Anna Maria Horner voile. And all mixed together it's beautiful!

Parterre made for my friend Michelle's Birthday in May.





And a cushion from Amy Butler's Zinnia pattern made by Michelle to match.



And best thing is I get to visit them!

Lazy, lazy, lazy!!

Well I guess it is the holidays but really I have been a bit lazy with this poor neglected blog. And it's not as if I haven't done anything to post about!

I won't bombard you all with a million things. Just a few.........

Cathy and I taught another children's class at Amitie last week and these are the completed samples for the kids to work from.





This one is Chloe's.



And so is this!



I love the little crab!



If you go here you will see what the girls in our class made. It never fails to surprise me how clever and creative these kids are. They always have a very strong opinion about what they want and their choice of colour. They really did the most wonderful job.

Chloe has also had her machine out making another pin cushion for a special friend. She is still learning but getting more adventurous. I think we might try a simple skirt next.



And I have been doing some quilting of this quilt.



A year is nearly up and I still haven't finished but it's getting there.

And I have been working on Chloe's quilt.



I'm sort of making it up as I go along and keep changing my mind. I think I have finally decided on all the fabrics and borders etc. It will most likely become another Audrey & Maude pattern.

And last week I decided to have a go at another quilt I promised a friend a very long time ago.



I'm not sure I like the colours. The blocks are very large (see my foot) and I was going to sash it with cream. But I still think it is a little dark for my friend's taste. I will have a play with something else this week.

So that's it for today. I have other news to report but I shall leave that for another day this week!

Oh and last, but by no means least, I wish to send out a huge congratulations to my friend Kellie who not only appears in the latest issue of Australian Quilters Companion magazine but has also just opened a shop to sell patterns for all her lovely work. Good luck Kellie although I know you are going to be a huge success!

A little Christmas cheer!

Goodness, it's been a while!

ALL my special projects are finished and on their way to their final destinations. I still have some stuff to do to my latest effort for the doll quilt swap but I'll hopefully get that out of the way by the end of this week.

So after doing several projects that I couldn't show you I now have one that I will happily show off as I am thrilled with the way it has come out.

This idea came to me Thursday week ago. On Friday I raced into work and grabbed the fabrics and cut, arranged, re-cut, rearranged and finally machine stitched down all the circles.





I finished on Tuesday night and took it to the quilter on Wednesday who helped me choose the perfect quilting pattern.



I got it back on Friday and bound it with my favourite stripey binding.



And here it is!



Actually it's only blog finished as I am handquilting the baubles, star and pot to make them pop a bit.



So look out for it if you visit Amitie as it will be in the window leading up to Christmas.

And in case you haven't seen all the photos floating about on other Melbourne craft blogs, here is my photo of the very lovely Amy Butler from Thursday night.



That of course is Cathy with me. We loved the whole evening - Amy was just so interesting and relaxed and endlessly inspiring. Thanks again to the very fabulous people from Living Creatively - a really great night.

I leave you with a photo of my middle girl Lucinda who this week has overcome her fear of the swimming pool. Yippee and well done my girl!

Project upon project upon project upon.....

I have finally found time to sit down and write a little. I have been madly working to get a special project done that has to be in the UK asap. It took off today and I can breathe a sigh of relief for at least a couple of days. I have several other really important projects on at the moment with fairly tight deadlines and some days it's a struggle to keep up. I'm glad to be able to tick one off the rather long list. And if I owe you an email or something in the mail - I apologise and promise you it's coming!!

Here's a little sneak peak at a small element of the special project but that's all for now!!



Squeezed in between everything else I finally found time to get stuck into Chloe's quilt. Can you believe I have only ever made one quilt for my children which was Daphne's cot quilt! I have the fabric and designs worked out for all three but of course to be fair, I have to start Chloe's first.

And I'm loving it so far.



And so is Chloe!



So once all the blocks are done I will work out what to put with them. Any ideas??

The other project I took away with me was my Mum's quilt. That has also been languishing in the pile. I had decided to have a hand quilting night each week but it hasn't eventuated.



I did about six blocks which isn't a lot but at least I have reacquainted myself with this lovely quilt and can try to do a little each week.

So have you seen this? A very special thank you to Angela and her lovely staff at Living Creatively - their support is endless and wonderful!!

And guess what!! I have had one of my little quilts accepted for a Lark Books book called Pretty Little Mini Quilts. I'm absolutely thrilled! Again the deadline is very soon so if you don't see much of me you'll know what I'm doing!

But this week sees me finishing two presents for two very special people who have been waiting and waiting and waiting. They have been tied up with the whole project for the UK thing but they'll be on their way this week, sweetened with some other goodies I promise!!

Which reminds me of something else I must get started on for Audrey and Maude! Sigh........ but I love it, really I do!!

It's Summer somewhere.

It's time to finally reveal the very last of the Four Seasons Quilt Swap quilts - received and sent.

Last week I got a big surprise and found a squishy parcel jammed into the letterbox. Lo and behold it was my Summer quilt from my friend the superwoman Fiona.

Isn't it just wonderfully summery and gorgeous!



It's beautifully quilted so that it puffs up like little pillows - you really want to touch this quilt.



And the fabrics - so very Fiona - deliciously vintage and super pretty!



And a sweet little label.



Thanks Fiona. I absolutely LOVE it! It will be hung in Daphne's room where it will make us all very cheerful!


And now to the quilt that I have sent far, far away.

I wanted my Summer quilt to have a similar look and feel to my other Four Seasons quilts. I'd like to think that they would look a little like a set if they were all together. I love doing applique and the single image I kept coming back to was 'the summer dress'.



This time I used my machine a bit more and did the applique with the buttonhole stitch.



The dress fabric is one of the stunning new fabrics in Anna Maria Horner's new range 'Garden Party'. It just seemed the perfect colours for a summer dress.



I tried a little bit of free motion quilting, which is not super flash. I wanted it to look like wall paper in a girl's bedroom.

And to finish, a little coat hanger.



And that is the last of the Four Seasons Quilt Swap quilts. Thanks Margaret - it's been fun!!

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!

A toast to Lululollylegs!

Yes, raise your glasses (or cups of tea depending on what time it is in your part of the world) as today is this blog's first anniversary.

At the start of last year I participated in a mini-swap and was lucky to be matched with Ali. Being the endlessly encouraging person that she is, she finally convinced me to take the plunge and start my own blog. Well thank you Ali as it has certainly been one of the most rewarding and personally satisfying projects I have ever undertaken.

It has been an amazing year and I have achieved such an enormous volume of work, made some fantastic friends, been offered a wonderful job and now I'm even starting up a business with a fellow blogger!



A little while ago I was tagged by Florence with this archive meme. I thought it was a good opportunity to save it for today and go back over the last year's posts.

So here goes:

Archive Meme Instructions: Go back through your archives and post the links to your five favorite blog posts that you’ve written. … but there is a catch:

Link 1 must be about family.Link 2 must be about friends.Link 3 must be about yourself, who you are… what you’re all about.Link 4 must be about something you love.Link 5 can be anything you choose.

Family: Post Holiday Chaos. I know that the start of this post indicates much madness and mayhem, but I think it's a good reflection of just how crazy life with three young children is. One minute you can be enjoying a lovely holiday and the next you've got twenty different activities to go to and a sick child. The holiday was really lovely though and it's about time I started planning where we're off to this September.

Friends: Friends+Fabric=Fun. This post describes my first meeting with my gorgeous friend Cathy. And now here we are both working at Amitie and starting up our own business together. It's such a lovely rewarding friendship and it's all because of blogging and an apron swap!! And did you know that we just discovered that our Mothers went to primary school together - I just knew we were meant to be friends.

Myself: A day for Me. I have realised looking back through my posts that I don't actually write a lot about me and what goes on in my head. I tend to just show you things I make or write about my children. I think this post describes how I feel a lot of the time - way too busy. I don't get a lot of time to do things for myself or indeed time by myself and this was such a lovely day. I have to admit I have not made time to have a hair cut since and it is well overdue again.

Love: Cheers! A celebratory post about my darling husband's Birthday and our wedding anniversary. It was fun to post those photos as I so rarely get to see them. It's a fun time of the year for us with New Year's thrown in for good measure.

Random: Party Time. The reason I chose this post is because I can't believe how much my life has changed since I started this blog a year ago. The stitches and craft show left us all on such a high and I realised how wonderful it is to be a part of such a lovely on line (and off) craft community.

It's been a pretty good year I think and I can honestly say I'm quite proud of myself. I have made stuff all my life but hadn't done much at all since I had the children. Now my head is just bursting with ideas and every day there is something new and inspiring to be seen on someone's lovely blog. So even though I probably spend far too much time reading blogs, I think it has definitely made me much, much more productive.

Anyway I don't think I'll tag anyone with this, but if you are keen to give it a go - be my guest!

Now to a bit of crafty eye candy. Look what arrived in the mail for me today from Amy at Lucy Kate Crafts.



How completely adorable is 'Rosie' and she is so beautifully made. Amy also included some divine fabric which is perfect for my sofa quilt fabric stash. A lovely and generous prize Amy - thank you so very much!

And I will leave you with a few photos of my latest finished project. The wedding quilt is finished except for the label.



I'm really happy with the quilting. It is a blossom pattern and a great overall pattern for this quilt.



When I first chose the fabrics I really wanted to add a black and cream striped binding. Luckily I found just the thing and I absolutely love how it has come up.



It looks quite nice in my house - hope the newly weds like it for theirs!



So thanks to everyone who reads my blog wherever you are. It is so rewarding to receive feedback about my creations and you are all a real inspiration to me.

I think that means I should do a blog anniversary giveaway!!! Leave a comment by this Sunday 13th and I will pick a winner on Monday which allows for the time difference. I think it has to be an apron - don't you!

Looking forward to the next year of posts.