A Girly Story

Melissa of Ms Midge loves to sew. She has a little business on Facebook selling all manner of handmade items. I have bought my daughter a couple of her well made girly dresses.

Midgey has two young daughters. So when it came to making Midgey's teal coloured pouch, I had to include a little girl sleeping in.

Then some toast for breakfast on the back. It was easy to have the wafting smell as the free motion design for this one.

Linking up to I Quilt over at Pretty Bobbins.

A Chinese Story

One of my closest friends, Goldie, comes from north eastern China. Tomorrow she will become an Australian citizen. It must be a huge deal to give up the country of your birth and identify yourself with one that you adopted. I am so proud of her.

I told her that I would be there to witness it nomatter where or when. She lives about 4 hours away in the lovely New England town of Armidale. So tomorrow Frances and I are heading off to get to the ceremony by 2pm and then spend the weekend there.

I wanted to make Goldie something special for her to use. I used my Notebook cover and zip pouch tutorials to make her two practical items.

The 2.5" squares start with the colours of the Chinese flags and then transition to the colours of the Australian flag on the back. 

I enjoyed doing some free motion quilting on the pouch.

Linking up with I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins.

Sunday Stash #90

Oh my! Sunday Stash #90!!! Exciting things are happening for Sunday Stash in 2014 but more on that NEXT WEEK!

Next week Sunday Stash will be with the hostess with the mostess - Miss Molli Sparkles. 

Things of Stone and Wood

A mid century house I was improvising but did not quite finish.

This week is all about fabric for Paper Piecing projects. Finding fabric to represent certain features of a paper pieced block is not easy. So when I saw some of this wood fabric at Spotlight, I snapped it up.

I also inherited a bunch of woody fabrics from my mum.

And this fabulous stone wall fabric too!

I find that Sketch by Timeless Treasures is great go-to paper piecing fabric.

And then there are fabrics for the leaves. 

Both $1 each from Spotty.

And more Sketch...

And now for the linky up below...

Sunday Stash #89

This is my first Sunday Stash written 6 days after the event but luckily Lisa in Port Hope still has her linky party open so I can just sneak in before tomorrow.

I have to thank Lisa for being so faithful to publish her Sunday Stash last week. We had huge electrical storms for about 5 days straight. One lightning strike took out everyone's phones and modems. So until yesterday I was off the grid. Mind you, it took me about 2-3 hours to try and reconnect to the internet with the help of an Indian technician who stuck by my every question.

The previous week's most visited link up was Audrey's Holiday Edition over at Hot Pink Quilts.

Black and White

So these are 4 x $4 flat fats from Spotlight. I was going to use the doors for the paper pieced house blocks for Lara last month but they were a too big for the 6" patterns.

Linking up to Sunday Stash over at Lisa in Port Hope.

Sunday Stash #88

Thank you to Rachael of The Floral Suitcase who hosted Sunday Stash last week.

Next week Lisa in Port Hope will be hosting.

The Sunnyside of the Matter

The past six months have been difficult for me. My near ten year old son Duncan has Aperger's Syndrome. He was diagnosed 4 years ago.  He finds it hard to socialise, coordinate his body in sports and he asks a lot of strange and unrelated questions of people. 

Until this year he has been oblivious to the fact that he is different from his peers. But he is certainly aware of it now. Being deliberately left out of play by his own soccer team, realising that even the new boys in his class are accepted into the group even when he still isn't, not being invited to parties or over to other people's houses to play have all taken their toll. We 've had a few tear-filled talks these past two weeks.

As a parent it has been so heartbreaking to watch.  I feel broken myself because few of the parents have been willing to include him either. They are my peers. They have made me feel stupid for even getting upset about it.  I hate the injustice of it all. 

So here is my attempt to lighten my heart. With a little of Kate Spain's Sunnyside line in four mini charm packs. 

Out of all of her lines, this is the one that is most ME. I love the designs and the colour scheme - orange, dark blue, grey and blue/grey - in particular.

Thank goodness that fabric can be such a ray of sunshine.

Linky Party below.

Sunday Stash #87

This week Sunday Stash is gathering at The Floral Suitcase with Rachael. Rachael just opened her first Etsy store and she is selling her delightful animal cushions amongst other things. (I am in love with Mr Badger - oh I wish we had badgers in Australia!)

Thank you to Michelle of Squeak Crafts for hosting Sunday Stash last week. 


A Few Trinkets

I desperately needed some new blades and a fabric marker. I picked these up at my Local Quilt Store, Rainbow Patchwork, last weekend. 

Actually it's a fabric pencil with a green coloured lead. My daughter has a habit of leaving the lids off my fabric pens and they dry up. So LQS owner Karen suggested these instead. 

I also received a $20 voucher to spend next time. Yippee!

I will see you over at The Floral Suitcase for the linky party.

Little Houses

Last  month Lara was our chief Wombat in the Stew. She asked for little houses with whimsical faces at the windows. Kristy came up with about 9 different patterns each 6" square. 

I love mid century architecture and so this little house was perfect but I reversed the pattern.

Linking up to Paper Piecing Party over at Quiet Play.