Loving Rita @ Red Pepper

I have been following Rita's fabulous blog (Red Pepper Quilts) since almost the beginning.  She is a prolific quiltmaker and I love her quilt designs and the fabric combinations and the straight line quilting and everything!

Anyway, I was the lucky winner of a Pave the Way quilt kit (including backing and binding fabric). The Anna Maria Horner fabric is gorgeous and I'm itching to get cutting and stitching. So this will be my reward once I've finally finished my Case Study in Transport (yawn)!

I have snuck in a little bit of sewing and finished a couple of blocks for the last month of the Australasian Quilt Bee.

Blogtoberfest is over (and there is a winner)!

Blogtoberfest has made me realise I'm never really going to have something new and exciting to say here everyday! I'm never going to be a daily blogger. But I have enjoyed trying to find something exciting and interesting to say (and I think I only missed one day) - so that's 30 posts in 31 days which is a pretty good result I think!

Anyway, without further ado - I did the random generator thingo and came up with comment 43 which belongs to Naomi at Beeshebags. Naomi had a pair of white ankle boots that she wore to death and still wishes she had!

Everyone seems to have some fabulous memories of clothing from childhood - many of you had boy-short haircuts like me in the 80's, or fabulous outfits handmade for you by your mum or grandma. Some of you liked the matching outfits - others of you didn't! So funny reading all your responses.

And to prove that I have actually been doing stuff other than blogging this month - here's my latest bee block. It's the most complicated quilt block I've ever attempted! I call it Geese Flying through a Spotted Technicolour Sky!!

Anyway, here's to the end of another Blogtoberfest. Cheers!

Julie & Julia

I just finished watching the movie Julie & Julia. It was good, I enjoyed it. And it was good to watch it after writing this post!

Julia wears an amazing navy blue cocktail gown (in the scene where she holds the party for her sister in their Paris home) and it had pockets!! I need a cocktail dress with pockets.

And whilst I was watching the movie I was sewing on buttons to my Flower Fairies block for Jen. The block isn't as fancy as others but I quite like the taggie-ribbon concept and hope that Jen's daughter does too!

(Please excuse the quality of the photos - taken after 10pm, with no lovely sunshine to assist with lighting. And yes, I need a proper flash for my camera - the lense keeps getting in the way!)

Australasian Quilt Bee

I don't think I've posted about this before but I joined a Quilting Bee back in March this year. I have a habit of over-comitting myself and this Bee is no exception! I'm 2 months behind (and will be three months behind once the October parcel arrives).

I still consider myself a beginner quilter and prior to joining this group I had never pieced a block that had anything other than right-angles in it. But I have enjoyed being pushed to make blocks with triangles, some quilt-as-you-go and even some freestyle block making is on the cards!

Squares within squares for Jo (March 2010).

Small scrappy squares for Viv (April 2010).

Quilt as you go, Munki Munki centres for Kellie (May 2010).

Boxy Stars for Monika (June 2010).Wonky Stars for Nova (July 2010).

My challenge for the next couple of nights is to finished a Flower Fairy embellished block (for September) and to design and make my own "house" block (very, very belatedly for August)!

I also need to learn how to take better photos of my blocks!

Tonsils haven't killed me (yet)!

Well I am finally emerging from my 4th lot of tonsillitis this year. I have been having a good week and then a bad week and this is a good week (so far)! I have been checking out my usual blogs but haven't really felt inspired to write anything here (since pictures of me lounging sick on the couch in my pj's aren't really that flattering)!

I have been crafting durig the good weeks - I made the invitations for my sister-in-law's wedding. I have been debating about making these for people other than family, perhaps as kits that the happy couple can assemble themselves (which is what I have done for the three sister-in-law's weddings). People I talk to about this think it's a fabulous idea - I'm just not sure...

...I have sewn a dress for Matilda to wear to the wedding and also whipped up a pencil roll for Matilda to keep her amused when we are on holidays to attend the wedding!

I am also about to enter into a self-imposed craft-free zone (apart from a couple of indulgences). My course notes have arrived and I am officially back studying to complete my Masters degree (as of Monday). I have two more subjects to do to complete my course and I have to do them this year since it will be 10 years since I started it (but I have also lived overseas for 3 years and had two children in that decade so it's not as slack as it sounds)!!

I couldn't help myself - I have signed up for a virtual Quilting Bee which starts in March which should be fun. It's not my month until January 2011 so plenty of time to decide what I want and I like the idea of being chllenged with my quilting since I have yet to sew anything that isn't a square!

We have also been getting into our garden. I have been trying to get rid of the blackberries but have been unsuccessful since we have just picked these from the garden. I'll wait until they've fruited and then continue on my mission. Kelvin did seem to enjoy his mouthful of berries!

Anyway, things are probably going to be very quiet around here for the next little bit - especially since we'll be out of the country for a few weeks to attend Meg and Ben's wedding.