Ummm, what day is it???

I think I must've blinked and missed it!!! It's Sunday already!!?!!?! I swear it feels like I've lost a couple of days!!! Grrr!! Although, I must admit, I did get a few jobbies done :o). I did write up a pattern that's been sitting on my desk begging for attention. It's now all done and tucked up in it's little ziplock bag waiting to go to it's new home :o). I also whipped up (yer right ... just whipped it up LOL!!!) this little bag (below) ... it's a new sample of my Raggy Daisy pattern but done in a completely different colourway. I'm going to take it to Suzanne at Country Quilt Co in Ipswich with some other samples (that have been holidaying up north - lucky things - wish I'd gone with them!!!) for her shop.

Well the weekend wasn't completely lost. We were lucky enough to get on board Eye Spy, the whale watching boat, for the Riverfire festival on the Brisbane River. What a great night ... the fireworks were out of this world and the F111s shook me to my boots!!! Loved it!!! I took a total of 58 piccies and I think about 5 of them turned out ok ... LOL ... oh well, we have great memories of a terrific night ... he he!! Hint - Maybe if you squint they aren't quite so blurred (???).

Last Monday I had to wave my DD1 off to London again. I was very well restrained ... I didn't cry til she was down the escalator, that's pretty good for me. I didn't really let it go til I got a lovely sms from her when I got home. I'm going to miss her soooo much. It was a real "Murphy" morning. Everything that could go wrong did, except for one thing ... we did manage to get her passport back from the passport office in time for her to fly ... but only just!! We had to leave for the airport at 11a.m and Luke (her partner) picked up the passport at 10a.m, talk about cutting it fine - phew!!! I've spoken to her a couple of times since she arrived so at least I know she arrived safe :o) Poor Luke is still here waiting for his Visa to come through.

I went out and about again on Thursday. I love going around all the patchwork shops ... quilters are lovely :o). I went to Quilt Essentials to deliver some quilt samples - gorgeous shop, you should pop in and see Claudia, Kim and Deb if you are in the area. I've also been to Caboolture Sewing Machines and Patchwork to see Danielle and the girls - loads of fabs and patterns in there, and in Clontarf I called in at Northside Sewing Centre where they have a great range of fabrics too. Of course, a trip in that direction also had to include a visit to one of my fave shops, the Patchwork Angel - I really could spend all day in there, there's so much to see :o). But I was very good ... all I bought all day was some threads, I was rather proud of myself.
And when I got home I got a lovely surprise because the pattern I won here had arrived and it's bee-yoo-tiful!!! I can't wait to make it!!! I thought about making it for my Stitcher Angel, but I know I won't be able to part with it ..... sorry Angel!! Here's a piccy of it with the cute label Gail included - and the threads I bought on my travels. Big Big thank you to Gail :o)!!!

I'm heading north again on Tuesday to more patchwork shops ... I can't wait. Can't promise I'll be so well behaved next time though - I can feel some fabric buying coming on - he he, hold me back ;o).

Cheers,

Joy :o)

Bittersweet

On the one hand it's been just fabulous to have the whole family together for a bbq brekky this morning ... but the reason behind it definitely makes my heart ache just a little. You see my DD1 and her partner Luke are off to UK again. This time for about 2 maybe even 3 years. It's going to be tough having them so far away but we coped last time, and we'll cope again ;o). I think this time though we'll have to save our pennies to visit them!!! She'll be back in February for her friend Brooke's wedding so we will get to see her in a few months.

DD2 and I decided we wanted to do something spesh for them before they go so we made these fabulous cupcakes for them ... all in different flavours and colours {{note the green & gold on the far right ;o)!!!}}. I won't even begin to tell you what the kitchen looked like after all that [[eeek!!!]] ... but it doesn't matter ... we had such FUN :o) !!!!... awww, my gorgeous DD2 ... oh, and the cupcakes are gorgeous too :o)!!!

Talk soon ....

cheers,

Joy :o)

Hexy Quilt - WIP!!!

I've been having such fun going through the list of Angels on this blog. And in my travels I came across another quilter mad enough to take on a hexy quilt here. Maybe we should all get together ... I like the idea of that as I have a HUGE head start LOL!!!!!
I've been stitching this quilt by hand for about 2 years now ... probably more!! I've hand-sewn hundreds and hundreds of 1" hexys together and one day it's going to be on my queen size bed - I mean it ;o)!!!I can't remember what it was that possessed me to take on such a project in the first place but I'm so glad I did, I really love it and I can't wait til it's finished. Only trouble is, I can really only work on it in the cooler months cos it gets waaaay too hot to do in the summer-time. It's made mostly from scraps with just the ivory background being all in the same fabrics. The plan is to do a blue border with ivory daisies ... then it should be done!!!

The Quilt Buddy was wondering how I filled in the giraffes in my free BOM block from Lynette Anderson so here's a closer piccy. Hopefully you can see it better now, it's just a satin stitch but I think it looks quite pretty. Lynette's stitcheries are soooo cute, you really must pop over and have a look :o).That's all from me for now ... might go and check out some more Angel blogs ;o).
Cheers,
Joy :o)

YAY!!! It's here!!!

After what seemed like ages and ages ... it's here or should I say "she's" here ;o). I have received my buddie for the Stitcher's Angel swap!!! WooHoo!!! I can't wait to start stitching now that I know the colours she likes :o). I wonder who has me??? Don't forget to visit here to get the first of your free patterns each week for 7 weeks, even if you're not doing the swap!!! I got the first one this morning by Helen Stubbings from Hugs and Kisses and it's just gorgeous!


Had a busy weekend hunting for the new cooktop and oven ... found what we are after, DH is picking them up today, bless. Now we have to get the kitchen cabinets re-made to fit them [[sigh]]. Think the bbq is looking pretty appealing about now ;o). I'm sure it will all look wonderful when it's finished :o).


Ta daaa .......... I finished my stitchery cushion. I think it's very "Spring-like" and I'm hoping it will help to chase away the winter chills - tee hee!!! I'm sooooo not a Winter person, I've really had enough now, and I'll be very pleased to see the mercury rise ;o). I've called this pattern "In My Garden" and it should be available on the website this week if I can get my guys to put it on for me!!!

.................AND ... I've finished the latest of Lynette Anderson's stitcherys for her free BOM!!! I'm really pleased with them.

That's about all from me for now, going to do some more on Brooke's quilt - it's really coming along now so I'm eager to keep the flow going - before I get distracted again ;o)!!
Take care,
Joy :o)

Bugger ........

I was cooking our dinner last night, nothing fancy, when what should happen? The oven door handle broke in my hand!!! Honestly, all I did was open the door ... it must have been hanging on by just a thread!!! It gave me quite a start ..... so I quickly shoved the food into the oven and shut the door, then I carefully pushed the handle back into place, picked up the screws and little pieces of handle off the floor, and vowed to be very careful next time I opened it. It did occur to me that maybe it was a mistake to put the food in ... just in case I couldn't get it out ... but oh well, best to deal with that dilemma if and when it happened. So a little while later when I was checking the progress of our vegie bake I grasped the opposite side of the handle, the side that was still attached and I got the door open ok ... but then the whole glass front part of the door fell off, luckily it didn't break. I was left holding only the handle!!!
Bugger ...........
I'm now left with this weird looking skeleton of an oven door and I'm not game to use it for fear of what might fall off next!!!
Oh well, on the bright side ... we needed a new stove anyway :o)

Precious Moments and lotsa stitching!

I visited my Mum today with the main objective being to clean out her spare room. She has a friend coming over from UK in a few weeks and we had to make the room livable!! We had such fun and got loads of work done even though we spent ages ooohing and aaahing over things we hadn't seen in months (or more!!) - old photos, letters - even a tiny flower girl dress she wore when she was 3 - she's now 76!!! What a treasure that is :o). It was one of those days I'll remember for a long time as we had such a laugh. Precious moments.

It's also been fun these past few days to put all the (above) blocks together for Brooke's (DD1's dear friend) and Lewis' wedding quilt. I love it when all the blocks are done and I can lay them all out on the floor and then stand back and view the finished layout ... it's such a treat to see it life-size for the first time!!! I'm feeling pretty chuffed with myself because the wedding isn't until February!! I won't dare say that I'm way ahead of schedule for fear of jinxing myself, but I am feeling a little bit pleased. For the first time I'm trying a bit of freehand quilting (other than a meandering or stippling pattern) and I'm just loving it!!! A friend from my quilting group urged me to give it a go and I'm so glad she did, what fun - thanks Jenny!!!

Another day out tomorrow with my friends Valerie and Lyn, we have some quilt tops that we made with another friend, Margrit - and we're taking them to Project Linus where they will become quilts for needy children. Here's a squiz at what we've been up to.

There's Treasure Island on the top, the middle one is hard to see but it's all spiders and creepy crawlys and on the bottem is Teddy Bear's Picnic. Hope they like them :o).

That's all from me ... I'm off to bed...

Joy :o)

Busy week :o)

I've had a fabulous (but very busy) time these past few weeks visiting lots of patchwork shops and "peddling my wares". It's been tiring but fun cos I get to meet so many terrific people. Over the coming weeks I'd love to be able to share a piccy or two of some of the lovely people I get to meet. Here's a piccy of Suzanne on the right, owner of Country Quilt Co in North Ipswich Qld - and Marion on the left. Suzanne has an amazingly generous spirit and has been so wonderful with helping me as I'm only just beginning to get my designs into the shops ... thanks Suzanne :o) ... if ever you are out that way you simply must, must, must go and see them, I know you won't be disappointed.

Don't you love it when you get a bunch of fabrics together and they're just right!!??! I'm chuffed with this lot ... I have the perfect quilt in mind, now I just need to find the time to make it (eeek). I've been dying to do a baby quilt for ages now and the ideas were overflowing, it occurred to me that I haven't done one at all!!! Now I've decided on the design ... drawn up the piccies ... I've even scribbled the layout on a piece of paper (somewhere - now where did I put that???). So, now I have the fabrics I can get started, just gotta finish these first ........... ;o)

Off to do some stitching now ......

Talk soon

Joy :o)

The sand between my toes!

What a beautiful weekend we had ... fabulous Spring-like weather ... just right for getting out in the sunshine!!! The fish weren't biting though, despite DH's best efforts - not even a nibble. I love everything about the beach ... the sound, the smell and especially the feeling of the warm sand between my toes [[[sigh]]]. Roll on Summer!!

I didn't get any stitching done but I did get to read a good chunk of my new Elm Creek Quilts book - honestly, once I start on one of those it's hard to put it down!!

Hello!!

I've been having a lovely time reading and commenting on other people's blogs, so now here's mine :o).
I'm quite excited, I've signed up for the Stitcher's Angel swap here and I'm doing Lynette Anderson's BOM here. Such fun.
We are enjoying some really glorious Winter weather in Queensland at the moment so tomorrow DH and I have decided to make the most of it and go for a drive to the beach and soak up the fabulous sunshine with DD2 and her boyfriend. I've made a lemon fudge cake for the occasion and I must admit, it's pretty delicious. Yes, I know it's not cut yet ... so how could I know??? He he ... I got to lick the bowl!!!!

That's all for now ... I hope the fish are biting tomorrow!!!

Cheers,

Joy :o)