A little Valentine Love

Well as many people are aware & obsessed about, today is Valentine's Day.  

Now we don't normally do Valentine's Day in my house as we object to the commercialism, but in saying that, it is good to be reminded to tell our loved ones that we love them.

Now before I progress any further what does PS I love you mean?? 

Any ideas??

Now officially  "PS means 'post script' which is an addition or after thought from the person writing or leaving you a message. It obvious they still love you."

In Our house it means  "Beloved Husband, I love you."  

(His initials are PS, so he has always considered this a personal message to him)

Inspired by this vinyl cling I saw at Say it on the Wall

 

I had my lovely friend Emma create a cling for our house.  Here is "PS I love you"  Emma style.

if you look really closely at the picture & squint you can see our engagement photo in the background.

So inspired by all this love I created a cushion for my PS.

 Tiny red roses.....

a red butterfly ......

and

PS I love you.

(more than you will ever know)

My Blog Book

In the mail this week arrived a super personalised book for Me.

The Blog of ........ Outback Crafter 2010

 That's right, I had my blog converted into a hard cover blogbook at The Cutest Blog on the Block 

The book is fantastic and reasonably priced. This hardcover shipped from the states was about $50 AUS.  The price of course varies depending on how many pages and if you want hardcover or softcover. 

I am so impressed with the book.  I chose to keep my layout meaning the words & pictures appear in the order shown on the blog but you can ask it to print more economically  & it puts in all the words and then all the pictures.  If you pop over to the website at Blog2Print you can trial it.   The program will convert the blog to book for you to proof prior to making any financial commitment.

I am not being paid for this information, I jut think it is a great idea as now my blog that was mapping my artistic progress is in 'hardcover' and I can keep it forever.  It is great to look back at last year to see how constructive I really was.

I found the link for Blog2Print on The Cutest Blog on the Block the people who designed the cute background & tags on this blog.  (Unfortunately those features do not print in the book, but I can live with that).

Go on all you blog people, go & try it.

Quilts of Love

This week has seen me complete 2 small quilts for the Quilt of Love project.  These quilts are either 50cm x 50cm or 1m x 1m in size and are used in the special care nurseries of hospitals.

This Butterfly Quilt of Love (50 x 50cm) was made from my Injune Creek Patchwork Christmas exchange where instead of exchanging gifts we exchanged embroidery panels and fat 1/4s of fabric to use for this purpose.

 This "Sheriff" Quilt of love (50 x 50cm) I made from a cute teddy cowboy material that I embellished with a "Sheriff Star".

Both of these quilts have been given into the custody of Julie from Cow Paddocks Patchwork to be passed on to the special care wards of the major hospitals in Toowoomba & Brisbane.

I am very excited, these 2 quilts mean another 2 OPAM for February.  Sometimes we just get on a roll.

I am so lucky

When I ventured to the mail box this week I found a very exciting parcel waiting for me.  It contained this beautiful card & wonderfully wrapped goodies from Vikki of Sew Useful Designs.

 

Inside were the wonderful goodies I won in the Flood relief raffle & Auction that I posted about here .

The travel sewing caddy complete with scissors & thread fits on the sun visor of the car so I can sew while driving (well being the passenger actually).  I will have to get P to photograph me stitching in the car. The wonderful patterns are the Springtime Block of the month that I won in the auction.  I can't wait to trace off the beautiful stitcheries and start stitching.

 

Many thanks again Vikki for your generous prizes.  

I LOVE THEM.

New life to discarded clothing

While cleaning my sewing space the other day (that is another post all together) I came across a RM Williams shirt I had inherited for my oldest boy.  It had been used by an embroiderer who had stuffed up the design & unpicked the design leaving a series of holes.  As it was a really good quality shirt, I couldn't let it go in the scrap bag so I dug around & found a picture to spunk it up for T.  

Here is McQueen in all his raw edge & free form stitching glory.

 And a really excited T as he models his newest shirt.  I have regained super Mummy status.

This remodel qualifies as my first OPAM for 2011.  Yeah,  I am on my way.

Pondering... Contemplating... Procrastinating???

Last year as you may recall, I participated in a twisted bargello workshop.  Well the bargello really hasn't progressed from where it was when I last posted but however I have had an ephiphany.

The panel that I have completed fits between the two windows at the front of our house, so it is currently hanging out in it's unfinished form while I contemplate what I should do now.  Do I just border & quilt it, or do I continue to make more bargello (approx this 3 times again) to form a quilt.

When hanging this way I see water flowing down...

 and this way I see upward movement...

what do you see??? Any thoughts on the future of this piece??

Christmas in February????

The lovely ladies of Roma Patchwork & Crafters Inc held our Christmas party in February this year as we were washed out in December.  Strange but true.  We followed the plan that we had for Christmas, but decided not to dress in Christmas.

On the agenda was Show & tell (of course).  Below are the ladies showing off some of their "2 fat quarter" projects.

Christmas scrap tub & 2 fat quarter cream bag.

 Japanese fabric "2 fat quarter" tote

 "2 fat quarters" and a few bits more quilt.  Those block centres are a multi coloured upholstery fabric

 2 fat quarter pyramid/volcano scrap tote

"2 fat quarter" wave handbag.

We had a lovely day & everyone is now inspired for the year ahead.  Keep up the good work ladies.