From this....to this!!!

As i just shared, I recently bought myself a NEW camera. A Canon 1000D DSLR. Its just an 'entry level' Digital SLR camera... but is incredible compared to my little 'Point and Shoot'  camera (you can see i did my research from all my technical knowledge!! ) Anyway, when i got it home and got it out of the box and saw how lovely it looked....

..then saw the BIG BLACK BORING CANON STRAP..... i thought....

..how UGLY is THIS!!!.....

So I turned This........Into This!!

 I had remembered seeing various tutorials on Camera straps, and Camera Strap Covers...etc and with my own fabric arriving this week... I thought it suited perfectly!!!

It definately turned my camera from looking a bit Industrial to a little bit more lovely. It was easy and quick... the hardest part was unpicking the hardware at the bottom of the original strap.

This tutorial with the ruffle came from Crap Ive Made and she also did another pieced Camera strap tutorial here. You can also find another tutorial here. But there are lots out there.... Just look to find the Perfect one for you!.. In most of the tutorials... they use heavy fusible interfacing. I just used left over batting and I found it worked perfectly... and its WAY more comfy on my neck than the original Canon strap!

Photo Courtesy of my Iphone...

  And for those of you that like a quick fix... You can find already sewn Camera straps and Covers for purchase from various etsy shops... one of my favourites is knitty bitties. She has a whole shop full of gorgeous covers....mmm i think id like one in every colour!

What Have I Been Up To??

Well......Let me show you a few pics....

This Fabric arrived last week. Its the beautiful new range from Patricia Bravo...Paradise.

I bought mine from Hawthorne Threads... but I'm sure there are many stores stocking it....

 I then cut it up into little squares and cut these into template pieces....and this week i have spent a few hours pinning!! .....

 This may look like an absolute nightmare to some of you...and then again, therapeutic to others.... I happen to be in the Therapeutic group. I just sit, and watch the kids play,... and pin, watch them draw.... and pin, watch them do tricks on their scooters... and pin.... I watch TV, and pin, sit and talk on the phone and pin,  Yes LOTS of pinning... but well worth the effort! 

This lovely pile means I can sit and SEW and SEW and SEW! All these squares are for my new Quilt in the making... I worked out I need 144 of them!! I cant show you just yet... but this new Quilt and soon to be new pattern is made up of corner to corner curves...very fun!

The other thing I have been doing this week is..........TAKING PICTURES!!....

I splurged on a new camera!! A Canon EOS 1000D, Digital SLR camera. It has been fun learning all about the many functions you can use...  I was a little embarrassed telling the sales man that i needed a 'NEW' camera to take pictures of Quilts for my Blog! Yes he did look at me a little weird ....but hey!! I'm Excited!...... and can you guess who else is excited?

 

My little Indi!! Loves pictures....

And 2 Yards of My Paisley Fabric arrived from Spoonflower....

(Its so hard to get a great Picture of it... The pictures just dont do the material justice.)

....so with my new fabric, I'm off to girly up my camera with a New Camera Strap! I found a great tutorial from Crap I've Made...haha.. Great Blog title!!  I'm going to give it a try.. 

and 

ill be delighted to show you some pictures!! xxx

Amazing website - Creating A Childhood

As i have spent many hours at night blog hopping and reading all about each of you, i have found a common thread... Quilting/Home Crafts/Creating things and our most important job....Creating our Families.
In our profiles many of us are mums, who juggle the jobs of raising children, managing a family, cooking, cleaning, some of us working as well, and we all try our best to squeeze in a little Craft time...sewing or making something for our own sanity and head space. With this in mind, Im excited to tell you about an Amazing site...

http://creatingachildhood.com/

This site was developed by Lisa Rigby, a wonderful mother of 9 . Her passion is her family and the childhood shes creating.... On her site she wrote....

"This is a collection of my favourite mother stuff gathered from other mothers, books, lessons and 27 years of 24/7 experiences. I love the mother job. I hope something here helps you as you create a beautiful childhood..."

Her site is 1 year old this month! She has thousands of followers and subscribers!! I chose a few topics...

A Mother Teaches Love

Childhood Years

Patience

Catch a problem while its Small

Running A Home

Brotherly Love

Little Boy Energy

Rocking Chair Therapy

Respect

The Honour System

Starting School

The Dad

Happy Not Perfect

Chaos Control

Teaching Children Obedience

Play!!

Make Home the Best Place to Be

A Child Feels Your Feelings

.......but there are soo many more. They are all fantastic and you find yourself looking at the computer nodding.. 

About Lisa,

"I have a wonderful husband. We wanted a large family, and because of the example of my mother, the teachings of our church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), and boundless energy, I felt confident we could do it. I found out it was much harder and much better than I expected.
Harder- long months of nausea, scared stiff of delivery each time, an astonishing amount of housework (I was not a worker), an a selfish, impatient nature- mine!
Better- the miracle of making a new person, the love and beauty of a baby, the laughter of a child, the frequent intensely sweet and precious moments that you don't have time to write down because you are too busy living them.
We had 4 boys first, then 4 girls and a little boy at the end.
They are our best friends, our greatest happiness, our biggest challenge and our treasure. And still an astonishing amount of work.
The oldest 4 boys have all spent 2 years doing humanitarian service in countries less fortunate than Australia, as missionaries for our church. 3 are married, and we currently have 6 children at home-2 university students,
2 teenagers and 2 primary school children.
It's like a party every day whether you want one or not."

She also asks Mothers to write a profile on their own Mothering Experiences... I was lucky enough to be able to write mine here. Her site is amazing...

You are going to LOVE it!! xx

Good and Bad News!!

Well lets start with the GOOD news!! I have been over to Random.org to find 3 Winners from my Rolling Meadows Quilt Pattern and Fabric Giveaway.......

drumroll.....

Winner #77 - Fabric and Pattern!!

Our Busy Little Bunch said...

I found your blog through Lovely Little Handmades when they gave away some of your patterns a little while back :)

Winner #129 - My Pattern

Jeni said...

A beautiful quilt! I found you through Kate Conklin! :)

Winner #33 - My Pattern 

Kathleen C. said...

I do love your quilt and the eye catching tree fabric. What a kind giveaway you've put together. I know I found you through another blogger's link; it might have been at Kate Conklin Designs.
Thanks very much.

Thank you so much to everyone who has entered!! Winners, Ill be in touch!!

I now know, most of you... have come over from my BFF and Partner in Crime...  Kate!! Arent we lucky to have friends! I Love you Kate!

Now for the BAD news... My computer died! It crashed.. something major happened....wont turn on, wont turn off! So its in getting fixed and what a drama it has been to be with out it. I know, YOU know, how difficult it is to live without your computer close by. I never realised how much I jump on quickly, here and there. My hubby seems to blame ME!! Of course!

He said "It has never had a problem before YOU started Blogging and Blog Hopping all over the place..."
Ah Yes, My fault...Of course it is!!  So im borrowing a family computer.. which means I have NO PICS to show.. I spose the GOOD thing that has come out of not having my computer is.... I have actually been busy sewing and making things...other than Quilts!! i know..Its a surprise! Ill blog about them soon.

So I was searching blogs to see if I could find a picture of something- from me... and I was lucky enough to find some pictures over at Material Obsession. The Lovely Kathy loved my Sand Castle Quilt Pattern and has taken a few pics of it on her blog here and here! Thanks Kathy!! xx

New Quilt Pattern and Giveaway!!

Its here...!!

My Rolling Meadows Quilt Pattern is finished and NOW Available for Purchase! This Quilt is quick and easy to make...Perfect for beginners or for a fun, quick project!

This Quilt was made using the Joel Dewberry - Modern Meadow range. You are still able to buy the fabric from  Hawthorne threads,  Fabricworm, Pink Chalk, The Fat Quarter Shop,  Sew Deerly Loved....Just to name a few! This quilt is made using a Jelly Roll and this amazing Tree fabric I fell in love with. Its a little hard to see from the pics... but I quilted it in straight/wonky lines from top to bottom.I wanted the quilting lines to look like branches laid on the ground. I was really pleased how it turned out...and quick and fun!

Now for my GIVEAWAY!! 

Firstly I'm giving away some of this amazing Tree Fabric...1 Whole Yard of the yellow trees to be exact!....

and a 8" x 44" strip of the green trees. 

I also have 20,  2 1/2" strips, varying lengths to throw in!

Plus the winner will also receive my new Rolling Meadows Quilt Pattern of course!

I have 2 more Patterns to Giveaway... so there will be Three winners in total. This giveaway will close

Thurs the 16th September and a winners drawn on Friday.

How to enter?? You have a few chances...

1) Leave a comment on my blog telling me how you found me! Being as though I'm only new to blogland...Its fun to find out where you are all coming from! 

2) If you follow my blog or become a follower...leave another comment.

3) If you blog about my giveaway... or have me on your sidebar... leave another comment!

PLUS.... MY pattern will be on sale... 30% Off... while my giveaway is on....click here  and of course ill reimburse the winners if you happen to have already purchased my pattern.

Thanks so much for entering!! Its been so nice clicking on your name and checking out all of your amazing blogs!! There are so many great blogs out there!! xxxx good luck xxx

The Things we do for LOVE!

This last weekend, we celebrated Father's Day here in Australia. So i have been thinking alot about the two fathers in my life. 1st, my own Father... thinking about how wonderful he is, how he is always so willing to drop everything, anytime for us kids. A friend,  someone to confide in, listen to, a role model.... He is a fantastic grandpa! Who rolls around and plays games with my kids. And when I rang him yesterday and said "hey dad, do you think you could come home from work early to take pictures of my quilt before it got too dark... he said "sure honey, what time?"

The 2nd Father I celebrated on Sunday was, the Father of my children. He is my whole world! My best friend. He is someone i look to everyday and think...i am so lucky to be married to you. He is so kind, so thoughtful, so willing to make me happy, so dedicated to creating the perfect life for me and our kids. He is someone I just adore.

AND of course one of THE most important thing is.... he is someone to help me with my quilts!! How many times do we lay out our blocks on the floor and ask.....mmmm..... Does that look right to you? What do you think of the colours? Do you like this fabric?? Do you think I should add sashing? He helps with the design, my photos and draws my diagrams for my patterns. He fixed my 1st Castle sketch...with his knowledge of old school Architecture and told me the correct alignment of Turrets and Battlements!

So yesterday we headed to the beach to take some pics of this quilt finally finished!!! 

Some behind the scenes shots from yesterday!! 

This quilt is for my little Indi and she is in love with Fairy tales and Castles. Her only gripe... is it isn't pink enough! So i had to go with the pink roses back... and purple sleeping beauty binding!

The things we do for LOVE!!! xxx

Spoonflower Rocks!

For those of you who don't know what Spoonflower is exactly... and up until a little while ago, I was one of those people.... Let me tell you!!

About Spoonflower
"Spoonflower makes it possible for individuals to design, print and sell their own fabric designs. It was founded in May 2008 by two Internet geeks who had crafty wives but who knew nothing about textiles. The company came about because Stephen’s wife, Kim, persuaded him that being able to print her own fabric for curtains was a really cool idea. She wasn’t alone. The Spoonflower community now numbers around 70,000 individuals who use their own fabric to make curtains, quilts, clothes, bags, furniture, dolls, pillows, framed artwork, costumes, banners and much, much more." (From their Spoonflower site!!)

Now, I wasn't sure how it all worked exactly... so what better way to find out for myself??? Give it a try!!

I decided I would just upload my Paisley design and logo... and see how it would turn out. For $5 ea... they print you a 8" x 8" fabric square and a little test swatch. Mine arrived in the mail today.

This Custom Paisley Design I use for my Business cards, Pattern Packaging, AND If your one to take notice... It is also the background of my BLOG!!...Ahhh you say!

I also uploaded the Jpeg image from my business card. This is my Logo, designed and thought up by my lovely hubby! Poor thing, He is the Brains behind all my pattern diagrams.... His profession is Designing homes and does it all on the computer. He originally said..."sure honey, Ill help you draw up some diagrams!!" (little did he know, we would spend a couple hrs a week,....drawing quilts to scale on his CAD Architectural Design program. He recons 'HE' could even sew a quilt following his diagrams....HA!!

Anyway, He designed my logo, and gave me the idea to go with paisley.....mmmm where would we be without em! This Logo and Paisley didn't turn out so great on fabric. From just uploading it straight from the Business card file, the paisley doesn't match up properly. This doesn't worry me though.... I'm going to cut it up into squares... and use these as labels for my Quilts. This will work for now, until I figure out a better way to label my Quilts.

The Grey Pink Paisley turned out Perfect though. The Pink Paisley on White is a bit wishy washy...and i prob wont use this.... But I'm definitely going to put my order through for a couple yards of the Grey Pink Paisley and the Logo fabric.

Now all Ive got to figure out is... What on earth I'm going to use it for??!! But hey, Do we ever know? I'm actually thinking I might make a Sewing Machine Cover with my Grey/Pink Paisley?...

I was excited to see how it all turned out. There are definitely areas I can fix it up a bit.... but I thought, not bad for first go. You HAVE to go and check out Spoonflower so many Amazing Talented Independent fabric designers.... You can also Purchase their fabrics from the Spoonflower shop. Its Amazing!! Another avenue to explore. But for me, I think ill stick to designing quilts for now....xxxx

P.S Oh....I'm also on the hunt for a good camera.... My pictures turn out so lousy on my little old digital....so if you could share your wealth with me of camera and blog picture knowledge...that would be great!! Thanks xxx