Farewell Blogtoberfest 2012

Thank you blogtoberfest for giving me the opportunity to blog everyday...

I almost made it!

October is ending on a very happy note:

Courtesy of a bit of mail - 

 One of the parcels contained this beautiful bundle of fat quarters of Pretty Little Things  - a special giveaway from Barbara @CatPatches  that I was so very lucky to win.

 It is beautiful

 Paisely -- yummo--

 Pretty stitching--pretty florals

cute trees and leaves...

and florals...still petting this fabric and keeping scissors well away from it!

Another parcel contained a gorgeous Doll Quilt - from Francine @ MochaWildChild

This is the front

...back...

...close up...

It's the happiest quilt - the orange and grey is so lovely together!

The last of the parcels held the backing material for my Modern She Made Swap item.

This is my very long charm square houses table runner, pinned and ready to be quilted. The little beach houses are on the back.

I'm becoming so attached to it that I don't quite know how I will be able to part with it...

Tonight is your last chance to enter my giveaway- you could win a very handy travel sewing kit/wallet caddy thing (I really need to give it a more consistent name!)

Enter on this post here

Our Little Secret...

The MaTh knows the rule about not sewing after 9pm...but he has a pair of trousers that need taking up before he leaves in the morning for a business trip.

 I pinned and measured ...

 and measured and pinned...and cut off the excess material...

 Just don't tell him I slipped with the scissors...

 It's our little secret...

Blogtoberfest2012 Day #28 (minus the few I missed)

DON'T MISS MY BLOGTOBERFEST GIVEAWAY....this post here...

I've been getting ready...

Take a quick visit Kat @ I saw you dancing for more Blogtoberfest participants, and 

Cam @CurlyPops for more giveaways....hurry the last of them close at the end of Blogtober!

Two Reasons...

I can give you two good reasons for why I shouldn't machine sew after 9pm...

Enter my Blogtoberfest giveaway on this post here

Blogtoberfest2012 re-started Day #23

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Blogtoberfest Day 20...

Ms Diva has finished her first year of Uni in Bathurst.
I can't quite believe it!
It seems such a short time ago that we were moving her in, setting her up and sewing curtains for her room.

She has to clear out completely, so this weekend the MaTH took a truck and loaded it up and now it is unloaded....here...

I have banned her from buying any new clothes or shoes while she is living back with us!

Next year she is planning on living on campus, so all this furniture will have to find a new home somewhere....other than my lounge room!!!

I've decided to escape to some neater and easier to manage little houses.

I am thinking of giving a few of them an nice matching garden path.

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

PS Blogtoberfest 2012 GIVEAWAY here

Not a lot to say

Blogtoberfest2012: Day 19:

Not much to report.

Too tired to think.
Having fun visiting other Blogtoberfest participants.
    "       "   entering Blogtoberfest giveaways

mine is there - Giveaway #39

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Accident with the Enter key...

A while ago (a loooong while ago) I won some lovely vintage sheet fat quarters from Jacquie of Hazlenuts
I couldn't cut into them...if you could see and feel them, you would be the same I am sure.  I wanted to do them justice and find the perfect project to use them for.

Well, then I had an accident with the enter key....and somehow these solids turned up at my place... 

Put them together and a bit of magic happened...

This pattern, from "Quilting in No Time", is the inspiration for the quilt I'm going to make from my little stash of fabrics.

 I've even worked out how to cut the fat quarters so I use every inch of the fabric.

I have started cutting them and it didn't hurt one little bit...I'm happy for them that they are going into a great quilt.

A very happy accident indeed!

I am having a giveaway for Blogtoberfest 2012 on this post here.

More blogtoberfest2012 bloggers @ I saw you dancing

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Knitting...

A work in progress...

The front of the Rand Cushion

in Milla Mia wool 

Tonight the back has been cast on...I'm looking forward to a quiet evening of knitting...

Head over here for my Blogtober giveaway

Many more Blogtoberfest bloggers to visit over here

Thanks for taking a peek over the fence....

UFO's are a Good Thing...

Blogtober Giveaway post - don't forget to enter

This UFO is now another Christmas finish (it's only a baby UFO - 1 year old - unlike some other adolescent and young adults hiding in the cupboards).

If I had finished it last year I would have laboriously cut out a hanging-sleeve sized piece of backing, sewn it into a tube, turned it right side out,turned in and hand hemmed the edges, then sewn it on after finishing the binding.

But...because I left this for a whole year, I found a nifty tutorial just one week ago! 

Clever,clever Beth at Plum and June had this tutorial on her blog - voilà charm square corners for a dowel to go aross the back. (Go and look at the tutorial, it was for a blog hop and there are some lovely projects on the hops along the way).

 Now it's a finished object  - and my sister's Christmas present is done (she did get a present last year, just in case you were wondering if she had to wait a whole year to get it back!)

Blogtoberfest 2012 post #16

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Un-UFO...

A Christmas project from about 4 years ago...

Stalled because I should never have attempted a self-binding without knowing what I was doing...

Clover clips to the rescue, plus a bit more confidence...

 The result...

Dont forget my GIVEAWAY POST HERE 

and more Blogtoberfest Giveaways here

and a huge list of bloggers here

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Sewing Sunday...

I am running a Blogtoberfest 2012 GIVEAWAY on this post here

At today's GWS Moden Quilt Guild "Sunday Sewalong", I got a whole lot of house blocks made.

in fact, all the houses are done! They were inspired by the Neighbourhood Charm quilt from Moda Bakeshop, and are part of the item I'm making for the Modern She Made swap.

I also taught myself a neat little trick.

If you are adding a small square to the corner of a larger on to get a triangle by the "flip" method, you sew along the diagonal, then "flip" the corner up and get a neat little triangle, on your main square. You also get a small pair of scrap triangles. I figured out how not to waste these - cause normally I'd just bin them....

When you draw your diagonal as your sewing line, draw a second line 1/2" away from the first (ie into the pieces that you will eventually trim off) and sew along it to give you another line of stitiching.

Then cut apart between the two lines of stitching (each piece will have it's correct 1/4" seam allowance.
Voilà - you have one small scrappy square, ready to be used in another scrap project - or sew a bunch of them together and use to go into the backing of the project -which is what I'm going to do with these...

Here are some of my red leftovers - turned this way, they could be the start of a chevron???

Another Blogtoberfest 2012 post...don't forget my Blogtoberfest giveaway at this post.

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

A Modern Block...

Block made for the Greater Western Sydney Modern Quilt Guild members quilt.
Sunday Sew along tomorrow....can't wait

Blogtoberfest Day 13

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

A finish...

You'll have to trust me that this is a finish,even though I am not going to show the front in full!

Here is the back

see the nifty corner pieces for hanging with a dowel

and just the right place for a label!

Here are two shots of the front

 It's quilted in a square 'spiral' pattern, just a bit wonky like the solid colour pieces...

 I'll reveal all when it arrives at it's new home...

Blogtoberfest Post #12

Linking up with Link a Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts

 thanks for taking a peek over the fence...