Nearly 500!!!

I think it is time for another giveaway so I am gathering to goodies and getting ready.  When I write my 500th post  I will have another give away!  Standby to receive!

I had a few moments to spare this morning so I managed to sew the top and bottom borders onto the Aussie Animal quilt top.    It is so nice to see it finished!  Well the quilt top at least!

Wow!   The motley effect of the border fabric really stands out in the photo - it is much more subtle in the "flesh"!

AND I also managed to get Row 2 of my boy's quilt for the Women's Refuge.  

And Row 3!  I am really liking this sashing and corner stones.  I have only ever done one quilt like this before and I don't remember liking it this much - as my hubby would say (when speaking to one of the boys) I must be growing up!  Almost half way there.  Four rows to go and then the border.  No idea what that will be but plenty of time to decide and lots of fabric to choose from. 

Someone please remind me that I need to get back to the quilt for the Irish Charity Bazaar after this one!

Till next time.............happy stitching!

Row 1

 I spent this morning working hard on a special request quilt top and back for Aussie Heroes and then I had to go out and run some errands.  By the time I got home it was time to get dinner ready.  After dinner I wanted something easy to sew so I sat down and started working on this new quilt.  This is for the Women's Refuge that the Gumnuts are going to give quilts to this year.  

I have almost finished the quilt top for a girl and now I am determined to do a top for a boy.  I had all these 6 1/2" squares cut out and stashed away and I got them out the other day and picked out seventy to do a quick quilt.  

The plan was  seven across and ten down - but that was before I decided to add cornerstones and sashing!  Hmmm.  We are aiming for about 42inches by about 60 for a lap quilt.  I think I am going to be unpicking the last two blocks on this row.  

That is okay! It means I will have more squares for another quilt!

I haven't put a quilt together using this method before.  I had to search out a tutorial on adding sashing for someone who was putting some blocks together for Aussie Heroes and I found this one and I really like it - it seems pretty fool proof to me.  I might have to do more quilts this way.

I think I might be working on this again tomorrow night.

Till next time.............happy stitching!

One down....11 to go

The Gumnuts started sorting out a dozen of so quilts to sew for a Women's refuge last Wednesday at our regular meeting and one of them is an old UFO of mine.  It was actually a quilt that I started making for a young girl and then decided that it was too somber looking so decided to make a second one and this one never got finished.  I still have to put the top and bottom borders on it but it is nice to see it nearing completion.

I bought this Aussie fabric about 14 years ago and this is the third quilt I have made featuring it.  I just love it.  I still have some left but I am determined to make a quilt for myself before I use it all up on quilts to give away.  Maybe this year.

 I just think these animals are the cutest!

I want to have this one ready for layering when the Gumnuts next get together!

Till next time................happy stitching!

A finish.....sort of...

Well it is sort of a finish as I have completed all that I have to do on this quilt and now it gets handed over to Tarja so that she can hand sew the binding.   I cut up leftover fabrics to make a scrap binding, my favourite kind of binding when it works.

 Today I also managed to get the pinwheels and yellow borders sewn on this one too.  I wasn't sure if I like the mixture of the two blocks and if I had to do it over again I would probably do more D9Ps or more pinwheels but this has grown on me so I am going to keep it how it is.  I still need to add a plain yellow border all the way around it and decide on the backing fabric.  

I have a cute puppy dog fabric that I might use - just need to get it out and have a look at it with this and see how the colour is.  I have a really gorgeous almost 1930s puppy dog fabric that I would love to use but it is more of an aqua blue.

 This fabric isn't as cute but it is still cute =- possible  better colour but not as 1930's.

Or I could use some clouds - This is a Daisy Kingdom Fabric.  Would you believe I bought 3m of this fabric at at Daisy Kingdom itself for about $3 when I was on a Country Heritage Tour and visiting DK itself was part of the tour - oh bliss, the prices!

 Another cloud fabric - not Daisy Kingdom but still nice.

Or I may just keep looking! 

Thoughts anyone?

Think I will sleep on it!

Till next time.............happy stitching!

Back to the 1930's...

The 1930's baby quilt that is!  

I managed to get all my pin wheels sewn today but after I put them up on the design wall I felt there was something not quite right.  I eventually worked out that what I didn't like was one of the yellow and green versions of the pinwheels.

 In the pinwheel in the bottom left the yellow seems to strong for the yellow in the rest of the quilt and it stuck out to me so.......

 I removed those blocks, cut some more and added them in - Mmmmm I am much happier now!

Next I need to trim the pinwheels to make sure they are the same size as the D9P blocks and then sew everything together.  I suspect that might be a job for Sunday.  I like to do that sort of sewing when I can just concentrate on it and not get interrupted.   I might cut all my pieces though so that I am ready to go Sunday morning.

I spent lots of time cutting out today -  red quilt for Aussie Heroes, the extra pinwheels, some scraps turned into squares, trimmed some AHQ BOMs for this month and then I selected the squares for a very simple lap quilt for the quilts we are making for the Women's Refuge in the Gumnuts.

Tomorrow the car goes in for a service and I am not sure how much time I will have to spend getting it there and getting it back  :-(  so any sewing tomorrow will bonus.  Hopefully more than I expect.

Till next time......................happy stitching!

Gumnuts again

The Gumnuts meet every two weeks and although today was ANZAC Day the decision was made to have out meeting as usual, for one thing, that made it possible for two of our number who work full time to be able to join us.  I watched the start of the Parade in Sydney City on the TV - sniffling my way through it as usual - before I headed off to Lyndall's house to meet the others.

A few weeks ago I shared a few of Del's blocks from the gorgeous quilt that she is currently working and a few of you asked me to make sure that I showed you the rest of Del's blocks as she completed them.  Well, today at our regular quilt group meeting Del showed me these to photograph for you.   Some of these you have already seen but I didn't think you would mind seeing them again.

 I am crazy about these tiny 3" churn dash blocks!  

 All soooooo cute and so nicely stitched - that is Del's forte!

 Jennie brought along the quilt that the Gumnuts made for a raffle at a special Mother's Day Luncheon in the city.  She has finished doing the binding.

 Just love pinwheels

 This is a quilt that Andrea has made to go on her bed.  I think this is a fabulous pattern - so easy and so effective.  I just love the fractured effect you get if you look down the lines - ir at least that is what I call it.

I love the corners too.

And now for a give away of sorts.  This bunch of flannel comes from Andrea.  She made a really cute flannel quilt for our family of five but that was enough to decide that she doesn't like sewing with flannel.  No one else in our group enjoys it either but there is enough flannel here to make another lap quilt if you like all the colours together and I think enough of the butterfly fabric for backing.  For any Aussies who would like it  just leave a comment or send me an email.  it will be on a first in best dressed basis.  Whoever is first will need to send me a 3 kg pre-paid satchel and I will send it on its way to you.  So, if you can use it and would like all of it for the cost of a satchel just leave a comment.

(Update - this flannel fabric now spoken for.)

Till next time............happy stitching!

catching up

I had a very productive day yesterday.  I worked on my 1930's baby quilt and got the centre panel completed which is all disappearing nine patch blocks.  After that I spent some time working out what to do down the sides to make it longer.  I eventually decided on a row of pin wheels down each side with pale yellow  joining it to the centre.  I managed to get the squares cut for the pinwheels too and I just can't wait to get them sewn.

I also managed to quilt one of Tarja's quilt and get it trimmed.  Next job is to make the binding.   I think we are going to use a scrap binding - I just need to work out how much fabric we have to work with for it.

And then I sorted through heaps of the donated fabrics the Gumnuts (my quilt group) has stored in my back room and pulled out some backings and fabric for tops so that we can get started on our next charity project - quilts for a Women's refuge.  We have a meeting tomorrow and will get started then.  This is just some of the fabrics I need to pack up to take! 

and finally

I want to encourage you to check out my friend, Sue's blog.  She has just spent the last four weeks of so, 8 hours a day, working on a chair that will be given the a school library.  It has to be seen to be believed!  Do yourself a favour and go check out Sue's blog and her library chair make over - you won't be disappointed!

Oh, and my internet should be back to normal tomorrow - thank goodness.  I have still managed to function ok but it has been very haphazard.  One minute my emails can get in and out and the next they can't.  And I had to catch up on all the blogs I follow (and that is a lot) tonight  on my ipad while I sat in the car outside my son's tutor's house!  

Till next time...............happy stitching!

All gone.......data and quilts.

100% of our data has been used up so everything is going really slowly.  I am receiving emails on my laptop by using my iphone as a hotspot.  Of course this happens just as we start to get lots of emails requesting quilts on Aussie Heroes!  Ahhhh the curve balls life can throw at you -could be worse so I am not really complaining!

Luckily I uploaded these photos today before the data ran out.  My lovely hubby headed to Canberra for a meeting today and took with him this stylish bag seen here wrapped with duct tape - hee hee - containing all the quilts that the Gumnuts have made for the Family of Five.   He handed them over to Posie so that she can hand them on when the time is right.  That is Posie's cute daughter (one of her four lovely children).

\

And Christine sent me this photo today of a quilt she quilted for the Family of Five as well.  The top ws donated by my friend Sandy from VIC and i asked Christine to quilt it and she has done a lovely job!  

So neat and I love the bright thread!

That is it for me - definitely no post tomorrow night - too hard to upload photos.  if you don't get any emails from me don't fret.  I will be back Wednesday sometime.  I will have plenty to show you.  I worked on my 1930's baby quilt today and also quilted one of Tarja's quilts.  Will save all the photos for you on Wednesday!  And that is a Gumnuts day as well as being ANZAC Day so plenty to show I am sure.

Till next time...............happy stitching!

99% but still here....just

Hopefully just sneaking this one in before the internet limit clicks over.  What happens when we reach our limit is that we just slllllloooooowwwww rrriiiiggghhhhttt    dddddoooowwwwnnnnnn.  It is so painfully slow that I can't upload photos etc.  It is only a couple of days so I will just take the days off but I think I can just manage to sneak this one in.

Today I managed to get the borders on to my D9P quilt.  

 The border fabric looks way better up close and in real life.  It has all the colours from the blocks and I think it balances out the black fabric in the blocks!

I also managed to start the sewing on the baby quilt I am going to make from some 30's fabrics.  I sewed all the nine patch squares into their rows of threes and then while hubby and I watched "The Amazing Race" I pinned all the threes together into blocks and I will sew them tomorrow.

Now here is something that only happens in Australia.  Our house backs on to a 40 hectare parcel of state forest.  It is full of gum trees.  Last night, just before bedtime I could here something growling strangely outside my sewing room window - it sounded really close. AND it sounded like someone trying over and over again to start a chain saw without success.   Now if I lived in Canada like Cathy I might have been more concerned but we don't have brown or black bears or coyotes or mountain lions.  The scariest things we have are snakes and spiders(plenty of those) but they don't growl!  So, of course, I called for my husband to come, gave him a teeny torch (well it was all I had handy at the time) and asked him to go and check it out.  He barely hesitated (well he did ask once "why me?" and I said "coz you are the man!") and headed out the door.    He shone his teeny torch light around and finally found what it was - a koala!  and no, for the non- Aussies they are not a type of bear!  Apparently it was a grumpy koala in next door's tree - probably been chased there as it was sitting in an exotic tree and koala's would not climb that sort of tree other than to hide.  They only eat eucalyptus and then only certain types.  Sadly, no sign of him today.  He probably got down and relocated to a better tasting tree at some point during the night.  So, there you go, you won't be reading that sort of riveting story on just anyone's blog now will you!

And now I am off to bed.  I expect when I wake in the morning my internet will be VERY   SLOOOOOOWWWWW.  I will be back on Wednesday if not before!  

Till then happy stitching!

98%

Hmm, the next few days are going to be interesting - we are now up to 98% of our 500GB gone and no more data till Tuesday night - it is now Saturday morning.  One son has 6 assignments to complete.  No idea how much internet he will need for that but not my problem.  He was warned on Monday to get them done before it was all used up.....and he still managed to go for a sleepover for two days and out to a party last night....

So, I may see you tonight or tomorrow night, or I may not, but I will be back on Wednesday at least, and hopefully with lots to show you.  Thank goodness my hubby is home for the weekend and I don't have to weather the internet dieting teens on my own.  Good heavens!  What will they do?

Till next time................happy stitching!

More bright ideas!

I had a bit more time to play with this brights today and managed to get two borders on this quilt.  I still need to add one more final border to bring the quilt up to the right size.  Hopefully that will happen on Sunday.

I also managed to cut out some squares for a similar quilt, this one a 1930's baby quilt for a very special little baby I heard about today.  More on that another day.  I have had this bundle of fat quarters for at least a couple of years.

 Time these pretty colours saw the light of day don't you think?

 And just before I finish, I thought I would show you what is supposed to be MY leather chair and ottoman.    What?  You can't see it?  It is under all those quilts and cushions and the DOG.  That is Maisy snuggled on the back of it.  Usually there are two dogs on it; Snickers on the blue cushion!

 I need all the quilts and cushions protecting it so that the dogs don't scratch the living daylights out of the chair with their nails.  I would like to keep them off it but I can't see them all the time and in the end decided that this was my only option.

It is not like I have much time for sitting in it really, except for when I am sick, which thankfully, is not all that often!

Lucy they are so cute!

Till next time...................happy stitching!

I Love Bright!

And tonight I decided to go for broke and stitch a little fun!    Six big nine patches made from nine 6" squares, then cut them into disappearing nine patches and sew them back together.  Love working with these fun colours.  Next decision is to choose border fabric.  I need about 6 inches on all sides.

This quilt is only small - so far 29" by 42".  Add a 6" border and it will be about 41" by 54" and that will make it a nice lap size quilt for a child.  I am off to audition border fabrics and maybe even find a backing!

I have to sew borders and piece a backing for an AHQ project tomorrow so hopefully I can do this one while I am in the bordering mood!

Till next time..............happy stitching!

No sewing to show you today.  I had two ladies here for an AHQ sewing day and then tonight I went out for dinner with the sisterhood.  Both things were lots of fun but I promised not to duplicate all the AHQ sewing on this blog so, instead, I thought I would show you what Tarja gave us all. We have a bit of a loose tradition that if one of us goes away somewhere we find something small to bring back for the others.  Tarja and her family went to Coffs Harbour for the Easter break.  Coffs is famous for the Big Banana

and therefore it was a no-brainer where to go to buy something for us!

 Of course we recevied the obliglatory fridge magnet

 and also...........wait for it ................banana SOAP!  And yes it smells like bananas!

What fun! Thanks Tarja!

We had a great dinner, lots of laughs and came home with banana soap!  Love it!

Till next time................happy stitching!

A Fair Dinkum Finish!

Last Friday my friend, Tarja, and her gorgeous daughter Jessica, helped me to layer this quilt and yesterday I managed to quilt it.   Today I finished the binding and this afternoon I posted it off to the lovely Captain that requested a quilt for the wall in his office area today.

 It is only quilted simply, diagonally on the nine patches and a simple grid over the tea towel.

I used a thread as close to the background colour of the tea towel to quilt it as I really didn't wantt o compete with the picture.

  Here it is all packed and ready to go.  I asked the Captain if there was something I could add to the box - is there something that he particularly misses whilst over there and he asked for Chupa Chups - for the others he says..........of course I believe him!   These are wedged in so tightly that they should still be in place when they arrive.  I would love to see the look on his face when he opens this box!

 I cleared out some space on my kitchen shelves today and set my new mug/bowls up with their mates where I can see them and, more importantly, use them every day.  Love them.

Might not post tomorrow - AHQ sewing day followed by a dinner out with the Sisterhood.  

I promise I will be back with some more Cherry Red sewing the next day if not tomorrow!

The boys seem to have restrained their data usage so we just might make it to the end of the month..........

Till next time.............happy stitching!