Photo: Scott Phillips

How adorable are these? They are made in bottle tops... visit the How to make Pretty Pincushions website to see more cute pincushions, many of the patterns are for free!

dls

Quilt Journals?

At the Design Circle class yesterday, one of my fellow 'circlers', colour-guru Vicki was working in her journal. A plain-covered notebook (although we will work on that), Vicki uses it to sketch ideas, write thoughts and paste in colour pictures etc that catch her attention in relation to quilts she wants to make.

What a great idea, keeping all those quilty thoughts, musings and ideas in the one place. Step one, find an interesting Journal, step two, er, um...

What DO YOU put in your art/quilt journals? I am intrigued. Share your thoughts, and ask your friends to too... and you will go in the running to win this gorgeous book (above) True Colors. It is more than 280 full colour pages - and very inspiring. The winner will be drawn Friday 3 July... so hurry!


dls

Design Circle

I have spent 3 1/2 hours at Material Obsession this morning, with my muffins, and my nine 24in blocks... what fun! The quilt top is taking shape...

Do you know how hard it is to resist buying fabrics each time I'm there? I had given myself a talking to, and expressly forbade myself from buying any fabric today ... and, just as I was packing up to leave - I spotted one I simply couldn't live without ...



this will make a nice skirt, and I think the leftovers will be the start of a new quilt...

dls

Turning 9, Baking and Spotty Spikes

Today we were photographing quilts and products for DUQ issue 136 (september). We had a marvellous collection of challenge pieces, all smaller than 10in sqaure, from the Thread Studio - wait til you see these! How divine! Plus we shot loads of other great quilts - can't tell you more yet, you'll have to be patient.

When I got home I set up the sewing machine (sadly I dont have a dedicated sewing area) and got ready to sew borders onto my nine 24in Spotty Spikes blocks ... ready for Design Circle tomorrow. I didn't get them all done, thanks to the Baking requirements (see below). Here's a photo of the two that did get done, minus sewing the mitred corners.

It is at the monthly Design Circle class at Material Obsession where my Spotty Spikes flourish. They are not at all like I would usually make, and I think they look quite good! I am even considering entering the compelted quilt into the guild show next year - now that's a first for me!

In between sewing, I was making Summer Plum (aka prune) Muffins to take to Design Class tomorrow, when my currently-eight-year-old reminded me that he needed 27 cupcakes for school tomorrow, to celebrate his ninth birthday with his classmates. Not only had I not factored the time, I did not have enough ingredients. A quick flick through the muffin book, and I found a Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe. Here are his birthday muffins for school tomorrow... and the Summer Plum Muffins for my Design Class.

And, here is the birthday boy, Mason, who is so excited about tomorrow that he can't get to sleep.

Now, I am off to get this kid asleep...

dls

what a comfy day ...

After a few crazy weeks, I have just enjoyed my first full day at home - what bliss, how comfy!

After a slow start, didn't get out of bed until 9.30, and a leisurely clean up (not that cleaning up can be called leisure!), my husband and I decided to watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on pay TV.

I cut out the pieces for two blocks of my Spotty Spikes quilt, and together, with a nice pot of tea (instead of the normal hastily-made tea bag tea) we sat down to a three-hour epic movie. I have wanted to see this movie since it was first released, and it's so much more than I expected - I loved it!

How gorgeous is that man, even when 'aged' to late 50?

Apart from watching a great movie, I almost finished my block (will get back to that tonite) and then, between downpours, went for a walk. On my walk I noticed that many streets have their own private water features.

Luckily I missed the rain, or the rain missed me, and here I am with a hot-milk-chai, and heading back to my comfy couch and my Spotty Spikes.

dls

We need to talk about Kevin

On Monday I finished reading our June book club book - We need to talk about Kevin.

While it is a grim subject - mass murder in a school gym by a teenager - it is cleverly written, with the letters from the mum to the dad bringing alive the mother's feelings as she struggles to come to terms with her son's crime.

The book allows us to draw our own conclusions - was it nature or nuture? My group met last night to talk about it, and I must say most of us felt that the mum couldn't be totally responsible, that such bad deeds must come from an unbalanced mind.

As a mother myself (and successfully traversing two teenagers so far) I was moved by the comment from a black woman, mother of a fellow inmate, tells the mum not to beat herself up - "everyone blames the mother anyway, but they can't all have been bad mums." ... this resonates for me ...

I did not expect the twist at the end, and found myself quite moved, for both Kevin's sake and his mum's.

It's a controversial subject, in more ways than one, and I really liked the writing, and I loved Eva's lucidity.

xxdls

I love the cover!

Wow, check out that cover - the quilt is Sarah Fielke's fabulous cot quilt - Bye Bye Birdie - how amazing does it look on the cover girls? and don't you love that PINK...

This is the July issue and is due on sale in 2 weeks ... don't miss your copy. Go to our website to sign up for your FREE digital version (although the site is down today... but should be up and running soon - stay patient).

The July issue shares some fabulous stuff girls...
An exclusive interview with Annette Gero - quilt historian, a fab quilt by my new colour guru friend - Vicki Hines, made with charming pentagons and yo-yos (Yo-Yos are my new fave! - sorry Erica). We take a look at Michele Hill's work over the past year or so and take an exciting armchair journey to Nantes France, where in April this year, the inaugural Pour L'Amour du Fils (for the love of thread) show was staged. We share five pages showing this splendid exhibition - and if you go online on July 1, you can see another 60+ photos on sewn.net.au

xxxdls