Newest Addition!! : :

I haven't posted for quite a while...mostly because I haven't been sewing!!
But that's not to say that I haven't been making something special.......

If you would all kindly turn your heads to the side...you may see something that resembles a BABY!!

This was my scan from 10 weeks I think.....I'm 20 weeks today!!
Still waiting for my 20 weeks scan.....and still deciding if Mr Handsome and I want to find out the sex...but we are both so excited to be having number 4!

It hit us last night that we will actually have 4 children.....ha ha couldn't stop laughing!!

So I'm due on Valentines Day (Feb 14th) 2015....I cant say how much I'm NOT looking forward to being huge in the hot hot summer...but it will be nice to have birthdays in the summer when we can parties outside!

I'm so looking forward to having cuddles with a newborn!! There is nothing in the world like your own newborn baby!

Jessica xx

Grandma's 80th Birthday Quilt : :

In April it was my grandmothers 80ths birthday. Is there a better way to celebrate turning 80 than with a new quilt? Nope, I couldnt think of anything either!

I decided I wanted to make a quilt using a Jelly Roll (my 1st ever!). I wanted to use one because I wanted to make her a queen sized quilt, and didnt want it to take me too long!
After a few sneaky phone calls to my aunt about what types of colours nan does and doesn't like, I decided to get 2 Lario Jelly Rolls.

Lario is by 3 Sisters for Moda. Its a traditional-type fabric, but still has some really nice colours.
My grandma is a traditional sort of lady so it was a match made in heaven!

I borrowed a Jelly Roll book from my friend and decided to make the pattern 'Daisy Chain'.
(hmm hmm, I actually was going to go with another pattern, but ran out of time!)

It actually sewed up really quickly for a queen quilt, but I was still rushing to finish it because as usual I had procrastinated for about....only a YEAR!

Yes, I began planning this quilt at her 79th birthday and had all these wonderful plans to start and finish it waaay before her 80th.

I didnt start cutting this quilt till 1 week prior.
Need I say more?

So here is it being used in my grandmas bedroom. For the background I used Kona snow, which was perfect with Lario. Snow isn't as 'stark' as white, which was nice for a more traditional quilt. 

I backed it in a peach coloured backing I got from my local craft store. To be honest, I cant stand peach coloured things (it reminds me of 80's shiny bridesmaids dress and dated old bathrooms), but it went so well with the quilt, and was wide enough that I didnt have to have any seams on the back. SOLD!

And my nan didn't mind it either, which, of course is the most important thing!

To quilt it, because I was sooo strapped for time, I used a wavy stitch on my Bernina, and just stitched the width of the quilt on every seam. For some reason I thought it would be quick -It wasnt!

But it looked ok. I think I would've preferred to stipple this quilt (if I was being honest) but I really didn't have the time......

NEXT time, I wont leave it till so late! (Says she who is still making a baby quilt for a baby that is now 4 months old!)

Jessica

Baby Girl Quilt : :

Despite my obvious lack of posting on my blog of late, I haven't lost interest!! We have had a lot of things going on in the last few months.
 We are steaming ahead with our renovation, my logo for the store is now done, and we had the twins 5th birthday in the middle of all that as well (where does the time go?).
All that was done in between the everyday things of shopping, cleaning, kinder, speech pathology, visiting friends and family, and SLEEP!  (not nearly enough of the later though if you ask the bags under my eyes!)

But despite all that, I still love to squeeze some time quality time in with my sewing machine!

Earlier this year one of my good friends had a beautiful baby! (please ignore the clucking you may or may not hear coming from me).

So of course, every beautiful baby needs a beautiful quilt!

The pattern for this quilt is called 'Sweet Pea', and came from the quilt book written by Camille Roskelly,  'Simplify'. (I L-O-V-E her patterns, fabric....hair, and the fact she is a member of the same church I go to! Yup, she has got a lot of things going for her!)

I used my favourite fabric, Sarah Jane, Children at Play. (yes I know i have made a zillion quilts with this fabric range before. I just have a whole ton of it!)

This is also the first time I have EVER free motioned! I decided to just stipple the quilt instead of getting fancy (and frustrated) with a pattern. I used the Bernina Stitch Regulator (fondly known as BSR) and while it's not fool proof, it was definitely good for me!

I found that it really helped me stay a steady speed, as every time I moved the fabric too quickly, my machine would start beeping at me! I know it makes for 'lazy quilters', as I was told by a Pfaff sales representative when I asked if Pfaff sewing machines come with any sort of equivalent (really, I deserved it! I mean, come on, would any other machine even come close to a Bernina?)

I would like to be able to use the free-motion foot without the stitch regulator eventually, so I tried to maintain a steady speed while quilting. The best thing is that while I'm leaning, my quilts still look fantastic, and it gives me loads of practise!

I love the look of the heavy stippling. I'm not a great fan of sparse-stippling! I am honestly coming to believe that a quilt can never be too quilted!

So this quilt is now over in Baltimore keeping one gorgeous baby girl warm! I really hope I can go and see this quilt in action in the US soon!

Jessica 

P.S Sorry for the terrible lighting with the photos. I stayed up really late the night before and then got up at 5am to finish it! I just snapped a quick photo at my friends house before I left!! Ill up my game for the next post!!

Star Light Star Bright!!

If you follow my blog you will know that I am doing the Happy Quilting Quilt-a-long!!
I chose to do the 4x4 Queen layout, each block in this layout is 40'' square!!
I love love love the large blocks!! After finishing all four of my blocks, I realised that I don't really need another queen size quilt....

But what I DO need is about 4 baby quilts!! I don't know if this is allowed (sorry Melissa!) but I *think* I'm going to just leave the large blocks as they are and turn them into baby quilts!!

I'm not 100% decided with this..I may use one of two as a baby quilt, and then whip up another few blocks and turn the whole thing into a quilt after all....or I was even thinking of backing it in laminated cotton and making a picnic quilt......or using 1-2 for baby quilts, then making little picnic quilts for tea parties for my girls...

Ha ha, as you can see, I'm not 100% yet what I'm going to do with these beautiful quilt blocks! I love how they are just so darn versatile!

Sorry for my lack of ironing.....My twin girls have to go to see the speech pathologist this morning, and I didn't want to be running late, so I had to just take a quick snap. I'm also working tonight (I'm a nurse), and I wouldn't get this up in time for the grand prize ...*fingers crossed*!
Ill take some better photos in the coming days and show you my other four blocks!

Jessica

Amy Butler Little Splashes : :

After a VERY loooong hot summer its finally getting cooler (well the nights are anyway!). So now I'm moving into winter sewing as the winters in Gippsland can be very long and cold!

About a year ago (or possibly more, whose counting right?) I ordered 3 different types of laminated fabric and the Amy Butler sewing pattern Little Splashes.

I let the girls each choose which fabric they wanted, Little Miss E choose a zoology fabric by Robert Kaufman in whales, and Little Miss I chose a cute strawberry laminate.

Block Corners : :

So...I finally caught up with the Happy Quilting quilt-a-long. I was soo far behind! There has been so much happening here lately, some good, some bad.
Good news is our house is sealed up! We pulled down all the internal walls that needed to come out (we are renovating) and then had to lay the floor. Its been a trying couple of weeks with birds coming in and out of the house, but its finally all closed off!!

I have finished this weeks assignment (just in time too!) ...so here are my block corners for my quilt!

 

I cant wait till its all sewn together! I haven't used the BSR on my new Bernina 440QE yet, and I really plan on putting it to the test on this quilt! (By the end of quilting a queen quilt, one would hope I would have the hang of it!)

I have lots to put up here and now I have found my charger to my camera, I can finally take some photos of the things I have been making!

Jessica

Something Is Coming...

Something BIG!! Something HUGE!!!!

I'm opening an ONLINE STORE!! Yippie!
I am still in the process of organising myself, but I have my first order of patterns here ready for me to list, and another order on the way. (yes I will be selling sewing patterns)

The name of my store is.....

Yes its completely irrelevant to what I'm actually selling, but I love it!
My lovely maybe-almost-sister-in-law is going to draw up some cute graphics for me so I can really get things looking nice (think tea drinking foxes!).

I'm planning on stocking a large range of quality patterns, including men's, women's, and of course children's patterns. Eventually down the line I may also look at sourcing notions and sewing tools that I love to use as well!

My store isn't up yet as I'm still getting everything in order, but it will be soon! When it is, I will be sure to let you know and add a button to the side of my blog for easy access!

I'm SO SO SO excited! I have been wanting to do this for AGES now, and I cant believe its nearly up and running!

Jessica

Sorry for the lack of posting of late! There has been so much going on that I haven't had hardly any time!!

Star Light Star Bright Half Square Triangles : :

The next assignment we have been given in the Happy Quilting Quilt-a-Long, is the half square triangles.  Nearly there!! YAY!!

I cant wait for the next assignment! My favourite part about quilting is putting the blocks together. I changed the layout ever so-slightly that Melissa gave us. I really hope it turns out well!

Something that I have never done before I started following Melissa's blog, is trim my half square triangles. As you can see above, most of them have been trimmed, but some haven't (I will remedy that before I sew them into the blocks!). Since the first time I trimmed them with her last quilt-a-long I have always trimmed them!

I'm always surprised that no matter how carefully I cut, and how precise I try to be with my 1/4 inch seam, they are nowhere near perfect!! Trimming not only makes them the perfect size, but gets rid of those annoying dog ears, that get in the way when sewing the blocks together!

If you want tips on how to trim your half-square triangles, Melissa has a fantastic tutorial over on her blog.

Jessica

Flying in Formation : :

After all the renovating work we have done this last week, (we have removed 3 walls, painted the exterior, and put some of the new timber floor down) I decided that I wanted to play with some fabric I've been dying to use for about 6 months now!

Its an organic cotton called Tsuru, and I really love the oriental feel it has! Ive been hoarding it for long enough now! Its time to bring it out so I can use it!
I chose a BEAUTIFUL linen for the background! Its really really nice and I think it lends itself to the oriental, natural feel I'm going for.

I was going to be really boring and just copy a quilt design that I saw recently, which IS nice, but I decided to go out on a limb and take my first stab at designing my own.

I wanted to keep the design simple, and not overly crowded.
After trying out a few different designs on paper, I have decided on this one :

Or something like this one anyway! I really enjoyed making all those flying geese last week, and I still want to make more.

I'm going to call my quilt 'Flying in Formation'. (Is it weird to name a quilt before its even made?)

If it turns out any good perhaps I'll even write the pattern up and share it here on my blog.

Jessica

Star Light Star Bright Flying Geese : :

The next step in the Star Light Star Bright quilt-along is the flying geese. I love love love the way Melissa does hers. I do them this way every time.
However everything was combining against me making these flying geese last night!
After first realising that I had done all my cutting wrong last week,  re-cutting everything, sewing my fabric together the wrong side down, then having to unpicking it all and sew them again, I finally have my super-sized flying geese to show for all that frustration! (I was seriously thinking of just giving up on this quilt-along...for like half a second. So glad I didn't!)
So here they are....flying in formation!

I am LOVING these colours. SO fresh and lovely.
Be proud of me. Seriously. I did all of my trimming by torch light last night after the power went off for 8ish hours! Pretty much as soon as I had finished ironing my last 'goose', off it went. Thank heavens I didn't need my sewing machine or iron anymore!

Hope next weeks assignment runs a lot smoother than this one!

Jessica

Star Light Star Bright Cutting : :

As part of the Happy Quilting Quilt-A-Long that I've joined I have to post a photo of my weekly process and link it up on the Happy Quilting blog.

I decided to go with the Just Wing It fabric. I also completely changed my mind and I am now making a 2x2 block quilt. Each block will be 40'' x 40''. I'm using Kona white for the background which Im excited about as I don't have any white quilts yet, and I'm hoping it will have a lovely fresh-modern look to it.

So here is my progress thus far...

Last time I did a quilt a long with Happy Quilting, I chose a 4 x 4 block quilt. It looked fantastic, but it was soo much work making 16 blocks. I'm very happy to be making only 4 blocks this time!

Jessica

Reversible Oliver + S Bucket hats : :

One thing that I cant stand about getting the kids ready is looking for things. Hats, shoes, sunglasses, clothes, you name it. On a hot sunny day its nothing short of a miracle if when we leave the house everyone has a hat, sunglasses and thongs.

So as the twins are starting 4 year old kinder this year (where is the world did the first 4 years go?), I decided to save myself the stress of looking for hats and make them a second! If they have two hats each, then Ive just doubled my chances of finding one when I need it, right? fingers crossed...

Yes, my kids are in their pj's. I have been doing loads of sewing lately but not much blogging, so last night I decided to remedy that and got all three of them on the verandah for a few quick snaps.

These hats are super great for children! They have a wide brim and are reversible, which is fun for matching outfits, but lets face it, its also great for turning it the other-way out if they get one side dirty while out and about (which they do).

To make these hats I used the free pattern found here :

Quick Jelly Roll Table Runner : :

Here is the EASIEST quilt/table runner I have ever made!

I made it from a Jelly Roll. The fabric I used is called Honey sweet from Moda. Can you believe this is the first time I have used a Jelly Roll? It was soo much fun! I'm planning a rather big quilt using Jelly Rolls, and I'm really looking forward to it now! They are such a great way to get a good variety of perfectly matching fabric!
To make this table runner I used a quilt-as-you-go method (QAYG).

Quilt-A-Long with me! : :

I'm so excited!! Melissa over at Happy Quilting is having another quilt-a-long!!
I joined the fun for her last one, and ended up having that quilt on show!!

This quilt-a-long is called 'Star Light Star Bright'. Here is a picture of the pattern using a bundle of fabric that is for sale (check out Melissa's blog for more info).

 Cute huh?
So....for this one I *think* I have decided to do a 3x3 queen sized quilt (there are lots of different layouts and sizes to choose from).
Now just for picking out my fabric.....Ive raided my stash (in true stash diet style), and have come up with two different fabric bundles that I could use for this quilt.  Help me choose!

Diet For A Year : :

I solemnly pledge to DIET for the whole year of 2014.

No, not a food diet...but a fabric diet! My fabric stash is getting to the point where I really need to use more of it! (please, lets keep nasty words like hoarder, obsessive, and addicted to ourselves).
I buy fabric (when its cheap or on sale) and have every intention of making quilts, clothes, bags etc...but I don't do it. I just put the fabric in my cupboard. Its not that I don't want to make these new things, I just really don't have the time!
So...being the new year and all that...Ive decided I'm going on a......

A Christmas Surprise : :

First of all, I just wanted to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope you all had a lovely holiday season!
We just got back from camping with friends for a week at Eden. It was so nice to be able to get away and hit the beach everyday!

Now onto what I'm REALLY excited about.....

Guess what Mr Handsome got me for Christmas???