Hand Stitching

 
This is how the morning started out.  We had a HUGE frost.  Because I slept in til 7.15 I missed out on the 'full Monty' as most of it had melted.  

 
This afternoon after I had completed the monthly newsletter for the quilt group, I sat and treated myself to some hand stitching.  In my mind there is nothing more therapeutic than picking up a needle and thread and doing some hand piecing.  The 2011 raffle quilt for Toowoomba Quilters next year is this gorgeous dresden plate scrappy quilt. 
Firstly, I love, love, love scrap quilts and secondly I have always wanted to do a Dresden Plate.  This is the second lot of petals I have put together for the quilt, and have thoroughly enjoyed doing it.  The group is yet to decide on the background fabric and the centre circle.


Now.....back to the hand quilting on the KF quilt on another chilly night.

Tracky Dak Day

A couple of weeks back on a very cold and wintry day, a few quilting friends and I met at Carmel's house for a "tracky dak day". We came in our track pants and ugg boots, relaxed and sewed, and as you will see painted. Carmel had the fire going, we all contributed to lunch, and Yvonne provided the yummy chocolate/mocha hot pudding with custard after lunch.... yum.

Here is Frances and Carmel working on their painted homespun canvas. They are doing the base for a free motion quilted piece. Will show you the results when they are done. (In a few weeks). It will be spectacular!

Carmel has "whipped up" this beautiful 1930's quilt.

Here is Yvonne practising her free motion quilting before tackling her nephews quilt. She actually used twin needles for some of the quilting, and a beautiful variegated thread. Will also show you the finished product later. Just have to remember to have my camera on me at all times!!!

Quilter's Picnic and Quilt Challenge

Our quilt group held the annual Queensland Quilter's picnic last Tuesday and it was a great success. We gave the proceeds of the day to a local charity and I think it raised quite a bit of money (not sure how much!) Part of the day was the judging by viewer's choice of our challenge quilts. The challenge was a 24" x 24" quilt with the theme "Autumn". Our city turned out a beautiful autumn day for the visitors.

This is the quilt I entered. It is called "Autumn Sentinels". Alas I did not win the challenge, but my very best quilting pal did, so that is okay.

Autumn Sentinels
The birds are watching the colours of their world change around them, and the leaves falling from their arboreal homes.

Techniques Used:
Crazy patchwork and reverse applique ( by hand) for depiction of trees/falling leaves.
'Freehand Quilting' (by hand) for representation of rain
Needleturn applique (by hand) for the birds.

It took quite a few hours to complete!
The birds idea came from inspiration of works done by Cynthia StCharles who recently had an article in Quilting Arts Magazine.

I received this lovely white potted chrysthanum (sp?) from my youngest daughter for mother's day. She gave me a very cute one last year and when it was spent I just stuck it in the garden. To my surprise it came back beautifully to flower this year for mother's day, so I requested another one for this mother's day.

The top flower is a protea. I just love these flowers and you can dry them and they last for ages.

The Brown Thang

For the past couple of days, at every available opportunity, I have been working on "The Brown Thang". The object of this quilt was to use up all those fabrics in my stash which I was not particularly fond of, or I had had for a while. As it turned out, a lot of them were brown! (see my "Stash Buster" post).

Weeeeeeell, last week I came up with an idea for the use of this quilt. It will be a perfect gift to give my father on his 80th birthday in July. (Can't believe he is eighty). Thus, I will have to get a real wiggle on with this one.

As I am currently blaming machine sewing for my neck/back pain and headaches, I am taking it really easy and just doing 10 minutes at a time and then having a nice walk around the house attending to little chores for a short time before going back to the machine. Hoping this addresses this issue. I could not bear to have to give up my sewing!

Quilt Store - Amazing Array

Yesterday we visited the most amazing quilt store in Auchenflower, Queensland Aust. The range of fabrics was astonishing and it was wall to wall, up and down and around. They also had a huge assortment of threads. Caity got very excited about her favourite sewing thread King Tut and I went wild (again) for some more Kaffe Fassett fabric. Don't know what it is about that Kaffe, he gets me in every time. Sue got some gorgeous gelato coloured co-ordinating fabrics for a bag she intends to make. Caity also got some very dreamy Japanese fabrics to die for.
You could not walk out of that shop without seeing something to spend your money on.
As is usually the case, (must be an age thing- me being the oldest of the trio) I had to use their bathroom. So down I went to the basement of this store, with a few distrations along the way, and lo and behold, another goldmine of fabrics down there. Caity and Sue must have thought I had fallen in, as I had another long goosy gander down there at all the various fabrics, Christmas, reproductions, country, you name it, they had it. Also heaps of notions and trimmings. Oh my, can this be what heaven is like??
After feeling slightly overwhelmed with all on offer, and regretting we didn't allow another few hours for browsing, we headed off to the other side of Brisbane to attend the inaugural meeting of the Queensland Quilters Art Quilters. We saw some amazing show and tell art quilts from as small as ATC's to larger quilts.
They offered members a few challenges for the upcoming months, one of them being creating a journal quilt each month up until November.
I am a little tempted, but don't want to spread myself too thinly with our Toowoomba quilters exhibition coming up. A friend and I are going to offer to co-ordinate the sales table and that is a big job on it's own. Also, I don't know yet if art quilts is where I want to head right now. I am still an old fashioned type of gal and feel very sentimental and romatic about the whole history of the traditional quilt and quiltmaking.
Even so, I feel it is quite within my capablities to produce an art quilt and I am not ruling out having a go. I have been arting and crafting since a small child of about 6years. My earliest memory of creating is my very dear and patient paternal Grandma teaching me to knit. The result - a very crude, very short scarf. To this day, I still love knitting and crochet as a pastime.

Strip Party Update and a Bath Mat

Caity has very kindly put up a slide show of our fun stripping day on the Toowoomba Quilters blog. She is very knowledgable on all things "bloggy" and does a fantastic job for our quilting group.

Already people are asking when we are going to do it again, but it may have to wait til next year as we have something planned for nearly every remaining month of this year!

I would like to have a log cabin day and do the quick and easy log cabin with scrappy strips. Will run it past everyone and see what they think about it.

(Close up)

Today at quilt group (more like play group) I finished off my chenille bath mat.

Get a load of the colour. BROWN - what is it with this brown thing? Forgot that I had bought this brown fabric out at the Highfields shop for half price some time last year. I was looking at the time for burgundy floral fabric to go with our bathroom colours. Well....the flowers are sort of burgundy! I am quite happy with the finished result and the fabric has fluffed up quite well.

Next on the agenda - finishing off some sales table stuff. Have some great ideas, but looking for more hours in each day.

Everyone stripped - and had fun

The stripping day at Toowoomba Quilters went very well, but I'se so tired now. Hubby could not understand how one could be tired after a day of fun! It was a big day though, organizing tables, refreshments, sewing, talking etc etc.

All the girls (and 1 x fellow) made some glorious blocks and I can't wait to see some of the quilts finished. "Random" was the buzz word for the day, and I couldn't believe just how random some of the quilters were, some going out of their comfort zone, as they grabbed at whatever strip fitted across their block, taking no heed of the colour, pattern etc. Funnily, even though they were selecting at random, their blocks took on a particular look e.g. bright funky colours, country style muted colours etc, obviously reflecting their fabric inclinations. One lady surprised me and was soooooo random, even using some wonky looking strips (obviously cut by someone who had partaken of a few glasses of wine), when I know she does the most beautiful precise work and makes wonderful quilts.

It was great to see our one and only male member of TQ (Alton) participate and give his sewing machine a good old workout - he has been unable to sew much lately due to harvesting on his farm.

He was joined by his wife and they sat and sewed together and chatted and he gave us girls a bit of cheek every now and then. Maybe the family that quilts together stays together. Can't see my macho hubby having a go though. Then again, I wouldn't climb ladders and climb through roofs playing with electrical wires either.

Some of this strips - they got much messier as the day went on.On a mission! Love those brights.And even brighter!! What's this? Pinning?? Surely not!

Cheeky Caity even has strips in her hair.

We are very lucky at Toowoomba Quilters to have the most wonderful venue. It is light, airy and pleny of space to move. Altogether we had 17 sewers, and really it was still quite comfortable.

Unfortunately I ran out of puff at the end of the day and didn't get any more photos of blocks as they auditioned them, but please go to www.toowoombaquilters.org and Caity may have posted more shots there.

There wasn't much sewing done at my machine, but I spent very happy hours socializing!

Strip Party - rules of engagement

1. No strip shall be "thrown back" purely on the basis of colour. This is discrimination!
(unless the colour is against your religion, or it is going to upset your whole day to use it)
2. You may throw back only if the strip is of the wrong length.
3. There will be no picking and choosing, the strip you pick up is the strip you go with.
4. No fighting or squabbling over strips.
5. You must take regular breaks to enjoy party food.
6. It is quite permissable to chat to any other person whilst stripping.
7. Rules are made to be broken.
8. Enjoy your day.

Stripping for fun at quilt group

This Saturday is going to be heaps of fun at my quilt group "Toowoomba Quilters" where I am co-ordinating a stripping day. (Gee, lucky the weather is warm)> NO, we are all sewing together.

Since I began quilting in about 1992 I have always cut left-overs from quilting projects into various size strips or squares. Over the years, I have made various strip quilts, mainly log cabins, but when I saw my friend Marleens quilt-as- you- go strippy quilt, I knew I had to make one right away. I gave that one away to my brother and sister-in-law, and they love it.

Last year we had a very successful strip party and there were some stunning results from that. We had such a great day that everybody was asking when we were going to do it again.

This one is the product of last year's strip party.

This is my contribution of strips.

Last year's stripping day even made it into the local media!! Yes, that is a veeeeery bad photo of me. (that is Marleens quilt on the wall behind me).

Stash buster

For too long I have been precious about cutting into fabrics. Yesterday and today - whoosh - they're gone. It felt quite liberating. I have embarked on a real "stash buster" quilt. In fact the poor old stash is looking a bit sick, but as it is "no spend" March, I will wait til 1st April til I give the plastic a work out. There were so many country fabrics in my collection, as this is what appealed to me a few years back, and Soooo many browns. This is very puzzling, as I don't really go for brown, but I guess it went with the country theme at the time.

At the moment it is all squares, but that will change. I will give progress blogs as we go along with this one.

Look at all those browns!!!!!!!

Record Finish

Started last Tuesday evening - finished this Tuesday. Has to be a record. Admittedly the challenge quilt is only a wee one, but even so, it is unusual for me to get stuck in and get it done. Thank goodness for deadlines. I seem to work better under a deadline, and it's always been this way. Being a chronic procrastinator is probably the reason everything is left til the last minute. It makes life interesting!
The challenge quilt I made is not a pretty one, but more a meaningful one. I will post a photo later and explain the meaning behind it (because it is not really very obvious - hubby didn't get it>) It took me so long to come up with the idea, and finally with some prodding from other members at Toowoomba Quilters I got my act together and had a go.
I used a couple of different techniques on this one that I hadn't tried before - probably should have tried them out on something unimportant first, but that is the way I operate. All in all I am reasonable happy with it. Will hand it in today, as the close off date is Saturday and hubby and I are off to the Gold Coast for the weekend to celebrate my 54th birthday.
We are doing the show at Jupiters Casino called "Zingara" courtesy of hubbys sister who works at the casino as a croupier. She got us FREE tickets, but was unable to get a discounted room for us, so we are staying elsewhere close by. Hope the weather is clearer by then, because as I write this, a tropical low with high winds is moving rapidly down the coast.

Show me the need

I have often wondered at the existence of "fabric medium" for acrylic paints. Have you ever accidentally got acrylic paint on your clothing? Then have you washed it in the wish for it to disappear? Has it ever come out?? I rest my case!!!!

Lost and Found

OMG I forgot I had this little sucker! Found it by accident (looking for something else). Damn - I could have used this on sooooooooo many occasions. It's a beauty with all its tones and thingy in the centre to put you on the right track.

I have used it already on the Toowoomba Quilters Challenge Quilt. It is proceeding along nicely considering I had an annoying little cervicogenic headache all of the day. I just pottered along and really all I have to do is the embellishment, quilting, label, hanging sleeve - hell I better get on with it! I know, I left out the binding - it is not going to be binded. Have another easier (I hope) idea for that part. Just hope it looks okay when finished - hard to invisage. Anyways, I have decided if I really don't like it, I'll cut it up and make it into commemorative postcards for the Beijing Olympics and sell them on the sales table at the exhibition. While working on it yesterday I came up with the cutest title. Alas, there is no prize for the cutest, bestest title.

Biting the Bullet

Well, I have bitten the bullet and decided to have a go at the challenge quilt. I am now on a very strict deadline as the hand in date is 16th February. Am I mad?? Don't answer that.
I have all the fabric ready to go, the pattern all set and even the backing fabric and embellishment organized. Now all I have to do is begin. Too tired tonight, maybe early in the morning - I am more of a morning person - I think - actually I'm tired all the time come to think of it.
We have had wonderful, beautiful, much appreciated rain and guess what? Our tank is finally full. Boy, wish we had another tank on the go as this afternoon it really came down again. Now it is flooding in places all over Queensland, typical Australia - from drought to flooding rains.
But...........wouldn't live anywhere else!

Needleturn

My first attempt at needleturn applique. Pretty pleased with the result, and it does seem to get easier the more you do. It is actually very enjoyable and relaxing, but each time I get to a point I hyperventilate (probably due to the fact that I am holding my breath that the whole point doesn't fray out). Wonder why the stems and leaves are all "crinkly". It won't iron out, and I don't want to push it too much with the iron.

Could it be that I didn't cut these parts on the bias? I will try that next time.

All tips and hints on needleturn applique very much appreciated.

Sewing room chaos

WHAT HAVE I DONE?

I tell you what I've done. I've started something I don't really feel like finishing. Haven't even tidied out the cupboards yet, and for sure I will have to turf some things out 'cause I have more stuff than space. HELP!! This is a waste of good sewing time.

Anyway I will go off to Toowoomba Quilters today, do some hand applique and forget about the mess at home for a while.

The great distraction at the moment is The Australian Open (tennis) - hard to leave the tele.

Pandora's Box

I decided today was the day I was going to attempt to tidy up the room of utter chaos - the sewing room/3rd bedroom.
Bedroom no more folks! This bed is going, and not before time. It was the first bed of our second child, so it was definitely time to say goodbye. There are good and bad ramifications in losing this bed.

Help!.... where am I going to secret all the junk that currently will not fit into the cupboards and was lurking under this bed?

That is the bad news.

The good news? There will be more space, and at last Iwill be able to access the bookcase easily instead of having to climb over the bed and all the crap thereon.

Me thinks I have opened a Pandora's box in trying to tidy up this room!!

More cupboards please!

I will post "after" picture when it actually happens - don't hold your breath.

My favourite summer fruit, the cherry. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Can't get enough.

1000 Pyramids

Having just re-read the last posting I must apologise for going right off and swearing and losing sight of the subject of this blog. Guess I was just hoppin' mad.

Now - back to the subject.

Somewhere over the past 13 years or so I read an article on how to do a quick and easy 1000 pyramid quilt. Traditionally, this scrappy quilt, a one-piece block, would have been hand sewn using templates and each triangle cut out separately. Often it was done as a charm quilt i.e. every pyramid would be done in a different fabric - no two the same.

P.S. I hate templates!

With this technique, it is all done on the sewing machine and leaves a lot of scope for creativity, but, will not be a charm quilt. Charming maybe! It is a good way of using up left-over fabrics from other projects though. The one pictured, is one I did quite a few years ago and became my children's favourite for throwing over their legs on a coolish night. It was made from all the "ugly" fabrics I seemed to have collected at the time, but it was done purely for trying the technique out. The most important component in achieving success with this style is the use of light and dark. This gives the quilt depth and interest.

Firstly, cut two strips from two different fabrics. (one light coloured, one dark). The length will depend on how much of the fabric you have. Remember, this is a scrap quilt. The width I used in my quilt was 4 1/2 inches, but if you want a quicker result cut them 5 or 5 1/2 (wouldn't go any bigger than this). If you are a devil for punishment, you may cut them smaller.

Put the two strips right sides together and sew a 1/4 inch seam along both long sides. Yes - both.

Place your ruler with the 60 deg line along the top edge of the strips to make your first cut.

Then flip the ruler as shown, and cut.

Open out and press to dark side. You end up with a parallelogram.Join this parallelogram to others and voila! you have your pyramids joined.

Nobody believes me when I say I did not cut one triangle to make this quilt! Have fun!!!

Sue has also done one using this technique - so have a look at a different quilt altogether.

Life goes on

Modern medical science has once again saved my father. His own Dad suffered from heart disease and for him there was no by-pass surgery, stents, etc. and he died at age 65. My Dad, who is now 79 years of age, (and his brother) have both been able to continue with a better quality of life after receiving this life-saving surgery more than once. This time around, my Dad has had another two stents (angioplasty surgery) insertered into blocked arteries and this has once again, given him another chance. We thank God. Unfortunately, because of the severity of his heart disease, there are ongoing problems with his weakened heart and lungs, but he remains positive.


Work on the quilting front of course has been at a standstill and now with Christmas looming there will be even less production no doubt. I have great aspirations for the New Year however. Look forward to practising my applique skills on the Toowoomba Quilters 2008 raffle quilt and one my "teachers" has given me some excellent instructions in a book by Elly Sienkiewicz entitled "Fancy Applique". The instructions are clear and precise and now I feel it is just practice. Thank you Caity.


The photo I am posting today is a post-card for a swap I participated in for the Queensland Quilters Picnic which was held back in May at a delightful little town called Peachester. Peachester is located in the hinterland of the beautiful Sunshine Coast and it is a tropical paradise. It was a lovely, memorable day, and in 2009 Toowoomba Quilters has been selected to hold the QQ Picnic. Very exciting!
The post card was to depict Australian Wildlife, and I chose the quintessential bird, the Budgerigar (budgie for short), and I called it "Boodiful Budgies". Budgies are more often than not bred and kept in captivity these days, but may be still seen in the wild. Domesticated birds come in all sorts of colours but the wild ones are mostly green/yellow. We don't see them around our area, but we have many other beautiful Australian birds and parrots visit us. Just wish we had the time to sit and look at them more often.
The birds were appliqued mostly on the sewing machine with a little hand embroidery and a little colouring using watercolour pencils. Next year, I would like to pursue more arty type quilting and sewing projects and my mind is racing with techniques on the list "to try".

Christmas Block of the Month at last

Close up of Bottom Section / Close up of Top Section

Here are the photos of the block of the month quilt I have been working on for 4 years (minus one border of pine trees). It was meant to take 12 months and the last block had a little note with it - Merry Christmas. Wonder which Christmas they meant? Each block was very challenging. There were some blocks which are foundation pieced but back to front!!!??!! Now, it is hard enough to do it the right way around, as anyone will tell you who has done FP. In this b of the m they call it FEFP. This stands for "frayed edge foundation piecing" and the seam is on the right side of the work. Grrrr. One just gets one's mind around foundation piecing and they throw this curly one at you. Anyway, by the end of block 12 it was just being mastered. This seemed to be the way with each block. As soon as you got it right it was time to move on and master the next challenge. But, with all this aside, it was a lot of fun to work on. The missing border is a vertical row of the pine tree, but in a darker shade of green. Will post when it is completed. I am taking this to my quilt group's Christmas break-up tomorrow for show and tell.

Would have loved to have had the last border on, but life's vagaries once again interrupted the creative output. My dear Dad decided to have a black out and be rushed into emergency yesterday morning. He is okay, but looks like heart surgery is on the agenda again this year. He just had heart surgery (a stent) in June this year, but this time it seems more to do with heart beat irregularity. He and his wife are consulting with the heart specialist this afternoon, so we will know more by this evening what he is up for.

Our second beautiful daughter has just finished her second year at university studying Musculoskeletal Therapy and has come home to us from Brisbane today to see us and her grandfather.

This blog will probably be in recess for a couple of days now, as the weekend is full on. A trip to the glorious Sunshine Coast (Caloundra) to see our first beautiful daughter and husband, and to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday. Then I will be preparing our quilt club's newsletter to be posted out on Monday. Busy busy busy................