Scrappy Trip Around the World progress.

Hi there, I'm still busy cutting up my basket of old fabrics.  It's going to take a while to get through them but there's no rush so I do a few every day or so.  I've got so many strips I'll have a headstart on quite a few scrappy quilts.

The photo above shows the blocks I've finished so far for Bonnie Hunters'  Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt.  I'm liking how it is turning out.  I am finding it a bit challenging working with the colours in these older fabrics.  It is an interesting exercise to see if I can "pretty" the blocks up.
. 
Here is the link to the Bonnie Hunter pattern.  Her patterns are very easy to follow with plenty of photos.

I've sorted out a bit more of my stash but I'm not quite finished yet.  I've got a stack of storage boxes in the hallway and I'm still not sure where they are going to go.  Might be a hop skip and a jump to an episode of Hoarders!!  I haven't bought any fabric for about 3 or 4 weeks which is a record for me I'm sure.  I am trying to be good but its not easy.

I went out on Sunday with Tracey and we had a really enjoyable day.  We went to our favourite scrapbooking shop in Mornington and kidded ourselves that we weren't going to buy very much.  We now realise thats an impossibility.  They have so much gorgeous paper and all kinds of creative arty stuff.

It really is hard to find time to do everything I want to do.  I bought a nice selection of supplies (I do realise the money I didn't spend on fabric I spent on art supplies) hahaha. Then because it was 2.30 and we hadn't had lunch we decided to stop at Lintons Nursery on the way home for lunch and a look around.  There were lots of people out enjoying the lovely day.  The cafe was very popular and our lunch was really good.  We had a wander around outside and admired the plants then spent quite a while inside where there is a really great selection of homewares and lovely gifty things.  I did manage to resist buying anything, there were lots of things I would have liked though.  Remembering I should be downsizing helps.

That's all for now its getting late and I have work tomorrow.

Happy Stitching

Debra.

Scrappy Quilts

Hi there,

I've had a busy couple of weeks but I have managed to fit in some stitching.  This scrappy quilt is one of my favourites.  It is one of my early ones and uses a lot of the fabrics that I have just cleaned out of my stash.  I still haven't quite finished my cleanout that I started 2 weeks ago...

 Here is Jack at his
Valedictory dinner, he received 3 awards I was very proud of him.  It was a lovely night, Jack has really enjoyed his time at school.  We went out for tea tonight to celebrate most of his exams being over.  His art exam is next 
Thursday then thats it.  I'm hoping I might find some more time to sew while he's away on holidays. 

Here's what I cleared out of my stash, the fabric on the chair went to the op shop.  I'm going to cut up the piles on my ironing board and use them for more scrap quilts.  I'm ironing them first so it is going to take me a while to get these all cut up.

There are a couple of quilts I want to start making using these scraps.  I've started Bonnie Hunters Scrappy Trips Around the World.  It should use up quite a few of my 2.5 inch strips.  It is a bit strange cause I've gotten used to using my bright fabrics and these will be very different.  I might get some photos taken for next time.

Till then Happy Sewing,

Debra.

Chaos

 Rearranging my fabric storage.

5 hours later, still sorting.....

Out and About

Hi there, last Sunday I went to see the Quilts in the Barn exhibition in Wonga Park with a couple of my patchwork friends.  Here is Susan, taking a photo of me taking a photo of her.  I won't show any more photos of the quilt show cause the Quilts in the Barn blog has photos of the whole exhibit.  I have been going to this exhibition for quite a few years, its always an enjoyable day out and Linda and her helpers put a lot of work into making it a great show.  

We went to The Patchwork Teahouse

 in Warburton next and had a really lovely lunch.  We had a really nice day even though we discovered our favourite antique/homewares shop had closed down.  

I haven't done a lot of work on my crochet hexagons lately but I think these blocks should be enough to finish it.  Then there is the border to think about.  Haven't decided what I'm going to do about that yet.  There's an awful lot of ends to sew in too.

Isn't this owl the cutest?  She had to come home with me last weekend, I had a memory lapse and forgot about downsizing and the fact my shelves are overcrowded already.  I have a nice collection of owls now, maybe they remind me of my night owl tendencies! 

We had a lovely spring day today, a perfect day to wash some quilts.  This one was an old Country Threads pattern I think.  I do remember that it was one of my first attempts at needle turn applique and I thought I'd never get the hearts finished.  The main fabrics are all early Robin Pandolph fabrics.  I was in love with all her early ranges and I still have most of them in my stash as I thought they were too special to cut.  Now they're practically vintage.

I have been busting to use my kitchen table but my son has been using it to study for his exams.  He does have a desk in his bedroom which he can't use at the moment cause its covered in clothes etc.  What is it with teenage boys and messy bedrooms?  We have endless discussions about tidying his room, its like beating my head against a brick wall...

I've tried being patient but I keep thinking about all the things I can't do till I get my table back.  Today I decided to get out my fold up trestle table and take it outside to work on.

It was great, now that the weather is improving I might do this more often.  I wanted to work out the applique borders for my Jubilee quilt and the trestle table was perfect for this.  I couldn't pin my vines down until I drew out my applique shapes but at least I got a start on it.

Why couldn't I do this on my own sewing room table you might ask?  Cause it's covered in too much stuff!!!

Its time all us night owls were in bed.

Bye for now.

Debra. 

Hand Quilting and growing veggies.

I can't believe September's over already, so here is my final post for the 1 hour a day stitching challenge that Bonnie Hunter here was hosting. 

I didn't make it last week cause I worked a full week, I usually only work 2 days so my routine was out the window.  Needless to say I missed a couple of days of stitching.  I did try to make up the time when I could so I think I did fairly well. 

Because this quilt is so large I hadn't spread it out to check on my progress since I started in the first week of September.  I was surprised today to see that I've got half the blocks quilted.  To tell you the truth I was a tiny bit disappointed as I'd hoped I might have been close the finishing them all. 

I tried to get a close up of the quilting pattern in the hourglass blocks, it doesn't really show up very well though.  I have to mark the rest of the blocks using the quilting template, not my favorite part of the process.

I'm not very happy with some of the quilting, some of the straight lines look like the thread has pulled too tight and there are a few wrinkles in the wrong places but I hope when it is finished and gets washed it should look better.

I'm going to try to keep up the quilting, it will still be a couple of months till the weather heats up so I should by able to get a lot more done.

I decided I wanted to try growing some herbs and vegetables.  I'm no gardener but I really would like to be able to pick some fresh herbs to use when I'm cooking and some salad veggies would be great over summer.  I didn't want to get too carried away to start with so I bought some Coriander and Continental Parsley and a Tomato plant and one Strawberry plant, and some Cat Grass.  I thought the cats can have a special plant of their own, they're supposed to like eating it.

My parents came over yesterday and my Dad helped me plant the seedlings and gave me lots of advice on gardening it was very helpful.  I'm going back to get another couple of plants tomorrow.  We had big discussions about snails and Dad insisted that the sugar straw would keep them away cause they don't like crawling on it.  It worked last night I went out about 4 times during the night and there was no sign of snails but earlier on tonight I went out to find a snail in the middle of the Coriander and a slug in there as well.  There was another slug and a couple of snails on their way over.  I don't want to lose my plants before they've had a chance to grow.  Anyone have any suggestions?

I was very excited, this flower on my Strawberry plant appeared after I brought it home it is very pretty.

I'm hoping I might find time tomorrow to mark the rest of the blocks on my pink lemonade quilt, if I'm not on snail duty.!!

Happy Stitching,

Debra.

Big night out

 No progress photos of my quilting today.  I missed a couple of days in my one hour a day challenge, however I've been doing more than 1 hour most days so I'm sure the time has evened out.

I'm really loving quilting without a frame, so much easier to handle a large quilt this way.

Last week I took Harry to visit Jill his Groomer this was his before photo.  I gave him a valium beforehand but it didn't seem to make any difference.  He was very distressed, he cried and carried on and we decided to leave the clipping and try another day. 

So here is his after photo, he had a bath and he smells lovely and he had the hair around his face clipped back a bit but he's still a shaggy boy.  He even looks fluffier than before cause Jill did manage to get a comb through him.

Just hope we can get him clipped before the weather gets too warm cause he really doesn't like the heat.

On Monday Jack turned 18 years old.  I'm still having trouble working out where all those years went.  It has flown by so quickly and his last year of seconday school is quickly coming to a close.  We had a family night out to celebrate Jack's birthday.  We went to a restaurant on Southbank in the city called The Meat and Wine Company.  

As you can see we had a few cocktails to celebrate, they were really good. 

This was my steak with mushroom sauce and extremely delicious chips.  It was a really lovely meal and everyone enjoyed theirs.

I don't often go into the city especially at night but when I do I love to admire how beautiful it is.  Unfortunately my photos that I took of the buildings and the yarra didn't turn out very well.  I did manage to get this fabulous photo of one of the Mali's that are on display around the city.

 I think they were all decorated to celebrate a special anniversary at the zoo.  I'm just not sure of all the details.  Mali is a baby elephant born at the Melbourne zoo a couple of years ago, she stole everyone's hearts she was so cute.  There were huge queues of people for weeks when she first went on display.  There is 50 Mali and they were decorated by 50 different Artists and put on display all around the city.  They were to be auctioned off, wouldn't they be fun in the garden?

We saw a few around southbank but I liked this one best it is so bright and happy

I must tell you I grumped and groaned about going into the city but it really was a great night out.  I was pushed well out of my comfort zone which probably needs to happen more often.

With Jack on holidays I might manage to get some more stitching done this week.

Bye for now.

Debra.

Hand quilting challenge update

I'm enjoying the hand quilting challenge that Bonnie Hunter  started.  It has been a week and we are supposed to show our progress.  My blogging skills are still a bit dodgy so I will do my best to link to Bonnies post, just can't guarantee I'll get it right.

 As I explained in my last post the back of my quilt got stained in an unfortunate incident during a teenagers sleepover.  You can see above the size of the stain, it is quite large.

 I decided that before I did any more quilting I needed to fix the stained backing.  Luckily I hadn't quilted that area so I'm hoping it will look ok when it's all done. 

I used four different fabrics for the backing, this piece is used on one edge of the quilt.  Luckily I still had the fabric and I'm pretty sure it's not going to look out of place.  I decided to cut away the stained fabric then applique the patch over the hole.  It took about 2 hours but it still counts as handwork and if I hadn't joined this challenge it might never have got done.

Its not easy to get a good photo of the quilting, I've done more straight lines and some more of the motifs.

I have decided to have a go at quilting without a hoop.  I watched an episode of The Quilt show online that demonstrated the technique.  My quilt was already basted fairly closely so it should work out okay.  I've found it much easier than using a hoop and I don't think you can see any difference with my stitches.  It sure helps when quilting such a big quilt. 

I think my total hours so far has been 12 which includes tonight.  I'm very happy that I'm making progress, thanks Bonnie!

Debra.