Retail Therapy

much needed Retail Therapy
Originally uploaded by mandalin18

ahhhhhh......what it is to stand in a quilt/patchwork/fabric shop........









I like buying online, the whole not getting out of the chair and buying at any time of the day/night thing, really appeals to me! But, there are times, when you just have to go touch and absorb!!

These beauties all came from the 'The Vintage Patch' in Springwood. There's always something in there that grabs my attention. I was so thrilled to find Wee Woodland, the dots just screamed Christmas tree ornaments to me. Very hard to pass up on Heather Bailey bargains, one more to add to my French General collection, plus another which I hope might blend in well too.

I've just put in a small order at 'Hawthorne Threads' for some Far, Far, Away 2. Sleeping Beauty in natural and dusk, plus Roses in the same two colours. Can't wait for them to arrive. Plus I've been given the go ahead to buy a decent stash of Kona Cotton Solids, woo hoo!!

Cheerio for now,
x Mandy

Lovin' my Daisies

Lovin' my Daisies
Originally uploaded by mandalin18

You can take the girl out of England, but you can't take out her Englishness!!

Scrappy Mug Rug Swap

Mug Rug
Originally uploaded by mandalin18

My first Mug Rug! Trial or the one to send? Not sure yet.
Such a great way to use those oddments of wadding.

Swap catch-up #1

Mini QT Swap on Flickr

This really gorgeous quilt came from Amy, of AFriend2 on Flickr.

These swaps are not secret, we are paired up by the swap mama, and it is up to us to contact each other and discuss our hopes for the quilt coming to us. The theme was beach/underwater, and I'm sure you can quess which way Amy and I decided to go! There are many aspects to Amy's quilt that I adore. I really think she has managed to give that underwater, gentle current sway feeling to her quilt.

The quilting on the clam is stunningly accurate.

The disappearing mermaids tail adds just the right amount of whimsy.

French knots and squealy fab quilting on the outside of the tentacles.

More french knots on a completely darling starfish!
Plus button seashells. *sigh*

The label! Too, too cute!

Amy also sent me an, oh to die for, pincushion! Which she printed herself! And we are doing another one-on-one swap. I get to have more of Amy's adorable prints, and I will send her a 'My Hugul', plus something else.....not to be revealed here....yet!

Darn, thought I'd taken photo's!

Be back in a couple of days with Swap catch-up #2 post, 'The Doll Quilt Swap', your in for another treat people. I have been so very fortunate lately, very, very fortunate!! Of course you can always nip over to Flickr and check out my photostream there!?!

Cheerio for now
x Mandy

Where'd August go?

Latest Bee Crazy blocks

These Anna Maria Horner voile fabrics are sooo beautiful, slippy as hell, but lovely and soft. I thought these colours from Kathryn were divine.

I love using these Kona solids as well. And they went with the Amy Butler Wallflower print beautifully. Add some aqua Freshcut and DeliHi, and you really can't go wrong!

This is the block I'll be asking the Bee Crazy ladies to make for me in October. I have them all cut and bagged ready to go. A little ahead of schedule, which feels good, but slightly weird!

And these are the first blocks I've made for a new Bee I've joined, the Fresh Modern Bee. I just could not resist joining this one. I was on Flickr at the right time to see Lily's Quilts post about a vacant spot on the Bee. I jumped in before I'd thought really, absolutely no regrets, I mean, just look at those fun fabrics from Jolene.

I have received my DQS quilt's!!! And I will post pics early next week, I should be finishing off my DQS tonight, but I want to quilt it in daylight. The DQS quilt's I received will blow your socks off!!!! Plus my fabulous partner sent me a Kona Colour Chart, and a lovely little zipped purse, and some Kokeshi doll stickers. She did a real number on me, I feel very lucky. In fact I feel very lucky with all the quilts I have received. Oh.....I can show you the Mini QT from Amy!!!!

The one I made for Amy ~ The one she made for me.

Isn't it gorgeous, can't you just feel the sway of the under current. Amy also sent me an adorable pincushion, pic to come...

Here's another photo of the one I made for Amy, I desperately need to take some new photo's tomorrow, hopefully there will be an abatement of the Spring winds we've been having lately, we even had sleet on Friday!?!

cheerio for a few days,
x Mandy

Spiderweb Blocks ~ done!

Gosh, how I loved making these! They are now sewn together and on their way to Sara for the Spiderweb Block Swap. Mostly from my scrap bags, but I did add in some from my charm stack. I really think you can't go wrong with spiderwebs. I'd like to make a quilt to showing all my fave fabric lines, ie have a spiderweb of Wonderland, Freshcut, Kaffe, etc etc. You'd need to keep track on paper of which triangles went where, totally doable. It could be a memento quilt of all the quilts you've made. Mmmm, I really like this idea, it would be a long term project in my case......lol

cheerio for now
x Mandy

Lots on the go!

I seem to have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies at present. It's not really bothering me, but I wonder if it should? I kinda like having several (okay, 6) projects in progress. No, their not on the wip shelf, they are actually ALL being worked on at once! Well, no, not literally!

Pork Chop Swap Hexagons
Made from the 5" charms, received from the gals in the Flickr ORBC group.

Ah! My DQS9 inspiration mosaic for my partner.
I've an idea on paper, and fabrics pulled for the one I'm making for my partner.
But no sneak peeks, just yet.

Bee Crazy Block for Curtinqueen.
I'm working on an adaption of this, no sneak peeks for this just yet either.

This is my first Asterisk block. This one is only 3.5", I'm hoping we'll be doing a swap of these on the Itty Bitty Block Swap Flickr group. Can you imagine receiving 12 or 15 of these little beauties from all over the world? I get excited when I think about it.

But, for now I'm making bigger Asterisks for a Quilt along. I'm starting with 7" squares, all tone on tone, in mauve's~purples~amber's~oranges~greens~blues. The strips are 5 different shades of cool grey. I've only done 2 so far, so will post pictures when I've done at least 9.

Off to watch 'Little Dorrit' on the ABC now. Love a good period drama me, especially one I'm not familiar with.

Cheerio for now, be back soon!
x Mandy