Out "pops" a surprise!

A frosty morning turned into a beautiful Spring day today. DH And I have spent the morning replacing a garden fence, now I am off to finalise the questions for the School quiz night we are doing tomorrow night.

We have our first Spring hatchlings,

There are 5 of these little darlings that walked out of a pumpshed on Tuesday. The start of many for the season no doubt.

I received my Heather Bailey in the mail yesterday. The two 'tone on tones' at the right are from her Bijou and the rest is Pop Garden. There is a layer cake there of the range, just to tempt me.

The fabric did tempt me already! So lovely and bright I made a bag from it, complete with lining and zipper!

I decided that Jodie at Ric Rac is not the only one who can do stuff with selvedges so I rescued one from the range and added it as a label-too pretty to throw away! (i can assure you the label is on straight, it is the bag that is sitting creased!)

I need to get to town so I better run, I took these of the pets last night, can you pick a favourite? I want one for a card.

Have a great day, Tracey

She sews!!

I have a list of projects a mile long.

Next week, i am going to get out all the fabrics and paraphenalia (?) associated with making them and photograph it, then post it here with the order it all needs to be completed.
Weeeell..... that is the organisational Tracey's theory anyway.
But things pop up that push chook quilts, baby quiltsx2, niece's 3rd birthday quilts and everything that goes on from there, down the line.
I remember once, in a galaxy far far away (that is known as "Pre-childrenville") when I questioned a parent on why he was putting raffle tickets in his teenage children's names...."why don't you just write them all out for you?" I naively asked. He looked at me with that 'you are SO young and stupid' look and said, "one day, when you have children, you will find out!"
And wasn't he correct. Aside from the fact that when you have children you effectively just dangle your heart outside your body to be damaged for life evermore, you also want to do things for them......
-and so , back to the list of projects.
It is long and should be set in stone. Heck, some of these babies will graduate before the quilts come, my DN may get a custom made quilt for a bed she no longer fits in, but when the daughter makes requests all these considerations go out the window.
You see, she is well enough to go on her 3 day School camp on Monday and she can only sleep with the required number of quilts on. I think I may have conned her into foregoing one or two for a sleeping bag but she still needed a quilt bag for camp...like you do!
So here is the interloper to the list, made in my precious sewing moments yesterday.
It is made from the plastic coated Moda I love, and fully lined. It even has one of my new labels on it...and a zip! My girl thought it was very clever-the lamb thought it was something to eat.
Seeing I was working with the plastic coated I also diverted a little to something for me. I have been needing a new purse and tried out a prototype
here is the front...

The back

and the lining and card holder section.
All bag zips are from opshops.
It needs to be about an inch deeper. It was, but I had some trouble figuring out the lining and a little bit of depth asked to be sacrificed. As you can see, it is a bit over 2 credit cards long. when I get another break in the project list I will have another go.
As regards my last post.
I fully support local fabric shops in general, and I encourage you to do the same. If, however, you are like me and the choices locally are very resticted, you may like to look at the Australian stores online or, if feeling brave, try the US stores. It is a free country and this is up to you.
The trick is looking into their shipping rates before you fall in love with hundreds of dollars of fabric that seem cheap. I was caught out once with $100 shipping charge on an order totalling not much more than that because I dealt with a company that bills you for the shipping after they get the online order. I had dealt with other companies and thought mine would be in the $33 range. A hard lesson to learn. I have also had the fun of filling an online shopping cart only to find they don't deliver to Aus!

Some favourite U.S fabric suppliers that I have tried and like are:
Fat quarter shop.- Fixed rates of postage per $ values spent, good sales.
The Thrifty needle.- Fixed rate again, discounts off the Australian post and throw in extra fabric/surprises depending on spending. good backings.
Z & S. -Generally a cheaper standard yardage rate. Postage on par with first two.
Shabby fabrics.- Standard $11 postage to Australia no matter what. Not often on sale, but the reduced postage makes up for it. Have a 10% off coupon for your entire order in an ad in most recent quilt mags.
I haven't linked, you can find them in google as easy as I can!
Have a great day, and add in any of your favourites as well....especialy if you know they deliver to Australia AND reasonably!

We'll blame it on global warming!

Quick look over my shoulder as I prepare the fastest post in history.

2 reasons for that,
#1. If I can go around the sheep quickly I may get my first 2 hour window to sew in 2 AND A HALF WEEKS!!!!
#2. It is about my recent fabrics splurges.
I have the pile next to me for telling you the names and if my DH walks in I am not sure that the fact that he is gorgeous, patient with a not-always-clean-house and possessing of expert spousal taste will be enough to not get me a major "what the???" response.

"But, you have to understand darling, none of these purchases are my fault.".....
This range from barefoot roses is my sister's fault. She decided it was great for my nieces birthday quilt, so I had to cut up my stash of it, and what is a girl to do when she has to cut up her stash of a current favourite....especially when Shabby fabrics have $11 Australian postage no matter what you buy and 10 % off the whole order???? (Which makes the purchase also their fault!!)

And these dots, same deal, Shabby fabrics $11 postage's fault.
And these we will blame on a sale and the high Australian dollar, also, Blackbird designs whose fabrics I love-for making it! It is madeira.

And these? Completely not my fault. the blue I bought 3 metres of to make a pretty summer dress for my girl...and the fact it now has to go into the stash is her fault for being a little too pale blonde...or perhaps the maker's fault that the blue wasn't a little darker. Oh well, the sacrifices the stash has to make sometimes!
And the pink...oh , that is the craft display convenors' fault from this year's market, she wants a big shabby chic quilt to raffle-so completely not my fault at all.
And these will save us money dear.....they were very cheap backings from the Thrifty needle.

And these...some sanctuary and shadow play...we will go back to the sale and high dollar explanation. I can't be blamed for the high dollar, I'll blame the government...or perhaps globalisation. Yeah, that sounds good, everyone blames everything on that...or is that global warming?
Sound reasonable?

A spot of shopping...

A few weeks worth actually. I have been meaning to put up some pictures but yesterday's purchases finally spurred me to action.

Yes, that is a Rebecca Barker Mouse Pad!! Regular readers may know I love her pictures and even though this wasn't cheap it still had to come home and replace the previous scribbled on one. The bag of wool embroidery threads was a steal at $5 at the Op shop...now what will I do with it?......

.

When I went to Melbourne with DD I went to my favourite book warehouse, here is a hint of purchases. The Quilter's resource book is my favourite of all my quilting books and when I found it for $25 I rang my friend Robyn and then bought it for her as well. The Quilting book to the left looks great but I have put that away in the stash my husband will conveniently find in time for my birthday in a few weeks. Self sufficiency may stay here and may go on to a friend-I like the theory but 2000 acres may be a litle big for just feeding us!!

'Too soon old-too late smart', aint that the truth! (if I could only take back....nah, I wouldn't take anything back,good or bad it all adds to who you are.) Hopefully a little future wisdom in there. Gluten free cookbook as I still have a funny feeling DD will have to go that way.....Boy books- proof that 7 year olds can grow up intact and hopefully even quite good (a little bit of reinforcement there for the mother!)

Purchases yesterday (at my LQS no less!) The end of their sale but still some useful metres, a good gold/yellow can add a lot of zap but is hard to come by.

Here are the scrap bags I have picked up from there, usually $10 but I sent Mum in during the sale and I think I may be getting some for my birthday! The little bookmark was fox and geese and reminded me of my life!

Used the money for selling some bags to buy the shop out of their last 2 metres of plastic coated Moda, in 3 colourways. (Not on sale!)

The last photo is not on sale and probably never will be (much to my hubby's disgust!) It reminds me of the old Sesame St. song, one of these things is not like the other, one of these things isn't the same.......That is my little black merino, very unusual for merinos to have black lambs around here. I am going to claim it for felting or even for knitting bloggers, so DH will just have to cope with it in his flock, how will I go with that, I wonder! Better go and butter him up by having tea cooking, have a great day!Tracey

7 things you didn't know about me.

unless you are one of my quilting group who reads this!

I have been tagged by ATET to play along with this game. I think I played along a couple of times when I hit something like my 2000, 4000 and 5000 hits, so I'm not sure there is much left (that I am prepared to share anyway!) but here goes~

1. Managed to have a perfectly successful teaching career without ever drinking coffee, then when I gave up teaching I took up coffee drinking pregnant because that was what I craved. That craving never stopped though I have swapped the 2 sugars for Equal so slightly diluted the vice.

2. Allergic to wine/champagne, actually I think it is preservative 220 but it only worries me in wine form. I am now almost old enough that I can politely say no and cope with the fact that people think I am a party pooper rather than spend all night sneezing, wheezing and having an itchy throat! Fortunately whisky and Pepsi max is just fine!

3. Nearly 175 cm tall, think that's up around 5 foot 9', not sure as I can't find my conversion calculator.

4. Have a Graduate Diploma of Theology to add to the teaching stuff.

5. Accounting is the only thing I ever failed at Uni or anywhere. (Was doing my Bachelor externally, threw in Accounting because I thought it may be interesting, couldn't get the hang of it without a lecturer, then my best friend had a brain haemmorage and spent a month in the Melbourne hospital, I spent all my nights visiting her so her parents could have a break and didn't pass the exam!) I am actually quite good with figures but not in that course!

6. I have a terrible feeling I would be grey if I didn't give into vanity!

7. I love car racing.

Now one of the things you do know about me is that I like to buy fabric, here are the latest purchases (from eQuilter.) Don't you just love that Blue Hawaii Elvis! ...what i mean is, don't you think my DD and Mother will love that Blue Hawaii Elvis! DD wants some appliqued to a t-shirt! There is a bit more Heather Bailey in there as well, and a great black and white geometric pattern that I can't wait for a spare 5 minutes to play with! The spots were just 'cos.

We are having the most amazing mushroom season here ever, I have never seen anything like it. I think that the ground was so very warm when the rain came that they have just erupted. I am living on them as I am the only family member who likes them. Mushroom sauce on steak, mushroom gravy on toast, roasted mushroom with worcestershire and parmesan cheese, bacon and eggs with mushrooms...the list goes on! Have a great day, I'm heading off to try a new therapist for DD's tum, then having the rest of the week at school, Cheers, Tracey