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.

Boracay

Boracay is a tourist island destination in the Philippines and my husband and I, together with his parents, two sisters, brother and a cousin went for a week, to attend the wedding of his youngest brother.  We got to meet and spend time with the Filipino family of the bride, who were just delighted to meet us and know their sister/daughter was being welcomed into a family that loves her as much as they do.  The brides nieces/nephews were excited to be in Boracay, which was the equivalent of going to Disneyland as far as they were concern, especially after a swim in our hotel pool....their first ever experience of swimming in a pool.  

This was the view from our hotel, across the pool to the ocean.  Yes, looks pretty, but the beach was vivid green with algae, so we only swam in the pool.  Next door to the hotel we stayed in was a fenced block, with local people living in a tin hut with roosters.  The power poles were dripping in wires, mostly connected illegally.  The development of the island has not all been approved or constructed properly, resulting in untreated sewage going into the ocean, buildings not constructed to standards and a host of other issues you can see as you travel around.

The journey to the island was made on this boat.  You paid a local porter to carry your heavy suitcase (he could manage two or three at a time, despite being shorter then me) onto the boat and he threw it up onto the roof of the boat!  

There were many boats outside the hotel pulled up on the beach, for the many tourists who paid for a  scubber diving trips, snorkeling or pleasure crusiers around the island.

Every night we could see a flotilla of local sail boats go past in the dark (without lights), seeking the safe harbour of somewhere south, or just going home after a long days work? The sunsets were spectacular but short.

The morning of the wedding we visited the local market to buy fruit.  As part of the ceremony we presented the priest with baskets of flowers, fruit, a bottle of wine and a few peso's to bless the married couples union.

At the wedding reception we pinned money to the bride and groom.

It was a amazing experience and a great holiday....here we are in our finery enjoying the reception on the beach.  

Boracay is a lovely place, but the government closed the island to tourism for six months the week after we returned home, so they can repair the problems (we hope).  I suspect that means that there will be more big resorts, like the ones that we saw at the north end of the island.  

Not a stitch was hand sewn in the week we were away, but sat in my suitcase, while I relaxed by the pool,  enjoyed not having to cook, clean, wash or go to work!  But it was nice to come home and be with our children.  There will be time to sew today!

Happy quilting Sue.

Bag crazy

I went a little nuts in the 24 hours before leaving on our holiday, making some last minute gifts with Aussie themed fabric.  This bag has pictures of Melbourne (capital of Victoria, Australia) and the bag below has names of Australian cities.  I recently brought the Melbourne fabric in Spotlight, it is a linen, other fabric was from my stash.    

I got this free pattern from DIY Tutorial Ideas, 

(http://www.handmadiya.com/2016/10/eco-friendly-tote-bag.html)

 but there was another link to a Japanese (I think) website Ssu's Daily Page, who I am assuming is the original creator.  

There was no internal pockets on the original pattern, but when I cut the width of the bag, there was a prefect pocket sized piece left over, which I just couldn't resist using. 

So being Japanese the original instructions are in centimeters not inches, however it wasn't hard to figure out sizes with the help of my tape measure.  I will definitely be making more bags using this pattern in the future, so quick and easy and finish at a great size.  Plus I really like being able to make the bottom section a different colour.  

I had been thinking about buying a new toiletries bag.  But in the end I found the time to make myself one from the same free pattern by Noodle Head - that I used to make the Aussie themed ones I was taking as gifts.

(link https://noodle-head.com/2010/10/scrappy-make-up-pouch-tutorial_20.html) 

I found this cute yellow cherry print fabric in my stash and I only had a white zip on hand that was the correct size, so that forced me to finally use, this much loved print!

But when I put my basic toiletries (I brought special travel sized shampoo)  into the cherry bag that was all that fitted!  

Back to Noodle Head blog to look at her other free patterns, oh yes there is a great picture for a boxy pouch, that looks perfect.  Click on the link  and end up at Pink Stitches blog, this is her free pattern!

(Link: http://pinkxstitches.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/boxy-pouch-tutorial.html)

So this is a great sized pouch, and I love the shape AND the handle!!  Awesome.  Except in my hurry I didn't read the instructions properly and quilted the exterior and inner fabric to the wadding, instead of just the exterior.  So I had to sew little binding strips to cover the ugly raw seams.  OK for me, luckily it wasn't planned as a gift!

Love this pattern also, easy to follow and results are great.  Going to make it again, when I get home and get time to shop for more zips!

Happy quilting Sue.