Scrub Stitchin’ - The Adventure Begins

This year’s version of Scrub Stitchin’ had an extra element of fun as we have been joined by Lou and Tony from New Zealand once more.

We picked them up from the train in Lithgow on Saturday, enjoyed a nice lunch and a walk around the Blast Furnace ruins.  Of course, with all the catch up chatter, we forgot to take a photo.

Sunday was a nice lazy day, but started out with a glitch.  Halfway through making coffee for breakfast our power went out.  That shouldn’t happen when you have a solar battery system.  It was eventually worked out that the coffee machine had had enough.

The went shopping and came home with this.  Very similar to what we had, but in a pretty pearlescent cream colour.  Disaster averted.  Definitely a first world problem.

We did venture out to Reckless Brewery, Bathurst’s local brewery, to enjoy another delicious lunch, and most importantly, for the boys to enjoy a tasting paddle.  They enjoyed them all.

Monday had us hit the road to travel north west.  Us in Frank the little truck towing our caravan and Lou and Tony in their hire car.  We always know we are getting close when we can see the Warrumbungles. You couldn’t have had better weather, a pleasant temperature and beautiful clear sky.

Our first stop was The Crafters Cottage shop at Coonabarabran, in Deb’s new shopfront in the main street.  It’s looking good.  I had my shopping list, found everything on it and didn’t buy anything else.  Win, win.  I really have failed with my photos this trip, as no photo of her bright shop either.

From there, Mick continued on his way to Baradine to set up the van, while I joined Lou and Tony and headed west to Chooky’s.  The sunset was gorgeous last night. This is a bit hazy, as it wast taken through the fly screen.

We went for short walk early this morning.  The light was beautiful.

It is such a pleasure to see everything looking so lush and green.

Today will be a pottering day, before heading over to Baradine tomorrow for the big event.  I can’t wait to see everyone.

A New Leader and Ender Project

When there are lots of things that you should be doing, what do you do instead?

Why, start yet another quilt, of course.  However, this is a bit different to the last few.  

I have really missed having a leader and ender project on the go for the last couple of years, so decided to do something about it.  I’ve had a couple of ideas swimming around in my head, but this was going to take the least effort to bring to fruition.

The pattern is a “Bonnie Lass” from Jen Kingwell’s book Quilt Lovely.  

As you can see, there are lots of the same sized pieces that will be perfect as leaders and enders.

I got out a couple of tubs labeled “Small Scraps”, as well as the left overs from when I made my Trail Mix quilt and made a beautiful mess.

After a couple of hours of playing in my happy place, I had 80 sets of blocks ready to go.  Now, that isn’t even a quarter of what is required, but should keep me out of trouble at Scrub Stitchin’ and for a bit longer. When these get low, I will have another cutting session. There is no rush for this, so I will just have them sitting beside my machine and one day I will have a bonus quilt top.

Meanwhile, they are tucked away in their pretty little tin.  From memory, I used this tin when I started the hexies and they outgrew it rather quickly.

Preparing for Scrub Stitchin’

It is getting to be the time to prepare all my bits and bobs to take to Scrub Stitchin’.  I have a big long list that I follow each year, which includes “Clean Sewing Machine, Change Sewing Machine Needle and Put Fresh Blades in Rotary Cutters”.  Well my rotary cutters are running quite nicely at the moment, so I’ll leave them be and just take some spare blades in case.

As for my sewing machine, the bottom tension has been a bit strange on my last couple of projects.  I do clean my machine regularly, like each month, so why not have a go at giving it a full service and see if that helps.  What could go wrong?  Hopefully nothing, as I want to use my machine lots while away.

First, find a YouTube tutorial.  Surely there will be one.  There seems to be one on just about everything.  Tick.  Show it to Mick, so he can save me when everything goes pear shaped.  Tick.  Go and buy some high quality grease.  Tick.  Let’s get set up on the dining table.

My machine is a bit over twenty years old and has only had a few services, the most recent about three or four years ago.  

As we started to take the covers off, we propped her up on some books to protect the back.

Once the workings were exposed, I was surprised at how clean she was inside.  There was some old grease that had to be wiped off and lots of tiny bits of fluff that were hiding in various nooks and crannies.  Cotton buds worked well to get into those hard to access spots.

Mick did come and give me a hand, particularly in doing the greasing, as he is much more familiar with what is required, seeing as that was part of his trade.  He also did most of the oiling.  Secretly, I think he was happy to be playing along.

That looks  a lot better.

All went back together nicely and it was time to see how she sewed, using an old rag.  Eeek!  Why is the bottom liked this?  OK, the first thing is always to rethread.  Oh, the bobbin was upside down!  That would do it.  Doh!

OK, let’s have another go at this with the machine threaded correctly.  Ahh, that is so much better and the tension is beautiful.  She always runs quietly, but she is lovely and super quiet now.  

I’m glad we had a go at giving her a thorough once over and now feel confident to do this rather than have to send her to a technician…..unless there is a problem.

Now she is raring and ready to go to Baradine.

Oh, and have we had a look at Monique’s issues yet?  Nope.  That will happen one day, but not today.

Stitching Wishes for April

It is always fun to look ahead to a new month and think about what I would like to achieve.  Let’s have a look at April.

CHOOKSHED CHALLEGE

Deana has posted the project number for April and it is NUMBER 4.  

I’m not sure if this is really funny or sad, but to date I have swapped around every project number that has been selected.  Let’s see what Number 4 is:

Yep, you guessed it.  I’m swapping this one around as well.  At the start of the year I couldn’t find the fabric I had bought at Baradine last year to make this project and couldn’t find my pattern either.  

The fabric has been found, but the pattern is still playing hide and seek.  That is particularly annoying, as I have made this project twice before and have some hand written notes with the pattern to help me along the way.  I know it is here somewhere, as I did have a look at it after I bought the fabric.  Grrrr!

Anyway, in the mean time I am swapping it with my Number 5 which is the Granny Square Table Runner.  I do have the fabrics for this one and the photo I am using for inspiration. It even travelled to Scrub Stitchin’ with me last year, but wasn’t worked on.  The charm squares are left over from a Girls Day in the Country project from 2013, so I do think it is time to get this table runner made.  My goal said that it will be good to practise ruler work on Monique, so it may not be completed in April, but will at least be well on the way and should be finished by the end of the year.  As you can guess, this is now yet another project to pack to take to Baradine.

The funny thing is that when I chose my projects for the year I thought they would all be nice and easy to complete within a month.  This is mostly true, as long as you don’t get busy with other things.  Let’s hope I find more time later in the year, now that I have kept postponing those that need a little more thought.

RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE

The colour this month is?  I haven't been able to ascertain the colour as yet.  Once again, I will keep it simple with my split nine patch blocks.  Hopefully, that is something I can prepare in the next couple of days.

EDITED: The colour for April is RED.  Now to pull some fabrics.

Other than that, I hope to have lots to show for my time at Scrub Stithin’.  I can’t wait.

What I do need to do is get some hand stitching prepped, as other than my Sashiko panel, which is half done, I don’t have anything on the go at the moment.  Oh, the possibilities…. and the decisions to be made.  Watch this space.

A Day Out With Rosie

For the first time in I don’t know how long, on Sunday Mick and I both had nothing planned for the day.  It seems that life has turned rather busy for both of us this year.  So, what would we do?

First up, it was a leisurely breakfast, using some of our home grown raspberries, which have finally started to bear fruit again.

Mick was thinking of taking Rosie, the Suzuki Sierra for a short run.  I suggested we could go for a drive in her for a pub lunch in a little village.  Win, win.

We had received 16mm of much needed rain the previous day and the weather was still rather grey, but that wasn’t going to stop us.  This would be the longest drive that Rosie had been on since Mick has owned her.  Previously, he had just been taking her out to a mate’s place about 20kms away to drive around his steep paddocks and motocross track.

She is rather cosy in the cab compared to our modern vehicles and she is also rather slow, but we don’t mind that, as we are used to travelling around in the vintage side car at a slow pace.  We planned to travel on some quiet country roads rather than highways and of course found some lovely little dirt roads.

Although it was Sunday, this farmer was still busy with his stock.  That shed would have been an army hut at Cowra back in WW2.  You see them dotted around the place.  The shed in our back yard when I was a kid was one as well.

Out this way there are ruins of a few stone buildings.   This was a nice photo opportunity for Rosie.

Our lunch time destination was the Neville Pub.  Neville is a village out the back of Blayney, next to the village of Barry.  I always wonder how they got their names.  Anyway, the pub was always a good one, but shut down for a few years.  A couple of years ago it went on the market and two young builders from Sydney who were working in the area decided on a whim to buy it, with no previous experience of running a pub.  They made some improvements and it has been open for about eighteen months and is doing well.  We had a delicious burger and had a nice chat to a fellow who turned up on his motorcycle and also owns a little Suzuki 4WD, so the boys had lots in common.

Obviously, I forgot to take a photo of the pub or lunch. Doh!

The other half hearted plan for the day was to see if we could pick some wild apples, as there are quite a few apple trees growing along the sides of these minor roads.  Most trees had already been picked, but there were a couple that looked to have quite a few on them.  It became apparent why, as upon closer inspection, the fruit was very diseased.  However, one did have a blackberry growing next to it with lovely plump berries.  We didn’t have a container to collect any, so just enjoyed a few while there.

We took a different route on the way home, travelling along the “Old Lachlan Road”.  

We have travelled this very minor road some years ago and thought it was about time to drive it again and it would be a good one to take Rosie down.  It was rather rough in places, but thanks to the previous day’s rain, wasn’t dusty.

You know you are on a minor road when there is grass growing up the centre.

We didn’t meet one single vehicle along its entire length, but did encounter a traffic jam of a different type.  We are guessing it was an organised trail ride, as they were all kitted out in a similar fashion.

We do enjoy seeing the local countryside.

Overall, we travelled about 130kms.  Rosie seems to be happy sitting on around 70 kph on the road, so a rather leisurely way to travel.  We have learnt that she is running quite rich, as she used quite a bit more fuel than she should, and was a bit smelly, so Mick has now adjusted the carby.  Initially, she was a also a bit how’s your uncle on the road, so we pulled over and he put some more air in the tyres, which made for a better ride on the bitumen, but a bit rougher on the rough roads.  It’s all about reaching that happy balance.  On the whole, she went well and we hope to have more little day trips like this with her in the future.

Stitching Wrap Up For March

Blimey, March seems to have vanished in the blink of an eye.  Time to see what I managed to get up to.

I’ll start with  my one completed project for the month.  The knitted scarf, that I started so that I would have something to work on in the train coming home from Sydney at the start of the month, is now completed and ready to wear once the weather turns cold, which will happen before we know it.  That is now four I have knitted using this pattern.  I think I need to find some other simple project to knit in future, as I really don’t need any more of these.  However, they are lovely and snuggly and I wear my others frequently.

This is how much wool I had left at the end of the casting off row.  Phew!  That was close.

This time I decided to model the scarf on Victoria, rather than me.  The colour of this yarn is rather lovely.  It is a Patons Patonyle sock wool.  Maybe I should knit some socks to match?

My Rainbow Scrap Challenge was a couple of simple blocks, so took no time.  Now to wait for April’s colour.

The Chookshed Challenge was to work on the fish blocks and although I haven’t completed a quilt, the next batch of appliqué is all ready to stitch down at Scrub Stitchin’.

Speaking of Scrub Stitchin’, I have kitted up three other quilts to work on up there, if the mood takes me.

Oh, and Raewyn has requested we make a couple of blocks to contribute to a Scrub Stitchin’ charity quilt.  These are my two.

The project that was on my wish list, but not expected to be worked on, was to finish the Blue/Hope Quilt top.  I am so very happy to have managed to get it done.

I’m not sure if I’ve shared this Sashiko panel that I started working on a couple of months ago, as a fill in project for my stitching group days.  Well, I’ve continued to make a little progress this month.  There is no plan for it, but it will be good to have it completed and then work out what I will do with it.

In addition to these, there has been a little secret stitching going on.  

Also, just one solitary cotton reel was emptied, although there are some more that are oh, so close.  It’s going to take a while to fill my big jar at this rate.

As for my 15 minutes a day.  I am still keeping track, but not worrying about it too much.  I managed to meet the goal on 25 days, so not too bad. That works out at 69 days out of 90 with a success rate of 76.67%.  Considering everything else we have been up to, I am happy enough with that.

I must say, that on looking at the month as a whole, I am somewhat surprised about how much I have achieved.  Let’s hope next month is as fruitful.

Oh Dear, I’m At It Again

Yep, another donation quilt cut out.

I was recently gifted a lovely bundle of fabrics.  There are eight cuts 30cm x WOF.  I decided to do something with them straight away.  Strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.

My immediate thought was that they are the equivalent of 32 layer cake squares and then found this simple pattern that requires 30 squares.  When I look at it, it is just a larger version of the baby quilt I have made a few times.  Nice and simple and lets the fabrics shine.

Next, to see what was in the stash that would work for the joining squares, that wasn’t white or cream, and came up with a pale pink with white feathers that is left over wide back and just the right quantity.  Overall, it still looked like it needed something more, so I found this gorgeous greenish fabric that I came across in an op shop in Forbes.  It is an unusual colour, but works perfectly with these fabrics.  I will use it for a border.  Great!  Let’s get cutting.

All done.  Well, 10 inch x WOF strips are cut and 5 inch strips are cut.  That is all I need at this stage, as I will strip piece as much as I can.  Borders can wait until later.

Another one to take to Baradine, but I really doubt if I will get to it while there, so another one done for whenever I feel like making it up.

At Long Last - I Finally Have a Flimsy

Whenever I have started a more detailed quilt I have given myself a two year time frame to complete it.  This has worked fairly well in the past, as once the quilt top was completed I would send it off to my long arm quilter to work her magic and then bind it.

However, my most recent more detailed quilt has been in the works for nearly three years and today, finally, it is a quilt top, so still not completed.

I bought the book shortly after it was released.  There is no date on it, but it was definitely prior to 2019, as I made a wall hanging from the book that year.  I knew I wanted to make the featured quilt and started “quarantining” blue fabrics in my stash for future use.  Natalie Bird was selling the complete set of EPP papers at the Sydney Craft Show one year, so I bought them and added them to the “kit” as well.  I bought a final few fabrics in early 2022.

I made an actual start in June 2022, in readiness to take with me on our three month caravan trip.  While travelling, I worked on the EPP hexies and the next EPP section and did some stitcheries on the appliqué blocks, even though the appliqué had not been stitched down at that stage.

Gradually, I made progress over the next little while.  The hand stitching was great to take along to the two stitching groups I had joined.  The last of the Dresden appliqué on the final border was completed in March last year.  What!  I didn’t realise it had been sitting, waiting patiently, for that long.

It was then that I hit a road block and it has taken me until now to finally get going again.  The problem was that the checkerboard and appliqué round was too long.  I had thought I could ease it and the next border, but it didn’t work.  I wondered why it was out so much, but I now realise it is because I had pressed many of the seams open, rather than to one side.

Finally, last month I removed the offending rounds and this week reduced the length of the checkerboard round. The process wasn’t as bad as I had feared. 

Yesterday, I reattached the checkerboard round with no flaring and today added the final two borders.  To say I am happy to finally get to this stage is an understatement.  It will now sit patiently again, until I work out how I am going to quilt it.

Oh, and it will suit our bed rather nicely, once it is finally completed.