011 - Fire Update South Australia

Bit hard to be upbeat at the moment with the fires.  It's all so horrid.

Some of you may remember a few years ago, we visited Kangaroo Island as a family.  You can see my posts here:

Kangaroo Island Part One

Kangaroo Island The Wildlife

Kangaroo Island The Nature Parks

We had such a wonderful time and I took photo after photo of the wonderful wildlife and nature everywhere.

You've probably heard that most of Kangaroo Island is gone now.  Half went last week in the big firestorms, most of the rest has gone today.

Horrible, horrible, horrible.  We drove back from Adelaide today and there was smoke from the start of the trip till we got home, three hundred kilometres away.

Outside it's currently

a/ blowing a gail
b/ completely red with a dust storm
c/ smokey from the fires
d/ trying to rain.

Mental.  Absolutely mental.

And not even half way through summer. 

It's so hard to be positive through this.  It's genuinely terrifying what the rest of summer will bring.  Without thinking further on - when they do stop the fires and try and get the nature back, what will they even eat?  There are no trees anymore.  There's no lizards for the birds, there's nothing.

I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully more upbeat than today.

010 - Show And Tell (Country Friends)

A thousand years ago, country chic was the rage.  We made dozens of little wall hangings that we would sell in the shop.  It's not something I can see anyone wanting nowadays, but back then we did very well out of it.

This was one of the many designs of its style we made all those years ago.

It would be hard to find a place for it now, but back then they were very popular!  It's another one of those embarrassing designs that I don't know what to do with.  But I have promised myself to photograph and blog each one of my designs, more of a record for me than anyone else.  And so here it is, something embarrassing, but part of my quilting history.

Happy quilting!

009 - Monsters Updated

You've all seen the monster quilts I've made.  I get emails often from people who love them.  They do make me smile, I admit.

So I thought I'd show you the close ups of my lovely little monsters.

I'm done with them now.  I've made at least four of the monster quilts, and I am tired of them.  

But they are very cute. 

I have no leftover blocks anymore, apart from one or two and I will put them on the back of something, or make a child's library bag or something  from them.  

But I won't be doing another monster quilt.

I know I'll get emails as to where I found the patterns - some I brought, some came from greeting cards, some came from wrapping paper.  There are so many places you can get designs from - you just need to make them all the same size so they fit in a quilt (the mistake I always make which is why I've now made four of the quilts).  It's really easy and I urge you to give it a go yourself!

Hope you're doing well today.

008 What I've Been Working On - Crochet

It's currently very, very hot in Australia.  There's been no rain, you'd must be living under a rock to have not known that, and we can't put out the fires.

So obviously I haven't been crocheting.  This is something I have been working on throughout the year when it's been much cooler.

I had a load of Stylecraft Chunky left over from another crocheting project, and I determined this was the best way to use it up.

Apart from buying more black, the rest is all leftovers.  So I managed to empty a bag from my sewing room.  Excellent!  Of course now I have a large crochet blanket I need to find a place for but whatever.

And so many ends to sew in.  I should do it as I go, I really should.

But it's looking very lovely so far.  I'll show you an updated picture when I have one!

Happy quilting (or sewing, or knitting, or whatever you need to do today!)

007 - Show and Tell (Flower Baby Quilt)

Some of these older quilts I'm just downright embarrassed to show you.  But I'm going to anyway.

This one was designed for those customers who were brand new to quilting.  It's a very basic quilt.  Sadly it looks like a dog's breakfast but what can you do?

It's part of my quilting history and I guess it at least shows how far I've come?  

Happy quilting!

006 - A Finish To Show You

I've not just been resting on my laurels over the last six months.  I've been Finishing. Some. Stuff. Off.

I have a feeling I've shown you this before, but it might not have been finished totally.  It's totally bound, labelled stitched on, all good to go.

I even machine quilted this myself on the long arm.  I did okay.  Bit wonky but okay.

I had grand plans to go once a week to Mum's house and get good at long arm quilting.  But like all of my craft plans, I ran out of day and week, and that stopped.

I'm trying to get back to it.  We'll see.

Hope your day is going well.  Happy Quilting!

005 - Lucy Boston update

In times of trauma, such as this week, I quilt.  I stick my head in my sewing room like an ostrich, and I quilt.  So let me show you what I've been doing.

I've been plodding along, working on my Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses quilt.  It's coming along.  I spent a large amount of time kitting the blocks up and now they are completely portable.  The girls have changed their dance nights, meaning most times I can drop them there and come back, rather than waiting in the car which means my handwork time is decreased.  So I'm going to have to work hard on them to get them done.

Just a single block to show you today.  I can see some stitching showing through but I'm sure it'll be fine when it's done.  I enjoy them, I must admit.  I can do one in two easy nights, or one in one late night, and when pressed they look lovely.  And for a minute or two, it's okay to forget the awful stuff.

Thanks for reading.

004 - Fires

You've have to be living under a rock to have missed that Australia is on fire.

We've been here before but never like this.  Certainly not the whole flipping country.  It's everywhere and it's horrible.  Saturday, today, is meant to be the worst yet.  Friday was bad enough.  

I had another post ready to go but it seemed flippant in the light of what's happening.  So I'm just going to leave some links if you want to donate or help.  

We are quilters, we quilt when people are in need but I think that those days are a long way away for these people, I'm guessing they just want money right now.  Without getting too political, it seems we are on our own in regards to sorting this mess out, so I'm doing what I can.

I know a lot of these links are for New South Wales, and I'm in South Australia, but far out - NSW is completely on fire right now.  

I mean...just look at that picture. 

https://donate.vinnies.org.au/appeals-nsw/vinnies-nsw-bushfire-appeal-nsw

https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/volunteer/support-your-local-brigade

https://www.wires.org.au/donate/emergency-fund

http://www.koalasincare.org.au/pages/donation.htm

https://www.redcross.org.au/

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-01/bushfire-relief:-how-you-can-help-frontline-services/11835156

There's many more places you can donate if you feel the need. 

I don't know what else to say really.   I feel completely useless.

Thanks guys.

003 - Show And Tell (Checkered Hearts)

Back into the Show And Tell routine, documenting and photographing all my quilts, even the less spectacular ones.

This one was made many, many years ago and has been washed and loved to death.

I look back now at all the flaws, and I need to remember that whilst it may look dreadful, we didn't know as much as we do now and it was loved to death.  Washed and washed and washed, now it's faded, the binding has begun to shrink, and it doesn't matter because isn't that what we make quilts for?  To wear out from use and then to make another one?

Anyway.  It's photographed and documented.

44 degree day today.  Not sure what that is in the old numbers but well over 100.  Hot (boom boom) on the heels of our all time hottest day on record, 48 degrees the other day.  Australia is either burning or flying away in dust storms, and it's really very hard to not get caught up in the emotion of it all.  I focus on the positives, we are safe here, we are far from fire trouble, we have water and we have electricity.  But so many places are burning.  It's hard to know what to say or do.  

I always sew on days like today.  Keeps me calmer, somehow.

Anyway.  Hope your day is a quilty one!

002 - What I Am Working On (Oklahoma Backroads)

Even though I haven't been blogging last year as I would have liked, I have been documenting what I've been working on.

As usual, it's been mostly scrap quilts.  I've had this brilliant idea to make every version of Bonnie Hunter's scrap quilts that are on her blog.  Whilst I've done a couple, I'm no where near close to being on track with that.  

But I did start an Oklahoma Backroads a while ago, and I am slowly, slowly adding to it.  This is one of the bigger quilts I want to get finished this year.

Please ignore the crappy design wall.  I really miss not being able to crop photos in the blogger platform.  I always forget to do it on my phone, and it ends up being embarrassing like the photo above.

The quilt itself is lovely.  I've got so man scraps, and this quilt has always spoken to me.  For a little while I was doing a block a day, and it was getting along quite well, but as usual with me, it got put away in a box and I haven't worked on it for a while.  So it's now the current 'to be finished' quilt.  The one that is out on the table, looking at me.

I do love scrappy quilts.  This one needs a lot more pink/spring colours I think.  What do you think?

Anyway.  That's what I've been sewing.  Bit by bit, one block a day, I should get it done.

We shall see.

Happy sewing!