Quilt Retreat

I have just returned from the annual quilt retreat of Eastwood Patchwork Quilters and this year we headed off to Kurri Kurri which is a rural town in the Hunter Valley of NSW.   I spent a few days beforehand preparing what I was planning on doing.   All cut and ready to go.

This is the sewing room that we had during the 3 days which had very good lighting as well as being spacious as there were 40 of us all working on different projects.
  

Some progress is being made on my items.

All this sewing makes one very hungry and I have to admit that I had far too much to eat.....how can one resist when all these goodies for morning and afternoon just keep on coming out.   It would be very rude not to partake when the staff have gone to such a lot of trouble.

To balance out sitting and sewing as well as eating I took myself off for a couple of walks around the property and met up with a few of the kangaroos that call the area home.   If you look closely at the photo below you will see the tail of the joey sticking out it is mother's pouch.

A large goanna sunning itself on a brick wall

I am pleased to say that I did manage to make 2 quilt tops as well as quilt and bind them so I was very happy with my efforts over the 3 days.  

 

These quilts are for sick children at the local hospital and I will deliver them to the coordinator this week for distribution.    Now onto my next project  and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

FNSI

During the past month when blog hopping I  noticed that a lot of people have made a start on Christmas projects which reminded me of an Advent calendar that I bought at the beginning of the year so that was my project to work on last night.    I cut out all the little pockets and decided that I would line them to give stability and make them more durable as I hope to get a few years out of this for bub.    After making the 24 pockets I managed to attach them on the panel.    Now all that I have left to do is put in the wadding, backing, binding and some ribbon for hanging.

I have also finished off the Sunbonnet Sue for August and I called her "Stormy Sue".  She is the last of the winter months Sues so I will have to start and think warm weather for the next couple that I do.

Thank you Wendy for hosting another fun night with like minded people and if you would like to see what everyone got up to last night just pop over here to see some eye candy and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

"Frozen"

Is very popular with  young girls at the moment and bub is no exception.   Everytime she sees Elsa and Anna she launches into  her version of the song "Let it go".   Bub was lucky enough to meet up with Elsa at  "Supernova" when she went with her daddy recently.      While I was shopping last week I saw this Frozen fabric which I thought would be suitable to make a cushion for her room.

With the help of "you-tube" I learnt how to put a zipper into the back of the cushion without too many dramas.  I usually steer clear of zippers in anything but I did not have enough fabric to do my usual envelope style back on the cushion.   I have to say that I was very pleased with my effort and will do this again in the future.   I does  give a nicer finish on the back.

Some more bibs were called for so a rummage through the stash ended up with the four bibs below

Yesterday at my quilting group whilst flipping through a book and doing some research I think I have found my next quilt to make.     It was out of a book using jelly rolls but I prefer to cut my own fabric only because I pre-wash all my fabric before cutting and the thought of washing all those pre-cut strips gives me visions of a tangled mess and lots of fraying.

Anyway a bit more thought on that and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Challenged

The Challenge committee of my quilting group issued  all of us members with the same size piece of the same fabric and we were instructed to do whatever we wanted as long as the piece was used somewhere in the finished item.   I pinned mine up in front of my ironing board and everytime I was in my sewing room using the iron I was thinking what could I do with this piece of fabric.

As you can see we were not given a very large piece of fabric - I am not sure if this was a good or bad thing - so with that in mind I had ideas running around in my head and finally with the help of "Mr Google" I found a pattern for some coasters which I enlarged to make a couple of hotpads and I have to say that I am very pleased with the end result.    I used Insulbrite along with cotton wadding to give extra protection to the table when putting hot dishes on them.  

I am looking forward to seeing what the other members have come up with using the same piece of fabric and in the meantime

  Happy sewing all