A Stitching Wrap Up of August

This is rather late, but I wanted to get our trip posted first up.

Let’s see how I went with my wishes for the month…..

My main wish was to have the Batik Fish Quilt finished.  I’m very happy to report that it was done.  A full post coming soon.

Then I finished off the Strippy Rainbow Quilt.

Elly May was used on both of these quilts, as well as Jo’s.

In amongst all that, I helped a friend with a baby quilt.  She purchased the kit about 20 years ago and was finally wanting to make it as a gift.  I helped her cut it out, she then pieced it.  An afternoon at our house saw it quilted with a cute butterfly pantograph.  Then I showed her how to add the binding.  

Once that was done, she used all the scraps to make two cushion fronts, which I also quilted for her.  I didn’t get a chance to see the two completed before gifting but they would have been lovely.  She is an experienced seamstress, so did precise stitching and the cute Peter Rabbit fabrics hadn’t dated at all.  A lovely gift to give.

The next thing to work on was the Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.

Of course, Betty’s blocks had to be made as well.

My Corner to Corner crochet squares progressed nicely, with ten squares being completed.

My knitting didn’t fare so well, with no progress being made.

An August Escape was a driver during the month, with four quilts being prepped.

The Jelly Roll Quilt, which was pieced at Baradine.

The Aeroplane Quilt, which was appliqued and pieced at Baradine.

A Farmyard Quilt, that still has to be pieced.  I did work out the layout on the design curtain, but have since cut a golden yellow for the sashings instead of the blue.  It won’t take long to make, once I get to it.  There is no rush.  It may even be next year at Scrub Stitchin’.

Finally an easy strippy quilt, which will also get stitched at some stage.  No rush.

So, all in all, not a bad month.

The other thing that I did during the month was donate a pile of quilts to the domestic violence support organisation here in town.

15 MINUES A DAY

I stitched on 30 of the 31 days.  The best for the year.

YTD = 201/243 - 82.72%

While piecing the Batik Fish Quilt I managed to empty lots of bobbins and a couple of spools of thread.  It was great to be able to use up some odds and ends that were darker colours, as most quilts require something lighter.

Now, even though it is half way through the next month, I will get down my wishes for September.

Baradine - What Mick Got Up To

While I was busy playing at stitching and everything associated, Mick, together with our Queensland friends, were out and about.

On the Thursday they headed into the Pilliga to visit Dandry Gorge and the Sculptures in the Scrub.

From there they continued on to the Salt Cave, where they had a picnic lunch.

On the Friday they went into Coonabarabran to visit the Siding Springs Observatory and then on to the Warrumbungles picnic area for another picnic lunch.  Everything was looking a picture, more like a manicured park than a national park.

Mr Jules popped over for a visit and he and Mick went to the pub for a counter tea.

Saturday was a lazy day, hanging around the camp and cooking roast lamb in the camp oven.  

They really roughed it.

Sitting around the camp fire each evening was a feature. Mr Chooky came over to join them on Sunday.

So, as you can see, Mick doesn’t just sit around being bored.  He enjoys the trip to Baradine as much as me.

While I’m at it, the beautiful grevillea just behind where we park the van was just coming into flower.  They are so pretty.

And the area behind the cabins was looking a picture.  It was so green (I know, I keep going on about it) and beautifully mowed. 

Then, it was time to get everything packed away for our departure on Monday morning.  We didn’t go straight home, rather continued on to have a few days exploring.

More soon.

Baradine - An August Escape Part 2

Following on from yesterday’s post, here is the Show and Tell from Saturday, as well as what some of the girls achieved.

These two are Lianne’s.  The pixilated flowers are gorgeous and best viewed from a bit of a distance to get the full effect.

Mary has made another jelly roll race quilt using Tilda Christmas fabrics.

Annette brought along another Elizabeth Hartmann masterpiece.  She says “No more”, but we will believe that when we don’t see any more.

These were Tracey’s.  All so very effective.  The hexy quilt is all done by machine, using half hexy shapes.

Diannes’ top quilt was made with fabric she was given last year.  The bottom pair were to be one quilt, but it ended up so big that it became two.

Brenda brought along a cute cot quilt that she made and will probably donate.  The bottom one is Bigs and Smalls.  The quilting is nearly finished.

Miss Jules made this very effective quilt using the same pattern that I made last year.  It looks so different and is very striking.

Gail completed a quilt that has been on the go for a while, in an effort to get her fabric used up.

Di showed a fun cowboy quilt top that she has made.  Perfect for a young country boy.

Sarah proudly displayed her first ever quilt.  Even quilted by her.  A great job.

I had my solid Fat Quarters quilt that I pieced at Scrub Stitchin’ and my completed Batik Fish Quilt.  Yes, it is finished. It will have its own post shortly.  My other two show and tell quilts were hanging on the wall.

Finally, I showed off my friend Linda’s quilt that I finished off and she was there to see all the show and tell, which was nice.

The next quilts are ones that were worked on during the weekend.

Chooky made a cute boy’s quilt from a kit.  I was impressed that she achieved so much, considering all she was doing.

Tracey was working on a strippy quilt as you go piece.  It was looking fantastic and is a great scrap buster.

Karen is always our high achiever, completing a couple of quilt tops and quilting some that were already sandwiched, ready to go.

Lianne finished piecing this huge quilt that she is working on with the ladies at the Coolah patchwork shop.  The colours just glow.

Finally, the big achievement of the weekend was Mary completing her Cottage Garden Threads and Liberty Field Journal quilt top.  This has been on the go since 2018.  Her stitching is exquisite and all the different Tana Lawns work beautifully.  

I wish I had taken more photos of works in progress, but as I said, I fell down on the job.  Needless to say, there were some other gorgeous projects under way.

And that about sums up our stitching days at Baradine.  Wonderful, but all too short.