Other projects and more...

As well as the quilts I've been making I've had a few other projects that I have been working on recently.

More doggie hats and coats

more hats

Russo's coat and matching hat

I had a call from the dog groomer wanting two dog hats adjusted for a customer. This order led to making another dog coat and hat to make for my bosses dog. 

Russo in his new outfit

 Kids Hope

tweety bird

I've been volunteering as a Kid's Hope mentor again this year. It's a wonderful program run by my chruch and World Vision. As a mentor I go to the school for one hour once a week and spend time with a child. First and second term I had a little grade three girl. We had lots of fun together making this cat, tweety bird and a patchwork bag for her to keep. The bird and cat were made from felt and apart from the seems everything was glued on and I used split pins for the eyes and nose.

Another jumper for Andrew

Andrew's new jumper

I've started knitting another jumper for Andrew. It was going to have the same collar as his last jumper but with moving from the cold of the Dandenongs I've changed the collar to a round neck so that it's not so hot to wear. I've knitted the back and have knitted half the front.



Table mats for Glen Park Cafe

Table mats for work

At work with have a cafe so I was asked to 'fix' the 'things' that were placed on the centre of each table with the salt and pepper shakers and menu's. Basically they were pieces of fabric cut into crooked squares!  I squared each piece of fabric and tried out some embroidery stitches around the hems.


 Postcards from Paris quilt 

I have finally hung my Postcards from Paris quilt. It now graces the wall in the dinning room.

A box of ties

A friend asked me if I would like some ties to make something with. She was sorting through her husbands ties and was getting rid of a few. I said yes not realising just how many ties she meant! I now have a big crate of over 100 ties all with different patterns - some flowers, some plain and some cartoon. I am looking forward to making a quilt or two out of these ties for my friend.

A box of ties

A portrait of Charlie

I am lucky enough to work at a community centre where there are many talented students and tutors. One such lady is Anne who did this chalk portrait of Charlie.

Anne with Charlie s portrait

Meeting the Prime Minister

Another bonus of working at the community centre was that I got to meet the Prime Minister - Julia Gillard

Why I'm making quilts for my family

When my great nephew and nieces were visiting in April I showed them their quilts. Lachlan asked if he could have his quilt over him while he slept - I think it was because he wasn't keen on having a pink quilt on him!

Sewing, sewing and more sewing!

I feel like I've spent every spare minute of the past two months sewing quilts. As I look back over what I have made it's probably not too far from the truth!

Kelly's quilt

Kelly's quilt ready for the binding to be stitched down

Since my last quilting post in April I have all but finished Kelly's quilt - it's just waiting for the binding to be hand sewn in place. A job I have left until I am at home recuperating after my operation which is scheduled for the 6th August.

Quilt top made from the leftover blocks from Kelly's quilt

I had a lot of blocks left over from Kelly's quilt so I have made them into a smaller quilt top which is sitting on my new quilt ladder waiting to be backed and quilted.

Quilting ladder

I love my new quilting ladder! I had been wondering what to do with all my quilts that I had on the go - each at different stages of being stitched. I decided to ask the guys in the Men's shed at work if they would be able make me a ladder - to my delight they happily made me a ladder for my quilts.

Quilts for sale

I was asked to make a quilt to sell at a fundraising auction for my work. I ended up making two quilts, a small cot quilt made from lovely bright red fabrics with beetles on it and a single bed quilt. For the single bed quilt I used my 'retro' fabrics that I had brought at the January sales earlier in the year. It was exciting and a little scary watching people bid on my quilts. I was worried that no-one would bid or if they did, that the reserve prices wouldn't be met. I need not have worried as lots of people bid and the reserve prices were exceeded!

One of the things I was encouraged to do was to put a label with my name and the date on each quilt I make. A friend made me a couple of labels to use but it's something that I need to look into getting made to sew onto the quilts I make for other people.

My 'Retro' fabric

sewing lots and lots of strips for 9 square blocks!

finally coming together...

my name label

The finished 'retro' quilt

my red beetle quilt sold at auction

Owl Quilts

Charlie checking out Andrew's quilt

Andrew has his first quilt!


After making Edna's 'Owl' quilt I decided to make another one just because I liked the fabrics. I had hoped that someone would like it enough to want it so I was really happy that Andrew asked if he could have it for himself.
The quilt is now hanging on the wall above his bed where it will stay until he sells his house.

Andrew's Owl quilt hanging above his bed

Helga's 'Owl' quilt

With the left over fabric I made up another (my 3rd!) 'owl' quilt. This quilt was brought by a lovely lady, Helga. Helga calls it her 'wisdom quilt' and has it sitting on a chair in her nursing home

Heidi's Quilt

After finishing the quilts for the auction I was asked to make a quilt for my bosses 40th birthday. This was to be quilt for her partner to give as a gift. Apart from only having three weeks to make the quilt I had to work out the pattern and colors. I found a lovely range of fabric by Moda called 'Pure'. Time, or lack of it was a major factor in deciding the design of the quilt. I decided that squares were the fastest to cut and easiest to sew and machine quilt. I decided to make six inch squares and alternate them with four square blocks.

Some of the 'Pure' range from Moda 

The design suited that fabrics but I didn't take into account just how many three inch squares I'd have to cut!  With the 200 three inch squares and 50 six inch squares cut I spent every spare minute at the sewing machine. I machine quilted the quilt with a simple 1/4 inch shadow stitch around all of the six inch blocks. After a lot of long days of sewing and late nights I finished the quilt just in time for the birthday

Blocks laid out ready to sew together

Heidi's quilt

Some exciting news to share!

My days have been really busy sewing and finished quilts for friends. I will have to take some time out at the weekend to update my blog of everything I've been making. This post is to share some really exciting news!

I'm Engaged!!

On the 8th June 2012 Andrew proposed to me and I said YES!!

Andrew came to visit Friday night and snuck up behind me in the kitchen. He pulled out the little box all wrapped in bright orange tissue paper with a bright yellow flower on top. Even when I saw the box I didn't click ring - I thought earrings!  When I opened the box and saw the beautiful diamond ring I thought 'wow what a beautiful birthday present'. As I took the ring out of the box  Andrew said 'Happy birthday' but then just as I was about to put the ring on my finger I heard Andrew say 'Will you marry me?'  I said YES without any hesitation.


We are having fun planning our lives together. There is lots to do with selling houses and buying a new one together as well as planning our wedding. I'm also waiting to have surgery on my knee next month which will put me out of action for a few weeks. It's all exciting and somehow I know things will fall into place.


In between everything else going on I have four orders to make quilts!

A great Easter Long Weekend

I had a great Easter long weekend. Time with Andrew, church on Sunday, lots of quilting, and lots of queuing up at sales buying more quilting fabric and batting. A 40% sale is not something to miss!

Andrew and I went for a drive on Saturday to Warrandyte and had lunch at Warren Glen Nursery then drove up through St Andrew's to Kinglake and back through Yarra Glen were we stopped for a yummy afternoon tea. It was amazing driving through the Kinglake National park and seeing the regrowth from the bush fires 2009. Kinglake was so quiet and there are still mobile homes being used. We don't hear much about the fire affected areas these days but for those people living at Marysville, Kinglake and the town affected there are still reminders every day.

Andrew gave me a hug Easter egg and a Spotlight gift voucher which was really sweet.

Andrew with his Chook door stopper - the pickets were filled with little Easter eggs.

There were some great sales on over the weekend. My favourite shop Spotlight had 40% quilting fabric and batting so I queued for nearly an hour with my bargains and put them on layby. I went back Sunday and was amazed to be served within 10 minutes but yesterday .. well that was a different story - an hour and a half!! I did get a couple of pieces of lovely bright fabric and some pinks to make a baby's quilt. I had gone to buy the border for Kelly's quilt, quilting needles and globe!

I had a good weekend sewing - finished the top of Kelly's quilt ready to add the borders and binding, sewed more of Jessica's binding down - only 77cm to go!. I cut out and sewed an 'Owl' quilt but I'm not happy with the green I've used. It was meant to be lime green but somehow I picked up the wrong green, a color I had set aside for another quilt and didn't realise until I was putting it together!  Back to Spotlight today to pick up some lime green and lots of unpicking tonight!

the border is actually pink but looks orange here

Only 77cm left to sew

I'm going to change the green to a lime green

some pinks for a baby's quilt

Some fantastic bright colors

Kelly's quilt for Imogen

For a while now people have been asking if I sell my quilts. Having always sewn my quilts by hand my answer has always been 'no'. Too much work and no-one would be prepared to pay the thousand or more dollars that I'd have to charge for them.

Material for a quilt

Sewing Jessica's quilt by machine made me think more about sewing quilts by machine for other people so at the Christmas and new year sales I brought some bundles of fabric to sew.

One of the bundles was this pile of bright colored almost 70's design fabrics. I loved them and hoped that someone else might like them as well. I put a photo on Facebook and had lots of comments from people saying that they loved the colors.

A few weeks later a friend asked me if I would make a single bed quilt for her daughter - she loved the fabrics I had brought and didn't mind what design I made them in to.

I decided that the colors need some plain colors to help break them up so I've designed a basket weave pattern of strips. Each block has three strips - an plain color in the centre with two different bright colored fabrics on either side.

Designing my quilt pattern

Basket weave block design

With the pattern decided I cut the strips, then sorted them into colors and then into stacks of three strips ready to sew.

fabric cut into strips

Sorting fabric ready to sew into blocks

Sewing the blocks.. had a great system going here

A basket of blocks ready to iron

Ironed and ready to sew together

I got a great system going with sewing a pile of strips into two and then going back and sewing on the third color. It's been exciting seeing the quilt come together so fast.  I've sewn most of the rows together - hopefully I'll finish this afternoon. My next big decision is to decide whether the quilt needs a border and if so what color!

Doggy bean bags for Oscar and Rex

My niece asked me to make two doggy bean bags for her two dogs - Oscar and Rex.

fabrics for the covers

stuffing the bags with beans

Charlie thought the bags were just right for him!

Charlie... King pin