A new home for the Alice In Wonderland Quilt

The Auction has finished but there are still raffle running, the master list is over at Make It Perfect.

The Alice in Wonderland Quilt is on the way to a new home.

The lovely Julie in Toowoomba was the winning bidder for this quilt at $150, already donated to the Premier's Flood Appeal.

She kindly shared a some of her personal experience of the floods with me and I know this quilt will be going to someone who will appreciate it.

Thanks Julie and thanks Toni and Carli for your organization.

Not a one holiday wonder!

Looking for the Flood Relief Auction? It's here.

When I took the Green Bag Challenge I fully intended to wrap all my gifts from that point forward in reusable cloth bags... and I fully expected to do the Christmas presents and Mum's birthday present and from there i would inevitably revert to the speed and convenience of wrapping paper, while feeling guilty every time I did.


But with some friends due tomorrow and a Christmas present (a late one to be sure but on time for our schedule, I promise) I made a little zippered bag to package the said gift.

This friend like blue so I literally tipped by blue scrap jar out on the sewing table next to the machine and made the front panel by improv piecing a quilt as you go rectangle, lined it with some blue dots and used a scrap of linen for the back. The zip was in the box of random zips.

I'm so proud of me....how long can I keep it up I wonder?

The Liebster Award

When I started this blog last year I had no real expectations about how it might grow or who I might meet over time. I had, of course, been reading other blogs and heard mention about the friends made, and how surprising that all was but if I am to be brutally honest I really thought it would be very similar to standing in the middle of a crowded shopping area and shouting your innermost thoughts.

Those that were in the immediate area and knew about you shouting might walk off and think you a little strange, those that stopped and listen might be politely indifferent, concerned about your mental health or outright amused. Most of the people in the world would have no idea at all your had been shouting out anything at all.

And I'm some ways I think that has turned out to be true. There are a lot of people, a lot of blogs and not nearly enough time in a lifetime, let alone a day to read them all or even to find them all. I certainly don't think that many people are reading what I am writing, but that is OK.

So two days ago when I took a quick break from work to check my email I was delightfully surprised to see an email from Barbara from  William George and the Gracie Jane Project had nominated me for the Liebster Award.

The award is a way to share the love ("lieben" meaning "love" in German) of blogs with less than 300 followers. So I am very thankful to Barbara for the nomination and humbled that she still pops by and to have a look what I'm up to from time to time.

In turn I get to nominate 3-5 blogs of my own. And I have to say I am hugely surprised that these blogs don't have more Followers as they are well written and endlessly inspiring.

So I nominate
A wonderful designer of screen printed fabric and the author of an inspiring blog.


Rachel makes the most wonderful things, and has the most cheerful tone in her posts they are always inspiring to read.

I'm cheating a little with this next one because in truth I have no idea how many people followers Anabel at Earthgirl Fabrics has, there isn't a link to that information on her blog but, again, I find her posts inspiring, well written and a joy to read (I sound like a teacher writing a school report, oops). Plus she has a great shop and ships things out so quickly.

So there you go, three more wonderful blogs you might not have known about.

Thanks again Barbara for the nomination.



Queensland Flood Relief Auction: Alice in Wonderland Quilt

Early last week when I read Toni's first post on the Flood Relief Auction I sent off and email to volunteer to participate. And have spent some time since then trying to work out what to auction.

In the end I made this Alice in Wonderland quilt.

It includes a number of different Japanese double gauze fabrics, some Liberty, Anna Maria Horner voile and Japanese cottons.

The back in the Alice double gauze print. The different textures feel fantastic.

It is a lap or cot size, approximately 42"x54".

I must apologize for the ordinary photos, I only just got it finished for the photo shoot this afternoon as the sun was setting.

So to the auctions.

Here is how it works:

1.  Bidding will start at $60.00 (Australian), and all bids will be in AUD.

2. You can place a bid by leaving a comment on this blog post with your bid amount and email address (or  link to a profile where I can see your email address).  

3. Please make sure that your bid is higher than the previous bidder.  

4. Your bid must be in whole dollar increments.

5. This auction is open to everyone,  however $15 will be charged for International addresses (the difference will be refunded if postage is less).  Postage is FREE for Australian residents.  

6. The auction begins NOW and will END at 9am on Monday 24 January, 2011 (AEDST)

7. At the close of the auction, I will contact the winner.  The winner will pay the winning amount directly into the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal and send me proof of payment via email.  Once proof of payment has been received, I will post your quilt to you.

8. If for some reason I have not had contact from the winning bidder within three days of the auction ending the next highest bidder will be contacted.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you for your support. And a huge thank you to Toni and Carli for all their organization. To find a great list of other auctions underway to support this cause please visit the master list here.

Queensland Government Flood Relief Appeal Auctions

As many of you have no doubt seen on the news or in the paper most of Queensland is currently underwater, experiencing some of the worst floods in that area in decades. While many affected towns had some warning and could take some action to prevent loss of life and property unfortunately this was not the case for all communities and many people have lost homes, property and, sadly, their lives.

 At times like these we often ask ourselves, how can I help?

While nothing can undo what has already happened support offered through appeals are designed to offer practical assistance during difficult times and re-building, figuratively or literally, in the months and years ahead.

One way to help would be to donate money to the Disaster Relief Fund set up by the Queensland Government. At the moment the appeal is unable to accept donations of physical goods.

Another is being organized by Toni from Make It Perfect. Inspired by a request from a woman in a flood affected town in Queensland she, along with her sister, is organizing auctions to be held though the online platforms (facebook, blogs) of volunteer sewers and crafters. ALL money raised from these auctions will be donated to the Disaster Relief Fund. You can help by hosting an auction yourself (more information about that is here and here) and/or by bidding on items up for auction.

Basically all items will be up for auction for a week from next Monday, you can find the links to all the auctions from the link on Toni's blog.

I will have at least one item up for auction next week so please do check back then. Please also go and check out Toni's post for more information or to sign up to host an auction of your own.

Maths is not my strongest point....

Lessons learnt today: When you know maths is not your strongest point don't try to calculate seam allowances when you are tired.

This month in the circle I belong to in the do. Good Stitches {a Charity Bee} we have been asked to make blocks from this tutorial to make a nautical themed block that will end up being a version of this quilt.

Tonight seemed the perfect chance to make them, fueled by some Snickerdoodle cookies and while the house guests were out for dinner with Nik (I was invited but can't eat soy, prevalent in most Japanese food. So, given Nik's limited opportunities to eat it it was a chance for him to have it) I made a start.

I have recently reorganized all the fabric (post on this to follow on another day) and was heartened when this made finding all the fabric for the centre string much easier. These came together quickly, and well too I think.

Then the maths was required. I needed to calculate the width of white fabric strip. I scratched my head, I made some notes and I decided the width I needed. I ignored the somewhat more sensible voice that said, 'cut it wider and trim it later' and even the prudent voice that said, 'do one and then check before you cut the rest'. So I cut, and sewed.  

And I didn't check the width of the finished strip before it was done, despite the persistent and now much more insistent voice suggesting I really should.

Then trimmed the corners. I even ignored the voice that said 'why is the trimming crossing over at the point, that can't be right, why don't you check the others before you do the next one?'

Instead I attached the triangles to the first, trimmed and then  measured. It was 7 inches, it should have been 7.5".

I can see some unpicking tomorrow. Sorry more sensible voice in my head, you would think after almost 30 years I would have learnt to listen to you by now.

Tis the season...

I started this post a long time ago. And needed only pictures to finish it but as it the way with this time of year visitors, cooking and other activities meant that did not happen. So I have edited it a little, added  the pictures and now it is good to go!

.... for trying to finish up all my grandiose plans.

I like making gifts for people but around Christmas time the sheer volume of them if I chose to make them for everyone would put me in the seriously crazy group. So I bought giftsb but, inspired by this post from Sew Mama Sew and some of the great links they provided  in this post and this post I am making wrapping in the form of reuseable bags. I started by sending one off to my friend in our freindship group's (Not so Secret) Santa made from a pattern from the Lunch Bags! book.

I made the quilted drawstring bag, the last project in the book. I used a Kokka Linen and cotton blend for the outside and a simple solid for the drawstring closure. The batting was normal quilt wadding but you could also use insulbrite to help things stay cool I suppose. I am really happy with how it turned out, less happy with how long it took because I kept making simple mistakes, although sometimes I think the directions could have been a little clearer to prevent that. These unpicking issues also meant it took about and hour longer than it should have to complete and I only just made it in the mail before then end of the day. Hopefully it makes it before Christmas. 

Boyed by the experience I sat down this morning before work and wrote a list of the style of bag that I thought would actually be used by each recipient and would fit the gift. It didn't seem a green option to gift a white elephant. The thing that worked the best in all this planning was that I can make most of these entireley from materials already on hand! 

And here they are, all done.

1. Picnic Bag for Lydia - inside, 2. Picnic Bag for Lydia, 3. Simple Lunch Bag for Dad, 4. Lunch sack forJustin, 5. Bike bag for Mum, 6. For Iva, 7. Grocery bag for Ana, 8. Grocery bag Amy, 9. Lunch bag for Adrianne, 10. Mum's birthday, 11. A book bag, 12. Too cute!

I think this is a tradition to stay.