Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2013 - Throw quilt

This is my second entry into the fabulous Bloggers Quilt Festival held twice a year.  This entry is for the throw quilt category.  I was really excited when Melissa announced she was going to have  a quiltalong for her Starburst quilt. I loved her version as soon as I saw it, so jumped at the chance to make my own version. I wanted to use a color palette that was bright and fresh, but would have contrast against the Kona Snow.  I have used some of fav fabric ranges and designers in this quilt...Lucky Penny, Simply Color, DS, Lizzy House, and Joel Dewberry.

Melissa's instructions were super easy to follow and I love how this has turned out.  For the back I wanted colours that complemented the front so went for a pieced back using Joel Dewberry's Heirloom and Kona solids.  The binding is Michael Miller's Cotton Couture Violet. I free motion quilted it on my Bernina using an all over stipple.  

Some of the family pets are grazing behind us :).

Be sure to visit all the other amazing quilts in the Bloggers Quilt Festival

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2013 - Home machine quilt

I love the Blogger's Quilt Festival and look forward to it each time it comes around. So much amazing creativity and inspiration.  I am submitting my Birds and Bees Quilt that I finished in November last year.  I think Birds and Bees by Tula Pink is my all time fav of all her ranges.  I was lucky enough to have a jelly roll of this so used the "Dripping with Diamonds" pattern from Jelly Roll Dreams by Pam and Nicky Lintott.  The jelly roll wasn't quite enough for all the diamonds, so I ordered more of my favourite fabrics from the range to make up the rest and to add to the back. I used Kona solids for the background and diamond centres.

I think I am particularly drawn to this range as it has many of my fav colours in it and I just adore those little ladybirds!

For the back I used my 3 fav fabrics and a Kona solid "Green Tea" which went really well with the purples and blues and I used a Deb Strain stripe for the binding. 

I straight line quilted it on my Bernina as I thought this would show off the diamonds better. I wanted the fabric to be the focus not the quilting.

I think this is one of my all time fav quilts and it gets used all the time as a snuggle quilt.

Be sure to visit all the other amazing quilts in the festival

New Acquisitions

Haven't done a lot of sewing over the last month...main reason is I took the family to Surfer's Paradise for a holiday. Now, before you get too excited and think how lucky I was, I went with 5 teenagers and my hubby! Hardly a holiday....Seriously though, it wasn't as bad as I was dreading and I did have enjoy myself.  We must have looked a sight walking from to our hotel though...

We had lots of fun doing the theme parks, shopping, walking along the beach, and just relaxing...

The 5 kids..Sarah, Jordan, Keegan, Nick and Hannah

 Hannah and me.

Superman rollercoaster at Movie World...I did not go on this

But I did go on the log flume at Sea World!

Before I went I did order some books from Fishpond which arrived while I was away. I got 2 of Sarah Fielke's books, Hand Quilted with Love, and Quilting From Little Things and Tula Pink's new book Tula Pink's City Sampler.  Love all of these books.  Already bookmarked a couple of quilts I just have to start!  Am going to join Sara's Sew-Along with the Tula Pink book.

And the latest addition is this....

He was found abandoned and I am such a soft touch. Look where I found him this morning...

Sewing Summit 2013 & Lucky Stars BOM

YAY!!!! I am going to Sewing Summit in Utah in September. Tickets went on sale today so I was up at 4am New Zealand time (10am MST) to make sure I got a ticket as they sold out so quickly last year! We were already going to be going to San Francisco around that time so it seemed only right I should go to Sewing Summit as well.  So I have just booked all my tickets....Tony and I are flying to Salt Lake City for 5 days for Sewing Summit, then fly to Fresno and then drive to Yosemite for 5 days and then up to San Francisco for a week.  He has been googling things to do in SLC while I am at Sewing Summit, but he is quite capable of amusing himself for those days. I am so excited...it will be great to meet people I have met only online and put faces to names. 

My latest finish is the April Lucky Stars block.  I love the Micro Mod fabric and definitely want more of this. I am getting to the end of my Architextures fabric as well....definitely one of my fav ranges as well.

Tallahassee blocks

The latest bee blocks are for Kristin in the Modern Stash bee. She requested modern fabrics with a cream or ivory low volume background.  I had just recently ordered a bunch of fabrics from Becca at Sew Me A Song which were just perfect.

I love how these have turned out and will upsize the block to make a quilt using my Flea Market Fancy.

Easter at the beach

We have sold the permanent caravan at the Mt, so now we are looking at holidaying at other places around NZ.  Tony was supposed to be in Uruguay for work but he came back early so it was the whole family and Hannah's boyfriend Connor.  I booked a bach at Cooks Beach for Easter as I have never been there.  The place was just across the road from the beach and had everything we needed and more.  The weather was a bit cooler than it has been and we had the first cloudy days in ages, but we didn't mind at all.   Only had my iphone for photos, sorry.

The kids dug holes...

we walked down the beach...

we caught the ferry to Whitianga across the bay...

looked in the public library....

and popped into the general store that sold everything, even "designer" dresses apparently!!!

Yesterday we visited Hahei and Cathedral Cove.  To get to Cathedral Cove it is a 45 minute walk through farmland, bush and sandy bays. 

It was just stunning when we got there though and well worth the walk.

And then we topped off the day with a relax at Hot Water Beach which has a geothermal stream running through part of it. You take your own spade or hire one there and dig a hole, sit and relax...great for those aching muscles after the Cathedral Cove climb! We did under-estimate the amount of people there tho!

Us in our hole! That's me on the left in the black and white, Sarah, Connor, Sarah, random stranger and Nick in the front.

And to prove it was not entirely without quilting I did find an old but great condition edition of 120 Patterns for Traditional Patchwork Quilts.  It was $1 at a second hand market and although it uses templates, I can easily convert these to designs that I can paper piece of rotary cut.Some great blocks in there I have never seen before.

Ipad Mini case

I bought myself an iPad Mini last year and haven't had much luck finding a case for it. Never mind I thought...I will just make one.   I used Faith's tutorial which was easy peasy to follow. I had to calculate the fabric sizes though and had an oopsie with my rotary cutter after I had put the zip in, so it is a little snugger than I would have liked, but it's still easy to get in and out of the case.

For the inside I used a Denyse Schmidt fabric that I picked up from Spotlight last year. It goes perfectly with the blue and green of the case.  And it highlights that stray thread I forgot to snip perfectly!!