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.

A Birdie Story

Kristy is a sweety. She loves pattern designing and sewing. She loves green and she adores birds. Did you see the sweet robin wreath pattern she is giving away this week? Her blog posts are always witty and inspiring. 

Kristy and I met online at first but then only in real life when we did a mystery quilt weekend in Coffs Harbour in 2011. 

Whenever we are passing through the mid-north coast I try to catch up with her. She is very thoughtful and has a very kind heart. I am very blessed to have her as a friend and a fellow Wombat.

I enjoyed making Kristy's ATC pouch and I tried something different with the free-motion quilting for this one. I did have to practice it a bit. I keep samples of great  ideas on my Pinterest FMQ board.


Linking up to I Quilt over at Pretty Bobbins.

An Orange Story

My Wombat Stew friend Lara and I have never met in person but I think we would be good friends if we ever did.

We both love love love the colour orange!

We also love Mid Century Architecture and Design.

We both love tea and teapots.

So it was not hard to select fabrics for Lara's ATC pouch.

And I had a lot of fun Straight Line Quilting the back over this gorgeous fabric. I just used my walking foot to make the straight lines and turned the corners manually with the stitch up/down button. 

I got my inspiration from this version on Pinterest. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/232709505718414511/

A Barossa Story

Marieka and I have been friends since we met at Breastfeeding Group in late 2007. We had both just moved our families to the town of Tumut. We both had infants and preschoolers. Both of our husbands were engineers on a bridge project in Gundagai. 

Then both of our husbands took jobs elsewhere at the start of 2009. Marieka's family moved to the gorgeous Barossa Valley in South Australia. My toddler daughter and I went for a week long visit in early 2010. 

Then Marieka's family moved to Coffs Harbour in 2011. But the love of the Barossa stayed with them. They have just moved back to the Barossa permanently. They are restoring an old bluestone cottage on acreage and planning on raising fruit trees, grape vines and chickens. 

I cannot wait to visit them again.

Marieka loves the colour purple and Kate Spain. So her pouch was easy for me to put together.

So the Free Motion Quilting on the back of this pouch was my most ambitious yet. But I had such fun. You can see the grapes of the Barossa, the waves of Coffs Harbour and the sweep of the Tumut River between the Snowy Mountains. 

And who can resist purple polkadots?

Linking up to TGIFF and I Quilt.

A Creative Story

Wombat Stew gal Jane is a practical girl. She lives in the coastal town of Coffs Harbour and somehow manages to to have kids around her at work and at home.

So creating with paper and fabric is her outlet. 

Coffs Harbour has beautiful sandy beaches and I wanted to reflect that with the yellow colour palette of this pouch. Their harbour beaches also have a lot of pebbles and so my Free Motion Quilting reflected these with the loops. And all of the Wombats know that Jane has a thang for selvedges.

I am linking up with IQuilt at Pretty Bobbins and TGIFF.

A South Pacfic Story

My gorgeous sewing friend Gemma lives in the French colony of New Caledonia. Nearly a year ago I had the opportunity to meet up with her and her family when our family took a cruise that stopped in Noumea.

Now Gemma is Australian, but she speaks about four languages on account of being posted overseas with her husband a few times. She can find the best French patisserie on the island and is very clever with free motion quilting.

She has just started up a weekly linky party where you can feel brave enough to share your own FMQ ing. It's called I Quilt.

So here is my effort for today. This is the little ATC pouch I made for Gemma recently. On the back I FMQed the French phrase, 'A friend like you is worth having."

And that's Gemma sitting there doing some hand quilting, hehehe!


Linking up to  I Quilt  and TGIFF!

A Japanese Story

Alyce of Blossom Heart Quilts is an Australian living in Chiba, Japan. We met through Quilt Club Australia and more importantly we are friends through Wombat Stew.

So when I had to make Alyce's ATC into a pouch, I had no problem scoping out her favourite colour and some relevant Japanese prints. I enjoyed making FMQ  sushi swirls on the back. How cute is this fabric that one of the Wombats sent me?

Inside I put some tiny hearts fabric. 

Linking up to TGIFF.

A Strawberry Story

Gina of Party of Eight is an American living in northern California. She is our honourary Aussie in Wombat Stew.

Gina and her daughter' s love strawberries. Gina's was the first pouch I made. I was safe using straight line quilting in a zig zag pattern.

Inside I put some more strawberries. 

Linking up to TGIFF.

Artist Trading Pouches

Ooo I had fun.

But I can only show you the one that I made for myself.

The rest are under wraps as a surprise to the Wombat Stew Girls.


Well here's a sneaky peak of their zippers.

I am posting Gina's and Alyce's directly and the rest are heading off to Kristy for a corral first.

Linking up to TGIFF and Sew Cute Tuesday.

ATC WiP

I actually had most of this sewn last Wednesday but was too busy to post about it.

I have been working hard on my Artist Trading Cards these past 10 days. 

I was struggling with the whole concept of a card that does nothing but form a piece of art (sorry folks I am a practical kind of gal!). 

So I asked the Wombat Stew recipients if they would not mind if I turned my card into a useful zip pouch.

They were all gracious enough to say yes. I have been buzzing ever since. 

Each pouch now has a back, an inner and some quilting to match each of the Wombats and their personality.

Loving this project.

Linking up to WiP Wednesday.

All in one Place Pouch

If you read my post yesterday you would know that tomorrow our family is heading off on a south Pacific cruise for a week.

Duncan, myself and his grandmother are all bringing hand stitching. The trouble is Duncan needed a place to put all his embroidery items.

So, on Sunday we sat down and he chose some fabric for the outside and inside and I modified my own tutorial to make him an embroidery pouch.

At 10" x 11", it fits his embroidery hoop, floss and his new needle book.

Empire State Building Needle Book

After I had finished packing yesterday, I was able to reward myself with some time to sew. I was able to make Duncan's ESB embroidery into a snazzy needle book. We stuck with the USA theme as I had a few RW&B fabrics.

This is a project from the book 'Little Stitches'. Aneela Hooey's instructions were very thorough. This is a lovely quick project. 

She has alternate patterns for the embroidery if the ESB is not your taste. There is a cute sleeping cat.

It was interesting sewing this whilst watching the 3rd Election debate between Senator Romney and President Obama. At least in this one they were polite to the moderator - poor Candy from Debate #2. 

I know who I would vote for if I were an American.


Linking up with...(if someone kind can link me up this Friday and the next Friday - as we are heading off for 10 days - some of the linkys are on US time and are only open for a short time) 




and Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts
and Sew and Tell Friday at Amy Lou Who Sews 
and Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts (if someone else can link me up please).
sadly the Handmade Parade is no longer at There and Back (hopefully it will find a new home)