Thomas Appleby, best dog ever.

So, my beautiful little dog Thomas Appleby died on Friday night. I miss him so much. I have never had a dog quite like him. He was my friend and my confidant, he was round and funny and smelly and silly. He brought his bones inside and left little black hairs everywhere. He could imitate a loaf of bread better than anyone I've ever met. He had such a zest for life, and loved to chase magpies. 

I will miss him like oxygen.

Book Review - All The Birds Singing

Seeing as I've become the most boring person in the world and am barely making any quilts I thought I'd give you something to prove I'm not dead. 

I recently read All the Birds Singing. It is freaking amazing. It has it all, prostitution, arson, lippy teenagers, weird beasts, deprivation of liberty, beaches, sheep. I totally loved it. Although our lives have gone down very different paths I related to Jake. Perhaps it is just Evie Wyld's ability to portray the feeling of her character, but for some reason I identified closely with her. Maybe it's just because she like to drink bourbon too? Who knows.

Aaaanyway, do yourself a favour and go and read this book right now, it's not very long and won't take much of your time.

Ohio Woo hoo

So, my dad asked me to make a quilt for a friend of his who was having a baby. I didn't know if it was a boy or girl, and I was seriously crushing on Ohio stars. 

So here's a picture of him holding it.
I used Anna Maria Horner, Lizzy House, Denyse Schmidt and a few tohers from stash. I heqavily quilted it, because I'm awesome like that. Here's a pic that shows the sweet quilting.



As always, if you'd like something quilted flick me an email.

City Sampler

So, I love Tula Pink. Do you? I love Tula Pink so much I bought two of her new books. I gave one to Sally, so now we're Tulaing along together.

Sew Sweetness is even hosting a QAL. Cue Kermit flail. So here's a few of my blocks.

I'm terrible at cleaning the threads off my blocks. Who am I kidding? I'm terrible at cleaning everything.

My husband is naming the blocks. he has a gift for naming outfits. he's never serious, hence 'St.Pussy'. Credit points if you get the context.

Come sew with me.

Why the eff do I have to do this?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Derby is taking all my time.

Sorry I've been so absent, I've got roller derby up to my eyeballs. I'll be back when this shit storm is over.

Giving it away

The winner of my quilt give away was #25 Gill, she said

I love the grey and yellow combination! at the moment I'm loving anything with grey - especially red and orange!
Thank you for the chance to win your lovely quilt!

Sew Thinky Thursday

Have you seen the new link party over at Mommy's Nap Time? Every Thursday she's asking a new question with a linky party. This weeks is..

When did you start sewing? Tell us a bit about your sewing history. When did you realize you were really hooked? 

I started sewing in high school, my teacher was called Mrs Bartholemew and she loved all things Lady Di. We mainly made clothes although there is one little patchwork cushion that my mother still has. 

Mrs B was the worst champion of body issues, she always added four sizes to what we were, she insisted I was a size 20 when I was in yr 10, I'm still not a size 20 now, so there was many huge shirts to come out of that class. Once I sewed my finger and she took me to hospital.

Many years went by and I studied Garment manufacture at TAFE, this was mainly an excuse to live on the North Coast of NSW, I learned a lot 
about pattern drafting though, a skill which I never use,

More years later I won a quilt in a raffle, now it's grandmaish and dull and dowdy, but OMFG I love it, it's the perfect weight and I've made my husband promise to save it if there's a fire. I got all worried about this quilt wearing out so I decided it was time I learned how to make a quilt. I'd wander into my local quilt store and look at all the fabric and hope that Karyn (the owner) would take pity on me and give me a quilt, she never did. So, one day I saw Blush by Basic Grey and fucking had to have that fabric. I went home and cut and sewed and didn't take off the selvages and just had a ball. I made a top in a day. I had no idea how to quilt it and quilting magazines are less than useful in that area. Luckily I  discovered blogs. OH MY FUCK, how did I not know about this universe before? So with help from Leah Day and Rita Hodge I quilted my first quilt, it's not perfect, but it's still well loved.

And then I was hooked.

Stars in my eyes

Two down, 12 to go.

This is quite a picture heavy post, but I'm pretty bloody proud of this little quilt so suck it up.

Ages and ages ago I joined a Flickr bee called New Bee On The Block. It was heaps of fun and I chose wonky stars in yellow and grey.

I was totally easygoing on the size of the blocks I wanted back, cause I'm so nice and all.

Thus I had to do a bit of extra sewing to join them together, I used two greys, Kona ash and random grey from Spotlight. I really like the effect.

I quilted it on my long arm using Angela Walters as inspiration. One of the stars is shooting star. Extra points for spotting it.

Some of my winner bee mates used their own fabric like this adorable little dog. 

I bound it in a yellow because, seriously, what else was I going to do,

Now sit back and enjoy the pictures.

Oh, I'm giving this away tomorrow. Better comment here.

Let me know if you spot your block.

Selvedge Play

I've been sewing lots and lots of selvages together.

I love the way they all look together. I'm finding it difficult to get them to lay straight, but in standard Ellie dodginess I just lay the next one straighter to sort the whole thing out.

I'm attempting to make Amy Butler's Weekender. Attempting is the important word here folks. I foolishly decided that the strips would have to lay horizontally on the biggest pieces of the bag, queue needing massive bloody selvages, they're hard to find. I've completed one big panel and am just starting the second. I'm thinking of using this selvage print from spoonflower to make the piping. What do you think?

Wish me luck

(Pictures taken on phone because my internet is still up the shit. Think I might need to bite the bullet and get satellite. Sigh)

Growing-Giveaway Closed

Hi there. Today I'm participating in a sweet blogging event. I'm attempting to grow my blog, My veggie garden is kicking butt, so why not my blog? So... I'm Ellie-Mae, I live in country new South Wales, Australia and I like to quilt. I also like to cuss, so if that offends you it's time to find the next blog. I've got two little girls who pop up occasionally and the pug life has chosen me. My dogs feature a bit too.

I started blogging so I could share my adventures in knitting, that waned and now I have the quilting bug like you wouldn't believe, I even bought a gammil mid arm, I'd like to make that my full time job, but until then I'm an accountant (booooring). I spend my free time piecing and quilting, I have a fabric and thread addiction. I am also quite fond of bourbon. I have the dodgiest internet in the world, so that makes blogging a bit of a challenge, but I try hard.

So, let's get to the fun stuff, who wants a give away? I have a lovely little (sort of throw sized)yellow and grey quilt that has no home. I'm binding it this weekend at a quilting retreat (YAY!!) Here's a little look

And another at how she started.

So, if you'd like to win this quilt leave me a comment telling me your favourite colour combinations. You don't need to be a follower or have a blog, just make sure I have a way of contacting you. Give away closes 5pm feb 1st AEDST- NOW CLOSED

Feathers

I love them.

 They're classically beautiful and although not typically modern I use them lots and lots. 

My prefererred method in the bump bump, I think this makes a nice looking feather without the fabric distortion issues and it's more economical on thread. 

What's not to love?

Sweet bongo of the congo

I have some WIPS, so I'm joining a finish-A-Long. I need to photograph a few of these WIPS, but I'll get to it asap

1.Rainbow stripes for Anna - this is a quilt I finished but am jazzing up the quilting because I'm a rocking friend.

2.Secret Santa California Quilt - This just needs binding, seeing as christmas has come and go there's no real rush. Story of my life.

3.Yellow & Grey stars - just a top

4.Massive birthday Bertha - Top of epic proportions, my darling knit girls made this for me for my birthday.

5.Stacked coins - I absolutely love this quilt, I want to quilt it so beautifully it makes my heart ache.

6.Irish Chain - I started quilting this on my domestic machine, now I have the long arm I'm reluctant to go back to domestic, Need to give some thought on haw to load it on the long arm.

7.Rainbow - My dear friend Sally gave me this top to practise on.

8. Autumn - This quilt has sweet leaves as the pieced locks. I'm looking forward to making these leaves as realistic as possible with some quilting.

9.Martinique for my Grandmother - this was a mystery quilt at my LQS. I love love love Three Sisters and their muted palette  I decided to give this to my grandma. All the blocks need sashing and putting together. 

10.Rainbow Star-flowers - I think I'll make this a raffle for Matjana Pre-School, it's currently just blocks. I have to lay them out and see how many I have and how many more I need to make.

11.Scrappy trip along - This was an instagram sewalong. I made it for my eldest daughter, she chose the fabric. I think she could have been more exciting in her fabric choices. Just a top at this stage.

12.Swoon for Mama - The design brief was 'Faded French Grandmother' In comes three sisters again. I'm going slow on this one because I want my Mum to come and help me do it.

13.Floral Stained for me - barely started this one, haven't even completed one block yet. it can wait until I've completed a few of the monsters above.

14. Rainbow monster - just needs binding now. Woot woot

14. Take more photos. My internet has died. I have absolutely none when I'm at home,therefore I have to come into town and upload photos at a friends house. I aim to be good at that this year.

I think I need to quit my real job.

Christmas quilting

My girlfriends and I do a secret Santa swap every year. I can't say who this is for, but I've had fun doodling with my gammill.

Posting from my phone because my Internet is up the crap.

Just a little quilting

My internet has gone to the crap, I'm lucky to have an hour a day, this makes uploading photos quite difficult, so you're stuck with my instagram pics until then.

Just a little quilting

It reminds me of a lyre bird.

Stacked coins

It's was beautiful friend's birthday yesterday. A week ago I panicked and flailed around wondering what to get/make her. Now, I've made most of my knit girls a quilt, except for Ms A. Ms A is amazing, she cooks the most delicious everything, seriously I've never had a bad thing she's made, she can make salad fun, and her cheeecake, amazeballs. She knits like a demon, she knit both my girls jumpers out of five ply. FIVE PLY??? I know. I have heaps of pairs of gorgeous socks from her, she dyes the yarn as well. There is nothing, nothing this girl can not do and do well. So if anyone is deserving of a quilt it's her. As time was not on my side I decided a stacked coin quilt would be the way to go, quick, yet effective. So here's how it went...

Tuesday lunchtime: Run to every fabric store in town, buy a selection of purples and a few aquas for good measure. Realise there's SFA real purple in this town.  What are we going to sash it with? Ivory Bella Solids. Buy 3m of that.


Tuesday night: Cut strips of purple varying from 3.5 inches to 2 inches, start sewing these together.


Wednesday night: get the strips cross cut and then sewn into long stacks of coins, trim and border in the ivory. Admire how you're doing.


Thursday: Go sewing at Sally's. Put the top and bottom bits on and cut down one stack for the back. 


Friday: Buy another 3m of Ivory and piece the back. 


Saturday: Load quilt onto Gammill and quilt, thank flying spaghetti monster that you own a Gammil or you'd never get this done. Four hours later pull that bitch off the machine. 


Sunday: make binding and finish binding. Pour yourself a drink because you're a fkn genius and you can make a whole quilt in five days with a bit of help from your mother. 

The back and the binding, highlighting my shit hot nametage. Thank you mommie made it.

Linking up with TGIFF.

Adventures in Gammil land

So, I got a second hand Gammil a few weeks ago. I love this machine, love. I have had a few practise runs and quilted a few quilts on it. I love the hum it gets when it really starts purring. I love the speed. I love that I'm getting better at moving the machine around. I still suck the big one when it comes to pantographs, but they don't really interest me anyway.

I'm getting better at loading the quilt on, the first couple ended in much laughing and lots of shit touch.

The pins used to hold the quilt onto the rollers are evil. They are the hurtiest pins I've ever had the misfortune to stab myself with, they all sit in their container with their sharp points facing up, just waiting to shank me.

My "studio" (yes, I'm that fancy I call my quilt room a studio) is a giant pile of junk, there's a pool table that needs a home. Do you want to buy a pool table? All the spare mattresses and a heap of crap. I really need to get in there and sort it out so I'm not wriggling around crap every step. I have also spoken to Mr Handsome about installing me some lights. I can't see this happening in a hurry, one can dream.

Helpers helping with some horrid polyester batting. Notice all the junk in the background.

Here's a quilt I quilted for Aussie Hero Quilts. I just need to bury the ends and post it back for binding.