Eye Spy Quilt

Ready for some quilt photos on this, an actual quilt blog?  I have a finish to show you.

Right smack dab in the middle of school holidays, and I’ve not had much time for extended sewing.  I did manage to put the final stitches in this Eye Spy quilt I’d been working on.

It was based on some quilt somewhere I saw on the internet.  They didn’t do it as an Eye Spy, but I had a big bag of them and I thought they would work well for it.

Yes and no.  The pattern is lovely as a scrap one, but it’s really not a good way of showing those Eye Spy fabrics.

So all in all a very nice quilt.  Will I make that pattern again?  I don’t know.  It’s got a lot of those ‘stitch half a seam, sew the other seams, go back and stitch the rest of the half seam’ in it and they did take some thinking about. 

In other news – back into the grind on Tuesday when the girls go back to school.  It’s my big girl’s final year at Primary School and to say I’m not happy is an understatement! (I’m joking – kinda – it’s such a bittersweet feeling watching my little babies turn into big girls).

But it is what it is, I guess. 

Hope you’re having a lovely, quilty day.

Laugh kookaburra laugh

We’ve been away a few days on holidays.  I’ve a million photos to show you but I thought I would share with you a photo of my little friend who entertained us while we were at our holiday unit.

I think he (she?) was almost tame – at least tame enough to know that visitors drop food, and we would see him (her?) most days.  He sat long enough for me to take a few blurry photos, but each morning he would tap on the window of our front door and wake us up.  I don’t think he was tapping deliberately to wake us up, rather he was collecting bugs from the corners but it was lovely to open the curtain and see him there.

Kookaburras are everywhere in Australia but you tend to hear them, rather than see them.  So it’s always a lovely thing when you see one happy enough to let you get close to photograph him, when you actually have a camera in your hand!

some panoramic shots to show you

Try as I might, I can’t seem to manage the Panoramic shot on my new Iphone.

Twelve year old daughter doesn’t seem to have that problem.

I wish I could take photos like this.  She has an excellent eye.

The bottom two are from our recent holiday to the Grampians.  I’ll show you more another day. 

She’s clever, me thinks.

Show time

October long weekend means it’s town show time.

Do you have a show in your town?  There’s something so comforting in a town coming together for an event like this.

Here in Australia, or at least in my part of Australia, the town oval functions for everything.  Currently it’s being used for both the horse show-jumping and the dog trials.  Football is over, cricket hasn’t begun.  It’s the perfect venue.

And of course there are rows upon rows of entrants in the various ‘best of’ events.

I have never seen a judging of the cake section before but it’s exactly what you would think – lots of ladies first judging the ‘cut’ of the cake, then judging the taste.  Just like they were on Great British Bake Off. 

In such a crappy, hostile world ‘out there’, it’s deeply comforting to turn up to a day like this, know that there are people whose day may well have been made because they have been awarded ‘best egg’ or ‘best honey cake’. 

At least I think so.

Glorious Spring

No quilting today, just a photo of a lovely bottlebrush I saw.  They are in bloom everywhere and they are amazing.

Hope you have a lovely day!

Anyone seen a missing blogger?

Sorry, lovely readers.

I think if you go back and look at my past years’ of posting, you’d probably find that I drop off the planet around September. 

September is a very busy month for me.  Lord knows why, it’s only September, for goodness’ sake.

It’s not been all hustle and bustle though.  In my quiet times (waiting in the car…waiting….waiting) I’ve managed to do some hexies. 

You’ve not seen these ones before.  Some time ago, while cleaning out a cupboard at our quilting rooms, I found this lovely pouch donated by an older lady for a trading table. 

All hand stitched and hand quilted, and included a hand stitched zipper also!  Too cute for words.

I realised it looked vaguely familiar, and then I remembered a million years ago, I saved a tutorial from a lovely website Quiltsalott (click on the link to be taken directly to the tutorial).   Sadly the blogger doesn’t write anymore which is a shame, because she’s got some lovely stuff there.

Anyway.  Time to make myself one!

I finished piecing the hexies last night, and will hand quilt them in the next day or two.  All the fabrics are from scraps I’ve held on to over the years (don’t we all do that!).  I am slightly disappointed in a couple though.  See if you can tell which ones in this closeup:

It is difficult to see, (and ignore the truly awful closeups of my stitching) but it’s the plains.  When I was stitching them they seemed to have a sheen to them, and were a tighter weave than others.  I really did think hard about including them, and I did.   I’m now firmly convinced they are some sort of poly blend, because they have puckered a little under the iron.  Not too much, but enough for me to realise I should trust my instincts when it comes to things like this.

Lesson learned. 

Apart from that, life is hurtling by for us.  Australia is currently going through the worst flu season ever (apparently) and everyone, including my husband is sick.  He’s not one to stay home and veg out on the couch so the fact that he’s been off work for three days and on the couch all that time makes me think that he didn’t have manflu after all, but a real bonefide cold..

I’m soldiering on though! 

Hope you’re all well.  Happy quilting!

Monday Driving

Hello!  Did you make it all the way to the end of the photos?

For some reason now Livewriter doesn’t let me start typing at the top any more.  So here I am for today.

Some time ago we (hubby and I) took the girls for a drive to a small group of towns around here.  He has business interests that he needed to see, so we tagged along for the drive.  We all love a good ramble, and he knows the owners of this abandoned sheepfarm, so we felt comfortable to have a good stickybeak.

I often read other people’s blogs when they ramble, and there is so much to see in such a small space.  Here where I live there are miles and miles and miles of nothing much – it’s lovely and quiet and you could drive for miles without seeing another car.  This farm had a shearing shed that we assumed hadn’t been used for years, given the calendar.  Yet it still had that lovely, musty smell of lanolin and sheep (those of us who live near sheep know the smell very well, it’s gorgeous). 

It’s a fantastic space and it seems a shame to let it all just fall away with the weather (see the photo above of all that’s left of the shed next to it) but people just don’t have a need for their own shearing shed anymore.  Way of the world, I guess.

Hope you’re well, warm, dry and safe!  Take care!

Blue, blue, blue

Hi lovely readers.

It’s a blue day today.  Not in mood but in quilts! 

I’ve made a bonus quilt from leftover half square triangles.  Found them in a bag somewhere.

now,

And now, not only is it a top, it’s a quilt!

and it’s quilted by ME! 

So yay me!  I had a lesson on the long arm and it worked okay really.   I am not displeased at all!  It is really difficult to get a nice curve happening, and I’m in awe who can do such wonderful quilting on their quilts.  I’m sure I will be a functioning, and quite capable long armer, but never more than that and NEVER for other people

A long arm is most definitely the way to go if you have the space.  Or the mother that has one you can borrow for nothing. 

I hope you are well, safe and dry enough (especially if I have any Texas readers, my goodness me I feel for you!).  We are in the first week of spring and it’s most definitely arrived – it’s hot and windy, and tomorrow it’s going to rain. 

I don’t much like spring.

Take care everyone!