Little pin cushion swap

Oh my, I just received the cutest damn pin cushion I've ever seen.  Last month I signed up for the Little pin cushion swap over at Sweet Little Pretties.  My swap partner likes Gnomes, mushrooms and cute little cottages.  I chose to make her a screen printed gnome pin cushion.  It turned out like this

I had a little issue with screening on top of already screened fabric, it bled! not too bad but still not great.  You can see it mostly around his belt.  I made three panels in total and this one was the best.  I weighed the bottom down so as he didn't fall over when in use.  I hope my partner likes him.

Now I was super spoiled and received this little pin cushion from Ruth, you'll find her here dukeandtheduchess, love it, love it, LOVE IT!

Every detail is just lovely, even the card was gorgeous and the smell of Lavender as I stick my pins in is an added bonus. Thank you so very much Ruth.

Kristin

Woodland baby blanket

Hi there,
I have finished my entry to the Fancy Feet challenge over at Ricochet and Away.  However am probably a bit late but I will show it here anyway:)
The challenge was to use a sewing machine foot that you have never used before.  This was great timing as I wanted to attempt a baby quilt with free motion quilting.  This was very scary for me but after a few tension issues it was nowhere near as scary as I'd imagined.  I only followed a simple squiggle pattern which I freehand drew onto the quilt top with washable quilting marker.

Free motion quilting foot

Now as you can see by the picture here on the right I was way off the lines, but I really had a fun time quilting this little quilt and I was really happy with the results.

I did have the thread snap a couple of times but it was easily resolved by tying off the thread and then stitching in the same spot a couple of times where you tied off before continuing.  I did also keep checking the back because I was paranoid about tension issues.  This was good because on a couple of occasions I had really loose thread on the back which I had to unpick.  All in all though I had a great experience and finished this little quilt in two hours.

Thanks Rikka for giving me the push I needed to try this great method of quilting.
Kristin

It's on!

I'm of course speaking in reference to my home internet!  This fills me with much happiness indeed.  Oh and my husband too, he's not been too happy about my $200 mobile phone bills over the last few months,  all spent over in data use of course (sad face).  Hopefully now it should go back to the $50 bill it's been for the past five years.

Im also really excited about sewing in my newly decorated arts and crafts room.

So excited in fact, that I finally pulled my overlocker out of its box.  Embarrassingly I've had it for twelve months now!  Oh the shame!!

So yes I'm on a high, I had my father help put my lovely Ikea draws on the wall, which I LOVE!  I got around to hanging my white board and I purchased a table top ironing board for $13 from Spotlight, so I'm set.  There is still plenty to hang and organise, but it's getting there.  I can't believe it's been five months since we moved in, time just fly's, don't it?

I've signed up for a challenge and participated in a couple of swaps lately, which I'll tell you about tomorrow, now though I must get ready for work.

Take care
Kristin

Hi

September was my last post, not cool Kristin!  Hi all, I hope everyone had a restful Christmas and New Years.  We had a great time hanging out with family at Christmas, both my baby brothers (19 and 28) came home, which was lovely.  I hadn't seen my bigger brother for a year as he's an Army boy and lives afar.  My younger one has recently moved to Western Australia to finish his Electrical Apprenticeship and my Mum misses them dearly so she was thrilled to have her four babies together for Christmas.

We are in our new house and have been for two and a half months now and thats exactly how long we've been without a home phone or INTERNET!!!  Luckily I still have my phone to check blog posts and make calls, but this is getting ridiculous!  I am happy being in though, despite this and several other issues, including a flood through the ceiling, gouges in our lovely timber floor and an expanding deck, I won't get into it,  but it's been trying.

Here is our home the night we started to move in.

 The black behind the oven is a window, but it's night time:)

I love my new kitchen, especially the pantry!!
Here are all my Freedom lovelies in the living room, just to the right of the kitchen.

 Oh yes, we got a new puppy.

My Mums dog had puppies and we got one!  His name is Morris and he's a bit bigger than this now and very naughty.  Our other dog Lenny (the Bernese Mountain Dog) and him get along famously and Sam loves him to bits, he's always saying I love my puppa Morrisey.

The only crafting going on here is preparations for Sam's 3rd Birthday Pirate Party, more to come on that in the near future.
Hope all are well, take care now.

Kristin

A finish and some hexies

So I did say (not that long ago) that I was going to finish all of my half done projects prior to starting anything new....well I have finished one of my quilts!

It's finally finished!!!! I think I started this about a year ago.  It's the 'baby life' quilt by V and Co found at Moda Bake Shop as soon as I saw this quilt I knew I had to make one.  I spent countless hours searching online to find enough of 'Make Life by Sweetwater' fabric to make one.  You can't see but I quilted it in overlapping circles which took me forever with my poor Janome.  I am really happy with how it turned out although it had lots of cursing thrown its way during the applique and quilting stages:)

Now obviously my word will be mud because I have started another (oh the shame;)  At the moment I am in love with Hexies! Big, bright Hexies!

Yesterday I spent three hours cutting out 81 of these 6.5inch hexies (9 of each of the 9 different colours).  I have no idea how big this will be when I assemble it, I decided to throw caution to the wind and just wing it!  I used predominantly a fat quarter of each fabric and the plan is to machine piece them using this as my main reference.  I hope to finish this one a bit quicker than I did the 'baby life', but I won't hold my breath;)

#Linking up at 'from blank pages - a celebration of beginnings linky party'


Have a great rest of your week:)
Kristin

My project for the Friendship quilts link-up

Remember the 80's? mullets, big hair, acid wash denim, hmm not so cool anymore are you 80's!  I was born in 1982 so I was quite young during this time, however I do remember friendship bracelets.  Diane from 'from blank pages' has been running the Friendship Quilts Blog hop this month and it's been a great read each day with cool projects and funny 80's pics.

Now it's time to submit my project.  The idea is to sew something of friendship bracelet design for someone special to you.  I made my project for my little cousin Nik, who wasn't around until the 90's (she only celebrated her 16th Birthday last week).  We have always gotten on famously, we must have similar maturity levels or something!  I always call on her to come and babysit me when my other half is on late shifts so I don't get scared (this is a running joke, I really just get bored on my own once the little man goes to bed;)  I made her an iPad/tablet beanbag with 80's flair!

 

Here's a few shots of the 4hour task of constructing it!

CUTTING

 SEWING

CUTTING

 SEWING

Then twenty minutes to sew it up into a beanbag! I (roughly) followed this tutorial to make the beanbag which was a cinch!  This is the second beanbag I've made now and they are really a comfy way to hold your iPad/tablet on your knee when lounging on the couch and also useful to hold it upright on the counter when using a recipe/following a tutorial :)

Lastly, here is some late 80's goodness, wowza look at the hair on my Mum and Aunty! I'm the unfortunate one wearing the red skirt and shoe combo.  Hope you had a good laugh if nothing else!

Have a great weekend

Kristin

Busy little bee

I am here, but a fair bit has happened since my last blog post....................
First things first, I entered my elephant block in the Happy Hour Projects - Quilt block challenge hosted by Adrianne last month.  I was extremely excited to come third, I even did a happy dance around the living room:)

 

We finally sold our house after six months on the market, it felt like six months of cleaning:( so I'm glad that's over - another happy dance:)

We are only weeks away from having our new home completed

I turned the big 30!!!

We held a surprise 50th party for my Mum, which kept me super busy for a few weeks.  I was in charge of invites, RSVP's and the cake!  I had decided that I would attempt the cake, a three layer cake inspired by this beautiful creation that you have to check out by bakerella.

I don't actually have a picture of the full cake at the moment, however I do have this Instagram pic of my beautiful Mumma and Sam blowing out the candles on on the top layer on her actual birthday, which was a couple of days after the party.  I made a chocolate, caramel and vanilla cake for each layer, so nine cakes in total, with vanilla buttercream between and smothered all over, covered in vanilla fondant with little hearts all around.  I was a bit of an effort, as I had to work the four days prior, plus I had a work engagement 200km away on the day of the party! I think it was worth it, Mum had a blast!

I also made another birthday cake, this one is a boiled fruit cake, covered in almond icing and vanilla fondant, with a posie of peony's on top. 

Craft wise it's been a little slow going, I did make a iPad bean bag for my husband using this tutorial with a few adjustments)

And I've nearly finished binding my baby life quilt....finally.  I have decided to finish all of my half done projects before starting any new ones, I think at the moment I have three half done quilts all of varying stages:)

Saying that though (there is always a but!) I have started my project for the FQBH over a from blank pages

I have really enjoyed reading all of Diane's and the guests posts thus far and I'm sure you guys would too, get on it!!

I think I rambled enough for one day, take it easy now:)
Kindest regards
Kristin