A little something

I thought I would make some cute little draw string bags again. So here they are.... I think they are gorgeous and perfect for putting some deliciously yummy home made fudge in. Just a little something for friends for Christmas.


Gorgeous Thai silk bag

I love the black silver one with a gorgeous purple lining

I just wanted to show that this is a cute little one, the flash isn't very friendly to my skills :)

This is something I am working on for a friend, and I am loving it, it just flows and I just seem to know what to sew in each spot. Very confidence building sewing :)

In this shot it looks like a face, but it isn't and doesn't when you see it :)

Kids had their first sleep overs last night, they were all sooooo tired tonight that it was no big deal to get them into bed. When my son came home, he said I missed you mum and gave me a hug :) melting moments.
Getting very excited for Christmas, just gave the garage a huge cleanout and it looks great. I cleaned out my quilting cupboard and am really happy with how that looks too. Just heard the rain falling, smells great and gives a beautiful breeze, then I remembered I have left my washing on the line :) Oh well it will dry tomorrow.

Jane

A couple of Things

Well, all my Christmas present shopping done. Just waiting on delivery for a few of them and hoping they will turn up on time. How about you? Need that 24 hour shopping time? :) I am getting excited about the food side of Christmas :) G and myself are still on our healthy living diet/plan and it is getting easier every day. I am still craving chocolate so bad!!!! But I have definitely lost weight and I don't feel 5 months pregnant anymore:) Or that I have three chins, just two :). So bring on the Christmas food, just for one day hey.

I have finished the Sun quilt. Not entirely happy with the outcome, I think I needed to make the arcs come off as swirls instead of just jutting out and the yellow in between should have been covering more of the white. But oh well, I can't get it right each time I suppose, even though it would be nice :).

 Then there is my slogan, this is feather work and I am enjoying this when I get the time to sit and sew over school holidays, which isn't much at all.

 The blue pen is where I was going to sew, a washable pen, but then changed my mind

It should look really gorgeous, here's hoping.
I forgot to tell you that oldest daughter won the music award for her year level at her graduation. She was music student over 100 students :) We were so excited when she got up that we all wooped and screamed. My mum in law jumped up and clapped. :) very proud. She said she was praying and chanting under her breathe before the award was given out, please be me please be me :) It was a great night.

Just got back from a Christmas carols night, the audience sang and there were choral items too, it was so nice. Very special and I really enjoyed it and it just made the Christmas feeling even stronger.
Jane

Mood Swings Anyone?

I am having a mood swing, I was all happy and now I feel glum. Not sure why, maybe to do with the diet that G and I are on. No sugar can sure take the edge off your life:). Chocolate is my mainstay, and how I am surviving without it is a miracle. See, they really do still happen:). Off to a school carols night, where every class in the whole school sings a christmas song. Wow I am so looking forward to it. :)

I notice that I also get a bit down when I don't have an idea in my head of something to create. I did this today...

I am going to heavily free motion the empty bits. The paint is metallic and the purple is a lustre paint and it is fantastic. I love it and the metallic is just perfect.

So I had an idea for something else this afternoon so hopefully it will work out and I can show you.
It's a great week in that The Closer came back on tv wohooo, totally enjoyed watching that episode. What is your favourite tv show at the moment?
Jane

Hot!!

It has gotten hot too early here!! 31 degrees, too hot. Our Air Con is broken and we are hoping it will be fixed very soon.
Anyway, on a more exciting note, our oldest daughter auditioned for the conservatorium and got in!! Wohoooo. We are very excited for her. She just got back from school camp and was so excited to know she had gotten in. She was so tired from camp that I think she went to sleep in about 4 minutes :) should be fun waking her tomorrow for string ensemble nice and early. There are so many joys to being a parent :)
Did some work this week....
This piece was one that a friend painted when I did my first test class, so I free motioned it for her.

 This is my sun, I am having THE best time sewing this up. Just totally enjoying it.

I also ordered some more paints, and this time I ordered some metallic gold and silver and also I found that the company i buy the paint through stock the pearl lustre that I need and have run out of. So wohoo to that. I will be able to experiment and go to town with all that fun lustre :)
I also just finished the latest Louise Penny Inspector Gamache books. WOW it was sooo good. If you are looking for something to read with depth, they are the books. I loved it. 
Jane

Finished

I have finished the Season's little wall hanging. I have listed it on Etsy and now have 10 art quilts in my shop. Now I just need to sell some :) I will now sit at my sewing machine and finish off a few items that need sewing up. The sun I painted and the sunset as well.

I just finished the latest Jack Reacher book, wow it was fantastic!!!! Cant say enough about it. I loved the story line and how it went back to his military days. Great read. What good book have you read lately?
I also watched a fantastic Sanctuary this week too, that was a load of fun. And a survivor that was sooo good, about time the people on the island spiced it up and did something different :) no more boring survivor.

Well anyway, have a look at my finished product...

Some detail shots.

I am feeling really great this week, and I have come up with a theory of why I feel even better than normal hehehe and I thought that my decision this week to not worry about what I eat at all might have something to do with it :) hehehehe but I have not gone silly, just taken the pressure off me :) let's see how long it lasts before I don't fit into my clothes :)
Jane

Something New

Well, what a surprise, leaves :) but I just wanted to paint something, so this was what came out.

It is like winter and spring side by side. Now I am doing a building with vines growing up it and 'taking over' so off I go to do some more wonderfully fun painting.

But before I do, I forgot to show you my many many many threads that I bought at the craft fair. it was sooooo  much fun, Sam and I spent the whole day just wondering around trying to find lots of bargains and spending lots of money :). Here are some of the threads I bought, I couldn't fit all the green threads in one draw so there are more in the pink draw ... oh my draws, I bought these to fit all my wonderful threads in, have a look

 Get a look at my new big fat 5000 metre threads!! How shiny are they??? to.die.for.

These draws are so great and three draws are full so I might be buying another set soon :) but then again if we buy a house soon that might not happen :) off to paint.
Jane

Winner

Well, now I am a winner :) third place in the category of pictorial  in the QLD quilt competition.  I had nerves, and well I wanted to come first :) who doesn't. It was great though, this one won..

So that was a surprise, I am always so hard on myself and look at the quilt and pick all the things wrong with it. But they must not have seen all the mistakes :).

I finished this mammoth thing for a client..

She liked it and was very happy, so that is great. I am not doing a big quilt for a verrrrrry long time. :) This is what my bobbin case looked like after two weeks of doing this big quilt. I cleaned it before I started so it was clean :)

Gross isn't it :)
Oh I had my class, I had bought fabric that I thought was the same as what I had bought previously but it wasn't and when everyone painted on it, the fabric bled and looked faded and bad. It really made me cranky. I should have tested the fabric. It was a tester for me so I have to expect mistakes. It was fun though.

Now I have to plan out what I am doing next. When I did dyeing yesterday at my class I remembered how much fun it was and want to do some more of that, but I also love love love painting on fabric so I want to do that too. I am sure I can fit it all in.
Off to the craft fair tomorrow, sooooo excited. Can't wait to see all sorts of fun crafty stuff.
Jane

Holy Moley

We had a great big storm last night and it only lasted for a couple of minutes, but wow what a storm!! The Hail stones were soooo big, it was pretty exciting except for the noise they made as they hit things, it really did sound like they were about to break windows. Have a look

Super cool.
Our oldest daughter auditioned for the Conservatorium of Music today. She did so well. It is for tutoring :) you even have to audition for tutoring :) and pay too, of course. But we are so excited for her if she gets in as it is a great opportunity. We will know in a month.
So this week I have to clean the house top to bottom for an inspection, go receive an award, have my first teaching day - I am teaching dyeing, fabric painting and inktense pencils if you want to come let me know, and having a great big fat fun day at the craft fair. How cool is that. Now I just need to sell a couple more quilts on etsy to have lots of money to buy lots of thread :) sooo many colours I just can't choose. Anyone want a quilt?? :)
Jane

Again Wohoooooooooooooo!!!

I just sold my first Quilt on Etsy!!!!!! Wow. I am pretty happy right now. I am thinking of all the ways I can spend my wealth :) too many for the money I have of course :). I sold the Flames quilt. I need to add more to my etsy store now that I am selling them :). I also added on the right top of my blog pages and one of the pages is all my quilts, just for you all to see.
Jane

Wohooooooooooo!!!

I just got an email saying.... Congratulations on winning a prize in the Queensland Quilters Competition!!!!!!
I am ecstatic!!! I am in Heaven. SOOOO Excited. They don:t tell you what you have won, I will go to the awards ceremony on Wednesday morning in a couple of weeks to find out. SO excited.

Jane

Ouch!!

I bought a new skipping rope as the old one was a $2 job and the handle broke :) so off I skip with my new fancy skipping rope from a sports store and far out!!!!! I thought it was hard enough before!! The handles are a little weighted and the rope flies!! I am working out overtime. It hurts a LOT. Today, as always,  I did one legged squats in my second round and felt so strong that after I finished I got up and punched the air. Best feeling e.v.e.r. nearly makes up for the pain of the skipping rope. So now I think you can actually see muscles in my arms, not just fat :)

I am working on a queens size quilt cover for a commission and it will take me a long time but I am so happy to have a commission. Will definitely need more threads after this.
I am currently, like right now, dyeing G's suit to black. It was a dark blue that had faded a bit but it was a great suit, so in the interest of economy and since there was nothing wrong with the suit, I am trying to dye it black. Will let you know if it works :) so far no black on me. Good start.

Off to work on the commission and watch Eureka. Check it out it is a lovely show.
Jane

Sold!!

I sold this...

How exciting :) The client also wants me to do more work for her, so I am feeling pretty good right now.
We also went here on the holidays....

The kids had a great time and loved every minute of it. We went on the scooby Doo ride and wow, I am such a wimp!! It was soooo scary :) I closed my eyes when I saw this whole section of track so high above the ground. Two of the kids  screamed and cried too and kept saying I want to get off over and over. :) So I didn't attempt the superman ride :)
This was them before they knew how scared they would be:)

 This was a very fun ride, you went backwards in this and the drop was pretty cool. We got wet though

 So we went in here, it really worked

 Her rear end was pretty wet. Mine stayed wet the whole day :) Nice.

 Good ride :)

 The stunt drive show was very very cool. We all loved it.

 We could feel the intense heat from this and it really surprised us that we could feel it from so from so far away.

 Kids version of the giant drop :)

Now they go back to school and I get a clean house back for a few hours. And rest. I am so tired.
Jane

I own a shop :)

I opened up a shop :) an Etsy shop :) it is the equivalent of ebay, but for crafters. Most of the items listed are handmade, so right for me. Feel free to have a look and purchase if you choose :) You can 'favourite' my shop to support me too. Much cheaper than purchasing :) I have only just started to add quilts, so in the next few days there will be many more added. Top right of this blog there is a link that will take you there.

School holidays have been quite all right this time round. I have found I am even enjoying it!!!! Might make mother of the year yet.
I finished the black quilt, have a look

Jane

Entered

I have entered two quilts into the QLD Quilters Competition for this year, these two...

I took a better photo than this wrinkly one :)

 And this one had better lighting. So now I hand the quilts in at the start of October and just wait to hear if I have won anything. I have put them in two different categories, night sky is in art and the tree is in pictorial. $5oo for 1st prize and $200 for 2nd and $100 for 3rd. Not bad prize money really. Of course I am hoping to win both :) dreaming is what keeps us going isn't it??

Here's some work on this one I love it and I love the abstract nature to this one

 I have been doing some family history work and found a family that I have been searching for for 15 years!!! It is sooooo exciting.
Well off to look at houses to buy :)
Jane

Look!!!

Well, I used some more of my polycolour in the paint and it looks fantastic!!!! I am sooooo excited. Here is some more pics of what I have been up to. I just want to finish the black viney thing so I can do the others.

Once again it is hard to see what the sunset really looks like. And the sun is much redder than it appears in the photo. I cut up the green swamp picture so it is smaller and I like it. It is a bit abstract and something different for me.

Jane