My Plans for January

As mentioned in my last post, I intend to wind back my goals this year, but still hope to achieve quite a bit.

Deana has announce the Chookshed Challenge number for January.

But first, I’ve been having a little play.  I now have ten little tubs with their numbered project, ready to pick up and go.  Aren’t I organised!!!

I even pulled out my baggies of blue and green crumbs in readiness for the Sea Glass Mini Quilt.

OK, well one isn’t exactly ready to go.  Hopefully, it will turn up before its number is picked. 

Also, I'm definitely not organised.  As usual, my sewing room is out of control. It doesn’t really look that bad in the photos, but believe me, I can’t find anything, there is no room to put some of those things and I find it somewhat paralysing.  

Back to the challenge.......

The number selected is NUMBER 6.

For me, this is to make some crumb blocks. “No goal as to how many to make.  Just have fun.”  That is perfect for this month, as I have to get a wriggle on with some planning for the church Bicentennial.

This is how many I have already made last year.  Just as well I’m not joining in with Rainbow Scrap Challenge, as the colour is pink and I have sufficient of those for now.

Let’s see if I can fill my pretty little tin.  It’s a good thing I added all those extra scraps to their tubs recently.

I do have one other little project to complete very soon.  Our patchwork group is making a raffle quilt and I need to make one more square.  It will be a two inch hexy flower, similar to what I have been making for my quilt.  These are the colours I will use.  There will be a cream low volume background and the quilt sashing are going to be navy. 

My hand stitching for the month will be continuing with appliquéing my hexies.  All the two inch ones are now completed.  

That was done while I was on Zoom with the girls on New Years Eve.

I have 40 one inch hexies to appliqué.  I am setting myself the goal to have them all done by the end of the month.  That should be doable, as I can get quite a few stitched at my patchwork days.

And here is my way to light for photos, as the ceiling lights create a huge shadow. A bit how’s your uncle, but it works.

Of course, there are other things that I wish to happen, but they will be bonuses.

While I was getting out my hexy papers for the block I need to make I noticed my full cotton reel jar.  I have two of these lolly jars and always add my empty reels.  I’ve no idea why, I just do.

Well, on the spur of the moment I decided that I will see how many reels I can empty this year.  The empty jar is now in position, ready to go.  I’ll try to check in every now and then.  Do you like my cute little silver fish eaten picture?  This was a craft project we made at school when I was in 4th class.  The picture was the cover of a writing pad.  I found it when Mum moved out of her house and couldn’t throw it away.  It suits my sewing room so well, despite showing its age.

Anyway, enough waffle, time to get stitching.

Stitching in December

I just had a look at my goals for this month and think I did rather well.

I’ve already posted about the Three Yard Dog quilt that was my goal for the Chookshed Stitchers and One Monthly Goal, and the Christmas decorations.  

In addition, I completed a long term UFO, being a little quilt to donate to the neo natal unit at the hospital.  I made its matching one a couple of years ago.  Can you spot the boo boo?  I couldn’t until I was in the process of quilting the cross hatch.  I had cut the second row from the right half an inch too wide.  Oh well, it will stay as it is.

I also added the final two borders to the Dr Seuss Quilt.  It is now waiting in the wings to be quilted.

Remember how I sorted out my sewing threads.

Well, at the same time I actually got my overflowing little scrap tub that lives on my cutting table and took it out into the kitchen and sorted the scraps by colour.

The scraps were then put in their designated coloured box.  That looks better.

While on a roll, I went through Mum’s embroidery threads that now live here and pulled out all her DMC threads.  Any that were on cards are now in the containers with mine and any duplicate skeins are put aside, so that, like my sewing threads, when I run out of a colour I can shop the duplicates first.  Add to this, all the odds and sods that Mum has and I think I have a lifetime’s supply.

My final project start for the year is a kit that I purchased at Baradine at Spring in the Scrub.  I made a promise to myself that I would make it between Christmas and New Year.  I’m pleased to report that I succeeded.

My one comment on this make is “What a Cow”.

I had my first go a spray basting.  It went well, but made the machine needle sticky, so had to keep wiping it down.

The bag stiffening is really stiff, like a hard felt.  It was incredibly difficult to manoeuvre under my machine.   Even to quilt it was rather difficult. Maybe, foam such as Soft and Stable would be easier.

Also, when stitching the sides to the base, there were three layers of batting and eight layers of fabric.  My machine really struggled with it.  However, we got there in the end.  It is definitely not my finest work, but finished is better than perfect.  

After all the trials and tribulations of this project, I like it very much.  It is really pretty and will be good for taking my projects to my stitching days.

Lastly, my hexies.  Yes, I did manage to get all the remaining hexy flowers stitched.  A long session on Zoom one day certainly helped.  I then proceeded to get them all glue basted and have already appliquéd lots of the one inch hexies onto their background.  Tomorrow will be a Zoom day for the Chookshed Stitchers, and I plan to have a very long sewing session, so should get quite a few more done.  Getting the quilt top made before Scrub Stitchin’ is looking very promising.

November Stitching Wrap Up

 My goals for November were rather minimal.

My One Monthly Goal to complete the Koala baby quilts was met, once Monique was back up and running, which was also a catch up for the Chookshed Stitchers’ Challenge.

I did manage a little secret stitching, so no photos to share at this point.

Other than that, all I have worked on is my hand pieced hexy flowers.  I prepped all the remaining hexies and have been stitching away at them.  All that remains is to piece seven more one inch flowers and four more two inch flowers.  Then it will be time to glue baste them all to their backgrounds and hand appliqué them down, before piecing the blocks together by machine into a quilt top.  It doesn’t sound much when reading it here, but it will still take a little while.

Joining in on Zoom sessions last night and all of today really helped achieve this much.  I pieced eleven hexy flowers today.

I’m feeling rather pleased with my progress and, fingers crossed, I will have it for show and tell at Scrub Stitchin’ next year.

That’s all I did.  Everything else is sitting there, patiently waiting its turn to be worked on.  It was a busy month for both of us, so this is about all I expected to achieve.

Other than one day, I still managed my 15 minutes of crafting each day - the beauty of hand stitched hexies.

November = 29/30

Year to date = 310/335

Success rate = 92.54%

Now to start thinking about December.

Cania Gorge - Part 2

It transpired that our first day at Cania Gorge had been the best day for Mick to take the kayak out. Overnight we had a shower of rain, followed by a nice clear morning, so there wasn't any moody mist. 

The weather was forecast to be slightly cooler as well, which boded well for our plan to do a couple of short bush walks.

Firstly, we would do the Dripping rock and The Overhang track.  We left fairly early and had the track all to ourselves on the way out, which was nice.  The walk is on the shaded southern side of the gorge, so has a lush landscape.  This is the most westerly rainforest area in Queensland.

The best thing was that once you plunged into the rainforest area it was all nice and wet, following the previous night’s rain.

Such a lovely walk.

The path was well defined, but I was thankful that I took the walking pole, as some of the steps were rather high for my short legs.

There were some huge trees along the way.  This one towered over Mick.

This is Dripping Rock, and yes it was dripping.  The ferns were so delicate.  We spoke to a couple of locals later and apparently we were fortunate to see it actually dripping.

We continued on our way and came to some hand prints on the sandstone rocks.  Aboriginals are believed to have lived in this area for about 19,000 years and there are sacred sites throughout the gorge.  However, these are not sacred aboriginal prints, or they would be fenced off for protection.  These are actually graffiti, particularly when they have someone’s initials written above the hands.  Such a pity.

You can see the towering sandstone cliffs on the opposite side of the gorge.  The track to the furthest lookout runs along that ridge.  No, we didn’t go on the 22km return walk.

I loved the natural colours in the sandstone on this overhang.

Finally we reached The Overhang.  Such a beautiful spot.  When we arrived a family was enjoying their morning snack, and once they left we had it all to ourselves for just a little while. The perfect spot for us to have our morning snack.  

We realised how special it was to walk out in the peace and quiet, as we met quite a few groups of people chatting away on our return walk. We still marvelled at the beauty of the place.

Next, we did the Dragon Cave and Bloodwood Cave walks.  These were on the western side of the gorge, so a much drier landscape.

The dragon is seen in the black markings at the back of the cave.  I suppose I could sort of see it.

And looking out from the cave.

We continued on our way to the Bloodwood Cave.

The cave is so named as there is a Bloodwood tree growing next to the entrance.

The entrance is quite low, but opens up inside.

And looking out.

For context, these are Bloodwood trees, so named because of their red sap.

Mick being silly.

I loved the huge silver elk horns growing on the rock faces.

How interesting.

There were also some colourful lichens growing on the rocks.

You are always learning something.

Check out this tangled vine.

After our walks it was time to return to the caravan for some lunch and a lazy afternoon.

Chooky just happened to be having a Zoom session for the day, so I sat out in the sun, watching the tame kangaroos, with a rainbow lorikeet for company and stitched some more hexies, while chatting with the girls.  You couldn’t get a nicer way to spend the afternoon.

The day was completed by another evening sitting around the campfire with fellow travellers.  Can you see the wolf in the flames?

Thus, our time at Cania Gorge came to an end.  It really was a beautiful place to visit and we have come away with some lovely memories.  We were back on the road the next day, travelling further north.