Precious

Thank you for the migraine sympathy on my last post. The head is a bit doughy & sore today, but thankfully the worst of it is over. Little Miss 6 is sleeping over at a friend's place for the first time tonight, & she is super excited. Here is her packing list - see if you can decode it! And a code of a different type - a message left for me by my 9-year-old puzzle prince! Aren't children just the most precious gift?!

Creativity vs migraine

Not much news on the girly twirly skirt I'm afraid. Have been battling a migraine. So often for me, creativity and migraines seem to go together - very frustrating! I finished the latest of my Dear Jane blocks a couple of days ago. This is F5 Parcheesi. And my first 25 blocks, all together: I try not to think too much about how many blocks there are to go for Dear Jane, but am enjoying piecing them just one at a time. Hope your day has been more creative & productive than mine!

Girly, twirly skirt in the making?

Hmmm, I'll keep you posted! All that gathering on this bag has got me in the mood. And then I saw this photo & a creative spark flickered. Just hope the spark doesn't go out!

Bunny inspired post #2

Another bunny stitchery - this is one of three small cushions I stitched for the baby son of a good friend of mine. The design is by Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched.There are other cute designs in Anni's series called 'Simple Stitchings'. You can find the full range of designs here. One of my favourite bunny makers is Little Cotton Rabbits - too cute! And just a little bit of Friday Flickr fun - some more bunnies for you. My favourite is the very last pink one. I love the stunned 'bunny in the headlights' expression!1. august the bunny, 2. the long eared patchwork bunny, 3. little_babu_bunny, 4. byelittlee, 5. Cuori con coniglietti, 6. Usagi, 7. forest of tree ornaments, 8. blue boys, 9. Jojo's Bunny, 10. conigli tilda, 11. Two Best Bunnies from the Chocolate Box series, 12. Smile, 13. Ballet bunnies, 14. bunni, 15. Two bunnies for two little girls (best friends), 16. Pink bunny

Bunny inspired post #1

I received a comment from Rachael Rabbit the other day. Of course, with a cute blog name like that, I had to investigate. Rachael's profile professes her love of all bunny inspired crafts, so I am digging up anything remotely rabbit-related in her honour!This is a little bag I stitched for one of my daughters. It is a pattern by Sue Brennan of Weigela Design who unfortunately does not have a website. But you can have a look at her lovely shop in country New South Wales here, here and here. For anyone itching for some bunny stitching, check out this free pattern at Lynnette Anderson Designs. It is just one design in her free block of the month Noah's Ark quilt.

So you think I'm crazy?

Attempting to re-create a Dear Jane quilt may seem crazy enough, but just have a look at this! Hanne has just put the finishing stitches on her aptly named 'Nearly Insane' quilt. It is the most amazing quilt I have ever seen, and just stunning in red and white. Congratulations Hanne - you are in a league of your own! My Dear Baby Jane progress:B11 Melissa's Cross - I foundation pieced the centre (using Minka's 3/8" cross hairs) & hand appliquéd the curves as for Anina's method. The curves on this are more circular than square-ish as they should be, but it is symmetrical, so I'm happy! H1 Peek-a-boo - freezer paper foundation pieced. Hmmm, very different to the original I know. The truth is, I am a bit scared of the Dear Jane blocks that have a large proportion of solid colour. Because they are so dominant in the finished quilt, I am worried I will muck up my fabric choice & it will look awful. So I tend to want to 'soften' the look of these blocks by using more than one fabric. What a coward I am! I8 Pete's Paintbox - freezer paper foundation pieced. See 'coward' comment above! BR1 Rosemary's Window - the first of the border triangles. One down, only 51 to go! There is a code amongst Dear-Janers, which for me at the moment looks like this: 24:1:0:336. This means I have completed 24 blocks, 1 triangle, O corner blocks & have used a total of 336 pieces. The numbers should eventually read 169:52:4:5602!

The latest in birthday party entertainment ...

Stuck for an idea on how to entertain a party of 12 year old girls? Mine went to a party recently to find a table beautifully set out with tiny rolling pins, piping bags, cute cutter shapes, ready-to-roll icing in the sweetest of colours, & bare little cupcakes, ready to be transformed. Here is the result:The girls had the most wonderful time decorating their little cakes, and were even let loose on the big birthday cake, rolling lots of little roses and sticking them on top to create a gloriously girly cake for the birthday chick. I thought this was an ingenious idea, & is evidently popular for 'big girl' parties too, especially hens nights! Play dough for grown-ups really!

Lemon lusciousness

Cooked this yummy recipe from Jo at Vintage Lane Stitches yesterday.I made it as a slice rather than a tart & it comes highly recommended - it is all gone!

Club Quilt retreat

I got to spend just a day with the Club Quilt girls at their annual retreat on the weekend. Always a lot of laughs & a flurry of activity. Here is a quick roundup of the weekend gathering of quilting friends:As we are coming into winter in Australia, there was lots of cuddly flannel happening ...... some amazing piecing ...... some clever stippling ...... beautiful fabrics beneath machines ...... other happy fabric bundles just laying about, waiting for transformation ...... some raw-edge grooviness ...... some stunning redwork embroidery...... a little bit of bagmaking (using this pattern) ......and all sorts of other pretty patching ...And this is just a little of what I saw in my 24 hours at the retreat. You can only imagine what they all got up to on the other two days! There will be lots more reports of this weekend here, here and here soon, I'm, sure.

Serendipity

Stayed up late sewing last night, as you do! Keen to get my new bag finished. I have long admired the beautiful bags of Pink Lemonade Boutique & the inspiration for using linen for this bag came from her. Linen + anything = success, I reckon. I employed my favourite bag-holding model for this shot (aka skinny daughter):In the middle of the night, and with only a final button to put on, I couldn't find a button big enough in my bits & bobs, until ... ... I found these little treasures. They are probably 30 or 40 years old & I inherited them from an elderly relative. I was very encouraged by the claim that any unskilled dimwit could use them! Wondered if that extended to someone sewing late at night with too much red wine under her belt, but I really wanted to get this bag finished. And, as so often happens when forced to improvise, the result was surprisingly satisfactory, even quite cute! Enormous thanks to Janelle, the pattern's designer, who just happened to be on hand to help me choose fabrics. I love it Janelle! If you are tempted to make one of these bags yourself, it is called "Frilly Dilly Bag" by Janelle Wind Collection & there is a list of stockists on Janelle's blog. I am off to spend 24 hours with these girls on a quilting retreat. Too much fun! We are expecting snow at home (an unusual occurrence), so there is much excitement in the house as the kids have never seen snow - a big weekend all round!