A button or two...

There was much excitement at our house on Friday morning. 

Our first parcel arrived in the post, and it was the best kind of parcel a button loving girl could recieve.

Inside were all the fixings to make fabric covered buttons!

The dishes, vacuuming and ironing were quickly put aside and forgotten. 

And it wasn't long before the sweetest little red and white polka dot button appeared. 

He was soon joined by a matching friend. 

Who were also soon joined by even more friends. 

I'm hooked. 

*sigh*

A quilt for Holly

To me, the colours in this little cot quilt can't help but say, 'girly, pretty and summer.' The mix of the pinks, lemons and a touch of tangerine orange are bright, cheerful and happy. And I love putting  bright colours together with white. It's simple. It's fresh. And I like it. A lot.

This cot quilt was started all the way back in July, and was finally finished yesterday with the label being sewn on. My gorgeous cousin, Louise, who hails from South Australia, asked if I could make a quilt for her to give as a gift. Her youth pastors were expecting a baby girl, and Louise thought a quilt would be a perfect gift.

I mostly had free rein as to design and colours, but as long as some pink was used, and perhaps some birds.  And I had till the middle of November to have it done by. So, no rush! Well, baby came early! So, sadly the quilt wasn't ready in time for Hollys' delivery, but at least she won't know that!

I had a great time playing and perfecting pinwheels. Well, maybe not perfecting exactly. But at least, trying to perfect them. I found quite a few good tutorials online for pinwheels, and figured out some tricks on my own to get my points to match. The birds were appliqued using the blanket stitch on my Brother sewing machine. So much quicker and easier than doing it by hand.

The quilt was quilted by the wonderful and talented Clair on her long arm machine. She always does a brilliant job, though she doubts herself terribly! The quilt is bound with remaining scraps and white, because as most regular readers will know, I love a good scrappy binding.

All up, I'm rather pleased and happy with the final result. It's pretty. It's pink. And I hope Holly and her parents like it and get many years of enjoyment from it.

An aside note, I've been rather ill lately. First a flu, then a persistent tummy bug, and again, the tummy bug with headaches and immense exhaustion. For a week there I was in bed pretty much every afternoon, which is so unusual for me. Hopefully it won't last too long - it's taking up valuable sewing time!

Always love a swap!

Over the last few months, some fellow staff members and I from work have been participating in a swap. It was a paper bag swap (meaning, add some fabric into a paper bag, get someone elses bag at random, make them an item and hand it back. Etc.)

So I was quite happy when I recieved the lovely Jenny from work, as I knew instantly what I was going to make for her. She being a Bronwyn Hayes fan, I planned on doing a stitchery and putting it on a canvas.

Jennys two fabrics, from the Sophie range by Moda, were perfectly yummy for the task and everything came together beautifully. Well, except it ended up being a wall hanging and not a canvas, but nevermind! I think I much prefer it this way.
Plus, it gave me an excuse to do some random stipple quilting, which I always enjoy.

The stitchery was a free download from Brownwyns blog, featuring her trademark cat, Brutus. I coloured in the picture with my Prismacolour pencils, and then stitched around it. And from there I just built up the wall hanging till it was larger enough. I love it. And most importantly, Jenny loves it too!
I'll be back with some photos of what I recieved from the talented Maree - it's a fab bag!

My mother in law also loved it! So I stitched her another version, and popped it in a frame. Would make an ideal quick gift as I did the stitching in about 3 hours from start to finish.

Some new fabric love, and a finish

Just had to share some of my recent purchases.

I dare anyone to walk past and not think these turtles and trees are the cutest things around. They just define cuteness in my book. And of course, being the selvedge collector I am, my heart went flip flops when it saw this one. 

Yep, this is "Little Apples" by Aneela Hoey for Moda, and it's just the cutest!

Now, if you haven't heard of Umbrella Prints, it's a South Australian textile company producing some gorgeous and yummy prints. Check out their blog and website for some more eye candy, but here are three of their lovely fabrics. I just adore the colours - so fresh, so yum.

And finally? Well, with Christmas only *counts* nine and half weeks away *gasp* I'm getting into the festive mood. This is such a sweet range of fabric, and I'm looking forward to making a lovely table centre from these goodies. 

These fabrics are from the range 'Countdown to Christmas' by the brilliant Sweetwater. 

Hope you're recent fabric purchases have been as yummy as mine! 

All these fabrics were bought from work, the wonderful Patchwork with Gail B in Bayswater, VIC.

And to finish off my little post - a little quilt! I made this quick and easy cot quilt last week, specifically as a donation for our church Youth Group fundraising dinner. It was auctioned off and sold for $200, so that's pretty sweet! 

I really like the colours and fabrics in this quilt, and had quite an enjoyable time making it. It's a simple stacked coins pattern, which looks great. But I think I love the border the most - it's just too darn cute.

Home is wherever I'm with you

Well, today marks three and a half weeks since Simon and I became home owners! And we are thoroughly enjoying our lovely little home so far. As you can imagine, we have been quite busy unpacking boxes, and sorting things out. The house doesn't have much storage space, so until we can arrange more permenant homes for items, most things are still living in boxes for now.

Already plans are in full swing for alterations we wish to make to the house and property. Simon and I often talk excitedly about what we would like to do - it's great fun! I'm sure that not even half the things on our 'to do list' will ever be accomplished, but it's great to dream and imagine.

Something that I was quite excited about was setting up my sewing room! Simon and I had a gift voucher to use at Ikea, so last Saturday we made the trip down to our local store (about an hour away.) I am an Ikea novice, so it was a fantastic experience for me! I had a lot of fun walking around and looking at things. But I was extremely excited when Simon and I purchased a beautiful Beech wood table with height adjustable legs for my sewing room. It's just brilliant and exactly what I wanted. It's been great fun setting things up! I still have alot more plans in store for the sewing room, but it's a slow work in progress. Hopefully I'll have further updates to show you soon!

And just to finish on a further sewing note - here is a quilt I finished a few weeks back. I actually had this one quilted by my work mate Clair back in February, but for some reason I was a bit busy, you know, getting married! So I finally sewed the binding on, and ta-da!

I love the colours in this quilt, and particularly LOVE the backing. Oh my gosh. How cute are big white polka dots!

As much as I love this quilt, it will probably be for sale soon. And for those interested, the range of fabrics in this quilt is an oldie, "Objects of desire," by Sandy Jervais.

Excuses, excuses...

We had a sermon about 'excuses' a week or so back at our church. Simon and I have since been teasing each other about the excuses we come up with in life. And when you actually stop and think about all the excuses you make - you realise there are alot!

So now that I have come to sit down and quickly write a post for here I was about ready to fire off some excuses for my lack of entries.

They were to go along the long of.... "I have so much to show you all, but my photos are on the camera.....I can't access a computer regularly at the moment....I'm so busy (the usual one...)"

So I won't bore the world with my excuses, but will only say that exciting things are happening in my life at the moment! Apart from the fact that I am now nearly 15 weeks into a wonderful and happy marriage, I have been having a great time running the home. I have really taken to cleaning and cooking and shopping for food. I know that all you older, wiser women will be quick to laugh and tell me that the novelty will wear off soon, and perhaps it will. But for now - I'm really enjoying it! I have also been able to do a lot of sewing lately, and I have quite a few exciting endeavours coming up shortly.

But my main exciting news is that Simon and I have bought our own home! Our very own home! We are incredibly happy and thrilled to bits. It is a lovely little house, and has been very well looked after by the previous owners. We are literally counting down the days till settlement - which is now only 8 days away!!! Once we are moved in and settled, I'll be able to set the computer up and show you lots of goodies!

Till then, my very good friend from work, Mary, and I have set ourselves a challenge. We are going to have a try at completing the 'Sylvias Bridal Sampler" quilt from the Elm Creek Quilts fame. I have not done much hand piecing, but I'm looking forward to learning more and testing myself. We have both decided to use 1930's style fabrics - yum, yum!! I have always been a big 30's fan, so I'm looking forward to playing with it!

I'll keep you posted on how things progress!

A beautiful day

On the 14th of May, I became a wife to a wonderful and amazing man. With rain bucketing down in the leadup to the day, we were blessed with a clear and beautiful day. It was an early start for us girls (4:30am!) and a not so early start for the boys. But, after alot of preening and hair spray, I arrived at the church (slightly late!) to marry my gorgeous man.

And what a lovely and beautiful ceremony it was, and such a fantastic day. We couldn't stop smiling the minute we saw each other, and we enjoyed every moment of the day.

We had some photos taken at Maroondah Reservoir here in Healesville, and then a private and small reception at a friends house in Yarra Glen.

There were alot of handmade elements to our day, from the order of service booklets (with a fabric binding!) to personalised stitchery hoops hanging from the end of each pew. I drew all the designs, and then asked some of the girls at work to help me stitch them. The end result was perfect, and all the stitcheries will then be used to make a quilt.

I also made fabric bunting to decorate, the pins for the men, my headband, the flowers for the cake, and table runners for the reception, amongst many other things! I had so much fun! Also, the bridesmaid dresses were sewn by the mothers of my two bridesmaids - a huge job, but a wonderful result.

The end result? A wonderful, beautiful and happy day. One that Simon and I will cherish and remember for a very long time to come.

To love and to cherish...

Well, this is what happens when you plan a wedding in 3 months - your sewing blog suffers greatly! Yup - 3 months. Things have been incredibly busy here with decisions to make, dresses to fit, flowers to find and food to organise. But, in literally 5 days, the 14th of May, it will all be here - and I will be married!!

I know it all sounds cliche, but I seriously can't believe that I will be getting married in 5 days time. The past few months have gone by so quickly, and I'm still wondering what on earth happened to April. I know I had a birthday in there somewhere, but that was about it.

So I thought I best put up a quick post to say that yes, I am still alive, and yep - the wedding is soon! I will of course be on my honeymoon for a few weeks after the wedding, but once we get back and things settle down to normality, I have great plans for this blog and my business. And I'm so keen to get back to some sewing! Sadly my machine has decided to die on me, and I'm currently using my mothers 35 year old Pfaff. I think I may be in need of a new machine if my one can't be repaired. I think the motor has packed it in. :(

But anyway, I just wanted to quickly share with you my latest publication. Whilst I knew my quilt was going to be in the May edition of Homespun Magazine, I had no idea it was going to be on the cover. And look, there it is!

Let me introduce you to "Cherish," a beautiful and simple quilt in gorgeous blues and greens. I LOVE this colour palette - it's so soothing and soft. "Cherish" has quite an interesting history, and the one photographed is not the first quilt I actually made. The first quilt was made and perfected, and then ruined by a 'professional quilter' who did a ghastly job on the quilting. I was devastated, and with 2 weeks to the deadline I started the whole project again. And thankfully, the most wonderful Clair Acres, quilted the quilt for me in a few days, and for free. Clair - you are a lifesaver - and you did a beautiful job!

So, it was quite a relief to finish the quilt and send it off, and also to see it in the magazine. Oh, there's also a profile on me aswell - mega exciting!!

Well for now, it's probably my final post as Samantha Mackenzie - I'll be back later, married and with a new name!!