Last Year's Birthday Present

It has arrived. This parcel started travelling on the 16th of August 2014 and has finally reached it's destination on the 13th of October 2015. This poor package arrived at a post office that was busy having a strike.

The package was sent back to the shop where it started it's trip. This then took 6 months to get back to Fabric Shack. Katie was a star and sent off the package for it's next attempt to get to my house. 

I think Kona fabrics are the problem. I entered a competition to win all of these splendid colours and they did not choose me. So sad. I then ordered them with a gift certificate my eldest gave me for my birthday. This has been an exercise in patients. Well they are here and they are beautiful. I will be including them in my current quilt.

The poor packaging looks a whole lot worse for wear. 

This is truly a well traveled package. Luckily the insides were fine. The outsides are rather horrid. Thanks again to Katie at the Fabric Shack. You are awesome!

Have an amazing day!

October - let's be festive

October is here and so is the hot weather. The temperatures are once again reaching 30 degrees Celcius. 

These are the two blocks for the centre of my quilt. I am trying to improve my applique skills.

My mother from 55 years ago. I am rocking the short hair.

Both of my parent had their Birthdays this week with my father reaching 83. Unfortunately my mother has been living in Heaven for the last 12 years. Her birthday was always celebrated on the 4th and 5th of October. This was not due to her being greedy for presents but rather from her having been told that her birthday was on the 4th and then her Birth certificate being registered as the 5th. My mother maintains that her father came into town from the farm and had a party before going to do the registration. Hopefully we can all think of her on either the 4th or the 5th and send her a mental greeting.

Sewing is coming along fine. I had an exra long weekend. I did not do as much sewing as I wanted to. All sorts of things conspired to keep me away from my needle and thread. It was still fun just to have some time off work.

My fabric that I ordered August last year and that started it's second trip in August this year, has as yet still not reached our continent.

Have a good one

Progress is being made

Another Saturday morning and progress is being made. I now have 4 blocks and 14 triangles. It is really fun just choosing which block I want to do next. I am keeping the progress report on the Kathy Sampler tab. Summer is sneaking in, with a few days this week being extremely hot. It is cooler now and almost seems that it is going to rain again. We have had early rain this year and it is wonderful to see the garden being green again.

Have an amazing weekend!

Kathy's sampler started

First week on starting my new quilt and progress has been made. I have made 6 of the border triangles and 1 block. 

I have decided to do blocks and triangle together as boredom started to creep in.  I am using alternate coloured background to add some depth to the blocks. 

I am doing the sashing at the same time as the blocks, this was one of the lessons that I learnt whilst doing the Dear Jane. The second lesson was to ensure that all of the paper was out of the pieces and that each piece was re-sized at the end of making it.

Here are two of the triangle, the rest are on my Sampler tab. I will try to add all the pieces as I make them. It is fun to see how a quilt comes together after the fact.

The triangles are being made with contrasting colours. I was shown a cute trick of finding the contrasting colour using Paint.

All you do is highlight an area, and then right click and select the contrast. Now all I need do is find the corresponding colours. I need to see if there is a formula for me to work out which colour I should use for the background to these blocks.

The weather has turned extremely rainy and freezing, all of the lovely peach blossoms are now on the ground. I love the rain as all of the trees are now showing their leaves. The are tiny and as yet have not unfurled. Hopefully they enjoy the cold snap before the heat of summer.

Hope you all have an amazing weekend full of things that you want to do and not just things you have to do.

Have a good one!

New projects gets ready to start - Kathy's sample quilt

The start of a project

After so much procrastination, I am ready to start my next major project. It will be a sampler. I will be taking blocks from where-ever I find them and hopefully at the end of the day the quilt will be awesome. I like the sashing and on-point from the farmers wife, so this has been incorporated. 

This is last year's birthday present

I always enjoy having a border, so this will be included. Currently I have a border added, but, I very much doubt this is what it will look like in the end. This will be a design in progress until I am actually finished.

The colours for the block backgrounds

 I went shopping today to get the sashing fabrics as well as some muted colours for the background portion of the blocks. I am trying to only use solid colours. It will be a stretch for me. I will try and see if I can do this.
 I am going to be documenting this quilt in the same way that I did the Dear Jane. I will show each pattern piece as well so that if you want to make any of the blocks, you can just take the pattern piece and copy it. The Kathy's sampler quilt tab will be have the blocks as I make them. I will probably be driving my self nuts by adding a schedule and a progress chart. It really is difficult getting an A type personality to act like a zennny zennist.

Taz was helping with the fabrics, he was all over them when they were having their picture taken. As soon as the fabric was being packed away again, Taz decided that this was a box and it had fresh fabric in it and that he needed to do some investigation. 

Here are some pictures of Taz being himself.
He looks so sweet in the first picture. He is trying to show that he is a calm and handsome fellah and will wait patiently while his people take his picture.

These next two are showing him spotting the fact that his tail has escaped and its eventual capture. He had a bit of a chew on it, just to show the tail who is boss. He so enjoys this, though he tries to hide it.

Phew! after so much cuteness he is exhausted. He can barely fit in this silly box. He now has to think what he can do next. Even though he is so tired, he is also very bored. Maybe he can go and chase the birds outside, or nap, or is he actually hungry...

Hope you all have an amazing weekend. I know I will.
Have a good one.