Squares for SIBOL

These are the squares I have made for the SIBOL project - Sunshine Blankets of Love, you can read all about it here. They are winging their way to the UK.

Tuesday tidbits

Here are some more fabrics that I found at the expo in Brisbane.

Same rolls, different angles. I love Kaffe Fassett fabrics but I have no idea what I am going to make with them. I don't normally like yellow, but these yellows with orange, pink and green just look fabulous.

                                                  

Another photo of Brisbane, can you see the church with two spires in between all those tall modern buildings.  I only had my small digital camera with me, so that is close up as I could get.

Something I was working on yesterday. It is a cushion top, using Martinique from Moda. I have just placed the yo yos in the middle, they are not sewn on yet. I am not sure whether I like it or not.  

                                     

A bit of the crochet throw I have been working on since last year, I have sort of lost interest in it, but I have been trying to sew in all the ends, and boy, there are a lot of ends.

Awesomeness

The wonderfully, zany (in a good way) Shay over at Quilting in My Pyjamas, has been sharing the love and gave me a Beautiful Blogger award.  How nice, and she hasn't even seen me yet!  It is the first award I have ever received.

The rules are:
1. Thank the giver.
2. Reveal 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass it on to 5 bloggers you admire.
Rules are made to be broken, but today, meh, I am going to stick to the rules.


So here goes....

Thank you Shay.

1.  I fell down the steps at Wynyard Station in Sydney, I was wearing a dress and my heel caught in the hem of the dress.  The dress ended up around my ears, my handbag went flying, and everything fell out of it, and I mean everything.  A kind gentlemen helped me up and helped me put all my stuff back into my bag. I was more embarrassed about the contents of my bag than my dress around my ears.  I looked hot fabulous, slim etc. back then.
I survived, only my pride was hurt.

2. I cannot go anywhere unless my hair is shiny clean.

3. I can't make a decision to save myself, procrastinator is my middle name.

4. I don't like confrontation, I am a wooz (is that how you spell it). Which is fabulous when you have a teenage daughter.

5. I have a mind like a sieve. You can tell me all your secrets as I will never remember them, and I won't be able to tell anyone else.

6. My first career I trained as a primary teacher, loathed every minute of it. Second career, accounts, not so great either, but then went into credit control, loved that as had to talk to people all day long.  If you are nice to people and "bug" them enough, they usually pay.

7. I love making things, I really get a kick out of producing something, especially when I design it myself, and that's why I am having so much fun now, as I have time to make things and show the world 5 people, yippee.

Now for the really really hard part, trying to pick only 5 amazing people:

wish upon a star   Renata, I know in real life, she has a kind heart, and two great kids.  I have known her since we met at our children's school. Renata is a nurse and can resuscitate me if needed -  a good friend to have!!!!!!!!!

dandelion dreamer Moira is lovely, she is so creative and makes beautiful paper fabric, and then does fabulous things with it, including adding fabric, machine embroidery and stamping, I am amazed at her creativity. She also knows a thing or two about sewing machines!

Eternally Distracted is a fabulous writer, very funny daily happenings in a foreign land. She is Scottish as are most of my relatives and her baby Max is Australian, a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo.

Curlypops,  another blogger who is a wizz with the sewing machine. Cam is very talented and creative, she has some great tutorials on her blog with clear instructions, even I can have a go at them. I will certainly be checking out her goodies at the markets when and if I ever get back to Melbourne.

Cynthia from Home Matters 1st, my hat goes off to Cynthia as she home schooled her daughter. I am always amazed how mothers can home school, I would have killed Bitchypoo when she was about 10 if I had home schooled her. Cynthia is also going to Italy in 2012, how good is that!!!!


And I would have put Quilting In My Pyjamas here, as we are twins separated at birth, however as Shay shared the love with me, we might end up in a never ending loop of love if I send it back.

PS  Please don't feel pressured into sending it on to others. Remember rules are made to be broken.

Brisbane

Southbank

Botanic Gardens and Brisbane River

I have just come back from a weekend in Brisbane. Bitchypoo and two of her girlfriends went to the Lady Gaga concert.  As it is coming up to her birthday I took them to Brisbane for the weekend, and out to the Entertainment Centre last night to see Lady Gaga.  I thought this was a much better option than having a party, and dealing with gatecrashers, underage drinking and anything else that lovely teenagers can dream up to send me to an early grave.

Staying in Brisbane also meant that I could go to the Craft Expo and not have to drive a zillion miles there and back. I was intending to just have a nice look around as I already have 500 (I don't exaggerate, ever) quilting projects lined up to last me until I am about 75 yrs old, so I didn't need anymore fabric or patterns.  However need and want are two totally different words, aren't they. All those beautiful quilts, metres and metres of fabulous fabrics,  they wooed me.

So...............................

.................these may, or may not have come home with me. Along with some other fabric that may, or may not be waiting to have photos taken.

Paradise today

Taken on my iphone this morning, on our walk.

Beautiful weather, finally.

This is why I live in paradise!

Today........

Today I finished the Hearts Quilt. Yippee.

I went to the hairdressers.



I bought this.

I tried to take interesting photos of these,

but kept on getting this,

                                       

a lovely cat's butt.

Then I started on the applique on the Japanese indigo quilt.  

I have decided to do needle turn applique. 

It is going to take me a lot longer than I thought.

Op Shop/Thrifting

Today, after a walk along the Noosa River, (I really do need to post some photos of that so you can see how lovely the view is on our walks,) we visited a couple of stores, one a second hand furniture store, the other an Op Shop/Thrift Store.

I found some lovely embroidery pieces, I am not sure what I am going to do with them but I am thinking about using them as centre panels in some quilts or cushions. They were all scrunched up in a basket and are now a little lot more crushed than when I found them as one of the cats decided they would be a nice place to nest.

There is a small mark on the one below, I am not sure how I am going to get it out, it looks permanent.

I also found these beautiful wool embroidery skeins, look at all those lovely colours.

Before we found these beautiful things, we went to a second hand furniture store. This store specialises in buying bulk from holiday rental apartments when they are redecorating, so most of the hideous stuff in there is either floral, cane or a fabulous combination of both from the eighties. We came across this piece which was a BARGAIN total rip off $225.00 It looks ok in the photo, but there was no way I would pay that for it.

Then there was this piece below, it had been painted off white and had gold trim which could have been great if stripped and painted properly, but look at the huge burn mark on the top and they wanted $145....yes.....for that.

This is one of the problems with living in paradise, they think everyone has a trillion dollar income. Well we don't and even if we did we shouldn't have to pay those prices for second hand furniture.

At least we finished on a high note with the embroidery and wool.