The Show

This year I was more involved in the Royal Bathurst Show than I have before.  It is known as “The Country Royal”.

Mum’s family have always been involved in shows, with my Grandfather entering fruit and being involved in huge displays at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in the 1920s and the Lithgow Show from the same time. My uncle then continued the tradition, being Chief Pavilion Steward at Lithgow until the early 2000s.  Mum used to judge Needlework at various shows while she was a dressmaking teacher.

I used to enter items in the Needlework section at Bathurst as a kid and Mum always entered.  Then, I seemed to get slack for many years, as I wasn’t doing much craft.  About six years ago I started to enter things again. 

Last year I offered to help in the Needlework section and was able to do so for the first two days of preparation, before we headed off to Baradine for Scrub Stitchin’.

This year, the timing allowed me to help for the full two weeks before the show started.  Yes, it takes two weeks to get it all ready.  When you wander around, looking at the exhibits, you have no idea of the work that goes on behind the scenes.  I know I certainly didn’t.  

So what happens?

As it turned out, the lady that has previously been the Head Steward of Needlework was unable to assist this year.  So Muggins me was Head Steward for Needlework. Remembering, all I had helped with last year was receiving entries and putting them in their sections.  There’s nothing like a steep learning curve.

Day 1 - Easter Tuesday - Most days start at about 8.30am.  Clean the pavilion display areas, set up tables to start to receive entries in Art, Junior Art, Craft, Photography and Needlework.  It looks rather drab to start with.  Our pavilions are listed on the State Heritage Register, but that doesn’t mean they are flash.  They are rather rustic inside.  Others were busy bringing in display cabinets for Cooking, Lego, Lapidary, Apiary, etc.  Shelves were brought in to display Horticulture and Produce.  Hessian was attached to those shelves to screen below them. Screens are set up for Photography.

Day 2 - Wednesday - Receive the majority of the entries.  Lots of entries, and covered up for the night. Nearly ready for judging on Saturday.  Tick off all the entries to the Judging Sheets, making any adjustments as required.

Day 3 - Thursday - helped as a Steward with the judging of the Craft and Junior Art.  This gave me an insight it what was involved, as I had no idea.  Junior Art has so many entries from all the schools.  I’d hate to try and judge them. In other sections, Open Art was judged.

Day 4 - Anzac Day - Show Free Day.

Day 5 - Saturday - Needlework Judging Day.  It was really interesting seeing how this is done and listening to the Judge’s comments.  She is very experienced and we are lucky to have her.  I learnt so much about the process, and also about stitching in general.  She commented that the standard of work this year was very good.  What was disappointing was the miniscule number of entries in the Junior Textiles section.  Hopefully, next time some schools can be contacted to encourage more entries.  After the judging we started to attach prize cards and get ready to prepare the display, by laying cloths over the display stand area.  We hung the quilts on the top rail.

Day 6 - Sunday - Started to set up the display.  We hung items on the catwalk rail and worked our way down.  I admit to initially being stumped as to how we would display things on the sloped section, but with guidance from the Chief Steward, we made good progress.  There really are some lovely item that were entered.  Particularly in the knitting and crochet.  All done and covered up, ready for the Friday start to the show.  In other sections, Photography was judged.

Day 7 - Monday - Helped set up the Photography section, attaching prize cards and starting to attach to screens.  A huge job, and not completed in the day.

Day 8 - Tuesday - Show free day for me, as I had other commitments.  In other sections, Lapidary and Apiary was judged.

Day 9 - Wednesday - Receiving entries for the cooking, which was judged that afternoon.  I was not needed in the afternoon.  I had thought of watching the judging, but it was cold and I had plenty to do at home.

Day 10 - Thursday - Show free day for me, as we had things to do in the morning and were going to Katoomba in the afternoon.  At the show, the Preserves, more Baking, Horticulture and Produce were being judged, with entries brought in during the morning.  Mesh screens were put in place to keep the public from touching the exhibits.

SHOW DAY 1 - Friday - in at 7.30 am to uncover all the Art, Craft and Needlework exhibits in the pavilion.  Had everything ready to go at 9.00 am.  Now for the public to come in and admire all the entries and have no idea as to what had taken place to get it all ready. How it should be.

I did enter some items this year.  Yes, stewards are allowed to enter.

I entered two Wall Hangings, receiving a 1st and 2nd place, due to there being no other entries.  I also received a 1st with my patchwork basket in Any Other Patchwork Article.

My Natures Journey quilt received a 2nd in Multi Technique, commercially quilted.  My Doiley Quilt received a 3rd in that section.  I forgot to take a photo.  You can see the winner of this section, which also won Champion Patchwork, in the photo further up, hanging next to my Natures Journey.  It had excellent piecing and lots of needle turn appliqué.

My Twister Quilt received a 2nd in Machine Pieced, all own work.  You can see the winner behind.  It was all HST, with perfect points, and huge.

My Knitted Beanie received a Highly Commended against some really beautiful ones.

I also entered my little Bag from our Scrub Stitchin’ kit a couple of years ago, in Tote Bag, but it was outclassed.

Mick and I had a good look around on Friday.

SHOW DAY 2 - Saturday - we had other commitments, so weren’t able to attend.

SHOW DAY 3 - Sunday - The show finishes at 4 pm and then we get stuck into pulling everything down.  Tables are set out and entries are laid out by entrant, ready for them to be collected on Monday.

FINAL DAY - Monday - An early start at 7.30am, continuing to get entries organised for their owners to collect.  For Needlework, it wasn’t too difficult, but for some sections, such as Junior Art, there are so many entries to collect.  In the cookery section, sadly most of the entries are disposed of, as they are well and truly stale by then.  Entrants come in in dribs and drabs, so cabinets are emptied, all the covers for the display areas are put away, and the place generally put to bed.  Finally, any entries not collected are delivered to the show office to be collected at a later date.  All done and dusted by 5.30pm.  A huge day.

So, as you can see, it is a lot of work, with only a small band of volunteers, generally of retirement age.  I was the second youngest.  They are really trying hard to recruit more helpers for next year, as one of the stalwarts is retiring, along with her knowledge accumulated over many years.  I do hope some others step up, as it is really rewarding.

The First Week of August

 It is amazing how much more productive I can be when I stay home.  Who’d have thought?

The first sewing project I worked on was the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  It didn’t take too long to piece my two split nine patch blocks.  These were actually completed on Saturday morning, before the big sewing room tidy up.

I cut out two hexy flowers at the same time and pieced them yesterday at my patchwork morning.   Rather glarey, aren’t they.  I channeled my inner frugalness, as the orange floral vintage sheet fabric was left over binding from my Crossroads quilt.  There was the join in the binding, so I decided to leave it in place.  You often see pieced small pieces in vintage quilted.

Just for fun, and to use up some of my tiny scraps, just now I have pieced another crumb block.

Here is my little collection so far.  They are quick and easy, and use up those scraps that most people would throw away. I really should do more.

I have decided to give the Fishy Business blocks a miss this month, as I want to use orange in next month’s fish.  I’ll catch up next month, by swapping colours.

This is how much is left in my orange scrap box.  The bright one at the bottom will be ideal for the fish next month.  Now, everyone has a different definition of a scrap.  Most would call mine crumbs, as I don’t add anything to these boxes less than a layer cake sized piece of fabric.  Most other colours are jamb packed, so some more crumb blocks will be a great way to use them up.

Of course, I finished off the little HST Baby Quilt.

Once that was done, it was time to turn my attention to the little blue sampler stitchery.  I couldn’t resist adding a red front door to the house.

This is what the finished article looks like in Gail Pan’s book.  I felt that it needed something else.

Time to make an almighty big mess on the dining table.  Yes, can you believe it, it was all tidied away before the afternoon was over.

This is kind of what I was thinking.

Then I remember that I have a box of Mum’s laces and trims and found this little cutie that might just work. 

Honestly, I could open an Etsy store with the amount of laces, trims and old linens that I have.  We won’t go there.

I’ve have this lovely vintage coathanger for years and would like to use it as the hanger.  That will dictate the size.

This is where I was up to yesterday.  The fabric that the stitchery is worked on is a linen offcut from my doyley quilt that I made a few years ago.  It already had a hand stitched hem on the bottom.  The two toned ric rac has been added to the bottom of the stitchery.   The narrow lace under the stitchery is also an offcut from my doyley quilt.  The green huckaback hand towel off cut with its lace edging, surprisingly, also comes from the quilt.  Fancy that!  It’s good to find a use for them.

I’m looking forward to having a play with the embellishments.  I think I will use a thin wadding and just do a facing type edge.  I don’t think I want a binding and would have to work something out at the bottom with the lace edge anyway.

I have done a tiny bit more today, but the light is too bad to take a photo. 

As you can gather, I managed to achieve my 15 minutes of stitching each day.

What else did we get up to?

Can you believe that I actually tried not one, but two new recipes?

The first was a recipe I came across on Instagram.  It was a one pot wonder chicken and rice dish.  It was cooked on the stovetop and ended up rather gluggy, hence no photo being shared.  However, it tasted great.  I reckon that I will use the ingredients/flavours and translate it to an oven baked risotto, using aboria riced.  That should be a success.

The second was a whole orange cake, also from a recipe I came across on Instagram.  Let’s call it a middling success.  It wasn’t a boiled orange cake, rather the orange was just chopped up in the food processor.  It rose rather unevenly and is a tad dry.  It was still very tasty and there is none left.  However, I think there are probably better recipes out there.  Actually, I have had one for years, that my old next door neighbour gave me, that I have never made.  I should give it a whirl.

That pretty much wraps up all I have to report for the week.  Now to see what next week brings.

Crossroads Quilt Ta Da

Here she is, in all her glory.  This quilt really makes me happy.

When I left off last time, I was at the stage of choosing a backing fabric from my stash.  I was thinking that it would possibly be the ideal quilt to use my thrifted vintage 1970s orange floral sheet that I have had for ages.  I actually have a pair of these.  It ended up being perfect, as there is quite a bit of orange in the blocks.

When I looked closer at it, the sheet was way off square and there were also some printing flaws, where the fabric had obviously been creased.  After a bit of a think, I remembered that the best way to square up fabric is to tear it across the width.  It worked a treat and really emphasised how twisted it was.  Fortunately, even with the printing flaws, there was still plenty of fabric for the backing.

Next to choose a pantograph.  "Flower Power", which is a freebie from Urban Elementz was ideal.

Two days before Christmas I had fun quilting it, and everything went smoothly.

Now for the binding.  I was a bit undecided what to use.  My first choice was a grey criss crossy fabric that would be very neutral.  Mick didn't like that one, as he reckoned it needed something to act as a stop to the blocks.

Second choice was the red of the centres, but I didn't like that, too dark, especially how it would look at the back.

Finally, I thought to use the orange backing fabric.  That worked so much better and also used some of the left overs of the sheet.

I was starting to doubt if I would manage to finish it before Christmas, but everything seemed to be under control, so on Christmas Eve afternoon I sat down in front of the tele and hand stitched down the binding while watching two cheesy Christmas movies.  A rather pleasant way to spend some time.

I love it.  This would be the perfect picnic quilt, or to take in the caravan, or to snuggle under, or just stroke.

Here are some close ups of some of the blocks.

Aren’t they fun.

Ta Da!  Check out the quilt holder's bare feet.  LOL

And the back.

I don't know why, but this quilt has made me happy from start to finish and has gone together so easily.  "The Crossroads Quilt" by Treehouse Textiles is the official name, but I think I will call mine the "Happy Hippy Quilt".

Stitching Progress for April

I know I say it every month, but I don't know where the time has gone.  I do know that I have been more productive than in the last couple of months.

So, it is time to do a check in with my month's goals.

1.    ONE MONTHLY GOAL.

This was to complete the Vintage Linens Quilt.  Quite achievable, as all I had to do was add the binding.

Ta da!  All completed.  The last stitches were added at Scrub Stitchin'.

I'm super happy to have this quilt finished.  It is so different from what I usually create, being so soft, but I do really love it.  I'm linking up over at Elm Street Quilts.  The encouragement really helps.

2.        WOOFA CHALLENGE

Cheryll encourages us to make progress on a UFO or start working on one of those kits or patterns that we have saved for "one day".  This month I was determined to finally finish my Scrub Stitchin' Bag from three years ago, after several false starts.

Another success.  Woo Hoo!  Now I will have to decide what to work on next month.

3.    CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE

I didn't achieve a great deal, but today I did at least finish off the two blocks I started last month.  Better than nothing.

4.    ONE PROJECT A MONTH

Well, I must say I am happy to add a couple of more items to the above ones.

Firstly, I made four little butterfly fridge magnets while at Scrub Stitchin'.

Then, well, actually this came first, I made a cute little zippy purse.  This was for the "Make it, Bake it or Fake it" swap we had at Scrub Stitchin'. 

 I was running out of time and had little idea what to make, when I had a brainwave and dived into my "Spare Parts" bag from my Block Heads quilt.  

Some tiny HST and flying geese, with left over sashing fabric turned into a cute little bag.  I then remembered that I had purchased some little "Handmade" tags, and even found them stashed somewhere safe.

The only suitable zip on hand was grey, which I thought would be a bit drab, so added some contrasting tabs to the ends for a pop of colour.  Finish it off with a pretty lining and ribbon on the zip and it was done.  I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.

5.    BLUE JOCELYN PROUST QUILT

I finally made a start on this quilt.  

I made twenty of the forty blocks required.  There are five of each print.  I have since made another five blocks, so only fifteen more to go.  I'm happy with that.  

Considering all the other things we have been doing, I'm pleased with my progress. Thank goodness for Scrub Stitchin', both for giving me the time and inspiration to get things done.

Now I have to work out what to work on next month.