Very Sad Day....

R.I.P. Skeeter

29.9.99 - 20.4.11

I am going to miss you so much,

so much more than I can express right now.

Remember this block?

Well, I made some more!

These went out to the ladies in hive #22 in the 3x6 bee on Flickr.

I love this Bee and found it easy to. Be. On. Time!!! Something I struggle with in most swaps. Once I made the block decision and had fun pulling fabric from my stash to each persons request, making the blocks was easy peasy puddin' an' pie! I've already decided on the next quarters block and am waiting (!!) for each persons colour requests!!

I'll post about the ones I received as soon as I take a picture of them. My colour request was red, purple and aqua with grey as a background. I LOVE all the ones I received!!!

Cheerio for now, bee back soon!

x Mandy

Doll Quilt Swap No.10

finished!

I could really get used to this finishing quilts malarky!!

Right at the last minute I decided to do more hand stitching in the palest grey border. I'm really pleased with the outcome, it was so much fun working out the pattern (simple though it is), stitching, then seeing that idea come to life! I'll be doing more of this for sure.



So there we are, another DQS finished, well except for the receiving bit of course!!

Time to get excited about the one I'll be receiving! Time to go back through the Flickr pool and work out which ones have already arrived at their new home and which remaining ones I hope would come to me, and boy are there many of those! I love this swap, 200 odd likeminded people, across the world, making a mini quilt for each other! Amazing!

Next, Lynne's block! Yay for more wavy piecing! Then to start the Down Under Doll Quilt Swap, looking forward to that one.

Cheerio for now,

x Mandy

Down Under Doll Quilt Swap

DUDQS, a photo by mandalin18 on Flickr.

I know, I know! I did say no more! But (in a squeaky voice) it's a Doll Quilt Swap for Aussie's and Kiwi's and I really, really wanted too! I roped my pal Rachael into it too!

This is my Inspiration mosaic for my secret partner.

I also have a plan for my partners quilt, which I'm looking forward to making. I'm going to enlarge and add to Christina's (The Sometimes Crafter) Little Cottage Mug Rug.

Sorry, short and sweet tonight. I have some binding to cut, for a certain little quilt that HAS to be mailed on Monday. Oh, and if you happen to be in the Mountains on Sunday, specifically, near Leura. I plan to be having a stall at the Leura Primary School 1st Sunday Market, pop in and say hi. I'll be the one sewing down binding on a mini quilt!!!

Cheerio for now!

x Mandy

A Finish! YAY!!

Hey Mum! I finally finished sewing down the binding on this one!!

It's my Old Red Barn Co. Flickr (round 5) Pinwheel quilt-along quilt. It measures 72" x 54" and is the largest quilt I have ever finished!!!

Un.be.lieveable!

This is the back, there's a piece of every print from the front and some old Philip Jacobs fabric I had plenty of yardage of.

I love this photo of it!

I've decided to tackle my Mod Sampler top next. All I have to do is piece the back, quilt and bind. lol. I think I'll quilt it straight across the width, about an 1" apart.

Well, that's yer lot! I need to take out of the oven the newest addition to our fave snacks, spring rolls! And before anyone kindly asks for the recipe, they came out of a box!!

Cheerio for now,

x Mandy

Doll Quilt Swap #10

I have always loved this fabric from Anna Maria Horner, 'Cathedral' from her Good Folks line. I love the simple duality of the pattern, circles and diamond stars or four pointed flowers. So, when I managed to purchase a yard of this I decided to use it as my inspiration for my DQS10.

I started to pull fabrics pieces from my stash but found I needed to do a bit of shopping! Dear oh dear what a bore that was.....not!!! lol It was tricky finding pinks that I was comfortable using, but I somehow managed!

So, this is where I started, grey HAD to be the background, and I decided that using 3 different greys could look interesting in the border. But it needed a bit of colour too, but not so much that your eye would be drawn away from the main pattern. So a thin scrappy border was the way, but in what colour?

These Anna Maria Horner 'Innocent Crush' blues provided the perfect answer. They blend so beautifully with the greys without detracting from the pinks and purples.

Next comes a little stitching in the ditch quilting, in the borders, then some hand quilting on the solids. I haven't quite decided on the colour, but maybe pink, actually I might have some already from another swap quilt.

I'm really quite enamoured with this one, even though I didn't get my stitches as close to the edge on the ovals as I'd have liked. I thought about washing the quilt when it's finished, to soften the edges of the ovals, but my DQS Flickr pals mostly say no! I'll make a final decision about that when the binding is on. Which is going to be my original fabric inspiration, of course!!!

After I finish this quilt, I've got another Doll Swap Quilt to think about! This time for the 'Down Under Doll Quilt Swap'! It will be fun to swap with 'locals'!!! One being my blogging pal Rachael of the Blue Mountain Daisy blog. You should check it out her blog, this lovely lass is not afraid of colour, and has made some stunning quilts.

Cheerio for now, and thanks for stopping by!

x Mandy

A little help, can make a big difference....

Go here to find out more.