Glow in the dark eggs

I can't find my camera, which is annoying - I think one of my girls borrowed it and didn't give it back - grrrr - my pet hate - usually it is my hairdryer.

I have been busy patchworking - I got the two bushfire quilts off to Victoria, and completed a queen sized top which my daughter Clare has claimed - I did promise her a quilt for a wedding present, but was a bit busy before the wedding doing the dresses!

I have another two or three tops on the go. I spent a good part of the weekend cleaning out some of my 'stuff'. We will be putting the house on the market later this year, so I have to have a huge declutter before moving. I am going to clear out years of accumulated stuff that I thought I needed at the time.....you know how it is. Also, I think it really is time to decide what I want to do and FOCUS. So I will rid myself of all sorts of things that I thought I would like to do, and maybe exprimented with for a while, but then decided I wasn't really interested, didn't have the patience, the fad passed - you know how it is. So watch this space for details of a mega sale in the second half of the year - if you live locally and can come by of course. If not, well I think I will have to put together a couple of blog giveaways so some of my stuff can go live somewhere else in the world!

Work is very, very busy - anyone who works for the government will know what it is like in the lead up to the Federal budget - not just crazy, downright ludicrous.

Autumn is definitely here - a real nip in the air.

My middle daughter had her baby shower last weekend - I forgot to take pictures. Her favourite gift, and a huge hit with mothers to be at the moment (apparently), is an egg - yes, an egg - check it out here.

Depending on the colour, it tells you whether the room is too hot, or too cold, or just right for baby! Imagine. In my day, you just looked at the baby! But then the babies don't come with an inbuilt night light, so there you are - the wonders of the digital world. Makes me wonder how our babies ever made it successfully to adult hood without all those gizmos and just their mother's good sense to guide them.

A Stitch in Time

At the beginning of the year, I resolved to make a journal quilt each month, and to make a postcard sized companion piece to send to my good friend, Gay, in North Carolina. My January journal quilt was made from selvedge scraps and expressed my sentiments about my stash and how big it had grown - it also featured a dear little miniature Olfa rotary cutting pin. I only had one of those, so had to decide what to use on the companion piece for Gay.


Well I had a little treasure I wanted to use. I bought this little needle case on Ebay. It opens up to reveal a row of needles - very sweet.

Trouble is it just didn't fit with the rather modern looking journal quilt. After considerable dithering, I came to the conclusion that I needed to make a more old fashioned looking piece to reflect the vintage of the little treasure - so I turned to crazy patchwork and a suitable, more classic phrase. I had planned on tucking the little case into a pocket just below the piece with the text on, but that didn't work, as it stuck out too far and obscured the text. I dithered endlessley, and eventually decided to start again - but I just didn't want to leave the piece, as I liked it, so decided to push ahead - I just needed to figure out how to get it to hold the needlecase.



So, I decided to put it on the back. But then I had to figure out how to attach it. I decided on a little envelope - it was a toss up between lutradur and sheer heaven - but I went for the latter. It looked a bit raw in its natural state, so I gave it a spritz with Moonshadow Mist, then attached it by making holes with my trusty Japanese screw punch (which I bought, before they doubled in price!) and stitched it with some perle cotton.
Voila!!
I was going to wait until Gay got this in the mail to post, but a) I suspect she is beginning to think I was never going to get to finish it, and b) she complains I don't post to my blog often enough - well I have to have something to post don't I? So here it is!! Miss you - wish you were closer so we could have our play days together.