Crafty supplies out for the first time in months, swapping stethoscopes and drug calculations for a rotary cutter and some pearle 8.

I had feared that it had been so long that i had forgotten how to do it. Good for the soul this fabric gig,

 i have missed it!

This pretty? Well its off the live at The Retreat (lucky duck) with a few others things yet to be finished:)

I cant wait to hand deliver them and roadtest Miss Abbe's new baby.  Busting with pride i am she's such a clever tenacious driven chic i cant wait to be a very small colorful piece of the action.

And you can be too! Pop over here and enter the fantastic giveaway for the chance to win a free weekend for you and 9 friends!

Open weekend is this weekend coming so if you can drop in and have a look around please do, there might be some show and tell, some impromptu classes and who else knows what!

love fi xx

well hello there.....

Some exciting news to share, in what seems a whole nuther life ago i was asked to make a quilt for the beautifully lovely clever and crafty Kathreen Ricketson from WhipUp.

It went something like this.....

Kathreen: "Hello there would you like to make a quilt for my new book?"

Me: "Me? (yes i know it looks like i said that twice sorry) well yes i would thanks for asking".

What followed was about 6 weeks of solid stitching, tiny hand sewn needle turn applique... it darn nearly killed me!

Pop Wreath was born with a fair amount of swearing and tears, which when i discovered that it had been sent to some Amish ladies for quilting made me giggle.Im sure it was cleansed of its manic 'colorful' making.

I am so thrilled that i could be a small part of this fantastic new book, its lovely with loads of great quilts and how toos, you can order your copy here.

I would and not just cause im in it (but i would say that wouldn't i;)

Right back to sanity restoring stitches, no swearing this time i promise ;)

love fi xx

hello sunshine.....

.....and welcome Winter:)



In true Melbourne form the first day of Winter has been a glorious sunny affair. I'm not sure if it was the lovely weather, the fact i have just sent my final essay for the semester but it felt like the right time to grab the camera and snap the world around me.



A world that has completely changed in some many ways in the past 4 months and is other ways not at all.

I'm not sure where i fit anymore anywhere really, somethings like this space seem so far removed from my reality, my everyday crazy. maybe its time to tip the scales back and remember there was a life before essays and lectures and word counts.

A crafty, creative sunny place...yep hello sunshine I've missed you :)




love fi xx

coming up for air....

Well if it true that it takes a village to raise a child then it is also true that it takes that same village to raise a mature age Uni student. My small army of helpers are amazing:)

Oh my goodness i went in with my eyes wide open but golly what a ride!
A ride i am enjoying and kicking butt in incidentally, it seems my brain is still there after all;)
It seems though that there arnt enough hours in the day!


Speaking to some of my favorite women in the world today, trying to see where we fit or don't, why we sew or don't, expectations of where we should be or not be and why we arnt.

How we see ourselves and how we think others see us.
Shifting roles, new challenges all make you reasses what you thought you knew.


I wish that those riddles were as easy to understand as neuroendocrine physiology, that i get that's easy!

love fi xo

breaking the rules....

...i don't like rules and try to bend circumvent and limbo calypso style under them any chance i get.




Take the Single Girl Quilt Along, a fantastic quilt and the along dreamt up by some fab chics
{Katy you have inspired me to get inked up, thinking a jelly roll with a scalpel through it? what do you think? ;)

So i thought i would put my hand up, why not Ive got nothing else on.
When it came to the task of cutting out a gazillion templates a tip from a very clever lady came in handy.

Enter single sided adhesive laminate sheets.
No template plastic to wrestle with perfect crisp lines every time your scissors and your fingers will thank you:)




And fabric, background tossing up between red and white tiny spot, kelly green or black.

the arcs? scraps of the random grab and sew don't over think it variety.


The breaking the rules bit? cutting off the template seam allowance, i know I'm a rebel!

Tonight we trace...
love fi xoo

Memories...

Going back and digging up these photos i started to smile.
I had forgotten the feeling from an idea to the sketching the trial and error , the pain full deadlines and the tears.
I forgot how much i loved it.


There has been a bit of that lately the universe reminding me of what i love, giving me a shove.


When i was asked to create Pepper i was so excited and overwhelmed,

To be asked back a second time was just as amazing. They knew what they were getting into and they still wanted me!




This time though i had another idea, something that had been on my mind for a while.


So the 'Sprouting Up'Growth Chart Quilt was born, somewhere to record your memories an evolving changing quilt that grows with you and your family.


It seems like an age since i packaged it off to Homespun.





This quilt doesn't just have blood, sweat and tears in it it has my heart.... five of them:)



One day i will record the weights and dates of my grandchildren on this quilt :)


love fi xo

nesting...

::making... a quilt for a new tiny human:)


::loving... my new skirt made from vintage fabric from my grans stash


::wearing...said skirt (thanks to miss b for the sewing) with pristine op shopped sketchers

::inspired by... the amazing color nature creates (red dragon fruit)

::trying... to remain calm in the face of uncertain new adventures


::gathering....fabrics for my Single Girl Quilt, cant wait:)

happy friday, love fi xo

cheers big ears.....

....thanks for all the kind comments and emails, it nice to now that someone has stuck around while the blog has been on the back burner!

No lofty promises but i have been reminded why i started to do all this in the first place :)

The 'constant quilt' has kept me entertained while i indulge in what time i have left before everything changes again.

As i fixed with small considered stitches the circles into their new home i got itchy fingers.


Out came the rotary cutter and simple perfection was turned on its head metaphorically speaking.


hmmm i think there is a theme emerging here:)



love fi xo

.....i like the idea of a constant.


Something that is always there a theme, a solid, a given.
In our home there are various constants and just as many flibbergy up in the air winging it hold onto your hats moments as well.

SO i have started a quilt the constant being a 20x20cm square with a needle turn appliqued circle. The variable? the fabric no planning just grabbing and cutting using up the stash and going with it.



Things thou lately have been up in the air, out of sorts out of my hands.

It was around the time i made a decision about 6 months ago,to face some demons, challenge the past and shake things up.



I decided i wanted to go back to school.


Now a little back story from the age of um 14 i was diagnosed with M E.
Back then it was hard to get a diagnoses that didn't label you a drop out a crank or a bludger. Things were pretty shite there for a long while.
If not for a mum that never gave up was a bulldog when needed and an advocate for myself and my brothers{i think that's where i get it from!} I'm not sure what would have happened.

Missing so much school being despondently unwell and being a teen made for some unhappy educational experiences.I left school part way into year 12, took some time, entered the workforce and well then started my family.

I figured that was it i would never go to uni that was my lot and it suited me.
But i regretted leaving, giving up.



Jackson asked me earlier this year "if he could be xyz" when he grew up.
I told him that he lives in a time and a country that if he works hard he can be whatever he likes, anything. In that moment it all became clear.

I can be whatever i like.

So began a journey that has been emotional, full on, challenging and blinking hard work with no guarantee that it would pay off.

To all those around me thanks for putting up with me, we did it!

I'm going to be a nurse when i grow up:)

love fi xo

well hello.....

still alive, just......

love fi xo