A Gathering Of Gumnuts...

 It was another Gumuts kind of day today.  My turn to host and although a few couldn't make it, most did and it was a good productive day.

First up we were visited by Amy, daughter of Mary.  Sadly Mary and her hubby Ian retired to Tasmania a couple of years ago after Ian left the navy.  Amy has two of the cutest little boys and has been slowly working on super cute quilt - I can't tell you the designer and quilt name but if anyone wants it I can get it for you! 

 HOW CUTE IS THIS?  

Amy has button hole stitched this ALL by HAND and now she is set to quilt it by hand.  Today we layered it for her while the boys kept her hands busy!  LOL.

This is Aiden - CUTE!

 And this is Liam - also CUTE but not wanting to cooperate with having his picture taken!

 See - CUTE!

After Amy and the tiny two left we moved on to a bit of a show and tell.  Del has been slowly emboidhttp://aussieheroquilts.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/looooong-post-today-grab-cuppa.htmlering over this red work panel.  This is going to be a quilt for the Women's Refuge

Aren't these pictures swet?

Love Humpty!

Del also pieced this cute quilt.  If you look closely it is all Warner Brother characters - The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo and more!  Another Women's Refuge Quilt.

Cynthia took some leftover squares and turned out this lovely Disappearing nine patch quilt for a boy!

I think I may have shown you the next few before but this time they are completed except maybe a little binding 

 And the backing...

Love this one!  Not back considering it is based around that farm yard fabric which is a recycled children's curtain! 

And the back - more curtaining! 

Vroom  Vroom!!! 

Back again! 

These are all for the Women's Refuge but this is for a Mum. 

As is this 

 and this - I think we all think this is a beauty!

 Even the back is pretty.

Still love that sashing! 

And finally - a couple of things not for the Women's Refuge.  Cynthia has yet to add the borders to this one but this is for her tiny nephews to use in the car as an I Spy quilt.  

We also managed to layer two quilts, decide on plan for the Annual Quilt we make for the local Bushfire Brigade, resolved to use up more of the stash stored in my back room and solved a few of the problems of the world!   What more could you ask?

Busy day and an equally busy evening with Aussie Heroes so I am heading off to bed.  Back again tomorrow!

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

Just popping to show you

Yep, that is me, just popping in to show you the finished quilts that I made with help from my friend Tarja and her daughter Jessica.  This first quilt is for Tarja's Mum.

 The second one is for Tarja's mother in law.  They both live in Finland but never see each other so it doesn't matter that they are made from the same block - only each one arranged differently.  

 Tarja has had them for a while to hand sew the binding but her brother is coming over tomorrow to collect them and he is going to Finland for a holiday and that certainly beats paying postage!  

Tarja was determined to get a picture of the three of us with the quilts but I hate photos of me so I cropped them - too bad!  There is only one photo of me that i approve of and that is my profile pic.  What I don't mind is flowers -and preferably bright coloured ones and I really like gerberas.   Tarja knows that and look what she and Jess gave me for making the quilts!  Lovely!

I have to run out now in the cold and dark and rain - blah - to collect Fly Boy from school social - a school social on a Tuesday night.  I know he is Year 11 but that makes no sense to me especially when it isn't even the last week of term or anything!  

Gumnuts here tomorrow and more Mum's taxi duties afterwards.  Hope I get some sewing in tomorrow night.

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

Guitar Hero and more

It is really quite convenient that my sons don't read my blog.  It means I can post pictures of them, which I am not allowed to do on facebook, and they wouldn't have a clue.  Tonight hubby and I attended the school's Annual Music Showcase.  Honestly the talent of these kids just blows me away.  I really enjoy the whole show, not just my kids.  Tonight, in our family, it was Guitar Hero's turn.  (bet you thought it was Fly Boy)   No?  The first photo is not so good. but that is him on the left.   This is what they call the Busker's Club and it is a large group - several girls singing, drums, keyboard and guitars.

 The second shot is much better and shows his handsome face and that gorgeous short haircut - hallelujah for private schools with dress standards for haircuts!   

 I managed to do a fair bit of sewing today but most of it was for Aussie Heroes.  Tutorial for String Blocks on Aussie Heroes if you are interested.  It is this month's BOM.  I also sewed half a laundry bag that I want to get in the mail tomorrow morning but then I managed to finish the nine patches for this quilt - my quilt for this year's International Charity Bazaar.  This was the planned layout - note I still have to cut some more solid blocks...

 but I think I like this layout better.  What does everyone else think?

I don't have enough orange to swap the colours around so the orange has to stay in the corners and the centre  if I do it this way.

Hmm, it will be a couple of days before I can get back to it so I will sleep on it and see what everyone else things!

Baking day tomorrow as the Gumnuts are coming on Wednesday.  I am thinking Soup for lunch, banana and orange cake, and maybe a slice with cheese, dips and grapes.

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

Layered and done!

Three quilts got layered today and that was one more than I dared to hope for.   First is the latest BOM quilt from Aussie Heroes.  Love this block.  It is called the Hot Cross Nine Patch and I think it is fun.  I have folded it so that you can see the backing at the top.

 Next is first BOM quilt from April -the wonky cross.  Boy did this take a few girls out of their comfort zone.  If you look closely you can see that I have taped it already to do some wonky straight line quilting.  I will sew these lines then add more tapes as needed.

 Finally my CountrySide Quilt - so named because of the border fabric which is also continued down the centre of the backing.  None these photos have great colour and I really don't know why.  Better photos next time.

 And the DONE!  I have finally finished two tracksuits for my little niece.  Tomorrow I will pack them up and send them down to her.

 This polar fleece is just so soft!  Delicious!

That is it from me tonight.  Why is this time of year so busy.   Last Tuesday Fly Boy has his Year 11 Music performance for school and tomorrow night Guitar Hero has a Music Showcase for School.  Dinner at the RSL with hubby and then off to the auditorium there for the show.

Planning a whole day of sewing beforehand so here's hoping I can fit in a post for tomorrow night as well.

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

Puppy Heavy Post

Not that long ago I was too tired to do much more than sort out some scraps and I pulled out a bunch of strips.  Tonight I spent a little time sewing them together and now I am trying to decide what to do with them.  I am thinking I might cut them up and make a chinese coin quilt or maybe I will cut it up into little strips and add them to some solid and make some random blocks with them.   I think I need to sew a few more strips first.  

Tonight hubby and I folded all the laundry while watching TV.  Maisy was sitting next to hubby and when I looked up he had one by one thrown all the boys' undies on her head!  Poor baby!  Just as I took the photo she laid her head down.

 Look at that face!

 What you can't see is that even though evil hubby buried her she still wagged her tail every time we spoke! 

 Ahhh, that is better now.

 and for the Snickers fans - here you go - just one picture!

Planning a big day of sewing tomorrow - finish my niece's track suit tops, layer a quilt, add borders to another - who know what else I will get done- just please let me get more than nothing done!!!

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

Just a few Keyrings!

My Mum started collecting souvenir teaspoons when I was in high school.  Then she started collecting key rings.  That must have come some time later but I am not sure when.  I must have left home and joined the Air Force by then.  I used to buy any good ones where ever I went.  Then my handsome hubby came along and as he traveled all sorts of places for work, he added significantly to the collection.

My father built Mum the first  key ring board - a nice piece of wood with L shaped hooks on it for the key rings to hang on.  It used to hang on the wall in their kitchen.  When Mum passed away, long after Dad was gone, I inherited the key ring collection and we took the original board off the wall and brought it home with us.  As well as the key rings on the board we found a container of more of them put away in a cupboard.  Mum had long outgrown the one board that she had.

I asked a friend of mine to make me a new key ring board but because he couldn't find one to match the original one he made two new ones.   I wanted to hang them on opposite sides of the opening from the Kitchen in to our conservatory so they had to match.  You would think two key ring boards would have been enough to take all the ones my Mum had.

Hmmm, maybe ...and by the way - see these cute pink things?

They are my cute pink feather lights - just too  much fun!

Anyway, I digress.  Once the two new key ring boards were up I pulled out all the keyrings and added them to the boards.  So many memories came back of places Mum and Dad or David and I had been.  Holidays that other people had been on - gifts from friends.  But then i realised that the two boards were full!!  

Back came my friend and up went the original (now the third) board.  

You can see there are bigger spaces at the bottom for the wider key rings.  

Would you believe still not enough room!

There was only one space left on the wall where I wanted to hang one last board so that got filled too and now there are 4 boards in the Kitchen/family/conservatory area.

And what started me telling you this was the fact that the lovely fellow who came yesterday brought me back two key rings - the only key ring he could find was one from the PX on base - there are no keyrings in Afghanistan - they don't have doors with locks apparently!  So he brought me the United States Navy Key Ring and check out the cute cute cute Camel! from Dubai!  Love that face!

And while I am at it, I will show you a couple of other favourites.  This one from Iran...

This one given to me by Celia after a trip to South Africa

A tiny Viewmaster - with a real slide in it that you can turn with the handle to view the pictures.

Rememeber when mobile phones looked like this - bricks that they were - and this one rings if you push the button.

And finally Lincoln Logs - Aussies don't really know what these are but inside the (dusty) container (yes, the lid actually comes off) are some little logs that you can build a log cabin with.  These ones are only plastic but when we lived in the States our boys had little wooden Lincoln Logs to play with!  Super cute!

This has reminded me that those key rings all need to come down to be dusted.  Hope there is something good on TV to watch while I do it!   Blah!

Till next time..........................happy sewing!