Why Quilt Kitty Loves Life?

Dawn of As Sweet As Cinnamon asked why bloggers chose the name they did for their blogs. I have spend days reading these & there are some beauties.

Check out Cardygirls, my personal favourite as I can relate very well to the Bay City Rollers & Chooky Blue comparison. This made me laugh  (I lol & kept loling!)

For me making my blog was a rush job as I so wanted to join in with Chooky Blue's 2011 Stitch A Long of the Tis The Season quilt by Natalie Bird and you have to be a blogger to do so. I played around with names but was already using quiltkitty as my email address so decided I couldn't go past that. It's a bit like being called Tracee & really wanting to be called Tessa or Mandy like the cool girls but realising in your heart that you are a Tracee. I am a Tracee & I am a Quiltkitty!

Of course I am a quilt kitty because I love everything about quilting, fabrics & threads and all my life I have had very spoilt & much loved cats. Thanks to my mum & granddad for that furry addiction. Thanks to the furboys for their quilt testing.

The Loves Life was maybe a bit of 'fake it until you make it' happening. My family has had many hard years health wise & lost many loved ones so especially after losing my mum & Aunty I wasn't loving life as much as I knew I eventually would again. It was a time of making decisions & slowly finding new directions. It still is but I can say, becoming a blogger has been one of the best things I have done this year and has lead to many laughs, great new friends & a lot of fun.

So check out Dawn's list of who is playing along & you still have today & tomorrow to join in.

Happy stitching (& reading)
Tracee xx

Look Out Tassie Here I Come...

So Wednesday early sees me on a plane from Perth to Melbourne with about a dozen workmates for our biannual Playgroup Conference. After that is over, on Saturday its on a plane again to the promise land - Tasmania!

So the list of 'to do's' for the weekend are long but so far I haven't
- done much of the housework
- done the accounts for the club I am Treasuer of
- put chlorine in the pool
- been to the ATM
- broken the news to the furboys that mummy is leaving on a jet plane
- finished my TTS SAL quilt (sorry Chooky & I do so want to do the next one!)

What I have done is prepared some stitching to do while I am away, all traced, cut, threads chosen & all packed in to little bags.

Project 1 is 3 little stitcheries called Loving Home by Natalie Bird for a swap gift & then some felt cut out to make the Owl Scissor Keep & Needle Book that Melody featured as a tutorial on her blog yesterday. These are so cute so check them out if you haven't already.

I have a list of quilt shops to visit around Hobart & Launceston - yippee! Hopefully I will also take some great pics to post while on holiday too.

Happy stitching
Tracee xx

F.R.I.E.N.D.S Swap from Shez

I finally decided to join in on a swap again & what a beauty I picked. It was the FRIENDS Swap organised by Kris of SewPrimKris. Thanks Kris for your work organising this!

Each Swapper sent their partner 1 gift beginning with each of the letters in the word Friends so 7 gifts for every one. It was my lucky day & in the draw I received Shez from Enjoying Life as my swap partner.

It was like Christmas the day I got home from work & the mail man had left me a parcel.

And it only got better from there!

F is for Fabric Roll (at last some yellow - yah) & R is for Reading (great for on the plane next week)

I is for Items for the kitchen (check out the kitty buttons - ohhhh!)

E is for Egyptian Fabric made in to a gorgeous bag

N is for Needlecase (in my current favourite - green!), D is for DMC Threads (great colours) & S is for Stitchery Patterns (my most favourite crafty past time).





How spoilt am I???? Thank you Shez for your thought, generoisity & heart that has gone in to my swap presents & our email chats with each other. Plenty more to come.....

Shez has now received my parcel & did a lovely post of her goodies you can check out on her blog.

I did have fun making her a bag. It was different from usual as you put the three layers together & cross hatched them before cutting the pieces out. Love how my Frixion pen made it easier & then just disappeared when I ironed the finished fabric sandwich.

The fabric is a beautiful Quest For A Cure fabric from a few years back. The selveage is used as a tie so you know the significance of the fabric too. I was rather liberal in matching my gifts to letters so called this E is for Emotions Bag. Poor Shez though she was getting a new pair of ears after an earlier blog post where I said I was having a problem with E.



To continue my dubious name matching N was for Nice Little Wall Hanging. A recent Homespun project that was too cute to pass up. It looks better with it's hanger & ribbon but I forgot to photograph it then. See the rest on Shez's blog.

So after opening all that goodness I sure had a smile on my face. No so Hun-bun - didn't you buy me a present mum? Just not his day.....

Happy stitching (& swapping!)
Tracee xx

Swapped Work for Swap Sewing

I have definately done too much work lately but now that the end of financial year rush and audit is over it's back to the real priorities of stitching & sewing.

I am catching up on swap projects so don't have much to show for my three current projects. Just a couple of blurry peaks ; ) Hand sewing is done so now need to get the machine mojo back for Sunday.

One of my swaps is The Santa Sack Swap organised by Cheryll of Gone Stitchin. My swap partner is Maree & so far I have the gorgeous sack shown below & a number of pressies to tempt me. By Christmas Day we will have swapped a sack each & a total of 13 presents. Mine is out of sight in my spare bedroom to keep the temptation as low as possible.

I am also doing the F.R.I.E.N.D.S Swap organised by Kristine from Sew prim Kris. I love the idea of this one, send 7 presents, 1 starting with eash letter in the word friends. Lucky me, my swap partner for this is the talented & kind Shez of Enjoying Life. Check out all her recent swaps - lovely!

Some letters are easier than other & a bit of artisitic licence may be needed. So far I am getting a little bogged down on E - eggs, ears, easel, elbow, elf, envelope? It will all sort itself out as I move pressies from letter to letter finding the best fit.

Brutus felt very neglected during the last month so here is is trying to get some 'me time' as even when I was home I was working on the books for the Calisthenics Club I do Treasurer for. Naturally the busiest time of year for the club coincided with work's busy time. By sleeping between me & the keyboard, he got cuddles as I typed. He rested his head on the mouse pad on the laptop though so every so often work disappeared and he kept changing my MYOB codes. There were tears from both of us! The neglect is over now so I am again getting to type alone.

So only one other great priority for today GO EAGLES! C'mon West Coast, you can do it!



Happy Stitching

Tracee & Happy Brutus & Contented Honey xx









C&T Publishing's BIG Book Sale

Hi all

Finally back after the annual rush for end of financial year at work. I have severe sewing & blogging withdrawals but aim to make up on that now.

Will do a catch up post later but have to tell you about the
Summer Sizzler Sale
that C&T Publishing have on this weekend.

It is an annual event, with quilting & other craft books down to $3 & $5 each. I made my first purchase with them last year & was ever so happy when I received my box of goodies.

Click on the link to see 178 books we are used to seeing for sale in Aussiefor $30 to $50 each. Shipping for Airmail (10 - 14 days + allow for customs) is $12 for the first book & $3 for every other book, so buy 10 books at $5 each & pay 5 x 5.00 = 25.00 + 12.00 1st book + 4 x 3.00 other books = $49.00 US for 5 books.

 I won't tell you exactly how many books I ordered but they averaged $6.38 per book including shipping to Perth - yippeeee!!! That will come down a bit to depending on the exchange rate to Aussie dollars today too. I LOVE BOOKS!!!

A great buying opportunity for all you girls running online shops or do a bulk buy with your quilting friends. Remember this is only available this weekend, 10th & 11th September, though that is US hours so you will be able to order for some hours on Monday. Don't miss out!

Happy reading!
Tracee xx

Panda Pre-school!

Pilot's Frixion Ball Erasable Pens - Magic!

Quilt & sewing groups are a great place to find out about new tools to make our creative works even more fun. So are websites & YouTube Posts from great people like Jenny at the Missouri Quilt Company. She has made a video of all her favourite news things from Quilt Market.

Often these are tools that take awhile to reach Australia & can be pricy to get. Not so, with one little invention Jenny found. It is an erasable pen by Pilot called Frixon Ball. It is erasable on paper or card so great for sudoku, card crafts etc. On fabric is is just amazing. The girls in my group are using it for copying stitcheries & marking where to put applique with great results.

If you are like me & always extend a line too far or get the wobbles when tracing a stitchery design off a pattern then these are the pens for you. It comes in many colours, not that that matters because once you are finished with what you have drawn, ie stitched over it, drafted a pattern you want to change etc, then you just iron it & it disappears. See it all happen in Jenny's video.

Isn't it great! Now for more good news - you can get them in Australia at Big W for $2.88 a pen. If you are not near a Big W some newsagencies are stocking them for about $5.95. Well worth it at either price. If yours doesn't stock them, ask them to get some in. I'm sure Office Works & other stationery shops would have them too. I see on Jenny's website that in the USA you can get packs of these pens but so far I have only seen them sold as individually. Below is what to look out for in the individul packaging.

I know - I didn't need 3 but the colours are pretty & at less than $9, better to stock up ; ) There has been many a 'Ta Da!' moment at my Thursday quilting group as each member is introduced to the pens & given a demonstration of their magic. These pens even make ironing fun!

Happy stitching & tracing!
Tracee xx

Another Perth Craft Shop Gone....

On Saturday 30th July Greenwood Crafts closed it's doors after 30 years plus. It did not have a huge stock of quilt material but was a mecca for craft tools, embroidery threads of many kinds and knitting wool and patterns. That's three shops closed this year that I know of.

I know how hard it is to balance your buying between buying online in Australia & overseas where you often get newer products, a full range of choice & better prices, and buying at local shops, keeping our physical shops around so when you want to see & touch a product you can &where you get great service & advice thrown in free.

I am the Queen of online buying & like to buy from my blog friends who run beautiful little shops online on a regular basis too. I don't feel too bad about it now as there are no dedicated quilt shops North of Perth, other than the chains of Spotlight & Textile Traders. If there were shops close by then I would buy with them too.

I do love to do classes with local shops & now travel up to an hour to do so. I also joined the Quilters Guild so will do classes in future with them. Also at every guild meeting, a local shop sets up a stand with pretty things for sale so I can support these shops without driving for miles to find them.

I did buy some lovely items at the Greenwood Craft sale where there was 60% off everything. Lakehouse Fabrics for $10 metre, bright dots for $4.00 metre, floss & tools & the most scrumtious 100% variegated wool for $2.60 a ball (& yes, I brought more than 1 ball of each!).

I don't know the reason why this shop closed but hope the ladies involved go forward to more fun things, success & happiness.

Happy stitching & knitting
Tracee xx

Tuesday Treasures

I'm not much of a gardener but this time of year is my favourite for plants as the Cyclamens are in bloom. So these little pretties are my treasures for today.

I love having these around the house & if I am really lucky I can look after them over the season when they die down & have them rebloom next year.

If you have a treasure to share today, please join in on Meldoy's blog, The House on the Side of the Hill.

Happy stitching & gardening
Tracee xx

Val laird's All My Lovely Sewing Things

At last a beautiful project finished, on the wall & photographed!

I love Val Laird's patterns, so sweet, girly & filled with little reminders of the past that I love. This is my version of 'All My Lovely Sewing Things' that appeared in Homespun Magazine's Oh So Fresh Issue 12.2.

Most of this project is completed with a charm pack so there is no having to pick & coordinate fabrics - something I find hard. I used Breakfast at Tiffany's by Fig Tree & Co for Moda. Isn't it just so pretty. There is enough left to do another but I am making up another project using one of Gail Pan's new stitchery patterns at the moment to use up my pretty left overs.

The applique in the middle is gorgeous especially the little tape measure snail. He is my favourite little applique at the moment & my profile pic on Facebook too. I changed the quilting where the words are & instead of having swags over the words, mirrored the squares that are around each applique. I am very happy with the end result.

If you are not a follower of Val's yet, check out her blog & I am sure you will want to be. Val is having a 400 follower giveaway so it is a great time to go over there & win some goodies too.

The latest Handmade has a new pattern of Val's for a table topper called 'With Sugar & Cream'. Another sweet design (literally!) and I can feel my subconcious going 'you must make this, you must make this' - who am I to argue???

Happy stitching
Tracee xx

Happy Birthday Dawn & Fav Song

Dawn is celebrating her big day so hope it was the best Dawn, Happy birthday. Dawn listed a link to her favourite song (lesley Gore, Sunshine, Lollipops...) & asked what's your favourite song.

So here is mine. By The Grace of God, by Keith Urban. This has been my favorite for a few years now. And just to set the record straight, I saw his potential long before you did Nicole!

So what's your favourite song? Join in on Dawn's blog 'As Sweet As Cinnamon'.

Happy singing
Tracee xx

Tuesday Treasures....

My little Tuesday Treasure this week is a beautiful crochet rug my Aunty made. Over the years she laboured long & hard to make one for all the members of the family so must have made maybe a dozen at least. It is single bed size so lots of lovely granny squares. I received mine in my early 20s & carried it on the planes back with me as I flew from my home town of Nelson, New Zealand to Auckland, then on to Perth. It weighs quite a bit but I was snuggly warm on the flights :)

My mum had one too & as she has now passed, I (& Brutus) have guardianship of her rug for her. As you can see, when little Brutus wants a special warm hug from both his Granny & his Aunty, he snuggles up in the blanket Aunty made for mum.

To join in on Tuesday Treasures or see the links to all the posts, go to Melody's blog, The House on The Side of the Hill.

Happy Tuesday!
Tracee xx

My Mission for this week....

My mission, this week, should I choose to accept it - is to learn needleturn applique.

I am nearly half way with my Life is Beautiful blocks & some of them have applique as well as stitchery so it's time to try this and finish these blocks.

I'm a jet at blanket stitch applique but needleturn looks like doing grown up applique so has been avoided to date. Now, armed with a DVD to watch that came free with Quilters Companion Magazine I am set to hopefully add a new skill to my sewing bag.

Any hints or tips would be greatly appreciated!

Happy stitching
Tracee xx

Tuesday Treasures

It's been awhile but at last I am able to rejoin Melody & friends in showing our Tuesday Treasures.

My treasure is a small china ornament my mum brought me maybe 14 years ago. Mum thought they were a family of little cats (shopping without her glasses again) but instead they are a very cute family of dogs & I think one of my favourite breeds, the Scottish Terrier. Mum, Dad & the two pups are picnicing together.

As you can see in the pics these are very civilised pups that sit up to the table together to partake in their food & drink. The chairs have sweet little draped covers with bows across the chair back. One little pup is having trouble paying attention so he is seated backwards watching what else is going on in the yard.

It is a one off treasure mum picked up in an op shop that she knew I would love (quirky animals - whats not to love??). It is only small, about 5in x 4in x 4in (12.5cm x 10cm x10cm) with felt on the bottom & no obvious marks of value dollarwise but lots of sentiment & I love my little scotty dog family!

So if you have a treasure to proudly share, sign up at Meldoy's blog, The House on The Side of the Hill.

Happy stitching
Tracee xx

Tonight's Blogger Experiences

It just took me 10 minutes of trying, a search in blogger help & a change to my internet settings to finally get to post a comment on one of the usual blogs I follow. Same problem again, asks me to log in with email & password, takes me back to the comment to put in the codeword, takes me back to the same screen asking for email & password etc.

According to the blogger help I needed to go to Internet Options / Privacy / Advanced & Allow Third Party Cookies. Mine said they were allowed but I said override & clicked on the same again & I can now post, having just tried again on about 6 other blogs. Just in case this helps anyone else. They also said that comments were still working for those who havea  pop up comments form rather than the embedded type so maybe that is worth a try too.

Hopefully happy commenting
Tracee xx

June Was A Good Month For Sewing....

I felt like not much was accomplished in June but maybe that was my bad laptop experiences getting me down or the fact that some of my monthly projects being a bit neglected. However when it came to writing my list I realised that is was a good month for me. I'm definately a smaller projects girl & one day I hope to grow up & be more of a big quilts girl but for now this is making me happy. NOTE: lots of pics to follow.

My ongoing projects had differing results;

1. Vignette Hexagon quilt - NONE! However my goal is 12 a month (a year to do the quilt) & last month I overdosed & did 40 so this went by the by to make room for other projects.

2. Life is Beautiful Stitcheries - 3 of these gorgeous stitcheries completed

3. Tis The Season Stitch-a-long - 2 more blocks done. This SAL concept is working so well for a chronic non-finisher like me - thanks Chooky!

4. Retro Nine Patch - NONE also but trying to make up for that furiously each night at the moment. It is such a refreshing project with bright retro colours. If you haven't seen this free project, then hurry to Lyn's blog Blue Bird Quilts. The pictures of the full project are available in earlier posts.

So I did a few new & one off projects too;

1. A Tis The Season Wallhanging using my reject blocks & a cute little Christmas skirt for my kitty hanger. Kitty still needs a nice festive ribbon for his tail then he will be ready for the season. The holly will be replaced when I find just the right things to put in those gaps - I left them as I know I wanted something in there but now can't find that perfect thing. The reject stitcheries are trimmed to 4.5 inches whereas I decided I wanted more white & trimmed the rest at 5 inches.

2. I made the little Tis The Season pillow in matching fabric. I really like this.



3. I did one Snugglybug block for the quilts that Helen from Hugs & Kisses / Patternpress runs to give to little ones that enter Hobart hospital oncology & other major traumas. This little man wanted a Collingwood Football Club quilt & fortunately this had come up before so I had a spare headband that I incorporated in to the block. I know some of you already help with this project but if any one else is interested have a look at the Snuggly Bug project page.

4. I joined up for the Santa Sack Swap that Cheryll has organised on her Gone Stitchin Blog. This is a swap full of surprises as you send presents to your swap partner every month from July to December so lots to open come Christmas Day. I am hoping my partner Marie has received her first gifts sent early last week or will Monday before reading this. Month 1 we send 2 wrapped gifts & our Santa Sack to put them all in. I did a felt & stitchery Christmas Stocking in traditional Christmas red & white & gold. I loved the end result & hope Marie does too.

5. Last but definately not least I have done the stitcheries & piecing of the top of Val Laird's 'My Pretty Sewing Things' wall hanging. This is soooo cute & you get most of the fabric out of a charm pack (enough for two really + inner blue border fabric + stitchery fabric). Check out Val's version that was a featured pattern in Homespun magazine at her blog. Here is a peek at a couple of my stitcheries, the tape measure & the pin cushion - too cute!

So that is the month that was. Hopefully this month is just as productive though working in Finance at end of financial year in July can be tiring. Anyway this month I will get a bit more done, hopefully my wall hanging finished & an awful lot more blogging if lappy behaves.

Happy sewing
Tracee xx

Win an AccuQuilt Go Baby!

Here's a giveaway too good to miss at Samelia's Mums blog.

Win an Accuquilt Go Baby & your choice of 3 dies.

Giveaway closes on Sunday 26 June 2011 at 9pm (AEST).

I wish you luck but have my fingers crossed for me too!
Tracee xx

55 Top Quilt Blogs - Where's The Aussies??

Long time no blog! After weeks of laptop troubles, it finally warned me it was going to blow & is now at the Lappy Doctor. So the old slow lappy is back in service but with none of my photos, links or feeds.

So if you are looking at a new laptop & the Toshiba Satellite 660A is still available (I brought in January) be aware that I am told it was the first with a new hard drive and so far the warranty repairers have replaced over 300 of them in Perth alone. Of all the choices of new beaut lappy I had .......

Anyway on a link from Facebook tonight I found that in the June-July Issue, Quilters Home has published a list of the 55 best quilting blogs so thought you might be interested in a look. I'm sure there might be a beauty or two in that list but would have loved to have seen lots of our great Aussie blogs up there.

Click on the link to go to the pdf file Quilters Home

Happy Stitching
Tracee xx

A Jelly Roll Race

My sweet friend Elly, a fellow quilter sent me this link for a very quick jelly roll quilt.
Check it out - race anyone?

Cute idea with all the gorgeous jelly rolls out there. I've never used a JR but might just have too soon.

Happy (& racy) stitching
Tracee xx