Cali Mum's Quilting Bee and a dress

Last night I

put the finishing touches to my fourth lozenge for my Cali Mum's Quilt Bee quilt. 

Here it is.....

It looks wrong, but it's not - just the angle the photo was taken on.

Two days ago I cut out and made myself a dress for summer.

I really like it.  The best bit is that I drafted the pattern myself using my measurements and no other pattern.  Luckily I have made many a costume/outfit using commercial patterns and have had to make alterations to fit the recipient so I have a fair idea of garment piece structure.  I even have (somewhere stashed away) a 1950's clothing pattern making book.  This is an Enid Gilchrist book and you have to draw up the patterns yourself from the diagrams and measurements given.  I have made a couple of things from this when the kids were young.  I remember there was 1 coat that I made that everyone always commented on when the child wore it.

If you want to know how I did up the pattern for this you only have to ask and I will do a tutorial.

Single Girl and Swap Blocks

I have just finished putting together the blocks for my Small Quilt Talk Signature Swap Block Quilt.  You may remember these blocks I made....

and these.....

Well after waiting patiently for my set of swapped blocks to arrive I bought some extra fabric, made a few more blocks to fit my chosen layout, made a few more blocks because I can't count and ended up with this.....

You can't see the top row - it over hangs my queen size bed!  Once it has been quilted it will be bound with a nice brown.  I am going to send it off to be quilted.  This is something special and I don't want to ruin it with my dodgy quilting.  I'm thinking feathers in the plain borders and I will leave it up to the quilter as to what she does with the blocks themselves.

I am really happy with the way this flimsy turned out.


I also finished to the flimsy stage my Single Girl quilt.  Remember this.....

 

Well it has turned into this.....

 

 

Here's a close up...

 

 

It too is almost big enough for my bed so it will look good on a single bed.

 

Not sure on how to quilt this one.  I'm thinking concentric circles inside the rings and curvy diamonds everywhere else.  Probably by hand using a pearl thread and big stitches.  What do you think? 

 

 

 

Cali Mum's Quilting Bee #3

I have finally gotten around to finishing off my 3rd lozenge for my Cali Mum's Quilting Bee quilt.  Hubby and I spent 6 days doing nothing but listening to cows and sheep recently and I took some craft supplies with me.  One lot was to work some more on this quilt.

 

 

I have also cut out and sewn up 2 rounds for my 4th lozenge and am half way thru putting together the last round.  Won't be long before it's done also.

 

 

Another of the mum's asked about me making her daughter one of these quilts.  I told her she would not want to pay the price I would ask for it.  Whilst away I did some math.  To make one to fit a single bed - approx. 160 x 200 cm - if I charged $10 an hour for my time and passed on costs for fabric and wadding she would be up for around $2500!  To make the bigger one that I am doing the cost would be more like $3600.  I haven't told her yet - didn't get the chance when I saw her last.  As much as she loves her baby girl (the child's 7) I doubt very much that she would pay this much for a quilt even if it is entirely hand sewn.

 

Whilst away I also finished off a sock that has been on the needles for some time and I knitted it's friend.  Sadly though, 1 of them is either to big or too small.  I have to figure out which.  I was not thinking and managed to knit the second foot about 1.5 inches longer than the first one.  Oppsy!

 

I also worked some more on my Cross Stitch Dolls House bedroom carpet.  It's being worked on 32 count even weave linen with 1 strand.  when I first started it I needed a magnifying glass to see the fabric.  Now - since it's been so long - my eyes have altered and I can see it quite well so long as I don't wear my glasses.  I am short sighted after all.

 

 

In a week I am going to my first market in over 2 years to sell some hand made goodies.  I am taking along a couple of small quilts, all my cloth dolls and some bears.  Hopefully I make some money.

 

This lady is one of the items for sale.  She is designed to hang on the wall.  I will make her a friend wearing a cream dress with gold stars.  The friend will hold some bells on rope.

 

This little bunny will also be at the market...

As will this lady....

 

And this Owl...

 

Secret Santa Swap and a Single Girl

I have signed up for a Secret Santa Swap with the ladies from Small Quilt Talk - a Yahoo group I am a member of.  I have even finished what I was making for my recipient already.  How's that for being organised!  There's 3 hand made items and a book that I have 3 copies of.  I hope she likes the gift.

All the blocks of my Single Girl quilt are made - I just have to piece them together and then it's off to the quilter it goes.  I am sending it off rather than doing it myself as I have no idea on what sort of quilting it needs.  I think the quilter will be able to help here.

Dear Jane quilts

There's been a bit of chatter recently over on the yahoo group Small Quilt Talk about Dear Jane quilts.  It seems a number of the members have also been making this quilt for themselves over the years and a few of them are inspired to get moving on it.

It makes me want to get involved too!!

I have long admired this quilt; not only for the history of it and it's intricacy, but also because it is a really nice quilt.  Some that I have seen on the internet have used all sorts of colour combinations - brights, monotones, solids.

I have the book 501 Quilt blocks and have gone thru it in the past to gather together assorted blocks to make my own type of Dear Jane - but it would have to be a WTF WYT Joy quilt.  Nearly 200 x 4.5 inch blocks is enough to make you go crazy, never mind the triangles Jane has on hers.......

Inspiration and Another New Start.

I got really inspired last week to make another quilt - or at least a flimsy.  This is what inspired me.....

It's called single Girl.   I thought I could use up some of my extensive stash to make it for one of my single girls daughters.  Here's a close up of another one in bits.....

I have also been wanting to make more scrappy quilts using stash fabrics for some time.  I have a lot of fabric and quite a bit of it has been around for some time - some is even vintage stuff that was gifted to me.

This is just 1 of my tubs....

 

So I spent the weekend going thru my fabrics and trimming off the ends to even them up.  I have in the past not cut a strip of a piece of fabric just to get a square - I cut the square out. 

That has left a lot of fabrics with odd shaped ends.  Those trimmings were then cut into 1.5", 2.5" 3.5" 4.5" wide strips,

   

and anything that I did not or could not class as a strip was put in a pile I called snibbles.  I also made a pile of bits that were not strips but were wider than 4.5" but up to around 6".  Confused??

Each of these piles are individually bagged up.  I now need to find somewhere to store them.

I had recently bought 4 pale grey fabrics to make my Single Girl quilt.  I had decided that I would make the curved piecey bit and then applique it onto a pale grey background.  I drew up my own curve - surprisingly they don't match on each side.  These are the pale grey fabrics I got......

And this is the first of my pieced curvey bits appliqued onto 1 grey 9.5" square....

I only used 1.5" strips in this one - it needs more variety in the widths so I will make more curved sections with both 1.5" and 2.5" strips, like this....

At this stage I am not too sure I like my stash fabrics with the grey fabric.  I think the underlying tone is wrong.  Maybe it will look better once I have made up quarter blocks with the other grey fabrics.  Each main block will have 1 of each of the grey fabrics in it.

I have been using my hand drawn 'pattern' to sew the strips together just guessing the angle needed to keep the curve going.  I then sewed a piece of lightweight iron on interfacing to the curved piece, trimmed it and turned it thru.  After finger pressing the seams I used the iron to attach it to the background square and then used a blind hem stitch (don't like that) to permanently attach it.  I think a straight stitch would be better.  I will not attach it by hand.  I have enough hand sewing to do with my Cali Mum's Hexi quilt, thank you.  This is what I have so far....

Speaking of which, I have the next lozenge finished and have made a start on my third one.  One of the Cali Mum's is going really strongly with hers and I feel I have to keep ahead of her.  She has 3 lozenges done so I better get a move on. 

There were 6 of us doing this quilt, but 1 never got around to getting her fabrics, another had her fabrics but is not motivated to get sewing and a third made a start but has also lost motivation.  Might need to see how we can get these girls back to sewing.....

Aussie Hero Laundry Bags

Yesterday I sent of 2 boxes of laundry bags to Australian Defence Force personnel overseas prior to voting.  Got them all packed and the boxes all labelled and taped.......................

and then remembered I had not taken a photo of any of them. 

I wasn't about to cut into all the tape so I have no pics to show.  Bummer!

I will however have some pics of the next few bags that I have/am making. 

The quilt recipient (se previous post) is also to get a laundry bag.  The quilt takes up all the available space in the box so I have to send him another box with his bag in it.  I will also include some puzzle books, some tim tams, some coffee sachets, a lip balm (was about to say lip gloss) as well as 2 or 3 more bags.  That way he can choose which one he would like and hand the others over to those who don't already have one, or pass on to his group's chaplain to pass on. 

I hope that is acceptable and doesn't get me or him into trouble with the powers that be.

Aussie Hero Quilt

Ages ago I was sent some blocks to put together to make a quilt for Aussie Hero Quilts.  I'm talking like at the start of the year ages ago.

I have had one of these quilts sewn together and pinned up with wadding and backing for months too.

Well yesterday I finally got around to quilting and binding it.  It sat there for ages as I had no idea on how I wanted to quilt it and calisthenics stuff got in the way.  The coordinator didn't seem to be in a hurry for them - so I didn't hurry either.

This is it......

I know it's sideways - just tip your head over.

I did straight line quilting on my Brother machine from corner to corner on all the red, blue, brown large squares as well as on all the small squares.  I didn't do anything with the yellow rectangles.  Once I came up with this idea it went really quickly.  The binding went on easily too.  I machined sewn it on - even the folded over bit.  Usually I hand sew that bit down, but I decided not to with this one. 

The label they have to have had already been attached to the backing - now it has been quilted thru it.  This will make it harder to remove.

This quilt; and the other 2; were all sent to me by Jan-Maree.  They are selection of BOM's the AHQ group did and sent to her.  She asked for someone to help put them together - I volunteered.

None of the blocks are my sewing - all I did was sew the blocks together, quilt and bind it.

I hope the final recipient likes it.

6 inch Block Swap

These have all been made and sent off to the lady coordinating the swap.  She has even posted that she has received them.  Yay for the postal services - Australian and US.

This is the first 40 I made.  I signed them in different ways using my old pigma pen.

This is the last 20 I made.  These is signed all the same -just around the edge of the centre square - using a new pen.  This pen is much finer than my old one.

So that is 60 blocks made for the swap.  Luckily I just happened to find a post that some people had pulled out - so I kept 4 for myself. 

I have 8 others that I made as test blocks to check the instructions and my sewing and I will make up 1 more in each of the colour ways above so I have a record of the blocks I made and sent away.  I should get 56 blocks back - and if my thinking is correct one of the return blocks will be 1 I made myself.  I don't want to have these blocks sitting around in a bag doing nothing but getting old, so I am going to sew them together with the test blocks plus the extra 'my record' blocks into some sort of a quilt.  So that will give me 56 blocks sent/received, 8 test blocks plus 11 'my record' blocks I will only have to make a few more to make a decent sized quilt.  Five should probably do it.  That would give me a quilt that measures 48" x 60" without any borders.  Once it is together it is not going to sit about as a flimsy either.  I will send it off to my local quilter.

But that is a long way off.  All the blocks don't have to be at the coordinators until the end of September and she won't be sending them out until October.

Patience must be practiced.

1 Poppy

that will be sent along - with some others I hope - to the people running the 5000 Poppies Project.  They are going to display 500 poppies this year at Federation Square in Melbourne on November 11 and then 5000 poppies on Anzac Day in 2015.  It is all to commemorate the 100th year of Australia's involvement with WW1 and to remember all the fallen diggers (Aussie soldiers for the unenlightened).

You can find their blog here - http://5000poppies.wordpress.com

A friend of mine posted about it on social media and it caught my interest - enough to try out one of the patterns available on the blog.  This was the resultant knitted poppy.

The fluffy black was a pain to work with and I don't think I will use it again.  It certainly didn't take long to make and I have over a ball of red in my yarn stash to use for them.  The next 1 I make I may do a couple of more rows to make it wider - just to mix things up a bit.  I may even try out the crochet pattern on their blog.

Cali Mums Quilting Bee - #2

Yesterday I helped 3 of the Cali mums pick out fabric for their Hexagon Lozenge quilts.  1 picked Xmas fabric, the other 2 purples/pinks.  The Xmas one will only be a table runner with 4 rounds around the centre.  That's all this mum is prepared to commit to.

One of the mum's used birthday money and the store discount that was happening at the time and spent more than what she was expecting.  She is doing the same layout as me, needs 29 fabrics in all but has only got 12 so far.  I think she may be re-thinking hers.  Or hers will be a long time in the making as money is rather tight for her.

It was really good helping these ladies with their fabric choices.  And I loved that I could pick fabrics - cause they let me do that - and not have to spend a thing.  Must be what personal shoppers feel like, spending other peoples money.

So on Thursday I will be helping them to cut out their first few hexis and then showing them how to sew them together.  Oh and we have another Mum interested too - so that's now 6 of the Cali Mums getting involved.

I have finished my first lozenge.

I'm really happy with the way it has turned out.  The pic has the lozenge on it's side.  It is about 39 inches (1m)  tall and 25 inches (63cm) wide.  When all finished the quilt will have 8 lozenges and so it will be around 79 inches x 75 inches (190 x 200cm), big enough for a queen size bed.

These are the other fabrics I have gotten together for the rest of my quilt.

I am not too sure about the grey looking one about 1/3 of the way down the pile.  But I had a look yesterday for a replacement and I can't find one.  Maybe I will have to use the wrong side as the right side.  I haven't looked at that yet.

The top 3 fabrics from this pic are destined to be the corners and the half lozenges.  There's a light purple in the other fabric pic that will be the centres of these sections.

Now I am not too sure on how I will make this.  Will I make all the lozenges and all the corner and side bits and then putting them together, or am I better off making each section and sewing it to the section next to it before moving on to the next section?  What do you think?  I know they all have to be done and then sewn together, but I wonder if I might feel like I am accomplishing more if they are sewn together as I went.

Decisions, decisions.

6" Block Swap

Yesterday, after a bit of tidying up of the dining room, I put my sewing machine back where it belongs and got out the next batch of swap blocks to finish.

I already had the geese section done and pressed so all I had to do was make up the block.  I now have 30 of these done.  That's me halfway.  I have another 6 weeks to go before that have to be in the mail, but I would really like to send them off at the end of August just to be on the safe side as far as postage goes.  They have to go to the US and I would hate for them to be late.

Update: July 27 - I have done another 10 of these and have cut out a further 10 waiting to be sewn together.  And I have signed all 40 blocks......  I just need to press those signed and trim them to the correct size - they are ever so slightly off.

Cali Mum's Quilting Bee

I have some definite participants for the Cali Mums Quilting Bee.  Five mum's have decided to give this a go.  One has already decided on her colour scheme - xmas - and another knows she wants to make one for her youngest with owls.

Today I did some colouring and have sent the mums a pic of it.  The colouring in is to give them an idea of what their quilt could look like.

Another of these ladies suggested we could collaborate on a quilt for the Cali Club to raffle.  I said maybe next year.  They need to learn with this one first before we go making one for someone to win.

Mind you I mentioned the raffle idea to the Fundraising lady - she thought it was brilliant and that it should be in club colours.  I wasn't too thrilled that idea - club colours are red and yellow.  But after a bit of thought I figured we could do a Grandmothers Garden type layout with red flowers and yellow centres, use different reds per flower.  I could even donate parts of my stash.

So now I am excited about that quilt too!!!  A couple of us could sit and do some cutting, bag up the pieces for each flower and then when someone wants to make one we show them how, give them a bag of bits and wait for it to be returned.  May have to see if we can get a cash donation for some wadding. 

Oh how I hate/love suggestions like these.

Another new start

I decided the other day to see if any of the Cali mum's would be interested in making a hand pieced hexagon quilt whilst they wait for their child's class to finish now that costumes are all done.  But then I figured that they should have something to look at before they decide whether or not to join in.

So I have started to make my own hexi quilt.  I am using 2 inch hexagons and am turning the back of the hexi over to the front - with batting in between - all stitched down by hand.  I am making lozenges and they will look kind of like this....

... although I am adding another round of hexagons.

My quilt when finished will be quite large - 200cm x 190cm approx.

I am using all soft coloured fabrics - a low volume quilt if you like.  The centre hexi of each lozenge and all the half lozenges and the corners will be the same pink mottly print.  The 8 lozenges will have 3 different fabric rounds - so that's 24 different fabrics.  I will use the same fabrics for the corners and the half lozenges.  Last night I made 6 hexi's and have sewn them together.  I am really liking the way it is turning out so far.  I'd say "only xx hexagons to go" but my brain can't work that out at the moment.  Let's just say it's a lot......

6" block swap - oh my

I have just checked the number of participants for this swap.  There are 60 of us!!!!!!

And the sign up doesn't close for a few days yet.

Yikes!!  I will be busy.

6" Block Swap and a finish

The other day I signed up for a 6 inch friendship block swap.  And today I just bought 27 fq's of fabric to make the blocks with.

I quite possibly could have gotten away with not buying the fabric, but the guidelines that came out yesterday for the swap said I had to use reproduction fabrics.  I don't have anything like that, so buying some was really my only option.  I just hope that the other 43 participants don't have the same range of fabric as I do.

So that's 44, I think, blocks to be made.  Luckily the pattern is quite simple.  I had seen the quilt we are trying to emulate on the small quilt talk photo pages and had worked out how to make the block without buying the book it comes from.  I have seen the book sell for around $30 and I don't want to spend that much on a book just to make 1 block from it.  Then 1 of the group members posted about getting an e-version of the book cheap.  So I looked into that and went "what the heck", so I bought it too.  This is turning out to be an expensive quilt.  I still need to get a cream homespun for the centre of the block and a pen I can write on the centre block with.  And I also have to reimburse the coordinator the cost of the postage, which I have no idea how much that is going to be.  So this will probably cost me around $200 just to make and get my blocks.  When you take into account that this is the sort of quilt that, once I get it together, I will send off to be quilted professionally it will have cost me $400-500 in total.  OUCH!

So why do this in the first place?

I enjoy making stuff.  I seem to have this inner urge to be creative on some level.  Housework just does not do it for me.  I can sweep and vacuum and wash till the cows come home and I get no satisfaction what so ever form it.  I know that in a few hours, or tomorrow, the place is going to look exactly the same.  When you have 3 dogs that are allowed inside and 2 of them shed hair constantly (huskies) and you have laminate flooring in the living areas you have constantly dirty floors.  When out on their walk last night the biggest stood in some freshly laid dirt and sunk past his ankle.  The dirt was wet so he came home with a large and filthy paw.  Hubby did not wash it for him.  I would have but this dog is a real sook when it comes to water.  It wasn't worth the trouble he would give me.

Every day I have to make something.  Whether it is a costume for the girls or those they teach, a quilt block or two for me, a laundry bag to send off overseas, I have to make something.  So soon it will be 44 blocks for a swap.  The sign up hasn't closed yet so there could even be some more join now that the guidelines have been posted.  They are mostly from USA, 3 are from Australia (including me), 1 from Canada and 1 from Denmark.  There was 1 lady from England thinking about joining in too.  44 6" blocks make for a nicely sized quilt.  If participant numbers stayed at 44, I could use 42 to make a 6 x 7 layout, thus making a 36" x 42" quilt without any borders.  I would have 2 leftovers that could go on the back.  Or I could make a few more of my own in the colours that I used to make it up to 48 or 49.  But that is way down the track yet.  I have until the start of September to get them made and in the post to where they have to go.  10 weeks - I better get a move on.


Moving on to my finish - the jumper I started a few weeks ago got all sewn up last night.  Here it is.

I bought way too much yarn.  The pattern stated I would need 14 balls.  I did not use the specified yarn.  So I compared the length of each and the yarn I wanted to use had just over double per ball so I bought 7 balls.  Ended up using only 4 and a bit.  I got the whole front and part of the back from the one ball!  The yarn is an acrylic/wool/mohair mix.  Nice and soft and I think it will be warm to boot.  Just what I need these days.  The weather has been really cold lately.  Yes I know it is winter but 1 or 2 degree mornings and not getting over 14 degrees during the day even when sunny is a bit ridiculous, even for Melbourne.  I hope it fits.

I also finally got round to finishing off the flimsy for my Thoughts in Thread quilt (pattern by Val Laird).  I really like it.  I think I will contact Angel Quilts and see if Vera can quilt it for me.

Small Quilt Swap sent and received

My parcel has arrived, so I can now show you what I sent to my swap partner, Anna.

First up is her quilt.  I made it from stash fabrics, including some vintage fabrics I have been given.  there are 41 different fabrics in the top!!

It really was a pain in the arse to make.  All those bias edges, I should have paper pieced it.  Oh well, live and learn.

This is the back...

A lovely softly coloured piece (bought new) showing typical australian animals.  Anna lives in Wisconsin USA so the Aussie animals were perfect for her, I thought.

A close up of the label that I hand embroidered.  It was done freehand too that's why it's rather wonky.



And lastly the fabrics I sent to her and a mug rug.  the fabrics were all purchased new.  The green in them is a gorgeous turquiose that is so popluar right now - at least in the interior design world.



She said she liked the quilt - I hope she did.  She also said she was going to use the mug rug and the fabric in a mini Australia lesson to the 3 yo children she teaches. I may ask her how many children that is and then send over a clip Koala with flag for them all.  They aren't all that expensive to buy.  Postage is a bit dear though.

I have a parcel from her too.  She sent the quilt.....

and some fabrics, 3 patterns, a porcelain doll that she made in the 70's (I don't think she knew I had a doll house), 2 flags and a tourist brochure for her town in Wisconsin.

The doll is really sweet and means my children and the baby now have a mother (in the doll house).

One  of the patterns was her hand drawn one for the quilt she made me.  I may have a tinker with it to see if I can get bottom half of the quilt (see the pic above) to repeat.

Small Quilt Talk Swap

Yay it is finished and in the post.  I had to unwrap the parcel I am sending my swap partner as I had forgotten to take some pics.  I will load these when she receives it.  I don't want to spoil any surprises.

I have quilted the swap quilt very simply.  The pattern I used has lots of bias edges and it is seamed together.  I think this pattern should really be paper pieced.  It would stop a lot of the stretching that seaming created.  I was going to hand quilt around each of the patterned shapes, thus outlining them, but once it was all together it was rather ripple-y so I just quilted across the connecting diamonds and around the inner edge of the border.

I think it turned out ok and I hope my swap partner is not disappointed with it.  I have also sent her some extras in the package.

Now to decide if I want to make on for myself.  I have done this in the past with other swaps I have participated in.  It makes for a nice record of what I have made and gets me past the 'I really like this and can't bear to part with it' feeling.

Here's a pic of 1 wall in my craft cave.  It looks a bit different now in that the tubs have labels and there's not as much stuff sitting if front of them.  But it is still not as neat and tidy as I see in other peoples craft room photos.

 

 

Oh and there are some drawer tot he right of the shelves.....

I've done it again!!!

I have started another project...

When will I learn that finishing something is good too, not just starting them??

Maybe I can find somewhere that will finish my projects for me??

So what's this new project?

I bought some yarn to make a shoulder wrap for myself.  It's a nice fine-ish acrylic/wool/mohair mix in shades of pink, cream and brown.  I also picked up a basic ladies knitting pattern book.  It has jumpers and cardies and vests.  In browsing thru that book later that day I thought - I really like this yarn and I could do with a jumper, mmm, how about that one, how many extra balls do I need to make it, that many, I have to go back to the store for some other things, I'll just get those balls and a long circular needle and start the jumper, it will be so cosy and warm.

So there you have it - another project started.

But it will be cosy and warm.........

Here are the pics

as promised in my last post.

The first one is the rows of the Blue and White quilt in my list of things to be finished.

Not the best of photos I willl admit but at least it gives you and idea of what I have made.  I didn't reliase it until yesterday that the centre dark blue fabic is differetn tot he small dark blue squares.  I thought they were the same.

The next pic is of my April small Quilt Talk challenge.  It measures at around 17 inches square.  The pic shows the binding and the centre squares as an orange, but it's not really - more of a red than orange.   I really like the way it turned out.

Now to get onto the one for my swap partner....

Away on Holidays

well at least that was the plan for Anzac Day and the following 3 days.  Hubby had them off from work, so we were going to go camping.  Somewhere on the banks of Lake Eildon.  But it looked like the weather was going to be wet and we knew it would be cold.  So we piked it and stayed home.

Turned out the weather wasn't so bad after all.  Oh well.  I bet if we had of gone away it would have been drizzly and miserable.  That's the way the cookie crumbles, I spose.

So what have I been doing 'whilst on holidays' ?????

Well I have made some inroads to getting the Blue and White quilt kit together.  It is now in rows instead of being in pieces.  Somehow my sewing when I started this was off, so each block is 1/4 of an inch small.  This just means the sashing will be a bit shorter than it was supposed to be.  Not a big deal.  When finished the quilt be a whopping (for me anyway) 78 inches by 98 inches.  That's a good size for a queen sized bed.  Shame it's blue and white.  Not my colours at all really.

I think I will send it off to Angel Quilts to be quilted.  Vera will do a far better job than I ever could.

Given that, I have 3 quilts from Aussie Hero Quilts (and Laundry Bags) that I have been putting together.  They sent me the blocks and I have sewn them up into tops.  I have 1 pinned together with it's backing and wadding and I will put this on my quilt frame and quilt it.  Nothing too fancy that's for sure.  Just some large curvy lines - like rick rack - I think will do the trick.  Hopefully I don't muck it up.

I embroidered labels to go on the back and have already sewn them to the backing.  That way the labels will be quilted too. 

I have also started and finished the Small Quilt Talk April challenge - in 2 days mind you.  I love it.  When I get some pics I will show you.

I found the cable

to be able to put my recent photos onto the computer!!

To start with here is the Purple Mini all finished and hanging in it's new home.

 

I hand quilted it on the cross diagonal to the piecing of the half square trianlges using a size 10 cotton thread.

 

Next is my Suffolk Puff quilt.  It is sewn onto a piece of white fabric - no wadding.

 

Then I have a couple of pics of some baby nighties that I made.  These will be going to a friend who works in a maternity ward at a local hospital.  They are actually designed at burial gowns - a garment to be put onto a still born baby.  I have no idea if that is how they will end up being used.  They re made fron a soft white flanelette and have ribbon and lace embellishments.

 

In November I am going to a market night and these 2 characters will be up for sale.  The bear is made from a repurposed towel.

 

This last bear will also be going to the market night.

 

Her fur is really soft - shame I can't get any more of this fabric.

These little ladies will also be going to the market night.  No arms, no legs, they are secret keepers.  You can tell them anything you like and they will not repeat it to anyone (rather hard when you don't have a mouth - haha).  A couple of them are wearing vintage dresses.  The orange haired girl is a bit sassy.