We have action!!

"Oh Donna, Oh Donna..

I know a girl, Donna is her name and since she met me (at Quilters and stitchers fair) , life's never been the same......."

Why?? Because she reminds me constantly about the great quilting frame in my sewing room that I haven't been using!!!

Well, Donna at chookyblue, do I have news for you!!

On my second afternoon of cleaning I finally got my sewing room to this stage, so i can see the quilting frame. (I took a before shot but am too humiliated to share!!)

I got the other side to an organised stage like this..

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with some handy new Aldi containers. Lots of fabrics sorted by projects, i think that will work for me...and I can see them! Dh will have a fit when he sees more shelves and containers, One and a quarter walls are fully shelved ( & full!)-but, the search for the perfect container is a woman's never ending search for some kind of organisational Utopia! Life will be organized there!

As I could see the quilt frame I proceeded to get it to work. The frame was initially set up wrong, then I found out the machine was set up wrong, today i had the time and inclination to fix it and we got results.

TA Da!! Real honest to goodness quilting!

Well, if you don't look too close it's not too bad!

Soon got bored with a play piece so decided to work on one of my million tops.

Having fun getting my stitches to be even but I will perfect it if it kills me as a stitch regulator was a LOT! Do you remember what they quoted at the Quilt fair Donna?

I was very naughty-I just used vintage chenille on the back so noone will be able to see how badly this first one went.

I have only been able to get stitch in the ditch type patterns up to here, I am loving the stipple look.

Actually, i think I may be in love. Maybe I will join the get 5 things done by July challenge!

Have a great day and remember you have 2 days to comment...on this or the last post-I'm pretty relaxed about giveaways, for the chance to have some cards come your way

Patchwork cards

Mainly thanks to blogging and the enthusiasm shown over some of my farm photos I now have quite a range of cards. I haven't been putting info. on about purchases as that wasn't ever what the blog was about, but I am getting more and more emails on this and being able to link here is the easiest way to show them.

The patchwork cards are included here, there are now also about another 40 in the farming and flower range. They have been selling themselves around here and will be going into our local post office as well this week. They are glossy, folded and professionally printed on good quality card-blank inside.
If you are interested, I am "swapping" 10 of them internationally for a $20 Fat Quarter Shop gift voucher-postage included. That seems to work the easiest. You also get a set of semi matching little patchwork gift cards thrown in. Australian girls can email me for a price as it is cheaper for you due to the post.

oops, just realised that number 2 and 8 are the same card...grrr, was meant to be this.... we will call him number 10!

Seeing I am in an (semi!) organisational mood I decided it was time to get my sewing room back on track.
I am so lucky to have a separate room to work but everything has just been thrown in there since before the market and I want to get back to work so a sort out was in order. I can manage for a while in a messy workspace but I can't get really creative when the surrounds are getting me down. My lovely DH thinks it will take another week (!!), but I think another afternoon will pull me up. I t was great to get over there and put Northern exposure back on....
Drop me a comment on where and how you work best- for the chance to win some of my cards....you had better pick your favourite card in the comment as well. Drawn on Saturday, 21 June.
Good luck...and email entries will be allowed, I'll convert them to a comment for you! Tracey

Quilts for girls

After a day of house cleaning, sheep and the Monday afternoon neighborhood Bible study (that is looking at a lineage of Bible women, it was on Rahab today), I am hoping for a little sewing time tomorrow.

In lieu of new sewing I thought i had better answer a couple of emailer queries. Apparently some would like a closer look at the quilt that presently graces the top of my daughter's pile on her bed. So while I sit here and stream the late nite lounge radio through my computer I will fill you in.

This quilt was all that she asked for for her 7th Birthday. But she wanted the things on it that she loved so I collected up some good stitcheries and appropriate fabrics over a few months and this is what we got.

The castle centre was my design, there is a princess up the top looking out longingly...is there any other way for a Princess to look?

I wanted a sky and moat type appearance, then I drew out a castle, transferred to the lovely visoflix/fabric and we were off!

Here is some of the detail off the castle-you know you can click on the pictures for a closer look. She was mad on unicorns so i converted a colouring book horse.

The little mermaid is her favourite of those movies, I made her blonde to suit my little mermaid.

Wanted to marry Peter Pan at that point so he got a spot as well.

This is from her favourite b*rbie movie that we both liked.

I think this is a Bronwyn Hayes stitchery, that's meant to be her pet chook.

This one was out of an old magazine, made the cat look like hers at the time.

This is her guardian angel up the top, out of another old magazine.

Some of the detail on the fairy tale fabric.

So now I have fulfilled the girl quilt requests. In the near future I may catch up on a few of the others!-I really do need to find a few more hours in the day!!!

Have a great day, Tracey

WHY MEN ARE NEVER DEPRESSED

I am not sure whether to laugh or cry over this email I received, but I decided you are grown up enough to decide for yourselves! Tracey

WHY MEN ARE NEVER DEPRESSED:


Men Are Just Happier People-- What do you expect from such simple creatures? Your last name stays put. The garage is all yours. Wedding plans take care of themselves. Chocolate is just another snack. You can be President. You can never be pregnant. You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. You can wear NO shirt to a water park. Car mechanics tell you the truth. The world is your urinal. You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky. You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt. Same work, more pay. Wrinkles add character.Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100. People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them. New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet. One mood all the time.

Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. You know stuff about tanks. A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. You can open all your own jars. You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness. If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.

Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. You almost never have strap problems in public. You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.. Everything on your face stays its original color. The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades. You only have to shave your face and neck.

You can play with toys all your life. One wallet and one pair of shoes -- one color for all seasons. You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look. You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife. You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.

You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

No wonder men are happier.

Send this to the women who can handle it and to the men who will enjoy reading it.

Tracey's note...My only query is, what does 'everything on your face stays the original colour' refer too? oh...and I know stuff about tanks too-"never put a glass one within reach of your kids bunk bed!"

Thanks

Today I have to start with a 'Thank You'.

I have really appreciated the support and concern from everyone, as has my girl. She says she felt quite special and it certainly boosted me up as well. I will get back to you all personally soon...
On that front, the surgeon was very happy with her progress yesterday. So we did not need to be in theatre today as was a distinct possibility. The scars are going to be major though, but the surgeon has a fair few minimisation tricks up his sleeve and we are looking into all of that next week. I am thinking a supermodel career may be out....(what a relief!!!)

So, hopefully the sun is setting on that chapter, just as it is on the crop sowing, though school has just rung and said she is complaining of the arm hurting and is sleepy-so who knows!
Close to 1000 acres of crop has been put in here in recent weeks, we have had a mild start to winter, so we are ahead of schedule, but a rain hold up would be a relief for our farmers. The radar says it's close.

Here is the tractor and air seeder at full tilt, I like the crow's appearance.
We have been doing a bedroom revamp this week for my girl (funny thing!!).
DH cut the bed in half with the angle grinder the day after the accident, neither of us could have ever slept again with her up high. Apologies to the woman who contacted me after the accident about advertising bunk beds through my blog....you got on the wrong boat there dear!!
She had been wanting a pink feature wall for ages. I have never painted anything uncrafty in my life but gave this my best shot. Has to wait a week for her pictures and posters to go up and we haven't quite finished relocating all her stuff, but I love the result. The quilts are all still layered in order of receival-her dad does that every night to particular instructions. They all got carted into hospital with her!
My sister imagines my girl probably gets a new one to match the wall-I was thinking about it! I am just so glad I still have her!

Picked up this cool thing a few weeks ago, anyone got one? It is a spinning sewing caddy. I am trying to work out how to liven it up so it is less "brown"!! I'll keep you posted.
have a great day, Tracey

Tracey's top 10 for not getting your quilt finished in time

10. Design and implementation alterations. (read: Stuffed up!)

9. Creative clashes. (read:don't like the colours someone else chose)

8. Critical analysis (read: someone dared say it looked bad!)
7 , 6 & 5. Digitally challenged (Read: ran out of time, ran out of camera memory/battery to take the blog photo or cut a finger off with the rotary cutter!)
4. Important business partner dinner. (read: husband has the audacity to expect me to sit down to eat!)
3. Junior staff co-ordinators role. (read trying to get kids to go to bed!)
2. Contract cleaners performance not up to scratch. (read: what cleaning!!!!)
But finally, if I was looking for the #1 reason my niece's, or anyone else's quilt would not be done by tomorrow it would be this.........
EVENT #1
A lovely 10 year old daughter who went to bed early and safely(?) home from camp.....
An elevated, bunk high bed.....
a fish tank that seemed far enough away from the bed.

Well, it seemed far enough away from the bed in normal circumstances but when your daughter does some kind of airborne Highland fling in her dreams you end up hearing a bang as you are shutting off the lights for bed and by the time you get to her room you are pulling her from the space between her bed and the tank table.

and feeling for a broken necks and bleeding.

Then the fish tank water she is laying in starts to look like the water around a Jaws victim. Thought I had it sorted, still more red water and there was another big laceration on her upper arm to join the one on her lower.An absolutely horrific feeling to be checking all over your babies body for something that may kill her...when she should be asleep!
So we spent the night mostly in emergency, we've been back to the surgeon today and she is resting comfortably with two 3-4 inch wounds and a lot of huge bruises and grazes.
At about one am in Emergency I whispered to my husband that we were so lucky it wasn't her neck.(head, spinal cord, major artery..!!!..) She heard and replied, "Yes, God can't stop the accidents but he can help!"
That was just about the end of me!
Hope your day was great! Tracey

I have just had 2 child free days! For the first and only time my kids are on the same School camp program. They are down near the coast somewhere hopefully wrapped up warm in their sleeping bags and quilts and I have managed to slot some sewing into the minutes I would normally spend with them. So we are close to a finish on my niece's birthday quilt. it needs to be done by Saturday so i am almost ahead of schedule and may not need to spend friday night sewing until Midnight-there's a change!

I will take a nice photo of it for you when it is quilted, the light tonight doesn't do the Barefoot Roses collection justice. I am not sure this would be how I would make this for me, but it is how my sister liked it laid out. I would be very tempted to liven up the blocks with a hot pink appliqued daisy, but instead i just appliqued that on the next one...

I thought my DN's dolls may need a matching quilt, here it is before I stitched her name on. It is being modelled by my old Ted. I was a teddy girl, my girl was a dummy(pacifier!) and blanket girl and my boy was a dummy ....and his mother.... boy for comfort!! Funny how we all have our thing.

The "lamb stash" has grown to 4. - a new baby may be easier than up to 6 lamb feeds a day!

I think the numbers will stay at least that high as well. They were fairly weak and took some getting back to life so i have missed the window for fostering them on a new mother.

Here is the original, all green bow and glowing good health-look how he stands on 2 legs to convince me to feed him!

I went around the ewes late this afternoon and watched the last of these babies being born...someone is going to have to be very patient at waiting for their turn! I have tried the equation in many ways but 3 lambs into 2 teats just wont compute!

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?

Carrie Bradshaw eat your heart out!

Okay, secret confession day, lean a little closer.....I am big S*x and the City fan, so is my sister and we are eagerly awaiting the new movie.

She organized my DH to get me the boxed set for Christmas a few years ago. I wonder if a few of you are raising an eyebrow as to how that fits with my Church roles...well I think that we all have to be able to live in the real world and relate to real people, so I think as long as i don't start trying to be Samantha I am ok..

Now don't spoil it for me, you overseas girls!!!! This flick better be soppy, it better end well and there better be Big!! I love him, I have always leaned towards the challenges myself and can therefore see the attraction. Please tell me they get married...no, no, don't tell me, that's right, i just told you not to spoil it!

Oh, life is hard!!! Between that and a new Indy I am almost beside myself. I don't care if Harrison is 65.......

Anyway, enough daydreaming. While Carrie is wearing her gorgeous shoes and flitting around New York ,I, too, am seeing action.

Well, let's say, seeing the result of a lot of sheep's action!!!

I considered getting you a far less sanitized pic, but worried someone may flag me if I actually took a photo of the little nose and 2 little hooves that seem to constantly greet me when I go around my sheep.

I wonder if a cosmopolitan could be as satisfying as bringing a sweet little lamb into the world on a frosty morning, hoping for a first breath, seeing none, then giving him a chest massage and seeing that first gulp of air.

Priceless.

But wait!..... don't think we don't have style down here, look at my usual shoes I wear on a daily basis.....

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Think they look gorgeous...you should smell them!!! They have to live outside the door-but very comfy!

But it is starting to get wet and muddy so I needed new rubber boots, here's where Carrie would go green with jealousy i am sure!lol

Da-da!! leopard print!!! My Dh thinks the sheep wont notice...but I'll know!

See you v.soon with lots of sewing (or they will be locking me up!)

Have a great day...and yes, i will visit soon, my internet has been out, my sheep have been calling..