Happy birthday Charlie

Grandie No 3 - Charlie had his 4th birthday on Sunday.

First though, a play in the park with big brother, Kai.

A blue pig birthday cake was his request.  I think his Mum did a wonderful job of making it.  And he was VERY happy.

Mmmmmm!  Finger licking good.

And definitely enjoyed every bit of it.

Before the birthday celebration -

was the Quilt Muster - the finale of the Quilt Trail.

More exciting news about it when I have my camera back.

Easy way to achieve perfect mitred corners

Last night I went along to ruler club at Sew This and That to learn how to use the Marti Michell mitred corners ruler. 



It certainly was an easy ruler to use, and our mitred corners on our quilt blocks turned out just right.

I took along this rather soft, cot quilt panel  (this pic looks just a little brighter than it is - it really didnt shine at all .)

BUT.......A little time, some remnants from my stash, and it was transformed.

 It now looks much brighter.  A little quilting time and I will have a quilt ready and waiting for a new little bub.  (None in mind for this one yet though.)

Spotty surprise revealed

Here it is.

Today I went along to Sew This and That (LQS) for our Biggest Morning Tea.  We had a very special guest showing her first ever Trunk Show.  Oh we were so lucky - our guest was none other than Joy .
We were able to see first hand her bags, quilts, and yes - even her new buckets, (seen on this post) which are so beautiful.

When we met up for the bloggers picnic in March, we had talked about the trunk show being on this morning.  When I heard she liked licorice allsorts, and I like licorice allsorts, I told her I would bring them along today.  So -

Above is the biggest licorice allsort given to her to remember her first trunk show at the biggest morning tea.  And of course I had to fill it:

Thank you Joy.  It was a lovely morning.  Told you the girls would love you !!!

After the Trunk Show we had an auction of all sorts of goodies donated by the store owners and customers.  It was lots of fun, as always, and the result is almost $1500 to be donated to Cancer Research. 

A spotty surprise

I am heading out tomorrow morning - it will be a wonderful time.  More about it later.

I have been making something special - Can only show sneaky bits tonight.

There are spots,                            lace and embroidery,               a cute old button,

                      and some goodies inside.  (easy to see what this is.)

This was a lovely project to work out and make.  Hope she will like it.



Sleepover but still making progress

It is such a privilege to be able to be part of my grandchildren's lives.  This past weekend I had 2 of them to stay for a 3 night sleepover.  These 2 are brothers - 5 and 4 years old.   They are such good little mates now, and play together happily for hours.  (But dont get me wrong, they are still lively little lads.)

The block tower is the "airport" where we dropped Mum off for her weekend away.  Just hope her plane was a little more soundly constructed..

Got to love wordworking offcuts - they provide hours of fun for all the little boys who come visiting.

The house was so quiet when they had gone home again.

I did manage to take time in my sewing room to continue with Beach Party. Here is row 2.

And the 2 rows together.  There will be a sashing between them.  I am still trying to decide what colour/fabric to use for the sashing. 

The colours are showing much better today as well.

Row 4 is almost finished, then back to row 3.

Progress, and happy birthday

First row of Beach Party is well under way.  (Colours are not accurate - rainy day = not such good colours)

Yesterday we did another Papercraft class at Arnolds Scrapbooking Store at Rothwell. 

The 3D butterflies are glittery, and look beautiful - photo doesnt show it clearly.

Our little grandson, Harry....

is 1 year old today.

Such a little boy now.

Happy birthday Harry.

Quilt Trail is over - but for the Finale

With the end of April comes the end of the Quilt Trail for 2011.  As it is each year, it is a great time to go trailing with friends to visit 9 quilt stores within South East Queensland.  On spending over $10 in a store we were given a piece of the pattern plus some fabrics for the Trail Quilt Project.  This year's theme was Beach Party, and the pattern makes into a beach scene, with lots of applique and a little embroidery if that takes your fancy.

The patterns:

And below the patterns are my background fabrics and backing:

For the past 10 days I have squirreled myself away in my sewing room every spare moment to trace, press, cut and position the pieces of my beach scene.  I am making it into a row by row quilt (king single size) for one of my grandsons.  Now comes the fun part - stitching.  It is looking really good, and colourful.  We were given pieces of fossil fern fabrics in beautiful colours for the applique, to which I have added some beautiful batiks.  I will be able to show the first strip soon.

Apart from that I came home with lots of other goodies:

The fabrics on the left are for this month's club project.

Got to love the Noddy fabric !!!

Some canvas fabric from the Pure range to make a bag.

And there were more bits and pieces to add to my stash and my pattern collection - but no pics of them yet.

Quilt Muster is at Clontarf on 29th May.  Wonder if I will have the quilt made by then. 

I am hoping this little guy, Sammy will get lots of enjoyment from the quilt when it is finished. 

Sure is cold out there !!!

I think it is safe to say that Zac loves his Transformer quilt.   Little sister has her cot quilt from when she was born wrapped around her.  She will get a big girl's quilt for her birthday, maybe this year or it may be next year.  It is so good to see our quilts loved and used.