The theme for June's STUD swap was texture. I originally had plans of trying smocking or tucking or gathering, but these quickly fizzled out as my first attempt just looked a mess and I was running out of time.



Instead I decided to try a technique that I have had in the back of my mind for ages. I got the idea from this book (can't remember now if I bought it or if it was a gift).

What I did was take a piece of plain fabric and cover it with fusible webbing and then stick lots of scraps on top until the fabric is covered. After ironing in place I then used my machine to sew all over the fabric to secure. I used both running stitch and some of the decorative stitches my machine has.



Then I cut it up and made this quilt.



Adding in a bit of ric rac some and some buttons for a bit of extra texture.



Susi (my STUD partner) sent me a wonderful quilt.



See the shell in the net, all the bubble buttons and the mendocino mermaid. Isn't it great! Thank you so much Susi.



Amelie says a big thank you for all your well wishes (and I do too!). She has decided she wants to stay at home until the plaster comes off. So she is now my official sewing helper!

A long long time ago I signed up for a swap where each person makes a row for everybody else's quilt. We started by making the first row of our own quilts and then posted this to the next person who would add a row and so on. At the end we should all get a quilt back with 6 rows made by 6 different people.

So the theory goes anyway. So far this has been a swap of mixed feelings for me. At the very beginning I just could not decide what I wanted for my row. Did I want a theme? Would that end up too twee? Did I want houses? But then what would I do with it when finished? Finally I decided to use my feathered friends fabric and make "Spring Twirls". I slaved over the blocks to get all my points lined up and everything perfect. Then I sent it off bang on the deadline to the next on the list.

And I heard nothing. Not a peep. After a few emails and a few weeks, I finally heard from that she had received my blocks and had been out of town but had been working on the row. She would post them to the next person on next Wednesday. Great I thought. Phew I am glad my work was not lost.

Then I heard nothing. No photos in flickr, no email. The next on the list had not received my row. This is over a month ago. So I sent another email asking that she just post my original work either back to me or to the next on the list. Again nothing.

Now I am resigned to the fact that my work is lost. But I have to say it makes me sooooo mad. It is one thing to not follow through with a swap you have signed up for but quite another not to return somebody's work to them. I really am extremely annoyed.

Anyway, I had agreed with Carrie (the person sending to me) that she should wait until she had a few rows together before posting to me. I was going to be on holiday and it made more sense for her to mail everything together when I got back. And true to word when I got back from the UK in May a package was waiting for me with 3 rows!

Carrie is using this quilt as inspiration. She wanted a row with a single flower. Sorry for the appalling photo but I was in such a rush to get this finished and into the post.



I found it quite a challenge to make this row. Working on such a scale was hard to get the overall picture of how the block would turn out and also to make sure everything was lined up etc. I have no long rulers which made it particularly hard!

Bobbi wanted a row using kelly green and mid blue. Angela had already made wonky log cabins and Carrie had made a row with squares and rectangles so I added some zig zags.



Angela wanted something circular if possible. She had already started her quilt with a fantastic double wedding ring and Carrie had made some great wheels for the second row. I decided to do some drunkard path circles. This time my calculations were way off and I have ended up with about a trillion spare circles! I think I will make a mini quilt out of those!



Finally as I know I will never see my twirls again, I decided to redo my row. This time I just chose the colours red, white and aqua and the theme anything goes.




Since the next on the list had flaked I felt some pressure to whip out these rows as quick as I could so that Melissa (the last on the list) could finally have something to work on. She was yet to receive a single row.

Unfortunately, after 10 days of solidly sewing, my machine and I were not on speaking terms and my row is not as well made as I would have liked (which is why I only have photos of a couple of the blocks). Not a lot of the points ended up lined up. But you know at this point I just thought bugger it. Sorry but that's how I felt. Now the whole lot is posted off I feel a bit better and once the dust settles might have another bash at both Carrie's flower and my row. But I repeat "might".

Now I am enjoying a break as I only have one row left to do!

I no longer even remember when I started this quilt. It has been sitting in the WIP box for almost forever. I know that I bought the Kaffe Fassett with my Mum long before Amelie was even a twinkle in my husband's eye. But when I actually put it all together - who knows.



I had already done some simple in the ditch quilting. So all that needed to be done was something a little more to make it pop. This is probably why it has been sitting there so long.



I have come to realise that I need to do a lot more actual quilting. The virtual bees have been great for improving my block making skills. Now I need to also focus on my quilting skills.



It certainly feels good though to get another quilt finished. There is almost enough space in my WIP box for a new project!!

Amy from Park City Girl has organised a virtual Quilt Festival! Yippee! I haven't been to a real Quilt Festival for donkey's years so it is so much fun to see everyone participating online.

So we are supposed to choose our favourite quilt and blog about it. Surprise, surprise my favourite quilts are the ones I make for my girls! I couldn't choose just one but instead am going to show you 3! Hope you don't get bored!



The first is a Kaffe Fassett quilt I made for Amelie while she was still in my belly. I knew she was going to be a girl so I chose red, orange and pink. I absolutely adore this quilt even though Amelie ignored it for the first 3 years of her life. But I am pleased to report that it is now her favourite cover for her bed.



Next up is another quilt for Amelie but one I designed myself. Amelie was having problems with her colours. She still does with green and blue but I am pretty sure she isn't colour blind! So anyway, I made this quilt so we could practice recognising colours. At the time her favourite song was "Carola la Caracola" in other words Carola the Snail. So I came up with some little snails and put some velcro on their backs so that she could stick them on the corresponding flower on the quilt. Amelie and Hanna still have great fun with this quilt. Hanna enjoys stealing the snails from Amelie and Amelie enjoys chasing Hanna! Nevermind at least it still gets lots of use!



Finally, there is the number quilt I designed for Hanna. It is supposed to be a garden with different animals hiding behind leaves and flowers. Hanna can play peek-a-boo with the animals and also learn to count.



We hung it in her bedroom but a little bit too high. Next time I have to remember to hang quilts at child level! She can still play with it but has to balance on a stool.




Now go and check out the other quilts. There are some gorgeous ones out there!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. The sun was shining and we used every second of the 4 days together. We went to Tierpark on Friday and saw crocodiles and manatees. Amelie was in heaven with the crocodiles! Luckily we chose to go to Tierpark and not the central zoo which we normally go to. For some reason some crazy lady decided it would be a good idea to go swimming with the polar bears and jumped into the bear enclosure at feeding time. She was obviously mauled pretty badly but what concerns me more is all the kids that were watching. Thank goodness we were not there. (By the way it was not Knut!)

On Saturday Meredith's fabric from the Bee Inspired group arrived and as Luis and the girls were busy in the garden I set to and made these blocks. I think I used every inch of fabric that I received. It was certainly a close call for the final block.







On Sunday Amelie was mysteriously struck down by fever and headache. So Luis and Hanna headed off to church without her. But she perked up in the afternoon and we had an easter egg hunt. Hanna scoffed her chocolate in seconds flat. Her mouth oozing chocolate. She definitely has my genes. Amelie on the other hand continued to hide and re-hunt her chocolate all afternoon and evening. In the end she never ate a single bite. Sometimes I wonder if we are related!

Monday we went off to Rheinsburg. A fantastic Schloss with lakes and grounds. We had a lovely picnic with friends and lazily strolled around the grounds. I took a stack of hexagons with me and managed to finish off another couple of blocks!




So all in all a perfect 4 days! Hope you all had a great time too.

Apparently when I started the race on Sunday Amelie had a breakdown and thought I was never coming back. After crying for a while over the fact I was gone she asked Luis whether she would get a new Mummy. Hmmm. I have to admit that hurt. Obviously if I really was gone I would want her to have someone equally as important but when I just go running for a couple of hours and she requests a replacement.....

So anyway in a bid to win her over I started a new quilt. I know such a hardship for me. Not sure where it is going yet. I was thinking of hexagon blocks rather than an entire quilt of hexagons, but this block got pretty big pretty quickly. So now I am just not sure.



I hope to get a couple more "blocks" done over Easter. I am so far up to date with my quilting bees and as we will have no post over the next few days there will be no chance that the next lot of fabric arrives!

Hope you all have a good Easter. We have had such a fantastic week of good weather I just hope it holds over the holiday weekend. Sod's law says it will pour down.

Hooray and we have been outside enjoying the wonderful weather. Just in time I discovered the perfect project to take to the playground. Hexagons!

I am busy cutting hundreds of hexagons to make a quilt for Amelie and Hanna. I can tuck a few in a bag when we head off outside and sit on the edge of the sandpit and quite happily tack a few to paper while Amelie and Hanna are playing. Bliss!



This block however is on its way to Katy as part of the Cottage Quilting Bee.



Along with this block. I think it will find a happy home judging by Katy's house! And I would die for that sofa!

I finally decided on the bird blocks for the Row Robin and they are winging their way to Tracey as I write. Can't wait to get Carrie's row!






In other news we are eating LOTS of ice cream. Somehow we decided this was a good treat for Amelie if she managed to go without nappies for the day. And with such incentives she has been pretty much dry for almost a week!

This week I have been having a taster of what it is like to have 3 little girls under 3! Phew! By the end of the week I needed to lie in a dark quiet corner for a few minutes! I don't know how people do it with 3 kids so close together. It has certainly made me think if (and I mean IF) we try for a third child it has to be when Hanna is much older!



Anyway by the end of the week all I was fit for was sewing along the dotted line. The Block of the Month (BOM) from Twiddletails was a perfect fit. This months block is called Goose Bumps and is straightforward.

I have been wanting to do something for the poor people who have lost everything in the fires in Victoria. The Bushfire Quilt Project run by Tia was the perfect opportunity. If you haven't already heard about it, Tia is asking people to make Maverick or Wonky star blocks and send them to her by the end of March. She will then make them into quilts to be distributed to familes who have nothing. Maybe give them a little comfort. In any case it is good to feel that I am doing something as I can't go and volunteer there.

My Little Snail quilt is finally finished. I have to say I love this quilt.

I used bits of yellow, red and pink fabrics and some white that I had stamped with little snails and flowers.

I have been binding 6 quilts over the last couple of days so I thought I would take a few photos and share with you how I do it. Hope this makes sense!

1. To make one long strip of fabric for the binding it is likely that you will need to sew several smaller strips together. When you sew the strips together you want to reduce bulk as much as possible. To do this sew diagonal seams. Lay your strips at right angles to each other with right sides facing.




2. Sew diagonally from the top left hand corner to the bottom right hand corner.
   
   


3. Trim the extra fabric from the seam. Leave about 1/4 inch (6mm)
   
   

   



4. Open seam and press.
   
   

   

TIP: Always make more binding than you think is necessary. It is better to have too much than too little!

Attach Binding To Quilt

1. Leave a tail of about 3 inches (10 cm) Sew the binding to the quilt and stop when you are 1 / 4 inch (6mm) from the corner. Backstitch to secure and cut the thread. Remove from your machine.




2. Fold the strip back on itself diagonally.
   
   


3. Fold the strip down and sew from the end (with a 1/4 inch or 6mm seam allowance). Repeat this for every corner.
   
   


4. When you are only a few inches from where you started the binding, backstitch and cut the thread and remove from your machine. Fold the strips of binding under so that there is about 1/8 inch (3mm) gap between the ends of the binding. Pin to mark.
   
   


5. Put the strips together so that the right sides are facing and the strips are at right angles to each other. Sew diagonally from the top right corner to the bottom left corner. Open up seam and check against your quilt to check it fits. (If not undo and repeat) If the binding is correct, cut the extra bulk from the seam. Finish sewing the binding to the quilt.
   
   


6. You should now have the binding attached to the quilt. Hand stitch the back of the binding in place.