My Wishes For September

It seems a bit silly adding this post now, as we are already over half way through the month.

I will also clarify that to date I have done very little on the stitching front.  I think that last month being so productive has left me a little flat.

MY MAIN MONTHLY GOAL

I did have grand plans for this, but the month is getting on, and I won’t be in my sewing room for a little while yet, so I’m going to keep it to something that I think should be achievable. I want to complete the little Aeroplane Quilt.  It should only take a day or so.  There, it’s now out there, so it should get done……fingers crossed.

RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE

The colour this month is purple.  I should be able to manage this.

BETTY’S BLOCK

I have the fabric and the pattern, so that will be done and sent off.

I’m not aiming to do any more patchwork this month.

USE ELLY MAY

See my Main Monthly Wish.

CROCHET

About the only thing I have been doing is crocheting my Corner to Corner Squares. They are mindless, and ideal to take along to my stitching days.  Mind you, I have only been home for one week to go along.

KNITTING

My jumper is not going all that well.  I think my tension may be a tad out and I will have to make some minor adjustments to make it work.  I can see what I need to do, but my brain has not been engaged sufficiently to sit down and write it all down.  It is on pause for the moment.

I do need to knit another oatmeal coloured beanie for me, as the last one was too large.  That will be my aim for this month.  Once I get going it won’t take too long.

15 MINUTES A DAY

I started off well, just doing a bit of crochet, but seem to have petered off.  I’ll try to lift my game.  Getting my blog up to date has been the priority over the last few days.  

OTHER GOALS

1.    Try a new recipe - I’ve already managed that.

2.    Read a book - probably won’t happen, but I may surprise myself.

3.    Have a fun day out - already achieved.

4.    Have a caravan trip - this was not to happen.  The van was washed and put to bed…….and then taken out again.  Details to follow.

5.    Keep my blog posts up to date.  Wish me luck.

We’ll see at the end of the month how I fared.

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 - An August Escape Part 1

Our time at Baradine was wonderful, as usual.  We both really look forward to this trip.

We arrived on the Tuesday, well ahead of time and were joined by our friends from Queensland.  Our first evening was spent at the Bowlo with the local ladies, playing bingo.  We did no good, as expected.

Wednesday was a lazy day, wandering around town and generally just hanging out with our friends.

THURSDAY

Thursday was the day that things livened up.  Chooky arrived in the morning.  We quickly unpacked her very full car and she and I headed into Coonabarabran to do the final shopping and other bits and bobs that were required.  Meanwhile Mick and Co played the tourist. More on their doings later.

A few of us early birds pitched in to get the hall set up for everyone’s arrival.  We had 20 girls come along this time, with half of them arriving on Thursday.  The room looked rather bare before we all set up our sewing stations.

Brenda made the dining table look good, as always.

We hung some quilts on the wall.  The above two are mine.

The next two were Lianne’s.

This beauty was purchased by Miss Jules in a silent auction at a Macquarie Home Stay event.

Finally, Jenny’s Simply Serene top, showing how different the two quilts can look, just by fabric choice.

Everyone received a goodies bag.  These pretty bags were a surprise find in Coonabarabran.  Rather appropriate for the season.  Di made our cute name badges.

Inside were four fat quarters, a fun mug and a couple of caramello koalas.  

It didn’t take long to get myself all set up ready to get stitching the next day.

Thursday evening was spent at the Bowlo for Thai for dinner.  This is a new menu since our last visit and was delicious.

FRIDAY

I didn’t take a lot of photos this time - falling down on the job.

Friday was the day that I started doing some stitching. I had prepped four projects to take with me, but only ended up working on two of them.  That’s OK, as the other two are sitting there, ready to go whenever I feel like working on them.

The first one was made from a Jelly Roll that I had purchased at a charity stall.  The quilt pattern was a good one, as it used the entire jelly roll with very little wastage.  

Before I left home I sorted the strips into light and dark and then paired them up, ready to start stitching the strips sets.

I stitched like crazy on the Friday and had the quilt top put together within the day.  It is now waiting patiently for me to find a suitable backing and get it quilted and bound.

The second project I prepped was from a pattern that I purchased for $1 from “The Sewing Basket” at the recent craft show at Darling Harbour.  I figured that seeing as I bought it, I’d better make it.  The prep took  longer than expected, as I dilly dallied over fabrics, then had to trace all the applique blocks, ran out of applique paper, so had to go to the shop, then fused, cut out and adhered all the applique blocks ready for stitching, as well as cutting the remaining blocks.  That took a couple of days.

I started stitching on the Friday, which gave me a good start.

As it was a lovely afternoon, a few of us went for a stroll around the grounds before dinner.

I forgot to take photos of the food, but Chooky’s catering was delicious.  Nice, fresh and flavoursome meals every time.

SATURDAY

The Saturday is always the big day.

Firstly, I got stuck into stitching down the rest of the applique blocks on the Aeroplane Quilt.  They always take longer than expected.  However, the shapes were nice and easy to stitch. 

After lunch it was Show and Tell, but that will have a separate post.

Back to the sewing machine and it was time to play with the surrounding blocks on the quilt and work out the final layout on the “Design Quilt”. The quilt blocks were put together before dinner.  Yay!  Just the border to add on the next day.  

Later in the afternoon, it was time for our group photo.  Lots of smiling happy faces.

As we are Sparkling Sisters, I took along some appropriately named bubbles from our recent trip to St George.

Dinner was delicious and followed by the three fat quarter swap.  I received some lovely Tilda fabrics.

These are the ones that I took along.

SUNDAY

The wind down day.

I worked on prepping and adding the borders to my little quilt.  I’m really happy with this one.  It is such a cute design.

Then I made the two August blocks for Betty’s group quilt.  So effective.  Better late than never.  

And that was it for me, as far as stitching was concerned.

As the morning and afternoon progressed, most of the girls started to make their way home.  A few of us then packed everything up and put the hall back in order.  It’s always sad to have the time come to an end.

We stayed over on Sunday night, as did a few others.

Thanks, as always, must go to Chooky for making these events possible.  The time and effort she puts in is incredible, particularly as she is now chief caterer.  We all appreciate what she does in bringing us all together.  A time I really treasure.  Only just over seven months until we will all be back.  I can’t wait.

Rainbow Strippy Group Quilt

As I have previously mentioned, I have joined in with Betty’s merry band making blocks for group donation quilts each month. 

For the first half of this year the brief was slightly different, in that each month we were to make a strip in a colour of the rainbow.  

Here are mine.

Once all the coloured strips were completed and returned to Betty, she mixed them up and sent strip sets out to each of us to make into a quilt top.  Some were very creative and clever.

I finally got around to joining the strips I received into this flimsy.  Not very creative, but I think it is rather striking.

Instead of returning the quilt top to Betty for the girls down there to finish off, I have quilted and bound it here.  

I just used a gold thread for the quilting and a bright blue wideback for the backing and binding.

With Betty’s blessing, it will be donated to a local charity in Bathurst.

QUILT INFORMATION

Measurements -62" high x 64" wide

Pattern - None.  Rainbow strips for group quilts.

Fabrics - All from stash.  

Quilting Design - QCT6 - Loopmeander

Batting - Cotton/Poly

Backing - Wideback from Spotlight

Thread - Glide - Cleopatra