Don't look now!

The view from my Bernina ....

A couple of weekends ago Louise and her beautiful family came and enjoyed a lovely relaxing Sunday lunch with us. The kids got along so beautifully, the sun was out and my husband (always the entertainer) served us champagne in water glasses ... now before you all feel so sorry for us and the offers of your unused champagne glasses come flooding in ... he didn’t do this because we don’t have champagne glasses he did it because he is a doofus! But that just makes me love him all the more!

Anyway the reason why I tell you this story is what do you do when you know that a fellow crafty person is coming to visit and likely to want to take a look at your sewing room ...... well you know the amazing painting The Scream by Edvard Munch? Well that was me!

So I spent the Saturday cleaning as best I could and it wasn’t so bad by the time Louise arrived. I have managed to keep it in a reasonable state of tidiness since then so I thought it would be the perfect time so show you my favourite little place, the place where I would quite happily live out the rest of my years. This is the place my husband calls Little Amitie J ....

The room is quite small and therefore rather cramped, but what the hey!

I have two large design walls that are currently filled with guilty reminders of projects yet to be completed ...

My obsession with magazines is quite evident, don't you think?!

And this is the ever growing Wall of Fabric! J Once upon a time this area was sorted by colour ... but I have long since given this obsession away!

This rack hides another pile of fabric yet to be folded and more ‘yet to be finished’ projects .... L

And finally the three essential items; my Bernina, the computer & my TV complete with Foxtel ... I have to be able to get my fix of Buffy, Star Trek & SG1 while I am working!

 

Many, many weeks ago Lisa bestowed upon me an awarded which I have sadly neglected until now for many reasons which I am not going to bore you with seeing Jodie has said it so nicely before ...

However, after thinking about this many times and composing a response several times in the old head I have decided to, in return, acknowledge my dear and loyal bloggy friends who have been with me from the (almost) very beginning of my adventure into cyberspace;

Louise if it was not for you it would still only be my mother-in-law & exmother-in-law who would see these pages! You are an absolute delight. You are spectacularly creative and a kind and generous friend! I am so glad I have gotten to know you!

Lisa (there are a few Lisa’s in my life this is the spoon full of sugar Lisa!) you and your amazing daughter also started out in the bloggy world around the same time as I did and look at you now!!! You diligently leave a comment for every post! You are enthusiastic, generous, kind and encouraging. You truly are an inspiration!

Tracey, you my dear friend (who I wish lived much closer!) have opened doors for me that I never imagined would be possible! I love your little family antics and your beautiful quilts! Thank you!

Lisa (the Upstate version!) you were my first international peep who left a comment! Well, I thought I had really hit the big time when you left me a comment! You are a whirlwind! We are like opposite twins with such similar differences in our lives it is crazy.  You always leave me a comment, you are always so encouraging and you are always an inspiration to me! Although, I must say I will NEVER EVER go jogging!!!! :)

Finally, Lisa (the Periwinkle type) this award goes right back at you! You are such a sweet and delightful girl who I truly adore! My kids talk about you and your boys like we lived next door to eachother. You cannot imagine how happy I am to have gotten to know you!  

Now of course there are so very many others that have joined me as regulars since then and I am so very grateful that you have, so please don’t be offended if I have not mentioned your names. What you should know though is that when the whole give away celebration thing happens here it will be one that rewards and thanks those of you who do take the time to leave a comment, particularly regular ones. I know how time consuming this little life we have created here is and I so appreciate that you visit me and mine and your comments make my day!

OK, enough of that!!! This week I have sewn down those pesky dots until my fingers were all but fixed in the one position ...

And I have started a new project which will involve some of this ...

and a whole lot of this ...

but you won’t get to see this one until early next year .... we have become very Secret Squirrel here in the house of Dontlooknow!!!!!

Oh and look where I found my little quilt hanging out on it's way across the world to it's new owner!

Enjoy the rest of your week and have a great weekend!

Kellie

PS. Sorry about the changing font sizes I have know idea what happened or how to fix it ... just when you think that Typepad was back in working order!

Arrivals & departures ...

Earlier in the week Australia Post so kindly left a little package on my door step with a delightful little quilt inside from my DQS4 partner, Maya from Pavanshree.

 

It is very sweet and the little quilting stitches are magnificent.

Maya very generously included; 5 beautiful fat quarters, a sweet strawberry pin cushion and some great stickers, which disappeared as soon as the kids got home from school!  

 

Thank you so very much Maya!

 

I have spent much of my time this week at my machine working on my swap quilt. 

I finally finished my little tree last night and waved it good bye this morning, it is off to a place far, far away ...

     

I am sorry to see this one go ...

 

To everyone who has congratulated my sweet Megan thank you so very much! She is has been overwhelmed by all of your kindness. She has certainly been spurred on by all of the excitement this week! She has had her pencils out and has been very busy sketching away her design for next year’s competition! J

I received a pretty exciting offer this week that has provided me with another excuse to purchase so more fabric. I have made two trips to Amitie ... so you can return from your holiday next week Jenny feeling quite confident that the rent has been paid this month J!

We have had a quite mild week this week and today has been glorious. Right now I am going to go make myself a cup of tea and sit out on the deck and watch the kids run around like loonies before I cook tea. Have a great weekend!

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

Friday already?

Life has returned to some semblance of normal this week after the past few weeks of hectic birthday happenings.

Earlier in the week I made these two little girls for a very sweet little girl over at Sue’s place. Jessica had decided that I should make Isabelle, twins because then even when she was at school the monkey would never be lonely ... a definite bonus of being a twin!

Although Jessie has discovered this year that her brother is beginning to branching out. You see Ben has fallen in love! He has been professing his undying love for a little girl in his class for some time now. I have quietly suggested to him that perhaps he is too young to have a girlfriend really and that perhaps at least for the next 20 years they should try out friendship first. He has scoffed at this telling me that “it doesn’t matter what you say I still love her!”.  On Wednesday Jessica came home dying to tell me that she had caught them kissing near the girls toilets .... mmmmm. And then on Thursday their teacher (who is the most delightful girl but only about 14 herself) came out to proudly show me Ben’s letter writing for the day .....

 

Oh well what can you do? It is obviously true love! I will have to teach him though that it is far more romantic to refer to a girls eyes or hair than their cheeks or ears. Mind you I did ask him what it was about her ears and cheeks that he liked so much ... his response was “I actually like her whole body!”. Oh good Lord what do you say to that????? I guess he is finally over his Oedipus complex!

Other than this I have been frantically arranging the leaves on my Doll Quilt whilst all the time desperately trying to avoid the desire to starting a new project.

 

Today I drove across the city to a fabric Mecca to spend all of my money and come home with 20% more than I would normally .... yay!!!!!!!!

 

More fabric for Ben's birthday quilt ... it is killing me not to make a start on this quilt! There were quite a few other fabrics that I brought home but as a group they didn't photograph well so you will have to wait to see them made up. Or maybe one day I will tidy my sewing room and take some pictures so you can see where I hang out and my beautiful stash ... now that just sounds weird!

Tonight I must finish the pillow that one of Megan’s party guests made, oh so long ago! She is coming over tomorrow night with her beautiful mother to sit with our little people so that my other half and I can go out for dinner and then on to Borders for some grown-up time ... aren’t we adventurous and so very risqué!!!!!!!

Jessica received the cutest knitted bear from the lovely Lisa this week which she is now sleeping with along with at least 100 other soft toys and pillows that she has enlisted to 'keep her safe' at night! I suspect that Customs also have the hots for Lisa's bears with knitted knickers ... as Ben's package arrived on the door step today a few days behind Jessie's with their tape wrapped around and around the box! As they are still in school I will share the contents of this box next time. Thank you so very much Lisa! I hope you are having fun sunning yourself in Greece!

I also found the most beautiful package of delightful things all for me in the mail box today!!!!

This eye candy is from the lovely Lizzie! You must go over and take a look at the beautiful things she makes and shares with us. I met Lizzie through Jenny first at Patchwork on Central Park and then in her little section of Amitie ... Broderie. Sadly she has moved on and I now am kicking my self that I never made the time to have her teach me some of the beautiful embroidery stitches that she is so skilled at. Lizzie thank you ... I cried when I opened this little package and saw that fabric and all of those beautiful threads and buttons that are so me! 

By far the most rewarding thing about my whole experience of blogging over the past 7 months has been meeting so many beautiful people. For someone who has isolated herself for such a long time I am enjoying your friendships and kindness so very much.

And on that note I must run! Have a fabulous weekend!

Kellie 

It's all about Megan!

Happy 9th birthday my big girl!

We received Meg's half year report yesterday and the first sentence was "Megan has a heightened sense of the ridiculous". I must say I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry at that comment ... I don't mind admitting that I don't really know what the teacher means but I have come to the conclusion though that it can't be all bad as further on she said that she had a spectacular imagination and she is a pleasure to teach. What more can a Mummy ask for?

I have spent alot of time over the past few days thinking about what I wanted to say about Megan in this post. I have come to the conclusion that I haven't a hope in hell of reflecting what this person means to me. What has struck me though is the enormous impact that she has had on my life. She has been an incredible catalyst for change how amazing that one little person could have totally altered the course of my life. She has brought us all so much happiness, pride and pleasure.

Mind you she has a very strong personality and we tend to meet head-on on a lot of occasions and I swear that she already suffers from PMT ... but really I wouldn't have her any other way! Happy birthday my big little girl I love you more than you could possibly imagine!

I have made a start on my Doll Quilt. I must say that I was pleased when my swap Mama suggested that my partner might like a tree ... so now I have the perfect scapegoat should my partner not like the tree! :)

  

I am also loving Kaffe Fasset at the moment it cuts up so beautifully. These pictures don't really do anything much for this little quilt. I am sure the sun will come out again sometime soon so that I take a photo out side!

I am using a Floriani product called Wet & Gone to achieve a turned edge to the applique pieces. If it works as well as it claims, it will eliminate the hardness that is left behind when you use a fusible product. I have been using the Appli-Kay Wonder for all of the machine applique that I have done lately. I just love it's self sticking surface as it makes rehearsing applique pieces so very easy when you work I like I do .... with out any real plan :) .

I also spotted this new Michael Miller fabric in one of my new American magazines, isn't it lovely?

I still have at least a million things to do before Meg's party on Saturday so I will go for now.

Have a fabulous weekend! Oh and by the way HOORAY for school holidays!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Kellie