Happy New Year!! My finished quilts for 2010

Hope everyone had a wonderful New Years and set themselves some new challenges for 2011, mine are to go without chocolate for 365 days (gulp), travel more, I also have some mini career goals and of course, more sewing! I set myself a personal goal to complete more quilts than last year, not hard as I only made 5 and 2 were doll quilts! This year I have managed 6, woot! I have 2 more that are fully quilted and just need the binding sewn onto them, and another that is sandwiched and I have started quilting; so I am hoping to have 3 finished quilts in the next few weeks.
In January 2010 I made Black, White and Pink All Over for a friends 40th, I love this quilt, it came together quickly and was mostly from my stash. A work college had a baby girl in February so Sea Life was made to match her nursery decor. April came, I whipped up a Disappearing 9 Patch for a 30th Birthday gift, if I focus I can make one of these lap quilts in a week, IF, lol. I also completed another baby quilt for my manager who had a son, that we are yet to meet (I think he's afraid to bring him into work as were all a little baby crazy!!)
In August I completed Stuart's Two Rail Fence I made this quilt from a free pattern on Mary's blog, I just love it and his fave colour is lime green so he's happy with it.In December I made another Disappearing 9 Patch for Cate's dance teacher, mostly the same as the other but I added some aqua homespun. I have found these are great universal quilts, so hope to make a few and put away for gifts, less personal but great for the time poor worker, and I find that the Amy Butler daisy chain print suits sea side dwellers.So there you have my 6 quilts for 2010. Peak sewing times seams to be whenever I manage to get some holidays and there was a big lapse from May to July when I was sewing dance costumes. All in all, pat on the back for me, I work full time supporting a family of 6, the kids have sport commitments nearly every night, I run a Guinea Pig rescue, volunteer at the school, help fund raise for our Bali sponsor child and I would like to dabble in the occasional market, so my aim for 2011 will be to complete eleven glorious quilts! Eleven!! (with 3 nearly done plus 7 = one more than I made in 2010, lol)

Christmas Quilt

I started cutting up these fabrics for a quick Christmas Quilt. Have cut each print 4.5" wide by random widths to give a scrappy look, have started chain stitching them together with Cate's help.Patten is Chinese coins; semi based on this quilt pattern here.

Lap Quilt for Kylie

Another finish for 2010, a disappearing 9 patch lap quilt for Cate's dance teacher Kylie. Cate had her test 2 exam this morning, and next Tuesday is the Christmas Pagent and then were officially finished for the year. I love this pattern, with the bigger blocks I can whip one up in 2 weeks (sewing after work) or in a weekend if I stay off MSN chat with Emma.Fabric is Amy Butler Daisy Chain, I didn't have enough so added an aqua homespun and also used it on the binding which I think looks quite nice. It came back in stock last week so I picked up a few more metres. More of these to come in the New Year, I want to make 2 for the living room couches and some matching cushion, will add to my very long list!

Catch Up Post

Well I failed Blogtoberfest, lol. We have been so busy this past month so this will be a looooooong catch up post! Firstly, enjoyed the Subiaco Craft Fair, had good fun and sold lots of fabric. I bought a lovely bag, a bird pod and some delish tripple choc brownie, mmmm (sorry no photo's). So would I do this fair again? Probably not, the stall cost is too high and I don't think I am cut out with sharing a booth. I have not been put off craft fairs in general, more that the timing was not right for me as I have so many other commitments in October.
Cate had her dance competition on November 6, she danced her solo to Jellicle Cats, I had alot of trouble with sewing fur to lycra, my hot glue gun came in handy. Watching the other dancers, Cate's routine was too simple for the music and she forgot two small parts and not enough practice sessions were held, I think she only had 5 hours training in total? Nevermind.  Her duo was to Beetle Ball, she was a grasshopper and her partner was a ladybug. They placed 5th out of 9 competitors, very happy, last year they came 3rd together with less compeditors.

On Thursday the 4th it was Cate's 8th Birthday, she loved her Sylvanian Families set, and rhythimic gym ribbon, but also enjoyed her new scooter, some dvd's, pink superman pjs and some Little Pet Shop snow animals. we had her party at home today, the balloons were a big hit! She invited 9 girls from her school and dancing troop, we played musical statues, pass the parcel, pin the horn on the unicorn (??) and ate lots of yummy food like fairy bread, little red sausages, mini cheezles and of course party pies.

Mini Comps

Cate had her Calisthenics's Mini Comp last Saturday. We went to Perth on the Friday morning (taking the day off school and work), hitting Ikea hard, eating out and lots of shopping, catching up with friends and flaking by 4pm back at our hotel. Mini Comps are always fun, supposedly less stress than the state comp but all the same really. Cate is in Team 2 and is centre front for clubs, centre left for rods and aesthetic and free arm and she's in Team 1 for March. She's not lead a team before so I was super nervous for her but she pulled it off brilliantly and I am so proud of her. Results- March 1st Place; Aesthetic 3rd Place; Freearm 2nd Place; Clubs 1st Place; Rods 3rd Place. Overall we placed 2nd!! Woot!Family concert tomorrow, then 2 week's break from performing and onto State Comps. Most girls finish up then except the few who come back term 4 for solo's, duo's and exams. Netball finishes in 3 weeks as well, but we've started Rhythmic Gymnastics so that makes up for the gap, I need to take up a hand sewing project to counteract all the time I spend sitting in high school gyms.

Oliver's Orange Quilt Top completed

and I love how it looks. Love, love LOVE it!!! Fabrics from my stash that I have collected over the past few years, 3 years ago I went to Sydney to visit Cass, then I went to Victoria for a week with Bob then I went to South Australia to visit Emma, hmmm, where to this year? Maybe bush to see Helen? The Kai honeycomb spots are my fave, I am going to use them for the binding as well. I only had a FQ so purchased another metre from Amitie, I did a phone order, super easy, great shop! The mini orange spots are a fat flat from Spotlight, I found 4 more so will incorporate them into the backing.Pattern from here, I slightly modified it as I has some 30cm strips of prints I wanted to use. The large rectangles are supposed to be 7.5" long by 3.5" wide, I made mine a quarter inch smaller so 7 and a quarter long x 3.5" wide, this allowed me to cut 6 pieces from a 42" x 3.5" strip. Oliver has requested straight quilt lines, no messy wiggly bits! Hideously boring I know, but quick and easy. I stocked up on wadding at the last buy 2 metres get 1 free sale, I just have to get some orange homepun for the backing. Back to work tomorrow so will start quilting next weekend hopefully.

Stuart's Two Rail Fence

Stuart's new quilt, I finished the quilting a few nights ago, I must say I do like it, as does he so all good. Black, White and Bright Green, this pattern is called Two Rail Fence, check out Mary's website and blog for quilting inspiration, love her work.Made up mostly from my stash, but probably more has come from Emma's stash, and some greens came from from Helen and AJ, thanks guys! Single bed size, I was going to add side borders but like the look of it without. Plenty big enough, I quilted in a zig zag pattern on the black and green, love how it turned out.We walked about 300m to the beach to get some action shots, so windy today, a wild weather alert has been issued so not much luck with getting some nice flat quilt photos. But he had fun and is now curled up on the couch half asleep.