When the going gets tough, the tough get sewing.

I have had a few disappointing situations happen to me & my family this past week. So instead of turning to the chocolate, I have been doing some sewing therapy – much more productive and better for the hips :)

Another version of the McCall’s pattern M5599/M5790 as a work sample using some of the new fabrics in store – the outer bag fabric is Flourish by Alisha Place Frost for studio e fabrics (please excuse the poor photography!).

My selvedge handbag! I decided to keep the selvedges on one side only, & found this nifty fabric at work that looks like selvedges for the other side.

And yes, I did finish Jackson’s quilt in time, it flies off to London tomorrow.

I am choosing to remain optimistic throughout all of these new twists and turns going on in our lives, and take comfort from the words of wisdom from Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables) -

“Tomorrow is a new day, always fresh with no mistakes in it - yet”

(italics are my added words)

May you enjoy your creative therapy too.

With Love

A little bit of colour

I’ve been having a bit of fun playing with colour lately. Summer seems a very colourful time and as it’s been too hot to get out in my garden, I’ve had no option but to sew (what a pity!) A little while ago I bought a pre cut 5” pack of Kaffe Fassett fabrics… It was so much fun to open the pack and lay out all the squares!

I’d never tried the disappearing nine patch that Janelle wrote of in the last post, so I though it would be a bit of fun. I used a common purple square for the centre block and chopped away.

What a quick and easy layout. There’s something very satisfying about starting and finishing a quilt top in one sitting! It finished up a  44” square, so I guess it’s a lap sized quilt. I may even hang it up in my sewing room. Here it is as a completed quilt top…

I don’t have any backing fabric that’s quite right, so for now it’s been folded up and put aside for backing, quilting and binding! Meanwhile, I’ve been playing with some new fabric – thanks to a little shopping on etsy with cottonthreadfabrics . I placed my order, paid with paypal and the next day received a refund on the excess shipping. How gorgeous! I’ll be visiting there again.

 

More pinks with Verna Budding by Kate Spain for Moda:

 

Then I needed some boy influence for my son’s 10th birthday quilt (Still not sure what form this will take and I need to start in the next week or so!!). These are Haul it Citron Spice Prints by Michael Miller :

And I couldn’t pass up some more ‘little boy’ fabrics for the stash. My brother and sister in law are expecting twins mid year so I may be needing two quilts made with these… or two with a pinker theme. We know they are having two babies of the same gender, but not which… such information does not help in the making of quilts for when they are born!




I hope you are finding time for soaking up all the colour around you, whether summer or winter colour!

 

Happy Stitching,

 

Krafty KJ

Ride ‘Em Cowboy

We have had lots of cowboy prints at work lately, so I thought I’d make a Cowboy cot quilt for baby Jackson. The fabrics are a mix of Michael Miller, Robert Kaufman and Timeless Treasures.

2 years ago Kylie sent me a link to a blog that had a tutorial about making a Disappearing Nine Patch quilt. Since then, I have been hooked on this pattern – especially if you want to whip up a quick quilt. Here’s what mine looks like so far.

Now just to sew it up, add a boarder, quilt it and bind it before Uncle Doug heads off the the UK. I work well under pressure :)

Have fun creating!

With Love

Quilts, quilts and more quilts!

Yesterday my daughter and I headed to the town of Loch for the annual quilt hanging. It was a girl’s day out to remember. Emily had a lovely time and by the end of the day was expert at working out if a quilt was hand or machine quilted. She also was amazed how many quilts were made of diamonds and triangles.




These were two of her favourites and she wants to start one like the latter, later this year…  Perhaps I shouldn’t have said, “This would be a good design for a first quilt”!

  

These were two of my favourites, I decided I’d like to make a three coloured quilt like this blue, yellow and white one. It had a great range of sampler blocks, alternating with a simpler, common block – very clever.

 
Here are some of the others we saw…

 

The work on this one was inspiring – must give this style a go some time…



And here is the local CFA fire truck shed – transformed into another quilt hanging spot!



All in all a wonderful day, and well worth the travel time from Melbourne. Unfortunately I heard that this was the last one planned at present as the current organisers have been doing it for the last 10 years. I’d say they deserve a well earned break and a big WELL DONE! But it will be a missed event on the quilting calendar.

 

Happy stitching to you all,

 

Krafty KJ

Cake and hammers!

It was time to celebrate Oliver’s birthday with friends and family today. It was a 10 day wait for Oliver, a long time when you are three four. He requested a rocket party with woodwork and real tools. Here is the birthday boy with his tools, thanks to nana!

 

We visited reverse art truck to get all the wood off cuts and the empty knitting machine cones which the children used. They had a lot of fun making rockets, space ships and even a castle!!

The afternoon finished off with birthday cake and ice cream in cones (It was a very hot day!) This year it had to be a rocket cake with three sparkler jet engines and a space man candle!

   

It is always a great feeling to get to the end of a birthday party and know everyone had a lovely time and there’s a break for a little while before you have to do it again!
 

School is back tomorrow – my 7 1/2 year old can’t wait and has been counting down, my 9 1/2 year old doesn’t want to go back and would rather be on permanent holidays. I think I lie somewhere in between… the school clothes are clean and ready the lunchboxes are out… let the year roll on…

 

Krafty KJ

Sweet Dreams little monkey!

I have a little boy who has just turned 4. He is blessed with a very cheerful disposition, has so much energy for life and so much curiosity for learning, that at times I struggle to keep up! He is happy almost 100% of the time – what a gift! So what fabric does one choose to make a quilt for their  happy, cheeky monkey?

With a summer birthday, I couldn’t resist the bold, bright colours of Malibu Monkeys by Michael Miller. I love the beach ball fabric. It measures 45” by 68”, just smaller than single bed size, but small enough to wrap around the shoulders of my gorgeous 4 year old!

and sock monkeys on the back…



To finish it off I had it professionally quilted with a monkey and bananas pattern. I tried to get it in a photo – sorry it’s such a bad one, but I think you can see the dancing monkey and the red banana!!

    


I do wonder what monkey business this year of being four will bring to my dear boy… Here is a photo of him under his new quilt. It was such a hit that he said he didn’t need his ‘blankie’ anymore. We’ll see how long that lasts!!

 

Many blessings on you Oliver as you enjoy being 4! You are one special little monkey!


Krafty KJ

Bright Sunshiny Days

We have been thoroughly enjoying the Summer School holidays – sleeping in and catching up with precious friends. Jenny and her gorgeous kids came over for a day of sewing and fun. Amy has just started sewing lessons and showed me the selvedge pin cushion she had made. So I got my stash of selvedges out and started sewing them together – it is VERY addictive. I hope to turn this lot it into a bag (eventually).

The kids also found a picture of babushkas in the newspaper and made me a card too, Miss Georgia is the model. Thank you very much, I love it!

Look who is staying with us for the weekend…

DH and Mr smileykylie (Kylie’s DH)

He is over in Perth for work. We had a yummy cooked breaky this morning (which explains the state of my DH’s t-shirt). The boys have just gone off to Hillarys Marina and are going to see Avatar in 3D tonight. There are plenty of Tim Tams in the fridge too (their biscuit of choice).

Katherine isn’t the only one doing some internet fabric shopping :) I managed to get 10 half yards of Rosalie Quinlan's ‘Grandmothers Flower Garden’ fabric (from the fabricbee Etsy store) to go with my Christmas present from DH - ‘a Stitch in Time’ (Rosalie’s 2nd book).

Hope you have a Fantastic weekend

With Love

PS Welcome to the world Jackson Thomas Lane, a precious baby boy born to my cousin Marissa and her DH Matt in London. Isn’t he a cutie.