Two New Hexies - Numbers 20 and 21

Hexie number 20 is the Thanksgiving one with an old Thanksgiving postcard as the centrepiece. I enjoyed working on this one because of the colours - in Australia and England, we would call this my "Harvest Festival" hexie.

Hexie number 21 is a pretty, feminine Summery one which was also fun to do and very relaxing. At last I found a home for that huge sequined and beaded butterfly which seems to shimmer in gold and mauve.

Juliet's Lolly-pink Fairy Dress

Two down, one to go........this is the pink fairy dress that I've just finished for my granddaughter Juliet. I hope she didn't mean pastel baby pink because I went for the brightest pink that I could find. The wings are multi-coloured but contain the same bright pink and her tiara and wand are silver with pink plastic "jewels".  She is a 4 1/2 year old blond bombshell - she'll love it.

I took photos of the dress in two different lights because I was trying to catch the sparkle of those spots on the tule skirt which didn't happen. The dress has four skirts - a soft white tule skirt so the stiff net skirts don't scratch her legs, two stiff pink net skirts and a hot pink with sparkles skirt over the top.

Emilia's Christmas Fairy Dress

This is the first of three fairy/princess dresses that I am making for Christmas presents.  This one is for my great-niece, Emilia who is nearly five.  The velvet bodice is a pretty royal blue, not the dark Navy blue that the photo shows.  Also there is a gold swirling pattern all over the velvet in tiny gold dots.  With this dress will go blue wings, silver tiara with blue "jewels" and a silver wand with a blue butterfly on the top.
Next will be a similar dress for my granddaughter Juliet only in pink.  Juliet told me that she wanted yellow so I bought yellow tule, sparkly fabric and lace and then she told me "but I like PINK!"  Pink? You told me yellow!  "No I didn't, 'cos I like pink!!" Juliet is 4 1/2 so she will get pink.  The yellow can be put away for next Christmas for my nephew's twin daughters who will be two. Finally, another granddaughter Alyssa will be six in January - she considers herself a big girl now so she would rather have a floor-length Princess dress.

Australian Block for CQI retreat

I have finally finished the block which represents Australia using the colours of the national flag plus the green and yellow/gold which are our sporting colours.  The block will now go to USA where it will be stitched together with blocks representing the flags of every country that members of the Crazy Quilting International group belong. I think I've covered most things Oz - Kangaroo, Platypus, map of Australia, Gum blossoms, Wattle, Grass trees, the Sydney Opera House, Koalas, the flag, a lizard within an aboriginal pattern and Gum leaves. Ooh, I almost forgot - and the famous star formation of The Southern Cross in sequin stars. I found that blue material with the rather subdued pale blue stars and thought that the Southern Cross would really stand out on that background. Hope it does the trick.

This is the block within the lines of stitching marking the seam lines.

Grrrr! I've just noticed that in the photo, there is a tiny piece of white cotton which has strayed onto the blue velvet patch on the left hand side and a little smidgin of yellow thread on the red patch below it and there is nothing I can do about it now because the block is all packed up in the post bag ready to post to Cathy Kizerian on Monday....... Cathy, if those cotton threads are still there, remove them for me please  xxx

Victorian Pink Jewellery Box

Last week I was at an Antiques and Collectables Fair where I met a lovely lady named Janet. I showed her a crazy quilted top I was sewing for a wooden trinket box. I was using sepia colours but Janet said she would buy the box if I could sew the top in "Victorian Pinks" because her bedroom - her whole house - is very "oldy-worldy". Today I delivered the box to her and she was really happy with it, especially as I had used some vintage tatting and some tiny antique pearl beads. Here is the box with the crazy quilted insert on top.

Hexie circle finished..........three more to go

Here is the first circle of nineteen circles completed and laid out on the bed on which the finished quilt will go.  I will definitely need four circles plus extra hexies to fill in the gaps to make the quilt rectangle shaped.

Hexagon 19 Bluebirds

Here is the final hexie in the first group of nineteen.  I wasn't sure how this one would turn out after the vibrant Peacock but in the end I am happy with the end result.  Now I can join all of these hexies together to form the first circle.