Doing my Block

After the family left today I dashed into the sewing room to do a Japanese block for my up-coming sashiko quilt. 

It was a struggle due to the @@##$$! cream fabric which was a monstrosity.  A very open weave fabric which, of course, had a propensity to fray badly and stretch out of shape.  I bought this fabric because the osnaburg fabric I was originally going to use was too open weave.  I should have saved my money!!  Next time I will back the fabric with some special interfacing I bought recently so I could use the osnaburg.  I sure was doing my block!!  Don’t think I will use this block in the quilt.


The block called Yamato kasuri igeta comes from this fabulous book which I love – author, Susan Briscoe.  I plan to do many more blocks and sashiko pieces from this book.

Family snaps from today.  Our daughter, Bonnie, visited for the weekend from Brisbane.
(Left) Bonnie with Dad who is out of hospital now and feeling much, much better.
(Middle) Gorgeous Bonnie in the squatters chair.
(Right) Bonnie and Lilian on the swing Grandad made for her.
A beautiful Autumn day here today with warm sunshine and just a hint of crispness in the air.

Scrap Bash

 
This is my 'Scrap Bash' quilt top finished.  I am quite pleased with it and looking forward now to doing the herringbone embroidery on it and completing it.  The colours are great and I think it is the wonderful Kaffe Fassett scraps I have used that give it some zip.  It was so much fun to make and I'm sure I would have enough to do another one.
Do scraps ever finish????  I guess not as long as we keep making quilts!!
I have decided to give this one to number 2 daughter who hasn't yet got one of my lap quilts.  She lives in Brisbane where she won't need it a lot, but during winter, it will be just the right weight to keep the chills away.

The herringbone embroidery will be done on the seams in a perle cotton.  A good summer project.

Time Flies

Time flies when you're having fun.  This month has been quite a fun month around here, starting with the quilt retreat in early October.  I will tell you a bit of what I've been up to since then.

Firstly came a decision to start yet another quilt.  This time it is all about 'stash busting'.  I am now half way through making the top of this quilt, and  there are plenty of scraps still to go.  For as long as I have been quilting I have cut left over bits of fabric into strips.  I love the randomness of this - just picking up any old strips and joining them up where they fit.  It is a lot of fun.

Once I have all the top put together I intend to hand stitch the seams.  Possibly with herringbone stitch.  That should keep me out of mischief!!

Last Thursday a friend and I caught a bus down to Brisbane and went to the Queensland Quilt show.  The quilt I showed you here after our exhibition, Silk purses and crazy bags, by Robyn Ginn, won Best of Show.  You can see all the winners here on the Qld Quilters web site.http://www.qldquilters.com/

I enjoyed looking at the art quilts, but time was limited and I had to do a very quick whizz around the display.  

I loved this quilt by Denise Griffiths called "Waratahs and Wildflowers for Dad". 

 I thought this quilt by Lorraine Carthew was very spectacular.  "Memorable Women".

There were a lot of fantastic quilts on show and it was huge.  We spent a lot of time looking at all the merchant stalls and going to a couple of demos.

A lovely day out.

A Lesson in Piecing

The first block for the table runner is done - I am reasonably pleased with it as I feel I am not the world's best piecist (this is a new quilting word). It is made up of some very small pieces and this has presented a bit of a challenge. I have done some smaller stars for the pattern as well, but they will not be blogged, because they are soooooo badly pieced. You see, I have learnt a valuable lesson from them, and that is not to be in such a goddamn hurry!

Slow down old girl slow down, (this was the mantra).

It worked!! Can't wait to do the other three of this block, and then it will be just a matter of joining all the blocks with joining triangles (going to use the feature fabric for this) and binding it etc. Have to have a little rest from the machine tonight though, as I need to be headache free and healthy for a shop down town with my little sister tomorrow morning.

BTW - the feature fabric is from a chain-store type fabric store with ordinary service - you will guess where I mean? My daughter chose it, and I think she chose well.

Oh well, off to get some dinner now - oh that reminds me - good news - since Christmas I have managed to drop about 4 kilos. This has only happened through eating plain old healthy food and no exercise (I hate exercise). I know I should exercise but everything hurts as it is!!

Table Runner

These are the fabrics my no 1 daughter chose for her table runner (which is to be used on her hall table). She liked the teals and lemons to go with a seaside theme, as they live near Currimundi Beach on the beautiful Sunshine Coast.

The pattern I have chosen has lots of itsy bitsy bits, so I hope I can be accurate and that the whole thing goes together okay. I will post updates as I go along.