Miranda and Charlie

MMQG Pin Cushion Swap

2011-05-25T20:12:00.000+10:00

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....

2011-04-22T15:36:00.002+10:00

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

2011-03-08T13:37:00.001+11:00

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

2011-02-18T20:51:00.000+11:00

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

Charlie & Agility #1- Charlie's Profile

2011-02-17T12:28:00.000+11:00

Good morning!

Hope everyone is having a great week,

Today will be the first Charlie & Agility feature, so without further adue, I would like to officially introduce you to Charlie....

Name: Commonly known as Charlie but also referred to as Charles or Mr Charles. I'm sure there are other nicknames...just can't remember!

Breed: Cavoodle- Cavalier King Charles Spaniel x Poodle.

Gender: Male

Height: 17.125", so in Agility he jumps 16 inches.

Weight: about 10kg

Born: 11/11/2004 so he is 6 at the moment. Getting old Charlie!!

Favourite toys:

*Squeaky ball (which he will drop at your feat incessantly and could probably play fetch for hours . Recently he has taken to dropping it at the to of the stairs and running after it!)

*His rope (which he likes to fling and throw in the air and at the person he's playing with)

Favourite Treat: He loves Chicken and also Carrot (strangely)

Naughties Habit: He likes to steal everyone's socks and gardening gloves which he then flings around or hoards them in his bed! Its his Stash. He also likes to bring sticks inside.

He also likes getting the cats in trouble. And will bark at them, especially the ginger one-Fluffy, when they're being naughty and he will come and nudge me.

* His naughtiest habit recently, would have to be stealing bread of the bench, even if its in a bag. We have no idea how he reaches it, but he especially likes the cheese and bacon bread rolls that we buy!

What I love about Charlie: To name a few...

-He's Adorable

- Really great with Children

- Great with other dogs and he LOVES cats- he thinks all cats are like our cat Fluffy and I have to tell him that not all cats would appreciate a big lick on the face!

- He's full of character and personality

- His gentle, loving nature

- Fun

- Highly intelligent/ easy to train

- A great friend & always there accompanying me in my adventures

- Dad and I were talking the other day about how he seems to have a bit of an Off button. He can switch between lazy, sleeping & lying around Charlie, to crazy, silly and playful Charlie and back again almost on command. This is great because when we have had enough of the little brown blur racing around the house with the cat, we say "stop" or "that's enough" and he settles down! amazing!

Training:

- 2 and a half years of Obedience

- 4 years of Agility and we have been competing (not very regularly) for the past 2 and half years.

- A vast range of Tricks- I use to Google Dog Tricks when we ran out of things in the books to train! We also did a bit of service dog training off the internet- including opening cupboards, draws and doors.

- Recently we have learnt how to fetch our lead and collar and I'm trying to teach him to fetch the newspaper at the moment- he's still intent on chewing it though!

*When I was 13 & 14 I use to work/volunteer as an instructor in a puppy preschool and in obedience classes. A couple of years ago I was offered a place on an accredited Instructor course at the club I am currently with, however I didn't have the time with school, but I am hoping to do that one day along with getting my accreditation in Dog Training & Behaviour. At the moment I have been helping some friends with their dogs.

Phew! So this is Charlie and now you know a little more about what else I do :)

I know it's not quilting but I hope you found it a bit interesting and enjoyed the pictures. I have been searching and searching through my computer for good pictures of Charlie and have accumulated quite a large folder now, although I am still trying to find his puppy pictures, they must be hiding somewhere...

Coming up Next week, I will share a little more about Agility and what it is.

Miranda & Charlie

A dog named Charlie

2011-02-09T13:46:00.002+11:00

It has come to my attention, over the holidays, that Charlie doesn't make anywhere near enough appearances, as he should around here.

So along with some other exciting changes that will be gradually taking place, you will be seeing a lot more of Charlie in all his cuteness (if that's a word?).

Agility training started up again on Monday, so I thought every week I would share what Charlie and I are up to, training, competitions etc. and including some photos.

So every week, starting next Wednesday there will be a feature on Charlie & Agility , I can't wait!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am hoping to create a button soon called "Blogs with Dogs" and it is my hope that through sharing a lot more about Charlie and what we love to do (my other passion), that it might encourage others to share more about their gorgeous pups and companions and also promote the dog sport of Agility and how much fun it is...You never know, you might be inspired to join the fun and find a club near you!

Offcourse there will still be all the creating, quilting and sewing that's going on now, but with a bit more of Charlie and other excitement thrown in, I hope you wont mind :)

A sneak peek anyone?

Next Wednesday: Charlie's Profile and What is Agility?

Ps. In other news- It has been super busy over here- getting ready for uni, trying to find a part time job, job interviews, agility, driving lessons, trying to finish hand quilting etc. so Thankyou to everyone who has been commenting or emailed recently, I'm sorry I haven't replied to you sooner.

Hope you have a great week,

Miranda & Charlie

My month (or two) in pictures!

2011-01-31T21:49:00.003+11:00

To avoid having to write "The End of Exams to the New Year, An essay by Miranda", which wouldn't not have been fun to read or write, I thought I would do a picture post to sum up everything that been happening, so here goes.... Drum roll please!.......

1. Week in Lorne (end of November) with some friends. Had an absolutely amazing time, met lots of great people and made many new friends that I see almost every week now.

2. Home to find a lovely email from my friend Samm that really touched my heart and after such a wonderful week away, coming back the happiest I had been in a long time... I was really quite speechless. Guess what? I was Blogger of the month over at Stash Manicure and had won a gorgeous fat quarter bundle of Riley Blake's Quite Contrary Fabric! I love it and it is even more gorgeous in person... I have so many quilt ideas, I can't decide! Thanks again Samm, and all the amazing people over at Stash :)

To see the whole collection- Click Here

3. Exam Results came out- I did really well in my exams and was really happy with my results and enter score. I also got over 40 in Studio Art (overall subject scores are marked out of 50) so my name appeared in the paper which was really exciting and I was really happy after all the work I had put in. I still haven't posted my Major Works have I? woops, will do soon.

4. Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild's last meeting for the year- Basted and decided (with the help of almost everyone in the room) how I should hand quilt my Just Dreaming Summer Quilt. I also had to resew a few dodgy seams prior to Basting, after realising (after the whole top had been pieced) that the tension must have been a bit off and as a result the seam was loose (note to self: always check the seam after sewing). Luckily I didn't have to take the whole top apart, but it wasn't fun.

Basting & Marking

5. Perth- spent 2 and a half weeks there over Christmas and New Year with family and friends.


My uncles famous Trifle and my aunties Christmas fruit salad- YUM!

*It was also my Birthday in December :)

My Breakfast- the most amazing pancakes with yoghurt and berries!

* I took my Just Dreaming Summer quilt but didn't do any hand quilting- too busy, too hot and too humid.

6. After Perth we spent a week in Bali. We had a great time shopping in the markets, eating, visiting temples, lounging by the pool, walking on the beach, more eating and just relaxing.

View from our apartment

Feeding Turtles

The beach was just in front of our hotel

7. I received my stocking from the MMQG Christmas stocking swap. This is my stocking from Clair, I love it! And not only did I receive a gorgeous stocking...it was filled with all sorts of goodies including: Chocolates, buttons and fabric (in my favourite colours and including Owl Fabric!! oh my goodness) which was really kind and generous of her. Which has made me feel a bit awful for not putting as much in my stocking. I had intended to make some things and fill it with things from my favourite shop Patchwork House but we were so busy before going to Perth I just ran out of time :(

BUT...I'm making her something special soon, its a surprise...Hi Annabelle! :D

8. Received Uni Offers = Really Happy. See previous post "A new beginning and a world of opportunities"

9. Almost finished hand quilting :)

10. Enrolment day for Uni = even more excited!

11. I have a bit of an owl obsession (it has become a bit of a joke between my friend and I)

My friend...She isn't a sewer...in fact she has a fear of sewing needles

but she made me this really cute little owl for my Birthday! I love it so I thought I would share it with you. I'm so proud of her! And even more exciting is that she said to me yesterday that she wants to learn to sew and asked me if I would teach her!

and that sums up what's been happening... so as you can see its been pretty hectic, and those are just the major things! This post still ended up being longer than expected- well done if you've made it to the end!

Anyway, I'm off to sit in front of the aircon- It's 40 degrees here today and we don't have aircon or a fan in the study so I'm melting as I type.

Hope you have a lovely week

Miranda & Charlie

A new beginning and a world of opportunities!

2011-01-24T11:36:00.002+11:00

*My "month in pictures" post has had to be postponed, after reading Samm's blog post about all the issues Blogger is currently having with loading photos into blogs and blog posts and even whole blogs disapearing...so I thought it would be a better idea to share my very exciting news instead!

I found out my exam results and VCE mark early in December and was really happy with how I went but for the past month and a bit I have been waiting anxiously for University offers to come out and find out which course I got into.

And Guess what!?....last Monday I found out I got offered a place in my first preference of

Speech Pathology!!

I am so happy and very excited at the moment!

It wasn't really until this year that I decided I might like to do Speech Pathology and it wasn't until after going to the open day at the university and watching the demonstrations that I knew this is what I would love to do!

I decided I wanted to do something working with children and helping people and possibly in the health care industry but the past couple of years, my other ideas were doing a double degree in Nursing/Midwiffery and specialising in NICU, Psychology or Primary Teaching. I decided on Speech Therapy because in some ways it is a little bit of all three and I think it would be really interesting. I also like the diversity in being able to work in schools, hospitals, private practise etc.

and Speech Therapy and many jobs in the health industry such as nursing and also teaching, are occupations that you can have a family and come back to.

Also, I watched an American show a few years back where they were using therapy dogs in Speech Pathology with children, which I found really interesting because I do a lot of work with dogs and training (there's something you didn't know!).

Anyway, so there's my exciting news for the week! I have enrolment day this Friday and then University starts in March, so it's going to be all very new and exciting and I can't wait!

Hope you had a great weekend,

Miranda & Charlie

It's a bit late but...

2011-01-15T18:27:00.001+11:00

Happy New Year!

Hope you had a great Christmas and have been enjoying the holidays! I know I have!

Perth Sunset on New Years

It has been a long time since I have been around here, hasn't it?

I assure you I am alive...I have been away for the past month in Perth and Bali and had hoped I would be able to blog, but we were staying at my grandparents house in Perth and their computer blocks internet sites that you log into (for some strange reason!) and we didn't have any internet in Bali...so no blogging, blog reading, email or Facebook (my brother nearly died with the lack of that last one!). And the Christmas craziness before we left for Perth = a lot of blogging and blog reading to catch up on!

But I did have an amazing time away, relaxing on the beach, shopping and catching up with friends and family.

And I'll post on everything that's been happening (an exciting parcel- Madame Samm knows what this one is! , Exam results, Quilting, Perth- Christmas and B'day, Bali, another exciting parcel- this one from the MMQG Stocking Swap aaannnd Uni offers and agility) I think I'll do a post in pictures, with each picture representing something and then a little bit of words... otherwise it could easily become "The End of Exams to the New Year, An essay by Miranda" which wouldn't be fun to read or write!

Hope you are well, have a great weekend :)

Miranda & Charlie

Owl, stockings and stash...Oh my!

2010-11-26T17:24:00.001+11:00

This is going to be a really quick post because I have to go pack!

Tomorrow I am going away with a few friends for a week to celebrate the end of our school lives, a new beginning and all the memories and times we have shared together. However, because of exams we have left quite a bit of the organising to the last minute so this week had been an absolute blur!

So if you left a comment and I haven't replied to you, I am really sorry for being so rude! I always intended to reply to you and still do! It has just been really hectic this week and I have hardly read any blogs (which is shocking as I usually read them while having breakfast!) ah well, keeping it real I guess.

Anyway, so before I run off to pack I thought I would run through what I have been up to over the past 2 weeks (has it really been that long?)

If you read my Stash Manicure post you may have seen this already....A Scrappy owl made from mostly just dreamy Scraps! I made it up as I went along and I am really happy with how it turned out, she even has a tail!

I would love to post a tutorial up for her but I realised the other day, that I have no idea how to make the pattern pieces/templates available?

If anyone is able to help/ has any suggestions they would be greatly appreciated as I am not very Computer/ Tech savvy.

While I was cleaning out school books, folders and the mountain of paper and notes one collects over the year, I decided to reorganise my sewing area. So my very small stash is now colour coordinated into Blues, purples, pinks and pinky/reds, bright fabric, brown and blacks, Christmas and pre-cuts/ to be quilts. It is so much easier to see what I have now and it makes me happy to see them all organised and pretty.

Lastly, We are running a Christmas Stocking Swap at the Melbourne Modern Quilt guild so here is a sneak peek of the stocking I made yesterday. I think it turned out really well! I am going to have a hard time parting with it!

Anyway, off to pack now....

Hope you have a lovely weekend and next week,

I'll be back soon!

Miranda & Charlie

Guest Blogging!

2010-11-17T11:20:00.003+11:00

Yesterday, or Today (depends where you are!) I was a guest blogger for the very first time over at Stash Manicure!

I was a bit nervous as I had never written for so many readers before and I was a bit worried about my post- I think I rewrote it about 4 times as I struggled writing parts of it (especially the part about quilting as a therapy) but I had a great time posting over there :)

I don't think that I have ever really shared on here how I became a quilter and why I quilt so if you would like to read my post here it is- "...when I was 17, it was a very good year".

I also share my quilts and talk a little about my Stash and how I am/ or intend to manicure it, so I hope you enjoy it!

Before you go... you might want to take a cup of coffee or tea with you as it is a bit of a lengthy post!

If your coming from Stash Manicure...Thankyou so much for reading my post and for the lovely comments you left both over there and here. I was actually in a 2 hour German Exam when it was posted and was feeling quite drained and flat when I got out so it was really uplifting to read such kind comments when I got home. They really made me smile and continue to :)

So...thankyou for visiting!

I hope you have had or are having a lovely day and thankyou to my new followers (hello!) for joining me on my journey :)

Miranda & Charlie

Look what arrived in the post...

2010-11-15T10:52:00.000+11:00

I ordered fabric online a couple of weeks ago for the very first time and it arrived on Friday to top off a wonderful day!

I was so excited, waiting for it to arrive that it got to the stage where every time I heard a truck/ van go past the house I thought it was the postie and I got so excited the other day when the postie van stopped at the house opposite only to watch it drive straight past my house :(

Anyway it's here and I so happy with it and it arrived in perfect condition so thankyou Jodie at Fort Worth Fabric Studio! I would definitely recommend them- they have a lovely range of fabric at really good prices and they are really lovely and helpful people.

I bought a couple of yards of the Hunky Dory Border in Sparrow to add to my collection of Hunky Dory fabrics that my mum got in New York. This is going to be turned into a quilt very soon!

I also bought some stripe fabric from the Wee Woodland collection. This is the same fabric that I used as the binding on my Fancy Pink quilt, but in brown. This is going to become the trunk and branches of a tree!


and I also finished the top of this quilt which I have decided will be called "From Chicago with Love" as my dad bought the fabric all the way from Chicago :) * Apologies for the blurry photo- it is very cloudy outside so I had to photograph it inside*.

And that's really all that's been happening at the moment. I have my last exam tomorrow, which is German and then we are going out to dinner to celebrate! It's going to be a bit weird not having any stress or study anymore or even any school for that matter! but I am looking forward to being able to start agility again with Charlie- it's just been impossible this year to go to training and competitions with so much study. I'm also looking forward to lots of sewing, I have so many ideas!

Hope you have had a lovely weekend,

Miranda & Charlie

Time to Sew!

2010-10-29T16:47:00.003+11:00

Hello!
This afternoon, I was really not in the mood to do maths practise exams (I did do one) and still quite tired from yesterday I pulled out the layercake that my dad brought back from America and have been playing around with different ideas....

and this is what I came up with!

What do you think?

I am thinking of sewing the squares together in patchwork stye for something a little different and

I like the diagonal pattern more than placing them at random. I also discovered today that my camera has a black and white setting that I didn't even know existed! Yes I am a bit silly, but it's pretty cool!

I might go and sew these together, I haven't used my machine in about a month and I am starting to have withdrawal symptoms!

I'm off to the Soccer with a friend tonight,

Hope you have a lovely weekend :)

Miranda & Charlie

The Fancy Pink Quilt

2010-10-28T22:36:00.006+11:00

Hello,
I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday over at Quiltstory today (even though this is a bit belated) and so I thought I would share with you today my second finished quilt! but before I do, make sure you visit all the other lovely people who have linked up to Quilt Story

It was originally called the Fancy Free quilt- inspired by the pattern my Monica Poole but upon completion and I decided the name didn't quite fit, especially as it was quilted with Pink variegated sheen thread! (Honestly there is nothing unfanciful about variegated sheen thread, I love it and it was lovely to quilt with!) and I didn't folow the pattern anyway, so I decided to call it "Fancy Pink" because it's a little bit of fancy and a lot of pink!

Apologies for terrible photos, I will take some better ones after exams, I promise!

So here comes the details:

*Started... on ~6th March

*Finished...on Sunday the 17th October ( although I am yet to label it)

*Size... (to be added when I find the tape measure)

*Fabric....mostly Holly Holderman prints from Lake House, a couple of Leciens and a variety of other, slightly random fabrics.

*Pattern... Inspired by Fancy Free pattern by Monica Poole for Moon Shine designs

*Alterations.... The original pattern is a "Quilt-as-you-go" quilt but being a bit low on fabric funds it was cheaper and easier to do it the normal way. My dimensions are also a bit different with only 3x3 blocks instead of 5x5 and I added a border. Instead of a patchwork style back, I used one fabric for the centre and a border similar to the front.

*Quilting.... uneven free motion wiggley/wavy lines over block seams and in the border

Love the backing fabric- it looks much better close up but it is actually pink Hydrangeas.

*Issues?.... had a bit of a struggle with quilting and realised when I went to bind it that the layers had shifted during quilting so I had to take 1/2 inch off all edges to make it possible to bind. Which means the quilting in the border is no longer centred....I can't decide at the moment whether this bothers me enough to re-do it?

* Where it Lives...on my Mum's bed! While I was binding it mum decided she really liked it and claimed it and I was overjoyed that she wanted it, so offcourse I gave it to her.

I have really wanted to make a quilt for her but I wanted it to be perfect, in way, for me she is/was the hardest person to make a quilt for.

I would love to make a quilt for everyone in my family when I have some more time, especially as you start to feel a bit guilty and greedy making quilts for yourself! The other week when we had a few really cold nights (prior to mum claiming the quilt) , I had both of my quilts plus a normal quilt stacked up on my bed !

Anyway, overall I am pretty happy with how it turned out and it has been a wonderful journey and source of sanity through year 12 :)

On another note, Exam Update:

Had my English Exam today from 9am-12pm...3 hours, 3 essays, 3 essay types = lightning fast writing= exhausted and very hungry. Actually I think it went quite well, Context topic was a bit odd though, I might share more on that theme at some stage- our context for the year was "Whose Reality?" and it was very interesting and really changed the way I look at situations. Among our texts for the year was "Hard Times" by Dickens , which I loved and is also why I thought Fancy Pink was an appropriate title for this quilt after writing numerous essays on the importance of "Fancy" and the destructiveness of an "All fact" way of life...I really need to stop relating things to English! haha

Hope you have had a lovely week full of "Fancy"!

Miranda & Charlie

Update Part 2: Ink & Spindle

2010-10-21T16:39:00.000+11:00

Here is the second part of my holiday update! Not feeling very wordy today so we will see how it goes...

On Saturday September the 18th, Dad and I went along to Ink & Spindle's open studio!

We were lucky enough to watch a printing demonstration and learn about how the screens are made and the process of printing on fabric. I found it really interesting as I have done basic screen printing on paper in previous school years and would love to try it on fabric.

I also got to meet Lara and Tegan who run Ink & Spindle. They are so friendly, helpful and really lovely. Lara was trying to convince me to study Textiles and Design at RMIT next year...tempting!

It was a wonderful morning and my friend Annabelle from the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild was there too with her husband and her little "bug" as she calls him, which was really lovely.

I also resisted the urge to buy some of their gorgeous fabric, even the sale basket! My current favourite print of theirs is called Birch Forest.

Harvest Textiles run classes and workshops there where you are able to create your own design and print it on fabric, which sound amazing and lots of fun so I may have to put it on the Christmas list :)

Anyway, If you are in Melbourne and get the chance to go and visit them I really recommend it, They are celebrating their 2nd Birthday this weekend so visit their blog for more details

&/ OR make sure you check out their gorgeous fabrics!

Hope you are having a great week

Miranda& Charlie

1 down, 6 more to go!

2010-10-15T21:19:00.004+11:00

Hello!
Did you know today is Friday? I can't believe it's Friday already! time seems to be flying so fast at the moment, I can barely keep up with what day it is.

Firstly, I had my German Oral Exam on Tuesday and...I think it went really well actually!
I was very nervous but I remembered how to speak German (I was terrified I would forget when I walked in), remembered everything I had to say and I was really surprised that it all came to me really fast which made me really happy. I also had really nice examiners that didn't interrupt me when I was answering questions (which is very off putting when they do) and I think I only made a couple of mistakes.

So, 1 down 6 more to go!

Secondly, As all the VCE Studio Art folios and Major Works have gone in I can finally start to tell you what my theme/concept was and show you what my final art pieces were, which is very exciting!

So to end this post I thought I would give you a sneak peek of one of my favourites and see if anyone can guess what it is?? Goodluck! no it's not too hard don't worry!

Hope you have had a great week and enjoy the weekend!

Miranda & Charlie

Update Part 1: Amitie

2010-09-30T21:50:00.005+10:00

Hello there!
Did you notice I have a new display picture of Charlie and I? One of my good friends has an amazing camera and took it while we were out walking the other day. I love that it captures Charlies cheeky smile.

Anyway moving on & updating...

I finally visited Amitie! Although it is not very close to where I live, I cannot believe it has taken me this long to visit! It is an amazing quilt shop full to the brim with gorgeous fabrics and lovely people. We were very short on time when we visited so unfortunately I didn't get to explore the whole shop...which is probably a good thing because from what I saw, I could have done some serious damage!

I did however find the perfect binding for my Fancy Free Quilt. I had struggled a bit to find the right shade of pink and Patchwork House had sadly run out of the fabrics I had used (which is what happens when you take so long to finish a quilt ) so I was so happy to find this!

*Stripey binding fabric is from Moda's Wee Woodland collection by Keike*

I have also finally decided how to quilt my Just Dreaming Summer Quilt!

My Friend Andi from the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild has inspired me with her amazing hand quilting and gorgeous collection of Perle 8's to take the leap and hand quilt it. So while I was at Amitie I bought 2 pretty colours of Perle 8 to coordinate with the Just Dreamy fabric. I am so excited to hand quilt my first quilt!

Maybe you can help me though?... I can't quiet decide between stiching 2 lines in the sashing

stitching a 1/4 inch around the outside of each block and around the middle of the blocks alternating colours?

Hopefully that makes sense :)

What would you choose? Do you have any other suggestions?

And as this is my first time hand quilting a quilt, if you have any tips/tricks I would love to hear them!

Thankyou in Advance,

*Update Part 2: Ink & Spindle's Open Studio.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your week,

Miranda & Charlie

Fabric Tuesday- Kaffe Fassett Pencil case

2010-09-15T14:12:00.006+10:00

*It is Fabric Tuesday again over at Quilt Story so make sure you check out all the gorgeous creations!*

On the Weekend I decided to make a pencil case using the "Lined zippered pouch/make up bag Tutorial" at Flossie Teacakes and the "Patchwork Wristlet Tutorial" at Pink Penguin as inspiration.

I used the Kaffe Fassett Pencil fabric that I bought this year at the Craft & Quilt Fair and fabric from a bundle I got at last years Craft & Quilt Fair!

It is the first pencil case I have ever made and my first attempt at sewing in a zipper (They area bit annoying aren't they?)

*A couple of things I learned...

- follow the instructions- I forgot the step that says to trim it down to a 1/4inch from the zipper ends after you have sewed the pieces on and before sewing it together, woopsy!
- Buy a good quality zipper- Mine is a bit crappy and doesn't run smoothly.
- Buy a zipper with small teeth so it doesn't eat your beautiful pencil case- When I tested it out the zipper ate the fabric on the side and I couldn't open it again and had to do a bit of snipping and hand stitching.
- which also leads me to three, make sure you keep the fabric really tight when you sew along the top next to the zipper otherwise again the teeth will eat it!

But I am really happy with how it turned out and I love the pencil fabric! Can't wait to use it!

and last not but not least, it has been a while since Charlie has made and appearance around here so with out further a due...

Have a great week!

Miranda & Charlie

New York Goodies and Updates

2010-09-13T16:34:00.003+10:00

Mum came back from New York a couple of weekends ago and there was a great shop called The City Quilter in the same street as she was staying, fancy that! So today I thought I would share with you some of the goodies she brought back...

A gorgeous Jelly Roll of one of my current favourite fabric lines Hunky Dory... and a book full of pretty & inspiring quilts made from Jelly rolls.

I have no idea how I am going to decide which one to use!

2 metres of each of these prints, they would both make great backing fabrics!

and an amazing book called "Threadwork" which is packed full of techniques and brightly coloured projects

on art quilts and fibre art. I can't wait to try them! One of my favourite projects in the book is in a bright pink and orange colour scheme with a big butterfly in the centre.

They were such a wonderful surprise and certainly made my day after a difficult week, Thankyou Mutti!

On another note: I know it has been a bit quiet around here. I had a very hectic and stressful couple of weeks with my VCE Studio Art folio and Major works due. I can't wait to show you but as not every school had their folio due on the same day.

Anyway, One of my works I have some very exciting plans for but you may have to wait a little longer for that, so stay tuned!

Wednesday: I will be back with the pencil case I made with the Kaffe Fassett pencil fabric that I bought at the Craft & Quilt fair.

Hope you are having a marvellous monday!

Miranda & Charlie

Just Dreamy House Cushion

2010-08-20T20:13:00.001+10:00

Inspired by the absolutely adorable Red and Aqua House blocks made for Kerri's Gnome village quilt ({Bee} Imaginative), such as this one, this one and this one! And unable to resist String Piecing anymore, I drew this...

which turned into this...

I did change a few things such as the door and the owl in the window because the owl didn't match the fabrics at all, but I really like how it turned out!

It was a bit of a sampler cushion as I experimented with lots of new things:
~ It is my first go at String Piecing (the roof)
~ The first cushion that I have sewn on my machine
~ My first attempt at raw edge machine applique
~ My first attempt at Straight Line Quilting

~ And...My first go at Hand Quilting!

Phew! I should make cushions more often.

As we are on the topic of firsts, maybe I should write my first tutorial for this cushion?

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and if you are in Melbourne hope you stay warm as it is supposed to be a very cold weekend!

Miranda & Charlie

EDIT: It is Fabric Tuesday today (8/9/10) at Quiltstory so head on over and check out all the wonderful fabric creations!

Quilting the Fancy Free Quilt

2010-08-08T13:43:00.000+10:00

After a bit of a rough start...I have finally finished quilting the Fancy Free Quilt!

Rough Start? Lets just say that the instructions I wasn't really following- said to stitch wavy lines with a walking foot and everything was fine on my practise square...but quilting wavy lines on a 6 inch square is a little different to quilting a full size quilt and I soon discovered that nice wavy quilting with a walking foot is basically impossible!

So after a lot of frustration and unpicking, I decided to try using a free motion foot, which was much much easier and really fast! Also, While practising I also did a bit of stipling and was really surprised that I was still able to vaguelly stiple- I was told that when you are a beginner, if you don't practise for 6 weeks you have to learn all over again.

I also only had enough basting spray to baste the back of the quilt. I figured it was more important I basted the back really well than the front and because I couldn't wait a whole week to get more spray I decided to pin baste the top. However, as I don't have any safety pins so I decided quilting and sewing pins were just as good- which they were...just alot more ouchy!

For the Quilting:
I was having a bit of difficulty quilting on my little machine and not having an extension table I created my own ...using yellow pages and a bit of sticky tap! It suprinsingly worked really well and certainly made the quilting a lot easier.

I also used a beautiful pink variegated thread, which I absolutely adore. It has a bit of a sheen to it which I think looks great because some of the fabrics in the quilt have a sort of metallic detail.

~ In the squares I stitched wavy lines over all the seams and then stitched-in-the-ditch (with a walking foot) around the edge of the block. In the border I had intended to stitch similar wavy lines but after stitching once all the way around, I decided I like it with only one wave. My stitches also are not very even but considering it is the first quilt I have done free motion, I think it's pretty good. I have also decided that my excuse for unevenly sized wonky wavy lines, is that it adds a bit of interest!

So now I need to do something with all the threads hanging of the front of the quilt, add some binding, a label and it will be finished.

Hope yourhaving a great weekend!

Miranda & Charlie

Craft and Quilt fair goodies

2010-08-01T19:43:00.001+10:00

Last weekend I went to the Melbourne Craft and Quilt Fair with a friend and we had a wonderful time!

Although I promised myself that I wouldn't buy anything except the Hand Dyed fabric I need for my art quilt in Studio Art
...I am guilty of coming home with some extra goodies, which was probably inevitable but I did manage to not go over my limit of $50!

1. The Quilted Owl (Pattern by Laura Lobb on In Stitches)- As you may know I have a bit of an obsession with all things owl so I thought this was absolutely adorable!

2. Fabric pack to make the Quilted Owl- I loved the fabric they used to make the owl on the pattern

(one on the right) and it just happened to come in a handy and time saving bundle- great for indecisive people like me!.

3. Kaffe Fassetts Pencils in Red- I saw this fabric on True Up a while a go and loved it! Ironically it is destined to become an awesome pencil case! haha

4. Japanese Fabric- I find it very difficult to find Japanese fabric and I had this one book marked on my computer so I was very happy when I saw it at the fair. I'm going to use it for the "Kokeshi Friends Stitchery" from the Melly and Me Kaleidoscope book.

5. Hand Dyed Fabric- I had been looking desperately for multi coloured hand dyed fabric, specifically in the colours of the Aurora to use in an art quilt of the Northern Lights that I am making for Studio Art. My friend Caroline from the MMQG suggested I check out Dyed and Gone to Heaven which had a stall at the fair.

Coming Up: I am also in the process of quilting my Fancy Free Quilt and after a bit of a rough start, I am nearly finished!

Hope your having a great weekend

Miranda & Charlie

The most colourful cake I have ever seen!

2010-07-14T20:45:00.000+10:00

Last week during the school holidays, my friend had her 18th birthday and to celebrate she had an Alice In Wonderland Tea Party! What a wonderful idea! We all dressed up as different characters, I was the doormouse...

(haha)

and we ate amazingly yummy food all afternoon and every now and then she would call out "Change Places!" and we all had to get up and move to a different chair, it was so much fun!

Her cake however was the most amazing and colourful cake I have ever seen....

A six layered rainbow cake! as you can imagine it was quite tall so each slice was gigantic...and very yummy!

Perhaps it will inspire a quilt...

Hope your having a wonderful week

Miranda & Charlie

Welcome Home Dad!

2010-06-30T17:52:00.000+10:00

We missed you!

- For the past couple of weeks, Dad has been in America for work and after a whirl wind adventure all over America, on Saturday morning he arrived home in Melbourne!

While he was in Chicago he found a two storey quilt shop near where he was staying and he brough home a lovely surprise...

Moda layercake Candy Kisses by Sandy Gervais!!!

The fabrics are in gorgeous shades of pink, cream and red; I can't wait to turn them into a beautiful quilt.

Thankyou soo much Dad! :)

It's so good to have you home and we hope you had an amazing time in America! We missed you!

(Charlie did especially)

Hope everyone is having a great week

Miranda & Charlie

Update...

2010-06-16T20:02:00.003+10:00

on everything that has been happening in the past few weeks- I know I'm a little bit behind on blogging :)

#1. Spring to Finish Challenge ended a couple of mondays ago!

I didn't end up finishing the Fancy free quilt but I am really happy with the progress made on it.

The quilt top is finished and I am now working on finishing the backing- there wasn't enough backing fabric left on the bolt when we bought it so I am adding a border to it and then I just have to quilt it and add binding, so I'm nearly done!...kinda.

#2. I went to a Quilting workshop

It was run by Mariya Water.

It was a long but very fun day and gave me the confidence and inspiration I needed to finish my works in progress. I was a bit worried about whether my machine would be able to cope with free motion quilting but it seemed to cope pretty well, it wasn't always very nice to me, but once we figured out why my machine was making the stitching crazy on the back, then we were all good :)

I also got a new foot pedal which I am sew happy about because my machine now has more than the speeds stop and fast! which has certainly made sewing, especially quilting much much nicer now.

So for the workshop we had to make a quilt sandwhich and with a 3-by-3 grid, to practise on. The stitching in the grid was what I quilted during the workshop. I left the middle square blank because it was easier to do the outside blocks.

We did swirls and spirals, waves and lines, circles and flowers, stipling, something that looks like teardrops/ muscle shells and lots more, however the hardest of all, I found was quilting in little circles/ pebbles and my circles definitely were never very round... but oh well!

We didn't do very much on stipling and I have been told it is one of the hardest types of quilting so I have been doing lots and lots of practise- drawing and quilting!

*pictures to come soon!*

#3. I won my first giveaway!!

My new friend Wendy from the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild had a Giveaway on her blog

Harty Little Peaces to celebrate people from 50 different countries visiting her blog. She was giving away an amazing bundle of Owl-y stationary, that she designed! and guess what??....I won!!

I was so happy and excited because I absolutely love owly things ( I think I may have a bit of an obsession!) and also because I never win anything- I think I went into shock when I found out haha

Here is a sneak peak of what was in the exciting pakage that arrived on Friday...

* Curtesy of Wendy's blog*

They are the most adorable little owls and I can't wait to show you what else was in the package!

Thankyou so much Wendy, I love them!

Hope you are having a wonderful week, and for those in Australia, hope you enjoyed the long weekend :)

Miranda and Charlie

Sometimes I hate Computers...

2010-06-15T21:27:00.001+10:00

This is one of those times!

There is a big update post coming but everytime I try to post it, blogspot comes up with an error and when I go back to my saved post...half of its gone! as you can imagine after spending 45 mins uploading photos and writing the post to then have it disapear is not very nice :(

Anyway sorry for my little rant on why I hate computers today (I think I might go back to writing my posts on paper first) but there is an Update and my first tutoial coming! (when the computer decides to be nice)

Hope everyone else is having more success with their computers,

Miranda & Charlie

First meeting of the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild

2010-05-30T15:33:00.002+10:00

Last Saturday, after much excitement, we had the very first meeting of the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild!

I had a wonderful time and it was great to meet and get to know so many lovely and inspirational people. I am having trouble at this time of night, finding words to describe the day, but it was definately the highlight of my week.

In the morning we had a show and tell where we got to see everyones beautiful quilts & things and works in progress. I took my first quilt and the Just dreaming Summer and Fancy free quilts that I am working on at the moment.

These are some of the pictures that the amazing Helene took and she even took some of me,

Thanks Helene! :)

Fabric Swap! Lots of fun and came home with some great fabrics

Still a work in progress

Finished quilt top!

Thankyou so much Helene and Adele for your hardwork in organising the guild and the first meeting, and for making the day so much fun and thankyou also to Esther for organising the fun fabric swap!

Hope everyone had a great time,

Miranda and Charlie

Ps. went to a quilting workshop yesterday so hopefully you will hear about it very soon.

I'm Still alive!

2010-05-13T21:17:00.002+10:00

It feels like forever since I have made an appearance on here, I think it has probably been a good 3 weeks or so, but here I am! Still alive, barely, but alive.

I have had a very intense couple of weeks, specifically this week, in the lead up to mid year exams. I think I must have had 3 or 4 sacs this week (and another on Monday), an essay due on Wednesday and my studio art folio was due today (which just casually has the same value as an exam and is worth 33% of my end of year mark) but enough whingeing... I have survived the week! With everything miraculously handed in on time So I am happy, very happy :)

Unfortunately I don't have very much to show you for the past couple of weeks, I haven't even done anymore work on my Fancy Free quilt for the Spring to Finish Challenge, however I can show you this, which I forgot all about.

So just quietly....The last time I went to patchwork house, fabric for my Fancy Free Quilt wasn't the only fabric I came home with, nor was it just liberty snippets... I bought my first Layer Cake and Charm Squares!
This post probably should have been under the heading of Naughty but Nice #2 but oh well.

The second we walked in the door, Dad and I fell in love with this fabric called "Boutique" by Chez Moi for Moda. It has a bit of a Japanese feel to it but I absolutely love the colours! They also had free pattern for it based on a beautiful modern quilt they had on display, that I loved, but theirs was made with Rural Jardin instead of Boutique.

However, Even worse than buying this fabric that I probably don't need at the moment, is the fact that I have already started planning my next quilt using it and I haven't even finished the last 3 quilts yet!
Is that a bad thing?

Miranda & Charlie

Spring to finish (week 1)- Fancy Free Sashing & a naughty cat

2010-04-27T22:04:00.001+10:00

Off to a flying start with the sashing all done, just need to add the border this weekend and the quilt top will be finished!

Everytime I turned my back, even just for a second, this naughty cat would appear sitting on it! and everytime I lifted her off, she would appear on it again! She just wouldn't get off and it got to the stage where she would hiss at me if I told her to get off...I gave up in the end, but she still wasn't happy when she had to move so I could sew on a sash and she would promptly resume her position when I had to lay it out to pin the next sash on.

I think she must really like this quilt (she seemed happy when she could sit on it?), well I hope so because I do :)

Hope you have a great week

Miranda & Charlie

Ooh count me in!- Spring to Finish Challenge 2010

2010-04-21T17:41:00.003+10:00

Jacquie from Tallgrass Prairie Sudio is running the Spring to finish challenge 2010, and I'm in!

I have so many UFOs (incl. 3 quilts) that it"s not funny! However, two of those quilts are still on pause until I figure out how to quilt them and as I am doing Year 12 this year I have a lot of study and exams this term so I think I better stick to one for now :)

So... My challenge is:
-The “Fancy Free Quilt”…In need of sashing, a border, quilting and binding
and my goal is to get as much of it done as possible and if I finish it before May 31 (and have time) ,then…
-Start on my Boutique(by Chez Moi for moda) Quilt
-Or…Make something with my little bag of Liberty Scraps.

My Reward?
Sewing or Working on my quilt is usually a reward in itself for having done lots of study and worked hard during the week...if I have any spare time left after that! so any progress I will be happy with and if I finish it then I will be ecstatic! So my reward will be the satisfaction I guess of having finished it!...if that makes any sense?

Good luck to everyone doing the Challenge and thankyou to Jacquie for such a wonderful idea :)

and If you are not yet doing the challenge but have many UFOs-( it can be anything!) and would like to join the fun, all the details can be found here on Jacquie's blog!

Hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday!

Miranda & Charlie

Naughty but nice #1- Liberty Fabric

2010-04-14T18:28:00.002+10:00

OK I admit it, I did by some Liberty Fabric the other day, but how could I resist?, it was inevitable, it had my name on it!

I'm sure there are people out there who have used the excuses "it was calling to me" or "it had my name written all over it", I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Patchwork House has recently had lots of Liberty Fabric, so I was secretly hoping they would have my special one, and as I was wandering around, I found it in all its glory...in an adorable little scrap bag- that jumped into my hands and begged to be taken home. And thats how it ended up to be in my house.

I don't know what I am going to do with them yet (apart from admire them).
My mums first reaction was something along the lines of:
"great and what are you going to do with them? You can't do anything with those scraps"
I gasped offcourse and said "You can do anything with scraps!"...I just haven't decided what exactly.

There's about 2 and a half fat quarters worth of scraps- I could make a mini quilt or maybe a cushion, or maybe even a softie like a Melly and Me pattern...

What would you do with a bag of Liberty scraps?
Do you have a project that springs to mind?- If sew I would love to know!

Hope your having a wonderful wednesday!

Miranda & Charlie

Sunday morning cuteness

2010-04-11T13:09:00.000+10:00

Charlie was being extremely cute this morning...

Hope your having a great weekend!

Miranda & Charlie

Pink glorious pink

2010-04-09T18:40:00.005+10:00

After another trip to Patchwork House- this time to choose sashing, border and backing fabric, it seems the Fancy Free quilt has become quite pink...but that's ok because I'm really loving Pink at the moment!

*Backing, border, sashing, backing*
All of the fabrics are by Lake House.

I wasn't sure about using the check as the sashing, its a bit different, but it's only going to be a very thin sashing so I think it will looks really interesting.

If it is possible to be in love with a fabric, then I am in love with this one!
It was the first one we saw when we walked through the door and it ended up being the perfect backing.
Unfortunately we were a bit short as we got the last of the bolt so I'm combining it with the light pink fabric with the dots.

Plus...
I know I have been meaning to put these up for at least a week so here are some sneak peaks of some of my favourite Fancy Free blocks:

Hope you have had a wonderful week!

Miranda & Charlie

PS. Guess what?...I found a piece of the Miranda fabric and I will tell you all about it soon!

Fabric with my name on it

2010-04-06T09:57:00.001+10:00

Looking for fabric this morning...I found fabric that literally has my name on it!

Here it is:

Miranda, A, Liberty Fabric

(and it also comes in a range of other colour ways.)

Not only do I adore this fabric by Liberty of London, I realised that it is called Miranda which is very exciting because I was born in London and nothing usually has my name on it here either

AND.. there's more,

The product code is the year I was born!

Spooky?

I think so, but it has certainly made my day :)

Hope you have a wonderful Tuesday

Miranda & Charlie

Happy Easter

2010-04-02T17:07:00.002+11:00

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and the Easter Bunny brings you all lots of yummy chocolate!

Have a great weekend!

Miranda & Charlie

PS. I know I promised to put pictures up of the Fancy Free blocks earlier this week, but I just ran out of time trying to get some study done before I had my wisdom teeth out yesterday. I have taken the pictures but they are misbehaving so I will try to fix them and put them up early next week when I am hopefully feeling better and can think straight :)

On Pause- Just Dreaming Summer Quilt

2010-03-28T18:22:00.000+11:00

This is my second quilt that I started at the end of October last year becuase I had been studying for my Year 12 subject for 4 days straight and needed a break.

It is called "Just Dreaming Summer" after the fabrics and because while I made it I couldn’t wait for summer and our holiday in Perth.

The quilt is inspired by one of my favourite tutorials from Oh, Fransson! called How to Make Scrappy Hedgerow Blocks. I absolutely adored Elizabeth’s Scrappy Hedgerow Quilt so I thought I would give it a go.

However, mine is a lot more scrappy and wonky and I also used slightly different measurements because I had only a fat 1/4 bundle to work with.

I hadn’t intended for it to be so wonky but I just wanted to make something fun and didn’t have the time or the patience at that stage for perfection.

*PS. It isn’t actually quite as uneven as it looks in the photos- it is just in desperate need of an iron, which I should have done before taking the pictures.

The Fabric is Riley Blake's Just Dreamy by My Minds Eye.

I found it in a big fat 1/4 bundle at a quilt fair earlier last year and I absolutely loved the colours but I was hesitant to cut it because I loved it so much! I have also made an Owl from a Melly and Me pattern out of it.

The blocks I whipped up in a few days but the sashing was done early this year using a cream fabric called Butterflies by P&B Textiles.

The Backing fabric is Woodland Bloom by Lila Tueller for Moda.

and finally for the binding- I couldn’t decide wether to have pink or green binding but I decided it should be pink as I prefer it over green .My only problem was for months I couldn’t find the right shade of pink and then when I was getting my sewing machine serviced a few weeks ago I unexpentantly came across this fabric that was close enough and it has tiny coloured flowers on it that bring out some of the colours in the blocks.

Anyway, so it is On Pause at the moment because I have no idea/ can’t decide how to quilt it. I don’t want to just "stitch in-the ditch" because I made the sashing a tad wide so it needs something to go through it and I would free motion quilt it but I don’t know how to, so that is the dilemma. I am doing a machine quilting workshop at the end of May so unless I have a marvellous idea before then I think I might have to wait.

In the meantime...

I am excited because my Fancy Free, quilt blocks for the quilt top are all finished and have turned out really well, so I will put some pictures up tomorrow!

Hope you liked the pictures and are having a great weekend,

Miranda and Charlie

New Fabric!

2010-03-08T20:49:00.001+11:00

Here is a picture of the new fabric I bought on Saturday at Patchwork House!

My other two quilts, which I will post about soon, are currently on pause, so I decided to start a new quilt. My mum is eager for me to make the quilt pattern called Fancy Free which is a Moon Shine pattern by Monica Poole. I think she found the pattern at a quilting fair last year and loves it. Plus because it is a "Quilt as you go", it’s relatively simple and pretty fast to make. Which is just what you need when you are short on time but get withdrawal symptoms from a lack of sewing!

The pattern asks for 25 coordinating fat 1/4s ( 25 blocks) or larger pieces for a reversible quilt, but when I got to the shop I realised that 25 fat 1/4s is very expensive and I was struggling to find 25 coordinating fabrics so instead I am just going with 9 fabrics, 9 blocks. It will be smaller but I figure I can make the sashing larger, add a border maybe or if it is going to be really quite small, I can always save up and add more blocks.

So it’s going to be more like an interpretation of the pattern because I'm also doing a couple of other things differently, one day I will follow a pattern!

The fabrics I chose are similar to the fabrics in the quilt pictured on the pattern because I really liked the combination and I like pinks at the moment and figured it was time to expand my stash too.

I was also hoping to add some more pictures but unfortunately they didn’t turn out very well when I uploaded them, so I'll take some more another time. I absolutely adore the fabrics so I hope you'll enjoy them too :)

Hope you have a great week

Miranda & Charlie

New Fabric and a Storm or two

2010-03-08T13:55:00.002+11:00

Anyone in Melbourne in particular, will definitely know what I mean when I say “what a storm”. Even if you’re not in Melbourne, I’m sure you have seen the pictures and video footage.

The past 3 days have seen Melbourne come to a bit of a standstill and washed away almost by what they are calling “the storm of the century”. It is certainly the biggest, most terrible, however at the same time amazing storm I have ever seen in Melbourne, or at least remember. I think it started Saturday Morning, however it didn’t reach me until the afternoon.

Dad and I had gone out to visit my favourite shop Patchwork House in Hawthorn, because I was in desperate need of fabric to start a new quilt.

As I was doing laps around the store with the help of the very kind lady working there, trying to find a combination 9 coordinating fabrics that I was happy with, I looked out the window and almost did a double take. Here we were at 2:30 in the afternoon and it was pitch black like it was night time. A couple of minutes later the sky started rumbling and grumbling and all of a sudden the downpour came followed shortly by the hail and it was terrifying. We all stood at the window mesmerised as hail the size of very large grapes fell from the sky, crashing onto the roof and street outside. Naturally dad’s first reaction was oh my goodness the car, but luckily it survived unscathed. People were running everywhere and into the shop for shelter. Each time the door opened a gust of hail blew in the door and rolled across the floor. We picked them up and they were so big and didn’t melt for ages.

We ended up being stuck in Patchwork House for a good hour and a half, at least. I must say I thought it was a pretty good place to be stuck and we did leave with a beautiful bunch of fabrics and a new rotary cutter, however most importantly it was a safe place to be and Patchwork House was very lucky to be at the top of a hill. We were worried about my mum who had gone into her office in the city for a few hours and wasn’t able to leave because trees had come down and the streets were flooding. It did ease up later in the afternoon but rained all Saturday night apparently. Another storm then came late Sunday afternoon, luckily without hail this time but there was a lot of thunder and lighting all night even up till 6 o'clock this morning when I woke up and there was still lightning flashing through the curtains.

Anyway, I hope that everyone is ok especially the people whose houses were severely damaged and the other people who were in the city and at Moomba. I know it certainly wasn’t the long weekend we were all expecting either. I also pray that everyone’s pets and animals were okay too- they must have been terrified. We had ours locked inside but I did worry about the poor outside dog that lives in the house behind us and hoped that his owners had brought him in.

As I type this the rain is starting to fall again but hopefully we have had the last of the storms. I will also try and post some pictures of the new fabric later today.

Hope everyone is safe

Miranda & Charlie
PS. I'm sorry this is so long, I really should write shorter posts!

So much to write but so little time

2010-03-08T13:49:00.000+11:00

Firstly I would like to say a huge thankyou to Sarah, Mistea and Adele for their lovely comments on My First Quilt. It was such a lovely surprise and quite exciting to find my very first comments and I really appreciate your kind words :)

Secondly, because I haven’t posted in so long, all my ideas and things to share are starting to pile up, in a way much like school work last week. So instead of making one really long post I will try and spread them out over the week (or two weeks-depending on the SAC and school work situation) but bare with me and we will get there :) starting with the most recent happenings.

Miranda & Charlie

Tada..My very first Quilt!

2010-01-27T15:00:00.002+11:00

Now that the label is on, it is truly finished and so I thought today I would share with you the adventure of my very first quilt and some of the pictures I took the other night.

It’s very blue and quite crooked but I’m really happy with it and just love it.

I don’t remember what sparked this obsession but one day I decided I would like to make a quilt ( however as my mum would say- unlike any other normal person I decided to leap into making a full size quilt after having only done a small wonky pinwheel block! haha)

I really had no idea what I was doing and it was very much “a learn as you go” experience but I needed the challenge and loved it. I found a very basic Kids craft and sewing book that taught me the basics like how to sew triangles and squares together and I did a lot of googling ( if that’s a word?) on quilting basics and used up all the printer ink on quilt pictures.

I came across The Owl fabric and absolutely adored it and I think it was the start of my slight owl obsession. I wanted to make it the feature/ main fabric but unfortunately I had very little of it and could only just get 18 smallish squares out of it. I thought it needed to be in a square otherwise I would end up losing the owls so I chose a simple four patch, which meant I could have two squares of wonderful owl fabric per block!

I had a rough idea of what I wanted the quilt to look like so I drew a picture and decided I wanted the quilt to be mainly blue because it's my favourite colour and so it would match my feature wall. My mum also thought I was completely crazy and doubted that I would actually make one so she refused to buy anymore fabric and all I had was various shades of blue so lucky I love blue!

For a while I was a bit upset with its unevenness and my inability to cut a straight line and I don’t think using a normal ruler and scissors/rotary cutter was really helping. Eventually I discovered quilting rulers and that certainly made life easier! But I accepted the fact that perhaps I just cant cut a completely accurate line and in the end I decided that it wasn’t perfect but neither was I so that’s ok.

I think it took me about 5 or 6 months- I couldn’t find the right backing/ binding fabric for a while but that gave me time to research how to finish it, especially the quilting part. Having a lot of study and exams in the second half of the year also meant I didn’t have a lot of time.

The backing and binding fabric I got from my favourite shop Patchwork House which a friend at my Dads work introduced me to. They people there were so friendly and helpful. They suggested I go with a red binding, which I was a bit unsure about at the time because I hadn’t thought of using red, I just knew it couldn’t be blue. In the end I think I’m glad I chose red because it makes the owl fabric stand out more.

The backing fabric my dad and the lovely people at Patchwork House, helped me choose and I just adore the fabric, I love the colour and the little birds.

The quilting was a bit of an adventure in itself and I did struggle at times with stitching (in) the ditch. It was like a war with the quilt and me at some points because it kept wanting to go left!

I also had a bit of a tension issue on the 2nd half of the quilt, which I couldn’t seem to fix entirely but oh well.

I finished it on the 2nd of October 2009! My Grandma was coming to visit us from Perth the next day and she had given me the sewing machine for my birthday so I really wanted to finish the quilt in time. I think I stayed up until two in the morning sewing on the binding, so I was quite tired and had very sore fingers in the morning but I had finished it! and my Grandma was so happy to be able to see it. I was also wanted to finish it before my exams started otherwise I was worried I might not for a long time when I was so close.

Surprisingly I think it actually helped me going into exam time and I ended up doing really well in my exams so I think it gave me the confidence I needed and put me in the right mindset. It’s a bit difficult to explain and probably sounds a bit funny but I thought to myself that if I can make a quilt and not really know what I am doing then really anything is possible and I can do anything if I set my mind to it.

Here are some more of the pictures I took the other night : )

I’m sorry this post is a bit long winded but I hope you enjoyed reading about the adventure of my first quilt and hopefully I might inspire other people out there to give quilting a go and that really anyone of any age with a love of fabric and sewing and a bit of patience can make a quilt : )

Hope your having a great day,

Miranda & Charlie

Finnaly, a label for my quilt

2010-01-20T17:27:00.002+11:00

Hello,
I'm sorry I haven’t posted anything since my first post, I have been on holiday and really busy.

The other day I finally got around to making a label for my quilt. It’s quite simple and basic but I am really happy with it. I know you’re not supposed to put buttons on quilt labels but it looked a bit bare and the buttons looked cute.

Also, having truly finished the quilt now that it is labelled, I am able to share it with you!
I had lots of fun taking pictures of my quilt last night so I will post some of the better ones up later today :)

Ps. I'm sorry the picture is sideways, I could not get it to behave and go horizontal..haha

Hope your having a great day,

Miranda & Charlie

So here it is!

2009-12-17T14:35:00.000+11:00

My first post on my very first Blog, how exciting!

I love craft/quilting Blogs because,

I always enjoy seeing what lovely things people have been making and creating

and they are very inspirational and since I am still new to quilting, they are especially helpful when you are not sure about how to do something...such as binding a quilt :)

So I thought I would join the fun!!

I have been wanting to make a Blog all year to share all my crazy ambitious ideas and creations but with all those amazing Blogs out there already, I just wasn’t sure and I am still not sure if anyone is or will read this but oh well, here I am!