Don't look now!

Short & sweet!

How on earth did the 23rd of April turn into the 13th of April? So much for my New Years resolution to post shorter, more frequent posts. The problem with blogging is that the longer you leave it between posts the more there is to share which makes writing the post even more daunting!

I really do have lots to share ... but from this point forward I am going to limit my posts to one or two points ... or at least that is the plan!

The Joseph's Coat project has seen one of the participants, Lina finish her quilt top!

How amazing is this quilt? You really have done a terrific job Lina & it has been an absolute pleasure having you join in! You have participated with such enthusiasm! I have enjoyed watching your progress and I I looking forward to now watching you go through the quilting process!

Lina has completed her quilt using a machine applique technique which I will use for the alternative quilt that I plan to start later in the year.

In my last post I asked for those of you who were joining in to write a progress post so that we could all visit and take a look at your project so far. Thank you so much to those of you who took the time to do this ... believe me I know how hard it is to find time to blog!!! ;) I have really enjoyed popping over and 'meeting' you all! You all really have the makings of some wonderful quilts!

If you would like to visit these guys blogs skip down to the bottom of my last post and and follow all of the links ...

I also promised a bit of a giveaway for one of you who did join in with the progress post ... because there wasn't that many of you and because I have kept you waiting for such a long time ....I have decided to give you all a little something ...

I have decided to give away 3 rolls of the of Stitch & Wash Fusible rather than one ... so they are going to ...

Quilting in the Pines who left the 8th link ...

Mespetitelefants who left the 13th link and ..

Tamara who left the 18th link.

... and to everyone else I would love to send you each a copy of  Wish you were here!

 
Could all of you that have included your link prior to this time email me your snail mail details so that I can send the things off to you.

As for my progress with my Joseph's Coat ... well sadly I have hardly even picked my blocks up since my last post! 

The Patchwork House Joseph's Coat class was a good one ... particularly because it was a terrific group of girls! Some how I managed to forget to take a group photo so I only have a few little snap shots of the day ...

 
I have decided to continue to run this class every 6 to 8 weeks for the time being ...

 
this time we will try holding it on a Thursday as it seems that Tuesdays are bad days for so many of you.

 
Many of those who attended the last class plan to return to the next one so if you would like to come along make sure you contact Kylie as soon as possible.

Joseph's Coat at Patchwork House

Thursday the 10th of June

10am - 3pm

 

I am off to Wyong this weekend for the long awaited class at

Blueberries

! This class has been a very long time in the planning so I am really looking forward to it! This class was booked out several months ago ... but as life is so variable there are now a couple of places available so if you can make it please come along it should be a terrific class!

Ok ... that's it ... let's see if I can keep up the whole 'short and sweet' plan! ...No ... I can't possibly go with out a little peek at what I have been doing while I have been an absentee blogger!

 Can you guess what this quilt is?

 You are only seeing the backing fabric in the first two photos ...

Does this help a little more? You will find this one in Quilters Companion in a couple of months time.

... and as for this tiny little snippet ... this one ... providing all goes well will be coming with me to the Spring Market in just a few short weeks!

These are a few of my favorite things ...

So by now you all know how I love my sewing machine .... well there are quite a few other things that I really love to use that make my life just that little bit easier too that I thought you might like to check out ... 

Kia Scissors

I just love these scissors! They are super sharp & and super smooth and don't tend to make my hand hurt when I use them for hours on end with my left hand! I use these little ones for applique - particularly raw edge. They are so sharp that it reduces the damage to the edges of my shapes as I cut them out once the fusible web is attached. Less wear & tear on the edges of your shapes ultimately means less fraying of your edges. Once I cut out my shapes I use the tip of my scissors to score the backing paper of the fusible - this releases the seal and makes removing the backing paper a breeze and also protects the edges of the fabric.

Lite Steam-A-Seam 2

I discovered this product in the US last year and have used nothing else since. It doesn't separate from the backing paper until you want it to, it leaves the shapes relatively soft to touch & there is very little fraying of the edges of your shapes when you use it for raw edge applique. It also has a slightly tacky surface that sort of holds the shape in place until you iron it down - I must say though, that I don't find that it is incredibly tacky and the shapes will move around if you aren't careful.

Ansell Gloves

These gloves are terrific to use for quilting. I first heard about these from an article by Deb Louie in Quilters Companion a while ago and have used nothing else since! They fit snugly, they grip your fabric well, they are super cheap & are readily available from Australian supermarkets. Give them a go you wont be sorry!

These are just a few of my favorite things I'd love to know what your are!

The odds for my last post giveaway were considerably better! So who won Mr Random Number Generator? 

Dottycookiewho left the 8th comment ...

 Bec Clarke who left the 81st comment ... and believe it or not Bec just posted about a swap quilt she designed using one of my projects as her inspiration! Make sure you take a peek!

Cascadewho left my 107th comment ...

Yay guys! Next post there will be 4 patterns up for grabs .. just leave a comment between now and midnight Australian EST, Sunday the 12th of July to be included.

The final giveaway, that will be the official 100th post giveaway, isn't far away so don't forget that your comments in these give aways will also gain you some extra entries (details in this post). This little pile of fabric will be coming on holidays with me later this week, together with something I have been drawing up for this giveaway ...

... it will be worth the wait!

Thank you all so much for the Birthday wishes for Miss Megan from my last post, she was over whelmed by all of your comments! As for the tree ... well I am not so sure about that one exactly but something a bit like it may well be used for my Pay it Forwards and another little promice I have waiting ... but that's on the back burner for now as I have some things that can't wait a minute longer!

I have finally broken the back of my latest quilt ... thank God!!! Only a little quilting and binding to go. (type pad doesn't want to center my photos anymore so sorry about the formatting!)

This quilt is ultimately for Joshua who still lies under his cot quilt ... poor baby. Sadly he will be laying under it for quite a bit longer because it's going to be spending some time with Homespun once it's done. He's not too thrilled about it either I'm afraid ...

I found him and it all snuggled in his bed yesterday ... luckily his shoes were clean! 

Oh and just one more thing before I go and attack the mountain that I have to get through before we leave ... 

Rainbow Lollipops ...

Meg's Garden and ...

Oh Christmas Tree ...

... are all making their way to the printers in the morning. They wont be listed in my store until the 25th of July, however, you can pre-order one of these patterns and my darling mother in law will pop it in the mail for you on the 17th of July ... hopefully earlier ... it all depends just how quickly she can fold them ;) !

They are $18 each not including GST (Australians only) or postage. To place a pre-order please email me here. Don't forget to label your email Preorder and please make sure you let me know which pattern you would like and where the pattern will be sent (so I can sort out postage) and I will send you a pay-pal invoice.

Edit Tuesday 7th of July - unfortunately I have hit a couple of snags with printing that have made getting the printing completed before we fly out impossible. Therefor pre-orders will not be ready for mailing out until the 27th of July. I am so sorry about this but unfortunately it just can't be helped.

  If you have already purchased one or more of these three patterns using this method or if you choose to go ahead and preorder regardless of the delay then I will thow in a How does your garden grow? pattern and l will now throw in 10 extra entries in the 100th post giveaway in a few posts time.

Enjoy your week guys! Roll on Friday!!!!!! How did it get to be after 4 and I haven't gotten to bed yet????

Kellie   

PS If you happen to find yourself in Barcaldine which is about 580 k's due west of Rockhampton, on the Capricorn Hwy in beautiful Queensland .... my patterns are now being stocked by The Silver Thimble! I didn't even get a change to list the pattern give away as blogless Betty took it out before I even had time to post about it! 

Meg's Garden ...

As always I have no grasp of time and my new pattern is sadly not finished but it's not far away ... so hopefully it will be good to go by this time next week... sorry for the false alarm. 

 

I have, however, been given permission to finally show you Meg's Garden ...

photo courtesy of Australian Homespun Magazine

This is the quilt that I made way back here before we went to the US last year. You will find it in the April edition of Australian Homespun Magazine.

Meg's Garden has been displayed on the Universal Magazines Stand at the Australasian Quilt Convention ..

... & the Stitches & Craft Show that was held here in Melbourne this past week. Speaking about the Stitches & Craft Show ... I went on Thursday and met up with Sharon and just had such a nice social day! Sharon has given an excellent roundup of all of the highlights here & here so make sure you jump across & take a look. You should also take a look here for a little more Stitches & Craft love ... I feel like such an under achiever because all I really did was gossip all day and buy some fabric!

This bright and shimmery collection (can you see that glittery goodness?) was snapped up from the girls at Hot Possum... you should go and take a look at their delightful designs if you aren't familiar with them as it is truly a treat. They work magic with fabric! 

I also bought Megan a Kinder Girls pattern from the ever so delightful Jodie for her to have a little play with ... if I don't get to it first!

 

Some other exciting news on the Don't Look Now! front is that there is another retailer who now is stocking all of my current patterns. Make sure you go and take a look at Tania's shop I'm sure you will find something that will take your fancy!!! I am offering the same deal as I did with the other two retailers that I mentioned last week ... I will send a little gift to the first person who purchases one of my patterns from Tania and emails me the details  -  obviously the purchase has to be able to be confirmed.

I have been fiddling around with monkeys again and was pleased to see the winter supply of socks are now in the shops to replenish my dwindling stash ... one good thing about the rapidly approaching winter months I guess!

I have done a little more house keeping on the blog this past week and found a photo stashed away in my archives of a smock that Cee made a while back. Make sure you have a look because she has done an outstanding job. You will also find new to the album a smock that Sharon made for her beautiful niece Taylor! Sharon I want to know where you got that beautiful butterfly fabric!

Over the last few months I have had a couple of my very favorite Quilt Shops discuss with me the possibility of running some classes and it looks like this might actually happen later in the the year ... which is both quite exciting and horrifically terrifying for me.  So now I have to come up with what I would actually like teach and I thought who better to ask than you guys so ... I would really like to know what you would like to do in a class with me if one was available?

The new edition of Quilters Companion arrived in my mail box yesterday. There are some very beautiful quilts again in this months edition ...

and you will also find the final part of my quilt Rainbow Lollipops.

I also wanted to share with you a book that I picked up from the Australasian Quilt Convention ...

 

This book is by Helen Stubbing of Hugs n Kissesand various other ventures. I have mauled this book to pieces and can't wait to have a go at this technique! Amazingly beautiful!

Other than this there has been a lot of the usual day to day life stuff happening here ... a lot of running the kids around, a lot of sewing but nota lot of housework! Sadly my house has slipped into a state of total disarray ... and this was confirmed so eloquently by Mr DLN last Wednesday when he had a momentary lapse into insanity ... sadly he thought it would be a good idea to give me a few pointers on how I could better manage my time so as to better clean the house! Somehow I don't think he will attempt to provide such advice again in a hurry!!!!  Poor Mr DLN he is normally so very clever ...

Anyway I had better run ... Mr DLN is still at work (or at least he was when I drafted this post) so if I run around and quickly sweep all the dust under the mat & shove all the junk around the house in the already overflowing cupboards then I'll look like an absolute star when he returns! ;)

Have a great week

Kellie

PS Guess where I will be spending my time and money on Friday .... woooo hooooo!!!!