Quick Change Blog Hop

***GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED***

Updated: The winner is Carol! Congratulations! :) 

Hello! I'm delighted to be a part of a new book called Quick Change: Refresh a Room Fast with Quilted Bed Runners. I was lucky enough to have two runners picked for this book (and I kind of even have my own section, "Bold and Bright"... Fitting, no? Hehe!)

We've got a little Q&A from Martingale, so here goes...

What inspired your bed runners?

The first runner I designed is called Wild Goose Chase and I've always liked flying geese placed very randomly, going in different directions. The swirls of the quilting are meant to mimic the wind as the geese flapped away! 

My other runner design was inspired by my friend Katy's Spring Carnival EPP pattern. I played around with the idea of taking one section and making the pieces bigger so that they could be machine-sewn. The name Jewel Rings came from the fact that I wanted to use jewel tone colours so that they'd shine beautifully against the dark background. 

Do you have other favourite projects from Quick Change?

I think Winding Roads by Megan Jimenez of Quilt Story is really great, and Vintage Petal by Heather Andrus and Megan Jimenez of Quilt Story is just adorable.

What does the master bedroom of your dreams look like?

This. It would look like this. I mean, I love my bedroom... it's bright yet cosy, and my quilt / doona came is on point. But this room is just so soft and put together. Love! 

And now, for the fun part! Martingale is giving away one free eBook, so please feel free to join this giveaway! Simply make a comment, and I'll choose a winner on Tuesday, May 12. Good luck! 

Follow the Quick Change blog hop for fun designer Q&As, plus more chances to win the eBook!

Tuesday, April 28: Blog-hop kickoff at Stitch This!

Wednesday, April 29: Kimberly Jolly and Jocelyn Ueng at Fat Quarter Shop

Thursday, April 30: Heather Andrus & Megan Jimenez at Quilt Story

Friday, May 1: Brigitte Heitland at Zen Chic

Saturday, May 2: Heidi Pridemore at the Whimsical Workshop Studio

Monday, May 4: Amanda Leins at Mandalei

Tuesday, May 5: Doug Leko at Antler Quilt Design

Wednesday, May 6: Audrie Bidwell at Blue is Bleu

Thursday, May 7: Stephanie Prescott giveaway via Facebook

Pictures from here and here.

Randomness

- How adorable is this book on Parisian kitties!?

- This made me laugh and go aww :)

- Americans taste test Singapore food. Hilarity ensues. And now I want satay...

- I found out Garnier changed its moisturiser formula when I opened a new bottle. How? I got a burning, red, puffy rash all over my face and neck, that's how. I had it on for all of 10 minutes, and it was horrifying. Apparently I'm not the only person who's found out the hard way! (Read the reviews... one poor girl suffered for five months!) I've since tried Olay with the same result, and landed on Eucerin for sensitive skin (DUH! Should've gone there first!) and I'm happier than a pig in shit.

- This made me laugh so hard because my American lecturer at uni brought her Aussie in-laws to the US to stay with her parents, and while her mother-in-law was up on a ladder putting a suitcase away, her father kindly told her not to fall on her fanny. The poor man was completely mortified when he found out what 'fanny' meant to an Aussie / Brit. I'm laughing again right now... tears... streaming... Woo breathe...

- And I'm a HUGE Wayne's World fan, I shall leave you with the above :)


Picture from here and here.

Modern Quilts From The Blogging Universe BLOG BLITZ!!!

*** THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED ***

I'm not sure if I'd mentioned it on here before, but I've been lucky enough to be a part of this wonderful compilation of amazing quilty bloggers! I even made it to the cover! Well sort of... I'm in the lower left corner. Raise the roof! Whoop whoop! 

I was dumbfounded when I was asked to contribute -- to be perfectly honestly, I thought someone was playing a very unfunny prank on me -- to this book because I don't really think about myself that way. 

And then as if they were trying to give me a heart attack, Martingale came back and asked me to contribute TWO quilts. What the what?!? I mean, seriously?? I didn't think they'd pick one, let alone two! 

This one is Lightning Strikes and it's further confirms my obsession with triangles.

This one's called Lanterns in the City. It's a play on the traditional courthouse steps and it's one of my most favourite quilts I've ever made. EVER.

Don't let my face on there scare you. It scares me, but that's another story for another time.

ANYWAY! All 18 bloggers who contributed to the book are each giving away an eBook of Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe! For a chance to win a copy of the eBook, tell me how you started quilting! A winner will be picked on Tuesday January 29th.

And for a complete list of all the bloggers who contributed to the book and their blog links, please visit Martingale's blog here. And you stand another chance to win the eBook there too! There you'll see an embarrassing picture of me at Sewing Summit with Katy and Amy. Truly horrifying. (All pictures of myself tend to horrify me.)

Good luck!!!

Modern Quilts Traditional Inspiration

LOOK WHAT I GOT IN THE MAIL FROM DENYSE LAST WEEK!!! 

It's a really beautiful book and I'm so excited to finally see it in print. I got very familiar with all the quilts during the photoshoot so it's like seeing old friends again. Denyse never told me not to talk about them, but I gave her the same consideration I'd want if it were my book. You don't know how hard it is to be quiet about quilts that inspire and excite you!!! There was a tiny sneak peek during last year's sample sale, but nothing beats being able to see every quilt in detail.

Denyse was lovely enough to sign the book, and I'm still dying over the fact that my name can be found within the acknowledgements. I enjoyed every second of it and had such great fun with Denyse, Janis, John and Dave. Those are memories I'll have forever, and I'm just grateful to have been a tiny part of this magnificent book. 

By the way, if you're in NYC on Thursday March 29th, be sure to pop by Purl Soho for Denyse's book signing.

I REALLY wish I could go, but as luck would have it, I'm working that day. I will be going to the city the next day though... irony of ironies. Hiss booooooo...

Yesterday I...

Worked on a boy version of the churn dash quilt for a customer. She vetoed the brights so I pulled all the muted boy solids I had.

(Have no fear, the brights will appear in a quilt sooner or later!)

Organised my Kona colour card chips. I had them all jumbled up in a box and it was so tiring searching furiously for a specific colour. It was this or punch a hole through each chip to string them up. Cutting up the card was traumatic enough... I don't think I could endure punching a hole in the chips!

Did a little reading. Super adorable book, by the way :)

Pressies

I've had three friends have birthdays this week. I've finished one pressie (it didn't require sewing), I'm working on one right now, and I've got one more to go. I haven't seen them this week so it's given me lots of time to procrastinate in true Audrie fashion. Both friends whose pressies I've yet to make like black and white. One likes a little red thrown in, the other likes skulls. They're getting black and white. 

The pressie I'm working on right now is a pillow. I don't make them too often, and I don't really know why. It's like working on just one giant block and tada, you're done. 

I started cutting some 60 degree triangles and then decided perhaps I wanted to go a different route. I'll probably use the triangles in a different project, but I think I'm going to use the same fabrics and do something different. Or go back to the triangles.

I procrastinate AND I'm fickle. Jealous?

And some awesomeness arrived in my mailbox today. Well actually it sat atop my mailbox, wrapped in a big plastic bag because it was pouring rain and I didn't see it till about 4pm so thank goodness for the plastic bag. (What... A long sentence.)

Quilts In Sweden by Kaffe Fassett. I've been waiting for this book to be released and it's finally here! :) You know what's funny? And kind of pathetic? I have almost all his books and never have I made one of his quilts. I just like the pretty pictures.

Yay For Things That Go Right! And 77 Cent Books!

It seems like I've been battling technology the last few days. Friday morning I was trying desperately to load pictures so I could write a blog post. It looked like we were having connection issues so I contacted our provider and our connection was fine. We tried everything and today we decided that our wireless router was the culprit. True enough, those things only last three years or so. Ours is three and a half years old, so I guess it's outlived its purpose. Seems quite ridiculous that those things last for such a short time, no?

And then yesterday the sound on my iPhone suddenly went byebyes. I could text all I wanted, but I couldn't make a call. Well, the phone would ring if I had an incoming, but if I picked up, I heard nothing. Weird, right? Even weirder was that today, it was back to working. I'm baffled but definitely not complaining!

While I'm thrilled about good things, here's another good thing... I bought this book on Amazon for 77 cents! Well, plus $3.99 shipping, but it's totally worth it!

I'd seen a picture posted by Susan of Chickenfoot on Flickr about this book she'd bought for 75 cents (dammit, she one-upped me by two measly cents!) and of course I had to check it out.

Love this.

Ahhh lone star :)

This one has me in complete awe.

One day I shall attempt clamshells! Must finish my hexagons first though.

I'm enamoured by traditional patterns, and I always wonder how those amazing women thought up these patterns, and how the heck they managed such fine work without the help of rotary cutters or templates. We are truly spoiled, aren't we? :) And who knows when I'll ever get round to making these quilts, but they're on the list!

The book's called Patchwork, Quilting and Applique, and it looks like it's back down to 75 cents. Dammit.

Worth The Wait

While I was away, Yoshiko Jinzenji's Quilting Line + Color arrived... annoying me to no end because I was thousands of miles away from it. Boooo.

But it was worth the wait. I spent most of the day flipping through it randomly and finding so much inspiration. Her work is so simple yet you know so much thought has been put into each square inch. Just beautiful.

Different Reading Material

For the past year or so, I haven't been reading much aside from quilting books... I used to read A LOT so my husband has been kind of annoyed with my lack of reading lol

Enter Stephen King's new tome, Under The Dome. (Ooh I rhymed!)

I'm so freaking excited to read this! It just arrived in the mail today and I can't wait to read it. But first I have to get adhesive plastic to wrap it because I'm just that anal about doggy ears...

Day Of Quilty Goodness

I've been in my studio all day. That's a good day in my book :)

I've been working on an hourglass quilt that's going to live in Austria. Yeah, Schwarzenegger-Land.

It took forever to decide on colours... the client wanted soooo many colours, but suddenly had an epiphany: Green, purple and grey. I approve.

I threw in some white with dark purple dots since I needed four colours for this quilt. Quite excited for it to come together... I've got 24 out of 30 blocks done. Whee!

And the postman brought me some goodness today :) Kaffe Fassett's Glorious Patchwork! The best part is that I got it for $5.50.

I KNOW!

I want to make the Jeweled Squares quilt. I don't know when though. It'll probably be finished by 2025? Hee.

I'm kind of loving the sawtooth quilt too (I don't know what it's called in the book and I'm lazy to get up to go look...).

And now I have to go cook the hubs dinner because he has a basketball game later in the evening. Team sports make me want to cry. When I was younger I played tennis and I ran cross-country for my school. Clearly, I'm anti-social.

Book Jackets + Bookmarks = Yes Please

Book jackets and bookmarks in one make for extremely cute books! The little bunny ears poking out of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is making me a little weak. Want!

(via A Cup of Jo)

Why Am I Not Surprised

My dear hubs is a sad bunny today. We went back to Raven Used Books to finally purchase the copy of Clarissa he's wanted for months. And it was gone. Of course. Why wouldn't it be gone? The poor boy moped around the shop for eons searching for the book, just in case it'd been misplaced. Nooope.

Then we had amazing Mexican food and yummy chocolate chip cookies (what a combo!), and the pain was lessened somewhat. No, no pictures of the food -- I was halfway through my second fish taco before the thought even entered my mind. I'm smooth like that.

I have been commissioned by the hubs to knit him a tie. Yeah, a tie. At the yarn store he pulled out this really horrid orange yarn. Thankfully since we've been married, I've drilled into his head that 99% of the time, listening to the wife is the right course of action. And so, when I'm done knitting, he'll end up with a sort of cerulean blue and olive green striped tie. I hope I have it done by Easter because his mum will pee her pants laughing.

Looking Forward To...

I'm so dying to read Walter Moers' The City Of Dreaming Books. It sits on my kitchen table and everytime I pass it by, my eyes fondle it. It's supposed to be an amazing book about books, and because I loved 13 1/2 Lives Of Captain Bluebear, I'm hoping to love this book too. Just in case you're wondering, I haven't been able to start reading it because I'm currently reading Youth In Revolt. And I can't abandon it because I abandoned Then We Came To The End. It seriously failed to amuse me and I can only describe it as a lacklustre JPod. Which I loved. I refuse to start too many books and abandon them midway because it's a habit my mother has, and we tease her mercilessly for it. I shall not succumb. I need to learn to read whilst knitting... Only problem is I can't figure out how to hold the damn book open without ruining the spine, cover or pages. I'm OCD like that.