June Birthdays

In June,our family celebrates seven birthdays so I've been busy making not only quilts but birthday cards too.

For my fourteen year old niece I'm taking the Sketch Saturday Week 158 challenge which is being hosted by Jeanette this week.

Instead of making a card, I'm making my niece  a journal which will double as a card.

I picked up an A5 visual art diary for under three dollars from my local art shop.  Also some super strong double sided tape.  I usually use sticker paper (sometimes called Jac Paper) but I haven't been able to source any recently.

Strips of double sided tape is applied to the front cover of the diary.

Then some, what I call 'layering', takes place beginning with a solid colour in this case.

Inspired by daisyquilts.blogspot Colourful Fridays' next theme of "blue and orange together" I have started with: ORANGE.

Next layer is orange themed background paper then dark blue layered with light blue.

Found a 'quirky' paper doll graphic at The Graphics Fairy which I think is perfect; not only for the colours but also because a journal can be a life saver - literally.  

The graphic has been cropped, with text added, layered further, embellished with paper flowers, tasselled ribbon, Bradz and the sentiment 'quirky' (printed out from a Word Doc.), and all adhered to the cover.

Thanks everyone for the inspirations!!

I have linked this post to 

Sketch Saturday Week 158 Challenge 

and will link to others as the week progresses.

Also linked to Brag Monday @ The Graphics Fairy.

Have a super week.

Featured Graphics Fairy DIYer!

Many thanks to Karen, from Graphics Fairy DIY blog, for featuring my CD Clock tutorial on her blog today.  What a lovely and unexpected surprise.
Here is the link to my tutorial.

Hope you will drop over and visit Karen.  She is pure inspiration.

Thanks again Karen!

This Month In The Garden

MAY

I don't know if strawberries are supposed to be flowering at this time of year, but this one is!

Dark buds are forming on the Rhodanthe.

Honey Pie and I picked up four Hebe plants for four dollars at a fund raiser on polling day.

I placed them alongside the driveway, where there's always a risk of being run over by errant drivers!  At one dollar each I don't feel so bad if they should be destroyed.  For the moment, they are sending out new buds.  Fingers crossed.

Common Thyme continues to over-run a rocky nook.

Our one little rose bush continues to send out beautiful scarlet buds.

An Aloe Vera spike looking kind of eerie.

The broad beans were a little slow sprouting but with the heavy rain we've had over the past few days it looks like they've finally woken up!

My piece de resistance - Blueberry flowers.  Aren't they just stunning?  I bought two bushes at the opening of our local refurbished Bunnings store earlier this year. Gardening guru, Don Burke of Burkes Backyard advised me that I need to buy two bushes, not one.

They had three berries each on them at the time.  

Look at them now!! 

The Backhousia myrtifolia hedge is showing lots of new growth after a decent prune early in autumn.

Echeveria Black Prince in flower.

The cyclamen seedlings are doing well.

I think this is Banksia spinulosa but don't quote me on that.  These brushes are well spread out over the garden.  No care required at all.

I have linked this post to

Colourful Fridays @ Daisy Quilts

Twin Quilts for Twin Sisters.

Yay! Sue Bell from Fancy Stitches has finished continuous quilting my Twin Quilts.  Wow, can't believe she managed to do both in less than one week!  She also machine sewed the binding on for me so all I need to do now is hem the binding and add the labels.
Found this great tutorial for blind stitching quilt binding. Love it!  Thanks to Dream Weaver's Quilts.











I'm loving everything about these two quilts.  As they were progressing I had my doubts about these and that.  When I went to purchase the backing fabric I couldn't find what I wanted, and on and on....
Now that they've all come together I'm very happy.  Hope my sisters are too!!!!
All that's left to do now is hem the binding and sew on the labels. 
Then they're off to a birthday party on the 11th June.
I'm linking this post to WIP Wednesday at Don't Call Me Betsy.  WIP Wednesday is usually hosted at Freshly Pieced.
Hope you all have a great day!

Lunch Date

Had a lunch date with a dear quilting friend who has just put her house on the market.  I will miss her as she is moving down south, about three hours drive away.
What do you take to a lunch when you're told to bring 'nothing'?
I decided to make Nigella Lawson's Rocky Road Crunch Bars which not only taste scrumptious but travel well too!  Achieving gluten free might be a little difficult because although the  biscuits can be substituted with rice cookies I haven't found a substitute for gluten free marshmallows unless you make your own.
But I was in a big rush....half an hour to make these treats before setting off to the Bowen Therapist and letting them set in the refrigerator for two hours before returning home to pack them up into a pretty gift.
I used this graphic from The Graphics Fairy to make a thank you tag.  The cut rocky road was packed into a cellophane bag which I tied with a gold ribbon and voila!

I rubber stamped 'thank you' onto the tag because I had little time to do anything else.  I'm sure 'thank you' text could be included via  the photo editing program but in this instance a stamp was quicker.

My friend's verdict was positive!  And she served up a luscious pumpkin soup, a tasty stir fry and alongside my rocky road...shortbread almond treats.  What more could a girl want on a wet and cold afternoon?


I have linked this post to The Graphics Fairy.

Twin Cards for Twin Sisters - Card 2.

In an attempt to be very organised for my Twin Sisters' birthday I took up the sketch saturday challenge to inspire my gone by the by card making skills.

I've used Kaisercraft background papers and embellishments, Penny Black image - Brush Butterfly - and one of my favourite.  Also Ruby Rock-it up Stairs down Stairs Narrative sheets, Bradz, Kindyglitz glitter glue and whatever else I could find lying around.  And I have LOTS lying around, I can assure you!

Linked to sketchsaturday.blogspot.com

Twin Cards for Twin Sisters - Card 1.

In an attempt to be very organised for my Twin Sisters' birthday I took up the sketch saturday challenge to inspire my gone by the by card making skills.

I've used Kaisercraft background papers and embellishments, Penny Black image - Brush Butterfly - and one of my favourite.  Also Ruby Rock-it up Stairs down Stairs Narrative sheets, Bradz, Kindyglitz glitter glue and whatever else I could find lying around.  And I have LOTS lying around, I can assure you! 


I have linked this post to sketchsaturday.blogspot.com