Oh Happy Happy Day

There's an awful lot of blog posting going on in Fairybread Land lately, and the sad thing is that one day I'll just disappear again. But then with winter not too far away hopefully I'll stay true.


Today is a Happy Day. The postman came bearing fabric from the US (in a blo*dy big box). Normally I get one or two envelopes, but this time a box. The order was dispatched from Whittle's Fabric last Saturday, and here it is on the Monday 9 days after. Pretty good service. Whittle's say on their shipping page that they don't ship to Australia, but they do. They bent under some pretty heavy blogger pressure apparently.

I usually buy 1800s Repro fabric, but this time I bought some modern and/or bright fabric. I've been reading my Material Obsession books bought el-cheapo from the Book Depository in the UK. I'm quite inspired. *Aussie and Kiwi alert* all the books are heaps cheaper than in Australia, plus postage is always free. Compare the prices - you can easily pay double here. It's very fast, less than 10 days, and you can have all the prices displayed in A$ on the site if you like. HIGHLY recommended.


Anyway, back to the fabric. Bought some dots, stripes and stuff from modern designers, but I think the floral is my favourite. I bought 4 yards so I can use it as a border or something. Better than Christmas!

Would Anybody Like It?

It's a bit scary to admit this, but I bought 2 of the same magazine this month. We are deprived of US Quilt mags here, so when I see this one I snap it up. I thought the cover looked familiar, but I sometimes look at the webpage for this mag so I thought I must have seen it there. Not til I got home and had a browse did I realise I already had it.


If anybody would like it please let me know. I think just Aussies and Kiwis as everyone else would have easy access to it.

Will Somebody PLEASE Save Me From Myself...

Oh God! What is it about these things that suck me in? My first thought was "you've got to be joking!" but for the 12 or so hours since then I've been thinking about it most of the time. Think of those tubs of boring fabric acquired in the early days of quilting that could be used up. In fact, why do I still have that fabric? I sold a lot of that stuff on ebay some time back, then used the funds to buy more fabric, of course. I seem to have this huge amount of boring green that could be hidden in this quilt among brighter fabrics.

I'm still thinking about it, but I did buy a huge amount of plain white fabric today, just in case I ever need it... It's sort of like looking at a train wreck - you don't want to look but you can't help yourself. BTW I know there has been a terrible train crash in Belgium, and I hope no blogger has family or friends involved.

If you still want to know what this is about, look here, but don't say I didn't warn you.

O M G it's H O T. It's weather for sitting still, as any movement causes sweat to roll down your face and drip off your chin. It's a day for lying on the deck in the shade, but only with about 10 layers of mossie repellent on, as the mosquitos are vicious after the recent rain. Even the heat off the laptop feels worse today.

I've been doing some hexagons as the thought of sitting in front of the machine isn't attractive. It feels sinful to be making these huge hexagons as they grow so quickly, but if it means I might finish it this year rather than next then it's a good thing.

I've been trying to use big prints for the plain hexagons and have re-discovered this piece of fabric. I know it's been there, but I've only really started to appreciate it since I've been working on this project. It doesn't have any writing on the selvage as it isn't a very big piece, but I've got a feeling it could be a Sharon Yenter print. I might try and have a look for it, but I'm sure it's out of print now. I'm trying to use green and pink as the primary colours for this quilt. The colours in the photos look a bit washed out due to the strong sunlight. Chloe is sitting in the sun in one of the photos, but I can assure you she didn't last long!

Feeling the Heat

This is Simon (official name Simon's Secret) but I don't call him that unless he's in serious trouble, but it makes no difference anyway. He does whatever he wants and I let him - he has it made. Si is getting old now. He's 13 and I've had him for 12 of those 13 years. He is a sweet soft old gentleman who doesn't much bother anyone, knows his place in the pack which is at the bottom mostly, out of trouble. He will put up a bit of a growl if young Chloe is foolish enough to try and steal his bone or food, as there is one constant in life and that is that NOTHING comes between Simon and his food.

He can be flat out puffing and panting like in the photo, but if I move toward the kitchen bench the head comes up and tilts to the side, then if I go into the pantry where the dog food is kept he's young again, springing and twirling like a puppy. Then the bum hits the floor and he somehow manages to move backward, sideways or wherever he thinks the food bowl is going to land without getting up from a sit. It is truly something to be seen.


He loves his mother too - that's me of course - and as you can see he sleeps on the bed. If I leave him say in a friend's yard with them and their dogs while I dash home to grab something, he sits at the gate waiting for my return. Unable to be distracted, except momentarily of course by food, he's back at the gate, occasionally letting out a mournful WoooOOoooOoo... til I come back. Heart wrenching.

I was reading about Kipper and Thomas today, and remembering Libby's Harper who recently went to where all Good Dogs go - I hope I have Simon for a few years yet.

More Hexagons

I've started doing some more hexagons to have a hand project, inspired by these amazing quilts on the Fun with Barb and Mary blog. I emailed Barb and she said it's ok to link to her, so have a look at these fantastic hex quilts on her blog. Barb's quilt was made using 3 inch hexagons with the smaller diamonds, but I decided to do mine 2 1/2 inches as at the time the LQS had the 2 different sized diamonds to go with that measurement, but no 2 1/2 inch hexagons. I thought to myself that I would get started on the diamonds and look online for the big hexagon papers and template.

Trust me to decide on 2 1/2 inch hexagons as they don't seem to exist. Hex papers go up in half inch sizes til you get to 2 inch, then go straight to 3 inch. I have searched the world looking for them with no luck. So I thought 'well I'll have to make them'. I'm all for convenience so I always buy papers and a template, however after half an hour in Officeworks this week, I have learnt some new and useful things. I didn't know that copying paper was 80 gsm, and that there are all different weights of paper up to 200gsm which is a light cardboard. Fancy that? I bought 100 sheets of 200gsm for $10, then paid a dollar or so for them to photocopy onto about 15 sheets, and have enough leftover paper to print hexagons for a few years.

First I printed off the hexagons from this website, but even though I put 2.5 inches in the box, when printed the hexagon was a bit smaller than this. So I photocopied the page at 105% and it came out the right size. Only 2 hexagons will fit on the page so I'll make up a page with the 2 hexagons and some diamonds in the gaps and use that as my original. I also bought a sheet of template plastic to make a template.

It's been fun cutting the fabric to make stripes or fussy cutting flowers or berries and stuff. I have the scrap bins out and am trying to use some of them. I'm trying for green and pink as the main colours in this quilt.

I've finished the quilting in the light hexagons, and am arguing with myself about doing the red ones. I could probably get away with not doing them, but that's no attitude, is it? I'll think about it.


Meanwhile I looked out the bathroom window this morning to see this tree branch down, just missing my fence and the banana tree. Close call. It would be nice not to have a fence while all this empty space is around me, but with beagles there is no option. It's quite a big gum tree, and I've been told that they can be called "widow makers", as the branch soaks up water from the rain, then gets heavy and falls on your head without warning. There has been plenty of rain over the last few days but not much wind, so I'd say that's what must have happened.


I love having the big trees around, but when you see this you have to admit that the whole tree could fall over and land on the roof...

It's raining today, in fact the rain on the roof woke me up this morning. The good news is that the tanks will be full, but the bad news is that the house will be smelling like a wet dog before long. Chloe wants to be outside, but she doesn't like to get wet. I sent her out to do what dogs need to do outside, and watched her spring over a patch of wet grass to land on a different patch of wet grass. Whatever. I try to take photos of the rain, but it doesn't really work. Beyond the trees you can usually see the water of the bay, and Nth Stradbroke Island, but not today. Can you see the water pouring down the road?

Anyway, it isn't good for taking photos today. I'm slowly coming along with Mum's Christmas Present (Last Minute Lucy). I have ironed on the Pellon, which I think might also be called Vliesofix, to the backing fabric and basted. Then I tried to do some handquilting with pitiful results. Needless to say I'm booked into a handquilting class (hoop free) later in the month. I tried to do it with the machine and it isn't too bad. I'll finish it this way.

I took this photo this morning to email to my friend Di as she gave me this plant and can't believe that it's still alive. Well it is, and it's flowering! After I took the photo I noticed the "No Gimmicks, Just Cheap Cars" in the foreground. Need to look at the whole photo, not just the thing I'm photographing. So I took it again, then noticed all the other cr*p on the table. Really I need to have a cleanup today.

Way in the background is the sailing pile - ie 2 sails plus the boom, 2 PFDs, a towel, water bottle etc.

Behind the plant you will notice the life of a beagle owner. Absolutely everything must be up on the table or bench, not too close to the edge and with all the chairs left in at all times. The star blocks I've been cutting out while watching the cricket, Mum's hexagons, and all the scrap bins and assorted other fabrics because I have started more hexagons.

The problems of an open plan house - there isn't any hiding of the mess. Luckily I live in the sort of place where you don't get many people just 'dropping in'. It's such a pain to get here that people ring first to arrange a visit, but I like it. I like having a bit of space around me, I like living alone and I like a bit of isolation.