Shredded Wheat. It's What's For Breakfast.

My husband would like everyone to know he likes shredded wheat. A lot.

The supermarket was having a sale on them and he went a little nutty. The ones on the far right are a generic supermarket brand he bought before the sale, and the ones on the left are some vintage packaging Post resurrected. The shredded wheat better not be vintage too...

I Made Some Stuff This Year

A few of the things I made this year :)

2009 has brought me many new things. Many good things. I started this blog not thinking it'd mean anything much to me. I'm glad I was proved wrong. Through it, I've gotten to know some great people who continue to amaze me.

To everyone who reads this blog, I thank you. For your kind words, your encouragement, your inspiration, and especially for taking the time to read my words.

I wish everyone a very happy and healthy 2010 filled with love, laughter and busy hands :) Happy New Year!!!

Scenes From The Studio

Some of the things I've been staring at lately.

There'll be quilts to show very soon, I promise. I need to go buy binding because being the dork I am, I went to the store yesterday to get fabric and totally forgot to get fabric for binding. It's far too cold outside to be this dumb.

Shopping Isn't Scary Anymore!

I hope I don't sound like a party pooper but I'm glad the Christmas craze has died down! I can actually enter a shop without fear or trepidation again lol

Oh, and this is how new I am to this country still... I'd said to my husband I'm waiting for the day after Christmas (or Boxing Day to me!) to go shopping since all the Christmas rush would be over. Yeahhhh... I forgot it's the second busiest shopping day in the States. And yes, I stayed away from the shops that day hehe

I saw this tag and giggled. If anyone was curious about the name of this blog, tada!

(The tag was on a shirt my MIL got me that I had to exchange because it was made for someone at least a head taller than I am. I loved it but I knew I wouldn't wear it much if at all, and I didn't want to waste her pressie. I still feel awful about exchanging it though.)

On the quilting front, I'm working on three baby quilts (one commissioned, two for the shop) simultaneously. And itching to start a couple more. I don't normally start more than a couple of quilts at once so I'm quite annoyed with myself. I'm just going to have to jot down my ideas and get back to them when I'm done with the three. Problem with jotting things down is very often, I'll return to my notes and I have no idea what the hell I was trying to do. Anyone else have that problem? No? Just me?

Anyway I'll hopefully have some finished quilts to show soon :)

He Put A Ring On It

I'm in the kitchen singing "If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it..." and in the distance I hear, "I DID!".

He got a kiss for that because that was just too cute.

Perfect Pressie For An Arty Toddler

My niece Ava is completely obsessed with colouring lately. The last time she was over, she couldn't stop colouring on my small white board in the kitchen, and I thought that was so wonderful since her mum is an amazing artist. Little apples don't fall far from the tree!

So I made her a little colouring case!

I made 16 slots -- 8 for crayons, 8 for markers. They're all washable, of course. I don't need her momma mad at me...

Neopolitan Cupcake

I love Neopolitan ice-cream not because I like to eat it, but because it reminds me of my childhood.

You could count on the way it was eaten in our house. Chocolate would disappear immediately... followed by strawberry (only Mum likes that flavour)... then poor, lonely vanilla would sit by itself for a while before being devoured by whoever was desperate for ice-cream.

I used a bunch of Heidi Grace fabrics that features sundaes and cupcakes in pink, brown and white. So cute.

This quilt was definitely fun to make, especially since I made it in the midst of all those large quilts... I needed something to break up the monotony, and to use fabrics that didn't make me want to sew my eyes shut.

The quilt ended up measuring 38" by 46" and is currently available in the store SOLD! :)

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Hope everyone's hunkering down with good food and good company :)

I'm starting off the Christmas celebrations with an amazing pumpkin cake (I put the butter on with a fork because I didn't want to waste a knife lol) that has undoubtedly added inches to my frame. Worth it though!

Starting a boy quilt for a good friend's nephew. We went to pick out fabric together since she wants to learn to quilt, so I thought it'd be a good introduction for her.

And I just realised that my jammies and socks are extremely festive. This is all by accident, by the way.

I wish everyone a very wonderful Christmas, and a healthy, happy new year. I know ours will be filled with yummy food, lots of chocolate and lots of laughing... and wrestling for the remote because my MIL will try to watch some insanely stupid show while the rest of us groan in agony lol

But I Didn't Do Anything... Yet

Let me preface the story by saying that I'm a very heavy sleeper. When I'm out, I'm out. The house could crash around me and I probably wouldn't hear any of it. I set FOUR alarms to wake me up every day. It doesn't always work. Ahem. I blame my dad -- one time I went to grab the ironing board from my parents' room and accidentally knocked it over. It went crashing onto the wooden floor and dad didn't hear any of it. Yup. His fault, definitely.

So the hubs and I are watching TV and there's some ad where the guy gives the wife her Christmas pressie at 2am while she's up with the baby. I thought he'd woken her up...

Me: "You'd better not pull that shit, waking me up if I'm asleep when we have a kid to give me a present."

Hubs: "She was already awake with the baby!"

Me: "Oh. Then that's alright."

Hubs: "I just realised, when we have a baby, you're not going to hear the baby. I'm going to be the one getting up."

Me: *Chuckling*

Hubs: "I think I'm mad at you already."

Flickr Favourites: The Christmas Meets Snow Edition

1. snow globe christmas cookies, 2. christmas snow, 3. snow way!, 4. A Snow Heart For You :) xoxox, 5. point to point, 6. Christmas Ornaments in the Snow, 7. christmas eve, 8. This is the last day of our acquiantance, 9. red spot

Quickest Quilt EVAR

This quilt was a hoot to make. Impossibly easy but oh so cute. An old friend of mine in Singapore asked me to make her friend's newborn a quilt. She liked the Zoo Pool fabric but we decided to do something different. Plus for some reason, people back home have very, very unfussy tastes. The less going on, the better.

I showed her a couple pictures and she picked this layout.

I used a white with little blue dots in between the prints, and a dark blue with white pindots for the binding.

The backing is a blue plaid which I've been hoarding for eons.

And now it's off to its new home in Korea. Yeah, Korea, people.

Scrappy Patchwork

So last night I found myself with nothing to do. A rare luxury since I'd been so busy of late... and now that I'm done Christmas orders, I feel like I still have to go at 100 mph.

So I made this! A scrappy patchwork... thing. I don't know what it is. A mini quilt? A wall hanging? I like it, and that's all I need to know.

I quilted it with straight line quilting and made it all wonky. I'll let you decide if I meant to make it wonky or if I couldn't be bothered to draw lines.

I didn't know what would come of this but I like it. Mainly because all the little scraps remind me of the projects I'd used them for :)

Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Programme

I. Am. Done. With. The. Large. Quilts.

Wait. Give me a moment while I sob with joy.

Okay, I'm good now.

Never thought I'd be done, honestly. I'll take pictures of the last quilt in the next day or so... I have to get new lint rollers (we have two large furry cats and we ran out... can you imagine the horror?!) to get any stray fuzz off before it's camera-ready.

Anyway, since finishing, I've been back to working on things that don't make me wince.

A baby quilt for the shop that's all basted and ready for quilting. I actually laughed to myself while basting this one. So tiny, so small, so awesome.

Some selfish quilting! Finally! I'm making us a quilt out of Garden Friends by Jay McCarroll. I've been hoarding this for eons and I thought it was about time for it to see daylight. I threw in five or six Kona cottons and I cannot wait to see it finished! But I'm taking my sweet time with it since it's for us.

And in the mail, I received my first blocks from a quilting bee I'm in! It's the first time I'm in a bee, and December was my month. I'm really, really terrible at relinquishing control with anything, so this was definitely a good exercise in tolerance for me. With great result, I might add!

How good is that?! I'd never have thought of doing the latter! Such a lovely surprise :) You can see a few other blocks here.

Oh, and this is my 400th post. Yay! And also, I talk a lot.

Flickr Favourites

1. Pink Orange Close, 2. munki munki recess block, 3. i chose orange, 4. placemat, 5. L quilt detail3, 6. cecilia's quilt, 7. close-up, 8. [02.18.09] bound, 9. quilting

Taking An Interest

Just before bed last night... my hubs asked, "So when you do that hand sewing thing... the quilting thing... when you get to the end of the thread, what do you do?"

I explained it to him as clearly as I could, and he replied "Ah okay... it was plaguing me."

"For how long?", I asked.

"Oh about the last 9 minutes."

The long-suffering fool.

The Patriotic Quilt

The third and last commissioned quilt for the one client is almost done. He asked for something military. I think this is pretty military. Initially I was going to make stars and other fussy things, and then I reminded myself that this is for an 18-year-old who's coming out of military school, going into the military. He doesn't want frou-frou stars and fuss.

So I came across Moda Glory, got a few panels and added some reds and blues. I left white out though. There's a bit of cream in the panel blocks, so that'll suffice, I think. Anyway with white in there, it'd look too much like the flag, no?

This is what I came up with. It's simple but gets the point across. That boy's going to be crapping stars and stripes forever.

(The colours might be a wee bit off... I stupidly took the pictures as the sun was setting so I had to 'fix' them. I'm not that proficient at computery stuff so... yeah.)

John Deere Quilt's Done!

I finished the commissioned John Deere quilt yesterday. It's all washed and crinkly now... oh the squishy goodness :)

It turned out pretty well despite my initial reservations. Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to make myself a John Deere quilt or anything, but I think given the subject matter, this quilt doesn't make me lose my lunch.

I hand quilted this one too. Sucker for punishment, that's me!

I used a plaid for the binding since the John Deere fabric had plaid backgrounds.

It's now all folded, tied up and ready for delivery :)

I forgot to say that when we went to Northampton, I went to our favourite secondhand bookstore and found this book. For free. FREE! The spine's a little bit broken (it's intact though) so they were just giving it away. Lovely!

Dear Santa

I'm kidnapping your reindeer unless you bring me goodies from The Fat Quarter Shop. I'll be nice and even give you choices.

1. Swell Nicey Jane Fat Quarter Bundle by Heather Bailey

2. Ginger Blossom Fat Quarter Bundle by Sandi Henderson

3. Peach Meadowsweet Fat Quarter Bundle by Sandi Henderson

So you just bring me any of these bundles and no reindeer have to get hurt*. Capice? I just vacuumed and reindeer blood's a bitch to get out. Plus I bet you can't get too far without Rudolph's shiny nose, huh?

Hey, you kissed my mum under the damn mistletoe. I think you're getting off pretty lightly here, bud.

Yours sincerely,

Audrie

*No reindeer were hurt in the making of this blog post.

We Heart Northampton

We took a little drive to Northampton on Sunday morning because we both just really needed a break. I know it seems like we go there a lot, but that's only because we really do. Hee!

Look at him modelling my knits. Dude likes cables.

It started to snow after lunch. It was fine until the snow turned into freezing rain and started pinging in my eye. And made my hair look like a wet dog. Pretty.

I asked him to put this on. He obliged. I love him for that. Dork.

I may have knocked on the sunroof... and when my husband humoured me with a "Who's there?"... I may have said "Snow idea!"

I know, I know.

Look at that grossness. I left Australia. For this. My mum must've dropped me as a child.

(I'm just kidding honey!)

(Sort of.)

From The Cameras Of Babes

This is what happens when a two-year-old takes your camera and wants to take your picture.

Fashion Inspiration: Big Scarf Edition

I like big scarves and I cannot lie...

How stinkin' cute is she?! I love love love her coat! Do you see the zipper atop her hoodie? I love little details like that.

Picture from Glam Canyon.

I Attract Winners

I was chatted up today. By a very shabby young man. Outside a dollar store. Yay for me.

The last time I got chatted up, it was at the drive-thru of a Dunkin' Donuts by the guy serving us. He was tattooed* and had a gold tooth. My MIL was with me and she stopped laughing long enough to call my hubs to rat on me. Hey, I can't help it if I attract Grade A specimens.

Anyway it's still full steam ahead around here. Everyone's telling me to take a nice long break after I'm done with my quilt orders but I really don't think I want to. Sure I'm a little tired, but it's not like I go at this speed all year round. Besides, when you enjoy what you do, it's hardly work, is it?

I finished the baby quilts order for the store in Toronto. They'd ordered three quilts from me a few months ago and were just replacing the ones that sold. They were very eager to get the quilts asap because there'll be an article featuring them, and they were asked to list three items in their store that they're proud to have. One of them was me! I still can't believe it. Anyway, they wanted more of my quilts in stock for when the article comes out so people can purchase them.

The funniest bit... they contacted me to ask my permission to feature my business' name in the article. Umm, YES PLEASE!

And I'm piecing together the other queen-sized quilt. It's for the client's son who's coming out of military school and will be joining the military. He initially asked me for a military quilt, meaning camouflage (Noooooooooooooooooooooo), but I suggested something more red, white and blueinstead and thankfully he liked the idea.

Okay back to quilting.

* I myself am very tattooed so I have nothing against tattoos :)

The Ego Has Landed

Me: "So I finished quilting those two baby quilts in pretty good time."

Hubs: "Yeah you did. You've impressed me. Which is really the most important thing."

Me: "The most important thing is that I impress you."

Hubs: "Yup."

Me: "Uh huh."

Alive And Kicking

Still here. Insanely busy. Six hours of sleep a night isn't really sitting well with me but what can you do. I better not get eyebags for Christmas.

Trying to get quilt orders finished in a timely fashion so apologies for the blog being a bit of a snoozefest lately.