An accessorised elephant

Here's my contribution to Loobylu's "A Month of Softies" for November.



Her name is Doris.







I made her out of wool felt, and she is stitched with cotton thread and silk perle. Her size is about 27cm x 20 cm. I think she is quite cute. Great idea, Claire!

Creative stretch

It's actually been a creative few months, but unfortunately I don't have the photos to prove it. My friend Wilma and I had a challenge - buy each other an ugly fat quarter at the Canberra Quilt Show in August, and produce it as 'something' by the November Canberra Quilters' committee meeting. She made me a little quilt, intricately woven and beaded and appliqued. I made her a very functional tote bag and totally broke all the rules, while also doing things I have never done before. The bag was very closely quilted and had positive/negative applique - and now I am keen to stretch the boundaries even more.



I've also had a hate-hate relationship with my brand new sewing machine. FINALLY after much heartache and a river of tears, it was fixed, and has worked like a dream (well almost) ever since. So I took it upon myself to machine quilt a large quilt for the charity component of Canberra Quilters. Now, you have to know 2 things! The first is that I don't quilt anything bigger than a wall hanging. Because. I. Suck. At. It. And secondly, my machine was still being an unknown creature, and it had the potential to die at any second



Well, I did it! And I am now brave enough to tackle larger quilts, and test the machine ever more (it has a 5 year warranty - may as well push it to the limit, right?



Beside the Canberra quilt show quilts, I also made a lap quilt for my friend Helen, who had her 50th birthday in August . It took me 2 evenings to put the quilt top together, 2 days at the show hand basting it, and a week to hand quilt it sashiko-style.





The next 6 months I have deemed to be my "Finish the bloody thing already" period of life. I have UFOs - too many UFOs! Photos as soon as they are finished! I promise!

The quiltingmick story

I'm a girl in her thirties. Early thirties. Well, at least for another 2 months, when I will be in my "mid thirties". And I live in Canberra, which is the capital city of Australia. And I quilt.



I did a search today, and there aren't many of us quilting bloggers out there. What's with that? Heaps of quilting online groups, not many bloggers....



This blog will therefore be my attempt at patching (geddit?) the little void, while perhaps also inspiring me to get off my bum occasionally and create something real out of all the quilty dreams I have.



So on that note, here's a link to one of my favourite quilts.





It is made of fabric I wore on our wedding day, and even includes the ribbon from my bouquet as the hanging sleeve. The Chinese symbol means "love", which is very appropriate, don't you think?



Until next I log on to the almighty Blogger....