It's Over

Another Christmas has been celebrated and survived. We have had 3 days of festivities, youngest daughter's birthday is on the 23rd Dec, Christmas Day was spent here at home with the immediate family and today we went to my sister's and spent the day with assorted family and friends.

This was the last time that we are having the extended family get together as two of my sisters & brother no longer want to do it. Next year it will be down to just my middle sister & her family, Mum and us.

I enjoyed having the girls home all at the one time, doesn't happen very often now that they have all flown the nest. Middle daughter had to work for a couple of hours yesterday and most of today and I think that it was great that she managed to make it home for lunch yesterday.

I hope everyone has had a happy & safe Christmas.

ps My sister really loved the flower quilt!

Things in the Post & Shopping

I received the the postcard & ATC's
(right) from swaps I've been in.

The theme was
Christmas and some people are very
clever with what they've done.









This week the mail man has been very busy. He brought me this very quirky wall hanging (left) from my friend in NZ. I'm sorry the detail doesn't show up very well here. It's a crazy lady (looking a lot like me) running amok snipping everything in sight with her trusty scissors. You just have to smile when you look at it.





Wednesday I went to lunch with a girlfriend and of course we had to do a little retail therapy. I bought 16.5 metre of fabric for a grand total of $24.75. I plan to use these as quilt backing through the coming year. I bought some more black and white fq's for a project that I have in mind for a next year - a b & w grandmother's flower garden quilt, English paper pieced. Something to take with me when we're travelling about.

Also bought 6 reels of quilting thread that was on special on a buy one, get one free from a local quilt shop.

Christmas is coming

I'm happy to say that all my Christmas gifts are wrapped and ready to go under the tree. Just need to get the fresh vegetables etc next week and everything is under control.

Today I packed away my sewing things from the dining table and I'm already having withdrawal symptoms. The house has been tidied, beds made up for the girls on Christmas Eve, middle daughter has to work Christmas Day for a couple of hours but will be home for lunch. She works again on Boxing Day, Jan 26th so won't be able to attend the extended family lunch.

I'm participating in the Four Seasons winter swap and with luck I'll come up with some ideas, very hard to think 'winter' when it's been so hot here.

In case I don't get a chance to post again this week, I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and all the best for the coming year.

Christmas quilting

This is the ballet bag I made for my 7 y.o. niece Matilda. Purple has been her favourite colour for as long as I can remember, this year pink has become another favourite.

The ballerina is an iron on patch. I was going to applique a pair of ballet slippers but this caught my eye and I thought it would look better.



























These are a couple of the ATC's I made for a recent swap, I must have deleted the picture of the third one I made. I've been playing with the macro setting on the camera, looking at these pictures I need a little more practice.


I am also in a Christmas postcard swap and finished off my postcards today, they are all ready to mail in the morning.

Daughters & Cars

Life in this household has been fairly hectic of late. Middle daughter has moved house yet again, her new flat is very central to shops, public transport etc. It has been freshly painted and has new flooring. She is sharing with a girlfriend from school.

Christmas shopping has been started and nearly completed, I spent two days shopping last week, one at Fountain Gate and the other at Chadstone, talk about shop 'til you drop. Called into Spotlight and bought some pre-quilted fabric to make my 7 y.o. niece a ballet bag. Will post a picture when it's finished. There hasn't been a lot of other sewing done.

Last night youngest daughter was in a car accident. Fortunately no-one was injured but her car is a write-off. We took the car trailer down to the city today and brought her car home. Now we have to start the claim via our insurance company. I have loaned her my old car so she can get to work and home again.

She is planning on moving closer to her job and if she gets the place she applied for this week she will be within walking distance of the book shop where she works.

Flower Quilt

There was no wind whatsoever today until I went outside to take this photo. Every time I took a shot the breeze would lift the bottom of the quilt. I was too lazy to go back inside to get the masking tape to hold the quilt flat.

This quilt is a Christmas gift for my younger sister. The floral blocks were made by different people and I've had them packed away since 2004 when the row by row swap finished.

I have shadow quilted around each of the flower sprays, stitched in the ditch around the dark green borders and stippled the cream background.

I still have to make the label and think up a name for the quilt, any suggestions?

Thanks to all who have sent messages and prayers for my mothers, I'm so pleased that they are both on the mend.

Mother's ..... Part 3 & Something Quilty

There is good news and not so good news. My
Mum is fine, nothing showed up in any of the tests she had. Mum-in-law is still in hospital, she has had a shoulder replacement and pin inserted into her arm. At 90 years of age she is finding everything very confusing. We don't know yet whether she will return to the retirement home or have to go into a nursing home. Mum is fine, nothing showed up in any of the tests she had. Mum-in-law is still in hospital, she has had a shoulder replacement and pin inserted into her arm. At 90 years of age she is finding everything very confusing. We don't know yet whether she will return to the retirement home or have to go into a nursing home.

I just love the colour of this rose, my Mum has one in her garden and bought one for me after I admired it. Of course I've forgotten the name of the rose.

This morning I spent an hour mowing some of the lawn, with all the rain last weekend the grass (and weeds) have really taken off.

This is the centre block of the blue quilt I'm making,. At present I'm working on the machine applique of all those little pieces. The centre will measure 36 ' square when completed. The 40 12.5" blocks that make up the rest of the quilt are finished. I might redo one of them though as I'm not completely happy with it.

I've finished quilting the floral row x row, now to trim and do the binding. This will be a Christmas present for my younger sister - the one who pointed out that everyone has a quilt except her.

My Christmas shopping is going very slowly, I have started but only just. Finally decided to give eldest daughter's boyfriend/partner a pair of my hand knitted socks. We don't know him very well and that's all I could think of. What to get for my brother still has me stumped. We do a Kris Kringle for the adults in the family so I only have to think of two gifts.........you'd think it would be easy!

Mother's! cont'd

Both Mums are on the mend. My Mum has had a heap of tests and we're waiting for the results. My Mum-in-law ended up having a cast put on her broken arm and is finding life a little difficult. She is 86 and this fall has taken it's toll. Thanks to all who sent their good wishes.

On a quilty note, I have begun the quilting on the row by row. I had enough background material to do what I wanted to and fingers crossed there will be enough of the dark green for the binding. I'll post a couple of pictures when there's something to look at.

Mother's!

It seems to be the week for both my Mum & my Mum-in-law to have falls. Monday evening my Mum had a fall and is now sporting a couple of very black eyes. She got to have a ride in the ambulance and spent the night in hospital. Every day this week my sister gets to take Mum for various tests etc. I'll be pleased when we know what's going on.

Mum-in-law had a fall in the nursing home yesterday and has broken her arm.....up near the shoulder. They can't put it in plaster so she will be trussed up for the next 6 weeks or so. She is still in hospital. Himself can't go and visit her as he has caught one of the various flu bugs going around and he doesn't want her to get it.

To brighten this up I took a picture of the first bunch of roses I've picked this year.

A Work in Progress (or a UFO?)

After my recent tidy of the stash and finding all these WIP's (works in progress) that some would call UFO's I decided that I should attempt to finish some of them.

This quilt dates back to 2003 when I was in a row by row swap with an online group. When it came home I wasn't sure what to do with it so the rows have been waiting patiently for me to be inspired.

I cut the pansy row into 3 blocks, bordered them and all the other rows with a mottled dark green and this is the result so far. Sorry you can't see the pansies in the top row very well, I couldn't take a picture of the quilt hanging as the top & bottom rows aren't joined yet.

I might just have enough of the cream background fabric for the side borders if not I'll just bind it as is with the dark green.

Thanks to all who have left comments, makes me feel that I'm not talking to myself.

Four Seasons Fall Quilt

Fabric fondling is the best way to calm your nerves after a harrowing experience.

Yesterday I had a face to face confrontation with a metre long tiger snake. Not one of my favourite things to meet.

My day was much improved when I received my fall swap quilt from Dorian in LaGrange Park, Il.

Dorian was also kind enough to enclose some fabric. A very big thank you Dorian for the quilt and the fabric, the quilt is perfect colours for my family room and will be on display for all to see. We're going into summer here but that isn't important.



I also received my 'cream to gold' charms from another swap I'm in.

Wouldn't it be lovely if the postman brought squishy fabric parcels everyday?

I couldn't go to my regular sewing day this week so I've been working on my blue quilt at home, only 6 more blocks and the centre to do and it will be finished. I'm thinking of doing some type of floral applique in the centre. Will complete all the 12" blocks first and see what I think.

A UFO bites the Dust

It has taken 12 months but this table runner is finally finished. All that needed doing was the binding.

I had wanted to do the binding in the maroon, unfortunately I didn't have enough. Working only from the stash can be a bit tricky. To tell the truth I didn't think I had enough of any of the colours used so this poor little table runner has been sitting on the bottom of the UFO pile.

A couple of weeks ago I thought it would be a good idea to tidy up the stash and put all the fabric adorning the dining table, piano and various other bits of furniture back where it belonged.

Much to my surprise I found enough of the cream for the binding, just made it with a 3 inch strip to spare.

Odd Socks

These are the latest socks to come hot off my needles. I made them from wool I purchased on ebay and I didn't notice until I'd finished that they are both slightly different.

My middle daughter has been after me to make her some more sock so she might get these. She really wants some with cables or patterns but I like to knit while watching TV and don't want to do anything that needs a lot of concentration.

Coming up to summer I probably won't be doing all that much knitting. I have started another pair of socks and was thinking of crocheting a bolero style to for number 3 daughter. Decisions, decisions.

I posted off my 4Seasons swap over two weeks ago and still haven't heard if it has arrived, do hope it hasn't gone astray in the mail. It went overseas so will wait a day or 2 more before I start chasing it up.

Spring

I have a new camera, just a cheapie but at least it works without too many hassles and swear words like my older one.

Now, I just have to master the art of using this new little gadget, the older I get the less technical minded I become.

I can remember getting very frustrated with my parents every time they bought some new electrical appliance, I was the one that had to read all the instructions. Now I find myself doing the same thing!

Anyway, this morning I took some pictures around the garden.




After lunch we took a walk up the paddock to open the gate for the cows. They weren't overly impressed with having their picture taken and turned their backs on me.


Looking around you wouldn't think that we live in a 'drought declared' area. The recent rains and early warm weather has greened the countryside. Our annual rainfall is still way down on the average. We're very thankful for what rain we've had.
The blackwood trees didn't do too well, the lack of rain has really affected them

They are along the boundary of the same paddock the cows in the earlier picture.
At least we will have a plentiful supply of fire wood when they drop their branches.

Finished Fall Quilt

This is the front and back of my Fall Quilt for the Four Seasons Swap, I posted it off earlier this week and now I have my fingers crossed that the recipient will like what I've done. I've called it "When the leaves fall, the geese fly north for the winter."
I told you it was a long name for a little quilt.

Landscape Quilt

I have been slowly plodding away on the landscape quilt. Today I decided to add the borders. I have already done some free motion stitching and when I sandwich it I will quilt around all the trees, hills etc.

I surprised myself and managed to get the mitres on the outer border right the first time.

I still have to applique or embroider the dead trees in front of the bottom dam.

I'm pleased to be ahead of schedule with this instead of leaving it until the last minute.





This picture on the left is the one I worked from for this quilt, I will admit to using a little 'artistic licence.' You will also notice that the quilt is a mirror image of the original picture.

Spring

Last week I took these pics of the cherry plum trees in the back garden. Spring has well and truly arrived.

We had pretty windy condition on Thursday and most the blossom has blown away. It looked like it was snowing at times.






Today I plan on mowing some of the lawn and helping DH put the fence up along the back of the vegie garden. Since we moved the garden further up the yard the vegies are suffering from the strong winds we've had lately.

It's a nice day for working outside. I really feel like curling up with a book or my knitting and taking it easy today.

It was my middle sisters 50th birthday during the week and last night we went out to celebrate with family and friends at a restaurant close to their home. The food and company were both great and I'm glad we went even if it was a two hour drive home.

Quilt Show

Yesterday DH and I went down to visit my Mum and take her out for lunch. I'd read of a quilt show in Mt Eliza so we visited that before going to lunch.

Mum had never been to a quilt show before and I think that she enjoyed herself. We saw lots of lovely quilts, unfortunately I didn't take the camera.

We had lunch at the local RSL (returned services club) in Frankston, the meal was very nice and the place wasn't overcrowded. Saved me having to cook a meal that night.

A friend gave us some daphne and I'm attempting to strike cuttings. I love daphne and over the years I've tried grow it without any success. Keeping my fingers crossed this time. We have also been getting the vegetable garden ready. We've planted out broccoli (some weeks ago but still a little late), silver beet, broad beans and lettuce.

Soon we will start building the glass house, I say we but it is DH's project - I just get to act as the builders lackey.

Dratted Binding!!

I was hoping to have my Fall quilt finished today, did the backing yesterday and put the binding on. When I looked at this morning I wasn't very happy about how I'd stitched it down so I've unpicked the lot and will have another go tomorrow.

Sorry, no photos this time, you might be able to read the labels. lol. Pictures will have to wait until after the quilt arrives at it's new home.

For a little quilt, it sure has a very long name.

Decided to add this pic, just to give you something to look at. It was taken here on the farm.

More Pics

Some more pictures of my heritage quilt. The quilt is made up of 40 x 12.5 inch blocks with a 36 inch centre block.

I made a similar quilt a few years ago and the ladies I sew with on Tuesday wanted me to help them make the quilt. My original quilt was made using seeded homespun with cream lace and doyleys and a number of beige to brown threads for the stitching.

For a change I decided to use a blue background with white lace etc. After making the first few blocks I thought it needed a little something to give it a lift so I chose the colours you can see in the previous post.

I've also used a number of seed beads on the lace as a highlight. We have 20 blocks near enough finished and that means we're just about halfway.

Four Seasons, 2nd installment

As I was working on this little project yesterday, I had a sudden thought........ what if the recipient looks at it and thinks "Yuck!"

I'm thinking whether to do an applique or a stitchery in the centre panel, we'll see what happens.

Two posts in one day, I'd better go and finish cooking dinner.

Blue Quilt

As promised yesterday here are some pics of my heritage quilt, just one of my current projects. The blocks still need to be trimmed to size.

I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on.......

This morning I packed up my sewing things and went off to meet up with my sewing group.

Remembered everything except the wadding for my quilt as you go heirloom quilt that we're making.

I spent the day tracing the applique patterns onto vliesofix and ironing them to the blocks. I now have four blocks ready to be stitched down.

We have now completed 20 of the forty blocks needed.

Tomorrow, if time permits I will post some pics of the finished blocks.

Four Seasons, Step One

This is the first installment of my autumn/fall quilt

I have come up with an idea and I hope it works.

Today I selected all the fabrics that I want to use, this is going to be a scrappy little quilt.

Except for the borders and binding each fabric will only be used once.

Four Seasons

Sometimes I wonder what I've gotten myself into. Last night I received my partner in this swap. After looking at her blog all my previous ideas have been thrown out the window......... back to the drawing board.

Had a quick look through some books and online and have a glimmer of an idea. We'll see how it goes.

Landscape Swap

As you can see the landscape wall hanging has progressed slowly. I have done a little more than is shown here.

Still trying to decide how to frame/border this quilt.

I'm feeling quite pleased that my better half recognised what it is supposed to be.

It has been very windy, last night 2 trees were blown down, tomorrow if it isn't too wet we will go and retrieve some more firewood.

Quilt Swap - Four Seasons

Thanks to Sheila for the help with adding the Four Seasons blog logo. We are both joining in this swap and I'm looking forward to the challenge. Hopefully I'll be able to get all four mini quilts completed.
I'll keep you posted.

Landscape Swap

This is one of my current projects, it is a wall hanging for a swap with one of my online groups. I have until December to get it finished. I'm trying to be organised and get it done ahead of time. I'm working from a photo looking up the valley from our eastern boundary. I'm interested in how it will finally turn out. I'm not very good at sticking to my original plans, quilts always seem to take on a mind of their own.

Winter Post Cards

Sorry these pics of the winter themed postcards that I made aren't the best. I was playing around with discharge dyeing and this is the result. The darker strips on the left of the postcards are what the fabric colour was originally, a black with grey/white spots and a navy homespun. I placed leaves from a daisy bush onto the fabric and then sprayed it with a diluted bleach solution.
Some of the fabrics I used didn't change colour at all, rather disappointing that, lol.

A Drive in the Country

Yesterday the man of the house decided we should go out, we seem to have been spending a lot of time around home lately, gardening and working on the shed.









We ended up going to Warburton and having a delicious morning tea at the 'Patchwork Teahouse' . This was my first visit there and it is a delightful shop. I'll have to go back and do a little retail therapy when I'm with like minded quilters.

The road did not have a lot of traffic and we managed to spot a lyrebird as we drove along. It's a lovely trip driving through the forest of gums and tree ferns.

A visit to the Tourist Information Centre and Museum was very interesting. I hadn't realised how many floods there have been over the years.

With the bush fires earlier this year and then all the rain we've had recently, the town water in Warburton and surrounding areas is unfit to drink. The local council have a number of large water tanks placed in public areas all clearly marked as 'drinking water'.

Birthdays and Quilts

This is the quilt I'm working on for my SIL b'day next month, in fact it's only a couple of weeks away now. I'll have to search through the stash to see if I have any of the dark navy left for the binding. It should be there somewhere, just where, is the question?????









It has been a cold and wet week, freezing temperatures and even a little snow.

It has also been my lqs 20th birthday and to celebrate they had 20% off everything in the shop. Of course I had to pay one or two visits. The bolt of fabric is for backings, no excuse now not to finish some of the tops inhabiting the sewing room.

I didn't buy very much, a little fabric, some wadding and basting spray. I did help my friend to enhance her stash though, lol.

Birthday Parties

Last Saturday, July 7th, was my mother-in-laws 90th birthday. Sixteen of us gathered together to celebrate with a birthday lunch in Melbourne. It was a very enjoyable day, lots of laughter and funny family stories. It was a great chance to catch up with those we don't see regularly.

July 5th is our middle daughters birthday so we had a double celebration.

July and August are busy birthday times in our family, with six birthdays in as many weeks. Next month both my second sister and my brother's wife will be celebrating their 50th birthdays. Yesterday I decided to give my SIL a quilt (she pointed out recently that I'd given nearly everyone else one and she didn't have one!).

With this in mind I went and had a look at my WIPs (works in progress) and found the perfect top. It is blue & cream, embroidered teapots & cups and the blocks are set in attic windows. I've sandwiched it, and started quilt. I'll post a picture or two when I get a chance to take some.

The embroidered blocks are from an internet swap I was in a couple of years ago.

Scarves

It is my Mother-in-laws 90th birthday next week so I decided to knit her a scarf. It multi coloured one is for her and the other one is for my DD1. The bluey/green one is doubled over here and then folded in half again, she wanted it to be really long.

It is also our middle DDs birthday this coming weekend.

Back to the sock knitting tonight.

Three post in one day is enough, probably won't have anything to say for days now, lol.

Works in Progress

The Gelati Quilt

I've been playing around with my hand-dyed fabrics and this is the result. I still have to add the blue borders and decide how to quilt it. Without the borders it measures 60 inches square. As usual my youngest daughter has put her name on this quilt.





The Op-Shop Quilt

I found this little quilt in one of the local op-shops. It had been sandwiched & pinned. The backing fabric was faded and it had a poly batting so I pulled it apart, found a new backing and cotton wadding. It is 95% quilted but I ran out of the thread I was using in the bobbin and I'm waiting for some more to arrive in the mail. None of the lqs had it in stock.

Blue Quilt

I thought it was about time I posted some pics of what I'm currently working on. This quilt is roughly based on the Jenny Haskins 'Pfaff Cream Quilt.' I completed the cream version a few years ago and thought it would be fun to do again, this time with a coloured background.


I've completed 5 blocks and partly completed another 4. The blocks still need to be cut to size.

The camera battery died so I couldn't take any more pictures.