Bushfiretop completed and other beauties

I've been very busy these last days, very very busy cause I wanted to complete this top as soon as possible. (I only used scraps for this)

Now I show you the final result, I really like it, so full of life, so happy, just what these people in Victoria, Australia need right now.
I had so much fun with this and I think I have to do more, as it is also a great stash burster.




Now to something else, completely different, a mini Gee's bend style quiltie.
In this I used some vintage fabrics, the blue with the roses is a fabric my mum used to make one of my favourite pyjamas. There is also some blanket fabric from my baby bed (that's a long time ago), some upholstery fabric from my grandma, my dad's jeans and the blue one with the stripes was used to cover very old pillows, I think their filling was a kind of straw.




And the last, a pattern I designed on EQ5, I called it millenium.
The set-in triangles seem a bit too small, don't understand why cause I respected the mesures given by the program, so I think I have to redo them.

Normally I don't like this kind of colors, but I had them in my stash, so why not use them. But when I look at the star now, it really seems to shine, so not too bad.



Ok, now I watch a movie on tv and then, sleeping time as I need to get up at 5:30 am to go to work.

Have a nice weekend.

Please be patient winners

As you can see at the new button on the left I joined a new project.

I am deeply touched by the fire victims in southern australia and wanted to do something that could bring them a small relief and that's why I joined Tia's quilt campaign.

I think this is a great idea and I beg you to join, I'm sure you have scraps, even plenty of them and how could you use them better.

Here you can see some of my blocks, but there will be more, I plan to make a whole quilt top, so go ahead girl.

This is also the reason that I did not yet mail the packages to the Stash winners, I hope you will forgive me, but I didn't forget you.

I promise, you will get your package.

Here they are, the WINNERS

But let me explain some details first.

There have 89 comments

- 20 without preference

- 36 for the african fabrics

- 12 for the earthy palette

- 21 for the scrap bag

I decided to split the 20 without preference and added radomnly an almost equal part to the 3 choices, I didn't want to choose one precise selection.

After having selected all my fabrics to give, and after having seen that amazing pile, I decided to choose 2 winners per item, so there are 6 winners in total, isn't that cool, ;o))))

I needed some hands to help me pick the winners, so I took all the comments to my niece and nephew. They helped me with enthousiasm as each one could pick a winner from every box.

And here we go, the names shall be revealed

African fabrics:

1st give-away goes to Lisa S (who wrote: Stash 1 for me, but I'm not picky.Lisa)

and the 2nd to Maria (who wrote: I'm loving that first package. What fun!)

Earthy palette:

1st give-away goes to Sherry (who wrote: Great patterns & great fabrics!! Thanks so much for the chance to win!)

and the 2nd to Connie (who wrote: From snowy Ohio USA...I like all your patterns. Also I like the music with your website.)

Scrap bag:

1st give-away goes to Mary Ann (who wrote:Hi Lil! Wow, look at all these comments!!! Your patterns are, of course, all very lovely!!! (I have personal experience with this!! LOL!)Very hard to choose, but I would probably enter your draw for prize number three! Just so I could win TWO patterns!! And I like anything country-ish, kaffe-ish or blue-ish!!!PS Thanks for your email...need to install "the" program again...will get back to you ASAP!!! All the bestMary Ann)

and the 2nd to Sam (who wrote: Hi I think your patterns are amazing; I hope I am able to make them successfully. I would be happy with any of the giveaways. I tend to go for autumn/earth tones, but I would really like to get out of my comfort zones - and so would my kids. So any would be fine. Thanks for doing this. Cheers Sam)

Congrats to the winners and I'm so sorry for all the other ones, but sooner or later I will do this again, you only have to look sometimes at my blog.

Oh yes, I also planned to send a package to Katy as a thank you for this amazing idea.

(and a little excuse because she wasn't lucky enough to win "africa")

Sam and Connie, please send me a message, your email is missing or your profile is enabled, so I can't contact you.

If these 2 don't contact me within 3 days, I will choose 2 other winners.

It's over

Ok, I close this stash-bursting give-away officially, a bit later than announced but that's ok

You have been incredible, thanks for your interest.

Now I have to sort out all these comments and choose the winners.

Good luck to everyone of you, I'll announce the winners probably later today.

13 more hours

Just a quick reminder, you have 13 more hours to go till I close this give-away.
The end will be on feb 5th at 2pm in Luxemburg, that makes 11:30 pm in Adelaide, 8 am in New York and 5 am in Vancouver and San Fransisco.

So you've got some more hours.

This is the day

Ok, girls and boys (as I don't want to discriminate someone) this is the day, the great stash-bursting give-away day.
As I had a bad night and being on vacation I stayed in bed till 10 am, lazy, lazy me.

So the first information is about the running time of this swap.
As there will be readers from all over the world I decided that you can reply from the publication of this post till feb 5th 2pm (local central european time)

And now to the prizes, I have 3 in total and you can choose one of those

1:

I have plenty of african fabrics cause I had to buy every time a piece of 9 yards (they are sold like that in Paris, the reason is that this is needed to make the traditional bubu's, the african women clothes)

This package will contain about 5 yards of fabric of my choice and also this pattern

Thought it might be stunning done with african prints.

2:

This is another pattern I created with EQ5 and it is a part of the second prize.

The batik with the leaves is about 1 yard and with that you get these scraps and I will add more of the earthy color way. At the end you could create this project with my stash.

Gosh, I have so many fabrics from early patchwork days and they remain in my cupboard being ignored, what a pity. Maybe you are attracted by them, just tell me.

3:

You get both patterns and a bunch of different scraps, still have to choose, but you can be sure, the bag will be filled.

(UPDATE 3PM : those who have chosen this prize contact me again please and give me your favourite colors or color combos, idem for the newcomers)

Ok, mystery revealed. All you have to do now is decide which one you want, reply to this post and tell me what you think of my patterns.

Oh yes, make sure that I can find you, I need your email, otherwise I won't be able to contact you if you win.

I will draw the winners tomorrow evening (random number). Probably I make a new post with the winner names on friday, as it might get difficult to make a list with your names for each one of the prizes.

And don't forget to check all the other blogs overhere

Have to leave you now, as I have to write comments on the blogs, otherwise I won't win anything.

Have a nice day.

Second hint

Just some more hours to go, exactly 8 of them till you can participate in this on my blog.

Let me give you a second hint: you have to think about 3 of your favourite colors (or color palettes)

I need to do some "stash diving" now, to be ready for tomorrow, ;o)))

Back after the troubles and give-away

Hi there, yes I'm back as you can see. My pc got repared and it's working properly again, so relieved that there was nothing too bad to get fixed and that all my pics and documents are still there.

So, what did I do meanwhile, what do you think, .........................., lol, stitching and creating.

Wanted to upload the pics, but impossible for the moment, net too busy.
So you have to check my flickr account for the moment

By the way, as you can see in my sidebar, I joined this give-away hosted by Katy. See you on february 4th overhere for more details.

Update on february 2nd (as it was possible to add the pics, ;o))))

this is my ongoing project for the 4SQS5, it's a personal creation

you know I'm not too much into brown, but what can you do when this is one of your partners preferences

the project has to be monochrome, you only have the right to add some white or black

think mine is ok for these restrictions

as a follower of Linda's and Becky's blog I had to take this opportunity, you can read the post about this block overhere

Have to hurry, as they need a pic of the completed quilt by the end of february

this is also my own creation based on Gee's Bend quilts

it's a mini, about 8 x 12" I think

the name is Pyjama party as I have used only old (even some very, very old) fabrics

the pale blue ones are from my childhood duvets and the one with the roses my mum used for sewing me a pyjama (that's where the name comes from, ;o)))

the striped one is a very old thick fabric that was used for my mums pillows (filled with buckwheat)

and the yellow/white, also a very old one, an upholstery fabric used for the strawfilled bed bases, sorry but I don't know how you call these exactly (at some spots you can even see the rust marks of the nails)

it is handpieced and freecut, only the quilting was done by machine, as some of the fabrics are really thick

TADAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, and now to the first hint for my give-away on wednesday

I created this quilt pattern this weekend and a copy will be added to my stash fabrics

More information on february 4th

Warning, heavy stuff

Wow, wow, what a long time since my last post

First I have to apologize, but in this post you'll find some explanations for my absence on the blog.

You know, I have major problems with my PC, don't know why, but quite often it crashes completely or it turns off just like that. Have to bring it to the store as my Virus scan is not working properly, when I scan, the system crashes and then I have to wait some minutes before being able to connect again. Seems that the monitor gets no signal, bizarre, bizarre.

I tried several times to post overhere, but no way, blogger didn't allow me to add pics, ............ until a had the idea to try again by using Internet Explorer, and ........... this seems to work (some time ago I switched to Firefox and there it was impossible)

So now I hope to get some pics posted, ............................. please blogger, let me do this

I've been quite productive though, but you'll see

First a christmas gift for my godchild, she is such a Minnie fan and my brother just told me that she takes her gift every night to cuddle to her bed (originally it should have been used as a floor mat)

Here is my creation for the Miniature Holiday Booty QS, my partner Gina wanted something not too traditionnal and with unusual funky colors. Apparently it was more than she expected, she's in love with the wreath and wants to leave on the wall all year long.

As you know, I was doing the Spring Fling RR2, this was an amazing experience and I've already planned to participate at the next round too. Maybe someone else wants to join, just check the blog, cause there will be a number 3.

Here is the last quilt that I worked on, I only did the handquilting and the finishing before it was sent to Alicia.

On the next pic you can see the back and my quilting a little better.

Now the ONE, this one got so many comments on my Flickr account, it was for the swap mum the very dear Margaret and it will hang in her daughters bedroom.

You have to read her post to know what she thought of my creation.

There was such a lot of empty white space when I got the block after round 1, I had to fill this space and add some girly color, so I created this applique pattern on the dotty fabric.

(all the applique is my work and it's needleturn)

And yesterday I finally got mine, you can believe me, it was hard to wait after having seen all those beauties.

See what I've found after opening the envelope, first this amazing tissu package (look at those tree ornaments, machine embroidered by Julia) aren't they lovely

And then, wow, wow, wow, this incredible quilt, peacocks paradise. (that name is more than perfect, lol) Normally I'm not too much into blue, but this is killing me. Look at the borders, they seem to be the peacocks tail wheel. The borders have been done by Sharon and Luisa.

Now a close-up of the peacock, as I said, incredible, thanks so much Tami, you're a wonderwoman with wonderhands.

Let's go on with some handpiecing projects, yes, don't tell me that you don't want to see, I warned you that this is heavy stuff, ..........

Some months ago I told you about my first handpieced project, and you know what, it's almost finished now. I still need to quilt the center with big flowers, add some appliqued flower buds and then off to the finishing.

Here you see the marked fabric and my stitches

And this is how it looks now, the border isn't sewn to the center yet, but you get an idea. I had to spread it on my bed, it's about 52" x52"

A close-up, don't these fabrics make you happy too, they are so fresh, just what I need now cause it's f.......... cold overhere actually.

And finally, my new 2009 12 months BOM, a creation from an amazing and very talented lady from Nancy in France, Bénédicte Maurin. You should see her shop, Atelier des Abécédaires, it's a Ali Baba's cavern.

The masterpiece, she called it "Old Glory" and all the fabrics are reproductions. This whole top is sewn by hand, can you imagine what lies ahead of me?

Now my first blocks, the applique ones (think that I have a new passion, it's just so relaxing)

I used Tracey's method for the applique, thanks my dear for the tutorial, it made everything so easy.

Ok, that's it, hope you still alive, ......... kidding

Hope to see you soon again overhere

Oh yes, I almost forgot

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY READERS

On vacation

Hi there,

just wanted to let you know that I won't post during 2 weeks, maybe you wonder why ........

cause I will be in Marrakesh, Morocco, I'm just so excited, haven't been there for about 7 years

Have a creative time and see you soon.