In 2 days ....

I'm packing up and heading off for a 3 month vacation heading north doing the grey nomad thing.

Hubby and I will be seeing the sights in far north Queensland without the encumbrance of ankle biters (kids for the uninitiated).  Hopefully we won't get stuck too often in mud or sand, or rained out, or eaten alive by small bitey things or see many of the large bitey things (unless they're fish we can eat).

I am taking prbably way too many handcrafts with me - there's some knitting (22 pairs of soul slippers), some patchwork (be attitude quilt to make), and a cross stitch or 2 (a japanese bell pull I have been working on for a few years now and Van Gogh's starry night).  There's also my DS going and 5 books.  I think that's enough to keep me busy. 

We are towing a camper trailer - that's a tent attached to a trailer - and the associated paraphernalia that goes with it.

With a bit of luck we will have internet capabilities, so I may be able to update you all along the way.

Just Finished !

I have just finished this quilt - like 5 minutes ago.

It is an Apple Core quilt - COMPLETELY Hand Sewn and Hand Quilted.

I feel very proud of myself.  I did a knife edge - so no binding and quilted lightly around each of the cream blocks as well as a row just inside the outer edge and another around halfway in around the border.

This next pic is the chocolate bunch my eldest gave me for Mother's Day.

So nice I don't want to eat the chocolate.  When I do I think I will replace them with a cut paper or felt heart shape.

Thoughts In Thread

You may have read in a previous post that I am following Val Laird's Thoughts In Thread stitch along.  It's a free pattern that she puts out each month to make up a small quilt or wall hanging.

I finally got around to doing the first 2 blocks the other day.  I wasn't too sure of my fabric selections, but in seeing them all in these 2 blocks they look OK together.

This photo does not do them justice.  if you too want to follow along, you can find Val on my sidebar.

Now it's onto blocks 3 and 4.

Sewing Days

Over the past few weeks I have had mum's from calisthenics come over on Wednesday afternoons and Friday nights to do some sewing - they need to learn and I have been attempting to teach them.  Five ladies have taken up this opportunity.

Not only have I been showing them how to put together their child's costumes but I have also been showing them how to use their machines.  That is not something I thought they would need.

But each lady has gone away with a sense of accomplishment in having made a skirt with attached petticoat, or a pair of shorty overalls, or even sewing up a leotard.

yay for them....

More of my Garden Quilt

Took some time off from calisthenic costume making to have some me time.  And this is what I did with that time - some more blocks for my Pam Bono quilt.

A pretty peachy one....

A bright Pink one....

And a rich Purple one....

I also made a cushion for youngest daughter's buddy.  It's in the club colours.  I hope the buddy likes it.

The buddy's name starts with a E.

And I started a painting after reading my current issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors.

It's actually a lot darker than the pic shows.  When I get the next layer of paint on, I'll show you.

MSNP has kicked in again!

In the week leading up to Easter I was browsing some blogs and a number of people were making Dresden Plates blocks.  Now I have made 1 of these before and I quite liked the ease of the block and how nice it looked.  Since we were going away for a week over Easter, I was also thinking of what to take with me craft wise.  I was hoping hubby qould be off fishing and leave me to my own devices.

Looking at these blogs was when my MSNP kicked in.

I decided that I just HAD to make a Dresden Quilt.  I worked it all out - 16 squares with a smallish border, Suffolk Puff where the blocks meet each other and the border (that makes 25 of those) - size and all.

Since I decdied to have a black background and I needed wanted to have rainbow colours in each Plate, I knew I did not have the fabrics on hand.  So mucjh for trying to use the stash.  So off to the shop I went.

I came home with this:

And some plain Red and lots of plain Black.

I made my own templates:

Then I cut out some of the fabric:

 And sewed it up into this, just to check my template:

It worked and sat flat, so I made some more:

By this stage we had to come home early - the weather had turned really cold and when you are living in a small caravan with a canvas annex it's not pleasant.  Once home I spent the next day finishing off all the plates blades and then started on appliquing them to the background.  I also had to cut out the centres:

The first one complete looked like this.  Each plate is hand stitched down:

With some friends the quilt looks like this:

I played around with a folded fabric flower - not sure if I like it though.  Maybe it will be better if it's a bit bigger.

All 256 blades have been sewn together to make 16 Dresden Plates.  I have put just one colour every fourth blade and mixed up all the other blades in each plate.

I am going to quilt it in a quilt-as-you-go method and use a variggated thread (if I can find 1 I like); I have cut the front background pieces larger than the back background pieces.  This will give me a flap or sort of binding to sew down on the back.  Being all the one colour - Black - you most likely won't notice it anyway.  Whatever I end up putting at the block corners will be added after the quilt is together.

Painting

I bought a monthly magazine the other day just because it had instructions on how to paint a beachy/sea scene.  Like I don't have enough mags and books on the subject!

But it got me inspired to bring out the paints and the brushes again.  I think the end product is not too bad.  I used acrylics on a stretched canvas.  I will be donating it to one of the girls calisthenics clubs for their end of year concert raffle.

Then when I went shopping a few days later I came across a canvas with a frame and a pic lightly drawn on it.  Pic looked ok, so I bought it - $12 only - and have this morning finished painting it.  Way brighter than the pic given.  The paints given were terrible to use - great if you were dabbing them on but not if you were trying to sweep them on.  Not entirely sure I like this one.

Maybe it will look better once it is in it's frame.