Curls, swirls and weirdy beardy things

This is what I've been up to this weekend, slaving away over a hot sewing machine,

under the expert guidance of the very clever Kellie of Don't Look Now. OK, so my piece, yet to be finished, of course doesn't look anywhere near as exquisite as Kellie's (see below), but as a start, I have to say I'm pretty pleased with my efforts.

The genuine article. Look at those beautiful swirls! Just perfect! (She's had a lot of practice, let's face it!) And Kellie was an absolutely terrific teacher, with plenty of great tips and advice on setting out on this amazing road. I had a fantastic time, quilting a la Kellie is so much fun! I'm sure all the other ladies in the class would agree, everyone did a lovely job - I felt terribly inadequate!

I did have a few hiccups along the way. Grrr ... tension problems.... grrrr. However, there weren't any tears, even after numerous weirdy beardy things ending up on the back of my practice piece.... I won't post a photo of this, it's far too frightening. Funnily enough these seemed to diminish once I'd got the whole thing about remembering to drop the foot to the halfway mark each time I started out.... But these (unrelated to the beardy mishaps) pink eyelashes look kind of cool, don't you think??


The shell shape seemed to work better for me - but I'm determined to conquer the swirl!!! I will not be defeated!!


Oh dear - so wonky! Or should I say 'stylistic'?

So what's next? Finish the sweet little 'practice piece' and turn it into a cushion... and then move onto a slightly bigger project (European sized pillow). How many leaves in this one Kellie? About 50?? No worries!!
And after that? Maybe this...


Or perhaps this...

(Yes, I'm dreaming!!)

And other than the luxury of hours of uninterrupted sewing, the other great thing about the weekend was having my dear friend Bec join me. We hadn't seen each other for 4 years so it was wonderful to see her and she drove 8 hours to get here - poor Bec!! We're both looking forward to doing another of Kellie's classes next year - hopefully Kellie hasn't completely burnt herself out by then and is still going. Going by the number of amazing things she churns out, I'm convinced that Kellie sews in her sleep!!!

Thanks Kellie for a great weekend and for sharing your beautiful quilts and amazing skills with us!

And thanks also to Jenny and everyone at Addicted to Fabric for hosting us. Love this shop! (Of course we had to do a tiny bit of stash-building while we were there. Just a tiny bit.)

And now, it's back to this baby... (14 down, 35 to go! Loving it!)

Quilting along (slowly!)

No posting recently as I have been up to my ears in cutting out stabilisers, fabrics, pinning and stitching. I really love this Joseph's Coat Quiltalong idea, but sheesh! I am a bit bamboozled by how much time it's taking to get going. The preparation involved is really something else. As a result I have only 2 blocks stitched, whereas I think by this time, if I was keeping up with the pace, I should have about 8 done. Anyway, here they are - I have to take some better pictures and admittedly these were taken before stitching them down. But they are stitched now, I promise!!

Time for an update!

Well it has been way too long since I last posted. Excuses are many and varied and I haven't been completely idle, in a crafting sense - really, I haven't! There are some things to show for my absence, but first things first - in a moment of madness I have signed up for a quilt-along being organised by the very talented Kellie from Don't Look Now. Is there anything this girl can't do? Apart from having the most amazing designs which are so in line with my own tastes it's kind of scary, she is also super-generous and has posted incredibly detailed instructions of what to do and how to do it so that your work might have even a very good chance of looking like hers! (I wish!!)

Anyway, so here is the lovely culprit that has been swimming in my mind for the last few weeks. I am eager to get going. Unfortunately I've just realised I don't have the right kind of needles - hopefully I'll be able to rectify that tomorrow and start stitching. In the meantime I have been busily cutting out stacks of lovely petals from the fusible web.

Now off to do some more cutting!!

Missing in action

It has been a couple of weeks since I last posted. Kids' illnesses have set me back a bit but hopefully we can get back on track now that everyone is (mostly!) better.

Gret from the lovely little red ribbon has a giveaway on her blog at the moment - a sweet little coin purse handcrafted from linen and vintage embroidery. Head over here and leave a comment, and it could be yours!

One for the birds

Not only do I have a thing for trees at the moment... and anything red.... but also birds. Sometimes I like to combine all three. Right now I'm wearing a cord necklace with a red metal bird on a gate motif - found last week at the National Portrait Gallery shop (the BEST shop for gifts in Canberra, surely?). Made by Elk. Their jewellery is delicious. I could easily take it all home.
























Something else I've found - Indiefixx Feed Your Soul, a great art site with free downloadable pictures you can print out to your heart's content. Luckily for me there is an abundance of birds on board. Here are a couple of my favourites.


















And finally, a peek at the Helleborus-in-progress. Going well so far - I'd say I'm nearly at the halfway point, and it hasn't been too painful (despite Terhi's warning of death-by-boredom-scarf).

More art to love

Just found this sweet little picture on Etsy by a Canadian artist Tine Wiggens - this would be lovely in Elli's room! I'm ashamed to say that I have been a bit of a failure when it comes to decorating my kids' rooms, it all looks a bit half-hearted. I'm hoping to change this though - it's really just a matter of a few more pictures and some strategic tidying up and everything will be beautiful! All part of the territory when it comes to squeezing three kids into two bedrooms!

This caught my eye....

Being a total newbie to the blogging world, I find myself being amazed on a daily basis by all the clever people out there. And the things you find on a very circuitous route. I love reading A Little Red Ribbon (thanks Gret) - she always finds the most beautiful things (and makes some gorgeous vintage embroidery pouches). Today's find comes via there, through a wonderful site called Lovely Clusters, which takes all the hard work out of finding beautiful things - clever, huh? (A Little Red Ribbon is about to be featured there).

And there my attention was piqued by this gorgeous pink-leaved tree from A. T. Whim. A further peak at that site reveals an array of beautiful artwork - very tempted! A few of these grouped on a wall would be delightful. I really have a thing for trees at the moment!