March Plans

After a busy February, it would be nice if March was a bit quieter, but it is also shaping up to have quite a bit on.  So, once again, I will try to keep things rather simple.

RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE

The colour this month is Yellow.  I will make the split nine patch blocks and with a bit of luck, a crumb block to two.  We’ll see how that goes.

CHOOKSHED CHALLENGE

The number this month is Number 2. For me that is to make a Gail Pan bag using the stitchery I worked on while overseas last year.  Nope!  Not happening this month.

Like last month, I’m going to switch things around.  I need to prep some projects for Scrub Stitchin’ and one of those is the appliqué fish.  That just happens to be Number 9, so that will work perfectly.  I don’t expect to get anything stitched, but if I can get quite a few fused, ready to stitch I will be happy.  Fingers crossed that I have more time later in the year to work on the projects I am putting off now.

Pop over to Deana’s blog to see what the others will be working on.

What else would I like to do?

Ideally, I would like to get those rogue borders on my Blue/Hope quilt sorted and added back on to the quilt and the final border added.  It is stitched and ready to go.  Wish me luck on this one.

My knitting will probably progress.

And finally, it would be really nice to have the little pouch project from Scrub Stitchin’ last year finished for this year.  We’ll see how we go on that one too.  Don’t hold your breath.

I’m not making any other plans.  Everything else will be a bonus.

Looking Back at 2024

I can’t quite believe that we are already at the end of another year.  It is time to have a look back at what we have been up to over the last twelve months.  This is something I have done for the last few years and I do enjoy having a quick read over them and seeing how we have fared.

At the start of 2024 I made a post with my wishes for the coming year.  Let’s see how things panned out.

As usual, I set some goals for my stitching and joined in with some challenges.

Once again, I joined in with the One Monthly Goal challenge.  I missed achieving my goal for a couple of months, due to travel, but caught up by the end of the year.

A new challenge this year was the Chookshed Stitchers’ Challenge arranged by Deana.  This consisted of nominating and numbering ten projects or tasks. Deana would then select one number at random each month and we would work on that project or task.  Having only ten projects gave us a couple of extra months to make up for any time we were unable to complete the task in the nominated month.  I’m pleased to report that by using that extra couple of months I was able to meet all my goals.  I’m looking forward to joining in again next year.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge featured again this year.  I worked on a few projects, but completed none.  

Firstly, I continued to make the split nine patches I had started in 2023.  

I also made a few crumb blocks and started a few hexy flowers.  

What ended up being a lot of fun was working on the Fishy Business Quilt blocks in rainbow colours.  Sadly, I fell off the wagon in the second half of the year, so they are an ongoing project.  I hope to make two donation quilts using these blocks.

The Rainbow Fish were such fun that I started a second version of the quilt using batik fabrics.  I’m loving how this is turning out.  Once again, it came to standstill in the second half of the year, so is ongoing.

I did manage to make quite a few donation quilts.  Some went to a local charity that supports victims of domestic violence.

One was used as a raffle prize at the church fete.

There were a couple of things that didn’t progress how I had hoped, one being the Blue Quilt.  I need to remove a couple of borders, as they were flaring, and adjust those borders. They are the checkerboard border you can see here as well as a narrow border that was added after this one.

I have become somewhat obsessed with hexy flowers since autumn, when I made a couple of random ones as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  This morphed into making the Bigs and Smalls quilt pattern by Anorina Morris.  I have stitched 111 one inch hexy flowers and 8 two inch hexy flowers.  I am currently in the process of appliquéing them to background squares.  It has surprised me how much I have enjoyed the process,  It has also meant that other projects have been put on the back burner.

I started a little stitchery when we were overseas and rather than just adding a simple border, I had a play and made a little wall hanging.  It was a bit of fun.

This year I again played along with working on something crafty for 15 minutes a day.  It really motivates me to get at least some little thing done most days.  The hexy flowers were a perfect project.

This is how I ended up:

December = 26/31

Year to Date =  336/366

Success Rate = 91.80%  That’s a little bit down on last year, but I think anything over 90% is definitely a win.

Being a bit of a nerd, I set up a spreadsheet with some goals.  This is how I went.

Complete 24 projects = 25

Quilt 12 quilts = 12  (I had hoped to achieve more here, but Monique has not been playing nicely for the last few months.  Once she is sorted, I should be able to make some good progress - and complete some more UFOs.)

Complete 12 UFOs = 9 (I had listed 24 UFOs to choose from)

Complete 12 donation projects = 10

I started 25 new projects during the year and have completed 16, so there is the start of next year’s UFO list.

I am really enjoying the social side of stitching, continuing to attend my patchwork group on a Wednesday and the U3A group on a Friday morning.  These groups mean that I get much more handwork completed these days.

Participating in the Chookshed Stitchers Zoom sewing sessions continues to be a favourite way to spend time.  It is such a lovely group of women.

Finally, visiting Baradine for sewing retreats is the best fun.  This time with a second retreat in the spring being a bonus, as well as a free motion quilting workshop at the craft shop in Coonabarabran.

What else did we get up to during the year?

Things started out on a sad note, as we farewelled our cat Joey.  He was sixteen and his time had come.

Travel is always a feature.  The main trip this year was rather unplanned and impromptu.  We decided on the Friday afternoon to go to the Isle of Man for the TT motorcycle races and had everything booked that evening and left on the Monday morning!!! I still haven’t got around to blogging about most of the trip.  I may still get to it.  I do hope so.  Anyway, we had a great time while there and in England.

We had quite a change with our caravan trips too.  After the ute started to give us grief, we made the decision to buy a small truck to pull the van.  Enter “Frank” the Fuso truck.  We are very happy with him.  He is shorter than the ute and Mick finds him surprisingly zippy for driving around town.  The vision from the cab is terrific, being so high and, best of all, there is no worries about being overweight when towing the van.  He has already done quite a few miles.

Our first trip was to Baradine for Scrub Stitchin’, when the above photo was taken.  

We then took him to Canberra in May, so that we could see the Rajah Quilt, the Ancient Egypt exhibition, both Parliament Houese and Mr Squiggle.

His next trip was to Queensland, where we visited Dalby, Bell, Gayndah, Cania Gorge and then on to Rockhampton to visit our friends.

We have also taken him to Forbes and Lake Cargelligo.

And finally, Braidwood for the Airing of the Quilts.

As usual we had quite a few days out.  Quilt shows and open gardens seemed to feature a lot.  We went to the Blue Mountains Quilt Show, the Rajah Quilt Exhibition at Canberra, the Sydney Quilt show and the Braidwood Airing of the Quilts.  We visited open gardens at Cowra, Bathurst and Crookwell.  

Meanwhile, we are also enjoying just being at home.  Mick has become really involved with his lawn bowls.  Not only is he playing twice a week, he goes down and practices on a couple of afternoons and has started taking an active role in looking after the grounds. 

I have continued to read some books, but still not as many as I would like and tried quite a few new recipes, but once again, not as many as I would like.

So that wraps up another year of retirement.  Life is definitely good.

Finally, a Finish

 On Saturday, Lou put out a challenge that we both “dust off our quilting frames” and get quilting.  My first reaction, while having breakfast, was “Oh Loo-ou!”. Then once I did a couple of other things I was brave and headed into the sewing room to start to have a tidy up.

A few hours later, Monique had been excavated.  Now, this photo was strategically angled.  We won’t look at the other side of the room.  LOL. However, quite a bit of tidying up and putting away did take place.

The quilt I was going to play with was the little half square baby quilt that I finished piecing up at Scrub Stitchin’.  This was to be my Chookshed Stitchers’ Challenge for May, after I was unable to find my NZ fabrics.  Our impromptu trip to the UK put paid to that, so now was its time to shine.

This little quilt has transpired to be something created from not much.  The feature fabrics are a partial charm pack that I purchased quite some years back at a market stall for $3.  The white is from stash.  I always have a supply of white.

I stitched the HST blocks as a leader and ender while at Scrub Stitchin’ in 2022.  They were trimmed down shortly thereafter, and then languished in the “To Do” pile, getting carried over month after month……until Scrub Stitchin’ this year.

In some respects, it was a good thing the quilting was delayed, as I found the ideal backing fabric on our recent trip north in an op shop.   To my delight, it was wide enough that I didn’t have to piece the backing.  I also found I had a batting off cut that was just the right size.  Everything was falling into place.

Once loaded on the frame I was using up the last little bits of bobbin for the basting and first partial pattern row.  All was going swimmingly, until the last little curvy bit.  At least it ran out beside the quilt top, and not in the middle of the stitching.  Other than that, it all went rather well.

By late Saturday afternoon the quilting was completed.  What a bonus.  I definitely didn’t expect to have a quilted quilt and a somewhat tidier sewing room when I hopped out of bed that morning.

Sunday morning, after baking a cake, saw me back in the sewing room to finish it off.  Keeping on the “it was meant to be” theme, I just happened to have four 2 1/2 inch by width of fabric white strips cut out.  Just the right amount for the binding, which I attached by machine.  I’m feeling quite comfortable with this method on donation quilts now.

And showing the cute backing fabric, which was just the right colours.

This turned out to be a very cute little baby quilt.  I really like the way the twisty lines worked out.  It will be donated, once I get a few more quilts made.

Another one to tick off the list.

Blue Mountains Quilt Show

We had a busy time on the last weekend of April.  Having travelled down to Portland for Ironfest on the Saturday, we headed east again on the Sunday to visit the Blue Mountains Quilt Show.  We have visited several times before, but there has been a couple of changes since our last visit.  It is now held biannually and has moved from the Springwood High School to the Wycliffe Christian School at Warimoo.

This is such a well run event, with an amazing display of quilts.  The standard of the work is wonderful.

The feature artist this year was Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched.  She had a lovely display of her quilts, some old, some new, and her usual stall, full of delightful items.

I noticed the project that Anni created especially for Scrub Stitchin’ is now one of her patterns and kits for sale.  See it sitting on the shelf.

It was also nice to see the quilt she designed for the Homespun Magazine Block of the Month program in real life.

Now, let’s have a look at the gorgeous quilts on display.

This is for you Maria.

We tried to win the raffle quilt, designed by Anni Downs, but still have not received a phone call. Sigh….

I loved this version of the Caswell Quilt, made by Susan Caswell, because of the name of the quilt. 

What I particularly liked was the fact that it was machine appliquéd.  I know, not the traditional method, but something I see as being much more achievable for the likes of me.  It wa beautifully executed.

Susan Reinhard had two entries.  Firstly, her beautiful “Stash Garden”.

Then her intricate “Hexagon Love”.

The quilting is tiny invisible anchor stitches.

A white glove lady kindly showed me the back.  Yes, they are pretty much invisible.

This fish wall hanging was striking.  

I loved how some of the quilting was in feather stitch.

This quilt had been voted viewer’s choice on a previous day.  

The title is aptly “Bin Chicken”.  The wonderful label says it all.

There were several quilts made using Chris Jurd patterns.  Chris is a local to the area and had a pop stall at the Show.

There were two impressive quilts featuring Sashiko.

I loved this version of Buttons and Bows.  So colourful and fresh.

There weren’t many traditional style quilts, generally being more of a modern style.  This version of Dear Jane was a case in point.  You didn’t really appreciate the colour wash of the borders when standing up close.  It shows so much better in the photo.  I love it.  Such good use of colour.

Having said all that, there was a beautiful version of Nearly Insane.  All worked in EPP. I would be more than nearly insane, I’d be over the edge.

English Paper Piecing is certainly undergoing a revival, with a modern twist.  There were many quilts using that technique.  Are we starting to make quilts more slowly, to enjoy the process, rather than just churning them out?  I don’t know.

Another of my favourites was one that was hung high on the wall.  I was intrigued by the technique to get the curves, using a similar method to cathedral window.  It really came up well in the limited colour palette.

By then it was time to have lunch.  The club members had a very nice coffee shop going, with good coffee, soup, sandwiches and cake.  There was no reason to go hungry and we had a nice spot to sit in the sun to enjoy our lunch.

After lunch it was time to browse the pop up shops around the auditorium and in the gallery level above.  I believe there were fourteen, which is fantastic.  There was a wide variety of stalls and content.  I was very strong and only bought a fabric panel featuring blue wrens, as they are Mum’s favourites.  I’ve no idea what I will do with them, but I’ll eventually think of something.

It was also nice to run into a couple of ladies I knew that used to blog, who I haven’t seen for a while.

As always, we thoroughly enjoyed visiting this show.  The quality of their work rivals that of the Sydney Quilt Show and it is all run so well.  Now to wait for the next one in 2026.

We had to call into Lithgow on the way home to see a new mural that was only unveiled the week before.  It is located on the side of the Lithgow Workman’s Club and depicts the original Club building, some coal miners, the old Steel Blast Furnace and a Steam Train on the Zig Zag Railway.  Until I read the blurb, I never realised that “The Workies”, as it is known, is the oldest registered club in New South Wales.  I must say, we’ve never been inside, having had no cause to.  The mural certainly brightens up the streetscape.

And so ended another wonderful day out.  It was a big weekend, but we are so pleased we went to both events.