Friday, October 28, 2016

World Quilting Travel Adventure

A couple of weeks ago I saw a new challenge on JoJoHall's blog calling for  travellers to sign up for a World Quilting Adventure which she is hosting.   Now who could refuse such an offer....not me.     So I sent off a request to JoJo and she was very kind and allowed me to join her and 23 others on their trip around the world even though I was  few weeks  late.   We are going to visit 7 states of the USA and  9 countries in no particular order.   Here is my passport and boarding pass


And our first destination is Oregon.  JoJo has given some interesting information about her home State which can be found here and this is the view from her window.


This was the challenge for September but not wanting mine to be as big I did my interpretation  and came up with "mug rug" sized version.


I hope that JoJo enjoys my version of her view as much as I did playing around with her pattern and my scraps.  

Now I will have to quickly unpack my bag and repack for our next destination.

Linking with Quilting is more fun that housework

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all






Saturday, October 22, 2016

FNSI

Yesterday was the third Friday of the month and that means a fun night of sewing.     I was able to make an early start in my sewing room after lunch but even though there was some extra sewing time I only managed to go from one project to another and not actually finish anything off.     First cab off the rank was making toppers for some towels which could not be finished  off because I did not have the right buttons.  So buttons head the shopping list for this week.


It was a lovely sunny day and my garden was filled with butterflies flitting around.     One stayed long enough on the daisies so that I could get a photo of it.


It was such a coincidence that I was using daisy fabric with butterflies on it for one of the towel toppers so that had to become the fabric choice  for my daily circle.   As you can see the circle is only pinned and not sewn.


Sometime ago I bought a panel with co-ordinating fabrics and it was time to get it out and have a play.     Some of the pictures on the panel are below.



There are four more pictures with the same theme.   I see placemats in my future.   I am hoping to make more progress on these later on today.

Just before I go I would like to share a photo with you of what could be considered a "life size" Sunbonnet Sue.    It is Miss M helping her mummy water the garden.


Now to see what other interesting projects others go up to last night head on over to Sugarlane Designs.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Tatting

Is something that I remember a great aunt of mine doing many years ago.  It was fascinating to watch her hands move around a metal object called a "shuttle" and this amazing fine work would emerge.   I have a good friend of mine who has taken up tatting and she too produces some amazing fine work from her shuttle and I was lucky enough to score this pair of pretty earrings from her when we met up yesterday.


If you would like to find out more about "tatting" and see some of the work that is produced by others just pop over here to the Tatters Guild of Aust NSW Branch.

Last week after finishing off my sunshine colours for the Rainbow Challenge and having a play with some layouts for the blocks I felt that  two more colours were needed in order to be able to make a single bed quilt with a bit extra on the sides.      Out with the scraps to see what colours there were many of and trying not to duplicate what was previously made I added in "black and white" and also "red with a touch of colour".     These have now been cut, trimmed and all sewn together as can be seen below.


Next step is to lay them all out in some sort of order - I am thinking of going with the order in which the colours given throughout the year - but that will remain to be seen.

Linking with Oh Scrap.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all





Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Hello sunshine

All those yellow and orange scraps have now been cut, sewn and trimmed into 6" 9 patch blocks as you can see below.


This was an inspiring point to get out all my other 9 patches that have been created each month for the last 10 months and have a little play with them.    After moving them this way, that way, the other way and then back again I decided to set them out in each colour group.


In order to make the quilt wider and longer it will need a couple of more rows and I think perhaps a sashing of white in between each colour as well as a border.   A bit more playing over the next day or two is needed.

Linking with Oh Scrap

Back soon with some photos of what is decided and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Saturday, October 8, 2016

The finish line....

At last.      As you may have read in a previous post I have been working on this spiderweb tablerunner for more years than I care to remember but the time had come for it to be elevated from the UFO pile to a finish without any further interruption.      Working with black thread was very hard on the eyes so I only spent an hour or so at a time during daylight hours working with the black thread and once the stars had been quilted I changed to grey thread....far kinder to the eyes...to quilt the spiderweb part.     So here it is all ready to go off to its new home next week.


 Thanks Cheryll for organising FNwF

I have to admit that there is another project that has been cluttering up my sewing room for a bit longer than the one above so perhaps that will be tackled  next month......maybe??????

Linking with Red Letter Quilts......   OMG It's finished October.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Three quarters of the way

And only 3 months  left of making my daily circles.    I can see by looking at  this month's circles that there has been doing quite a bit of gardening  happening as well as meeting up with friends for coffee and lunch, some sewing, doctors appointments and other bits and pieces.


I have also taken sometime  to make a start on trimming the previous blocks.   So far I have managed to get 7 months done so that leaves 2 months to go.   Once I have caught up I will trim as I go seeing as the end is getting close.  

If you would like to see more circles  I suggest that you wander on over to Quilty Folk as many of the others taking part in this challenge started their blocks a couple of months before me and have progressed well into the final stages of their projects.

Back soon and in the meantime


Happy sewing all

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

October OMG

Is definitely going to be quilting and binding this tablerunner which has been around my sewing room in various stages of construction for far too long.       It started out as a project when I was on a quilting weekend in 2012...oh dear longer than I thought....and I have now promised it to a loving home so onward and upwards and nothing is going to get in the way between now and a finish.


I am using my walking foot and a stitch length of 3.5 with black thread to start with.   I am quilting just inside the black stars which have formed around the spiderwebs to highlight those stars.    Once that is finished I will then make a start on the actual webs.   I am thinking again just straight stitching in the webs to highlight them rather than heavy quilting to detract from the design.

Linking with Red Letter Quilts

Back soon with some photos of the finish line and in the meantime


   Happy sewing all

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Oranges and lemons......

Says the bells of St Clements was the first thought that popped into my head when I read the October colours for the Rainbow Challenge over at ScrapHappy.    With this in mind I had a quick rummage through my yellow and orange scraps and pulled these out to cut up.


I will need to re-read the original post but I think that this is the last month of cutting up colours for our rainbow blocks and we have the next two months to create something pretty out of the last 10 months work.    Thinking cap on to see how they will all end up.    Stay tuned.

During the week my overlocker and I spent sometime together and churned out these twirly skirts for Miss M.  


Linking up with So Scrappy.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all