technicolour yawn - progress update

yes - my quilt is still in pieces. Although I am thundering through the final few blocks now and have every intention to get the top finished by Christmas and then quilt it early in the New Year.


Some people are very efficient and have finished their tops.

People like Jane.....
*click on the pic to go to her photostream in flickr*



and Cherie







Both quilts are looking GREAT, girls! Well done!

(if you're interested in making a technicolour yawn quilt of your very own you can find the directions in the side bar to the right)

burning the midnight oil

Less than a week to go. The kids have broken up for the Christmas holidays, so sewing time is restricted to when they're not pestering me. Which means mostly when they're sleeping.



I've quilted and bound my mum and dad's dream on quilt, and even embroidered a little label, made stockings for a friend and his girlfriend for their first Christmas together (aw, young love - how sweet)



But, alas, Ginger's quilt will not be finished. I can't find the right bright blue thread in any shop locally so I'll have to order it online. That's bummed me out a lot. I should have been more organised. I should have bloody known relying on the local shops for thread was a joke.
I was going to quilt it in a completely different colour that kind of matched but wasn't great. The husband told me to stop being stupid and just wait til the right thread was here.



The pic right at the top is my quilt for January's edition of Fat Quarterly. I need more snow to come so I can photograph it with a snowy background. The snow here is a bit pathetic right now - more ice than snow, and the grass pokes through. The quilt is big, and bright. And I must have done something right because it's the first time Miss G has seen a quilt of mine and said 'I'd like that for my bed'. Result!

{Modern} Relief - the winners list

We have the winners of the first {Modern} Relief raffle! Yay!

All the winners were picked via random.org

The grand total collected for World Vision is:

PayPal balance: $5,852.36 USD !!!

Isn't that an amazing total? We have to thank every one of you that donated from the very bottom of our hearts.
When we started and had to think of an amount of money we'd like to raise we just hoped it would be something, that there would be people out there that cared enough to give up some of their own money to help World Vision. But right from the get go we shouldn't have worried, this community is a giving one. So thank you - for helping, for donating and for spreading the word on blogs, and twitter.


And without further a do the winners are......

Thanks again for making the first { Modern } Relief such a success!!

If you are one of the lucky winners… please hang tight, your Quilter will be contacting you soon to get your info!!

chasing tails (the blog post where she rambles on for some time about nothing much)

I seem to be behind with everything at the minute. Late with my bee blocks (in fairness the bee hexed in block is a whole lot of work. Thanks to Tacha and her genius ideas for patterns)

The quilt I promised to make for a friend's big 40th birthday (early this year) has been worked on in fits and starts. Sporadic. Not often. It's a good thing she has the patience of a saint. It's not a complicated quilt, but the fabrics had me stumped for a while. Trash prefers things to be tidier than my usual scrap vomit style. She ever so politely asked if it could be less busy than some of the initial suggestions I had. The simple 9-patch is always a winner. Plus she can see the fabrics easily and maybe even remember who bought them for her for her birthday.
I'd originally suggested a dark sashing but she wasn't keen and we'd got an off white instead but laying the blocks out on my kitchen floor convinced her - charcoal kona wins the vote.
My plan is to get this sashed and the backing made before christmas and then if I push myself a little harder and burn some midnight oil it could even be home for christmas - or just after. New year's eve for sure.



NooNoo has shown a lot of love for the long languishing American Jane fabrics quilt I started much earlier this year. Two of the sides of the piano key border are done - two more to go and this can be quilted as well. Some of my all time favourite fabrics are in here. I'm really looking forward to seeing it quilted (this will go to Christine - I'm not sure how I want it to look over those appliques. She knows better than me. Wise woman that she is).



Last night was spent watching American crime dramas (Law and Order Special Victims Unit, CSI Miami, Criminal Intent) on my knees basting two quilts for Christmas. This one for the quilt along over on Cara's blog which is for Ginger to match his Pottery Barn Seuss bedding and the Dream On quilt top that has been laying about unquilted for most of the summer. It was a retirement gift for my mum. It's now a christmas gift come retirement gift.
I LOVE the orange strips in this quilt - it does kind of make your eyes go a bit weird though, I was seeing orange stripes all night after basting it. Very weird sensation.



I've also made (some) progress on the Technicolour Yawn quilt so I will blog that next week. That's a gift for a friend too - but I'm having the feeling it might be a tough one to let go. It may be one of those that as I'm handing it over I turn and run in the opposite direction. I got some truly GOD AWFUL new squares from a sneaky source. Just wait til you see them - they're so bad I almost screamed when I opened the package. And then spent a long time trying to calm myself down from the excitement.

So right now with only 2 weeks and 2 days til the big C day I'm doing a lot of chasing my tail. Tomorrow I am dashing over to Christine's to pick up a quilt for the January Issue of Fat Quarterly and then into town for some Christmas shopping and to pick up thread for Ginger's quilt.
I'm pretty excited that the quilt I'm picking up isn't too far off the colour chart for Pantone's colour of 2011. Check me out, all bang on trend. Ha ha! It's totally different to anything I've ever made before. I can't wait to show you some sneaky peeks. Really, really hoping the snow holds out for just a little longer so I can get some snowy quilt pics.
I think one of the things I really love about being part of Fat Quarterly is the challenge. Setting ourselves a theme for each issue and thinking months ahead of time of the kind of projects we could do is great fun.
2010 has been one crazy manic year. It's flown by and I can't believe we're almost at the end. I've gone from being a mum with a hobby I love to actually using that hobby as part of my working life. It's like a dream come true if I'm quite honest, I still say I'm a stay at home mum. I guess I should change my job title now, but I'm not sure what to say I do. Whenever I get asked I say 'I make quilts. And I love it.' I really do. It's pretty awesome.

I wonder what 2011 will bring? More unfinished projects? That's a safe bet.

Fat Quarterly

Stuck for last minute gift ideas for Christmas? (fair enough - that quilt might be a little ambitious to make in time, but it is just one block repeated over and over)



Still thinking of gifts to make?



Haven't bought a copy of Fat Quarterly yet because you're not sure what's inside? Click here and scroll down to see all of the issues so far, and use our new flip thru feature to check out the projects.

{Modern} Relief - an update

Fundraising



Update Fundraiser Thermometer Here

Wow. That's all I can say.

I'm flabbergasted that we beat our original target of $4000 (which we didn't really know if we could get to, if we're honest).

Thank you to every one of you that donated to the raffle - we'll announce the winners shortly!!!!

You still have time to head over and buy a ticket - until midnight PST today so head over to here and donate and help some hungry children this holiday season.


In other news....

the hurricane giveaway winner is....drum roll.....number 31, Judith who I notice from her blog is a pretty new quilter. So that's nice - I like that slowly but surely quilting is creeping into every corner of the World.


Judith - shoot me an email (katyejones at hotmail dot com) and I'll pass your details onto Alice over at Backstitch.

Thank you to everyone that entered - I'll be doing another giveaway shortly so don't worry, there's always another chance to enter something!