A very Merry Christmas!

We had a very Merry Christmas with Miss Lucy-lu
as you can see, she has had her c-pap removed,
and is now on fast flow prongs.
Lucy has also been reclassified as a 'Special Care' baby
and is no longer 'Intensive Care'.
This is another milestone.
She now weighs 1.4kg, twice her birth weight!

Merry Christmas from these two beautiful girls
Sophia was once again an angel
at her Kindergarten concert.

Look who's getting bigger

Miss Lucy-Lu
has now reached 1.186kg
and measures 38cm
and is now off all IV's!

You may have wondered where I've been! Apart from having a virus on my p.c. that would not allow me to blog, I have been pregnant with this little dot!
May I introduce to you Lucinda Grace....aka Lucy. She was born at 27.2 weeks gestation, weighing 721gms, length 33cms and head circumference 21.5 cm.
Lucy arrived on November 14 th, but wasn't due until February 11th 2010. SO far she has done amazingly well for her prematurity, but we have come out of the honeymoon period, and she gave us quite the scare today when we went to visit. Tonight she is having a blood transfusion, and hopefully this will help with a few of the problems she is having at present.
We now understand that it will be a rocky road we will be travelling over the next few months.

Our second daughter, Tessa, was also born prematurely. Tessa was born at 33.3 weeks weight 1630gms. Tessa fought hard, and is a happy healthy 3 1/2 year old now. We can see already that Lucy has some of the same stamina, but will face a few more challenges.

We are all madly in love with her

a couple more

Two more blocks for Bee Modern Quilting Bee
These are for Claudia of Sugared Limes
using the 'Hello Betty' line

The Shy Monster

This is my latest Quilting Bee Block!
It's not very scary, and kinda looks like a girl!
I think the wall it's looking over, looks more like a quilt
OH well....

Another couple of projects

Here's the beautiful quilt Julie sent me for
May S.T.U.D. alphabetmania
'I' for Illusion

and a little bug (or slug) for Skovy
for the Sew Kid at Heart Quilting Bee

What I've been working on lately!

My S.T.U.D. mini groups theme for the month was
'Alphabetmania'
My letter was 'L' and my Mini for Jgmehlin
was this Gees Bend/ Art Inspired piece named
'Lemons, Limes & oranges'

I've joined the Bee Modern Quilting Bee!
Here are my first blocks for Nichole
and for the month of June
lots of fun!
I got a bit carried away with 4, but, I learnt a new applique technique in the meantime!

Finally!

Here is a picture of the beautiful quilt
I received from Ritapizza in DQS6
I had the best time exchanging comments with Rita,
I knew from her first picture post that it was for me,
I jut had to wait....

It's taken me a while to post a pic. as we were supposed to include
ourselves in the shot
Yes I bailed, and included the girls instead!
Oh well!

Oh!

and here is what we sent Teena
there is a card of green ribbon missing, and a Cherry Ripe (yum!)
The bottom left is a little doll quilt for Miss Violet

Pink & Green Swap

Her are the lovely things we received from Teena in the Pink & Green Swap
which included; home-made lavender bath salts,
green kitchen implements, beautiful pink wool, thank-you notes
a vintage apron

and a beautiful set of hand dyed silks for the girls to play with

Thank you so much Teena!

Glorious!

Here is the Mini I received from Fissiet/Liliane
Every element I love
It is truely GLORIOUS!

finished, sent and received!

I've finished the little Sampler Quilt for Liliane in Luxemburg!
I just had to change 1 block which didn't suit,
I also used Perle 8 for the first time
Wow, was it easy to use, and looks really effective

And to my big girl who once again has injured herself
It's healed amazingly well in the 10 days since it happened
I can't bear looking inside
I'm pretty sure 2 teeth went through!

DQS6 and another little project

I've started working on my Sampler Quilt
for the 6- 12" mini group
the blocks are approx. 3" each
my partner likes colorful things
so hopefully this will be to her liking

This is the finished quilt for Doll Quilt Swap 6
my partner loves 1930's repro's
I'm hoping he or she will like how this came together
I'd like to make it in a larger scale next time

the gorgeous vintage shell buttons came to me in a previous swap
and were perfect for the flower centers

guess how much I love you?

This is the March swap quilt I made for QuiltinKimmie
The theme once again was Childrens Literature
This is my interpretation of little Nut Brown Hare
from the beautiful story book 'Guess How Much I Love You'
This is Sophia's favourite book, and is quoted daily in our house!

Yes, I have joined another swap!
But, Pink and Green, my favourite colors!
How could I resist?

stitchin'

Doing a little stiching on my quilt for Doll Quilt Swap 6
I've done some hand peicing, and some machine peicing,
and now a little blanket stitch
My partner is also a 1930's lover
I'm hoping they'll love this little cutie!

Happy 5th Birthday

We celebrated Sophia's birthday last weekend with a big girl princess party
Fortunately the venue we went to has a face painter on a Saturday night
She invited 7 of her girlfriends from Kindergarten and Joel!
I made little carry bags in princess/castle/unicorn themed fabrics
instead of lolly bags (& a car 1 for Joel)

She then celebrated her real birthday on Thursday
and with cupcakes at Kindergarten on the same day.

Happy 3rd Birthday

Happy Birthday Tessa, my tiny little girl!

Fun Day Out... & a few other projects

Well, yesterday Janine and I went along to 'The Stitches and Craft Show'
There were many reasons to go, but one of the things I enjoyedthe most was meeting
Jodie and Louise
We saw Jodies' great selvedge projects, made a little liberty button brooch,
I purchased some cute cards and the most gorgeous fairy fabric for Sophias room.


I've now completed some blocks for The Bushfire Quilt Project. I think they are up to 50+ quilts!

Here is the gorgeous quilt that Kimmie sent me in the 6 -12" Mini Swap.
The theme for February was childrens literature,
Kimmie sent the quilt and three of the 'Frog and Toad' books for the girls to read

Hi!

Sorry we are a little quiet at the moment!
I should have a post very soon on my fabulous February 6 - 12 " swap with Kimmie.
But at present we are readying ourselves for a
3 yr olds and 5 yr olds Birthday Party!

and the procrastinating continues...

Inspired

For the January swap in our 6-12" mini the theme was
'be inspired by the quilts of Gee's Bend'
This is the mini I sent to Toni
ispired by this quilt

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed making it!

Bush Fire Quilt Project

Hi Guys
As you may be aware, we are in the midst of the most horrific fires to hit Australia. There has been a huge loss of life, nearing 200 at last count. Many of these fires are man-made, and some entire towns have been lost.
I live approx. 1/2 hour from the major bush fires, and most people I know, know someone who has been affected by one of the fires.
There are many ways you can help including cash donations to The Australian Red Cross and by donating clothing, shoes, toiletry etc.
An online quilting friend has started up The Bushfire Quilt Project. This is an international group,and all that you need to do is make 1 or 2 Maverick star blocks and Tia will piece the blocks into a quilt and forward them to the victims of the fire.
These blocks can be made from scraps, so if you have the time and are handy with a needle and thread, please help.

What Sylvie sent me!

The Three Bears!
a beautiful French version of the story
a letter, and drawing from her daughter
and some yummy chocolate covered marshmallow bears

aren't they sweet!

Le Petite Prince

Here is the little mini quilt I made for January
in the Flickr 'Swap till You Drop' group.
Theme: read it, watch it, sing it

It is for Sylvie in France,
and so I decided to use a famous French childrens book/opera/movie
'The Little Prince' by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
This is one of his beautiful illustrations!
I really enjoyed making this, I was inspired by this work.
Although I was a little frightened, to do it on my 30yr old Janome,
I decided to use a strand of embroidery thread and hand applique it.

Sophia's project

Here's the quilt project Sophia worked on in '08 for Andrew
She designed and helped sew
she ironed

and I quilted and bound.
We quilted Sophia's name into her color and Andrew's into his
purple & red

Do you like the dinosaur backing.
I originally used this on a quilt for my niece in 1991 !

A little Mini from eggmoney!

Here is the lovely little mini I received from 'eggmoney'
for our November 'words' swap
Inspirational words!

and these gorgeous cards she sells in her etsy store
thanks Lynn!

These is a little tempter of the January mini I have made for 'TayLynnsbean'
The theme is to be inspired by The Gee's Bend quilts
If you don't know of these quilts go have a look here.

and finally, this is how my beauty fell asleep on Christmas eve whilst waiting for dinner
We dressed her, popped her into bed,
and her sister had to wake her on Christmas morning at 7.30am