Kids quilts for charity

There is nothing like a deadline to make you work that much harder!  I had a few hours to spare on Friday and this quilt had to be added to the pile to be donated on Saturday.  Binding by hand is my preference and it was nice to have some brainless handwork for in front of the TV. 

A friend helped me out with a quick picture in the car park before handing it over, this is called the Jungle quilt.  I got some great bright blue fabric at Spotlight to make binding that matched the loud green and blue striped borders.  All the rest of the fabric came from my stash, but the jungle prints were given to me by my friend Elaine.  Nice to finally use them up, as she intended me to, in a charity quilt. 

I handed over five quilts, but this Eye Spy (single bed sized) is the other quilt I had not shown you completed.  A good friend Vicki quilted it for me.   It is was one of the biggest quilts I donated and I used a scrappy binding, whatever bright colours I had in the 2.5" strip box, which worked out well.  Again all the other fabric came from my stash of novelty prints which I have cut up into squares...well mainly!  Still plenty in the box and our trip to Robe resulted in lots more to play with!

As you can see I lashed out on this vivid rainbow strip for the backing, it was on sale!  Pity about the join on one side, but there was no spare to play with, hence the yellow stripe.  All fun, for a fun quilt.

Happy quilting Sue.

Anderson’s Mill

For Mothers Day I took my Mum to Andersons Mill at Smeaton, about a two hour drive.  The unused flour mill is built of bluestone, and does open a couple of times of the year, but I had not been since I was at university.

The large black boxes were for a light show they were projecting on the building at night over the weekend.   

I took one photo of a quilt! Made by Ann Ster from Bendigo, it is a Michele Hill design.  The quilts were all new but heritaged themed and there were some lovely Waggas made from children's clothing and suiting samples. 

Other exhibits included two ladies making socks on sock knitting machines.  I am not a knitter, but this machine was clamped on the table, about the same size as beer stein and you just turned the handle like a old fashion grinder, the yarn came in and around and around and the sock grew before your eyes...I want one!  You can buy them new (she had an antique one, but had ordered new which start at $5,000) however I think I will be able to afford lots of shop made wool socks for just $100 investment!

This is the bluestone bridge, over the creek that powered the mill.  I had other photos of the water wheel and other buildings but Blogger took three days to just download these three.  So I didn't want to overload the system anymore, in case my post won't load!

Happy quilting Sue.

In the pink

I fell over very early this year in my Rainbow Scrappy Challenge sewing.  I think it was because there is no lime green left in my scraps (and I love lime green!), and March I was busy with sewing camp.

So yesterday I had time to construct one yellow star block and a few four patches.  I lack variety and volume with yellow.  But pink funnily enough (not my favorite colour) there was plenty, so I got four stars made and similar amount of four patches.

Biggest dilmma yesterday....why isnt my iron working?  I am still not sure if its the iron or the power board, just stopped pressing!  I will work it out AFTER today, because I do NOT want a new iron for Mothers Day despite it being crucial to my sewing!

Happy quilting Sue.

Warm regards centre block finished

Last night I stitched the last two leaves on to the central applique block for my Kim Diehl Warm Regards quilt.  I have four other smaller blocks to complete that sit in the corners - the stems cross over from the central block to the corner blocks, hence those last bit remain unstitched for now.  

Not sure if I am going to piece the rest of the pieced blocks next, or keep appliquing.  The weather has turned wintery, so hand piecing seems appropriate, however my soul needs the therapy of mindless piecing.  

Happy quilting Sue.

Progress on Warm Regards

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In a last minute rush, before we left to go on holidays, I prepped some hand sewing and packed it into my checked luggage.  It came out once, but was not touched!  There was plenty of reading, just no stitching.  I am blaming the heat for my lack of action...sweaty fingers!  When we got home I had my monthly sewing group, it was a no brainer to pack the prepped Warm Regards blocks and the most progress was made on this corner block.  

Prior to going away I had made slow progress (one birds wing!) on my Warm Regards centre.  But I am also counting the purchase of this beautiful green fabric I brought online as "progress".  Yep I finally overcame my reluctance to buying fabric off the web.  I just had to have this "old" Judie Rothermel print,  for leaves on this central panel. 

First weekend back from our holiday, we had to go away to attend my husbands oldest niece's engagement party.  

There was hand sewing galore in the car and at my in laws, and I used all the prepped leaves, stems and baskets, plus stitched down the last pesky bird wing.  

So I am back to needing to prep more leaves and some more flowers :)

Happy quilting Sue.