MMEEP! MMEEP!

Hello to you all out there in blogland! I hope you're enjoying your weekend. Mine seems to have zipped by in a bit of a blur and I'm not sure that I achieved many of the things on my "To Do" list ... SIGH! However, the weather has been lovely and warm again, so I have had a bit of energy for some gardening and sewing ... though I suspect the nasty cold winter weather will be back again in the next few days ... SIGH!! There's a bit of sighing going on here, isn't there?! :0)

So ... to my post title ... MMEEP! MMEEP! Nope ... not the Road runner ... another block finished for my design-in-progress. :0) I'm having a lot of fun with the bright batiks and black backgrounds ... wanna see a sneaky peeky?? :0)

 It's an electric blue Vespa. :0) Now I'm dreaming of tooling around the streets of some pretty Italian fishing village, looking for a cosy ristorante that looks out over the sapphire blue Mediterranean to sit back and take in the view whilst munching something tasty. Yes ... my overactive imagination DOES get me into all sorts of trouble. :0) But ... don't you now want to come with me?! Tee! Hee! Hee! 

There's one more block to design and applique for this new quilt and I know what I want to do ... it's just a bit tricky to get it right. That will be this week's task. :0)

And speaking of tasks, sewing and finishes ... OPAMers ... it's the end of another month. Have you remembered to update your sidebar list of finishes? Have you dropped me or Sweet Peg a quick email with your tally for July? Well ... hop to it! :0) Don't forget ... if you email your finishes through to me, please check that you've got the address right ... A few emails have gone astray since my Beloved Geek Boy made some changes to the server my emails are routed through ... just double-check that you're sending to: kris@tagalongteddies.com.au .

Right ... I'm off to have a relaxing cup of peppermint tea before I head to bed. Have a fantastic week, everyone! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

Beatling Along ... Still!!

Hellooooooooo! To all of you lovelies out there in blogland! I seem to stay away for longer than I intend to, but somehow the days keep leaking into each other and before I know it, I've lost track of a few and I find a week or more has passed - Oops! :0)

While it's hard for me to remember, as I sit huddled under my blankie, waiting for the fire to get going so it warms things up a bit, we had some lovely 'spring' weather last week. And since my Beloved Geek Boy and I are both hot weather chickens, there was a flurry of activity around the house and garden as the warmer weather recharged our energy batteries, which meant no blogging ... and I've been rather slack in answering emails, too. SORRY!! I shall try to do better, I promise. :0)

However ... amidst out-of-season spring cleaning, gardening and enjoying only having one layer of clothing instead of three ... I DID manage a finish last week. My Quilting Fairy, the Fabulous Fiona finished weaving her quiting magic on my "Beatle Boogie" quilt and it is FANTASTIC!! I just love that I can hand over a pretty, but 'flat' quilt top to Fiona and tell her to do whatever the quilt calls her to do ... and I'm handed back a living quilt full of movement and texture. Thanks Fiona!! :0)

Now, I haven't managed to get a good overall photo of the beatles yet, but I took a couple of close-up shots to share with you ...

Don't you love Fiona's echo quilting?!!! :0)

Not only does it remind me of the very early 60's/70's music video clips that relied on slightly psychedelic special effects, it gives the beatles movement and looks like their beatling or boogying along the road on their way to the beach or a really groovy party, dude! Tee! Hee! Hee!

I promise that as soon as we get a nice sunny day without gale force winds, I'll take a pic of the whole, finished quilt. Now of course comes my FAVOURITE part of the design process ... NOT!!! Yep, I need to write the instructions ... GROAN!! Still ... it's nice to have something to add to my finishes list for July.

And speaking of July finishes ... OPAMers!! Are you ready to update your sidebar lists and email your tallies through to me or my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg? Don't forget!! And while you're chatting to Sweet Peg ... be sure to congratulate her on the safe arrival of grandie number two ...Wren Olivia. Congratulations Moo Moo! :0)

And now I'm off to stoke up that fire and get it to roaring-bush-fire-heat level so I can thaw out my fingers and toesies ... none of which seem to have been truly warm today ... SIGH!! I am SOOOOOO counting down to spring!! :0) Hope you're all having a fabulous start to your week and managing to schedule in some "YOU" time to be creative. Keep BEATLING and BOOGYING along my funky friends! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

BEEP! BEEP!!

Nope ... it's not the Road Runner coming to call ... just a slightly crazed and dazed designer who's wondering where the weekend has disappeared to ... AGAIN! SIGH! Just when I was getting into a bit of a groove with my new design-in-progress, I've run out of weekend and I'll have to get up early in the morning to be a grown up and go to work ... SIGH!!!

But ... at least I have a little progress that I can share a sneaky peeky of ... ready?! :0)

BEEP! BEEP! It's a rainbow beetle! :0) This is the second block of my rainbow quilt ... which is kind of growing like topsy. :0) I'm starting to get a bit of an idea of the direction I'm heading with it ... and I'm a bit excited by it! :0) Stay tuned!!

Not much other stitching happened this week ... I was too busy socialising. :0) Unfortunately ... I didn't get any photos - OOPS! Chookyblue  was in Toowoomba for a quick fact finding mission and the Fabulous Fiona and I were able to catch up with her for lunch ... and a quick visit to The Quilters Angel! :0) And then a bit of time relaxing, chatting and stitching together. It's always so much fun to catch up with blogging buddies in real life. :0)

That's about it from me. I hope you've all had a lovely, relaxing weekend and that your week is full of rainbows! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Sewing, Sneaky Peekies & OPAM Draw!

Hello everyone! How are you this Sunday evening? I'm sitting on the couch with my Sweetie trying to come to terms with the fact that another weekend is almost over ... SIGH!! It's been a bit of a jam-packed few days so maybe I actually need to go back to work tomorrow for a little rest! Tee! Hee! Hee!

My weekend started off with  ... Surprise, surprise!! ... some SEWING! :0) Our Friday night Sit N Sew gals enjoyed one of three mini-retreats that we have each year, organised by the indefatigable Miss Marion. It's always a weekend of good fun, good company, good food and we usually manage to do a bit of sewing too. :0)

I didn't have any "Ta Da!" moments of finishing any projects, but I DID get some hand stitching done. In fact, I finished the hand stitching part of a new design ... I'll give you a little sneaky-peeky ...

It's a little something that I'm hoping to have ready to release as a pattern in time for this year's Stitchers' Dream Day Out, which has an "Ooh! La! La! Paris" theme. So, a little French stitchery in some softly French pastel thread. You'll have to wait a bit longer to see the rest of it. :0)

Then I moved onto stitching for a new sample for an old favourite ... my Girl Stuff Bag pattern. The original looked like this ...

This was the project at the original Girls' Stitch In weekend held by the Marvellous Marion and Stupendous Steph of the Quilters Angel. It's always been quite popular ... the larger bag is a great size tote bag ... perfect for a stitching day out! :0) And the smaller bag was designed to hold your favourite coffee mug to enjoy cuppas with friends, but would also keep your threads, needles and smaller sewing bits safe. I decided to stitch the new sample in a pretty Cottage Garden thread for a different look ...

This is such a pretty colour combination ... I'm looking forward to making it up into a new bag.

So ... a bit of stitching happened in amongst the chatting and giggling. :0) A big thank you to our Hostess with the Mostest, Miss Marion!! 

And speaking of sewing projects ... well done to all you clever clogs OPAM gals! Once again, my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg and I were blown away by the fabulous projects being worked on and finished by you all. There were 159 finishes for June! WOO! HOO!! Well done, gals! :0) And well done to all of you, too, who were working on longer-term projects. If you made some good progress, that's a positive for the month. :0)

Now to the prize draw ... the winner for June is ...

MARILYN!!

Congrats, Marilyn! Drop me a email with your snail mail address and I'll pop a little something in the mail for you. 

There is one finish that I can share with you ... it's just not MY finish. :0) Our clever Quilting Fairy, the Fabulous Fiona, sent me a photo of a quilt that she had just quilted for the lovely Gwenda ... made from my "French Amour" pattern that she bought at the Quilter's Angel. Gwenda generously consented to me sharing a photo of her quilt with you ...

Isn't it GORGEOUS!! Fabulous French General fabrics and the magic of Miss Fiona's quilting. I bet Gwenda was pleased with the result! :0) I LOVE seeing how people make up my patterns and interpret them to create their very own special quilt/bag/bear. It gives me warm fuzzies. :0) Thanks Gwenda for letting me share!

I hope you're all enjoying some time in your creative caves ... even if it's just time spent being inspired by fave craft mags, Pinterest or gorgeous books ...

Like "Happy Quilts" by my talented blogging buddy Toni Alexander. :0) Yes ... shameless friend plug there! Tee! Hee! Hee! And a bog-hop through the list of OPAM participants on my sidebar list is also sure to inspire you. :0)

Right ... it's time for me to think about hitting the shower and then the pillow ... since they're expecting me to be a grown up again tomorrow ... SIGH! Hope you've all had a lovely weekend and that your week is full of rainbows ... just like the one I bought at my Home-Away-From-Home yesterday. :0)

Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Winter Antidote ...!

I know ... two posts in one day! Don't fall over in shock, Chookyblue! :0)

I thought I'd pop back in quickly to tell you that I've found an antidote to our yucky freezing, blustery day (feels-like temp still only about 4 degrees and winds of 35-40km/h!!) ... besides hibernating like a bear in the back room here in front of the fire ... though that is a vital element, too! :0)

... A nice big bowl of Mum's home made pea and ham soup and a fresh-from-the-bread-maker loaf of olive sourdough bread. YUMMO!! :0)

Oh ... and frequent kettle-stops for cuppas ... in fact ... I think I hear the kettle playing 'our song' now. :0) Til next time ...

MMMMMMMMMMM!! BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

When The Wind Blows ...!!

... the cradle will rock ... good thing there aren't any cradles here on top of our 'hill' today or they wouldn't be rocking, they'd be blown away!! It is a VERY nasty day here ... even the weather ap on my phone agrees ...

Do you see that "Feels Like temperature????! And those horrible gusty, gale force westerly winds - EEK! Is it any wonder I'm tucked up in the lounge room under my blankie in front of the fire, vowing not to come out again until spring?! SIGH!! Roll on spring, I say!!

So tucked up in our toasty living room, I'm contemplating doing some more on a little project I've started playing with ...

... A Combi at night time! Tee! Hee! Hee! I thought I'd play with one of my Combi's on a black background instead of the original white ...

I just love how the bright batiks pop against white or black. The pattern for "Combi Conga Quilt" is available from my Home-Away-From-Home, the Quilters Angel if you'd like to make your very own version. So what to do with my night time Combi ... why, add some more colour, of course! :0)

And you know how I said I wanted to do a LARGER version of the Beetle Boogie rainbows? Well ... I did some SMALLER ones for this. I LOVE how this block looks!! So much so that ... instead of making it into a wall hanging as I originally intended ... I'm now toying with the idea of another quilt! Am I crazy? Possibly!! :0) What do you think ... wall hanging or quilt? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. I love to get people's feedback on my patterns and designs, whether that be hearing what they think about my colour/design choices or how easy/hard/clear/confusing they found my instructions. I'm constantly trying to improve my designing and instruction writing (BLECH!!) so feedback helps.

And I love seeing how people make their own versions of my patterns. Last weekend my Beloved Geek Boy and I were fortunate enough to catch up with some friends from a former life ... our time in Bourke, far-west NSW. Two generations of the family have moved to our area and though we'd chatted on Facebook, this was our first catch up - what FUN!! :0) And even better was seeing how the lovely Becky (who was one of our Church youth group kids when we were in Bourke) had interpreted my "Life's Good Bag". Here's the original ...

I designed this pretty and practical tote bag as one of the "Girls Stitch In" projects for Marion and Steph at the Quilters Angel. (where you can get your copy of this pattern!!) And Becky's version ...

Isn't it pretty!! I love that she's used pretty, favourite fabrics from her stash and replaced a couple of the embroidery elements with buttons and charms. Becky said she made it as a nappy bag when her kids were smaller, but now that she doesn't need to fill it with nappies, it's a handy size to take with her when she stitches with a friend. :0) And we had a lovely time catching up with Becky, her hubby and kids and her parents.

So ... there you go ... that's what's been happening here on our wind-blown 'hill'. I think it's time I went to investigate some lunch and a hot cuppa to ward off the nasty cold weather ... any excuse for another cuppa! Tee! Hee! Hee! If you're in the cold parts of Australia, rug up and stay warm ... if you're in the warmer parts of our globe ... I'm trying hard not to be too jealous!! I'll be back in the next day or so with the OPAM draw, so if you've been a slacko and haven't yet emailed Sweet Peg or me ... do it NOW!! :0) Til next time ...

BRRRRRRRRR! BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

PS. Diana from Toowoomba ... you left a lovely comment on my last post, but you showed up as a "No Reply" blogger, so I couldn't email you back to say g'day ... and commiserate about our freezing weather! :0) Drop me a quick email if you'd like to chat. BH! KRIS xx