A special quilt for a special teacher...

Well..... Elsie (and I) have been so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful teacher for her first year of school, and since Mrs East is a quiltmaker herself, I wanted to make sure that I made something special for her.

With the help of the wonderful teacher aide, Mrs Wagstaff, all the children drew a picture of Mrs East.  They were just gorgeous!  They all had the big smile and glasses, and most the lovely blonde hair (one cute3 little man even put in a couple of stray grey hairs... how cute!)  I smiled everytime I looked at them and  I loved the way they were so different.  So many of the girls included butterflies, handbags, bracelets, even buttons and rings. 

I then printed these pictures on to special photo fabric, and made them into a quilt alternating with pinwheel blocks.  I held a sewing afternoon at my house and had the help of some lovely Mums matching, snipping and ironing.  It was a huge help as it got a lot of the initial work out of the way. 

We presented the quilt to Mrs East this morning, and well.... she was just slightly pleased to say the least!  The tears were still flowing when we left..  The children had so much fun pointing out their pictures to her and were all so excited.  It was such a joy to make, and to give.  To give a quilt to someone special whom you know will treasure it is just makes it all the sweeter.

Here is a closer up image.  Hopefully I will have some more tomorrow as a lovely Mum took some photos (the couple I took at school were blurry... probably because I was shaking..)

Have a great week,
Michelle xx

p,s,   cant tell how excited I have been to share this!!  I couldn't share this earlier because this special lady does pop over here every now and again!

Quick and Cheerful table runner.

Quilting doesn't always have to be intricate and time consuming... sometimes the fabric (ok.. maybe a lot of the time!) is just so gorgeous its ok to let it talk for itself. This late shipment of Christmas fabric arrived in the shop the other day, and knowing that I'm quickly running out of time for making Christmas presents, but REALLY REALLY having the need to make something, I decided to make my mother in law a quick table runner. After cutting out the fabric I knew that I just HAD to have one too, so made my 'pattern' even quicker and easier... 30cm of the feature fabric, bordered in the contrast. What could be simpler? Those batting off-cuts are perfect for table runners, and I'm not going to get too fussy about the backing fabric for this one either. I will spray baste, quilt it very simply, and Bob's your Uncle! (or the man next door, or whoever Bob would like be really...) Ok...must.clean.house.so.I.can.quilt (todays mantra..) Have a great week, Michelle xx
p.s. the pattern for the larger 'square in a square runner is Liisa's and available at/from the shop. Gem of pattern, I have made a few already!

Our New Little Veggie Box

My lovely husband spent a few precious days of his leave building us a couple of lovely big veggie boxes down the side of the house. All has been going well, the tomatoes are growing, the beans sprouting and we all like going out to see what has changed from day to day.

We have had some very hot days in Brisbane this week so I went out to check on them yesterday afternoon when I got home from work, hoping my little babies hadn't wilted. We had put up a little temporary fence, to keep Charlie out while it was all still new and exciting, and I could see that I had left it open.... OOPS! But then I turned the corner..... Charlie had indeed had a wow of a time..... MAJOR OOOOOPS!!!! He had had a lovely time in the first box, somehow didn't manage to knock over the bigger tomato plants, but had certainly rearranged the other things. He had also dug some monster holes (a little hard to see in the photo). I spent the next hour re-levelling dirt and re-planting, but was just thankful that he hadn't touched the second box with the beans! He looks quite innocent doesn't he? Michelle xx

Bloggers Quilt Festival

I found my way to this great link through Nova, The Bloggers Quilt Festival, and what a great idea! I'm constantly amazed at just how much we can access the quilting world, from our own little chair. There are so many gorgeous quilts with wonderful stories behind them, and those stories, have amazing women behind them.

I 'revealed' this quilt in my last post, but when I thought about what quilt to share in this festival, it took no time decide. It speaks of where I am now, what is important to me and the little touch of individuality I like add to my creations.

'Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!' arose out of my fondness for the Union Jack Quilts there were popping up over the place (perhaps inspired by Wills and Kates wedding?). I wanted to make one, but not wanted to 'follow the crowd' and being a very proud Aussie, I came up with the idea of the Australian Flag. I was excited as soon as I thought of the idea and knew the exact range I wanted to use. It had just come into the shop and I had immediately fallen in love with it. I knew that I wanted to make something with it, so the two (fabric and quilt idea) where a match made in heaven!

There were many attempts to get the dimensions and ratio correct. I had wanted to keep it exact, but from a quilt perspective it just didn't work. The Unions Jacks would either be too small (which I couldn't have as they were foundation pieced and a focal point), or the overall flag too big. The stars are correct however, and I made sure they had the 7 points representing our 6 states and the territories.

My youngest daughter Elsie, (and my husband if I'm to be honest), were a bit concerned with my colour choice (Elsie was confused as to why I could get it so wrong!). But that was one of the things I loved about it, the fact that it was quirky.

Often when making a quilt, you can be slightly 'over it' towards the end and fail to see it objectively as you have looked at it so much. But with this quilt, I loved it just as much, and was so excited to hang it for the first time at the Brisbane Quilt and Craft Fair, with my patterns for it on sale. It got a great response and I'm very proud of it.

Have a great week,
Michelle xx

p.s. nearly ready to put together a new design.. a chunky applique. 74 blocks down, only 6 to go! xx

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

Phew!! We did it! Liisa, Lorraine and I have been working very hard to make the Quilt and Craft Fair happen, and we can now say we have been, conquered, and are alive to tell the story!
It was so nice to see so many of our customers from The Quilters Corner, and thankyou for coming by to say hello. Having not been to the fair for a few years, it was lovely to see what is out there, and have a good look at the beautiful quilts on display.
I had a couple of new quilts on display too, and it was so rewarding to get such positive feedback on them. I had my new version of 'Pyramid Parade' up, which is with the Anna Maria Horner fabric they I have shown in previous posts. I also put together a little lap quilt using a charm pack. I was inspired by the gorgeous range of fabric called Little Apples, so also added a 'apple tree' applique to complete the picture. Quite nifty I think, and sure to find its way into a little 6 year olds room!

The main quilt that I was extremely excited to reveal however, is 'Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!'. I was inspired by the Union Jacks that seem to be very popular, and thought that I could make it a little more 'home grown'. I had a lot of fun making it (including a couple of test runs!) and was thrilled that other people loved it too! (we still have a few kits left at the shop too if anyone is interested).

Here is a photo of me in the corner of our stand which displayed my quilts (Pyramid Parade, Little Apples, 'Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! and my Satchel Bag). Not the best photo, I think you can tell I'm a little weary...

Squeezes,
Michelle xx

Brisbane Quilt and Craft Fair....

I think I will label this photo, "the chaos before the calm before the storm" (I'm thinking the 'calm' bit might be just before doors open!)

What an eye opener today was! You should see the boxes, palates, crates, suitcases and CHAOS that was within the convention centre today. It's amazing that all that can fit into tiny stands (well ours is!). Somethings did get culled, but WHEN we sell out of things they can always be brought back up from the car!
It was very exciting to see my quilts on display and my 'lemonjellie' patterns all lined up. It is also an exciting time because as I have been 'forced' to write my patterns (guess what? I think I may have overcome my aversion..) I now have enough patterns to set my website up properly.... so watch this space!
I will share some more photos with you tomorrow.

Michelle xx

Busy busy busy...

1 day to go til set up at the Brisbane Quilt and Craft Fair, and I am madly at it! 2 quilts done, 1 binding done, and this pyramid quilt about one third quilted.
I think today might definitely be a day to wear my wonder woman undies on the outside (just for an extra little confidence boost of course!)
Michelle xx