2012: A Review

All in all, I've had a pretty good year. I finished a few big(ish) quilts (and started a lot more ;o)), made quite a few mini quilts and a couple of cushions and bags.

I have to say my favorite part of my blogging life this year has been all the people I've connected with and the friendships I've made around the world. When I started my blog I had no idea what a wonderful and supportive online community there is in the crafty world - so to all of you who follow me and leave lovely comments, a huge thank you. You've made my year so much better in so many ways :o)

Highlights for me were participating in a few fabulous swaps (nothing better than receiving squishy packages of handmade goodness), having a couple of tutorials published in Fat Quarterly e-mag, and coming in second place in the Groove QAL. I didn't finish a huge number of big quilts, but I have learnt quite a few new techniques, and have a whole bunch of works in progress that I'd love to finish sometime in 2013. The plan is to join the FAL - being hosted by the uber talented Leanne of She Can Quilt. I'm hoping it will be the kick up the butt I need to get some of my long term WiPs finally done (retro flowers and my stained quilt in particular!)

At the end of last year I wrote a list of things I hoped to achieve in 2012, so I thought I'd review what I did and didn't accomplish.

Participate in some QALs - I've already signed up for two QALs, and will probably do more. 

Yep, I did a lot more. I didn't actually get any finished except my Groove quilt (possibly my favorite finish of the year).

Not only that, but I ended up co-hosting a QAL with Jess (which is finishing up in a couple of weeks!). I had no idea what I was getting myself into - it was a LOT of work but I learnt a massive amount doing it. A huge, huge thanks to Jess for joining me in doing it - she did a lot of the designing work and I'm not sure it would have happened without her encouragement.

Participate in a bee

Heh, make that three bees, with another one starting in January!

Finish writing up some of my designs into tutorial/patterns to put on my blog (I have one nearly finished).

I ended up writing up a few tutorials for quilts in 2012 - and I got EQ7 for Christmas (the nagging totally paid off) so there will most likely be a few more in 2013!

Learn some more difficult techniques (paper piecing and needle-turn applique in particular)

I tackled paper piecing, curved piecing, and generally gained a lot more skills in complex piecing thanks to the QAL. I'm generally a way more confident and accurate quilter these days :o) I still haven't learnt applique, but that is on my list for 2013 - along with Sashiko (stay tuned on that one - there's a really cool blog hop I'm participating in coming up soon!).

There was also my 'dream' list:


And some things I'd like to do but don't expect will actually happen this year:

Get one of my designs in Moda Bakeshop

Still dreaming of this one ;o)

Get published somehow

Amazingly I did get a tutorial published in Fat Quarterly (still get excited that it happened, lol!)

So, onward and upward for 2013 - honestly I don't think it could top this year, but you never know!

xx Jess

Holiday Happenings

A belated happy holidays/merry Christmas to you all - I did mean to do a post before Christmas etc, but the chaos of wrapping presents and calming down feral children got in the way ;o) We had a brilliant couple of days catching up with family and friends, drinking and eating way too much and general festivities. We did Christmas lunch at my parents house (complete with all my siblings and their partners, one of my cousins, and my Grandma). Chaotic but lovely :o)

We even managed to get a photo of four generations of women - my mum, my little girl, me and my Grandma (Dad's mum).

Boxing day was a bit more relaxed - we had a bunch of our closest friends over for a BBQ and drinks. Loads of fun had by all! Since then we've been having heaps of family time (Chris is on holidays for a few weeks which is awesome!) We don't have a zoo in Tasmania - but we do have ZooDoo which is a small (kind of lame) version. Think baby farm animals, Australian native animals and a few tigers and lions ;o) We visited yesterday.

Zoe was pretty smitten with the albino wallabies :o)

Apart from the whole Christmas shenanigans, I have managed to do a bit of quilty stuff in the last week - a bit of work on the patterns I'm testing, and a start on my Birds and Bees Colour Blocks quilt. This one is a free pattern by the amazing Tula Pink. I don't think I've ever been so excited about a quilt actually - it's going to be a giant bed quilt for us.  

Just to give you an idea of scale these two sections take up the entire width of my design wall (about 50"). It's going on the back burner for a while now while I catch up on bee blocks and finish pattern testing. 

I hope everyone has had/is having a wonderful holiday, 

xx Jess

And we have a quilt top!

Since it's Friday and this is seriously a case of thank f*** it's finished, I'm linking up to TGIFF for the first time (although in this case TFIFF may be more appropriate).

This quilt started as an idea right near the beginning of the year, and after much back and forth between myself and Jess, evolved into our How Far Will You Go? QAL quilt - eighteen different blocks in three different sizes. I'm not totally in love with it (I'll be honest - I just made each block without really considering the end product) and it's kind of a mess of colour, but I am so proud of how much I have learnt in making it.

I probably should have waited until tomorrow to post this (it's 9pm here, and I have literally just finished putting it together, so it's taken in dusky light - not ideal :oP) but I couldn't wait, so you'll have to bear with the dodgy photography.

My points are pretty good in the main part - aside from the Wandering Foot, which I needed to trim down to size, so I've lost the points in some cases (whoops!!).

I need to decide whether to border it (and if so what fabric to use) and how to quilt it. I'm toying between an all over design (since there is so much going on already) or going all out and quilting each block individually. It may be some time before I decide :o)

But since it's done, I'm rewarding myself by playing with this collection of pretties tonight (another crappy photo - didn't plan this post all that well, did I?).

Destined to become Tula's awesome Colour Blocks quilt. And ignoring completely the list of projects that I really should be working on... 

Hope everyone has had a great week!

xx Jess

Just in the nick of time...

Massive sigh of relief here. I really wasn't sure I'd get these made in time for giving them to the teachers before school breaks up for the year (last day of school is on Thursday so I've cut it pretty fine!)

I used the fantastic pattern by Michelle of City House Studio after seeing it pattern tested by my friend Jen earlier this year. The boys asked their teachers (and my little guy's kinder teacher aide, who is pretty much a second teacher) what their favorite colours were, and went with that. The paper piecing was heaps of fun - I always enjoy using my scraps for these kinds of projects :o)
.

I did deviate from the pattern for the backs (due to massive time constraints, mainly!!) - rather than a pieced book shelf I just used a solid piece of fabric, and straight line quilted it.

I'm happy with how they turned out - I'm at that nervous point now of 'will they like them?'.

Now these are done, I can finally get back to bee blocks, pattern testing and QAL blocks. And Christmas, can't forget that ;o)

xx Jess

Aurifil Winners!

First of all, I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone to entered my Aurifil Giveaway - I am completely astounded by the number of entries. And welcome to all my new followers :o)

So without further ado, the winners! The Grand Prize winner is listed first, followed by FOUR second prize winners, and FIVE third prize winners:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

I will be emailing you soon for your postage details!

Welcome Miss Matatabi!

I am thrilled to announce my newest blog sponsor Miss Matatabi!

Miss Matatabi is an Etsy store owned and run by Frances. She is based in Japan, and stocks an awesome range of Japanese fabrics. Most of my Melody Miller stash has come from Frances, so I can personally attest to her fabulous service and extremely fast postage :o)

Frances is offering 20% off all fat quarters through Monday 17th December - so get in fast for some awesome bargains! This includes Nursery Versery by Heather Ross, Melody Miller, Echino and loads of others.

So what fabric loveliness can you find at Miss Matatabi?

How about a huge selection of nani IRO

Melody Miller's Ruby Star Spring and Ruby Star Shining:

Heather Ross' Nursery Versery:

And a great selection of other cotton and linen Japanese fabrics. She even has a free shipping section, with some seriously gorgeous sewing tapes and trims!

You can follow Frances on her Blog, Facebook, Flickr and Twitter.

I hope you'll hop over and check out some of her wares :o)

xx Jess

She's Home (and a bit of fabric stashing)

I got the call yesterday as I was leaving to get my boys from school. We went straight to the sewing machine dealer. And now she's back!! I did intend to sew, sew, sew last night but the little buggers my darling sweet children had other ideas (like not going to sleep until 9pm, by which time I was ready to collapse in front of the TV). Tonight however, I am determined to get some sewing in!

You have no idea how happy this photo makes me :oD

I have had a few parcels of yumminess arrive this week. Craft Depot (an Aussie fabric shop) send out the occasional newsletter - and had a 20% off code for December (I think?) so I had a bit of a browse through their $10/m section. And found this AMH awesomeness. I have a bit of a Good Folks stash, some of which did come from Craft Depot (thanks to a heads up from Amy Badskirt) - but this one was out of stock. They obviously found a bit more - so I grabbed the last 3 metres. At $8 a metre that is seriously cheap by Aussie standards (and if you've ever looked at Good Folks on Etsy you'll know I have saved myself a small fortune!)

 Small Gathering from AMH Good Folks

I couldn't resist this one either - another AMH print from her Garden Party collection. I have a real and serious problem with collecting out of print fabrics ;o)

 I did a bit of Black Friday shopping too - some of which arrived earlier in the week from the lovely Julie at The Intrepid Thread.

A couple of yards of this Cameo voile by Amy Butler. I've read how soft voile is - but I had no idea what the reality would be. It is just gorgeous! I'm slightly scared of actually sewing it (it's quite slippery). I was thinking I'd make a Tova with it (not that I've actually finished the first one yet) but now I'm not sure...

I also grabbed a few prints from Simply Colour (adore those greys and greens) - possibly for a bag for  me - and to fill up my satchel a couple of yards of the white/red print which I think would make a gorgeous quilt back.

Oh and since Katy piqued my interest in grunge fabric I had a wee peek on Etsy - and found these seriously awesome Riley Blake shaded cottons from Sew Me A Song. I really need some of these in my stash!!

Image from Sew Me A Song

Hope everyone has had a fabulous week! Any exciting plans for the weekend? Or are you like me and trying to get slightly organised for the impending chaos that happens on the 25th?

xx Jess