Week in Review and Some Blog Love

It's been a bit of quiet one this week - I've been hit with a winter headcold...thankfully it is nearly gone, and I almost have a daffodil out so that is the promise of Spring.
I have been stitching the charity quilt - it is large and heavy so I am keeping it simple with an irregularly spaced grid - thanks for the inspiration Rhonda :-)And I've been playing around with fabric for the cover for my paper/stitch book pages I have shown you here and here and here! This is going to be the outside And this is going to be the inside - underneath is the tie to wrap around it all

The tie is already stitched - it leaves the edges of the fabric squares raggy which I quite like. Will show you some closeups when the entire cover is done.

Some disappointing DVD watching this week, but this was a romance that I watched with low expectations and it was surprisingly okay!I am a sucker for romance - and I re-watched this movie.I just love it- you've probably seen it since it was released in 2003 (can you believe that!) but if you haven't, you should.

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Thought I would finish with some Blogs that have inspired me this week :

Gorgeous mixed media tags at M-is-for-Martha blog
Love Ingrid Dijkers' art journals
Very cool handstitched details from Sue Spargo

Annette Emms has some lovely work featured if you click on the "book in the box" video top right of her page

Lovely layers of fabric, paper and stitch from Ruth Rae

And DJ Pettitt is going to be offering an online class - if you are interested find out more here, and make sure you join her mailing list Very exciting - might see you there :-)

Have a lovely weekend

And do leave a comment if you are inspired. I love to hear from you.

3rd time lucky

I have mentioned in a previous post that I LOVE Piece O' Cake designs. I made my Mum & Dad a quilt of their design for their 40th wedding anniversary, and I keep purchasing their books with good intentions and desires of making more of them!

I can see that their hand-turned applique is beautiful, and I decided it would be great to have a piece of work that was hand-pieced and portable, that I could take to my quilt group on Monday nights. So I started with the Pear block from this quilt pattern, and I got about 1/2 way before I wasn't happy with the work on it and decided to unpick it. That was around 6 months ago. Then I decided I REALLY wanted some handwork, and I tried again. I got about 3/4 of the way through before deciding that hand applique work just isn't really me! I am more of an instant gratification kind of gal. So finally, last week, I decided to go with raw edge applique - where you fuse the pieces on the background (I use steam-a-seam lite) and then machine stitch over them. As you can see on the left - I have got much further along this time, and am enjoying the process a lot more - this fusing part is already 1/4 way through!

Click on this link to Don't Look Now for some beautiful raw-edged applique.

And this photo below is a pattern of Robbi Joy Eklow's that I made for my husband's 40th birthday. I used the same method for this quilt that I will use for my "Simply Delicious" quilt (fusible applique, then stitched and quilted at the same time) and I will share the process as I go.Hope you have a good day wherever you are

Weekend pics

I am a member of Rose City Quilters. We make lots of charity quilts for various causes. I have been involved previously with quilting a top for hospice and I turned an uncompleted quilt top into 9 neonatal quilts at the beginning of the year:A week ago, some of the group got together to stitch some quilt tops for the Red Cross. Here you can see a top being assembled. On Saturday morning, I had that top delivered to me for quilting - I have 3 weeks to do it.I have pieced the back, and basted it together. Will keep you posted.
After lunch on Saturday, Sam played the curtain raiser game (under 7's) for our provincial rugby team the Turbos. He got player of the day :-)

I enjoyed watching Amelie again - it is a delightful film that I think I would like to own.

I have started reading, and am very much enjoying : For more info about the book, click on the cover.

And I managed some creative time too :

I am looking forward to quilting, starting my fabric cover for my stitch/paper pages, and hunting out quilts for our show 27-29 August, at the Convention Centre in Palmerston North. I will be showing some of my quilts. More details as those dates get closer.