Rain and more Rain

It started last night, pouring down with thunder almost on top of us. Needless to say the spouting filled so quickly it overflowed. It rained all night and most of the morning. The sun has now come out and outside it feels like a sauna.
Today is our wedding anniversary, 47years, my DH and I went out for breakfast this morning. There is a cafe up the town and they do beautiful breakfasts.
This afternoon with all this humid weather I did some sewing and stitched the borders on my Trailing Vine. I decided that single bed size was big enough, some things just need to be finished.

 

 

 

Fridays

On Fridays I go to Somerset  patchwork shop and sit and chat and sew with about 16 - 20 other ladies. We laugh, sometimes too loud for the customers, and have a great day. Karen, who owns the shop, shows us what gadgets, templates, patterns and fabrics are new. Last week she had a delivery of bags for holding our thread,scissors etc and I bought one. A great little travelling bag. It comes with foam on both sides of the bag so that they can be covered. On the side with the pocket I used my Feedsack fabrics and on the other side I used a X stitch I made years ago but was ideal in theme and size. Here are some photos to see what it now looks like.

 

 

and the inside with lots of compartments.

 

 

 

 

 

The Sun Is Shinning

The weather is lovely, the sun is shinning and it is not too hot. A Beautiful Day.

I finally got some photos of my Leannes House quilt. Since I put it in my header I've had requests asking if there is a pattern and who's it is. This quilt was designed by Leanne Beasley and here's a Link  to Leannes House. I took some pictures in the shade and in the sun so you can look at both.

 

 

 

I do like how this one looks. This is the only quilt that I have hand quilted except for dolls size quilts and I did it with Perle thread. It still seemed to take forever. 

 

 

 Now I want to show you a pattern I've had for years and  wanted to make. It is made with 'brushed' cottons and I'm doing the applique in wools as I always thought they would look good.

 

Here is my first block. I've stitched the star on but the rest is waiting to be appliqued. I'm going to prepare all the blocks before I stitch. It always take a while to trace the pattern, cut and attach so I'm trying to get some of it done each day.  

 

 

The left bottom flower is not wool. It is such a beautiful plaid I wanted to use it. With the brushed side out it could be mistaken for a fine wool.

 

 

Saturday at Castlemaine

Yesterday I went to Castlemaine for the 1st Applique Society meeting of 2013. I was picked up at 6.45am and off we set with a wonderful day in front of us and the weather was perfect, sunny and 28C.  Our speaker for the morning was Rosalee Clark. Her first quilt was her Jane Austen and you can get the pattern for it from here which comes with full instructions and the history of the quilt.

 

 

 

This is a picture of 1 block which showed us how it is made and put together. 

 

 

We then saw several of her other quilts. This had wonderful fabric in the centre.

 

This one had beautiful Toile.

 

Vibrant colours.

 

 

The following quilts are from my friends. This is Bev's, Mary Manakee quilt. I love the colours of the fabrics that she has used.

 

Her star quilt.

 

 

made with Dutch Chintz fabrics.

 

 

A Signature quilt

 

Hand pieced blocks.

 

 

and next a single block of Linda's quilt.The small squares are 1/4" in size and there are well over 300 pieces in each block of 16. The colours and fabrics are great and it looked amazing but I'll leave them to Linda to make. The cutting alone would have taken hours.

 

I hope you enjoyed the ones I've shown you.

A little quilt

Not long ago Lori of Humble Quilts had the pattern for a little quilt called Abundance and I took a copy of the instruction. So after some fabric picking from the stash, cutting and  time with the sewing-machine,  I've made it. I so enjoy small projects that can be made and finished in a short time.They never become UFO's. Thank you Lori.

This weeks sewing

I've been sewing a project that I bought a number of years ago and although I had all the fabric, threads and cloth that were cut out and ready to go it's been waiting to get stitched.  It's a needleroll pattern from Stacy Nash Primitives and it's finished.

 

....but inside is something I showed you little bit of last week, my cross stitch.The thread colours are just wonderful and it has a pocket to keep my scissors and threads in. The pattern calls for a silk matka cloth for the outside but  I have none so I used a reproduction fabric I had with the same colours as the threads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Change of Needle

I,ve been watching the Aus Open tennis and doing a bit of X Stitching. It's a Stacy Nash pattern which I've had for a while and when finished will be the top of a needle roll. I love the muted colours of the DMC that the pattern uses.

 

 

The next is another project that has been around for quite a while. I had most of the tiny blocks cut out ready to sew but I hadn't got any further with it until this week. This version in the Quilter's Companion is smaller than the one in Judie Rothermel's book...

 

 

...... and the Cross Bars and Puss in the Corner blocks are 3" finished.

 

 

I'm pleased to be able to get these stitched at last.

 

 

and this is what our 'lawn ' looks like after all the hot weather. This is just the corner next to the vegie garden and the hose is being used on it and the lemon tree.

 

 

 

Quilted

 

I finished machine quilting my wallhanging with the houses. I try and do the smaller quilts I make and leave my large quilts to the professionals. I'm really pleased how the straight line quilting looks and will use it again.

 

 

 

I put mine together differently. I wanted a smaller size than the pattern showed.

 

 

Upright - at last

Today we had a visit from our son, daughter in-law and 2 of our Grand daughters, Grace and Indie. It was a very hot day, 39C. and we had a lovely BBQ in the evening.

I also had a chance to photograph my quilt upright which was great. I always think they look so much better like this, than lying flat, so here is my Sundial quilt again.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summertime - Sewingtime

I have been trying to finish some of the projects I started in 2012.  The the last few days I've finished Block No.6 Of Yoko Saito's BOM, from the Quiltmania magazines and put it together. I have enjoyed making all the little houses and will now machine quilt. So many of the Japanese quilts have straight line quilting and I like the look, so I'm going to try that on this one.

 

It is hot today 37C. A little bit too hot to sew without the cooling being on,but a change is on it's way. Time to look at the next WIP that I want to finish.

Ta-Dah!

Happy New Year  to all, may 2013 be a Healthy, Happy and Quilty.

 

I have been busy sewing between Christmas and the New Year as I've been trying to finish my Sundial quilt. I got the blocks on each side sewn on but didn't quite finish the top and bottom ones before 2013 arrived. 

 

 

 

 

In the last couple of days I attached the top and bottom blocks and sewed on the border. This is a large quilt. Too big to be held up by one person, so you'll have to wait for a better photo.   Ta-Dah! it's finished and I'm really pleased with how it looks.

 

Merry Christmas

I cut some of the Kangaroo Paw and brought it indoor. Such a wonderful colour for Christmas.

 

 

I finished making a cot quilt for Indie, my new Grand daughter. I used a reproduction bubblegum pink fabric and the photo doesn't quite show just how bright it is. 

 

 

Merry Christmas to All.

Christmas and Kris Kringle.

I made a wool bag for my online Christmas Swap and liked how it turned out so I made two more. One for a Kris Kringle and one for myself. Now that Cathy has received her secret swap, I can show you the one I kept for myself. I need to find some holly to put in it.

 

This is a little Christmas bag I made a while ago. Unfortunately  too small to use so I've got it out with the decorations.

 

I have been sewing as well and have almost finished Block 5 of Quiltmania's BOM by Yoko Saito. One more block to go.

 

Each block has more houses than the one before. I still have the birds and the dog to add.

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas mail

Today is a hot day! 33C. Just the perfect time to wash quilts and get them on the line to dry.  Today I washed my Oak Leaves and Turkey Feathers quilt,  picture on my sidebar, and it has dark green, greys with oranges and RED fabrics. I'm always very wary when I wash a quilt with red fabrics so into the washing machine along with the quilt went 5 Colour Catcher sheets.  Just to show how wonderfully they worked, here is a picture of before, left- white and after right - red. The quilt is perfect, not one bit of bleeding.

 

I am a member of a Primitive Folk Art online Yahoo group. Each Christmas I take part in the Christmas Swap and today my parcel arrived from Sandy in Ohio, my secret swap person.  It contains wonderful goodies and here are some photos. Two Christmas Ornies, a Mitt and an Angel to hang on my tree that Sandy had made.

 

 

A FQ of Christmas fabric and a roll of Felted Wool. Yum!

 

and a wool hanging bag. Thank you Sandy I love them all.

 

Things have to be homemade and come from our stash and the bag was this years decision for the main item.

My parcel has been sent to Cathy in Florida, my secret swap person but it hasn't arrived yet. I'm hoping the mail is slow and it's not missing.

 

 

 

December 2

My DH saw the flower yesterday, how long it has been there we don't know but this is the first time this thicket of tall strap leaves has flowered. From the top of the leaves the flower stem is over 2 metres in length and the petals in each clump up the stem are a browny-pink colour. I have to say that it is in the far corner of the garden, out of sight behind the Magnolia tree when we come and go from the house. I need to walk around the garden and look up more often. 

 

 

These on the otherhand are right at the foot of the front steps of the house. They are Kangaroo Paw plants and so vibrate against the green foliage in the garden and 2 metres tall.

 

 

On the sewing side of things, I've started the 5th block of Yoko Saito houses. I received my Quiltmania magazine last week with the 6th block and the finishing of the quilt top. It is really nice how all the blocks have been put together.

 

I have also been making new vines and leaves for panel No.8. this week. I'm wanting to get this project finished.

Life has been busy

It has been a very busy month. My new Grand daughter, Indie Alexis arrived on the 8th Nov. while my brother was visiting from Scotland. Mum and baby are both well.
I have slowly been making the surrounding blocks for the Sundial quilt. They are smaller than the centre ones and seems to take longer when I have to make 4 of each one.

While I was at Stitch n Chat last Friday at Somerset, we were all given a mini Charm Square collection of Field Mates and asked to make 'something' with them. They measured 2 1/2" square, so I made 1/2 square triangles by putting a square of the same size in cream on top, drawing a diagonal line, sewing 1/4" either side of it, cutting down the middle and viola! all ready to sew together. I managed to find some old fabric from the same designers, Alma Allen and Barbara Adams, for the borders and my Grandaughters now have a quilt each for their doll's prams.

I've decided this needs to get finished so I have these two branches to needleturn to finish Vine No. 7

Will show you the result when I get it done.