Foundation Piecing

I seem to be so drawn to foundation piecing at the moment, there are some brilliant examples about:

This is by Kirie at Shapemoth, isn't it fun, she has a giveaway for the pattern and some fabric over on her blog at the moment, you really should check it out

Ive also just been given these books by my Mother in Law, cant wait to take some ideas from them

These pictures are taken from Quilts to Make for Children

Im especially loving the Toucan and the Puffin

I'm also thinking of having the theme classic boys toys for my month of the 'Sew Bee Joyful' bee, I think this theme would be wonderful with foundation piecing, these are some of the pictures i'm providing for inspiration for the other bee members.

Some of these would be great for foundation piecing, I cant wait for my month of the bee to see what the girls all do. Im going to tell them im open to them doing them either by foundation piecing or by applique. You can check out more on my Pinterest board

I really do seem to be addicted to Pinterest at the moment, its great fun, Im currently in the process of transfering all of the blog posts that ive starred because of the pictures over to my pinterest account to make everything so much easier to find. Click the link at the top to see all of my Pinterest boards.

WIP Wednesday (no.10)

Well this is going to be brief as not a huge lot to report, in fact ive done no sewing since my last post. I have got a little something to show you though that ive not yet shown, its still a WIP and im hoping to finish it before I leave Australia next week. Its for a pressie so im not showing the whole thing

My lovely, lovely husband let me have a little trip to Spotlight, actually 2 trips, these are the fruits of my first trip

Im very pleased with them but I was given an allowance so did not buy as much as I would have liked. I especially love the pineapple print (its huge, and it was on sale) and the elephants, they have a lovely retro feel dont you think?

I will hopefully show you my purchases from my second trip next time (there was a huge sale on brushed cottons so thats all I bought)

Being brief and not listing all my WIP's, I will leave that for next time but am linking up with Lee so go and check out everyone elses WIP's and get some inspiration

Some Sewing

Sorry for the lack of posting, its not that I haven't had much to post about, its more the lack of decent internet access that has let me down :-(

Anyway, firstly im so behind on the 30 day photo challenge that I have decided to give up, I love the idea so much but with the lack of internet whilst im on holiday its just not working.

I have however been able to get some sewing done, yay! I dont think that i have mentioned it before but I have recently signed up for a few swaps and bees (have i mentioned it?).

I originally wanted to sign up to the 4x5 modern bee on flickr but as I had no swapping history I wasn't able to, but they sent me over to the 3x6 bee and im really enjoying it. Im in hive 10 and ive got a lovely group to make blocks for, yesterday I started sewing for them, I had been dilly dallying about what block to make, I wanted to make a swoon style block but I decided that it would probably be too time consuming so I chose 'Up the Garden Path'

Holly wanted a background of white, grey or linen with flashes of colour such as mustard, caramel, avocado or orange and she wanted it to have a retro 50's vibe, hope ive captured what she was thinking.

Megan wanted a modern block with purple, orange and shades of grey

Nydia wanted purple, lime and aqua on white, there is no aqua in this block though, fingers crossed its ok

Cindy wanted lime and grey on white

I still have two more blocks to do, Im off to Melbourne this weekend but hopefully I will find the time to fit them in. Here are the four ive have done so far, all together

The swap that im part of is For The love of Solids, also on Flickr, Ive been working hard in my mother in laws wonderful sewing shed and finished the main item for my partner

Its a zig zag tote in Kona medium grey and orange. I lined it with plastic so that hopefully she finds it really versatile as its now wipe clean, or good for the beach etc.

I just need to hurry up and make the other little gifts to send with it

Im hoping that my adorable husband will let me have another trip to Spotlight and a spend up in my Mother In Laws local quilt shop run by the lovely Ann of periwinkle patchwork (you should check her out, her work and her shop are fantastic) before we go home (Fabric here works out even more expensive at home with the exchange rate being so bad for us at the moment but a girl just has to buy fabric while she is in another country dont you agree?)

Linking up for Sew Modern Monday, head over and check out the other lovelies

G'Day from Oz

G'day Mate, sorry about the lack of posting, I've been without the internet since we got to Australia. Now arrived at my Brother In Laws and can finally jump online. Having a blast here at the moment, became an Auntie yesterday (for the second time) as the brother in law and his lovely wife had baby Riley (I would say little but he definitely wasn't at 9lb 15oz!!! He is gorgeous

By the way there are no photos of anything fabric related in this post so feel free to tune out now if you so wish, check back for the next post as there should be some there instead.

Have been being tourists since we got here, been checking out as much of the native wildlife as possible as Boo has become obsessed with seeing the kangeroos and we have seen plenty (including some with Joeys)! We have also seen koalas and emus with babys, all in the wild. We also went to a fabulous zoo (I'm normally not into zoos as I don't like animals trapped in small spaces) that had loads of native animals and the boys loved it. Buddy is 10 months now but he is so excited when he sees animals of any sort, he squeals and bounces and crawls at them. Boo was overjoyed at the Cockatoos that we found that talked to him!

We also went to my husbands old camping haunt - Rocklands, isn't it beautiful?

I could see us doing lots of camping if we lived here

So we are now in Melbourne, hanging out with family. Me and my Mother in law are planning a big trip to spotlight (woohoo) so hopefully will be back here with some yummy fabric photos later. I have managed to do a bit of sewing while i've been here, will show you some photos of one project in the next post

Also I'm well aware that im now so behind in the 30 day photo challenge. I will sort it out and upload my photos later today

Someone I Love

Day 5 of the 30 day photo challenge is Someone I Love, so here is my darling husband driving us to the airport.



There are many people in my life that I love dearly but he is my best friend and soul mate, I fancy the pants off him and we are about to have a wonderful holiday with our beautiful boys.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Spur Of The Moment

Wow, I seem to have become very spontaneous, last night I was talking to the Husband, he mentioned that he had been on the phone to his parents in Australia that day and they had been saying how it was such a shame that they were not able to see our boys while they were young. As the husband told me this I suddenly felt like what is more important than family, the people you love? So I booked us tickets to go visit them, we leave today!!!!!!

Pretty spontaneous huh? But I figure life is too short to just worry about money and miss out on family. So I now have to madly pack and organise for 4 people as the husband won't be a lot of help (i've put him in charge of tidying the house so its not too horrible to return to in 3.5 weeks!)

Any way I did take my photo yesterday for the 30 day photo challenge but I didn't get a chance to post it with all the excitement so here it is. The task was favourite colour, the only hitch is that I don't have one, i'm very fickle when it comes to colour and I change my favourite all the time. I love love love colour! Anyway I thought my photo should reflect this.

This is a picture of a notebook that I bought yesterday, it's so pretty and I'm going to use it as my new quilting/sewing ideas and mood boards book.

We leave for the airport in a few hours but I'm off to check out todays photo challenge first so that I can try to keep up to date!

Bad Farmers Wife

I seem to have slipped off the bandwagon! I haven't done very well at keeping up with my farmers wife blocks. I have good intentions but no time! I was planning to do the batwing block but as im doing the math instead of using templates I couldn't work out the sizing. Instead iv'e joined the yahoo group and plan to print out the paper piecing and do the block that way instead. I shall put that on my to do list for tomorrow! so until I do get round to it, this is what I have done so far

Not much huh? I really wanted to do 2 blocks a week and now we are in week 10, I should have 20!!!

Clouds

Finally found some clouds for day 3 of the 30 day photo challenge. It was a tough challenge today as the weather has been gorgeous and the sky blue, however we had some pretty wispy ones floating by after lunch

We spent the afternoon outside in the garden as it was so warm, although I filled up the paddling pool the boys found the water too chilly to sit in it. I wish i was 2 years old sometimes as I would have loved to sit and splash in the pool.

Off to Sewing group (Crafty Campers) for the evening now so hopefully I might still get some sewing done today!

WIP Wednesday (no.9)

Just a little glimpse at a couple of projects that I must finish off and am going to aim to do today

A little pram quilt (I think I will keep it for Buddy although its not quilt weather at the moment, its so warm and by the time it is quilt weather he may well have outgrown it!)

The fabric is some really cute ducks but the picture doesnt do it any justice. These are going to be gifts for 2 friends that are having babies soon (there seriously seems to be a boom at the moment, is it just here? maybe its more to do with my age and all my friends now being baby baring age and settled down and stuff!!!)

They are going to have ribbons and bits and pieces set into the binding so that the babies have some things to touch and play with during tummy time (also a great excuse to practice my FMQing)

No picture yet for the 30 day photo challenge as todays subject is clouds but currently there is not a single one in the sky!

So to sum up:

Quilts finished - none
Projects finished - none

Quilts waiting to be bound - none
Quilt tops finished - 70's retro owl pram quilt
Projects started - pompom roman blinds, stag cross stitch, reversible childs dress, shabby chic cushions, heart      blocks, childrens birthday bunting
Quilt started - Naked bed quilt, Farmers wife quilt, Skill builder quilt, basic quilt quilt-a-long
Projects to start - too many to even think about! Pj's and bed linen for the boys amongst others
Quilts to start - rainbow quilt, bob the builder, babushka, noahs ark, pair of skull quilts

12 quilts of 2011 completed - 1) Krissy's quilt

                                            2) Buddy's ABC quilt

                                            3) Cravat play mat/quilt

                                            4) Crocodile quilt

                                            5) Elsie's embroidered quilt

As usual linking up with Lee at freshly pieced, check out all the other lovely WIP's

What I Wore

Today is day 2 of the 30 day photo challenge hosted by Sherry and the topic today is 'What I Wore' so here goes

It has been a really lovely day and we spent to morning near the beach so I wanted to wear something cool and summery and I love the tribal look so that is what I was aiming for. The leopard print dress is actually a maxi and made of lovely floaty fabric so was lovely and cool to wear.

We spent our morning down at Walberswick, a seaside village 10 minutes down the road, there is a river running alongside the beach and we spent the morning there crabbing, oh we had so much fun and we caught 21 crabs!!! (we through them all back of course)

We finished the morning off with a picnic lunch before getting the boys hope for a nap.

So no sewing again, I think I will try and do a bit of embroidery this evening for a gift for a friends 40th. Come back and see me tomorrow for Day 3 of the photo challenge and hopefully some sewing!

Self Portrait

I managed to get a tiny bit of sewing done yesterday, I finished my week 6 block for the skill builder QAL, its called Arizona

Not much other sewing done but am hoping to get a monster amount done this week, fingers crossed, I need to get my to do list drastically reduced!

I've decided to take the 30 day photo challenge and Day 1 is self portrait so here goes

I've recently downloaded instagram onto my iphone and I love it, its so nice to be able to change the pictures in so many different ways, Its just such a shame that its only for iphones at the moment and not available on PCs, if you have an iphone though you should definitely get it, its free, my id is Lawsonandlotti, send me a comment if you get it and I will follow you.

Day 2 is what I wore so tune in again if you want to see. For a full list of the tasks for the 30 days see this post. Its not too late to join in, check out Sherry at Oh so lovely who is hosting to find out more and jump on board.

Linking up with Megan for Sew Modern Monday (hope a finished block counts?), go check out all the talent.