Oh What A Day.....

Thanks to everyone for your kind & funny comments for Brun's 20th birthday. With his little health hiccups in the last year & my having to come to the realisation that I will lose him sooner rather than later now, this as been an occasion we have both had our hearts set on reaching. To share it with so many friends, both online, at work & home, has been wonderful & very touching. Thank you also for indulging me on my blog & letting me share my obsession with my furbabies, especially my dear sweet old man Brun. It's bizzaire to think I was at the tender age of 25 when he knocked on the door at about 6 weeks of age. I feel like we have grown up together.

10 minutes after an official portrait I always pose for a better picture, playing with mum's head again!

Brun got a special present from his Facebook friend Horse (whose muma works with me - for two more days only - boo hoo Mich!). Horse was kind enough to send Brun a pack of his favourite sardines in tomato sauce. Isn't that just so special! We are saving them for a Friday night footy treat, the kitty version of pie & sauce at the footy.

Oh & yes, Hun-bun did get a share of cake but as he was late to rise it was after the photos were taken. Then I abandoned the poor little birthday boy & went to work. He gave me the sad eyes but it was from the bed, on his rug with his electric blanket on two so don't feel too sorry for him. Don't feel too sorry for me either, it was off to do some shopping for little gifts then to host a Baby Shower at work for our gorgeous Regina who is expecting Baby Girl no. 2 in early June. It was very nice of our boss David to not only let us have the party during work but to also be the only man attending the baby shower with 12 of us pink obsessed females.

Our clever little Vickie took our $$$ & turned them in to a huge nappy cake containing nappies, wraps, clothes, shoes, toys, creams & the lovely pink teddy Rosie. Doesn't it look fantastic all wrapped in cellophane & a pink bow. I made the lemon & white crocheted blanket but forgot to take a proper photo of it. Nice & snuggly for a winter baby.

Last night it was the monthly WA Quilters Guild sewing night too. It was the Australia's Biggest Quilting Bee night, so there were stalls raising money for the Cancer Council. How can anyone say NO to picking out a few books to bring home for a cost of $6 when the money goes to such a necessary cause.

I felt so virtuous as I took a bag full of fabric to donate to our community quilts table too. It raises money to pay for the wadding & backing for donated quilts of which this group makes many each year for local hospitals & charities. I also helped more ; ) by buying the little stack of fabrics above for $5. 

By the time I got home at 10pm, a cup of tea & a huggle with Hun-bun, snuggle with Brun, the electric blanket & a book were forefront in my mind. I was just finishing off the tea & a high pitch squealing scared a few years off my life expectancy. It was coming from the sink so I spent 10 minutes peering down the plug hole, running water, peering, more water & it stopped. Half an hour later while in bed the noise started again, not so much squealing now, more warbling. So back to the plug hole. I was asked today 'Did I think there was a frog down there?' I definately thought there was something down there!

As I mentioned I am not the best housekeeper. I had cooked food for the baby shower that morning & left without time to do the dishes. I had got home late that night with still no intention of cleaning up. After moving a few utensils around in the sink I found my shrieking culprit.

It was Brun's singing candle. It had rolled from the side of the sink into the cutlery there & got wet. So how do you stop a singing candle from squealing out it's outrage at being wet? I tried wiping it, wrapping it in a teatowel in the hope it muffled the noise & thought of taking it to the wheely bin but figured it would wake up the neighbors. The solution was not pretty. I ended up having to drown it & put it out of it's misery.

What a great day!

Happy days

Tracee xx Brun xx Hun-bun xx

Happy Birthday Little Brun, 20 Today!

Happy Birthday Little Brun, 20 Today!

There was salmon, chicken & barramundi cake;

Then a bit of clean up to do;

A little time for a pirate look;

Then the official birthday portrait;

Not looking too bad for 20 years of age!

Purrs
Brunnie xx

Weekends With Brunnie =^..^=

Hi friends!

Brunnie back again. Muma's watching the footy. Mum is always watching the footy now, we never watch movies together anymore. We did watch 'Walk The Line' last night after the footy but I'm putting that out of my mind as Hun-bun kept sitting on muma & smirking at me. I told him "Hun-bun, how muma going to stitch while a big lump like you lying in the way?" Hun-bun's reply - smirk!

I guarded the border this morning, doing my duty at the laundry door. Hun-bun guards the perimeter, which I think he interprets as sleep in the bushes by the fence line - slacker!

Muma unpacked the new vaccuum. The old one is getting weak, groans as it works and it's battery goes to sleep. I'm wondering why as muma certainly doesn't overuse it. The new one is charging now in case muma gets the urge to pick up the threads on the carpet any time soon.

Muma made a boo! She brought us a new electric blanket as her side doesn't work any more. My side, under my blankie, up by the pillow worked very well. I been toasty warm on the few cool nights we have had. Muma keeps trying to sneak on to my side. Now we have a new electric blankie & when muma read out the instructions we were horrified. It said 'This blanket automatically switches itself off after 12 hours use, plus or minus 30 minutes!' Turns itself off! What are they thinking? Don't they realise Brunnie's electric blanket goes on in April & stays on until November??? I have athritis, I have pain, I am elderly, I like being snuggly. I now have to rely on muma to turn my blanket off & on every morning so I have a warm bed, I'm not feeling confident with this plan. At least now we have flannette sheets, thems fluffy like me.

I love flannette sheets

Muma has been stitching this. I think it looks a bit suspect, don't need more of them in my kingdom.

Muma has finished this but it is a secret.

At 2am muma left me in bed & got out one of her flying objects to play with. I don't understand why a cushion would be called a UFO. I don't understand why anyone would leave our snuggly bed at 2am to play with cushion in the laundry. I don't understand why muma naps when I want to be awake & is awake when it's time to nap. Muma says she is a night owl but she can't be. I checked & she's got no wings.

Now to more important things - 3 sleeps until my big birthday. Muma making me a cake, she says 'no chocolate, no sugar, no icing - maybe a tuna cake Brunnie.' I say Yum! Hun say yum! I say - maybe I share with you Hun-bun.........

Big purrs

Brunnie xx







My New Daisy Tablerunner

My latest project finished for myself is the Dreaming of Daisies Tablerunner. This appeared in the Creating Country Threads magazine, issue 12.6 & is designed by our lovely Fee from Designs By Fee.

Above is Fee's design in the magazine made using a gorgoeus Honey Bun Roll. (My Hun-bun is so proud they named some fabric packs after him!) I needed it bigger to fit on my chest coffee table that I hide lots & lots of balls of wool in. The sides & top are glass so I can admire the yarny goodness as I sit & stitch.

I needed the size much bigger so used a jelly roll & instead of three lots of stitchery I planned for seven. Naturally I did the stitchery months ago & then it took me awhile to do the machine sewing. Here's the finished project.

I hope my stitcheries look perfectly spaced? It's a good thing I use Appli-Kay Wonder which isn't permantly in place until you iron it as I used a ruler & moved those mocha coloured squares so many times until my anally retentive self was happy the spacing was exact.

The bain of my existenace is not being able to confidently free motion quilt (because I don't put in the hours of practise required). I stitched in the ditch on all the pink & blue strips & did a fancy leaf stitch a quarter inch in on every brown strip. That's not perfect but turned out quite cute. It was the addition of the mocha linen behind the stitcheries that brought everything together & made it work. The stitcheries are in a variegated purple floss.

The best part is the jelly roll from Spotlight was a gift from a dear friend who doesn't quilt. Not only does this friend not quilt, but is a non-quilting male! He's a bit of a jet for picking fabrics though & I have had some lovely japanese fabrics from Tamworth (cut out for a hexie bag but not sewn yet!) & a nice brights pack of fat quarters that came with this jelly roll. Well chosen FWA!


Here's my dimema for today - this morning my wireless mouse is deceased (maybe Hun-bun batted it too much) so it's back to the wired mouse. According to the pic below I am now a modern cat but I am feeling decidely like I am back to being an ancient cat!

Happy Mousing!
Tracee xx

Super Swap With Leanne

Hi all

I received a lovely parcel this week. Leanne from Lizzie the Quilter & I decided to do a one on one swap. I met Leanne when in Launceston last October & though the visit was brief we hit it off immediately. We definately have similar tastes & I love every bit of the quilty goodness that Leanne makes & blogs about.

Leanne described my thank you email to her as overexcited & she was completely right, but now you will see why. We didn't put any theme on what to swap, just something made, something quilty, something Eastery.

This is my stitchery wall hanging. Don't you think it looks very much like a Cinderberry Stitches design, one of my favourite designers. The fabrics are delicious too. I am loving that striped border fabric with the florals. Here is a close pic of the stitchery.

This will now go up on my sewing room wall to watch over me & me over it as I sew. I also received this gorgeous project bag which had some of my Thursday quilting group swooning. It is the first time I have something to put a project in that fits my sewing & the book or magazine. That is great!

The choccy eggs made it to today's photo shoot but the 3 pink marshmellow bunnies met their fate during Criminal Minds on Wednesday night. Now look at the quilty goodness that was included.

Three adorable far quarters of Bliss & a charm pack of Central Park & a charm pack of Oasis. They will all get put to very good use in the days to come.

Now you can see why I was excitable. Isn't it all just amazingly pretty, generous & kind of Leanne. I told her she spoilt me, for which I am very grateful. I will do another post showing what I sent Leanne once she has had a chance to post about it first. What a great swap!

Make sure you visit Leanne's blog if you don't already. She is an amazing quilter, stitcher & appliquer who also does long arm machine quilting. Her fabric choices are wonderful & she is a dear person. No end to her talents!

Happy swapping
Tracee xx

Tuesday Treasures

I'm not much of a gardener. As a matter of fact I would put myself forward for the black thumb of the year award. I think it has something to do with growing up in New Zealand where you stick anything in the ground & the combination of great soil, sunshine, regular rain and no week in & out heatwaves ensures they grow with very little intervention from anyone but Mother Nature. Of course, the weeds thrive too so that is a big job to contend with.

However I have found the perfect plant for me. I hack to back with a pair of shears, I never water it, never feed it and talk harshly at it for dropping so much fruit that I have to go around & pick up. My treasure for today is my two Columbia Gold Passionfruit vines. They start the season by growing long trailing glossy green vines followed by the most gorgeous, intricate flowers.

Then the flowers turn in to large green fruit. The yellow passionfruit can be twice the size of the more common purples ones and are jam packed with fruit inside. I watched this little guy below (a snail) for about 10 minutes while he tried to manoeuvre a piece of stalk to make a bridge up to the green fruit.

He's a smart little snail, the fruit do taste amazing. The only problem with these passionfruit is that every year the crop seems to get bigger and every one I know soon gets sick of me asking 'do you want some passionfruit???' I picked up 26 today alone, so I guess I will be getting my dose of vitamin C this week. I do love my passionfruit vines though, it is nice to be able to grow something!

I am joining up with Melody for Tuesday Treasures. Go to her blog The House on the Side of the Hill to join in or read of other treasures.

Happy growing
Tracee xx

A New Work In Progress System

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter with lots of fun times with friends and family, choccy, hot cross buns and much thankfulness.

I have done some stitching, a lot of machine sewing for me (not so much a machine sewer) and better still some organising.

On Thursday night I finished my bunny pincushion from the gorgeous free project by Bronwyn Hayes of Red Brolly. It was just about to get it's backing to become the pincushion ready for stuffing when I suddenly decided mine is a wall hanging. I love the end result. I don't use pastels very often but with the subtle variegated threads it looks lovely in these colours.

Check out Bronwyn's blog if you haven't already. She has been very generous this Easter with the bunny cushion, two lots of egg cups cosy designs (oh I so want some of those egg cups with legs!) and also Laverne the chicken. Laverne is on my to do list, she is such a sweetie & easily made.

I have sandwiched my tablerunner & since the pic below have quilted it, added the stitcheries and am half way through the binding. Nearly finished - yippee! I'll have a photo later this week of the finished table runner - the stitcheries look gorgeous.

Now, my organisation break through. I am lucky enough to have a cutting table set up in my laundry. Not having to bend to cut is such a great thing. I gave the area a spruce up and added an area for my works in progress.

In an earlier post I have mentioned that I have so many different projects on the go that I have started keeping track of them, deadlines and post dates for swaps, on a spreadsheet. Now I also have a pretty box system that keeps all the bits & pieces together and reminds me not to start too many others before I finish some already in progress (I'm an optimist!). The boxes are from Thingz who had them all being sold at $2.00 per box. $20.00 later & I am loving my WIP system.

Those are the boxes up on my shelf. All my rulers are sitting together in the stand. The box in the corner holds a few supplies like scissors, spray, glue, roller cutter blades & Applikay Wonder. The cream & red box holds projects I'm planning on starting but haven't gathered supplies together yet. The red tin is for rubbish. The tin lid is for small off cuts to go to my bits & pieces stash bag for a future project.

Here's a closeup of my WIP system now the boxes are labeled. I'm not a scrapbooker or card maker so just printed everything on an A4 pages & cut them out with fancy scissors (the first time I have used them) then attached them with double sided tape. Easy to change as I finish projects!

It's a big step forward from having bits of projects everywhere. The magazines are sitting under the boxes & the labels state what book or magazine or blog the patterns are from. My little pink cat was a present from my girlfriend Lyn, doesn't he look very at home as the Keeper of the WIPs!

Cheeky Hun-bun decided it is his turn to sit in mums place on the couch under the Daylight lamp......

Thanks so much to all those who voted for my loo roll cover design in the Dress Up Your Roll Challenge. Due to all of your votes, I was awarded the Viewers Choice prize, an Aurifil thread pack. Can't wait to try them out. It was overwhelming all the lovely comments I got. They all meant so much to me but I was speechless when one of my favourite designers, Val Laird, sent me an email & said she had voted for me & thought my design was the best. Well, you know I think the same Val and two of those WIP boxes pictured above have your designs in them. xx

It ended up being a great competition for Tracee's with the Australian winner being Tracee from Farm Gate Creations. Her Weary Travellers Emergency Bag was a great idea (every caravan needs one!) and her design & sewing a notch above the rest of us. A well deserved win!

Now what unique challenge can Jane from Want it, Need it, Quilt think up next???? Thanks Jane.

Happy stitching

Tracee xx

An Easter Treat For Our Sewing Machines

Jenny from the Missouri Quilt Company has just put up a video on YouTube showing how to clean & defluff (that must be a sewing term???) our beautiful sewing machines to keep them at peak performance. This must be especially for quilters like me that frett about the machine going to the serviceman so put it off or for you prolific speed quilters out there who clock up big sewing hours like Jenny.

What a good idea to spend a bit of time over Easter being thankful for our faithful little friends and giving them a mini maintenance clean.

Congratulations to Jenny & the team at Missouri Quilts who won best online store in the 2012 Golden Quilters Awards hosted by SewCalGal. Considering all the free advice & projects that they give out it is nice to see them get some love back from the quilting community.

So are you like Jenny & I and only change your needle when you have to or are you a stickler for a new needle after every big project or so many hours of sewing? My needle is nice & new at the moment, seeing as I broke 2 trying to insert the zip in to my owl bags a couple of weeks ago.

A man dedicated to his sewing machine

Happy Sewing Machine Cleaning

Tracee xx



A Win & More

I was doing the happy dance ( & scaring the furboys in the process ) a few weeks ago when I read on Cardy Girl's blog that I was one of the winners of her bundles of My Favourite Things fat quarters by Anni Downs. They looked to be such pretty fabrics & seeing I am doing the Some Kind of Wonderful - My Favourite Things quilt with the Stitch A Long Group I was definitely coveting these fabrics.

(Didn't they just look very enticing in Cardy's giveaway picture)

Cardy was just about due to leave for Nundle for the Girls Day In The Country get together so said she would post my parcel when she returned with a little added surprise as I couldn't be there too. How kind is that??? I read about so many Eastern States stitching & sewing get togethers that I would love to attend too & it makes me feel a long way away over here in the West. It would be wonderful to be able to fly over but flights from one side of Oz to the other are still quite hefty - the equivalent of many, many, many metres of beautiful fabric!

Now my parcel has arrived & oh I was right, the giveaway fabrics are just glorious. Beautiful muted colours & whimsical designs.

My surprise extras included two of the Patchwork with Busy Fingers english paper pieced kits by Sue Daly for pincushions that those who attended the GDITC made. I love paper piecing so these will definately be put to use.

I also received another piece of fabric which is just so gorgeous, I don't know if I will ever want to cut it up. It is called A Quilters Home by Nancy's Cupboard for South Sea Imports. It is in the same colours as the MFT fabrics but is lots of little rulers with lots of quilters words on it like Bear Paw, Happy Hearts Quilt Shop, Stitches in Time, Log Cabin. It is just lovely & see it spread out in the background of my photo below.

Thank you Alison for your great giveaway & for your thoughtfulness with the added extras. As you can see, they have been very happily rehomed here in Quiltkittyville! xx

If you haven't read Cardy's posts about GDITC, go to the blog & check it out, lots of bloggers & stitchers, so of course, lots of fun.

If you have been following some of the various Nundle posts, I hope you have kept up with Peg & Dale's adventures after the GDITC. Those chickens certainly get around! Check out their adventures on the way home, through Victoria & in the Barossa at Granny Loz's blog. Hilarious!

Happy Easter to all!

Tracee  xxx  Little Brun xxx Hun-bun xxx

Tuesday Treasures

It's Tuesday again so I am back with some more Tuesday Treasures.

Today my treasure is Op Shopping / Second Hand Shops / Thrift Shops & all the amazing goodness you can find in them. This was a favourite pasttime I revelled in with my mum for many years until she went into care. When I was a little tacker it was for necessity, later it was because we were addicted to bargains & now it's more because it's a great way to find vintage treasures, hand sewn linens, old china and oh so many other pretty & unique things.

Thursday on my way home from quilting group was a great day for bargain finds as I popped in to my local small store in our little suburban shopping centre for just a look, just in case........

The first item that had to come home with me is a sweet little Empire platter, in Shelton Ivory (with gold edges) made in England for the princely sum of $3.99. Perfect condition & a nice shape. It's a little bigger than a dinner plate so a useful size - though who needs useful when you have pretty?

Then things got interesting. I have to admit - I am a woolaholic (yarnaholic in the Northern Hemisphere?). I love knitting wool. I just want to touch it, knit like my kitties on it & purr. Some of it can be costly though so I am always out for a bargain. Thursday it was New Zealand pure wool goodness - 2 lots of variagated Naturally in Turquise / purple (6 balls)  and red / black (6 balls) and Magic Garden Lollipop 100% Merino in the blue / grey / white variagation (5 balls) & all for 99c a ball. Big Purrs!

Next to that amongst the usual stack of old craft magazines a couple of books caught my eye - thank goodness! In absolutely mint condition I got Jan Constantine's Heirloom Embroidery. It still had the receipt in it from the Book Depository UK for $24.80. I paid $3.99.

And beside that in the same mint condition - Inspirations Magazine's Stitching For Beginners & Beyond for a measly $1.99.

Lots of beautiful stitchy goodness in those two books. It's not very often I have a find like Thursday's crafty yumminess so I was very happy with myself.

To check out more of this weeks treasures or to share your own, join up with our Hostess Melody on her blog The House On the Side Of The Hill.

Happy Shopping!
Tracee xx

Please Vote in the Dress Up Your Roll Competition

The voting is now on in the Dress Up Your Roll Competition. The winner is decided by judges but they want a bit of help by all of us voting for our favourites.

Go to Jane's blog Want It, Need It, Quilt and click on the Flickr link to see all the entrants. Come back to Jane's blog & vote for your favourite.

Remember my entry ; )

So pick a favourite & vote so one of us wins a lovely $100 voucher from Jane's shop or from the Fat Quarter Shop if an overseas entrant. There are some beauties, fun, pretty or clever - take your pick!

Happy stitching
Tracee xx

Weekends With Brunnie =^..^=

Hi muma's quilty bloggy friends, Brunnie here (real name Brutus aka Brunnie, Little Brun........)

Muma's doing some cleaning & she doesn't like doing that & she's not that good at it so there is a lot of muttering going on elsewhere in the house. It will take her ages so thought it was a good time to say 'Meow!' and bring you up to date on our goings on.

Here's me lying on my fluffy cushion in the laundry. That was Saturday morning, sun, fluffy, fresh air & purrs - bliss. Some of you have been asking after me in your emails - big purrs to thank you. I have just given muma two weeks of worry. I didn't mean to but something inside me just said 'Brutus - no more drinking' so I didn't. Mum started to freak out straight away as I am famous for having big potty drinks. Muma says that is why I have outlived my brother Biscuit & lots of other fur babies Muma & Grandma have had.

That's me & my water potty last September, inseperable. So I just stopped drinking my water & after a few days of that muma cried cause she figured I was going to die. She gave me a little crystal bowl of watery milk, carried it everywhere & stuck it in front of me all the time. I had a little bit but just wasn't thirsty. I did drink more when muma gave me all milk but Muma says that's not good for me either. When muma left it unguarded my little 'big' brother Honey-bun drank it all. Isn't it cool how such a big male cat has such a wussy name - thanks for picking that Grandma ; )

(even Hun-bun wonders how he got that name)

Because muma was waking up all hours of the night to give me milky water she also started getting up at 6.30 AM!!! & taking me for walks in the garden & to do my 'business'. Hun-bun comes too & now even though muma is so not a morning person, every day at 6.30am & 6.30pm, muma, Hun-bun & I go walkies & then sit in the garden. It's our nice time together, though I can see muma quickening the pace now Perth is experiencing Autumn, by winter it might be a jog. Muma jogging at 6.30am - hahahaha - meowwwww!

Anyway, thanks to muma, we are over that now & muma got all teary again when last Thursday night I started drinking water again & now me and potty are as friendly as ever. Boy do I have the power to mess with muma's emotions! I'll try not to do it again : (   Now it's only just over two weeks and I have my big birthday - 20 years old! Party, party, party!

Muma has managed to do some other stuff this weekend now I am drinking again. Muma's watched the footy, she loves footy. Her footy tipping hasn't started well though & did you know my muma can swear like a wharfie while watching footy? The Melbourne - Brisbane Lions game was a highlight for me & Hun-bun for learning new words. Fortunately the West Coast Eagles win today has calmed her down a bit.

Muma has also done some of her house block needleturn applique for the SKOW. We don't have a yellow house but I think muma has her eye on one for us;

Muma sewed up some booties. I think they might fit my back paws but definately not my front ones;

Muma started doing some knitting. She says it is a baby jacket. Who would have thought - I thought knitting was just for kitty blankets????

Muma cut out some of the Lilac Love set by Val Laird that she is doing as a workshop on Patchwork Posse. It's supposed to be lilac but muma's a rebel & she's doing pink & maroon;

Now I better stop shirking my responsibilities & go check out muma's cleaning. I'll give everywhere a thorough inspection then may need rewarding with a mid afternoon snack for my hard work. Here's my motto for all our friends & especially muma for today;

Big Purrs!
Brunnie xx