started a new quilt

Have a couple of quilts on the go at the moment. I have a square in a square quilt that I started yesterday with some pretty Moda 5inch squares. I will put up some photos when I get it a little further along.
I have a quilt on the machine at the moment for my mother for her anniversary from my father. I have made it in stripes of beautiful bali batiks in cappuccino colours of yellows, browns, blacks, golds such a pretty one. I am doing an all over abstract feather design on it and I will be making a label with my embroider machine for it. I am embroidering a queen bee on the label with a little history about the quilt and how it is made as a gift from my father etc.

I am back to work today full time so life is very hectic at the moment the first weeks back of the school term are always very busy for me. I may not get on here much the next few days, I wish those damn lotto tickets would just have the right numbers so that I could work full time sewing instead.

Have a lovely day

Wendy

a sad week.

What a week last week was. A friend's young son died on Tuesday the 24th of January. He was such a beautiful little boy about 9 years. He had a very hard last 2 years in and out of hospital. He had a rare disease which they finally diagnosed last year, he was given a liver transplant and the following day went into a comma. It was decided the next day to turn off the life support. A young life taken way to early. Rest in Peace little Connor.

To finish off the week my aunt lost her battle with cancer on Saturday the 28th January. She had been fighting it for a year. She died peacefully with her family by her side. Rest in Peace Robyn.

Life is so short and we should try and make the most of it. Always be kind to others and always give your best.
A few more angels in Heaven.

Wendy

Embroidery machines

We have decided that we will bite the bullet and get an embroidery machine, after searching around and looking at many types and boy are there a lot out there. We have decided to go with a Singer. We are very lucky as the singer shop here is owned and run by one of Australia's talented machine embroidery designers Florence Woodrow and I have to tell you that her work is amazing. She will give us all the training we want and she will be there to help us along the way. She is a wealth of information and she is an amazing sewer as well. We are lucky to see her pieces in the shop. She has an amazing piece with Australian flora and fauna that she has designed and the fabrics, the embroidery are truly beautiful. You can purchase her designs as a set or single image if you want to have a look her website is www.afewdesigns.com
Hope that everyone is having a lovely day it is a bit wet here in Northern New South Wales.
have a great day

Wendy

Pattern testing

I am so excited I finished my first test pattern and sent off the photos and report last week. I have had an email back asking if they could use my photos on the website and blog. They loved my quilt and thought the fabrics I used were beautiful. I can't wait for the the pattern to be released so I can put up some photos. 

sorry it has been a while

Well it has been a week since I was last on here but I had used up all my internet download looking at blogs. There are so many amazing blogs out there, I know of a couple that are about to or are doing free blocks of the months.
http://estheraliu.blogspot.com/ this is one that will be opening next month on the 15th. If you haven't been to Esther's blog before you should have a look she is an amazing sewer, patchwork, applique and quilter.
Weathervane block tutorial this is a great tutorial for anyone looking.

Embroidery machines

We are in the process at the moment of deciding if we are going to purchase an embroidery machine. We are looking at a Janome MB4 Embroidery Machine. Do we go ahead and get this or not. Does anyone else out there have any experience with these machines? Are they good quality machines, what about the program that you get to convert pictures etc into the digital format for embroidery, can these patterns also be used for quilting? All these questions, will this enhance our business, will this be just money spent that we never make back.
It is so hard to decide what to do about these things.
We purchased a very expensive longarm machine and our business is very slowly taking off. We got a website www.dahlwardquiltingservices.com hoping this will make our business grow faster, don't think we have anything from that. When we purchased our machine the man said that he had found that people got very little work from advertising in the quilting magazines. I just wonder is this the way to go to get us off the ground?
Where do you get your business for your quilting businesses? Do you advertise locally, do you advertise in magazines? or is it all word of mouth? I would really like to know what you think.
Wendy

Fabric won

Lucky Me! Prior to Christmas there was a big blog promotion going on with giveaways on many blogs. I entered quite a few of these and I was lucky enough to win on one of these. http://marijasfabricreations.blogspot.com/ Marija on this blog  sent me 2 beautiful fabrics. that I had won on her blog. These fabrics are gorgeous there seems to be 2 yards of one and 1 yard of the other.
The fabrics I received are 2 yards of Flower of the month Club - February are Violets #2796
and 1 yard  of Flower of the month Club - February are Violets # 2794. these are from www.northcott.net
these are both beautiful fabrics and would look amazing in a quilt. Now I have to decide what sort of quilt to use them in. Thanks so much to Marija she even sent it all the way from New York to Australia at no cost to me.
There are so many generous people out there. Oh!  I have decided what I will do with it, I will make a lovely little quilt  for my SIL for her birthday.
Wendy

Caramel Coconut slice

Sunday is my family day, my daughter and her husband and my gorgeous granddaughter come over for lunch every Sunday. Today I have decided we will have ham and cheese croissants and I have just put in the oven a yummy Caramel Coconut Slice. It is just like Jam coconut slice but with Caramel. Here is the recipe if you want to try it out.
Base:
1/2 cup of each of the following Plain flour, SR Flour, Coconut, and Castor Sugar. combine in a bowl and mix through with 100g melted butter.
Press into a base of a swiss roll pan and bake in moderate oven for 10 minutes until brown,
Filling:
in a bowl combine a can of condensed milk, 2 tablespoons golden syrup, 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar and 60g melted butter.
Topping:
in a bowl mix together 4 cups desiccated coconut, 2/3 cup castor sugar, and 4 eggs mix to combine.
after base has cooked for 10 minutes or until lightly browned cool slightly
pour caramel over the base and sprinkle with coconut topping.
bake in the over for 25 minutes or until topping is lightly browned. cool in pan.
I have found it is easy to clean the pan if you line it with baking paper. The caramel can bake onto the pan and be hard to get off. This is a photo of my granddaugher taken a little while ago.

Well off to tidy up a little before the family arrive.

Insurance

We have a long-arm quilting business with a very expensive machine. We haven't been able to get any insurance on this machine or my other sewing machines through our insurance or another company that we dealt with before when I owned a coffee shop. We have been told that no company will insure us as it is too high a risk.
I don't know if anyone else out there is having the same problem. One lady I spoke to on a yahoo group I am a part of she was told that her business is like a mattress making business and the risks are too high to insure her business. We only want insurance against fire and electrical. This would be a costly machine to replace.
If you know of any business in Australia that does insure sewing and long-arm machines please let me know.

Early rise

I had a very early morning today having to take DD to work at 5am this morning so was up at 4am. So after dropping her off to work we had breakfast and drove up to Banora Point just this side of the Queensland border to pick up an item we won on Ebay, picked up this at 7.30am and we were back home by 8.45am. Off to the shopping square were we met up with my Mum and Dad, other DD and her hubby and my youngest granddaughter Piper. Had a drink and a chat and did a bit of shopping finally home by 11.30, after picking up DD from her work shift.
This afternoon was spent doing some quilting on the pattern test quilt as I must have it finished in the next day or 2 to take some photo's and do my report. I have had to make up some quilting patterns to fit into the pieces as it has a lot of different shapes. With mitred borders on the three outer borders, triangle, trapezoids, diamonds. It is looking good I think that it will be a stunning quilt when finished. I wish I could show you but can't just yet.
I am off to cook some dinner for the family, and have a shower and I think it will be early to bed tonight. I hope that you are all having a great day today.
Wendy

Summer Series quilt along

http://www.freshlemonsquilts.com/?p=1338 early I told you about the Summer Series I completed last year here is the link to Fresh Lemon Quilts. I love this blog the tutorials are great I love the colours she uses in the quilts she makes. The quilts always look so bright and colourful. I really like the 

Kaleidoscopic Kites Free Quilt Pattern 

if you haven't had a look at this blog I highly recommend dropping over there and having a look.

Regarding my test pattern quilt I have had a people ask me to put up photos I am unable to place any photo's of this quilt up until after it is published. Sorry about this but this is what I signed up for when I was given the job as pattern tester. You will get to see it but not quite yet.

8 week weigh it up challenge

http://www.weighitup.com.au/my-8-week-challenge
Anyone wishing to loose some weight the free weight loss on line has just put up the first week of the new summer 8 week challenge.

Pattern testing

I have almost completed my first pattern testing quilt. I was chosen to do a test pattern. This is the first one I have done the quilt had a couple of little problems I have to just sandwich together and quilt and write my report.
I really like the quilt even if there is a couple of problems with it I am hoping when quilted it won't show as bad.
I will post some photos when I am able to.

Yearly visit to the vet

our two beautiful dogs had their yearly vet visit today. they both got a clean bill of health only they have to loose weight. The vet wants the little one Hercules to loose about 2-3 kilos and big girl Bella to loose about 5 kilo's. I myself think they are booth fit and healthy and aren't fat at all. Hercules is a Jack Russell/pug/foxy cross and Bella was a rescue dog so we guess she is a Rottie/ridgeback. But I have been asked if she is a New Zealand Huntaway I had never heard of them and google it and she does look like them. But it doesn't matter what she is she is a beautiful loving dog. She is one of the best dogs I have ever owned I would highly recommend getting a Animal rights and rescue dog. Hercules is our little stress head, he has to be in everything and know what is going on and he is just so full of energy. He can get a bit annoying but we wouldn't be with out him. I know there is one thing that I would do without with both of them is shedding their hair. Oh my god do they shed hair, as you can see we have cream tiles and they are always covered with black and white hair. If anyone knows how to stop this or to even lessen it I would love to hear how.

Cooking

One of the other things I like doing is cooking cakes and slices and anything sweet. My favourite would have to be Mars Bar Cheesecake which I will make in the next day or so.
Here is the recipe if you would like to give it a go.
Base:
250g plain biscuits (chocolate riple or nice)
150g melted butter
mix together and press into 20cm springform pan. Refrigerate
Butterscotch Sauce:
Combine 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 20g butter and 2 tablespoons cream (taker from 300mls cream used int he filling) in a saucepan over low heat mix until sugar dissolves, set aside.
Chocolate Sauce:
combine 2 tablespoons cream from 300ml cream and 50g milk or dark chocolate in a microwave on high for 1 minute mix than set aside.
Filling:
Beat 500g softened cream cheese and 1/2 cup castor sugar until smooth. Whip remaining cream until thick. Chop 3 x 60g Mars Bars into small pieces. Mix 1 tablespoon gelatin in 1/4 cup hot water. Mix this through cream cheese mix and than fold in the mars bar pieces.
Assemble:
Pour half the cream cheese mix into the prepared base. Drizzle with 1/2 butterscotch sauce and 1/2 chocolate sauce swirl slightly.
Pour the rest of the cream cheese mix into pan and than drizzle with remaining Butterscotch sauce and chocolate sauce swirl slightly.
Refrigerate a minimum of 3 hours before eating.

This is rich and yummy so I hope you give it a try.

this place has the most amazing fabrics

http://www.spoonflower.com/welcome if you haven't already seen this page drop over and have a look they have amazing fabrics. I love how creative they are with the prints that they place on the fabrics, the names they give the fabrics. I think it is great that they also ship worldwide. this is great page.

Quilting Garden giveaway

Here is a giveaway that is happening over at A Quilting Life with Sherri follow the link below and Sherrie will tell you all about how to enter this give away.  Good Luck. http://aquiltinglifegiveawaysreviews.blogspot.com/2012/01/giveaway-from-quilted-garden.html

Finally taking the plunge

Hi everyone my name is Wendy I am a Long-arm Quilter, Patch-worker. My husband and I started our own long-arm quilting business here in Northern New South Wales last year. It has been a year of learning and practising, we volunteered to quilt some quilts for a local charity. This was a great experience for us, we learnt a lot about our machine which is a Gammill Optimum with a Statler Stitcher on it. After completing 12 for the local Hospital Mental Health Units charity

 and practising on a few of my own quilts it was time to get some paying customers. We have by the end of our first year had about 6 customers who have given us a try, I am pleased to say that they have all been return customers and so far we have completed a couple of quilts for each of them. 
I have also been sewing while I work full time, I get little time to do much sewing but I am enjoying sewing when ever I can.
I was commissioned to complete 4 single bed quilts for a customer, she wanted the same fabric used in each but each one a little bit different. I made these using my own pattern idea and the customer loved them.

This year I have completed some quilts that I haven't tried before. I completed a block of the month type quilt on a blog I was following the summer series blocks, I have to put them together, I learnt alot doing this quilt along.
I also tried the jelly roll quilt and did it my way. I completed the top of this quilt I call the tutu quilt.

I made and sold some simply baby quilts and I have just completed a beautiful black and white quilt that I love. I saw the idea on another page and thought I would try it myself and I just love it what do you think.