I DO like Wonkiness, Sam I Am!

Gee - where has the week gone!!! Or should I say week and a half? 
Phew - party partied...check.
Quilt completed....mmmm... not quite check.
BUT I have started to get the hang of this wonky business...

My wonky blocks got much better as I got going and a little less constrained.

The top finished but lacking something to make it "zing" and personal...

Yippee!!! Sam I Am added exactly the touch this quilt needed for my own "Sam I Am".

My own Sam is so not able to be fitted into any boxes, so not straight and linear, and has  a certain quirkiness to him. 
This quilt fits my "Sam I am".
And he loved it when he saw it on the night of the party. The backing is still in a state of construction as I had a sudden WOW moment.... watch this space.
Must show you the cakes.....

Doesn't Sam's cake even look like a Suess cake? We are lucky we have an Aunty Louise who is a fab cake creater:)
And where was I for a good part of the evening when I wasn't M.C. for the evening...

And my chosen alter ego for evening of Cheryl West from "Outrageous Fortunes" (a NZ TV programme) went down soooooo well....right from the start when I broke a bottle - totally unplanned of course!!!!
RIght, another quilt to construct awaits and I really do need to try to get this backing finished.
Ciao,

Take a breath - wonkiness here I come!

I have a plan....

I sewed my first wonky block - not really knowing how you sew a wonky block...

Mmmm - I know, not really very wonky and actually I found it quite stressful as I have rather limited fabric options to work with on this quilt. But carrying on...

I seemed to get a bit better - especially with the smaller blocks (this one is 7 1/2", while the other is 21 1/2" and a bit harder to work out).

By the time I was starting to get tea ready I had reached this point...

Wonkiness is getting WAY better dont you think?

Now, wonder if I will have this quilted and bound by Saturday ready to give Sam for his 21st birthday??????

Might need to pop my Superwoman suit perhaps

Ciao

First Christmas jingles

I know it's still November but my bestus quilting buddy Sam and I had our Christmas early this year as she will be in New York (envious sigh inserted here) on the magical day. Add to that the fact that last year we actually didn't connect until March and had a combined Christmas/my birthday celebration!!!!!!!
SO two weekends ago we had a lovely day celebrating.
I drove up at the crack of dawn to Auckland as I had a secret mission re jobs for next year... but Sam and I managed to crack open our pressies before I headed off into the city for that!

Inside these three tins (which at the time were wrapped and looking way more gorgeous) were.....

...the 'winter warmers' themed tin. I stopped drinking coffee about 5 months ago in the hope it might help with my migraines, and chai lattes are my treat... and I have coveted this snowman pattern to make up for a very special friend so what a super gift:) Then -

...the "quilting" tin. 1930's fabrics to help me finish the never-ending Wedding Ring quilt that I actually was working on the last time I was at Sam's house but ran short of certain colourways of fabrics. And Sam keeps telling me she is sure I can come up with clever ways of using yo-yos hence the heart shaped yo-yo maker!!!!! Then -

...the "Kiwiana" themed tin. Scrummy coloured felt cos I am making felt ornaments for some projects for Christmas, a Buzzy Bee dangle and 

the cutest caravan dingles (since Emma & Jen stayed in a little yellow caravan when they were over from Canada it has become a bit of a 'thing' with us all) 
 OH and not in the photo cos I had already snaffled it out was the most fab silver charm for my Pandora bracelet of a caravan. Spoilt. Plus ...

... plenty of Kiwiana themed wrapping paper to keep me going for a wee while.
Great pressie and so much thought in it - thanks Sam:)
Meanwhile, I had been working like a wee beaver the day before (yes, as usual I kept to my usual last minute deadline) on completing Sam's gifts although one of them we were going to pick up in Auckland later that morning.
Sam has recently heard she will head off to university next year to do a years training to become a teacher so I had a few teachery bits and bobs for her along with ....

...her very own banner to hang in her teaching office space when she has her first classroom. I appliqued the letters onto various schoolish fabrics I had and then backed it all in a sewing themed fabric that had tape measures on it so it still related to our quilty connection.

Sam and I also have a 'heart' collection and I try to make a heart to give to her for each celebration. I had an idea the night before but had to adapt it at a little after midnight when I was outside in the dark searching for a shell and could only find a large one that wasn't quite right. Onto Plan B.....

And to go with that 'Love" a Pohutukawa angel.
To add to these we headed over to Albany on our way to Calico Christmas - the Auckland Quilt Guild's annual exhibition - to pick up the final part of the present - a rimu cotton reel holder that I had bought off Trade Me (like eBay) which was absolutely in fab condition. AND exactly what Sam had wanted:) On this adventure we discovered a gorgeous wee settlement with a quaint cafe so celebrated lunch before embarking on the quilt show which, as always, was a great exhibition and interesting merchants to browse (although had to be very restrained). 
WIll share some photos of the show tomorrow.
SO lovely to have the first hit of Christmas - has certainly put me in the mood even though it's only November:)
Ciao

Double whammy quilty hugs

Wow! How cool was it yesterday to be doing my usual morning scroll through my blog reading and suddenly 'whammo' there is a photo of one of my quilts on Em Celebrates page - that funky lady had featured two of my quilts full on!!!!!!
They are Emma's 21st birthday quilt

And Jen's 23rd (I think!) birthday quilt

But go over and check Em's page out cos she has the most fun competition (as only Em could have) running at the moment and it will explain why all this chaos is happening!!!!!
BUT why the double whammy quilty hugs???????
WELL not only did I have the warm fuzziness when I saw what a biiiiiigggg feature she had made of the quilts on her blog page, but about an hour later there was a package in my letter box

from the above mentioned crazy funky Em that contained 

Such an Em card and just love the fairy sprinkling her magic fairy dust over.....

these oh so me fabrics that I won a voucher for in yet another oh so fun random competition Em had. BUT I gave Em the challenge of spending my voucher for me and giving me a surprise of seeing how she spent it!!!!!!! AND what a neat surprise it is - so the sort of fabrics I would chose - YAHOO:) Now to mull over what scrumptiousness to create with these - maybe I will try my first wonkiness in honour of you EM:)
Ciao,

A sea of lycra, tulle and ruffles - HELP!!!!

Oh the joy of sewing cotton - give me 100% any day!!!! But for me over the last week or so it has been nothing but slinky nylon, tulle and lycra.

All because I forgot to say "NO" when a friend asked me if I could help make some costumes for her schools Jump Jam group. For overseas peeps this if probably similar to a hip hop style of dance although with more of a focus on health and fitness.

ANYWAY this is what I was handed

Mmmmm nice as inspiration but guys I really will need a pattern cos I'm not quite that good at sewing costumes!!!!!(Luckily patterns followed but needed to have 'bits' added)

Then came the bag of fabric - in my head I had forgotten there were fabrics out there other than beautiful cotton patchwork fabrics.....

Ohhhhhh boy!!!! I honestly can not remember the last time I sewed something that hadn't got an ounce of cotton in it - I saw my sewing machine shudder as I approached it.

BUT after several days, and two all nighters this is what I managed to produce following my 'brief'

Five skirts a twirling...

Which I had fully completed and then "they" decided needed another layer of tulle under the layer of bright lycra - aaaagghhhh!!!!!

Complete look for the girls - thank goodness I didn't have to make the leotards, but added the two layers of frills by hand.

Then there were the boys shirts...

CHECK OUT THOSE RUFFLES!!!!!!! And that was what the pattern didn't have in it so I had to work out how to do those! At one point I felt like I was gathering satin fabric for miles, and miles, and miles......

And the final look for the boys - with a cumberbund that I had to create with no idea what I was doing but hopefully it won't fall apart as they do their moves!!!!!!!

My friend picked them up last night and is blown away. First dress rehearsal is today but I will go and have a peek tomorrow. Just have my fingers crossed nothing needs 'tweaking" as I really have had enough of touching "THAT" sort of fabric for a while!!!!!!

Right, off to stroke some lovely cotton fabric - mmmm:)

Ciao,

 

Generous bloggy friends

Oh boy - I am just blown away right now by the generosity that greeted me at the door earlier this week when the courier knocked.
This is what Pippa and I discovered....

Pippa quickly figured it contained no food so mooched off but I realised it was indeed 'food' for me - scrap 'food' of the fabric variety from a lovely lady I have met via the blog world.
Susan over at Tenderoni Quilts had mentioned that she had 'a few' scraps to give away if anyone was interested so I said I would be if noone else was.....well, you know the old saying, someone else's scraps are another quilters treasures.....mmm, think I may have made that one up!!!!!
Well Susan's  ' a few' has left me feeling ever so spoilt and humble -

When I opened the box it was like opening a spring loaded fabriclicious Jack-in-the-box as these goodies jumped out!!!!
Susan you are such a honey:) These scraps are currently chatting with my stash - in fact my scraps are a little embarrassed by them, as what I think of as scraps are considerable smaller!!!!!! 
I am a little overawed that so quickly I have been welcomed into the blogworld and have made some lovely friends already - such sharing and warmth and encouragement from people on the other side of the world certainly connects us doesn't it?
AND if that wasn't enough to get my tear ducts going, I then received another package from Michele at Nostalgic Cafe from a giveaway she had hosted

For me who is stuck at home a lot at the moment getting these surprises in the post is really making a huge moment to "celebrate" (that's for you Em) 
So thankyou my blogging peeps - I do appreciate you being out there.
Right - where are the tissues.......
Ciao,