Op Shop Bargains!

Yesterday morning I went to the library and for coffee with a friend. On our way home we visited the local op-(thrift) shop. I found these two bargains, my youngest daughter has been wanting an old style hand beater/mixer for ages and I thought that the apron was too good to pass up. All the work that has gone into the apron and for only 50c! I'm sure she will be pleased with the new additions for her kitchen.

All Finished

All my handmade Christmas gifts are finally finished. The bag is for our oldest daughter and the pink cushion is for the youngest.

The cushion is to match the quilt top that I made when we went to Phillip Island. I hope to get the top finished sometime in the New Year but I'm not making any promises, lol.

Christmas Gifts

Yesterday I made these two cushions for middle daughter as part of her Christmas gifts.

I have one more cushion to make for our youngest daughter and then I'm all finished.

Still need to wrap everything and find a Christmas tree.

Such a relief to have all the shopping/gift making finished.

A Recent Visitor

This male King Parrot was a recent visitor to our backyard. He seemed to be very tame, inquisitive. and posed for photos without any problems. He was approx a metre from me when I took these pics.

I did think that he had come to feast on our fig tree but he seemed much more interested in what we were doing to the hydroponic garden experiment.

Mail - Coming and Going

I was lucky enough to win this shopping bag in a give-away from Jan at Jan's Musing it folds up nicely and fits into it's own pocket for easy storage. I do like the label which reads "Hey Fantastic Look No Plastic." Thanks very much Jan.









...and now some ATC's that will be going out in the mail before the end of the month.

The birthday postcard has already been sent and received.

Around the World in 20 Quilts Challenge

Today is the day we unveil our Stellar creations from the AW20Q challenge. The challenge this time was to make an A4 size quilt and the theme was 'Stellar.' I didn't know the word could have so many meanings.

I had a couple of false starts and finally decided to try needle felting. I've used black felt for the background and a mixture of wool, mohair, silk and angelina fibres to make my cosmos.

I have also used silver metallic thread.

Seed beads of various colours were used to represent stars or particles of cosmic dust.

The quilting is in a circular direction to signify the spinning cosmos. I used raw edge stitching to finish the quilt.

Where are the days going??

I am surprised at how quickly the days are going, it's the end of November already! My sewing machine and I have been spending a bit of time together but with the weather being wet and windy I haven't taken any photos of what I've been stitching. I did make these postcards for a swap and I've popped them in the mail today.



This is a picture of the blue tongue lizard that lives under our back patio. He has an annoying habit of popping up in the least likely places and giving me heart failure as I think it's a snake when I here the rustling.

He has been living around the house since he was about 6" (15 cm) long, he is more than double that now. I have been trying to get a photo of him for ages but he is pretty camera shy.

More quilt pictures will be coming shortly.

In the garden.......

I was mowing the grass yesterday, one of those things that I don't really enjoy but has to be done and I thought I'd post some pictures of the garden.

My Mum gave me this rose, I just love the colour and it also has a nice perfume. It's one of my favourites.

It was so windy here at the weekend that most the other roses have been savaged by the wind.


This is a picture of my very neglected orchid, it is badly in need of repotting. I was so annoyed with it not flowering that I moved it around to the back of the house and lo and behold this year there are four flower spikes.

The yellow climbing rose is still a work in progress, it's only been in a year or so.

Hexagons & Pink Quilts

Last week I pent 3 days away with my quilting buddies. We had a great time shopping, sewing and eating out. We each made a quilt top, this is the one I made. They are all the same except we've each used slightly different colours. I've just realised that this picture doesn't have the striped border. Will have to post another pic next time. My youngest daughter saw the fabric for this quilt and has commented on how nice it would be on her bed. She loves anything in pink. Might just have to get it finished in time for Christmas or her birthday on Dec 23rd.My hexagon quilt is coming along slowly. I'm up to the outer borders now. I was going to put three rows of the black hexagons around the edge but think it will look too heavy. Might do a couple of rows of the background colour and then see if it needs anymore borders.

Spring is Here

Not a lot has been happening on the quilting front so I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of the garden.

With the arrival of the warmer weather the 'Man of the House' decided it was time to do some gardening.A little excessive I thought!

Looking towards the lilacs and the second of the 'no-dig' gardens, we're using re-cycled tanks as the garden beds. Just planted lettuce, capsicum, onion and silver beet in this one. We've just had to cover it with netting as the birds have been having fun scratching through the mulch and most the seedling have been up-rooted.

Once again we missed out on pruning all the apple trees but the display of blossoms makes up for the lack of apples.




The first of the 'no-dig' tanks gardens. I planted cos lettuce, silver beet, garlic, coriander, thyme, parsley, sage and chives in this one. We have so much cos lettuce that I can't give it away. I've been picking it for months now and with the warmer weather it seems to grow overnight.

At last some quilty pictures

My Disappearing (or chopped-up) 9 patch quilt has been completed. I thought I'd posted a picture of this in an earlier post but obviously not.







I have been busily finishing things off over the past month or so. This is the green quilt from the strip swap.

The quilting is different size leaves, free motion, I thought they would look good on the green background. Some of my leaves have very unique shapes, lol.










A close up of the quilting. I used a variegated thread for the quilting.








After knitting the red socks I decided to be a little more creative and add a pattern. In real life the red socks are bright red, not as pinky as they show up here.

New Challenge

Now that the Tree challenge has finished on AW20Q
we have been given the theme for the second challenge - Stellar - lots of ideas are whirling around in my head. Tie dyeing, wool felting, beading, embroidery??? And there is more than meaning of stellar. Thinking busily here.

Disappearing 9 Patch & Recent Purchases

Over the past 18 months or so I have been trying not to buy any new fabric and use what's in the stash. I've stuck to this pretty well but a girl has to break out every now and then. These are the fabrics I bought in New Zealand when we were there:
I only got 1/2 metre of each. Thought they'd be good for landscapes.


These 2 lots I bought just because I liked the colours.....what better reason?

Today I am going to start a quilt using the brown floral & the matching fabrics. I'm still trying to get over buying the orange, definitely not something I'd usually purchase.

Haven't decided yet what to do with the stripes, spots and floral, maybe a bag??

Something else finished

I forgot that I'd also finished this table runner last week

Bags, This 'n That

I'm surprised this week that I've actually managed to catch up with most of my swap commitments, it's a good feeling to be up to date. Now, if only I could get the housework caught up with, a spring clean is definitely on the books.

I had plans to finish the quilting on the Disappearing 9-Patch today but got caught up helping out with the cattle. Never a dull moment around here.

I did get this bag finished, had it all nicely stitched and was admiring my handiwork when I discovered that I'd stitched a flower-head pin inside the lining.

It looks aqua here but is a blue/grey colour in real life.

I also finished this months block for the Home Sweet Home BOM I'm working on, the block was supposed to be two birds. Every time I attempt to applique birds they look like something from a horror movie ...... beware the killer birds!! My quilt will be a little different to all the others as my block contains a flower garden.

This is a picture of the blocks I've completed so far. This quilt is in country/autumn colours. Once again I'm only using fabric from my stash (with a little from a friend when I need a better colour).

Home Sweet Home

I've just finished sewing the binding on this little wall hanging. It is for a swap I participated in with one of my quilt groups.

I have also been working on a couple of other things and will post pictures of them soon.

Sorry the colour is a little dark.

Trees

My tree challenge quilt is finally finished and before the deadline too!!

The fabrics are all hand dyed, the trees are decorated with sequins, beads, angelina fibres and buttons.

I wanted to make something bright and cheerful and I think this works.



Close-ups of the trees.

Tree Challenge cont'd....

My trees are slowly growing. There have been comments from a certain member of the household.....he thinks they look like balloons, lol.
Some people have no sense of imagination!

Hopefully tomorrow I will get time to finish off the last little tree and I can post a picture of them all 'dressed up'

Trees

I started my tree quilt yesterday. As usual the hardest part was finally deciding what to do.

It's a pretty rough sketch but gives me something to work from.

I want this to be a bright, nonsensical little quilt so have picked some of my hand dyed fabrics for this project.

The trees have been cut out and fixed to the background. Today when I finish being a builders assistant I will start the background quilting and with luck be ready start stitching the embellishments on tonight.

Disappearing 9 Patch

As I mentioned back in April (that seems like so long ago now) I found a bunch of 6" 9 patch blocks and turned them into disappearing 9 patch blocks.



Since then I've participated in another 9 patch swap, this time using 9" blocks. Rather than have two smaller quilts I've combined the two swaps to make a lap quilt.

Initially I had the smaller blocks in the centre then changed my mind (of course I didn't change it until I'd stitched everything together).

I'm thinking about backing it with polar fleece - no wadding - and then quilting it. Decisions, decisions, lol.

Summer Quilt Finished

This is my finished my quilt for the Four Seasons Summer Quilt Swap, I'm pleased with how it has turned out and hope the recipient likes it.



Lovely cool blue/greens remind me of the ocean on a hot summer day. It will be in the mail in the next few days.

Where do the hours go??

I have been busily working on my Four Seasons summer quilt, it hard to tell from the picture but the background is a very pale green. I'm thinking lovely cool refreshing colours to take the sting out of a hot day. This is the centre block, I've since put it on point and added the borders.

Also making ATCs to swap and quilting a quilt for a friend. It is to be a 25th wedding anniversary gift for her sister & brother-in-law.


I have been trying to get up to date with all my commitments so I can think about the challenge with the online group Around the World in 20 Quilts . The first challenge is 'Trees' I have some ideas about what I'd like to do and will try to get started next week. The fabrics have all been selected and they are crying out to be used.