The third is three!

My little Daphne turned three last Friday. I can't believe how quickly that has gone.



We had a party on Sunday afternoon. Nothing too much, just afternoon tea with our families and a couple of friends.

I did make a special cake though.



We all gave three cheers.



We cut the cake.



And ate it!



Happy Birthday my little girlie girl!

We have also done the yearly trip to post letters to Santa.



So now he knows what to bring!

And on the crafting front I have been mucking around with a few bits and pieces. I made this cushion for one of Chloe's girlfriends for her Birthday.



She was hoping for something made by me.



There's a few other finished things to show you but you'll have to wait for a day or so. And if you are in the UK, go and check out Issue 2 of Sew Hip magazine - I have pattern in there!

It's all about the quilts!

It's Doll Quilt Swap reveal time again. Oh how I love these little quilts - they are so much fun and such a great way to practice all sorts of different styles and ideas.

For my DQS5 quilt I was inspired by a lovely customer at Amitie who brought in a much larger version she had made for her family.



I wanted to do a linen and red quilt. Well actually this is a really great cotton version of linen which I absolutely love using for all sorts of things.



Bit by bit I developed each little section of the quilt. Ideas came from magazines, my creative 8 year old Chloe, the quilt I saw at work and from bits and pieces I had floating about.



I am hugely pleased with the result and hope my partner likes it. This one I had trouble parting with!!







So luckily I was distracted by the arrival of my quilt and WOW it's absolutely beautiful!



The colours are so very pretty and the design and construction just amazing! Thanks so much Lucinda I LOVE it and it will be going up on the wall in my daughters' bedroom after we repaint after Christmas. Go and have a look here at all her other gorgeous quilts.



We have enjoyed putting up the Christmas Tree this week and added some new ornaments. How cute is this!



And look what I picked up last Friday.



And if you are desperate to get started on another little quilt swap, the Four Season's Quilt Swap has popped up again. It's slightly different this time but I can't resist the challenge. Can you?

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!

Hip hip hooray!!

Look what arrived in my letterbox today!!



I was so excited I had to have some of this while I read it.



Because aside from it being a completely refreshing and lovely crafty magazine filled to the brim with wonderful projects and profiles of fabulous people, it has this...........



How cool is that!!

I have to say that when Manda emailed me to ask if she could review one of our patterns I nearly fell off my chair having been a big fan of hers from way back. Who would not want to be involved in such a great new publication! And she wants more! So look out for some exclusive Audrey and Maude projects coming up in future issues.

And buy the magazine - it really is fantastic.

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!!

A little break in transmission!

It has been a busy school holidays with lots of projects on the go.

I have many, many things to show you and won't attempt to do it all in one post.

For now I will leave you with a few photos from our very relaxing holiday last week.

We went to one of my favourite places in the world.



This was our house.







And this was our backyard.



We had visits from friendly locals.



And did lots of amazing walks.











We even did a little crafting.





And the girls favourite thing?



Patting a dingo puppy!

So thank you Grampians, we are all feeling refreshed and ready for the rest of the year!

She's Apples!

I have been waiting to do a post on this for ages but wanted it to be received first. Then I ran out of time as I had to get away for a girly weekend in Sydney. I'm completely exhausted but really want to show off my latest creation.

Some of you may have already seen this over on Fi's blog and on her Flickr photos.



I can't tell you how excited I was to get Fiona as a partner. It was quite funny considering she had just had me as a partner for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap.

I had all sorts of ideas for Fi who likes a bit of the vintage look. Then one afternoon while I was busy tidying up the kids toys I picked up a little plastic tree. Within minutes I was cutting up a heap of greens from my stash. And an hour later the quilt pieces were cut and ready for sewing.

I love how this turned out but it's actually the second version. The first I used vliesofix to attach the leaves before I appliqued it and it was way too stiff. It wasn't Fiona at all. Soooo, I redid it and just sewed around the leaves using a straight stitch. I like how it is fraying a bit around the edge. I also changed the background fabric to blue for the sky and green for the grass and I think overall it has a much softer feel.





After coming up with the original idea I decided I wanted a lovely vintagey novelty fabric for the back. And look what I found at work. Lovely new fabric just perfect for the back.





To add a bit more detail under the tree I used the little flower pattern from the back.



Then it was just a couple of hours work with my little yoyo maker and I had lots of little red apples.



Finished off with a little label.



And all packed up ready to go to my lovely friend Fi!



And to finish, here's a snap from yesterday. Enjoying a glorious Sydney day with my Goddaughter Sophie.