Dear Jane Wallhanging Giveaway

I am not a prolific poster. I have been blogging for over 2 years and have still not reached my 200th post, that may take till the fall, sooooo...since I have enjoyed 2 years of wonderful new friendships and support without once hosting a giveaway, I'm going to do a biggish one.



I would like to give away a hand pieced and hand quilted Dear Jane wallhanging. I just finished it!! I machined the binding on this one, but everything else is hand done. It has the 6 inch blocks I did when I first started my Dear Jane. I realized the quilt would be too huge at that size, so stopped after 9 blocks. Some are slightly wonky, as I hadn't done some of them with my excellent freezer paper method yet!! But the wonkiness gives the quilt has character right??


If you would like to give this quilt a good home, please leave a comment here. I will put your name in a draw that I will do next Thursday, July 3rd from Portland, Oregon after we've arrived. Can't believe we'll be in the States in a week...woh...time flies.

Thank you for everyone who comes by and visits. I've made so many amazing friendships through blogging and quilting and am grateful for every one of you!

Done Done!

Sorry I disappeared off the face of the earth for a few weeks, but I am back!!

I have finished 5 quilts to label stage now!! Let's Celebrate!!!


First one: My Dear Jane!!! Here is a graphic of the label I sewed on...

Please excuse the weird color, will have to figure out how to fix it...

I also put the label on my machine quilted ALQS quilt. It will be heading....somewhere this week!


The other finishes were the 3 baby quilts, ready to give away now... won't show more photos of the same thing :)

I also have other reasons to celebrate: the generosity of quilty bloggers and friends. I have a story to tell soon of some lovely Australian designers who all helped me to get some quilting souvenirs for my husband to bring home from his trip (halfway through...he is home on Friday!!) But I also won an AMAZING package from Dawn Hay. I can't believe how HUGE this prize was. Thank you so much Dawn!! So many lovely things, I love it all!!!


 My wonderful blogging buddy Barbara in Sweden sent over this goodie package. We are encouraging each other to lose kilos and sending sock yarn for each kilo... so far I 've lost 2, so some sock yarn came my way, and the bag handles for a bag Barbara is helping me make!


I have been crazy busy with kids: birthday parties, goodbye parties, sports day, school play, playdates... if you are interested in seeing some photos or movies, check out my Flickr or YouTube!!  This week has more insane schedules, end of school, more playdates, some mommy quilting and knitting playdates, and packing for the States! Tomorrow I head into town to get those few "surprise" kids magazines and sweets I can pull out during our travels.  Guess I can slow down sometime after the Sisters Quilt Show!!

Things are starting to get hectic here!

How does time fly by so quickly? I have only a few weeks here till I leave for Oregon. My two good American friends are moving back to the States permanently the week before I leave, so we are cramming in many kids and mom's goodbye events (dominos night here on Wednesday: kids off school on Thursday for Lisbon Treaty referendum vote in Ireland, school is the polling station), school trips, sports days, Aisling is having her 4th birthday party Saturday, Dave leaves for Australia for 10 days on Sunday!! I am amazed I am getting any crafting done, but it is my stress reliever. I actually decided to stay home and quilt last night instead of running to catch up with some friends already on their way to see Sex and the City at the movies!! Dave had attended the Irish drinks party/reception for his brother's wedding, no kids allowed and I wasn't feeling good Friday, so opted to stay home with kids rather than worry about babysitters up in Dublin for a few hours of partying while I was still feeling fluish... He came home and my friends were already on their way to the movie, I just couldn't gather enough momentum to rush off to join them...wimp, I know!!

Luckily I am feeling better today, just in time to print out Barbie invitations, run out to toy shops for party bags and goodies, cards and presents, etc etc etc...if I can find the time!!

I have made some good progress on the three baby quilts that have been waiting on a free motion foot. I just winged a flowery vine motif on the muslin sections of the quilt. What do you think? I have two more pretty similar now to complete.



I have finished the hanging sleeves on the Dear Jane now, so just the label to finalize and print out...that will be quick, so the big stress for the Dear Jane is gone now!!! It will be ready for the Sisters Show.

Not much knitting going on, just working on more ballerina slippers this time for Aine, not very exciting to show, as look like Aisling's only slightly bigger.

I need to finish up my ALQS quilt, which is no longer going to be hand quilted, no time to do it! And my DJ wallhanging giveaway quilt, which is nearly done hand quilting... that should keep me plenty busy till we leave!

Mom is not doing well at the moment, the "easier" chemo treatments that we suppose to have less side effects, have a very bad effect on her, very bad nerve pain.  She has also become anemic, so any thoughts or prayers to keep her going and to get her through this chemo would be great. Hopefully the docs will have some better pain meds ready for her next treatment tomorrow. If you want to and you have a chance, say hello to her at her blog, Cancer Warrior. To everyone who has sent her a card and gave her your support, thank you so much, it means a lot to her and to me.

Let me leave you with a lovely view from the home of Hollie, of the quilt. If you take the road we live on and follow it up the "mountain/hill" we live on the bottom of, you see lovely views like this!

Busy Week!

We had Kate and family here for the week, so of course I neglected blogging while Kate seemed to manage a post daily!! I may have a few thousand photos of course as they've built up over the week or two I've neglected my blog.

While they were here we did a bit of this:


Drank a little bit of this:

(Bailey's in chocolate cups!!)

And of course did a little shopping:


And crafting:


I made the little brown drawstring bags from funky napkins I thrifted years ago in Maryland. I have one for my knitting and a friend admired one, so I made one for her and Kate admired one and not so subtley hinted she might like one...they are handy for throwing my current knitting project in with all its bits and pieces (patterns, yarns, needles, etc). Now Kate can have one for her newest knitting project!

I am very excited because I finally went out and bought a free motion foot that works on my machine, after a 6 month break, I am back to quilting machine quilts. I only hope to be as good as Katy is one day! Look at the beautiful quilt she made me to try out my free motion foot! I finished up that Christmas tree skirt I started in November when my foot stopped working, and now will work to get the 3 baby quilts I have waiting, just have to finish the stitchery of the names on them.



Kate helped me pin down the hanging sleeves for the Dear Jane, so I will be sitting in front of the TV for the month of June with many hand sewing projects: label and sleeves for big DJ, quilt the border of the small DJ hanging, finish the stitcheries on the baby quilts and attempt to get the tree of life block quilt hand quilted?? Might have to end up machine stitching that last one!

The kids have absolutely loved having their friends over this week, and the adults had some great nights playing cards and hanging out. Thanks Kate and co. for a great visit!!

Dear Jane Revisited...and Some More...

I went outside today with DH and kids to photograph the Dear Jane. Here is the photo we got...not perfect, but Aine is quite under the weather and we couldn't go far afield. A trip to the doc for a bad sore throat (strep?) is on the cards for tomorrow.


Here is a behind the scenes photo showing you that it was our 5 year old daugther who took the photos for us, bless her litte sore throated self! She was excited to do it though, so we went for it.


Have a look at the girls 2 years ago, when I was starting to construct the top, my how time flies!


I finished 2 tree quilts, one for myself and one for my swap partner in the ALQS. If you are reading swap partner, which one do you prefer. I actually like them both, but neither is perfect. I hope to have time to hand quilt the swap quilt before I leave and mine over the summer.


I have neglected to get a photo of my little ballerina shoe knitting which is currently languishing as I work on my DJ wallhanging I still plan on giving away (and hope to time it with my 200th post...yes it has taken this mostly once a week poster 3 years nearly to get to 200!!).

I have to tell you about a visitor we had on Thursday. She found me while surfing for quilters in Ireland and quilt shops in Ireland (almost none to speak of!). She saw the blog and emailed me, and we arranged to meet in Limerick during her bus trip around Ireland. Kay is from Brisbane Australia and came bearing goodies, and a large stuffed dog, Digger, that Aine fell in love with. She had to take Digger around for the day and take photos of him, it has something to do with beer money for the party the last night? Here are some photos of Kay (blogless) and Aine and of Digger with a Killaloe backdrop.


I think she had fun seeing a bit of our countryside and visiting some of my friends and seeing some of my quilts.  My patchwork group leader is the sister of a well-known rugby player/commentator, Keith Wood, and her tour leader is a rugby commentator in Australia, so we stopped in my favorite cafe where the big brother of Mr. Wood is the owner/chef. We hope it duly impressed her tour leader, lol.

She brought me this wonderful stack of magazines and Lynette Anderson's Saltbox Sampler pattern and some yummy scrummy fabrics!! Thank you so much Kay, I hope you enjoyed the visit, Aine had a great time with you!


Katy and family will be visiting next Friday for the week. We are all looking forward to the visit. Katy promises to teach me how to make quilted postcards (plan to make some for the Sisters Quilt Show fundraiser for my mom's cancer unit in Bend!!) and I will teach her to knit!!

Mom is doing okay, they didn't stop her treatments, so the doctors aren't too worried about the shingles for the moment. She is hanging in there!

Thanks again everyone who visits, all the comments and friendships really make my day.

Happy Mother's Day!

You are strong and beautiful and loved! Look at all that support behind you. Remember, bald is beautiful!!

Mom has found out she has shingles on top of the chemo this week, but her spirits still seem strong, please keep her in your prayers and thoughts!

We don't celebrate Mother's Day here in May, in the UK and Ireland it is tied in with Lent and celebrated in March, so no breakfast in bed for me, lol.

I have been feeling the need to get healthier as I watch my mom going through her battle. I have been overweight again for nearly 3 years now and as I am getting older I can feel it in my joints more than I used to. I will be starting my weight battle today again, despite a First Communion party we are attending this afternoon, wish me luck :) On this Mother's Day, I plan on making some changes for this particular momma right here!

Thank you so much everyone for the amazing amount of comments on my Dear Jane. I haven't responded to any yet, but plan to respond to all...took a few days off, lol, though of course I couldn't help but keep crafting from time to time!

The secret socks are done and I have started on some felted ballet slippers for the girls...as I am knitting them now, they look like they'd fit me, but they shrink amazingly into that lovely felted fabric! Will have  a photo to show next time.

I've also been working on a few projects for local friends kids, lots of tshirts and onesies. I may sell these at the local Sunday market in the fall...if I get myself organized enough :)


I have started on a wall hanging for Katy's Another Little Quilt Swap. I am actually making two of these at the same time. I have always wanted to do a tree block wallhanging. I hope my swap partner will like it! I am thinking of adding a brown border, it is already 20 inches so only a small border, or should I just add a binding, and forget the border? I plan to hand quilt it. (I will press it out a bit better and get it squared I promise!!)


Many have asked what I am going to do next? Nothing so big for a while, lol. Katy and I still have our Dear Jane swap going on, so I'll still be hand piecing some DJ blocks, I'll probably continue to do a lot of hand quilting as I've discovered I love it! But...since we will be spending a lot of time in the States this summer... I don't plan on starting any major projects...right now. I hope to finish my scrappy ocean waves blocks over the summer on a borrowed machine, and to continue knitting. I will work on my cross stitch sampler...lots of little things!

Now, if you made it this far, here is a gratuitous cute picture. Aine's class did an Irish dancing display on Friday, here she is with her partner in the "old time waltz" display, too cute :)

Finished

More later, I fell asleep before I could post it last night, lol! Time to get the girls to school!