Chocolate wrapped in Kaffe!

It all started comparing favourite Ice cream flavours. Then Mrs Schmenkman told me her favourite chocolate flavour was Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt....to which I said I simply couldn't imagine that flavour - salt....and chocolate? So, she very generously sent me some to try....and yes, it is amazing! You should have seen us, hubby, no. 2 son and I sitting around this afternoon trying out this new taste sensation, what a laugh! But even better, Amy didn't wrap this beautiful chocolate in the usual postal wrapping like bubblewrap or little airbags, no, it came wrapped in wonderful new Kaffe fabric...yummmm!!!

Thanks for spoiling us Amy, the chocolate was delicious (we loved how the salt burst onto your tongue and tickled it as the chocolate melted silky smooth in your mouth!), and the fabric is scrummy. I will take my chocolate wrapped in Kaffe's any day! xo

Mmmmm...

.....not sure! My background fabric for my Jacobs Coat quiltalong arrived yesterday. I ordered Kona cotton in Coal, however it's not as dark as I was hoping for. I think the citrus colours do look lovely on this grey, but I think I was after a darker grey to make the bright colours really jump out. Mmmm.

After a bit of thought I have decided to order the Kona cotton in Charcoal and compare the difference between the two once it arrives. You know how you get that feeling that you are just not quite as happy with something as you feel that you should be? Anyway, it's a relatively cheap fabric to buy, and I will put whichever grey I don't use in this quilt to good use in another one, so I have to wait another week or so before I can start. One day I should deal with my perfectionistic tendancies, but not this time!!!

On a brighter note I did take some photos of some gorgeous flowers in my garden the other day. Don't ask me what they are called, I'm a hopeless gardener, I think they are in the Protea family? Or maybe the Grevillea family?

 Anyway, they are particularly lovely and I like to call this photo Sun Worshippers!!!

Oooh it's raining as I'm typing this, it has cooled things down a little here which is so lovely. I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. xo

Love and Romance

I'm a Kaffe Fassett and Friends fan...I'm sure you have realised that by now?!!! Sarah over at The Last Piece has shown a few sneak peek pics of Kaffe's next book due out next year and it's a stunner (see pics here). How can I wait til then? In the meantime however, I am loving Kaffe's most recent book Quilt Romance. I have now finished his gorgeous IceCream quilt, so my next choice from the book is Kim McLeans beautiful applique quilt called Hearts and Flowers.

 Kim McLean 

Hearts and Flowers Quilt

Of course the most natural fabric choice for a quilt with hearts all over it, coming from a book called Romance, simply has to be Amy Butlers fabulous new range Love.

To which I will add a few of Amy's new solids...I'm still waiting for the periwinkle colour to fly over from America, but aren't these colours sumptuous? Olive, coral, gold and mango, yum.

So I have made a start on the central block...

Kim's applique's are fabulous, especially if you love working on lots and lots of curves! I'm mainly using needleturn applique on this quilt.

For the outer petals of this central block however, I have used an applique method that I have learnt from Kellie at Don't Look Now. Kellie is hosting a fabulous Jacobs Coat Quiltalong which I am joining in on, and she is showing how to make applique using a product I hadn't heard of called stitch & wash fusible. It was fun to make the petals using this method and to try something different.

The petals all cut out and glued, ready for placement.

The petals placed onto the central block ready for stitching.

Amy Butler's Love range lends itself beautifully to Kim's pattern I think. So I have a little stitching work ahead of me.

And speaking of stitching work AND Kellie's quiltalong, the Jacob's Coat quilt is going to be a big committment, but hey, I'm not afraid of committment!!! I have finally chosen the colours of my petals and am rather happy with them...I'm going citrus.

Yellow, orange and green.....lemons, oranges and limes. I'm waiting for my background fabric to find it's way into my letterbox (hopefully early this week), so I will keep that colour a secret til then. You can admire all the wonderfully different and gorgeous blocks people are making in the quiltalong here. Have a fabulous week xo

A Couple of UFO's

Jacquie over at Tallgrass Prairie Studio came up with the wonderful idea of becoming UFO free by the new year. The idea is to join with her to finish off any UFO's you have lurking around your house by the end of this year, thereby starting the new year with all UFO's completed! I do have a few UFO's in my cupboard (who doesn't?) but I just know I am not going to get these finished in the next 7 weeks (yikes, only 7 weeks til 2010?!!). I thought I would dig them out and show you anyway, perhaps this will encourage me to have a stab at getting them closer to becoming finished!!

My first UFO is called Mulberry Leaves from the gorgeous book Mulberry Lane by the talented Teri Christopherson of Black Mountain Quilts.

I fell in love with this gorgeous quilt the first minute I saw it and knew I had to make it exactly the way Teri had done. Stitching on the 316 leaves in needleturn applique proved to be a challenge, but I knew it would be worth the effort in the end.

I love the central block, so simple and yet so pretty.

I adore toile fabrics and this one is gorgeous. The bird and flowers remind me a little of Dr Suess illustrations.

And speaking of toile...my second UFO is another needleturn applique on gorgeous toiles called Pretty in Plaid. I did this quilt as a BOM when I was still fairly new to needleturn applique and wanted a quilt with plenty of applique to practice on. Although the blocks are the same as the original quilt, I did change the layout around a bit. If you haven't recognised it yet, this quilt if from the talented Piece O' Cake girls from their book Contemporary Classics (published 2002 and available now only as a downloadable book).

These four applique blocks gave me so much joy with their bright, cheery colours stitched onto these wonderful toiles.

Plenty of gorgeous curves, circles, and points to practice my applique skills.

I do have a few more UFO's tucked away which I will drag out soon to show you. I'm hoping this will help motivate me to get them finished.

 How many UFO's do you have hidden away in your cupboard? xo

Icecream Licked!

Deb guessed correctly when she said I would quilt my Icecream quilt 'in ripples or swirls or something icecream like'! (Deb has a gorgeous blog called Needles, Sticks and Hooks, she is creating amazing quilty stuff over there!). And yes, I went with the swirls for quilting my Icecream quilt.

Here is an action shot...(melting in the sun over my mosaic fishpond).

And the flat shot....

A photo of the back. I love using up leftovers in the back of my quilts, and as a lovely friend remarked to me today, it makes the quilt reversible!

A close up shot of the swirly ice-cream-like quilting in the sun....

 

I do all my quilting on my domestic Janome 6500p. One of the best hints I have come across for quilting on a domestic machine is to use a new, good quality needle for each quilt. I make sure I clean the lint out of my bobbin area before I quilt too, takes a little time to do but makes a big difference to the smooth running of the machine!

I had to include a closeup photo of the gorgeous orchids that are still going strong (I haven't killed them yet!). Their colours match the quilt beautifully I think!

This one is a keeper for me, I think I will hang it over the back of my lounge, it will match my aqua carpet perfectly.

So the Icecream quilt is done. What next, I haven't quite decided yet, a few ufo's to finish off, not to mention some BOM's to get stuck into! I would love to hear if you have a good tip for successful quilting on your home machine?

Ring Winner & Sue Ross Block 3

I can't believe it's November today, where has this year gone to? As it is now the 1st of November here in Australia, my little giveaway of Louise's beautiful sweet clover stacking rings has now closed.

And with the help of Random.org, I have a winner......
              
          number 23....alobsiger who said... GASP! Louise's work is GORGEOUS, Cathy! Thank you for introducing it to us. Just such beautiful work. Thanks to Louise for the generous giveaway that I would love to see adorning my hand. :-)))

Congratulations Mrs Schmenkman, you WILL be seeing Louise's ring adorning your hand!!! Thank you to everyone who played along. And a HUGE thank you to Louise for your generosity and fabulous jewellery! (and if anyone knows how to get that darn random integrator generator box to show up on your blog, please let me know, I just couldn't figure out how to show it here!!!).

I have also finished my Sue Ross block 3. First my practise block....

I decided to make a practise block for each of these blocks for a couple of reasons. Firstly to give me the confidence to cut into my fabrics from M.O., and secondly so that by the end of this BOM I will have two quilts, one in the pretty range that I ordered from M.O., and the other in a bright colour range, mainly from my Kaffe stash.

Here's my block with the gorgeous fabrics from Material Obsession:

I'm having a blast making these blocks and being challenged to get outside my comfort zone and learn new skills. Ok, I'm off to put the binding on my icecream quilt, can you guess how I quilted it? xo

Up the River!

The wonderful V at Bumble Beans is hosting a 'Wave Runner' Quilt along that I have joined.

At first I was a little concerned....cutting into my beautiful fabrics with a rotary cutter and NO ruler?...but I am a perfectionist, how can I do that? I watched with much interest as V showed a couple of wave runner quilts she had done, and then posted a video tutorial of how to make these interesting quilts. So with V's faith in me, I set off to search my stash for the fabrics I wanted to use.

I love my Kaffe shot cottons so I had to include some of those, also an Amy Butler solid (the pink one, Amy's solids are simply gorgeous!). I threw in a couple of Kaffe prints and my favourite Anna Maria Horner fabric Zinnia Fortune. Once I got the hang of slicing into my fabrics without my ruler, I was hooked. This method is so releasing and easy and fun!

I love seeing what patterns and shapes come out of this freehand way of cutting strips and sewing them together.

This quilt reminds me of a river....water running over rocks, pebbles and sand so I'm calling it 'Up the River'.

Thanks V for hosting such a fun quiltalong, and for your wonderful tutorials that gave me the courage to start!!! xo

Good Enough to Eat

A couple of weeks ago I finished my Icecream quilt top. Just popping in quickly to show you, I'm very behind on my blog reading and commenting, we have our wonderful in-laws staying at the moment, so I can't stay long!

I could just eat this quilt...Kaffe's pastels just look fabulous together.

Mmmm, mouthwatering icecream, sorbet, gelati and strawberry sundaes, yum!

Kaffe's Potentilla fabric fabric reminds me of cherries.

This quilt sewed together quite quickly. The instructions were very exacting and initially I found I was stressing about trying to make sure each side matched up perfectly. In the end I didn't worry about cutting the strips to the exact length. Instead I sewed a couple of strips together, sewed that strip onto the quilt and then just cut the extra length off. This made sewing it much more relaxing and fun.

Is anyone else making this quilt from Kaffe's latest Quilt Romance book? I'm still deciding whether to hand quilt or machine quilt it, I will think about it for a while! I hope your week is wonderful xo

A Jewel of a Friend and a Giveaway

One of the things I love about the internet, is that you can make friends with people who live on the other side of the world, without leaving your house, or even getting out of your pyjamas!! A little while ago I became friends with a wonderful girl, Louise, who lives in Ireland. Louise is a self taught Silversmith who creates amazing jewellery in her little attic studio on her farm, where she lives with her husband and their three young children.

Louise has such an unusual and eye-catching style to her jewellery. I wanted to show off a couple of the pieces she has made for me, as well as some from her Etsy shop 'Made for an Angel'. The first ring I bought from Louise was the 'Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss' ring. The turquoise stone she has used is simply stunning and is set off beautifully by the silver 'petals' surrounding it.

Louise makes her pieces with stunning and interesting gems and stones, sterling silver and sometimes adds a touch of gold, like the centres of the flowers on my next ring, 'Luxury Woodstock'. The stones here are pools of blue Chalcedony, and they look fabulous in their setting with two silver and gold flowers on either side.

These rings are larger and slightly heavier than your usual jewellers rings, but oh-so-comfortable to wear. Louise also makes sweet earrings and gorgeous, statement-piece pendants!

An amazing custom order called Tangles & Swirls!

Check out that stunning moss agate. See more pics here. 

 

Bottom of the Lagoon pendant

You can read a little more about Louise's life on the farm and of her jewellery making exploits through her blog Made for an Angel Jewels. Check out some of her sales items in her Etsy shop to see some of the rings, pendants and earrings she has made and sold. Louise is happy to make custom items and is very convo friendly. Each piece Louise makes comes with her signature stamped on the back and her little heart with wings.

The wonderful news about all of this is that Louise has very generously offered a gorgeous set of clover stacking rings (the ultimate Irish ring experience, see pic below) for me to give away to you, here!

To be included in this giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post by Saturday 31st Oct. I will announce and contact the winner on Sunday 1st Nov Aussie time (please make sure you leave your email address if it's not already in your profile so I can contact you). Louise will custom make these sweet rings for the winner. Good luck xo