Another Owlie Aussie Hero Quilt

I remember years ago telling people I wouldn't EVER make a quilt, and yet here I am showing off another quilt I've made....so far, all my quilts have been for Aussie Hero Quilts, but I hope to change that soon, and will have some up for sale!

Here's the latest quilt I've made for an Aussie Hero who is currently deployed overseas....I know this person wouldn't have a clue who I am, let alone be one of my blog readers, so feel safe in sharing pics of it with you.  Like me, this person is an owl lover (I really wish we had an official name, such as owlists or something, but we don't 'insert sad face' )

This quilt is made using the quilt as you go (QAYG) method, where you quilt each block individually then join them, I chose to join them where you add fabric strips front and back, then attach the next block to the back strip then flip the front strip over and sew it down.  Sounds confusing, but it's not really lol

I don't know why, but I seem to gravitate towards double sided or reversible quilts, and this one didn't escape!  The above pic shows either the front or back, depending on which side you prefer to call them!  Below shows what would normally be the back of the quilt, as it has the label on it, but I would happily use it as the front too....I quite like labels on the front, why hide them away I say lol

Yes, some of the blocks are wobbly....on purpose!

I actually 'free handed' the writing on the label....not bad considering I didn't have any lines to follow....even if I do say so myself  hee hee



At times, the recipients (or the person requesting a quilt on their behalf) also request a laundry bag for them....I had a few leftover blocks, so incorporated them into the laundry bag, so it matches the quilt.

The quilt and laundry bag went off in the post to it's forever home on Monday....hopefully it arrives safe and sound and the recipient loves the 'hooty hugs' in the form of a quilt.

If you have some extra quilting fabric you no longer want, or would like to become involved with Aussie Hero Quilts, then please pop an email off to the Matriarch (she'll kill me when she sees I've called her that again bahahaha) better known as Jan-Maree HERE  or if you'd like to see all the other quilts being churned out Australia wide then click HERE  You don't have to be able to sew to get involved....obviously that skill helps, but you can always donate some mailing bags/satchels/boxes or some fabric, or even Spotlight gift cards to assist JM with purchasing fabrics to be used on quilts and laundry bags.  It's a great way to say thank you to our guys and gals that get deployed overseas.

Another update

Edited 4th August 2014:  I am soooo, so very sorry, I thought this post had already gone up...and it was indeed scheduled for publishing on 18th July, but for some reason it didn't post.....with all that went on with the blog 'adjustments' I'm still trying to fine tune a few things, so I've been having a look here and there, and I found this in my draft folder....oh well, I'll publish it now so you can see the hooty quilt, finally!!

 I've just spent the last couple of hours trying to find more details about a quilt pattern I tested for someone...I know we were corresponding through my Gmail account, and I normally save 'special' emails into folders, but for the life of me, I can't find any from her to me or me to her anywhere in my Gmail.

I can however let you know that I first had contact with her a couple of years ago, and then her life got in the way and I didn't hear back from her regarding the test pattern again, until I think it was either late last year or early this year.....I'm going to go with early this year, because then I don't feel so bad at only sharing the pics of the quilt now.

As you may all know, I kind of have a soft spot for owls..well derr lol  So it was a no brainer when Sue Lynn contacted me to see if I was still interested in testing the pattern for her.  Here's the link to her blog, where you can keep updated with any future patterns she releases....now with disclosure in mind, I must tell you, that her owl quilt pattern is actually needleturned, which I didn't do....yet, but will be, however I did thoroughly read her pattern, and could follow it along, and found no errors.

Yes, yes, I know, stop waffling Naomi and just show us the pics!

 The test blocks were mixed in with both donated blocks and some I made to fill in the spaces....and was sent off to an Aussie Hero, to thank her for her time away from home.  Below are a few close ups of the owl blocks.  The quilt request was for owls and pastels....I think I nailed it didn't I?  I must've, because I received a lovely email saying how much the quilt meant to the new owner....R! (Name withheld for privacy reasons)

 Below you can see the 'cheater' Paris fabric I used on the back, this was donated to AHQ by Berri Uniting Church, and it works great as backing, even though its a bit too pretty really!

 And of course, a close up of the quilt label.....I like to add mine to the front usually, but broke my tradition and added this one on the back.....I also like to add them before the quilting is done, so there's no chance of it falling off at some stage!

Ooooh, and before I forget, I FMQ'd this myself....and yes, I am crap at it....but it's done with love....now if I can just get my hand/foot synchronisation happening, I won't get all those loooonnnnng stitches every now and then, and those pesky eye lashes on the back.....need more practice = good excuse to make more quilts right?

Some more pics to share

I found some more pics to share with you....My bestie happens to also like the colour purple and owls.....and caused a scene just recently when I made myself an owl pillow (must take pics of mine lol) so as a surprise, I made her this one.

I couldn't resist taking a close up of her hooties eye detail...as I think it looks sooooo cute, right?

Next up, is some pics of a pouch I made for my besties' sister, Angela for her birthday...I designed it as I went...what do you think of it???

On the plus side, Angela, who can be just a little bit fussy at times (if you make/give her something and she says "nice" be assured that she's not keen on it lol) loved it...PHEW....she also got the box of Peanut M&M's under the pouch coz she loves M&M's and collect their memorabilia...in fact, I helped Terri with an M&M wallhanging for Ange's birthday.  Will grab a pic off Terri so you can see what a great job she did of it.


I am still going through pics so there maybe more posts on the horizon.

Oh, and while I still have your attention, Aussie Hero Quilts could really do with some more Aussie Hero Friends....if you would like to assist them, please either email Jan-Maree by clicking here, or head on over to the Aussie Hero blog and find out how to get involved.  Please note, all the AHQ links are to different posts on the blog *smiles*

Hero Uniform transformation

A while ago, I pleaded with an 'Army' friend, to part with a couple of his old Army shirts so I could make an Army bag out of it....such as the military bags you see in the U.S.A  After a little coaxing, and the promise that he could have one of the bags to give to someone as a gift, so long as I got to keep one for me....he relented and sent me 2 shirts.

I've sat and deliberated over them for a couple (maybe it's a few!) weeks, trying to pluck up the courage to cut into at least one of the bags....Yesterday became the do or die day....and I hacked and sewed and designed on the fly.....here's the fruits of my labours.

This is the shirt in it's uncut state.

In case you're wondering, I've smudged out his name badge, to protect his identity...but on the actual bag, the name shows up....I just don't think I should be brandishing his name about in cyber space....but around South Australia on my bag, it'll be fine lol

Then, after holding my tongue to the west and the scissors to the east, and with a snip snip here and a snip snip there, I had gone too far to stop.

I managed to get a fairly decent size tote/shoulder bag, a zippered pouch and a coin purse/phone holder out of the one shirt...you beauty...that means there'll be enough for me to make me a decent sized bag, and maybe a coin purse like the one pictured below.

I removed the Aussie logo off the sleeve and sewed it (yes, I must've had my eyes crossed when I lined it up for middle....I should've used a tape measure huh?) onto the panel for the zippered pouch.

So, there you have it, bag one.....bag two to follow soon-ish....as I have 2 baby bags to make ASAP and also some Christmas Pressies I hope to achieve, along with the binding on a very special Aussie Hero Quilt for one of the girls at my quilting groups son....who we get to present it to him on 18th December.  Hopefully I'll be able to share pics of him with his quilt...will let you know.  Till next time...happy sewing.

Latest show n tell

Just recently I shared the pics of the items I made for the F-R-I-E-N-D-S Swap for Marcia (Marc - pronounced Marse for those who thought it might be pronounced Mark!) well I made her a couple more things, one was for her birthday and the other was a new tutorial I found and wanted to try!  Actually both were online tutorials, one a printed one, and one was a video one that doesn't really have a pattern, so I 'winged' it haha

So the above shows the twisted drawstring/dilly bag I made her....it's an interesting technique and I think would look great in any fabrics.

Next up, I made Marc and Terri tissue holders.....doesn't sound anything flash or anything, except I think I really, really like the shaped top on these...I've made the straight edged ones in abundance, but these are going to be one of my "go-to" projects for pressies.  I found the tutorial here.

The bottom pic shows Terri's tissue holder and she wanted me to take a pic of it with her owl pendant....so you should've seen her leaning over the cutting mat, but trying to keep her out the pic at the same time....it was very funny, especially as I didn't tell her I'd zoomed in and wouldn't have got her in the pic anyway....lol

Next up, is a couple of pincushions I made, these were a printout that someone gave to me, as she had found it online, but the printout doesn't show whose tutorial it is sorry.

In the quilting group I go to here in the Riverland, we ran a Birthday block swap this year, and whilst I've taken pics of the blocks I've made, they're all on my old pc that needs some TLC before I can access them, so here's the latest one, which was for Pat M and she wanted animal blocks, so I did her an elephant applique (it's actually a softie elephant, but I just used the shape for the applique!) and gave her the bottom pincushion in the pic above....as it has an owl on it, so she'll remember who made her the pincushion.

I've also made an owl block....it's not finished yet.....still got to stitch around the edges...but I'm trying to decide whether to reverse sew the 'tree' sections, find some more brown tone-on-tone fabric and re do the claws and tree or whether to do faux ankles in the gap I've acquired in between the feet and the bottom of the owl.....decisions decisions, but until I decide, it looks nice on my design wall.

Oh, and the need to be centralized too, as I seem to have moved on from wonky eyes....to wonky feet lol  The block is from Vol 7 of 100 Blocks Magazine.

Above are some scrappy blocks I'm putting together for Aussie Hero Quilts....they measure 8 & 1/2" and are a great way to use up relatively small scraps, or as I prefer to call them, offcuts.  I've cut more out, so I'll be making at least one quilt top out of them...coz I know Jan-Maree (although it's easier to see what she's up to by visiting the Aussie Hero blog in the link above) likes scrappy quilts....and I do too, so it's kind of a double whammy lol  I can't wait to share with you the final quilt pic....I reckon it's going to be a nice bright, cheery quilt/s.

I have some cool purchases to share with you, but I'll share them with you tomorrow, seens as though this is getting to be quite a long post...don't want to overwhelm you with pic overload today...lol

Sue's block from my tutorial

A few weeks ago, I popped up a tutorial for a Gothic Weathervane Block, and one of my bloggy friends, Sue Niven, successfully attempted it....and here's her block, didn't she do a great job????

Thanks for sending me a pic of your block Sue, sorry it took so long for me to pop it up on my blog (better late than never right?)  If you'd like to try the block out, you can click HERE or where the name of it is underlined above.

Sue does lots and lots of charity work, both knitting and sewing, and even obtains fabric and cuts it up and mails it off to quilters all over Australia.  A little birdie has even let me know that Sue is going to be showcased on Aussie Hero Quilts blog tonight, so be sure to go read more about Sue there, and maybe also take a look at what Aussie Hero Quilts & Laundry bags do, if you haven't already....like my block of the month for instance (gotta love the subliminal plug for my BOM huh? lol)

Latest quilt for an Aussie Hero

I made a few of these JRR quilt tops a wee while ago, and wanted to get some made up into quilts, so tah-dah, here's #1.  I decided to make another quilt top for the backing, to make the quilt reversible....to give the recipient a different look for his/her bunk.

This is the label, which makes up part of the D9P side of the quilt.

Here's the JRR side of the quilt.

Here's the D9P side....so both sides are quite bright and scrappy looking.....next time I'll make an extra couple of rows on the D9P so there's not so much 'black border' space happening....and maybe even adjust the size so no borders are required at all....what's the verdict????

How exciting, I've never linked any of my posts up (at least I don't remember doing it, apart for FNSI but that's a bit different) but I've linked this one up here.....TGIFF (Thank God It's Finished Friday)  I'm sure you've got a few minutes to spare, so take a couple of them and check out what everyone else has finished this week.