Samantha needed a Banner for her Grade 6 Confirmation at school the other week so I was "forced" out of semi retirement for a couple of days!!
It felt good... really good... Here are a few pics to prove life still flickers in the sewing room...
Welcome to my little place on the web....
Twists and turns... Highs and lows... They say it's all part of life's journey. Life for us as a family unit has hit a hurdle and subsequently, I find myself headed down an unfamiliar fork in the road... and so, a new journey begins... I tell you... lucky I was good at orienteering at school!! Seriously though, I don't believe blogger is the place to be airing "dirty laundry" and that is not in my nature to begin with, so, you will understand my reluctance to elaborate on my story. Having said that.. unfortunately, blogging and dare I say it, sewing have taken a back seat for the time being... I'm still passionate about both and I'm missing my "nina" terribly, but my heart is just not in it at the moment... I will be keeping and eye on what all you talented people are up to though... So, don't worry!! I will be back... Bigger and better than ever... I promise!! Lx
Lucky she happens to be the most beautiful dog in the whole world!!
It is not very big... Turned out to be more of a baby quilt... shame I don't have any babies coming up... well, definitely not with me anyway!! ... anyone having a baby??
Perhaps I could add another border?? Let's call this one a W.I.P... I don't think I'm done yet!! Back to Spotlight tomorrow I think ....
edit.... I re took the photos this morning... I think they look much better, but still not perfect...
Here's what else we got up to while we were away...
Molly did lots of this....
A few quiet refreshments were had by, well, me... (glad there's no timestamp on this photo)...
A little light reading...
Oh, and last but not least, I managed to start this scarf too!!
It's always great to get away, but as they say, it's nice to be home!!
The kids are back at school on Monday so hopefully by then, I'll be back into the swing of things and creating again in my sewing room!!
If I can only get through the multitude of washing and ironing that has piled up in my absence!!!
but seriously, this is the first thing I have won since... well, I can't remember!! Thankyou to Emily at Carolina Patchworks... http://carolinapatchworks.com/blog/
What a great pattern... and may I say... what a great name!! heh heh... I love it!!When I got back onto my computer tonight and checked my favourite blog updates, I had a very unexpected surprise... I realised I'd won a quilt naming competition over at Carolina Patchworks... OMG... What a thrill!!
My name was the winner... "SUMMER SORBET"
Here's the link so you can take a look... Thankyou Emily!!
Local CFA firefighter David Tree shares his water with an injured Australian Koala at Mirboo North after wildfires swept through the region. (AAP)

There it was... my little pencil case...
Please remember though... DON'T TELL THE KIDS!!!!
Meanwhile... I am off to finish hand stitching the binding on the Woof Woof quilt so I can give it away as a present this afternoon. It is the first quilt I have actually made and given away.... I know!! I can't beleive it either!! I really love the way it has turned out and have mixed emotions about handing it over. Silly I know!! Do you know what I mean? It's like... "will they love it as much as me? Will they take care of it?"... it's like a baby you have "grown". Silly, silly girl Lee-Anne!! I will take the finished photos and post them later today if I get time...
Edit.. OK... Here they are...
Finished front...
The label...
All washed and crinkled... ready for delivery this afternoon... Oh, I hope she likes it!!
It looks much nicer (and straighter!!) than it does in this bottom photo, but I wanted to show you the whole quilt top so I quickly "hung" it up on my design wall. I'm trying to get it finished by Friday... Oooh... A self imposed deadline... I hate deadlines!!
Wish me lots of "free time" quilting luck! Yeah right!! And maybe throw in a fairy godmother who's a whiz at free motion too!! Heh, heh. Life's so busy at the moment!!


The green background fabric was painted (more like dyed I guess only using my paints not my dyes). Using a mechanical pencil, I drew the butterfly (which was loosely based on a Laurel Burch design) onto white homespun and then painted in the colours (again using the Pebeo paints). When I was happy with the design I free motion embroidered the Butterfly (using tearaway stabiliser behind). I used lots of different rayon threads to fill in the details and when I thought I could embellish it no more, I applied fusible webbing to the back, cut the whole Butterfly out along it's edges, and fused the whole piece down onto my nice green background fabric (green, I like green!!). Finally, I added the antennae and raw edge appliqued (by machine of course) around the whole outside edge of the Butterfly. The 3 circles above were completed in the same way.... So that's it... That's my Painted Butterfly.
A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had Shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no Secrets from each other except that the
little old woman had a shoe Box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.
For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman
got very sick and the doctor said she would not Recover.
In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totaling $95,000.
He asked her about the contents...
'When we were to be married,' she said, ' my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.'
The little old man was so moved... he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with Happiness.
'Honey,' he said, 'that explains the dolls, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?'
'Oh,' she said, 'that's the money I made from selling the dolls.'
...... A Prayer.......
Dear Lord,
I pray for Wisdom to understand my man
Love to forgive him
And Patience for his moods
Because Lord, if I pray for Strength,
I'll beat him to death... I don't know how to crochet.
