Mosquito nights and x rated bunnies!

What's it like where you are? It's hot and humid here, and most nights lately have been disturbed by one pesky mosquito that wakes me up by buzzing past my ear.
I've found that there are three courses of action that can be taken when in this situation.....
1. Bury yourself deeply under the covers and hope that "someone" else is woken too as he will always get out of bed, find it and kill it. This has two drawbacks as firstly it gets really hot under those covers and secondly, he often sleeps through mozzie attacks.
2. Hope the the mozzie will settle for the less than sweet blood of my husbands (mine is chocolate laced....no wonder they like it!) and then once fed it should let me sleep.
3. Get out of bed and find the mozzie spray.


What would you do? I go with number one every time. I bury my head and hope it goes away....hmmm, makes me sound like an ostrich!


Anyway, in the hope that one day I'll get to finish most of my ufo's I managed to complete my Wrenly quilt top....though my youngest daughter wants me to call it "Through the Window".... Actually, I think I quite like that name.

And as for my embroideries, well....!
Two things happened. 
1. (I'm so into lists tonight!) I got in touch with the lovely Kate from Lilipopo  as I adore her pretty embroideries and pictures and she gave me permission to use some of her pics to be embroidered for my "thirties" quilt! Yes, it does have a chance of being finished now. Now, make sure you pop over and look at what she's doing because she's just so very talented.
Here's what I came up with....

and this...

and this...

More on that theme to come.....


2. Oh, and the other thing that really amused me this week was finding that my bunny (from the last post) was featured on Mr X Stitch.
Warning....it's not a site for the faint hearted, it has some very adult content. Which is why it's all the funnier that my cute bunny ended up there!

Hand sewing and tadpoles.

I've realised that in life I'm a "starter," not so much a "finisher".
It's obvious why, starting is full of excitement and great expectations. Whereas finishing requires patience and perseverance.
But that's all about to change! I have decided to gird my loins (I'm actually am not too sure what that means but it does sound appropriate,) and get some finishing done.

So, with that in mind I grabbed out some unfinished projects and am refusing to put them away untill they're done.

Firstly, here are some embroideries I started and am planning to team them with some gentle 1930's in pink and yellow.

I pinched the gorgeous linen that these are emboidered on from my lovely Polish friend, Patrycja. Thank you!


Next I have some appliqué that need finishing......

But what I really want to do is.......

Chocolate, flying saucers and new fabric......does life get any better?


Today I will confess that although I have lots of 'green' intentions.....the fact that my in-ground spa is full of tadpoles is nothing to do with environmental concerns.......it's a negative energy issue. 
As the universe needs to be balanced perfectly with both positive and negative energy (yes, I watch the National Geographic channel,) there's nothing I can do about it. It's certainly nothing to do with me being too lazy to keep it clean.
Anyway, the world needs frogs!
Ribbit, ribbit.

I'm not ignoring you...I'm just slow!

Sigh....I'm doing it again! Not keeping up with this blog and yet I had such good intentions.

I've been pretty busy working at the shop. Most days I come home and fall asleep on the couch for an hour. I used to call them "power naps" but now that I know I snore occasionally (thank you, Ruby!)  I guess I have to call them "nanna naps".
But I'm not proud, I don't care....after you've been on your feet all day lugging hundreds of bolts of fabric around you'd fall asleep snoring too!

Luckily, in my blog absence I managed to knock out a few tops so here's the latest.......

It was quick, it was easy, it was fun. I just smile every time I see this fabric.
Want to make one too? Get yourself a copy of "Fat Quarterly" issue 5. Yeah, it's another Lily's quilt! I do like her stuff.

You know, the whole idea of working was to amass some money for holidays and stuff.....working in a patchwork shop sure put paid to that silly idea! All it does is feed my addiction for fabric, you should see how many metres I bring home each week.

I need help!

BTW...what do you think of the button my lovely hubby made for Gail's shop? It's over there in the side bar.....see.
I was impressed with it. 
Now I've just got to get her to re-vamp her site.....little steps.

Wheels and weaning.

 It's flipping hard to take a photo of a quilt top in the wind!

I tried patience, I tried talking to the wind....I even co-opted my youngest daughter to hold the quilt down on one side. Sorry, but this is the best I can do under the (very) trying circumstances....my Lilys  quilt, still waiting for me to quilt it. Ho hum.


So it's Sunday and confession time....by the way, I was so glad to hear I wasn't the only dog chocky eater in the world. Let's see if I'm not alone this week.


Have you ever seen a slightly mad looking woman, walking quickly along the street whilst clutching a loaf of bread tightly to her chest? 
That would have been me.
It was a sunny day and I decided to walk to the shops leaving the kiddies at home with dad. All I wanted was a moment to myself out in the sunshine and some nice fresh bread.
What I ended up with was  a tee shirt dripping with milk and a soggy loaf. 
Don't ever be fooled by the term "weaned". Your child may know it but your boobs have notions of their own.
The simple act of a bit of jiggling in a looser bra plus a crying baby (not mine) in the bakers and I developed two large spreading damp patches across my front.
I had about a mile to walk home. No jumper or cardie to hide in. No car to slide inside and drive away. It was an embarassing moment in my life....did you see me?

Baby quilt.

I have been busy this week, truely! Though, if you were to pin me down and demand to know what I've been doing I could only show you this.....

It's a bit of a cheat, but fun too. Just two bits of fabric, one for the top and one for the backing, quilted along the lines, bound and hey presto....a funky little kids quilt.
I love it, all the pieces in this range (Meet the Gang) make me smile.
Here's the back peeking over the corner. Just the sort of thing to whip up in an evening for a surprise gift.

If you want to see it in "person", it's hanging in the shop .

Confessional Sunday

So this is what I made out of the leftovers from my Sanctuary quilt....doesn't it look different!

But I'm guessing your far more interested in my confession for the week, ok....here goes......


Back when I was twenty something (technical term for young and stupid) I owned a dog and she was pampered and loved but.....on occasion....when I was desperate....I would steal and eat her doggie chocolates!


No, the laxative effects never bothered me.
Yes, my hair was lovely and shiny
No, I never felt the urge to sniff bottoms.


I am ashamed of myself, and now ensure that the pantry is NEVER bereft of chocolate.


It wont happen again.


Hopefully.

Not....the fastest blogger in the world.

So where did all my good intentions go? I was going to be a good blogger and a better quilter/crafter.
Hah!
So much for that! You didn't see how long my grass was....I've got calouses from all that mowing.

Luckily I did get a few tops done in my blogging absence so can pretend to have been productive by eeking out the pics.
This is one of my favourites, Sanctuary with some chocolate brown...mmmm....yummy!
I'll show you tomorrow what I made with the leftovers, how economical is that, using leftovers. Whatever next!
Oh, by the way....I'm making Sunday posts "Confesssional Sunday." So get your thinking caps on, I'll confess if you will....go on, you know it's good for the soul!

We have a winner!

Sorry it's taken me soooo long to post this....but finally (drum roll please)........


The winner is....Karen P. with her comment  "I'm just not that much of a risk taker & I love the heather bailey fabrics so much, so I'd pick those!:)"


I'll be sending you an email and you can give me your snail mail addy.


But did you all notice, Karen didn't choose the box! After reading your comments (some of which were hilarious!) I noticed that most of you wanted to know what was secreted away in the box, so just for you this is what wasn't chosen.......

See how the box was bulging! It contained a fat quarter of the entire range of Meet the Gang, (hehe... we got it before America) and a couple of Ink and Spindle hand printed fq's and a selection of cute Kokka's and Alexander Henry's. Oh....and a bag of bits that I'm just not going to show you cos there may be another time that I do this and it's too good a bag to spill the secret.

This is a slightly better picure...don't thinkI'll ever win awards for my photography.

Give away!

So here it is folks, my "glad you hung around for me" give away.
But....I was thinking let's make it a bit more fun! 


I remember when I was a young pup there was a t.v game show that always ended in the winner being asked to choose between a known prize........or choosing to "open the box!" The contestants never knew if the contents would be better or worse than the other prize but oh, how the audience would yell out for them to "OPEN THE BOX!"


So, here's my give away, 38 quarter yards of Bijoux and Pop Garden from Heather Bailey...........

Or..... here's the box!

What could possibly be in there? A pair of my nine year olds' dirty socks? A beautiful stack of Kokka fabric....who knows? And are you willing to take a chance?


All you have to do to have a chance to win (and let's be honest, you've got a flippin' good chance cos I've been off the radar for a long while) is leave a comment anytime between now and Sunday 2nd October and let me know in your comment which one you'd choose.


Good luck!
The draw is now closed......winner to be announced later today.

Thinking.....

Hmmm....I'm thinking, deliberating, considering whether to re-join blogland.
Perhaps I could start with a give away? Though maybe I should start with cleaning up my kitchen.
And if my mum's reading this I know she'll be thinking "That'd be a first!"
Of course if I start with a give away that means I'll have to spend quite a lot of time rummaging through my fabric room........so the kitchen would stay a mess.
This is one of the reasons I stopped blogging....too many decisions!
Give away or clean kitchen?
Cleaning or fabric fondling?
So many choices, so little time.