What I’m Working On

Hello lovely readers.

I’ve been working on a real hodge podge of things at the moment.  None of them are particular photo worthy but I’ll do my best to make this an interesting post!

Part of my bucket list is to do most of Quiltville’s scrap quilts.  I’ve been sewing these little blocks (chunky churn dashes) when I have some sewing machine time and they have stitched together beautifully.  I was determined to not purchase a single bit of fabric and I’m pleased to say I succeeded!

I’ll show you the whole thing tomorrow, I pieced a lovely piano key border which went on so easily – sometimes sewing works, doesn't  it?

Lovely quilt.  More tomorrow.

Our group is making a Lucy Boston quilt as a raffle quilt, and whilst the main blocks are done, we have 249002818 connector blocks to make before we can finish it.  I spent a long time kitting up the blocks for the group members to do their bit, and slowly but surely, I think it’s coming along.

It’s not much fun doing these blocks.  Not compared to the lovely main coloured ones.  But they need doing, and by kitting them up I can take them to ballet or netball and stitch while I wait.  Can I recommend that you do this step WHILST you do the fun blocks, and not leave them till the end?  Cause it’s BORING.

I made myself another Lucy Boston.  They are leaning towards pink/brown and I don’t want that to happen.  It’s funny how blocks go the way they want to go.  I’ll have to get someone else to pick out some fabrics for me, I can see if that works better.

And another lovely twisted hexagon to add to the pile.  I can do one in about ten minutes, so in a couple of hours ballet down time, I can get quite a few done.  But I’ve had to backburner this one, I’m too busy piecing the aforementioned Lucy Boston connectors.

And in something totally different, I’ve pulled out the Gloria Loughman I started so long ago.  I’m waiting to see if something hits me.  I’ve already taken the dots off, I decided I didn’t like them.

So that’s where I’m up to.  Hodge Podge.

Hope you’re all doing well, hope my readers in Far North Queensland are still coping – take care up there!

Jewel Box

Another flimsy done to show you.

Do you remember when the only quilts you knew how to make where the traditional ones?  Churn Dash, Pinwheels, and the classic jewel box?

This one stretches back so far.  I’m not even sure when I first made these blocks, but I know I made one whole quilt from these fabrics and had enough to make a second, smaller version.  This is what’s been sitting in my UFO box for years and years and years.

As with all my jobs, this one took an afternoon to be finished.  Might make a nice lap quilt for someone who needs it, I think.

Today is much cooler, after a week or two of hot, hot, HOT.  We had a late start to summer this year and we are certainly paying for it now.  I am patiently waiting for Autumn, which we are officially a month into now – but mother nature has other ideas!

I hope you’ve had time to sew today.  See you soon!

Deli Geese Quilt

Many moons ago I was participating in an online Block Of The Month via Pat Speth of Nickel Quilts. 

She had designed a new block set up – the Deli Geese blocks.  It looked different, and so of course I thought I must have a go at this!

I did my usual Suzie trick.  Went Gung Ho for a while, and it gradually petered out to nothing.

As part of my 2017 push to get stuff done, I’ve cut my losses, not made the whole set of blocks, but made enough to get a very nice quilt top out of it.

 

It was something I enjoyed while I was making the blocks and I’m glad that I’ve got it to a top stage.

Now I will think about what to do next with it.  Magically learn feather quilting and fill in all those big gaps, I think.

Yep.  That’s what I’ll do.

Have a lovely day!

A Rose By Any Other Name

Hello to you from a lovely, windy South Australia.  It’s been hot and muggy the past few days, and today we’ve woken up to a lovely cool breeze.  I’ve thrown all the windows open and the breeze is flowing beautifully through the house. 

I’ve been a finishing fiend these last few months.  I’ve really not started anything new, and I’ve been slowly crossing things off my list that have been half done.  I’ve not brought anything at all really, despite visiting Spotlight more than once.  I may have finally reached saturation point with my craft.  There is only so many quilts I can make, jumpers I can knit. 

Who would have thought I would have got to this point? Certainly not me!

The photo above was another one of those things.  A challenge entry for a quilt show that was held years ago.  Needless to say, I didn’t get to enter it into that challenge.  Turns out it needed only half an evening to machine quilt and bind the thing and it is done. 

So many little jobs that I put off.  I don’t know why I do that.  I think the logic with this one was that I was going to hand quilt it.  So it sat there for years, waiting for me to have the time to sit and hand quilt it.  For what purpose?  To sit in a bag for years later?

Nope.  Machine quilted it and it’s done.  As to what happens with it now, I don’t know. 

We are currently halfway through a public holiday.  No time for me to sew today, I’m taking the opportunity to get my jobs done.  Big week this week for us (sigh… aren’t they all?).  Two funerals, a half day volunteering at a charity shop, an all day sewing day (looking forward to that one!).  Baby daughter has to be at school at 7.00 am for a school excursion tomorrow – bags need packing, stuff needs organising. 

Whenever someone asks me, as a ‘non working mother’ what I do all day, this is what I do all day!  Ferrying one person to one place, another to another place.  And because I am a ‘non working parent’, I’m the one who gets to go to all the school excursions, to volunteer in the canteen, to walk the kids to sporting activities as supervision, because ‘I have nothing much else to do’.   Eldest daughter volunteered me for something at school the other day, and to quote her ‘All the other mums have jobs, so they can’t do it.  You don’t work, so you have time!’.  Ouch.

Perhaps I need to go on strike at home to show her how much ‘not working’ I do around here.

I’m not complaining (much).  I wouldn’t swap my busy life for anything.  It’s not the work so much as the remembering that makes me tired.  Remembering who needs to be where and with what supplies and what time to we have to leave and did you remember to pack this/that/the other.  Worn Out!  My hat goes off to those working mums who have to do all what I do AND work.  I’m exhausted, I can’t imagine how tired those mums must be.

Anyway.  Not quite sure how I ended up on this tangent!   I shall move along, continue with my jobs, and hopefully have a clear head for my all day sewing day tomorrow.

Have a lovely one!

Bright Shiny Stars

 

Hello lovely readers.

I’ve been a busy beaver the last few days but sadly not much to show you.  I keep saying I’ll get to these things ‘when life slows down’ but it’s not looking like that’s going to happen any time soon!

I showed you a few weeks ago the starry blocks I made – after I gave away the first starry quilt I decided I couldn’t live without it so I made another, slightly bigger one.  I love the cheeriness of it. 

It’s just a flimsy now but I hope to steal my mother’s long arm machine and have a lesson on how to use it – this will be the quilt I use, I think.

Have a happy day!