Kate Spain Charms

finished top

I have finished the top of my Kate Spain charm square swap. Melissa aka MsMidge who organised this wonderful swap also organised a charm-along which we all have until the weekend to get finished.
I really just wanted the fabric to shine and found a free pattern called round and round, my problem was that  I needed an extra 28 charms to finish the final round, I had a slightly used Central Park charm pack and added it to the final 32 from the swap. Now to work out how to quilt it but have already decided on a black and white stripe as the binding

Christmas in July

My gifts

I joined in on Cheryll's Christmas in July swap, this is what Jan sent me. A lovely tree mini quilt, 5 Santas for my tree and a mug bag with a cute little mouse and some chocolates inside as well as some tea and coffee bags. Thanks again to the swap mumas Cheryll and Kim

Finished and a new start

top finished

the second half

Sew I got the last 3 rows onto my Anna Maria Horner, low volume swap quilt but now that I am in the National Sports Chaplaincy Australia (SCA) office every Monday and Tuesday I don't get to see a lot of daylight unless I head out at lunchtime. We don't have enough floor space to lay the whole quilt top out so I went outside, in front of the garage and took some photos.

Kate Spain  charm square swap

Now I can play with all the lovely Kate Spain charms from the swap. There are 111 different 5" charms, we ended up with one double and given I took 2 spots I now have 224 lovely charms to make a number of thing out of. To start I am doing the Roundabout quilt - first 2 rounds on so far, 3 more to go. I am just sewing the charms together as they arrived giving a nice scrappy look so far.

halfway

This is what I worked on last night, it took much longer to do that I wanted FNSI is a fun way to get sewing done with a whole bunch of like minded people.
It is overcast here this morning a good excuse to continue putting it together.

 

FNSI

I'm joining in with all the girls sewing FNSI. I spent yesterday at NOTYQ and managed to get 7 rows done, 13 more to go, might not get them all done tonight but I want to finish it by tomorrow. My next project is calling, my Kate Spain charm squares and the incentive is that Melissa has on her blog for getting my butt into gear. The current plan is to either make Thimble Blossoms round and round quilt or a free from Quilt it called Roundabout

Steve will be channel flicking between the British open golf,  tour de france, NRL and AFL so I will happily play with my sewing machine and occasionally check the sporting scores.

In other news my Christmas in July swap parcel arrived during the week but I can't open it until next Friday and I know from auspost tracking that my gifts have arrived at their destination I took photos of them before they were wrapped but forgot to take one of them wrapped. However with technology I have been able to copy the photo from her blog.

my gifts not to be opened until 25th

my parcels sent to Lisa (taken off her blog)

and the other stuff

We had a trip away before the wedding.

Sports Chaplaincy Australia (SCA) had their national Conference on the Gold Coast 17th - 19th June and I ended up being the go to organiser as the person who was doing it left. Robyn now has a full time job instead of a 3 day part time job. This also means that I now have a 2 day paid position in the same office as Steve but he is not my boss.

The conference was great, it always is but I was on a rollercaster ride with no way off, you see my dad died on the previous Saturday while we were in Sydney visiting family and friends on our way to the Gold Coast. We never made the funeral as it was held on the Central Coast of NSW the day before the wedding 13 days after he died as my siblings fought over when and how it was going to happen.

While in Sydney we had a few days where I got to sew with Clare and go to Lily's 6th birthday party, six years ago we were preparing to head to London to visit our new little granddaughter.

Anna Maria Horner charm square swap with a low volume swap
HST quilt

table runner for the angel mortal swap at NOTYQ

Miss Lily wearing the clothes I bought from H&M

i'm slack

but I do have a few excuses, not all good ones but this is the best..................

bridal party with flower girls running through
Tim, Andrew, Jared, Elizabeth, Kate, Jen

Elizabeth and Jared got married on 28th June 2014 at St Hillary's at Kew. Photos taken at Carlton Gardens outside the Royal Exhibition building and the IMAX. Reception at Visy Park (Carlton AFL home ground) in the function room. Jared's dad Steven is the chaplain at Carlton

Steve, me, Elizabeth, Jared, Pennie and Steve

Joshua, Christopher, Elizabeth and Katherine

I am now the parent of three married children and for the first time since 1980 Steve and I are home alone.