Marg Low Designs

gum trees, lunch bags and a new blog

More of the gum tree came down on the weekend. Obviously it had been weakened from the storm 3 weeks ago. The rose, which use to cover the arch, is looking very sad! It's hard to see what's left of it.

I'm grateful this is a relatively small gum tree and not massive like my neighbours. My whole tree is equivalent to one of their branches!

Look at my new lunch bag. Sue made it for me, using the Christmas Treats pattern and stitching 'My Sandwich Bag on the pocket. I love it. The serviette gave me a good a giggle. It read 'Swimming at our age is dangerous, the lifeguards don't try so hard'.

If you love reading blogs here is a new one to add to the list. Sue-Anne (yes, one of the Friday Girls, has started a blog Buddy & Me. There will be many gorgeous quilts and other treats to inspire....

Friday girls quilts

Check out these quilts the Friday Girls have made.

This is Jan's new tablecloth. How gorgeous is it! I think I would be too busy oohing and aahing over the fabrics to be bothered about eating. Can't wait to use it next time we sew together.

Sue-Anne used a Moda bakeshop pattern to make this stunning baby's quilt. Love the fresh colours. Very tempted to make one!

Helen is so smitten with the disapearing nine patch pattern, she's made this one....

and this one. I thought the blue and brown combination was beautiful but the blue and red is divine. (So gorgeous that when I went shopping on the weekend I only bought blue and red.)

The quilt Jan has made for her grandson. If you look closely you can see the skull and flame print - just the sort of thing any young boy would love.

The back of the quilt with a single pieced strip. It's been quilted with orange thread and looks fabulous.

All that creativeness motivated me to finish the positive & negative nine patch I started a few months ago. The blocks were finished last weekend so it was simply a matter of sewing them all together. Have to laugh at the simple - the sewing was simple, there was just an awful lot of it! Then I decided it needed a border. You'll have to wait until next time for that.

a birthday

 It was my turn for a birthday on Friday.

All birthdays should be celebrated but this year mine was one of those special ones ending in a zero. 

And to help me celebrate half a century the Friday Girls gave me this beautiful book by Annette Gero on Australia's Quilt Heritage.

As soon as I opened the present, and I glimpsed the quilt on the cover I knew it was going to be a book to treasure.

  But how truly special to find it signed by Annette herself.

Home-made preserves, a large box of Maltesers (I didn't know you could fit so many in one box) and a scrumptious lunch with birthday cake capped off a wonderful day.

Thank you!

birthdays & making a start

There is a drawback to being the last Friday Girl to receive a birthday gift from me this year. You already know what you're going to get. It was OK for Jan and Michelle, they opened theirs together back in March. But once Helen received hers in May it was fairly obvious to both Nicole and Sue-Anne what I would be making for them.

I did have some reservations about going down this path, as it does take away the element of surprise; part of the joy of opening a gift. However Sue-Anne was very excited when she saw Nicole's a couple of weeks ago. So much so we joked about wrapping something entirely different! So nice to know the gift will be appreciated in advance!

I've suddenly realised by the end of next week we will be half way through August and with a number of deadlines looming for the end of the month I really need to make a start. There are so many ideas floating around inside my head it can be difficult to zero in on one. Once I get started it all becomes clearer, but the problem is starting.

Here's a peek of what I've started. Yes it does involve one of Barb's gorgeous new buttons that arrived in the mail last week.

announcing the winners

And the winners of the Christmas pattern giveaway are:

Beverly (posted July 26 at 12.11 pm) - Simple Pleasures

Sue (posted July 25 at 5.03pm) - Stitched Blessings

Julz at Simple Stitches - Tree of Love

Lee-Ann (posted July 25 at 3.16pm) - Tied with Love

Congratulations! Please email me your addresses and I'll pop the patterns in the post.

Very little sewing has been happening at my place these past two weeks. Hopefully I'll find the time to rectify this later today.

This was a must do - Nicole's birthday present. Can you guess what her favourite colour is?

I've had lots of fun making the needle & thread roll for the Friday Girl's birthdays. You might think I would be over it by now, but no I'm still enjoying playing with the different fabric and colour combinations.

This is Michelle's hexagon quilt. Machine pieced using fabrics from Patchwork on Stonleighs fabric club.

This is what I plan to do this afternoon, make myself a hexagon quilt. First I have to decide what size to make the hexagons and quilt (only an afternoon - perhaps I'd better aim for a tablerunner or cushion), then which fabrics to use. Will I make it scrappy out of my fabric club fabrics or maybe red and white?? I just know I need to make a decision quickly, otherwise the afternoon will be gone and I'll have nothing to show for it.

this week's sewing

I was so tempted to start a new quilt this long weekend after seeing Helen's three finished quilt tops but so far I've resisted. I decided to sew a few more of these positive and negative nine patch blocks. I started these awhile ago with the plan to make two a day. Well I made about 80 in a week and then came to a complete halt (as I often do). So I sewed a few Friday night, a few more Saturday and more this morning. They're a great project to have in the work basket for when the mood takes you to do a little -  no concentration required - machine piecing.

We celebrated Helen's birthday last Friday. This is the little needle & thread roll I made for her. You only need scraps for this project but I was struggling a little for inspiration and just had to buy new fabrics.(I really just needed an excuse to buy more fabric).

 Inside. Jan tucks her thread and thimble in the pocket and has dedicated hers to her hexagon box. If you have more than one project on the go it can very frustrating to quickly grab one to work on only to discover the needles and thread are missing. The solution is to have needles and thread permanently dedicated to a project.

The outside. Lots of fun chosing the fabrics and stitches. Yes, I'm sure if I had looked a little harder there would have been fabrics in my stash perfect for this project. But then I may not have enjoyed making it as much. Love that sense of anticipation and excitement that comes from playing with new fabrics.

It looks like I've done lots of sewing this week. It helps that they're all quick projects. I thought I'd made enough decorations but then couldn't resist trying these combinations.

Barb's Home Sweet Home and Flying Angel decorations.

The pattern for these decorations will be on sale at the end of this month.

quilts and the Friday girls

Last week Helen was at a quilting retreat and made three quilt tops. Yes that's right not one or two but three. One was a disappearing nine-patch in flannel.

It was such a hit it inspired other girls to make the same. And you know how one idea leads to another someone else made theirs with star blocks in the four corners. This is Helens. Doesn't it look fantastic? A gorgeous cot sized quilt.

Every year I like to make a red and white quilt so just maybe I'll be making one like this.

This is Jan's quilt. Love this one too! I can't remember the name of the fabric range but it's the one with the cowboy and barbwire prints. The curves look a little tricky but Jan told us they were very easy to sew. All inspired to make this one as well.

Lots of other things to do on the weekend but sooooo tempted to start a new quilt.

so wish this was mine

I so wish this was mine, but it's Sue-Annes. A gorgeous tablerunner. The Friday girls have been making and swapping hexagons for a couple of years now. There were big plans. (I think we may have all been guilty of at least one of these at some time or another.) They were each going to make a quilt. I think they've all decide to make tablerunners. So much better to have a project finished and be able to use and enjoy it.

Here are Jan's hexagons. This picture was taken about 18 months ago. A lot more have been sewn together since then.

Imagine the fun going through this tin and looking at all the fabrics.

Friday girl's birthdays

  Last week Jan and Michelle celebrated their birthdays.

I decided to make them both a Needle and thread roll from the Vintage Stitches Sampler pattern. I do like making these. So much fun trying this piece of fabric with that and a great way to use up those tiny scraps. Though I must confess.... I did buy fabric. Seems ludicrous I know that with all my scraps I didn't have the right pieces.  Perhaps I was just looking for an excuse to buy more fabric. (Jan won't let me buy fabric now unless I have a project in mind! I know this is good sensible advice, but......)

Inside the needle rolls there is a pocket for the thread. The pockets were stitched with the girl's names and the date they received them. (So no, the 21/3/09 doesn't mean 100 years young).

Let's hope we're all still sewing together when we do reach that milestone.

Friday Girls and wrapping

Beautiful presented gifts from the Friday Girls. Too gorgeous to open, but I did, then carefully re-wrapped them so I could experience all the excitement of opening them again when I got home. There were a lot of oohs an aahs when Michelle handed out her gifts complete with a Christmas Tree. 

 We celebrated at Michelle's home. The Christmas decorations were really lovely. This was my favourite tree, if I had to choose, with all the snowmen decorations. Don't they look wonderful on this tree. 

This year I'd decided not to put up as many decorations, I felt like a bit of a change, but after seeing Michelle's I felt inspired to come home, rearrange and put some more up.

  I finally finished this felt rug. All the applique was completed a few years ago when I was designing the Christmas Trimmings pattern, then last year I thought what a waste. All that work sitting in a cupboard. So I made a plan, did a little more to it, then returned it to the cupboard still unfinished. All I had to do was cut out the centre, blanket stitch the edge and attach the pennies. And I did this on Friday. So nice to have something that has been sitting in the cupboard finished in time for Christmas!