Not sure how this will work

You Are Apple Green

You are almost super-humanly upbeat. You have a very positive energy that surrounds you.And while you are happy go lucky, you're also charmingly assertive.You get what you want, even if you have to persuade those against you to see things your way.Reflective and thoughtful, you know yourself well - and you know that you want out of life.

What Color Green Are You?

Outward Bound

Just a bit sad at the moment. I have just dropped D1 - who is 15 years old - to catch the bus for Outward Bound. The whole of year 9 at her school have gone to a National Park near Canberra. The school loves OB so much they have made it a compulsory excursion. OB is a worldwide organisation that was developed to teach young people leadership and responsibility. Have a look. Yr 9 is spending the next 6 days on something a bit like a survival camp where they are wholely responsible for their decision making and have tasks they need to complete. They also have to hike about 8km's a day with all that they need on their back. It apparently really challenges them. They have a teacher and an OB guide with them but they don't get too involved in things. It's all up to the kids. They'll be back next Sat exhausted and smelly.

Catchup No.2

This quilt here was from a kit I picked up at Quilters Hive when I was there recently. It is a really easy pattern by Julie Wallace. You just buy a 30cm strip of fabric for each block you want to make. So for a 3x3 quilt you need to buy 9 x 30cm pieces of fabric.

While I was at the shop I saw a fully completed Dear Jane. Can't wait to take mum to see it. We plan to make that our next major project together. A long term one.

I am thinking now of adding a scalloped border to this quilt all around the outside. D2 is playing netball at Charlestown for school soon and I plan to drive down to watch. May have to make a little visit!


The next quilt is a 40th birthday present for a member of my Friday night Quilt group. The tradition is to all get together and make one for each members 40th. This year we have 3. One in Sept, one in Oct (mine) and one in December. Everyone did a stitchery panel each and then we had a day to do all the piecing. I have just finished quilting it today plus sewed the binding and hanger on. Now I am ready to pass it onto Sheryl to slipstitch and then it will go to Deb to put all the buttons on it. One down and then only one more to go for me.




















The other quilty thing I have done is start to make a wedding quilt for my brother and his fiance. They have only been engaged since May and a couple of weeks ago told us that they wanted to get married before Mum & I leave for our trip to the US. 21st October to be exact. SO of course we have to make a quilt but that leaves about 7 weeks to have it ready. I'm sure we can do it. The pattern is inspired from an old one I saw on ebay. But I have since seen a similar one on Terry Clothier Thompsons website. I went out to Mum & Dad's yesterday after Netball and we had a big quilting marathon unitl about 11.30. We got all the centre together using leftover 1930's fabrics from D2's quilt. We tried to get started on the borders this morning but Caroline (the bride to be) arrived to have lunch with us for Fathers Day. We knew she was coming but just not quite so early. So know the quilt is all tumbled and folded up with the borders hidden in Mum's cupboard. Oh well we will have to have another go sometime soon. Well best go now I have to work tomorrow.

Catching Up

I can't believe how long it is since I last posted. I must admit though that I have been spending my computer time reading everyone else's blogs and being totally inspired. Which is a good thing because I have been doing a bit more sewing than I normally do. Earlier I mentioned I was going to do a free machine quilting workshop with Jenny Stanley. Here is the result. I had a great day and learnt heaps. Lots of little tips to make things better.





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The girls all had netball and hubby was on nightwork and really needed to sleep during the day. It took a little bit of organising but everything worked out OK.

I'm going to have to do another blog cause I'm not sure what I am doing to add some more photos.

Leanne's House

This is a quilt I finished last year. It is a block of the month from Honeysuckle Cottage and is a combination of stitchery and piecing. Surprisingly I kept up with the monthly mailouts. It is called Leannes House (thats the design companies name as well).

Free Machine Quilting

I'm am feeling totally exhausted at the moment. It is amazing how tired you get from just sitting on your bottom machine quilting all day.

Took part in a free machine quilting workshop at Maitland Hobby Sew.

This picture is of the small piece we had to make up for class.

Jenny Stanley was the tutor - she is also the tour leader for the BIG USA QUILT TRIP. She taught lots of different techniqiues and had lots of hints.

The quilt has been 3/4 quilted and I will add a picture when it is finished. Too tired to even blog. Night!

Look what I have!!

This is just a picture of my birthday and mothers day present from Mark and the girls. Just picked it up on Thurs. Needless to say the girls packed it for me and now I can't find anything.

Holes in the Fingers

We have had such a busy weekend. D3 and D2 both had friends over for the night on Friday. Yesterday all 3 girls had to play Netball plus D1 had to umpire the last game. So that meant that we were at the courts from 10.15 until 3pm. Such a long day but they really enjoy getting out there playing with all their friends.

After that we went out to the Wybong Hall for the Christmas in July. Lovely roast dinner and music by Kylie Curnow and Rock the House, a local band. I think they are pretty new together but they did a great job.
D3 was dancing half asleep (due to the fact that Brooke and her stayed up to midnight talking and annoying the cat.)

We ended up staying the night at Mum & Dads. Which was great and we had organised a quilting day today. My brothers fiance (Caroline) came over and we pinned 3 of my quilts: - the shabby wedding ring, flannel wedding ring and the "How to Grow Angels" wallhanging. My index finger is now full of holes. Mum likes to use a spoon to pin but I can't get the hang of it.

When that was done we did some more sewing on Caroline's wedding ring quilt. It's all in blues with a navy blue centre. It's going to look great but I am definitely over that pattern.

Double Wedding Ring.

I recently completed a class at our local quilt shop with a double wedding ring where you sew a heap of strips together and then cut out the curves using a template. D1 and D3 are fighting over the quilt. It's in shabby colours and is really pretty. I haven't got a photo of that one yet. Mum & I also decided to have a go at making one out of flannel for D3. That's her there with it above. It's waiting to be quilted but 1st I will have to get down to Singleton and get the backing fabric. I am thinking that the purple looks pretty good. I am going to try and get in there on my way to Newcastle on Wed for work. She might just get it in time for next winter!!

Today was the last day of the school holidays. Hubby & I took the girls down to see Pirates of the Carribean. We all loved loved loved it!! Just like the first and can't wait for the third.

Hopefully they all had a good break. We had to both work but they had a few days at both sets of grandparents and their aunt & uncles. Thats gotta be better than just sitting at home. D1 of course had homework. Thats highschool for you.

I have also added a quilt that I finished a while ago. About 2000. Every year for a while I have been going to the Maitland Patchwork and Quilters Quilt-In. They have had great tutors and I have learnt lots from them. Mainly colour confidence. Least I think so. Sadly, this year was the last one and I making the Roebuck Chintz.

So this is an old photo. "Birds in my Garden" and was completed with Brigitte Giblin. A very talented quilter who is inspired by antique quilts.

It was quite a stretch for my skill level at the time but I reckon after this one I would try anything. At least once anyway.

I have been making hexagon flowers for the past couple of hours for a quilt I started just after mothers day. It has been adapted by quilt tutor Lyn Alchin from a pre 1850 quilt called The Roebuck Chintz. You can read about and see the original if you follow the link.


This is where I am up to with mine. Those zig zag borders were great fun. NOT! Long way to go but I am proud to say that the only fabric I have purchased is the quilters muslin for the background. There are 40 hexagon flowers and I have about half of them sewn together and now just need to start appliquing them onto the quilt.

Well, I have contemplating how to keep a record of the quilts I make along with what's happening in my little part of the world. After trolling the web for ideas these blog things kept coming up (they looked heaps of fun- although I did find a couple of scary mean ones). I'm hoping I will be able to leave a legacy for my three beautiful daughters 15, 12, 8 of what is happening in my life and why I have made the quilts that I have. I am just about to celebrate 17 years with my husband plus have the big 4 0 birthday. I have been quilting for about 15 years, have a few finished quilts, lots of UFO's, lots of future quilts in my head or the myriad of magazines and books that I own and very little time. So now that I have started this thing off I am going to go off and learn how to add photos and then try to do a bit off hand applique before bed.