Another Owlie Aussie Hero Quilt

I remember years ago telling people I wouldn't EVER make a quilt, and yet here I am showing off another quilt I've made....so far, all my quilts have been for Aussie Hero Quilts, but I hope to change that soon, and will have some up for sale!

Here's the latest quilt I've made for an Aussie Hero who is currently deployed overseas....I know this person wouldn't have a clue who I am, let alone be one of my blog readers, so feel safe in sharing pics of it with you.  Like me, this person is an owl lover (I really wish we had an official name, such as owlists or something, but we don't 'insert sad face' )

This quilt is made using the quilt as you go (QAYG) method, where you quilt each block individually then join them, I chose to join them where you add fabric strips front and back, then attach the next block to the back strip then flip the front strip over and sew it down.  Sounds confusing, but it's not really lol

I don't know why, but I seem to gravitate towards double sided or reversible quilts, and this one didn't escape!  The above pic shows either the front or back, depending on which side you prefer to call them!  Below shows what would normally be the back of the quilt, as it has the label on it, but I would happily use it as the front too....I quite like labels on the front, why hide them away I say lol

Yes, some of the blocks are wobbly....on purpose!

I actually 'free handed' the writing on the label....not bad considering I didn't have any lines to follow....even if I do say so myself  hee hee



At times, the recipients (or the person requesting a quilt on their behalf) also request a laundry bag for them....I had a few leftover blocks, so incorporated them into the laundry bag, so it matches the quilt.

The quilt and laundry bag went off in the post to it's forever home on Monday....hopefully it arrives safe and sound and the recipient loves the 'hooty hugs' in the form of a quilt.

If you have some extra quilting fabric you no longer want, or would like to become involved with Aussie Hero Quilts, then please pop an email off to the Matriarch (she'll kill me when she sees I've called her that again bahahaha) better known as Jan-Maree HERE  or if you'd like to see all the other quilts being churned out Australia wide then click HERE  You don't have to be able to sew to get involved....obviously that skill helps, but you can always donate some mailing bags/satchels/boxes or some fabric, or even Spotlight gift cards to assist JM with purchasing fabrics to be used on quilts and laundry bags.  It's a great way to say thank you to our guys and gals that get deployed overseas.

Around The World Blog Hop & a Giveaway

Please click to play the video I've popped in this post whilst you have a read...fitting song, yes? no?  I thought of it as soon as my online friend Maria of Mia Creates blog fame asked me if I'd like to participate in this blog hop.  If you'd like to read her post about the Around The World Blog Hop, please click HERE.

Before I go on, I guess I should let you know a few facts about me, that you may or may not already know....

•  I was due to  be born on December 13th, I kind of went dormant (shuddup, it doesn't explain anything, let alone alot about me lmao) for about 2 months,  but back in that era, if the baby was still alive, they let you cook as long as you wanted, within reason, and so I arrived on February 22nd, weighing in at a healthy by the late 60's standard baby weights...9lb's 10 oz's.
• My favourite colour is purple, has been for years....but it used to be a different colour.....can you guess what colour it was?  See below for the giveaway.
• I love owls, and have lots of hooty gear and fabric...but always on the lookout for more....hey, it's not a collection once you stop collecting...at least that's what I keep telling people lol
• I have 1 daughter (almost 29 yrs old, tomorrow in fact.....Happy Birthday baby girl, love you xxx) and 1 son (16 years old), my daughter has given me two wonderful gifts, in the form of my 2 gorgeous granddaughters, and this is my all time favourite pic of them both.

The big sister on the left is TaShie and she turned 7 years old last week, and the little cutie on the right is Justice and she will be 1 yr on January 1st 2015

Now, it's time to get on with the 'official' blog hop stuff.....I have some questions to answer now, as part of the hop, so for new readers, you can learn a little about crazy ol' me lol  *Rubs hands together.....come in to my parlour said the spider to the fly!*

1. What am I working on? 

I am thinking I should be narrowing this down to just one thing, but pffft, as if I ever have just one thing on the go....maybe in an alternative universe I'm that good, but now, in this world, I tend to have lots of things on the go, and have to eventually get around to finish them...hopefully! Recently, I made 2 Bionic Gear Bags, for 2 very close friends (1 is my bestie!)....I really need to make me one, because Terri and Marc, well more so Terri, keeps rubbing my nose in it, that they've got BGB's and I haven't lol  Here's their two that I made.

 The above 2 pics are of Marc's, and the 2 pics below are Terri's, which you can tell from her name badge!

If you'd like to make a Bionic Gear bag for yourself, click HERE to purchase the pattern.  If you happen to leave a comment on that site, be sure to tell 'Ripstitcher' that I sent you!

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

There's a genre for 'crazy lady crafter who can't make up her mind what she wants to make'??? lol  I didn't think so, but to answer the question....I believe my work differs from others within the same genre spectrum by the choices in fabric I make....I have a large collection (always sounds nicer than stash don't you think?  Plus I have run out of spots to 'stash' my fabric anyway haha) of fabric that I've been collecting for years, so some is more dated to say the least.  This is a pic of just part of my collection of fabric....the collection kind of spans across a few bedrooms and the living room/lounge room!

3. Why do I create what I do? 

 Simple answer.....because!  I know that's not an explanation as to why, but it's why I create the things I do....because I can....is that a better answer? lol  I enjoy creating things, whether they be my own design, or using a tutorial or pattern that someone else has designed.

4. How does my writing/creating process work?

The longest part of my creative process, is deciding which fabric or fabrics to use....seriously I pick a pattern out (sometimes that takes a while to do as well) and immediately I have a mental picture form in my head of what fabric I can see the item being made in, then I have to go find the fabric to complete the puzzle.....doesn't always happen.....sometimes I make do with an alternative fabric, mostly though, I go and acquire the necessary fabric choice at the shops or online....ahem, so what if it's self enabling!

If you had asked me 7 years ago, if I'd ever make a quilt, then I would probably still be laughing at you...I used to joke around in a friends online group, that I was never going down the quilting vortex, but now, I've made a few quilts, some were following patterns and some were just what I like to call 'put togethers' as in you have a pile of blocks and you work out how many are needed for the desired quilt size (which in my case, is usually for Aussie Hero Quilts) and sew them together....Shock, horror and amazement, I even FMQ (Free Motion Quilt) most of  them myself lol

*Insert drumroll* My nominations for next Mondays (8th September) Around the World Blog hop posts are:-

Patricia whom I met just a short while ago via Facebook, and I was laughing as she'd put links to blogposts in the FB group showing her messy sewing room....between you, me and the lamp post, hers is like a showroom studio at it's worst compared to mine at its best...and no, I'm not showing you mine lol  To read her Around the world blog hop post, click HERE next Monday and whilst you're there, consider following her blog....she doesn't have many followers, and I think she deserves millions :)

In my efforts to find another person to participate in the blog hop, I asked Marc from Daisy-Jayne...you might remember her from the FRIENDS swap last year....we ended up partnered together....and just so happen to live in neighbouring towns...so we manage to catch up at least once a fortnight, if not more often.  She's crazy, vivacious, creative, clever and oh so funny.  Go on over and check out her blog post, by clicking HERE.

I'll be popping a reminder post up next monday in case you forget to go check their blogs out!

Ok, now for the giveaway.....if you would like the chance to be the lucky new owner of this item

then please leave a comment saying what you think my favourite colour USED to be....it's purple now.....but that's not what I used to favour......all correct answers will go into the draw, and on 15th September, I will use the random number generator to pick the lucky winner.....open to everyone....international entries welcome.

Another update

Edited 4th August 2014:  I am soooo, so very sorry, I thought this post had already gone up...and it was indeed scheduled for publishing on 18th July, but for some reason it didn't post.....with all that went on with the blog 'adjustments' I'm still trying to fine tune a few things, so I've been having a look here and there, and I found this in my draft folder....oh well, I'll publish it now so you can see the hooty quilt, finally!!

 I've just spent the last couple of hours trying to find more details about a quilt pattern I tested for someone...I know we were corresponding through my Gmail account, and I normally save 'special' emails into folders, but for the life of me, I can't find any from her to me or me to her anywhere in my Gmail.

I can however let you know that I first had contact with her a couple of years ago, and then her life got in the way and I didn't hear back from her regarding the test pattern again, until I think it was either late last year or early this year.....I'm going to go with early this year, because then I don't feel so bad at only sharing the pics of the quilt now.

As you may all know, I kind of have a soft spot for owls..well derr lol  So it was a no brainer when Sue Lynn contacted me to see if I was still interested in testing the pattern for her.  Here's the link to her blog, where you can keep updated with any future patterns she releases....now with disclosure in mind, I must tell you, that her owl quilt pattern is actually needleturned, which I didn't do....yet, but will be, however I did thoroughly read her pattern, and could follow it along, and found no errors.

Yes, yes, I know, stop waffling Naomi and just show us the pics!

 The test blocks were mixed in with both donated blocks and some I made to fill in the spaces....and was sent off to an Aussie Hero, to thank her for her time away from home.  Below are a few close ups of the owl blocks.  The quilt request was for owls and pastels....I think I nailed it didn't I?  I must've, because I received a lovely email saying how much the quilt meant to the new owner....R! (Name withheld for privacy reasons)

 Below you can see the 'cheater' Paris fabric I used on the back, this was donated to AHQ by Berri Uniting Church, and it works great as backing, even though its a bit too pretty really!

 And of course, a close up of the quilt label.....I like to add mine to the front usually, but broke my tradition and added this one on the back.....I also like to add them before the quilting is done, so there's no chance of it falling off at some stage!

Ooooh, and before I forget, I FMQ'd this myself....and yes, I am crap at it....but it's done with love....now if I can just get my hand/foot synchronisation happening, I won't get all those loooonnnnng stitches every now and then, and those pesky eye lashes on the back.....need more practice = good excuse to make more quilts right?

See anything different?

Yesterday sometime, I got an email from a company asking me to remove a link from my blog as they were getting into trouble with Google about it.....after another email back and forth between us, it turns out, it was in teeny weeny print down the bottom of the blog....who even looks down there on my blog?  I certainly don't lol

So, I decided that as my blog background host no longer offers the free version of the background I was using, that I would go with a different one altogether, as it seemed the almost defunct version of my blog template was where this mystery link was from.

As the line from one of my favourite movies goes (ala Pretty Woman fame) big mistake, HUGE

I lost everything apart from my posts, about me and one other thing....it was bare bones....skeletal even....so I started messing some more, tried a couple more templates, and again found out it 'stole' stuff and wouldn't give it all back to me, so I rolled up my sleeves, put on my big girl panties and messed around with html (woah, isn't that a scary thing to try and 'speak' eeeek lol) and have now got a blogger hosted template, my own taste in colours somewhat, and I'm supposed to even have a different font, yet as I sit here and type this, the font looks the same....will pass judgement when I click publish lol

For those with eagle eyes, you may have noticed that I've changed the name of the blog....this is to reflect the labels I sew onto items I make (apart from Aussie Hero Quilts, they have official labels on them) and will be matching the name of my new online shop that I'm opening up soon...much to my daughters' dismay, it still isn't open....feel free to keep commenting to tell me to hurry up and open it up....my daughter will love you eternally for being motivational to her ever so procrastinational (is that even a word?  If not, I claim it as my blondinese invention!) mother lol 

I don't believe I've ever done a post without a pic, so will find one to add in here, as with everything else that's gone on here today, I'd hate to start posting with no image to entice you all in lol

I'll try and minimize the amount of changes I make to the blog, and for those whose buttons I had on the side bar...please comment so I can visit your blog or site and add them back on.....soooooo frustrated I tell ya!

Healing Heart quilt finished

Following on from yesterdays post, here are the pics of the completed Healing Heart Quilt for my friend Pat at Lake Bonney Quilting group.  She was presented with the quilt yesterday, and was overwhelmed to put it mildly.

As you may all know, healing heart blocks are made by several people and then joined together, either by the recipient, or, as in the case of this quilt, by one of the quilters (OMG, did I just clasify myself as a quilter? lol) who made a block.

 As I mentioned yesterday (at least I think I did), I put the blocks together using QAYG....no fancy quilting, I just quilted around the hearts on the blocks.

 Above, is the label for the quilt, which I put on the front (which is kind of my trademark if you've seen the Aussie Hero Quilts I've made) as we were one block short to make an even amount, and I didn't want to relegate 3 peoples' blocks to the back of the quilt!  Talking of the back of the quilt, there's a bit of a story attached to that.....I cut up the red check patterned fabric into squares to use as backing, and ended up being a couple short......grrrrrrrrrrrr so what was a gal to do, but go find another fabric in her stash to mix with it......I think the red blender fabric works well with it, and as you can see in the pic below, makes a great secondary quilt should Pat ever want the hearty hugs closer to her.

Now, I'm all for finding techniques on the net and trying them out, and the binding on Pats' quilt was one of those times.....I tried and tried to see how THIS technique would work out in my mind, and then just decided I would have to try it....so cut, sew, attach, 7-8 hours of hand stitching the binding down and voila.....two sided binding technique......check  It's amazing how it turned out, even if I do say so myself....no sections where the dividing seam wasn't on the edge of the quilt and I highly recommend the tutorial to anyone who is looking for a binding that's a little bit different.  If you want to try it out yourself, click the above link to the tutorial.

So, there you have it.....another quilt made and gifted to someone in need.  I think those types of quilts are the best, coz you get the warm fuzzies when you see the delight on the recipients' face, or get a note/email saying how receiving the quilt made them feel.  I love that feeling.

Hero Uniform transformation

A while ago, I pleaded with an 'Army' friend, to part with a couple of his old Army shirts so I could make an Army bag out of it....such as the military bags you see in the U.S.A  After a little coaxing, and the promise that he could have one of the bags to give to someone as a gift, so long as I got to keep one for me....he relented and sent me 2 shirts.

I've sat and deliberated over them for a couple (maybe it's a few!) weeks, trying to pluck up the courage to cut into at least one of the bags....Yesterday became the do or die day....and I hacked and sewed and designed on the fly.....here's the fruits of my labours.

This is the shirt in it's uncut state.

In case you're wondering, I've smudged out his name badge, to protect his identity...but on the actual bag, the name shows up....I just don't think I should be brandishing his name about in cyber space....but around South Australia on my bag, it'll be fine lol

Then, after holding my tongue to the west and the scissors to the east, and with a snip snip here and a snip snip there, I had gone too far to stop.

I managed to get a fairly decent size tote/shoulder bag, a zippered pouch and a coin purse/phone holder out of the one shirt...you beauty...that means there'll be enough for me to make me a decent sized bag, and maybe a coin purse like the one pictured below.

I removed the Aussie logo off the sleeve and sewed it (yes, I must've had my eyes crossed when I lined it up for middle....I should've used a tape measure huh?) onto the panel for the zippered pouch.

So, there you have it, bag one.....bag two to follow soon-ish....as I have 2 baby bags to make ASAP and also some Christmas Pressies I hope to achieve, along with the binding on a very special Aussie Hero Quilt for one of the girls at my quilting groups son....who we get to present it to him on 18th December.  Hopefully I'll be able to share pics of him with his quilt...will let you know.  Till next time...happy sewing.

Latest show n tell

Just recently I shared the pics of the items I made for the F-R-I-E-N-D-S Swap for Marcia (Marc - pronounced Marse for those who thought it might be pronounced Mark!) well I made her a couple more things, one was for her birthday and the other was a new tutorial I found and wanted to try!  Actually both were online tutorials, one a printed one, and one was a video one that doesn't really have a pattern, so I 'winged' it haha

So the above shows the twisted drawstring/dilly bag I made her....it's an interesting technique and I think would look great in any fabrics.

Next up, I made Marc and Terri tissue holders.....doesn't sound anything flash or anything, except I think I really, really like the shaped top on these...I've made the straight edged ones in abundance, but these are going to be one of my "go-to" projects for pressies.  I found the tutorial here.

The bottom pic shows Terri's tissue holder and she wanted me to take a pic of it with her owl pendant....so you should've seen her leaning over the cutting mat, but trying to keep her out the pic at the same time....it was very funny, especially as I didn't tell her I'd zoomed in and wouldn't have got her in the pic anyway....lol

Next up, is a couple of pincushions I made, these were a printout that someone gave to me, as she had found it online, but the printout doesn't show whose tutorial it is sorry.

In the quilting group I go to here in the Riverland, we ran a Birthday block swap this year, and whilst I've taken pics of the blocks I've made, they're all on my old pc that needs some TLC before I can access them, so here's the latest one, which was for Pat M and she wanted animal blocks, so I did her an elephant applique (it's actually a softie elephant, but I just used the shape for the applique!) and gave her the bottom pincushion in the pic above....as it has an owl on it, so she'll remember who made her the pincushion.

I've also made an owl block....it's not finished yet.....still got to stitch around the edges...but I'm trying to decide whether to reverse sew the 'tree' sections, find some more brown tone-on-tone fabric and re do the claws and tree or whether to do faux ankles in the gap I've acquired in between the feet and the bottom of the owl.....decisions decisions, but until I decide, it looks nice on my design wall.

Oh, and the need to be centralized too, as I seem to have moved on from wonky eyes....to wonky feet lol  The block is from Vol 7 of 100 Blocks Magazine.

Above are some scrappy blocks I'm putting together for Aussie Hero Quilts....they measure 8 & 1/2" and are a great way to use up relatively small scraps, or as I prefer to call them, offcuts.  I've cut more out, so I'll be making at least one quilt top out of them...coz I know Jan-Maree (although it's easier to see what she's up to by visiting the Aussie Hero blog in the link above) likes scrappy quilts....and I do too, so it's kind of a double whammy lol  I can't wait to share with you the final quilt pic....I reckon it's going to be a nice bright, cheery quilt/s.

I have some cool purchases to share with you, but I'll share them with you tomorrow, seens as though this is getting to be quite a long post...don't want to overwhelm you with pic overload today...lol