Initial stages.

We have bought land!

We have decided on a house plan.

Our deposit has been paid.

Our old house is almost sold - it's under contract.

Soil testing is to be done in the next couple of weeks.

These are the facade options we are considering at the moment.

This will be our house in about 8 months

 - still a few things to work out but a very exciting time

ahead for us.

Done!

 I have finished Mama's China.

I used French General for the border and binding,

it was the perfect colour with the reds.

If you look closely enough you will

see a cheeky person peeping over the top 

of the quilt to see if I had finished taking photos.

Got her!  She was all giggles and smiles.

We also got a letter from her orthodontist about the next phase 

of her treatment.  The awful contraption she has in will come out 

in October and then her braces will go on.

$7,500 worth of braces, yikes!

So by the time she is finished her thumb sucking will have cost

about  $12,500.  

Here's my advice - let your kid have a dummy, 

you can take a dummy away, you can't remove a thumb!

Mama Said Sew

I kind of forgot about this pattern,

which is a little astonishing because I had 

waited for such a long time  to get my hands on it.

I started this back in January and then forgot all about it,

which tells me a couple of things about myself.

I either have way too much to do and projects get forgotten

or

I am a fabric floosey and my tastes change with each new fabric line

or 

I am involved in far too many swaps and can't keep up with my own sewing

or 

I am just in desperate need of a proper craft room so I could have everything in order all the time and there would be no need to pack things away each day to eat dinner.

Or is it something else?

2 Unseen Quilts

I was having a bit of a tidy up and shaking my quilts

when I realised that I have not shared these next 2 quilts before.

They were made long before I started blogging.

Both are Nancy Halvorsen patterns 

(I do love her her books) and

were long term projects that were worked on intermittently

over a year or so.

The top one is called The Beatitudes and shows

12 different angels, one for each month of the year.

The second on is called I Believe and is a Christmas quilt.

Don't you just love those skinny almost 15 year old legs

poking out of the bottom?  He is so tall he call hold up all of 

my quilts for me when I want to take photos.

I knew I had kids for a reason!

Fiddling

I'm loving the school holidays.

Lazy mornings, lots of walks,

trips to the movies, lunches with friends,

a trip to the fairy penguins and

sewing, sewing and more sewing.

I am having a play around with an idea.

It includes this great granny.

Should have trimmed all the threads before the photo, lol.

A Finish

Finally...

after months of sitting around being looked at,

I put thread in my needle and stitched

him up.

And because no pincushion is complete without pins...

ta-da!

Shawn the sheep.

The Phoebe Foundation

 Sometimes the Internet is a wonderful and very useful place that allows you to find

exactly where you are meant to be without knowing you are meant to be there. 

This happened to me recently.  

I was searching for blocks and I  stumbled across a story that moved me and made me cry.

It is the story of a beautiful little girl named Phoebe and her parents, Julia and Anthony.

Phoebe was born with a congenital heart defect and was only 3 years old when she passed away.

Phoebe's parents wanted her passing to have a purpose and not be for nothing.

They have started a foundation in Phoebe's honor with the hope of helping other children

who also have congenital heart problems.

They have many varied fund raising things happening but it was the sew along that got me.

Julia wants to be able to give quilts to these brave little people who are sick and in hospital.

We all know how lovely it is to snuggle a quilt that we have made.

We all know how good it feels to make a quilt.

Surely we could all make a block or 2 and help out this cause.

I have been emailing with Julia for a couple of weeks 

and let me just say, she is an amazing woman.

It has been my pleasure to send her these 3 quilts

So I was hoping that we might all lend a hand and make some blocks
to brighten the lives of these sick kids and make a difference.
To find the tutorial for the blocks Julia has made follow this link.
Blocks can be posted to Julia here;

The Phoebe Foundation/Julia Rolando
Care of Kinglake Post Office
1/14 Whittlesea Kinglake Road
Kinglake, Victoria 3763
Australia
You can also visit their Facebook page and 'like' it,
or you can visit their web page.

Weekend Round Up

I fiddled around and made a pouch - I want to make one for 

a lady I work with to slip inside her handbags with all of her stuff

so she can interchange bags quickly and easily.

This however, is not the one for her.  It is far too small 

for what she needs.  I think this one will now go into my birthday stash.

I started work on a laptop bag for baby bear #2 - she 

asked a friend to hold hers at school whole she went to the toilet and it was dropped.

Apparently the bag we gave her does not fit into her locker...

think it was more a case of it being an ugly black bag.

We ended up putting 2 pockets inside the bag.

One for her pens and swipe card and one for her mouse.

By this stage I was getting very excited as it was all

going to plan and so easy.

This is it with the laptop inside.  Not bad for a few hours

work and she loves it!  That's an added bonus really.

There was enough fabric left over for me to make a

second bag.  This one does not have pockets.

It is a fairly sizable bag that will house 

a lot of stuff for someone.  Another item that 

will go into my birthday stash.

 There was also the usual grocery shopping and

a trip to the green grocer who has a little deli attached 

to his fresh produce store.

We had a slight discussion about the purchase

of what is possibly the biggest jar of Nutella in the world.

I am pleased to announce that it did remain on the shelf,

I could not justify spending $70 on it.

$70 on fabric without even blinking but 

on Nutella, nope,not a chance.

My Friday night

Was somewhat productive.

 I started getting my fabrics cut for

Mrs Beasley's quilt.

 I did some more on my knitted cowl -

I seem to have a bit of a thing for

cowls at the moment.

I finally settled on this but on my look at that 

dreadful picture!

Well that was my Friday night, along with a little bit of 

"I love you man".

Working on it...

This little (but rather big) beauty is almost done.

just one more edge of binding to be stitched down and it will be done.

Sadly though, it's not for me.  Soon it will be going to a new home.

I hope the recipient loves it!