Mother's Day.......

Happy Mothers Day to all you Mothers out there.
Hope you had a great day....

My day started with breakie at the Golden Arches Restaurant (McDonalds). Last of the big spenders.lol
Next, off to the cemetery to put flowers on my MIL's grave. It's always sad for Paul. He lost his Mum way too soon and Mothers Day just doesn't sit too well with us.
Then, we came home and I got to do what I love the most. SEW...YAY...

I cut out some more of the quilt I was working on at Guild yesterday and then I got some rows together on a WIP. It always feels good to see quilts coming to the end. I usually get bored and start something else when all the easy bits are done and I have all these half done quilts everywhere. I try to tell myself to" finish what you started " but I just can't help myself.
Anyhow, enough of that.
My darling Hubby made a yummy dinner for us and I even sewed after dinner, which is very unusual at my place.

My 3 ferrets

Happy Quilting

Leanne

Fun with Monica Poole.........

.............at Guild on Saturday. It's The Central Coast Modern Quilt Guild.

Monica Poole of Moonshine Designs, came and we did her new QAYG sampler. She showed us 5 different techniques to quilt a quilt as you go.

We had a fabulous day. Everyone watched with eagerness as she guided us through. At times you could have heard a pin drop.

Everyone ready & keen to start

Heads down & off we go

Monica giving us instruction

More instruction

All the finished samples

Shop staff having an after party pow wow

My finished sample. I am going to make the whole quilt........

Can't wait til next time,

Happy Quilting

Leanne

Look what arrived today...........

  Yes I got on the Denyse Schmidt bandwagon. It is coming to Australia (Spotlight) in the middle of this month but they wont be carrying the whole range.

I had to get it because I have all of her other ranges and who am I to break the chain? hehehe

****************************

On another note, tomorrow I am going to Guild. We have Monica Poole coming to do one of her new quilts with us. It's a new design that she is doing with us before it's released.

I am using this stack of beauties. It's Sweet Nothings by Riley Blake Designs.

Hope whatever you are doing this weekend is fun.

Happy Mothers Day

&

Happy Quilting

Leanne

In My Sewing Room.....

.......I have been quilting lots of customer quilts.

One special one was for the lovely Robyn. I work with Robyn at the shop.

This little quilt is for her grandson.

Robyn asked for it to be custom quilted.

I wanted to make it a bit fun so I pebble quilted the background behind the gorgeous Zoo Babies embroideries. The sashings where done in a fern like pattern and the borders are lines 2 inches apart.

A close up of the detail.

There have been a few other quilts as well. They were all done with an all over design.

This one was made by Amanda with Central Park by Katie Spain.

I forgot to take photos of the others but there will be more .

I am doing a special quilt for Rebecca of Chasing Cottons. I'll be able to show you that soon.

Back to the Sewing Room....

Happy Quilting

Leanne

And The WINNER is......

Firstly, thank you to everyone that entered this giveaway. It was very interesting to find out how many of you wash or not.

The general consensus is that most people do not wash and never intend to. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one.

For those who asked where to get the Colour Catchers from, I get them from the supermarket in the laundry section.  

Secondly, a big welcome to all my new followers and thank you to those who have been here for a while.

Now to the WINNER of the beautiful fat 1/4 pack. It was chosen on Random Generator.

#302- Andi, who wrote

"I am waaaaay too lazy to pre-wash!! "

23/04/11  6:50AM

Congratulations to Andi !!

I would also like to thank Rebecca of Chasing Cottons for having me over to feature. It was fun.

Happy Quilting

Leanne

"

Quilt Class 101 Feature And A GIVEAWAY!!!!!

I am being featured over on Rebecca's blog Chasing Cottons, on Friday, for her Quilt Class 101.
Thanks to Rebecca for having me over to share.
It's an honour...

To celebrate the event I am having a
GIVEAWAY !!! Yay!!!
Giveaway is now CLOSED

I have a Fat 1/4 pack of Melly & Me fabric. There are 15 fabrics of Where The Wind Blows.

Look at that bundle of yumminess....

To enter the Giveaway

  1.Leave a comment on this post. Let me know if you Wash or Not??
( Referring to my post on Chasing Cottons on Friday)



2. For and "extra" entry join my blog as a Follower

This Giveaway is open to all. (overseas included)
Make sure you leave an email address so I can contact the winner...

The giveaway will be open until
Tuesday 26th April,  9pm. 
(Australian Eastern Time)
Giveaway is now CLOSED
I will choose the winner with Random Generator and inform the winner on Wednesday Morning.
Hope you enjoyed my feature post and Good Luck on the Giveaway

Happy Quilting
Leanne

Just a Little Bit of Quilting....

Friday afternoon I decided that I would put one of my own quilts up on the frame. Recently I have done heaps of customer quilts and I was feeling a bit left out.

I thought I might custom quilt it instead of just an all over.

This block reminds me of Peppermint Chocolate...Yummm

I am absolutely thrilled at how it turned out. I am exhausted and aching all over but it was totally worth it. It had to be off the frame for a customer one to go on Monday. I finished at 5pm today. So that's 12 hrs of quilting in 2 days. Phew!!

Pay no Attention to the messy house in the background. Something had to give....

The fabric is Hushabye by Tula Pink. I have a few quilts on the go in fabric by Tula. They are all so nice.

Happy Quilting

Leanne

A Lovely Weekend... (photo overload)

The weather was so beautiful here over the weekend. We love to be home on the weekends. It's so peaceful.

The veiw of our property from the back boundry...

Today we had Oscars friend Brendan over to help make cupcakes for treat day at school tomorrow. They are raising money for the class trip to Canberra. They had so much fun. Archie just pigged out on the lollies and made himself feel ill.

Oscar (left) & Brendan

Today I finished a handbag that I started at the Retreat last week. I think that it will be a good one for Bag Club at the shop. I really like this pattern. I think I'll make a couple more.

While I was in my sewing space I started a quilt for someone special. It has taken me a couple of days to get my head around it, but now it's on track and shouldn't take too long to get done.

It was so beautiful outside so I took my camera out to see what I could find. There is so much texture in all things natural. I love dead trees. I always have. I aced photography at school for one of my dead tree photos. Here are a couple on our property.

I love this mushroom. It keeps growing back. All by itself in the paddock.

At the end of the day, a rare thing happened. A Wedged Tail Eagle landed in our giant dead tree. It was so big. The photos do it no justice.

Hope your weekend soared to great heights like mine.

Happy Quilting

Leanne

Busted !! Big TIme....

I was looking through my stash for a project and my husband came over to see what I was doing. I thought nothing of it when he said " LEANNE!!, it's like a shop." " That's rediculous!" He was totally shocked at how much fabric was in the "small" cupboard. You should have seen his face when I opened the other two "big" cupboards. LOL...

The small cupboard with mostly pre-cuts

Colour coded blenders, backings and scraps in the tubs on the bottom shelf.

Customer quilts up top waiting to be quilted, one shelf of my quilts wait to be quilted, next, dress fabric.

What could I say? I was BUSTED....

To my credit, I haven't bought very much this year. Everything I have started has been from this stash. Guess I could warm a small country with this lot.

Does everyone elses other half know what they have stashed away or is it just mine who was clueless??

Happy Quilting

Leanne

All About Sewing- Retreat 2011

The forecast was for rain.
Perfect for a weekend of sewing.
Most of the ladies arrived at Raffertys Resort on Friday afternoon. We had our machines set up even before we put our bags in our cottages.

There was excitement in the air.

A few ladies did a bit of sewing that night but it was mostly about catching up with friends. We had a yummy dinner at the Thai restaurant and then off for a good night sleep before a full day of sewing.

Saturday morning saw us up bright and early for a buffet breakfast ( can you see a pattern starting here ).

We tore ourselves away from the buffet and headed to the conference room.

 The conference room

The Tuesday Girls

The Machine Embroidery Girls

Off sewing. There was two groups. The machine embroidery girls that had a set project to do. Then there were the general sewers. That was Jan, myself and the Tuesday girls, as we affectionately call them. Lots of laughs and chatting and a bit of sewing and all of a sudden it's morning tea. ( the pattern ). The day went so fast. There was trivia, which was loads of fun. Lots of different projects to be inspired by and ofcourse chatting about anything and everything. We accomplished a fair bit though.

Dinner!! What more can I say... I will be going back to this restaurant again. Al Lago for anyone that's interested. The food was divine. We were all so full from during the day (  morning tea then lunch then afternoon tea ). But we managed...

A couple of bottles glasses of wine later and the chatter was really flowing. (along with the wine)  We didn't sew after the consumption of alcohol though. A few of us were up late just chatting and laughing into the night. (my cheeks were so sore from laughing).

A glass of Chardy in good company with Neptune by Tula Pink.

Sunday and no-one really wanted breakfast. We were still full from the day before. A piece of toast and straight into it. The machine embroidery girls finished their project the day before so it was just free sewing.

After lunch I was booked in for a massage. Oh!! it was so relaxing. I need to do it more often. I was so relaxed I couldn't sew anymore. The weekend was coming to an end.

All About Sewing - Retreat 2011

I had such a great time. We have already booked for next year.
Thanks to all the lovely ladies for their company .

Just enough energy for the obligatory crazy photo.

Happy Quilting
Leanne

I'm So Excited!!!!

This weekend is "The Retreat". *Squeal*

A group of ladies from the shop where I work are spending the weekend together to sew , laugh, sew, swim, sew and my favourite, have a massage.!!

We are staying at Raffertys Resort, a beautiful place on the shores of Lake Macquarie.

I already have all my projects packed and ready to go. Suppose I should take some spare clothes. Ha.

I still have a bunch of quilting to get done before I go, so back to it.

Will be back Monday with photos

Happy Quilting

Leanne

Quiltin' up a Storm....

Milly and I are back to work. All is good so far. 

This is the back of the quilt I finished today.

I never liked using a contrasting thread on the back before. I had to with this quilt as the front needed to be off white. I think it looks fantastic...

Happy Quilting

Leanne

Shake the Blues Away.....

I have successfully quilted one quilt!!! It looks like the bugs are out of Milly.
It really got me down. I tried to keep busy while she was out of action but I really missed not being able to quilt.
I feel much better now. I shook the blues away and am looking forward.
My husband,Paul, has been great. At first he was as angry as me that we had bought a dud. During the breakdown it was him that sorted out the problem and true to his style, he just fixed it. He is so clever and I wouldn't be up and going without him. So thank you my Love.

I did get lots of stitching done  in the meantime. I have been working on a quilt that I will be submitting to a magazine.

Here's a little sneek peek.

It is made from Flower Sugar by Lecien. This fabric line is so beautiful. I can't wait to show it to you.

Back to quilting I go....

Happy Quilting

Leanne

Fingers Crossed....

The part arrived.

I put it in.

I turned it on.

It started.

I quilted .....

YAY!!

Happy Quilting

Leanne

Boo Hoo.....

My " brand new" quilting machine is broken!!! There is a computer malfunction and I am waiting on parts to arrive.
In the meantime, I have kept myself busy. I've put together all the blocks from the Guild. This quilt will be raffled at our local quilt show for charity. I have also started on a new quilt.

Guild raffle quilt

Lots of 4 patches

I hope to be back in action by the end of the week. The work is piling up.

Happy Quilting

Leanne

She's Here...

My new Gammill "Milly" has arrived. I am so excited!! She is quite different to my old quilting machine.
I've been quilting up a storm. At the moment I'm still only doing edge to edge but it wont be long and my freehand quilting (semi-custom) will be up and running.

Milly ready to start her first quilt...

The first quilt done...

A little snippet ...

Happy Quilting
Leanne

It Looks LIke.....

Looks like it's going to be a good weekend.
My old qulting machine has sold and the new one arrives tomorrow (Sun). Squeal!!
It's good to be me right now.
I have contacted some magazines to advertise in and it's not as expensive as I expected. So that will be a go. Hopefully in the next two months my little ad will be out there for the world to see. Yay..

I have done some quilting for Ally recently, her projects are going into magazines along with my details as the quilter. So it's all go around here at the moment.

The Central Coast Modern Quilt Guild is going full steam ahead. We have organised some workshops and a couple of bus trips. It's always fun when we get together.

Looks like it's going to be a good year.

Happy Quilting
Leanne