Every Thursday I get together with a truly wonderful group of woman...The Queen Marys.  They met making Di Ford Hall's Mary Queen of Bedford.

The Crafty Squirrel

If you are visiting Ballarat I strongly recommend the Crafty Squirrel.  Such a gorgeous fun shop packed to the brim with cuteness, much with a sewing theme.

A trip to Ikea

I thought I'd share a couple of the bargains to be found in Ikea.  I took a trip there yesterday and had heaps of fun.

A visit from Andi

On Saturday Andi Herman from Patch Andi and You Patch came to NOTYQ and talked about her Pixel Quilts.  It was great to see the program she uses (and sells) to design and make her award winning quilts.  

 It was fascinating watch her design a pattern right in front of our eyes.

Another Radiant Star

I'm making a scrappy quilt

A trip with Christine

I was lucky enough to recently enjoy a few days away with Christine.  We went to Myrniong with our quilting guild, North of the Yarra Quilters.

Such a cute needlecase

Jan, who is another Queen Mary, made this delightful needle case using one of the patterns in Sharon's fabulous book.

Thank you so much to Jan for sharing it here.

Once you have made a cute needlecase you need a sweet little pincushion to accompany it and this delightful one fits the bill.  I found it at  Amanda Jean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts.  Please follow this LINK for the pincushion pattern and tutorial.

Hope you enjoy a fun filled day

Love

A Radiant Star

It's my plan to make a Radiant Star from Sharon Burgess's Radiant Quilt in her book - Quilting on the Go, English Paper Piecing- every week. This is this week's effort.
It was a lot of fun making it.  English Paper Piecing is my very favourite kind of stitching.  I've got a lot of quilts on the go and many involve EPP so you'll be seeing lots of it here on my new blog.

Are you a fan of mini quilts?  I love them because sometimes I feel like making something that is not going to take too much time to make and would make a cute gift.  

This one really fits the bill and you can find it by following this LINK to Caroline's blog Sew She Can.  Many many thanks to Caroline for sharing it with us.

Hope you enjoy a fun filled day

Love

A puppy and cake...perfect

Today my lovely friend and fellow Queen Mary, Anne, bought her darling little 11 week old cavoodle puppy to sewing.  Here Maddie is with Christa.  Maddie has stolen all our hearts.

Some words from the past

I found this poem on Pinterest and believe it was first published in 1932.  Many of its sentiments ring true with me,  I do hope my descendants are interested in keeping my quilts.

I'm part of a book tour...

...and I'm very excited.

one of the first patterns to take my fancy in my lovely friend Sharon Burgess's book  - Quilting on the Go English Paper Piecing - was the gorgeous Radiant Quilt.

I knew I wanted to make my version from my stash, and I knew I wanted it scrappy, and I love reproduction fabrics so I decided that's exactly what my version would be.  It was great to have a pack of templates and papers to make everything easy.  Mine came from Imprezzio.  Please follow this LINK for papers and templates for Sharon's projects.

So first I went through my stash and started pulling out fabrics, always so much fun

then traced and glued the chosen fabrics to the templates just as Sharon shows in the Techniques section of her book.

I made the centre section in two halves then joined them together.

Next I added the kite shapes

and hooray one finished Radiant star for my quilt.  

I plan to make one of these each week and post them on my blog so I have a record of how my quilt grows.

Thank you so much to super talented Sharon for letting me participate in her Book Tour.  I hope you'll buy a copy of her fabulous first book.

Most of the ladies in my Thursday Sewing Group, the Queen Marys, have purchased the book so I'll keep you updated on their projects too.  So much fun.

Sharon has a delightful blog called Lillabelle Lane Creations.  If you follow this LINK you'll find instructions to make your own templates for English Paper Piecing.

While you are visiting Lillabelle Lane Creations, take a look at her version of La Passacaglia...absolutely amazing.

Have a delightful day

Love

Happy little hexies

Last night I made three happy little hexies for a quilt I'm making using one of gorgeous Di Ford Hall's new patterns.  I started it at summer school and I work on it monthly when I'm lucky enough to do a class with Di at Sewn and Quilted. I just need one more little 1/2" hexie flower and then I can add them to quilt.  I'm planning to show it to you at the end of each month.