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 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.

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.