New BOM from Carol Doak

Carol Doak has a new BOM!

You will need to join her yahoo group to access the files, but it looks great.

Here is one of the blocks from her previous Block Of the Months which I made in African Amafu fabrics...



I am not sure if I will have time to make the new BOM, but it looks really nice! And if you like Carol Doak's blocks (like I do) you will love it I'm sure!

Ok, here's the horse

As in, here is my July block for Carol Doak’s Yahoo group...


Another fun block using Amafu fabrics.


On another note... WISH ME LUCK for Saturday. I have crazily decided to enter a pie into the Annual Village show...



This won't just be any pie, I will be campaigning for Gluten-free awareness LOL. Actually, I'm petrified and it will probably flop under pressure. Yesterday when I picked up my entry sticker, I asked if it was ok if at the last minute (due to a flop etc) I didn't enter. The organiser said, 'Let's put it this way... even if it's a flop you'll probably still get a place as there are only 3 entries'. No pressure then! Except I heard a story once about a lady who entered a Victoria Sponge cake in a Village Fair and although she was the ONLY entrant, she came second!! Just my luck!!!

My family are complaining that I'm starving them of kids pics, so avert your eyes, if you're allergic to little ones...

Haircut...

Note the tear :-)

Sticking my cart before the horse!

This is the Carol Doak August Block of the Month. Carol posted it early as she will be away travelling. I know, I know, I haven't done July yet, but this is a challenging block with many setting possibilities that I may even make another one (after I make my July block of course!)

I may need to visit the dentist very soon, I am actually embarrassed to say, but I chipped my front tooth making a pincushion LOL.

I couldn't get the needle through! I am so stupid and now I have a rough edge on my tooth :-(
Oh well, you live and learn, you live and learn!

I'm a cover girl!

I didn't win the fabric as I was the 4th to post my photo, but I'm the new cover girl on Carol Doak’s Yahoo! group!!



It was such a wonderful surprise this morning after being up all night with DS1 who was in agony with earache. (Thank goodness for doctors who are available for advice at 4.30 am!) - In the photo DS2 is looking to see what all the fuss is about.

I am delighted with such an honour! Carol said she loved the colors and that it was a great block. Well the great block is her design and the colours are those wonderful Amafu fabrics again so the only thing this workwoman can blame for not winning is that she is on daily digest and got the challenge message when the digest came out LOL.


DH was great when I was sewing with those FQ's dangling just within reach. I had said "just imagine I'm in London like I'm supposed to be" and he did although he did say "you don't need anymore fabric". No-one 'needs' more fabric, they just really want it LOL.

What I won't do for fabric!

Carol Doak's Block of the Month's come with some fantastic motivation! June's block had the offer of 60 FQ's for the first picture posted. Well after my dreadful day I was definitely incentivised!

I sewed like a woman possessed, my hands were shaking, my heart pounding. Just at the end my bobbin ran out! Oh no, new bobbin in, press flat, take photo...



A great block to make, one of my favourites so far, but is it a winner?

Orange Crush or (Red) Berry Pie

I have chosen red as my 'orange' for the Orange Crush mystery as I'm not really an orange kind of girl and even my pie is red LOL.


This is another version of the fantastic pie recipe in Healthy Gluten-Free Eating. I can't recommend this book enough if you are gluten-free, but still want to be able to eat cakes, pies, biscuits etc.


Here's another shot of the view from my window. If I'm sitting at my table I will be able to see the kids getting up to all sorts in the garden (I hope).



The last few days I have been so full of cold that I spent an entire day in my pyjamas wishing that instead I was spending an entire day in bed! But, that was sadly not to be and so now I'm still full of cold, but soldiering on... I managed bits here and there before coming down with my cold and then had a whole day without a single stitch!! But finally last night I finished Carol Doak's May Block of the Month.

I wanted to try and use less black so used lots of Amafu fabrics again although I probably could have used a few more colours.


Here a gratuitous shot of DS2 in the bath last night.

He makes me 'tea' in the bath, it's very sweet. Talking of sweet, I bought some plants at the street market (don't ask me what they were, I have NO idea!) and because I'm clueless about plants I was asking the lady for advice. I bought two bushes and she said that they were quite established, but if they got too big I should just cut them back. That night in bed DS1 and I were talking about the street market and he said that he heard the lady say that if the plants got to big I could just take them back LOL

Carol Doak 3500 Member Block

At last, a chance to paper-piece the Carol Doak 3500 Member block


In 'real-life'the lime is very bright against the black. I used my South African Amafu fabrics again and I really do like them a lot so I'm sure there'll be other blocks with them shortly.


This Bank Holiday Monday our local village held it's annual Cuckoo Festival. As a 'Mum' I had a shift on the school's cakestall...


And my sewing skills were stretched to making a wooden cuckoo an apron out of an old dishtowel (in about 3 minutes LOL)



I am slowly moving into the new room. Not quite sure where to put it all!!!!!


But the view is nice :-)

A bad work(wo)man always blames her tools!

Here's April's Block of the Month (BOM) designed by Carol Doak. I am a member of Carol's online Yahoo! group and just love her patterns.


And here's what the block looked like when I thought I'd finished it.

Can you spot the mistake? I left out 2 black bits in one of the quarters! (see bottom right quarter) Not sure how I did that!

I've learned that it is possible to 'fix' a paper-pieced block when you've torn most of the papers off the back because you've sewn the 4 sections together, but it is pretty darn fiddly!

I guess my workspace doesn't aid concentration, but then a clear desk is the sign of a disturbed mind I've heard :O)

BOM's will be back when I am

I have sadly fallen behind on my BOM's. (My blogging too, but I have such iregular internet usage that I'm actually just pleased I can blog at all).

This is the March Carol Doak Block of the month.



I still have November through to February to do!! But on my return I hope to make them in the same colour scheme and then put them together as a table runner for our home. I just love this fabric and I found out that it's made by a lady called Glenda Kirkiridis and her company is called Amafu. Glenda tells me that she has just sent some more of her gorgeous fabric to the Hilltop Quiltshop in Swellendam! Oh no!, this means I shall be tempted to make a detour on our long drive to Cape Town!!! I shall have to see how the kids handle the trip before committing to a visit...

When we get home (less than 2 weeks now!) I will also have to catch up on my Quilterscornerclub NYB BOM's!!

For the family in the UK who suffer through the sewing bits here are some gratuitous kiddy pics on a sewing/knitting related theme...

DS1 getting in the BOM picture...


DS2 asleep while photos being taken. Blanket made by Granny. There is another blanket (one each) which looks a lot more patchworky.



And on another note: DS1 and Mummy with her new haircut.



** - newsflash - ** A new haircut and now I need new specs too!! I went to see an optometrist today. I have to ease up on the contacts. My specs are so bad he was surprised I see anything. I had to admit I don't see much, but hey, I'm shortsighted, I don't expect to see much LOL. He asked if I knew why I was shortsighted. It reminded me of Little Red Riding Hood: 'Why, what big eyes you've got' he said. Turns out because my eyes are more open than 'normal' it means I am naturally shortsighted. You learn something new everyday. I went for a very funky pair of specs. I hope not too funky for me LOL.

Two birds

I really like Carol Doak's blocks (and her cutting guides for making the blocks too) so when I heard she had a 'Block of the Month' I just had to sign up. Here is September's:

I used some African fabrics that Ria (a neighbour of my mother's) had sent me from South Africa a while back. Lots of nice bits that I hadn't thought to use before. I made two blocks - one is for a special someone who I swap African blocks with, but I not mentioning any names beginning with K until she gets it LOL.


On another note: My mother is only here until Sunday so time for a last pie...

Yum, it was plum, peach and apple as the blackberries seem to be all gone now. The cake lift is from South Africa and is made by Carrol Boyes, she makes really great functional art (http://www.carrolboyes.co.za - if you're interested...). I have the bread knife, cheese knife, butter knife, trivet, serviette holder, a vase, a few frames... - I did say I love her stuff LOL and I have been buying or been given a piece here and there over the years. If DH doesn't know what to get me he always just goes there and everything is just beautiful and gladly received, just a pity she doesn't sell quilt stuff :O)