let me show you my gorgeous hoops

 Recently the QB5 group had a challenge where we each sent the others an assortment of things and we could make whatever we liked, we could use everything we were sent, or we could leave a few things out or we could add a couple of our own things to the mix.

Above is the selection I sent each of the girls, Linda, Patty, Nathalie and Margaret. (You'll find their links on the right - just look for QB5)

This is what the girls made...

 This is the hoop Linda made for me. it is amazing, Linda has made a wee fabric book with pages containing quirky stitcheries and little pockets with lovely vintage buttons and flowers! 

Then the next hoop to delight me was made by Patty. She used an old doily that used to belong to her mother and a beautifully stitched hanky. Very pretty and feminine!

I was so excited to see how everyone had used the package of goodies I sent them. The next to arrive was Margaret's lovely hoop. It has paper collaged round the outside of the hoop, I loved how she combined the paper and the fabric!

And the last hoop to arrive was Nathalie's, and it was well worth the wait!

Lady Peel was very well endowed with buttons and lace and stitching! She even has a lucky charm with her.

Then the last hoop to share is the one I made.

Thank you so much girls for yet another exciting and challenging swap. You have all made such a lovely job of crafting my hoops, they are all different, but with a sameness. I love the textures and I love how they have all "seen" something different from the things I sent them. Now I just need to find somewhere to display them.

What do you think? Aren't I lucky to have such clever girlfriends?

Carole:)

Rrrrrrrr me hearties!

Every fortnight at work our team has a shared morning tea. Mmmm nice you're thinking, well these morning teas also have a theme. Last week the boss was tasked with setting a theme and bringing the morning tea.

The theme was Pirates. Of course my challenge was to turn myself into a pirate using only what I had at home.

First off a good pirate always has a treasure map and some loot! An old small suitcase, some jewels, a shell or two and some chocolate coins.

The treasure map was made from some tissue paper Patty sent me which I stitched to a piece of handmade paper that had lovely tatty edges.

Then I decided that my head scarf and all the dangly bits looked great, but I needed something else? And then I remembered that all the best pirates have their very own first mate - a parrot!

Here he is above, resting after his big day out :)) I couldn't work out a way to attach him to my shoulder, so he had to be content with sitting on my headband! 

I had so many neat remarks about him that I hardly took him off all day! I did take my scarf off and all the bits that were attached to it. (I think people in the office are getting used to my quirky ways now! LOL)

 The boss made some lovely morning tea for us all, way too nice to want to eat - a chocolate cake trunk full of chocolate coins and sweets. Yumm!!

However, back home, this is what my sewing tables looked like!!

Not a square inch of room! All in the quest for fun :)) Bet you don't know what I spent the evening doing!

Hope you're having fun this week!

Carole :)

Thank you and progress report

Thanks to you all for the great ideas and suggestions for help with this quilt top. I read thru them all with interest, some I thought were very good ideas, and some made me laugh. So thanks!! 

 Can you guess what I've been doing? There has been a lot of this happening in my sewing room of late, my trusty friend the Quick Unpick to the rescue. In fact I think I've nearly worn the blade out!!

Just when I've rechecked everything and pinned and measured again and think things are falling into place nicely, this happens for absolutely no reason whatsoever!

I guess everyone has to make at least one problem quilt in their lifetime of quilting :) But it's beginning to test my patience!

So here is an update of where it's at right now. HA! And you thought it's be locked in a cupboard didn't you? No, it's starting to take shape, some sort of shape, actually I'll be happy with whatever shape I get out of it! LOL I love that fabric and it still looks gorgeous. Think I might do some minor embellishing too, thanks to those who suggested it.

Well must dash and do some more sewing to unpick! hahaha Hope you're all having a great weekend,
Carole :)

It's all about tearing your hair out!

Do you remember this fabric I bought recently?

Well my aim was to make a quilt using the brown fabric at the top as a feature fabric because I couldn't bear to cut it up into small pieces.

So I have been busy measuring and cutting and sewing and it was progressing nicely.

I am using a pattern from the book Two From One Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott. I was thrilled with the progress, the fabric looks gorgeous.

However, shortly after I laid the blocks out on the bed in the pattern things started to get ugly! LOL

It quickly turned into an exercise of frustration as I started sewing the blocks together and realised that no matter what I did my points weren't going to meet. grrrrrr

 

I went back and remeasured everything, all my squares and my seam allowances. The tiny triangles on the corners are too small. Even a blind man could see that! However, when I unpicked one it was cut exactly the right size.

I even emailed the authors of the book who emailed me back a very lovely email, but the bottom line isn't pretty. To fix the problem I'd have to unpick a LOT of stitching and buy more fabric and re-sew everything. 

I was thinking that maybe I should change the pattern some so that no one knows that I've made the grandest botch up of all time?

What do you think if I put all these blocks together, and maybe put the nine patch blocks round the outside?

Of course if you tell anyone I stuffed up big time, I'm going to have to hunt you down! LOL

Back to the sewing room......Carole :)

 

 

If you happen to be in Wellington this weekend......

The bunting in action

Remember the bunting I made for my boss?

Well today was her last day at work before she gets married and I got a chance to hang her bunting above her desk.

We had loads of fun making sure she enjoyed her day. We covered her desk in tinsel and paper confetti, and sneaked some into her handbag and draws, hung balloons and streamers and made large signs that notified everyone getting out of the lifts that we had a Bride To Be in our office.

And I decided to make a special bridal headpiece for her to wear in the office  :)))

And just before our very special afternoon tea, two of us discreetly disappeared down to the car park and wrapped her car in toilet paper!

It was a day of never-ending surprises and lots of laughs. (especially when she glanced out the window and spotted her car two stories below with bits of toilet paper blowing off it from it in the wind!)

Then before I went home she asked if she could keep the pretty bridal headband. I think she liked that more than anything else!

I hope she has a lovely day on Saturday!

Carole :)

A need to quilt

I'm quilting again....

haven't done any quilting for ages, but this nice Moda Jelly roll was too much of temptation - it's called "La Petite Ecole" and it's by French General, as if you didn't already know!!

just adding a few of these

to some of these. Am trying to have large blocks so that I can see this fabric, would be such a shame to have to cut it into small blocks.

I'll keep you posted. 

Carole :)

Recovering...

I'm back home after a visit with my family, where I was totally 

spoilt with lovely roses beside my bed.

It was a lovely break and I got to visit some interesting quilt stores along the way, and of course I had to make a few small purchases!

But mostly I'm recovering from the fairytale wedding last night. 

Weren't they the perfect couple? 

Kate with her radiant smiles looking beautiful and confident,  

and William handsome and deeply in love...

I am sure Diana would have been very proud of her son.

Simple, classic and elegant.

Carole :)

Make any exciting purchases over Easter break?

I found this which I just had to have, it's a lovely linen blend.

 And this which happens to be from the Moda stable. 

Now just have to dream up something yummy to use them on.

Anyone make any exciting purchases over Easter?

Carole :))

Winter has arrived...

...and Buddy is making himself at home in front of the heat of the fire.  :)

Who owns this place?

Oh well, at least he's happy!

Happy Easter everyone :))

Carole

A project almost finished

 

Chances are you've already heard about the swap challenge that's happening 

between Nathalie, Linda, Patty, Margaret and myself. 

The idea was to send out a selection of items which the girls were 

free to make whatever they liked from them. We had to use as many as the 

things we received, however we were able to add a few extras if we wanted. 

Well here are the items I sent out to the girls.

What do you see in this pile?

I've beavered away making the other four and they are all arriving at their destinations.

All I have to do now is finish my own piece. 

If you'd like to check out the other swaps, you'll find the girls blogs on the right

we're the QB5 Team.

Carole :)

Well I cleaned again today, but only cos my sewing desk was so messy!!

Which means I can now use my desk!!

Which is great, because I wanted to make a bunting.

For a girl who is getting married soon.

I wanted to make it out of as much recycled materials as possible. 

So I used pages from an old book.

I coloured the edges with the ink from a Distress Inks stamp pad.

Then scrunched up some tissue paper and stapled it to a flag.

Then thought it just needed something else - 

I lightly rubbed the stamp pad over the tissue flowers.

Perfect.

They are to hang over her desk at work, I'll take a photo of them when they're hanging up.

I think I like having a clean desk!

Hope you're all having a great weekend,

Carole :)

I cleaned today which means one thing....

(working on a new journal with the girls in the class)

I'm a little upset.

I have a history.  I always clean when I'm upset.

In fact if you come to visit and the house is messy, then it's an indication that I'm in a fantastic mood! 

Yesterday I went to visit with a store owner, she was keen to see my journal, and we were to discuss the possibility of me running a class. Yay! 

After leaving me for 1 and 1/2 hours she told me she didn't want to run journal classes as no one would want to take them. 

I actually think it's a New Zealand thing.

I put my gracious face on and thanked her for the feed back. 

Looks like I'll have to be content with the internet love I get from my online students!

But now I'm interested, what do you do when you're upset??

Carole :(

Can you help?

OK so I'm stumped, so I'm just going to face up to it and ask for help :)

I want to add a translator button to my class blog which is private. I found one and added it to this blog and the class blog, it works on this one and not the class one. I found another translate button (with coloured flags) but it didn't work on the class blog either.

Does it have something to do with my settings? Please someone switch the light on for me please!

Carole :)

something from the garden

I delightful little journal especially for my mushrooms.

Just the right size to pop in my bag with my pencil and pen :))

Have a lovely week everyone

Carole x