Wonky Star Block Swap

  Hi Everyone

How special, this is my first block,  received from lovely Beth in Queensland. Thanks so much , Beth. Even a little card with a picture of the block on the front! So clever and creative. I love the colours, and the center block matches one of the colours in the star perfectly !

Happy Birthday To Me

Yip, one year older, hopefully wiser ! Had coffee and a scone at the beach for breakfast with my hubby and oldest daughter.... THEN, hubby and I had a trip to the Bernina store!   Say no more!!!!!!!   Then lunch with my friends and now almost time for dinner with my family. What can I say! I am truly blessed!  Do miss my family in South Africa though.

First Siggy Block - How Exciting!

Arrived in the mail this morning, my first international siggy block ! Thanks Annelies, it's gorgeous. All the way from the Netherlands, how cool is that !

First Block for First Block Swap

This was good fun, a bit scary too! I have just completed my first block swap !  Will put it in the mail tomorrow... will show you later after my swap buddy received it.   I had my monthly quilting morning on Monday, so that's what i did ALL morning! haha ! SlowJo  , that's me!

QAYG

Quilt-along:  Quilt As You Go

I've always wanted to try to QAYG and seeing that I can't use my patchwork tutors's  longarm quilting machine any longer, I guess now is a good time to learn, so this  Quiltalong came just at the right time ! So I'll be joining in and hopefully learn heaps of new stuff along the way!
Pop over to Heather at Al A Mode Fabric for more info.

Happy Birthday To Me

Yip, one year older, hopefully wiser ! Had coffee and a scone at the beach for breakfast with my hubby and oldest daughter.... THEN, hubby and I had a trip to the Bernina store!   Say no more!!!!!!!   Then lunch with my friends and now almost time for dinner with my family. What can I say! I am truly blessed!  Do miss my family in South Africa though.

Busy Weekend!

Due to the renovations at home and having no place to sew, I went to Jenelle's on Friday and got 4 hours of sewing done, completing my youngest's quilt top...  the where and how to quilt it still remains a problem.

On that note, I have to make a plan to get stuff quilted in future and might adapt my way of doing things. This is an option.....  I have just received a parcel from the UK with my new book...  'Beautiful Quilts as You Go' by Keryn Emmerson .

Latest on the reno's:

Before:



On the weekend we finshed our room's floorboards and what a change! Was wonderful to sleep in my own room again after a week in my guest room! Three more rooms to go!

                                                   After:

Nothing's Happening !

My postings are non-existant, but for a good reason! I can't even find my sewing table! Why? We are pulling up all the carpets in our house and replacing them with floating floorboards. Ourselves!  So for the time being not much is happening for me in the quilting department, and it's NOT GOOD. The floors will look amazing when done though, so I need patience!

This is my dining room where my sewing happens...before and after.  But at present our main bedroom furniture is in there and we are sleeping in the guest room!

What To Do?

Due to circumstances my Quilting Lady is not able to rent out her quilting machine any longer. What a disappointment! So, how to quilt my quilts now? Don't have room for a longarm and not the $$$$$$ either! So I am looking for a smaller version for a home quilter. After a week of searching on the internet I found an Australian made frame... the Happy Jack.  This might work????  Will investigate some more. There is another one from the States, the HandiQuilter that looks awesome, but the $$$$$ are way more. Hmmm....

In the meantime, Ruth's charity quilt was auctioned on Saturday night for a fortune! People are so generous. I am blown away. 

I am currently working on a double bed quilt for my youngest teenager, a pinweel from the Sizzling Sixties book (made with a Jelly Roll) and a finished top that needs quilting. 

Oh, and Saturday morning there was a mini quilt show at the Presbytarian Church in Wamberal, and needless to say some fabric, two charm packs, a pincushion and a pattern found its way home....

Ruth's Quilt - First Charity Quilt

Ruth is a wonderful girl! She is my daughter's Youth Leader at church and such a role model for the younger girls! Ruth is envolved in more charity projects than I can recall, seven I think? Well Ruth is forever busy with fundraisers so I offered to make her a quilt for a project for orphan kids overseas.  It is finished at last,  hope you like it Ruth and that you will raise a few dollars with it. 

The pattern is from the Jelly Roll Quilts book by Pam and Nicky Lintott, called Sparkling Gemstones. I just used fat quarters  and cut my own jelly roll strips.  Quilted by myself on the long arm quilting machine.