MMQG Pin Cushion Swap

Hi all!

Just a quick update to share the gorgeous pincushion I received from Sally in the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild Pin Cushion Swap....

 How cute it is? I love it! and it has owls and buttons on it...just perfect! I wish I could share a better picture because the piecing is amazing, I'm still trying to figure out how she made it.

So thank you so much Sally, it is sitting on my desk at the moment, making me smile as I'm studying :)

I was a bit late sending mine out and forgot to take a picture of it, woopsie. I will see if I can get a picture to share from my partner Kelli...hopefully she loves it as much as I do, it was so hard to part with!

Also, nearly finished the quilt top using the Boutique fabric I shared in the last post, I'm hoping it's not to rainy tomorrow so I can take it outside to photograph the progress so far.

Unfortunately there really isn't much to report on at the moment. Working part time 30 hours a week and studying at uni full time = not much sewing if any at all and not much inspiration, not a lot of blogging, no agility,  and no cooking...I really need to find a better balance I think! I do have nearly two months off in June and July, after exams finish so I know what I will be doing... Lots of sewing, blogging, cupcake making, agility and relaxing I think!


Hope you are having a lovely week and getting lots of sewing done

Miranda & Charlie

oh wow....

has it really been over a  month since I last posted? Time really does fly.

Where do I start?

  *First of all, I finished my laptop sleeve...Tada!

 Which I'm really happy about as I can take my laptop to Uni  now. I love how it turned out and my laptop fits perfectly, which is a bit of a miracle!

 As I was sewing it together I realised that something looked a bit odd. And something did- The flap was wider than the sleeve part...not sure how that happened. It probably comes from making the calculations and templates late at night. But after a bit of unpicking, cutting and resewing, you would never know! Although, unpicking Velcro is not on my list of favourite things to do.

I also sewed it together using a 1/4 inch seam allowance rather than 1/2 inch as the tutorial suggests, as I was a bit paranoid that my laptop wouldn't fit.

If you would like to make a laptop sleeve I used this Tutorial from Oh, Fransson! as Inspiration.

*I haven't made any progress on binding my Just Dreaming Summer Quilt, but I have started a  new quilt using the fabric Boutique by Chez Moi for Moda.

When I bought it, which was quite a while ago now, I loved the simplicity of a quilt that was on display and when I asked about it, they had a drawn up layout guide for it! 

 It uses a Layercake and a charm pack, so the only cutting you need to do is the sashing! which is great because cutting the fabric is probably my least favourite part of the process.  I'll be sure to share it when its finished :)

 What else have I been up to?.....

 *I have discovered my second home! 

A friend of mine, Adele, posted about a fabric store not long ago called GJ's Discount Fabrics. I had never  been there before so after checking out their website, I headed down there a few weekends ago and....Oh my goodness! I cannot believe I haven't been there before! They have the most amazing and humungous range of fabrics I have ever seen! and fabrics I didnt even know you could buy over here anymore. To make things even better, their fabric is pretty well priced.  

Fabric is quite as expensive here in Oz. About double or more the price it is in America.

To say I was in heaven is a bit of an understatement.

These are the goodies I brought home...

1/2 metre of Alexander Henry "Spotted Owl". I have admired this fabric ever since I started quilting and as I have an owl obsession, it was necessary to get some.  I think it might become a cushion.

    a 25cm x 112com roll of blue and green owls to add to my Owl Stash. I don't know who designed it but its very cute.

 a 45cm x 112cm of  Quite Contrary by Riley Blake. This is probably going to become a diary cover and a pouch for a friend of mine.

  I also got 3m of cream fabric to use as sashing in the Boutique quilt. 

and I found the perfect backing fabric for my "From Chicago with love" quilt but...

Has this happened to you before? You get all excited because you find the perfect fabric and you've been searching for ages for just the right one and then you get to the counter and there's not enough of it left :(
Very annoying. So now I'm on the hunt for this fabric from "The birds and the bees" by Keri Beyer and this fabric, particularly this colour, does not seem to be very common....so if you have seen it anywhere, please please let me know! 

I'm on Easter break at the moment and haven't done much sewing in ages, so I'm off to do some sewing now!

Hope you have a lovely and Happy Easter

Miranda & Charlie

Summer Quilted & a laptop sleeve

 

Finally finished quilting the Just Dreaming Summer Quilt! 

I think this quilt has been in the making for nearly 2 years now, not finished yet though, still have the binding to do but I'm really happy to be over the quilting hurdle.

This was also my first time hand quilting, and although the stitching as a whole is really very wonky and uneven  as a result of the really very wonky and carefree piecing, and the fact that I possibly stitched a bit tightly... I really like it! and I love the look of the hand quilting and surprisingly really enjoyed the process... Uh oh, I think I might be hooked on hand quilting!

Next time though...

1. I might not piece a quite so wonky quilt which as a result makes quilting a bit of a pain and also wonky.

2. Check the tension of my seams as I'm piecing, as I discovered a couple of small areas where the tension had gone too loose and was going to come apart so I had to do some invisible stitching. Why I didn't discover these a while a go is beyond me! I think those strips must have been sewn just before my machine went funny and needed to be serviced.

3.I think I might spray baste the quilt first or at least the back of the quilt because I don't think my pin basting was great.

I am also working on a laptop sleeve at the moment for my new laptop, how cute it is!? I was able to choose between a peppermint coloured top, pink or silver. I couldn't decide between the last two but in the end they only had pink or peppermint, so pink it was!

The photo doesn't show the actual colour very well. It is more like a pinky Fuchsia.

and because I didn't take a full photo of it, here's a sneak of the laptop sleeve in progress...

 The Laptop sleeve is inspired by this tutorial on Sew Mama Sew by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson! :

http://www.sewmamasew.com/store/media/blog/SMSLaptopSleeve.pdf

Enjoy the rest of the week,

Miranda & Charlie

PS. Linking up to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, so pop over and be inspired by the amazing things people have been making.

Friday Laughs

Happy Friday!

Everyone needs a good laugh to get them through the day on a Friday so I thought I would share one of my favourite, and what I think is one of the most hilarious videos I have seen in a long time.

I love it- it's my go to video when I'm having a bad day and the first few times I saw it I laughed so hard I cried, dad nearly fell over when he watched it. You know...It's so funny they had it on the news this morning! (which reminded me I should share it here)

Pssst...it's even funnier when if you try do the accents.

Hope this brings a smile to your day :)

Disclaimer: I apologise if you don't find it humorous and to those who do...I take no responsibility for the obsession with re-watching it and sharing it with everyone that follows or any injuries that are incurred as a result of laughing too hard. Also, I must warn you, that it may cause yourself, others or children (including my brother) to continuously quote it!

I'm off to finish hand quilting, Enjoy!

Miranda & Charlie