Don't look now!

A few months ago ...

Meggie from Life's Free Treats suggested that I should take a look at a competition in the Homespun Magazine, however, it wasn't the competition that Meggie suggested that caught my eye. I stumbled across the Young Designer of the Year Competition. I showed this to Megan and Jessica and they both were very excited to have a go.

Some of you might remember these shots of the girls with the plans for their projects ...

and these shots later on of them working on their designs ...

 

Miss Jessie tired of her's which is not surprising considering she was only 5 minutes away from turning 6 and really considering my record of finishing projects what else could you expect???

Megan, on the other hand, spent many hours on the couch on the weekends sewing away quietly by her self.

She persisted and persisted, one tiny stitch after another, she stabbed herself many times and lost two needles in the couch but look what she created with only direction regarding technique from me ... (except for the quilting of course)

Three weeks ago we were contacted by Homespun to let us know that her little quilt had been shortlisted and was now only one of 10 that was in the running for a prize...

Tonight Megan received another phone call from the magazine and there were many loud screams and some quite exuberant jumping up and down that occurred in the Dontlooknow household!

For the exact details of this phone call you will just have to go out and buy yourself a copy of the December issue of Homespun Magazine!

How cool is my daughter?????

Hope your week is going as nicely as ours!

Kellie

Distractions ....

In my last post a parcel had just arrived for Benjamin from our dear friend Lisa ...

How very cool is this? And Benjamin being Benjamin has worn this terrific octopus as a hat for much of the past week!

Joshua also received a little something, which has delighted him to no end! Thank you Lisa you really have spoilt the kids ... and they have loved every minute of it!

Since my last post I have made 109 meals, drank approximately 70 cups of tea, maybe 4 liters of diet Coke, made 35 beds, cleaned the floors not enough and 37 loads of washing. Apart from these and many other fun filled activities I have ...

finally finished the pillow for one of Megan's friends!

finished the applique on my Doll Quilt, sandwiched it and free motioned around all of the applique and ......

started a new project ...  I gave into temptation!

Have a great weekend!

Kellie

A Slumber Party with little sleep!

Thank you everyone for your kind birthday wishes for our sweet Megan! This photo was taken on Friday the night of her actual birthday.

Her party started on Saturday afternoon at 4pm and for all intensive purposes was a great success. We kicked off with a craft activity where the girls were to design a pillow top for a 50 x 50cm pillow insert using Megan's birthday quilt as inspiration (by the way we have called this quilt Garden Party). I provided the girls with pattern pieces, fusible web, a perminant marker, sissors & a huge pile of fabric choices. I also made up a sample to help them in case they got stuck which they most certainally didn't need. 

The girls first traced the pattern pieces onto the fusible web then roughly cut out the shapes. They then selected fabric for each piece, I then ironed the fusible to their fabric.

They then cut out the applique shapes and began auditioning them on their background fabric. Once they were pleased with their design they removed the backing paper and I ironed them in place.

I then made a quilt sandwich using each of their tops and secured the applique using free motion quilting. I then intended to then quilt the backgrounds and finish off the pillows so that the girls could take them home in the morning. Well, when I staggered to bed at 2am only the applique was completed. I am never good at recognising achievable targets!!!!

So now I will finish them off over the next week and Megan will take them to school with her when they go back after the holidays. So far the quilting has been done on one of them :) . 

The girls really did a great job of this activity and I was amazed at how enthuastic they were even though their part of process took 3 hours! 

Once we had finished the pillow tops we all went out for dinner. The girls sat at a table by themselves and did their own ordering and generally behaved like delightful little ladies! Other than this they watched 2 movies (one of these twice) ate lots of popcorn, painted their nails, did eachothers hair and chatted and giggled and giggled some more until around 4am. I made them French Toast for breakfast and they headed home at 11am. And I felt like a zombie for the remainder of the day!!!! 

Instead of lollie bags I made the girls a denim tote, lined with the same fabric that I used for their PJ's and appliqued their names on the front. I also made them a sock monkey each. 

These guys are begining to take over our lives! They are multipling like flies!!!!

This little cutie is Lu Lu and she has become Jessica's closest companion!

 

So that was Meg's party ... now I only have 16 days until Jessica & Benjamin's!

I hope you are all well and for those of you who are in the midst of school holidays I so hope that you are enjoying them as much as I am!!!

Kellie

PS. This is the second time that I have written this post and it is only through absolute determination that I am actually writting this again. The last time I wrote it I was at the spell check stage and the page froze! So I wont be checking the spelling again this time so I appologise in advance!

A little appliqué & a tag ...

Anyone who knows me will know that appliqué is my ‘thing’. I prefer it to any sort of piecing as my accuracy is not fabulous and I always seem to spending my time ‘making’ things work! There is a fabulous quote from a book by Piece-o-Cake designs I just love which goes something along these lines ... it will all quilt out in the end! This is my motto ... I wish it wasn't’t as I would love to be Ms Accuracy but I never will be ... so I make another plan.

Anyway, I was talking about appliqué. The lovely Lisa, who has just become an Stay at home Mum for a bit longer than she had first thought (yay for her!), recently asked me some questions about appliqué & tagged me at around about the same time so I thought I would combine the two, so here goes ...

Originally when I first started appliqué I used needle turn. I love this technique and would always use it if I had the time. It leaves such a perfect finish and you don’t need to muck around with fuseable web. I taught myself this technique using The New Appliqué Sampler by Piece-o- Cake Designs. Their technique is great and the diagrams & explanations are second to none. They also provide explanations and tips for left handed people which I have found invaluable.

This quilt is the first project that I did using needle turn ... as you can see it is not finished. I baisted it and I rolled over the edges & it has been sitting on Megan bed like this for at least 2 years. Now that my machine quilting technique has improved I will finish it ... some day!

These are pillows that I made for the girls also using this technique.

 

The next method that I have been using a lot lately uses fusible web combined with finishing off the raw edge with either sketchy machine quilting or a machine blanket stitch. Fusible web is a pain to use. I have always used vilsaflex, not because it is fabulous, but because we don’t have many other choices in Australia, that I know of. The web tends to lift off the backing paper if it is folded or crushed or older, so I tend to only buy it in small lengths. You have to be careful not to get it on your iron as it makes an awful mess. I have a separate iron that I only use for my quilting. I have also tried keeping a piece of the backing paper after the web has been removed to use as a pressing sheet ... but it takes longer so I never end up persevering. I also find that the appliqué pieces tend to lift off the backing fabric if moved around too much before being secured. It also can make the shapes ‘hard’ but you can overcome this by cutting out the center of the fusible prior to adhering it to the applique leaving only a couple of cm's of web around the edges of the shape.

I have recently read about another product that i am going to have a go at later this week called Floriani. I will let you know how this product compares.

I used sketchy machine quilting to secure the appliqué on both Jessica’s Garden

& Rainbow Lollipops... 

I used machine blanket stitch on the kids PJ's

& the 'secret' project that I am currently working on.

I had a bit of trouble trying to find an example of hand embroidered blanket stitch, all I could find was the first quilt I ever made which was Joshua’s original cot quilt.

I don’t do well with this stitch due to my 'anal' personality ... the length & evenness of these stitches drives me mad!

And now to the Tag!

1.       Why did you start your blog?

I started the blog on a whim. We had not long discovered that my husband was sick and while he was hospitalised I found solace in the beauty and creativity of the crafty blog world. So, I started one .

2.       How did you come up with your blog name?

I don’t know ... I felt quite self conscious at the time thinking that I didn’t really want people to look at my things or more to the point that no one would really want to look at them ... and dontlooknow was the name that came to mind. It has been a source of huge embarrassment though as my step kids & husband have not stopped teasing me as I also used dontlooknow for my flickr account and they managed to tack on a couple of numbers to the end (my year of birth) which I took no notice of at the time ... so now my flickr account is dontlooknow69 ..... I’m blushing!

3.       Do your friends & family know about your blog & what do they think?

All of my family know about it. I know that my current mother-in-law & ex-mother-in-law check it weekly .... for the photos of the kids. I think they like it. I know my husband is happy that it is providing me with a distraction.

4.       How do you write posts?

Usually I will have thought about it in the time leading up to writing it, then I just sit and write. Not a lot of thought goes into it ... should I admit to that?

5.       Have you ever had a troll or had to delete unkind comments?

The other day I got a weird comment left on the post I made regarding the kids PJ's. It was all very strange and had a very strong new age religious push to it ... I skim read it, deleted it and bared the URL. I don’t need that crap in my life! As for trolls ... I don’t know what they are ... although Megan is reading a fantastic series of books called The Spiderwick Chronicles and there are trolls and stacks of other strange beasties in them.

6.       Do you check your stats or care how many people read your blog. If you care how do you increase traffic.

Yes, I do check my stats. And yes I do care ... only about the usual visitors though. Don’t get me wrong I am pleased that lurkers take a look. I love the comments and I am thrilled that you guys have relieved some of the pressure from poor Louise who was my first regular! The only way I can think of increasing traffic would be to make sure you have good things to look at that are updated regularly ...

That must be it, other than to tag a couple of others; firstly I’ll tag Lacey who is a gorgeous girl all the way around the other side of the world and my other two Lisa’s Upstatelisa who has just got herself a pretty nice new banner! & Spoonfullofsugargirls the prolific mother & daughter team. Play along girls, if you like, otherwise don’t feel obliged.

Enjoy the rest of your week ... I have got some serious cooking to do for Saturday night!

Kellie

PS I never did get back to the hand quilting on the weekend ... my machine was just tooo tempting!