Friday Finish - Ethan's Carpenter's Star Quilt

Here's this week's finish - it is a baby quilt I made for my son.  It's only a year late, an improvement on this baby quilt for my daughter which was 3 years behind schedule.  Better late than never right?

It is a Carpenter's star made using Debbie Maddy's pattern which I just resized to make it 50" x 50".  The fabric line is La Petite Ecole by French General.

I love this label, I just wish that I made the font a little larger.  The quote is from one of my favourite poems -  "If" by Rudyard Kipling and says "Fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run".  This is something that I strive to do but have to admit I often run out of puff.

I  inserted a strip of scraps into the backing fabric to make it a little larger.  I think it looks sweet and is also a good place to pop the label.  I love the alphabet fabric from this line - so gorgeous!

I am linking up with Amy Lou Who's friday finishes  and Crazy Mom quilts -  pop on over and see what else has been finished this week.

Quilt Parade - Part 2

As promised here is part 2 of the quilt parade from the Mannum retreat.....

This bright beauty was made by Mary-Ann.  It has an emotional story attached to it which had a few of us in tears.  She made it for her dying brother who sadly passed away before she could have it quilted but she wrapped him in the quilt top in hospital and it will be quilted in time to give it to her niece on her brother's birthday.

Long story but last year Carolyn, Miranda and Jan were unable to come to our Wallaroo retreat so they decided to have a little breakaway retreat and this is what they made over that weekend.   Here is Carolyn's fresh and happy version.

Miranda's.  I love these fabrics - by Sweetwater I think.

And here is Jan's.  Sorry the photos aren't a bit better.  It was hard to get far enough away - I was standing on a table risking life and limb as it was.

Here's another gorgeous quilt by Jan using 30s reproductions.

This is the first quilt that Miranda made.  It is from our Jacob's Ladder themed retreat at Wallaroo in 2010.  I absolutely love this quilt - so fresh and pretty and so interesting.  I love how by focussing on different areas of the quilt different patterns appear.

This is Pam's quilt - again from our Jacob's ladder retreat.  The Jacob's ladder block is so awesome, just by changing the positive and negative colours in the block and tweaking the block arrangement you can get such stunningly different effects.  I love it!

This is another one of Jan's quilts - that girl can sew!!  Here she's used a mixture of Kaffe Fassett and Batik fabrics to great effect.

This is a t-shirt quilt made by Faye for her daughter Kerry.  It is one of the best of this kind of thing I have seen.  Everything is so neat and well pieced.  Kerry loves dance and theatre and these are some of her t-shirts she's collected over the years.  It always lifts a quilt when there is a story to go with it I think.

I am not sure but I think this is Carolyn.  She made this festive beauty from a kit.

Thanks to all of our lovely Mannum ladies for sharing there work and their stories with us.  Show and tell is always my very favourite part of the retreat. 

Quilt Parade - Part 1

Last weekend was our retreat at Mannum.  As usual we had a fantastic time and it was great to catch up with everyone.  One of my favourite things about the retreats is show and tell.  Here are some of the awesome quilts that the girls have been working on lately.

Here is this lovely soft quilt that Prue made for her niece's 21st.

Jean's "Night Before Christmas" wall hanging.  Mum quilted it. Her cross-hatching is perfect and Jean's stitching is really gorgeous.  There are some close ups for you as well.

This is one that Maryanne made from a kit that her son bought her.

Another one of Maryanne's.  It is from the "Hunter's Star" workshopand Wallaroo retreat that we held last year.  We used Deb Tucker's Rapid Fire Hunter's star ruler.  Maryanne made the traditional two colour version.  There are some scrappy and three colour versions later in the parade.

Another one of Maryanne's - this time a stack and whack from a kit from Hettie's Patch.  She used Etchings by 3 sisters and it was just gorgeous.  

This is Pat's WIP - half a Double Wedding Ring quilt.  Pat has only been quilting for about 2 years and here she is tackling the holy grail of quilts.  Her piecing is so lovely.

 

 This is Sue's Hunter's Star - it is truly gorgeous.  She has done the three colour scrappy version using La Petite Ecole, maybe I am a bit biased because I love this fabric - but I think not, this quilt is divine.

 And finally Carolyn's Hunters star done in a three colour version.  I love this quilt pattern-  it is so versatile.  You can get results like Maryanne's soft, pretty and feminine version in the pink florals and then a really striking effect like below by using bolder colours as Carolyn did in this stunner she made for her little boy.

Ok - my husband's back with the pizza now - will be back tomorrow with more photos.

All in a Day

The past is sailing off to sea, 

the future's fast asleep.

A day is all you have to be,

it's all you get to keep.

Underneath that great big sky 

the earth is all a-spin.

This day will soon be over 

and it won't come back again.

So live it well, make it count,

fill it up with you.

This day's all yours, it's waiting now...

See what you can do.

This is from a children's book I just read to my

  daughter, called All In A Day by Cynthia Rylant.

It was so lovely I just had to share it with you.

Hoot Party

Before I begin I have to confess that I cannot claim any credit for the fabulousness you are about to see.  On Saturday one of my very favourite people hosted a Hoot themed birthday party for her little boy.  This little boy....2 years!  Where did that go?

If you live in Australia and have kids under the age of five you no doubt know who Hoot is - he's inescapable!  And here he is in fabulous cake form complete with colour matched culinary accessories all handcrafted by my talented friend.

 

Check out the Hoot Juice in the little retro milk bottles - so cute!

And those cake pops!!!  Good God!  I ate three and only stopped there because people were watching me.

Friday Finish - Bloom Cushion

Last year for her birthday, my Mum asked me to make her a Bloom cushion out of Pom Pom de Paris and this week I got it done.  Her birthday was only in September.  No flies on me!

In my defence I did have a ridiculously busy year last year culminating in moving house, and of course all my sewing stuff was packed away for a while....but really any judge worth his salt would throw that defence out of court as the whole thing only took about an hour and a half to make.  If you like it you can find the tutorial for it here.  So happy birthday Mummy.....better late than never.

I changed the back from the original pattern to have a covered zip.  I don't know what I do wrong but whenever I try to do a decorative enclosure with buttons or ribbons my cushions always look like they're haemorrhaging an insert - not pretty.  For the covered zip I followed this tutorial.

I am linking up with Amylouwho's friday finish.....head on over an check out what's been happening this week in craftdom.