A Dresden plate

I finally cut up some fabric after buying one of these babies.

It is absolutely fabulous, and makes cutting different size Dresden blades a dream. So with a little help from my quilting guru, Shay, and this guy, I made one this afternoon.

My very first Dresden plate.

 I didn't even use any of the fabrics from this bundle that I had pulled together to make Dresden plates.

Fortunately Unfortunately I made a little trip to Patchwork Angel today and kind of bought some more fabric. OK I admit it my name is Margaret and not only am I an Ikeaholic I'm a fabricaholic, or, I just plain don't have any will power!

While I was there I also bought these

To go with these that I haven't bought yet but will very soon. I fell in love with this line, it's so cute.

Karma needs a quilt. If I say that often enough it will be true. 

I apologise for more fabric pics, I am officially making up for everyone else who has gone on a fabric diet, and I'm single handedly keeping fabric manufacturers afloat, so that you can all benefit when you stop your self imposed fabric moratorium. It's a hard job but someone has to do it.

Stash enhancement

 I haven't bought any fabric so far this year, that's 7 whole days and counting. However I did make a couple of teeny tiny (snort) purchases on 31st December 2010, which even though I ordered them in 2010, I didn't technically pay for them until this year.  As I see it, I ordered it in 2010 so it counts as 2010 stash!!!!!!!

These are the first arrivals, from the FQS.

3 1/2 yds of Bella white bleached along with these 5 half yards,  3 pink,  Kumari Garden, Bonnes Amies Confection and Delilah Pink Dots, all for different projects.  Two of the Ty Pennington range,  the kiwi colour is not what I would call kiwi, it is SO bright, it doesn't look anything like what I thought it would.  This can be an annoying problem when ordering fabric online,  I'm sure I'll be able to do something with it, one day, if not it might appear in a give away.  I love the grey/white one that is beautiful.

Meanwhile, today I was supposed to be cutting into this pile, to start on another project, but I was seriously distracted  by having to dig trenches, and continually empty the swimming pool as we had 126mm of rain (5 inches) from 8am until 4pm today. Bizarre, as my parents only live about 6kms (just under 4 miles) away and they didn't get much at all.

 My hastily dug trench. The sun came out for a few minutes.

Gutters overflowing

 Garden beds under water

I am not complaining too much as this is nothing compared to what they are facing north of here.

Favourite Things Friday

Yay, Favourite Things Friday is back for 2011.

This week my favourite thing is:

I love going to Ikea and being inspired by their great designs. I have quite a few Ikea things in my home, but I like to combine them with other styles and designs, I love the eclectic look.

When I went to  Europe in 2009 I even took photos of Ikea stores, strange but it was a running joke I had with a girlfriend who thought I liked Ikea a little too much.

Athens

Milan

I just replaced my sofas with new ones from Ikea, I wanted slip covers and these were such a good price and the slip covers are washable. Even with two cats a dog and a grotty teenager, they come up like brand new after washing.

I also picked up new cushions for the chairs and the hammock on the verandah on our last visit.

The boxes are great for keeping your fur babies.

You never know what you might bring home from Ikea next time you go. 

Head on over to Quilting In My Pyjamas  for her linky party to add your Favourite Thing  and read all about and comment on everyone's  favourite things this week.

Spiders, potty mouths, diets, exercise and challenges, a look back

Since it's a new year, I thought my blog could do with a few changes. I was going to go all out and change everything, but then decided against it as I like the way it looks. I've changed the header with some new photos. I kind of liked the original one more, but considering I made that cushion a whole 12 months ago, and I have been quite crafty for the last 12 months, I thought I'd change it to show that I quilt and crochet, after all I am quite proud of those finishes.

I wanted to look at some of my posts through the year too, and look back at whether my blogging has changed.  I don't think it has, maybe I've loosened up a bit since the early days. Reading some of my old posts was very very interesting. Getting to know Shay over at Quilting In My Pyjamas has been a huge influence on me. Her blog posts are very funny, she has a great sense of humour and she has taken me under her wing, so to speak, with helping me in my quilting (and in potty mouth training), lol, actually that is more likely the reverse!
We have struck up a real friendship over the last year and I think this post, Sew-in and a Spider sums it up completely. If you are going to click on this, consider yourself warned.

Looking back is sometimes not good, when you can see how many squillions of yards of fabric you have bought since since June 29 2010.  That cupboard is bursting at the seams now and I have a huge plastic bin and a basket filled to overflowing as well.  I really think I should go on a fabric diet.

Speaking of diets, hmmm, and exercise, remember these, Exercise+Me=Bad Outcome closely followed by Exercise + me is not a good equation which concluded with a bubble wrap helmet courtesy of Shay. I'm too vain to link you to that post, you will just have to find it yourselves, and it took me forever to find it, so good luck!!!! If you bribe me I might point you in the right direction.

Finally, why I was a bit very hesitant to take on another quilting challenge after my disastrous attempt with  the *@!# snowball challenge.

This has emphasised the fact that blogging has been such a rewarding experience, and more importantly, I now have a "diary" that I can refer back to as I haven't previously kept a diary.  I love this medium, 2010 was a great year of blogging for me.

Here it is!

Ta dah, my quilt block for the monochromatic challenge. Surprisingly I had quite a few yellows in my stash. I used some Heather Bailey Nicey Jane, Kafe Fassett, Innocent Crush, and the rosebud one is from my stash from quite a few years ago.

Excuse the loose thread and I think there may have been one of my hairs on one of the other shots!

I was searching wildly for ideas, when I found Little Miss Shabby's Birdie Stitches BOM. I didn't want to participate in that BOM but I used part of the stitch pattern as the centre of the block. A yellow canary was born and I surrounded it with log cabin piecing. Simple but a bit out of my comfort zone as I haven't attempted embroidery for many many many years. I think the bird has a goitre or an "outy" belly button, but other than that I am very pleased with how it turned out. 

I was about 3/4 through the embroidery when I realised I had turned the block on it's side, sigh, so my new design layout will probably have each block in a different orientation. Oh and it's not wonky even though it looks like that in the photo, it was resting on a cushion.

I used a Bella solids white charm square for the centre and the log cabin strips are 2 1/2" wide. 

Tuesday tidbits (and tails)

This is the only photo from Christmas Day, thanks to J who was the only one who took a photo, as we were putting the food on the table.


The weather has finally improved.  We have had a couple of days of sun now, but that means increased humidity.  I'm not complaining though as anything is better than 8 days with no sun and too much rain.
It's hard to believe that all that rain has caused such damaging flooding north of here. The area affected by flooding is equivalent to the combined size of France and Germany and in some places it's 9 1/2 metres above normal river height, that's about 30 feet high, imagine if that was a tsunami! Over 200,000 people are affected but it.


We have had only very minor flooding in this area. On Sunday we had lunch that is adjacent to a canal off the Noosa River, in the photos below it is only a little above the normal height and that was only because it was high tide, you can just see the wall under the surface of the water.

We had a very nice lunch, the restaurant had big windows/doors that were wide open so we had a beautiful breeze to help keep the heat and humidity to a minimum.

I've started on another quilt top, this one is for my dad, the pattern is from Elizabeth Hartman's book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork. 

Some of the blocks ready to be trimmed to size. I'm using Martinique again as my mum asked if I could make a quilt for my dad using the same fabric that I used in my mum's coin quilt.

It's not even a remotely masculine line so I've tried to de-feminize it by only using the non-floral prints and omitting the apricot colour way and most of the red colour way. I'm hoping it will not look girly when it's finished.

In more exciting news I have decided to........... drum roll please, ta dah, join a challenge. A first for me.  Judy over at Patchwork Times is hosting a 12 month MONOCHROMATIC CHALLENGE. I think hope this is within the realms of possibility for me. I am going to make a block a month, not a quilt a month, I'm still debating exactly what kind of block I'm going to make. This month's colour is YELLOW.  Surprisingly I had more yellow in my stash than I thought, so I don't even have to buy any extra for it, yay. This leads me to my next challenge, I'm going to try to make each block with the fabric I have in my stash. 

Stay tuned to see if 

a) I can decide on a block

b) make one

c) I don't buy any more fabric for the challenge, (I probably won't admit to that if I do)

d) last the year and make 12

I'm very lucky, I have my very own Protector of Quilts.

He's good, he can protect two at the same time.

 He's doing a marvellous job on the two that are basted, and ready to quilt.

The Quilt Protector taking a break from his duties. It's very tiring protecting quilts.

1.1.11

I frankly don't have much to post about today, I just really wanted to have that as a title. Small things amuse small minds.

After two very lovely days, finally, of sunshine and blue skies, we are back to "showers" which seem to mean at least an inch of rain, we have had anything but showers today.

Last night I welcomed in the New Year, by going to the Sheraton at Noosa Heads. An interesting night.

My first new project for 2011. I've started working on this, 200 x 2 1/2" squares.

Why is it that I always buy really bright fabric and then I make pale, pastel things, very strange. Where does the pale fabric come from?   Questions that will need to be answered this year.

A photo of my kitchen bench, at least one day in 2011 it is clutter free.