A flaunt before I run away.....

I'm off for the weekend, on my quilting weekend (I missed it last year due to Steven's illness) so I thought I'd flaunt before I went. I have lots to show you

The quilt from Penny arrived. It is beautiful, and she has done such a lovely job of its construction and quilting - I need to match her quality of workmanship to finish it off, and then Liam is lucky enough to have been given it - such a wonderfully generous act on Penny's behalf.

• I posted my summertime quilt






• Completed Steven's quilt top - I'm hoping to get some of the quilting done this weekend
  





• Made a special bag for Karen based on Leesa Chandler's "Sip and Sew" kit









• Received the wonderful blue table topper from Sandie (more about her to follow!)











• Sent my friendship bag and a label to Claudia in Milan, Italy
  
  
  
  



• Made a proverb ATC - any guesses what the proverb is?
  
  

  
  

• and lastly (I think) made a couple of quick birthday cards..

OK - I'm off for a lovely weekend.... I hope yours is wonderful!

Late Flaunt - is it still Friday somewhere?

The last fortnight has flown by since my last flaunt, but I actually DO have some completed projects to show you, as well as some "in progress" ones.....

Firstly, here is Julie's completed quilt:

I took this photo very late at night - her photos are MUCH lovelier, so go and have a look. I really enjoy doing the 3D centres - they are SO easy, but add another dimension.

My "In the Good 'Ol Summertime" quilt is now winging its way to Pennsylvania - here it is below:

I have also made progress on Steven's quilt, and I must say, the Curve Master has proven its worth.... the blocks needed a little trimming (due to my dodginess!), but went together beautifully - I'm pleased with the almost continuous appearance of the rivers:

The ochre border has been added.....

but I plan to use Cinzia's suggestion, and am in the process of needleturning the rivers over this border. I will be finishing with a border of the blue, so I'm hoping it will look like all the rivers run into the border, if that makes sense.

I have a mountain of work to do, but want to get the top together by Monday so I can get it machine basted - I'm going to hand quilt using perle cottons. I am hoping to take it away with me on my quilting weekend in two weeks :-)

I also need to get Rob's top together so I can get it quilted. He (unknowingly!) helped me select the backing for it, now I have to prepare and post some labels for the Pommie rellies to write on to go on the back of the quilt. His cousin, Rowena is also now living in England, so I have to make sure they all get a chance to write on them and post them back to me.

Another dream for the holidays is to complete the landscape quilt I designed at my Gloria Loughman weekend in February - I'll see how I go.

Now, off to look at the other flaunters - have a lovely week, won't you!

May and June finished projects

Life has been a little hectic, so I neglected to post completed work for the last two months. To get myself up to date, I'll do a combined post, I've decided!My gorgeous friend, Karen, sent me a "Recipe for Friendship" charm square pack as a surprise. I decided to create a little bag for each of us, based on a bag my mate Judy had. They were relatively quick to make and turned out quite successfully, I think!

Over the last few months, I've made a few cards......

While I don't have time to make special gifts for friends' birthdays, I like to at least give them a hand made card. Some of these designs have been provided by very talented people like Diane and others from their blogs. I enjoy setting up my Cricut and Cuttlebug and seeing what is created.

I completed my offering for Spring Blooms........

And some ATCs:
I created the first one for my groups "What colour are you today" swap in May, just after Steven received his PET scan results - he is in remission, but there is a likelihood that the cancer may recur. This may help explain the mix of colours and emotions stamped on it.



June's swap title was "In the middle of......." Well, it HAD to be reports, didn't it!




The last ATC was a set of "Noughts and Crosses" I made for the June no theme swap. I received amazing cards back in return!



I have a nasty feeling that I have forgotten something.... never mind - if I think of it, I'll post later.

April's projects

I told you I had a few things to finish off this month.....

Firstly, I finally had a chance to add the binding to the mystery Mayhem quilt top I made in January.

Secondly, I made a strip pieced QAYG quilt to donate to the bushfire collection. Marilyn at Patchwork Teahouse in Warburton helped me out with the lovely purple sashing fabric, which Steven and I thought added more interest to the end result - what do you think? I am trying to finish off a different quilt to donate also, and then if I can manage it, I want to do another strip pieced one using black as the sashing and binding, suitable for a male. Hopefully next month!

Next is a little Easter gift for my lovely stitcher friend Karen.......

I hand painted the pink sections on the butterflies before I stitched them. The fabric on the bottom is a lovely Lakehouse butterfly fabric, so she can use it either way. (How is it working out, Karen??)

Now, for the ATC's I made this month.....

These "Friendship Fans" ATC's are needleturned and then accents are stitched with gold thread.

The three "April Showers" ATC's are made with my hand dyed fabric. They are buttonhole stitched, then the black accents are stitched. Special glitter I use on my cards has been added to give a flower centre and to signify the raindrops. I enjoyed sitting down and creating them.

The last set of ATC' s was the nine I made for the Haiku swap. You may recognise the photo I used on the front?? I printed them onto fabric, machine stitched some of the branches and added some dew drop with the glitter in the places they actually occured when the original photo was taken.

That's enough for now - the challenge is certainly inspiring me to complete something each month - I am amazing myself how much I am actually able to achieve in the limited time I have available. How have you progressed this month?

March Projects

I have SO many items very close to finished, but with the pressures of work, few have managed to be completed this month.


My only achievement is the 9 themed ATC's I managed to create for this month's challenge - this was what I wanted the assistance and inspiration for in my last post........







Thank you all for your suggestions - I now want to create a larger project, as so many qualities listed were important ones to attempt to emulate.

To create the ATC's, I painted a piece of fabric with blue and pink paint, (which merged into mauve at about the centre of each ATC) and salted it, causing the ripples and interesting effects. The words were then stitched and the sparkly trim added after that.
What do you think?

I'm really enjoying creating the ATC'S!


One project I was hoping to complete this month, but will be included in next month's tally is this strip pieced quilt:

I just have to complete hand sewing the binding, and then I will drop it in to Sandra at Sandlyn House. For many years, there has been an annual retreat to Marysville, and while I couldn't attend last year due to Steven's illness, I have many happy memories of a previous weekend retreat the year before. Sandra will pass it through to her friends to brighten the life ofone resident affected by the fires. I'm also hoping to make a masculine version, but I will see how I go.

February's completed projects

I have managed to complete a few items this month.......

The first is my geisha quilt. I gave up trying to work out a quilting design myself and sent it to Chris from Sandlyn House to quilt it for me. As usual, she has done a wonderful job.

In January, I attended a Cathedral Windows workshop with one of my favourite tutors, Julie Fenn at Somerset Patchwork.

So far, I have completed two of these nifty pin cushions, but I am hoping to complete more as, although they are time consuming, they are quite addictive!

Lastly, with the encouragement of my lovely friend Barb, I have discovered ATC's. Here are two I created for my group's monthly swap....

The theme was "Love is", and these were my attempts on the theme.

I'd love to hear what you think of my month's efforts!

January's completed projects

Aren't holidays wonderful? I have spent part of January organising and preparing several projects so I can just pick them up during the year and work on them. In this way, I am hoping to keep hold of my sanity and actually complete several of the ones from the list at the side.

So far this year, I have completed:

A bag for Alana

I was given a beautiful blue and yellow bag for my birthday by my angel, Sue Daly. Alana was very impressed with it, and Sue kindly sent me the link to the pattern. I used the fabrics Alana is using in her Little Macca's quilt, and were both very pleased with the end result. These bags hold an amazing amount of goodies!

Next I made three little gift bags, but gave two away before I could photograph them! Here is the one still to be given...... you'd never work out what her favourite colour is, would you?

The third item completed was the mystery quilt top I made last Friday. I am counting quilt tops as completed because I need to save up for them to be quilted, and can add the binding quite quickly once they are quilted. The construction of the actual top is what is challenging for me, due to the time constraints of working full time.

All four quilts made on the day were effective and were laid out in different ways. It was an enjoyable activity to undertake!

(Liam always comes in useful when I need to photograph quilts!)