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It’s Thursday and it’s time to get your quilt on!
I’ve been battling a migraine all day, so please excuse the brevity of this post 
Please link your quilty process below and visit three other linkers – it’s always nicer to share the love <3
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A big congratulations to Serena at Sew Giving! You were lucky number 9, chosen by a random number generator I will email you in a minute to get your details Yay Serena!!
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The big day has arrived and I’ll be up at the crack of dawn and on a plane back to Australia in a few hours. I’m an emotional wreck. Even when it is so right to leave, moving is so definitive, so final. It is hard to say goodbye. My last week in Nouméa has been exhausting and I have another big week ahead of me! This time next week I will be falling asleep dreaming of my longarm that will be set up the next day. Exciting!
So I’m very sorry to say that I Quilt Linky Party is taking a break this week. I need to curl up in a corner and lick my wounds. Wipe my tears as I farewell friends and dream of the South Pacific. All that I have learnt and experienced here.
Bisouses xxx
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***August is a month of celebrations for Pretty Bobbins. It is my two year blogiversary and two of my children have birthdays this month. There will be a giveaway for each of these events, you will find the first giveaway at the bottom of this post.***
Back in April I was Queen Bee for Wombat Stew, a paper piecing bee. I struggled with a theme from the beginning, I really wasn’t sure that ‘celebrate’ would work. I put together an inspiration board and by the time my month rolled around I hadn’t thought of anything better so I decided to go for it. I asked the girls to make blocks of any size to fit the theme ‘celebrate’. I planned to make a wall quilt to hang every time we have a family celebration. I also like the challenge of making a quilt from different sized blocks. I asked the girls to stick to fun, bright and relatively gender neutral colours (so pink is OK but not all pink). You can see some progress shots here. Today it’s all about the big reveal! (And if you really like the patterns you should keep reading right to the end *HINT HINT*)
Celebrate – a paper pieced quilt
I LOVE this quilt! My kids love this quilt and August is a month of celebrations so as soon as I buy some dowel it is going on the wall I quilted the heck out of the quilt and had soooo much fun doing so! You can see the quilting better on the back. It measures 37″ x 37″ and was put together and quilted with Aurifil threads by me on my Bernina 440. Full credit to each of the bee members below <3
Celebrate – quilting details on back
I had my own little party quilting with a rainbow of Aurifil 50 wt threads (really, what’s a party without Aurifil? Alex seems to be everywhere if you follow him on Facebook LOL). I used 2000 on the cream/off white areas and I love how they sparkle. Can you see the word PARTY popping out in Kristy’s party hat blocks (Kristy of Quiet Play designed most of these blocks, isn’t she AMAZING???)?
Party hats by Kristy
Marieka baked me a delicious cake. I was really unsure of how to quilt this block but really happy with how it turned out. My icing is never that neat LOL There is enough cake here for everyone, LOVE!
Tiered cake by Marieka
I had a lot of fun playing with Alyce’s pom poms (and I’m sorry, I had to make that joke LOL). She very cleverly used a flying geese pattern, you can see her tutorial here. I’m still considering adding a few beads to the pom poms but for now I’m sticking to the star in the middle (and yes, more micro-stippling there). Aren’t they fun?!
Pom Poms by Alyce
Jane’s block is immediately apparent to Australian’s but some of my readers may be wondering what it is. This is an absolute classic and staple of children’s birthday parties. Known as “fairy bread” it is sliced white bread, spread with butter and then covered in sprinkles. Jane obviously took a bite out whilst piecing and left her party blower behind as evidence 
Fairybread by Jane
Fiona’s cups (pattern by Ayumi of Pink Penguin fame) had a real retro feel so I quilted the wall paper to enhance this vibe. Possibly better seen from the back, but aren’t they the cutest drinks ever? (There is a fourth block, you can see it in the larger photos)
Paper Pieced cups by Fiona (pattern by Ayumi Mills)
What party would be complete without bunting? The adorable Lara (she is completely adorable, you should check out her instagram – luellabella) made me rainbow bunting. LOVE! I went a little nuts and quilted pebbles with each dot being inside a pebble.
Rainbow bunting by Lara
Whilst the wonderful Ms Midge wasn’t in round one of Wombat Stew she decided to join the party early and brought the candles. Can you believe she tried to tell us she was a novice paper piece-er when we asked her to join us????
Candles by Ms Midge
And whilst we’re on the topic of Ms Midge, she sent me the cutest scrap EVER! I LOVE this fairy and I quilted her in a micro version of the the FMQ design that I used on my daughter’s quilt. I’ve saved the last skerrik of this scrap and plan to make my daughter a cushion with it. Thank you Midge xx
Cutest fairy scrap EVER complete with micro quilting
I totally got my FMQ on and micro-stippled this fantastic cupcake print (did I mention the girls sent the most amazing scraps with their blocks?!).
scrap love from the Wombats
I think every block/print features a different FMQ design. I must admit I went a little crazy quilting around each candle (print in the bottom right of the above photo) this scrap is only 1.5″ x 4.25″. I was so impressed with the affect that I then quilted around the jellybeans and balloons too LOL
Celebrate paper pieced quilt
I added in some three dimensional bunting down the side (left over from another project) and at the suggestion from a friend quilted words underneath (sing, dance, encore, cake, secret, surprise, kiss). The idea being that the birthday person must choose an activity to complete
You gotta dance! (then shout hooray)
Well done if you’ve read this far! Possibly my favourite part of quilting this beast is the words in the border. I used 12wt Aurifil (2250) for top thread and the same colour in 50wt on my bobbin. The stitches are perfect (I suggest going slow and smoothly and dropping your top tension a few notches). Can you believe that I didn’t mark the words first? It was all done free hand and I’m so pleased that it filled the borders perfectly and looks rather neat YAY for machine quilting with Aurifil 12wt. I will be doing this again and again and again <3
FMQ writing in 12wt Aurifil in the border, woohoo!
Did I mention that it was worth reading to the end? Well, the fabulous Kristy of Quiet Play who designed most of these patterns has come to the party with a giveaway of most of the patterns seen in this quilt! Thank you Kristy xx I highly recommend that you give her patterns a go if you’re thinking of trying out paper piecing. I’ve made quite a few of them and they’re always easy to follow and very well designed. You can find her shop here on Craftsy.
Pattern giveaway thanks to Quiet Play
All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment letting me know that you follow both Pretty Bobbins and Quiet Play blogs. (Head over to Quiet Play and follow Kristy here.) You can have an additional entry if you follow me on Instagram, Facebook or Flickr, just leave me a comment letting me know You have a chance to win a bundle of paper pieced patterns by Kristy of Quiet Play as seen in the collage above (bunting, candles, hat and cupcake). The giveaway will close at midnight 18th August Australian Eastern Standard time (google Sydney time).
***This giveaway is closed***
Bravo if you made it to the end. What a mammoth post! I’m taking my celebration to the Paper Piecing Party at Quiet Play and TGIFF at Bedtime Quilting.
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My youngest is about to turn three years old and is completely obsessed with princesses. Last year she was given a Snow White dress for her birthday, and even though I took it up (it was a size 5) she has trampled it and ripped it and it desperately needs replacing. Recently we were invited to a princess party and I couldn’t help myself. I had to make Miss 3 a new princess dress.
Princess in the garden
Years ago when my Nanny (grandmother) passed away all of my aunts and uncles were set up with their own homes and my cousins were young so I ended up receiving lots of household items (I still think of her every time I cook a roast in her roasting pan!). My Nanny was such a stylish lady, one of those women who aged gracefully, was always immaculately dressed and was just the kind of person that you want to be around. Oh, I still miss her!
Princess picking flowers
Getting back to the point, I inherited Nanny’s gold satin sheets. I have no idea how she used them, they’re so slippery that you slide right out of bed LOL I could barely keep them folded in the cupboard, so in the end I stuffed them in my fabric stash. They have been fantastic for costumes! I’ve made pirate skirts, a snow white skirt for me, appliqué fairies and now a Princess Dress for my little Miss.
Twirling Princess
This has to be the easiest dress around, it only has one seam and you could easily make one in cotton for a summer dress (not all Princesses wear gold satin all of the time) I’ve written up a tutorial and just need to take some photos to go with it. We even made some bijoux (jewelry) to go with the dress.
Princess bijoux
I used bead elastic and enclosed the ends in fabric then added snaps. If it is pulled the snaps should come undone, but at this age she shouldn’t wear jewelry unsupervised anyway.
Princess
And if you haven’t got your fill of cute princess photos, here is one last one for you
Princess dress back
I’m linking up to Sew Cute Tuesday at Better Off Thread.
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Follow my blog with Bloglovin
With the closure of google reader having been announced I’m moving over to Bloglovin (it was actually really straight forward to import my reader list which was great). Fingers crossed it all works but I do need to claim my blog by posting this code Bon Dimanche!
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Me!!! A big thank you to Fiona for having me, I love Sunday Stash! Last week I linked up and cleverly hid a confession of how big my stash is in a post about fabric selection This week I want to share something different with you, some fabrics that have been in my stash for awhile.
I’d love to hear your suggestions. These prints are too special to use as muslins and I make clothes and quilts so I’m open to any suggestions!
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I really hope that none of my kids ends up as stubborn as I am. Although, having said that, I’m giving up. Kind of.
So, I really, really, really wanted to finish my triangle quilt today. The binding hates me. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I can do binding. I’m thinking of gluing this baby down. I machine bound 3/4 of it, decided it was terrible, unpicked it, started again, am about 1/4 way through and am walking away.
I’ll still finish it, but not tonight. It’s 10.51pm here and instead of going to bed I’m off to bake cupcakes for the school fair tomorrow. I could give up and buy some in the morning. But like I said up there, I’m kind of stubborn. And really tired and over this binding. Anyone wanna pop over and finish it off for me? (And please don’t suggest that I hand bind it. That just ain’t gonna happen!)
Having never been in this situation before, I would love your advice. I just can’t get this binding to work for me. Should I rip it off and start again? Should I put it down for a few days and come back to it? Should I commit sin of all sins and glue it? (Don’t worry, I won’t glue it. As much as I want to…) Help!
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A big thank you to everyone who came along to our mini-Christmas market yesterday. Leading up to the actual day I was imagining that it would either just be Angelique and I passing the time with the occasional visitor or we’d sell out in 5 minutes. I knew a few friends would definitely turn up for support and it was great to see those friendly faces I’m happy to say that we had quite a few people turn up and the hour passed by in a flash with a really pleasing number of sales.
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| My stall in slight disarry and a little emptier at the end of our mini market |
I am also pleased to say that I raised 7,450 XPF for the Red Cross. Thanks so much to those of you who purchased car rolls (the profits of which are going to the Red Cross) and made donations. The Red Cross are visiting the slums of Noumea on the 10th of December to distribute practical gifts such as nappies to mothers’ and children in need. It is great to be able to contribute to the broader community here and I hope to find some more ways to do so in the future. I’ll be dropping off a cheque at the Red Cross tomorrow, but I know that they also accept donated items so if you have any un-needed baby items cluttering up your home, please consider dropping them off at L’Accueil Mamans at the Croix Rouge Francaise on Rue de la Somme (Maison du Petit Enfant, opposite the library, where the creche is) :)
I’m taking a bit of a break today, but tomorrow I’ll start uploading photos onto my facebook page, so if you couldn’t make it to the market or would just like to have a peek at my goodies on offer, please stop by. I’m also happy to take in custom orders I’d like to keep this blog as more of a fun, creative space, so if you’re interested in making a purchase please keep an eye on facebook or contact me.
Thanks again for those who dropped by and also to Jill from the Anglophone Playgroup and the lovely ladies from ScoopNC for mentioning our market on their site. It is such a thrill to have had a successful first market! You all really made my day x
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Isn’t this the prettiest crayon roll ever? I made it recently for a friend’s daughter just before they were to spend a month or so travelling. I find it helps to be organised when travelling with kids. A spot for everything means you can quickly and easily get what you need and limit the amount of yelling on the plane (my kids might be screaming, but at least I’m trying to keep them quiet!). I am terrible when it comes to fabric choice. I have a couple of pieces of fabric that I just can’t bring myself to use until I find the “perfect” project.
This piece is my all time favourite and I will probably end up making myself a bag with it. I just need to settle on a design. It is beautiful and soft, I love the colours, and the flowers and the birds are just so pretty without being too cute.
Anyway, the fabric for this crayon roll was a perfect match for some ribbon that I had added to my stash a while back. It is so pretty that I think I might just have to make one the same for Little Miss when she gets up to crayons. There are lots of crayon roll tutorials online but I decided to wing it. I was also trying to make it in 30 minutes. It took a little longer than that as I had to find crayons in the cupboard and then they were long ones (like pencils). I have since bought a few packets of (short) pencils and will change the dimensions a little next time I make this.
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