They're Here

Mum's final quilts that is

but I haven't been able to open them, once I got them home

from the post office the tears started flowing,

so I have put the boxes on top of the quilting frame

and there they will sit until I can open them.

Then it dawned on my WHY I couldn't open them

its 4 weeks since Mum left us today.

and I really miss her.

I'll open those boxes soon, I'm sure

Congratulations To

Carol from The Patch Craft

My small child picked number 26.

Thank you to everyone who answered my question

and picked a number

Carol please email me your postal address

and

and your new pins will be on the way

I wonder

am I crazy for thinking that my mama sent me a little

sign from above to let me know she is 

still with me??

my mama's family nickname was 'Ting'

it came about when her brother started to talk

and he couldn't say Christina, so he called

her Ting, it stuck and everyone

called her Ting

My little quilting sign broke while I was tidying up my

sewing room the other night. It broke into 3 pieces

Qu, il & Ting

I like to think it is a sign from her, crazy I know

but makes me smile. 

I talked to my dad this afternoon, and shared some

potentially exciting news and his reply was

'that's good isn't it'

mum would have been as excited as I am 

and would have wanted to know everything.

I will share as soon as it becomes much more

than a very good possibility.

and I am very excited. 

but 

I miss her so very much

Don't forget about my little giveaway
you can find it
HERE

A Giveaway, Photos and a Question

As promised here is the centre block of 

Dancing Grandma's

does it need the berries on all four big leaf thingies

my amazingly clean and sorted out cutting table

I tidied up my little magnet boards

even the computer desk was tackled 

(just don't open the drawers, hehehe)

beside my chair was tackled too

alas there was a tragedy, my little Quilting sign

took a tumble and broke, luckily I have a rather

handy husband who WILL FIX IT TODAY

onto the Giveaway,

I use Clover Glass Head pins, I ONLY use these pins, 

this morning I found some Clover Flower Head pins, brand new

never touched a piece of fabric or anyones hand

so I have 2 little boxes of these to give away

all you need to do to have these pins is pick a number between

1 and 50, and on Monday I will ask a small

child (lucky I have 1 of those) to pick a winning number.

and the Question

are you a quilting brand snob like me? I love clover products

I use their glass head pins, their appliqué pins, their blue

wash away pens, I use their needles for hand sewing,

I have 2 of their mini irons......

I use Olfa cutting mats, cutters and blades

My reasoning is that you get what you pay for, I like

my tools to last, whether that be cutters, mats, pins

& markers, 

What is your Go To quilting brand and why??

Making Progress and Mess

Remember I cleaned up my trashed sewing room after

we came home from Tasmania, earlier this month?

Well tonight it was round 2 of the clean up.....

fabric, bits of paper all over the floor, I couldn't see my

desk AT ALL nor the cutting table

You see over the last week, I have been busy making

the centre block for my Dancing Grandma's quilt,

needleturn appliquéing the 2nd dolly border

and today I prepped the 2nd inner border....

I just need to stitch down 5 sets of arms and

I can get stitching all those hexagons and flowers 

again.

Today would have been the perfect day for that hand stitching

as the weather here has been atrocious, with our area

on a Storm Force wind warning, torrential rain

53mms overnight, and another 23 today, it was

perfect for hunkering down by the fire. Instead I did prep work

and gave my kitchen a good spring clean.

As I can see clearly now the rain has gone

I should be able to get some decent photos of the

centre block. 

Otherwise the girlies finish school on Friday

YAY, Em has a 2 day soccer comp coming up

we might even be heading to Canberra for 2 days

so she can attend a Soccer Clinic for 2 days

with some of the Matilda players we haven't made a 

definite decision as yet as we just found out

about it tonight.

There is happy mail coming my way too

the quilts that Mum made for the girlies have been

professionally quilted and are on their way home to

us. I can see quite a few nights of sewing binding down

in my future, I can't wait to see what was done to them

especially Em's quilt which was the GIANT QS one I made

for Mum.

Centre Block thoughts please

So I thought I should find a suitable replacement 

centre block design for Dancing Grandma's

this is what the finished quilt will almost look like,

this is the orginal quilt, not the re worked one by Kim McLean

this is the centre of the quilt in the book, which I hate

(A) I could use this, 1 in each corner of the background block

or (B) I could enlarge this for the centre

my main issue is the centre square is 25 x 25 inches

so its a biggie, and I could find any Baltimore patterns that

I liked free online.

So what do you thin A or B or do you have a link to C

2 Done, 6 To Go

Borders that is.

After my last post, I pulled out the border I was working on

to see where I was up to. dh came home for lunch and

commented that I hadn't been doing any sewing 

at all, and that worried him. After he left I sat down

and thought I would just stitch 1 hexagon down,

well that 1 hexagon lead to another, and another, then

once all of them were sewn on, I did the circles, then

yesterday I stitched on the 4 big hexagons

then it was a complete border

Last night I basted all the hexagons for the next border

so today I will sit and stitch some of them together

and tonight I will start on the next dolly border

and my little wall of inspiration signs in the kitchen

I bought the Free and a Bird sign in Tasmania, it 

just spoke to me, and the Friday afternoon before 

mum passed away I was in the next biggish town for

Soph's violin lesson and in the reject shop, Miss I found

the lemons sign. It was $5 well spent. I will add to my wall

as I find appropriate signs. They make me smile everyday

So I am thinking my Sew-Jo has come home, yay

I've Lost my 'Sewjo'

I haven't touched a needle or thread for a week,

I had my sewing machine serviced last month

and it hasn't even been uncovered from when dh

picked it up.

I HAVE re arranged some bedrooms though

Dancing Grandma's, 7 hexagons left to stitch on

to have one side of this quilt complete

the bunkers have moved to the other end of the house

made more sense to have all the kids at one end,

and the grown ups at the other end

so now we are in the bunkers old room, its not as big as the

room we were in, but we fit and I just need to re arrange the

wardrobe and fold my clothes and all will be good

and the view from my bed, its rather lovely waking up to sunshine

on my face and to the amazing view we have

If anyone finds my sewjo can you please give it a good smack

and send it home to me.

I thought I would make something I don't have to really concentrate on, on the sewing 

machine today, but now I can't decide what to make.

I might just visit the supermarket for tonights dinner, then catch up on

the recorded shows I have waiting.