Scrub Stitchin’ - Part 3 - Saturday

Saturday dawned with clouds, but sunny.  The pavilions looked lovely in the morning light.

The camp is such a peaceful place, with lots of bird life.  The blue eared honey eaters are always present.  Unfortunately, this year there was one that took to swooping everyone, which was a bit annoying. It must have had a nest somewhere.

Those of us that join in with Zoom stitching sessions got up at the crack of dawn to partake in a short session with some of the international stitchers. It was a nice way to let them join in with Scrub Stitchin’.

Like Friday, we were all very industrious, with plenty to show for our efforts.

Some lovely versions of our project were complete, but not mine, I didn’t even make a start.

Jo made a placemat with the tiny twister blocks made from the scraps from her big twister quilt.  So fiddly, but very effective.

Brenda completed her twister table runner.

Chooky completed her twister top, ready to send off to the quilter.

And after much unpicking, as I had blocks and then a row around the wrong way I completed my twister quilt top.  Chooky’s and mine are from the same fabric range, I just omitted the white blocks.

Saturday night is always our special themed dinner.  This year the theme was RED.

Our caterers each year are Ronnie and Janine, who are now just as much one of the girls as all the ones stitching.  Here, Ronnie is looking the part for the Red dinner.

The table decorations were very red, as were the attendees.

Lynda even coordinated her wine.

After dinner it was show and tell, but that is a separate story.

We were leaving for home early on Sunday morning, so I packed away my sewing on Saturday night.  In the end, I managed to complete two quilt tops, one swoon block and my RSC blocks as shown before…..and

A pile of half square triangles as leaders and Enders to make a baby quilt - now ready to trim down to size….and

Some black and white HST as leaders and Enders, ready to press open and trim to size.

I also stitched some jelly roll strips together as the start of another baby quilt.  Rather a productive few days.

Before we headed home on Sunday morning the group photo was taken.  Jenny, Gail and Lynda had already headed home.

It was such a wonderful weekend, with a great bunch of ladies. Now we just have to wait for twelve months to do it all again.  I can’t wait.

 

Scrub Stitchin’ 2022 - Part 2

Friday dawned fine, but with clouds in the distance. We were destined to get a little bit of rain, but not too much.

As usual, the grevillias were gorgeous.

Inside, we continued to be rather productive.

Jenny had her Twister Quilt top together.  Another wonderful colour combination.

Each year we have a project provided.  This year’s was a little different.

We received a timber pincushion base and fabric, thread and stuffing to make the pincushion.  They came in various sizes, small, medium or large.  There was a Japanese style patterned fabric, a plain indigo and thread that could be used for Sashiko stitching if you wish.  I received the large size.  I have decide to use the patterned fabric and make a pincushion to sit on Monique my Q’Nique quilting machine.  I didn’t make a start, but will endeavour to have a completed pincushion for show and tell next year. 

It didn’t take me long to add the borders to my William Morris quilt top.  All the fabrics came from stash.  I don’t know what I will do with this quilt, but for now it will be the start of my “To Be Quilted” pile for when I get game enough to quilt an actual quilt with Monique.

Meanwhile, my Swoon block was progressing in the background and before long was completed too.  There was quite a bit of unpicking along the way on this.  Maybe I was talking and not really concentrating too much.  Only two more blocks to put together now.

Finally, I made a start on my Twister Quilt.  The design wall wasn’t large enough to lay out the blocks, so I took it over to our caravan and used the design bed.  I only had seven fabrics and had eight blocks of each, so there was no way it could successfully be made a random design, so diagonal stripes it is.

While I was playing with my projects there was also some other lovely things being created.  Di has found a love of machine embroidery and has completed this gorgeous bookcase wall hanging reflecting interests and books that are relevant to her.

Gail was working on putting together a quilt top she started many years ago.

It is a Red Brolly design and her stitching is so perfect.

Productive Jo was working on some more of her clever placemats using the RSC colour of pink.

Lea spent plenty of time pondering the layout of this stunning quilt before finally stitching the blocks together.  All those curves - I’m impressed.

When you cut out the twister blocks the second time you actually get quite a bit of wastage with your fabric.  Jo wondered what she could do with them.  I then produced a tiny twister ruler I had made out of template plastic that works with three inch squares.  I was rather surprised when she had her grid of small squares sewn together ready to tackle the tiny version.

She decided it would be tempting fate to use a rotary cutter so traced them out before cutting with scissors.  This is where she was up to when I went to bed on Friday.

And this is where I was up to.  I ended up with all my twister blocks cut out for the second time.

Obviously, there were other other lovely projects on the go, I just didn’t get to take photos of them.

Scrub Stitchin' 2022 - Part 1

Mick and I have been so looking forward to travelling to Baradine for Scrub Stitchin'.  Me for the sewing and hanging out with the girls, and Mick to relax and do very little.  However, it nearly didn't happen, as the day before we were to leave started to feel unwell.  Fortunately, it wasn't Covid, just a nasty dizzy/vertigo headache.  A day of sleeping cleared it up......thank goodness.

We had a rather leisurely trip up on the Wednesday, stopping at various little towns for a wander up and down the street and a nice counter meal at a pub at Binnaway.

Finally, we arrived at Camp Cypress.  Most of the girls turned up on the Wednesday this year, so lots of time to spend together. I'm glad we went a day earlier than usual.  Once we were all settled in, we went to the pub for dinner together, with a couple of the hubbies tagging along as well, which was nice.

There were nineteen girls in attendance this year.  It didn't take us long to get started on our various projects. 

Chooky and I took our fabric for our twister quilts.  We invited everyone to join in on the fun using the Twister Ruler and Lil' Twister Ruler and several did.

I took along my original quilt, made back in 2012.  I never shared the finished product, so here it is.  There was a fun story about its origin, so pop over here, here and here to have a little read.

Jenny and I also had our table runners on show. 

Jenny's.

 Mine.

The room was decorated with some other quilts too. 

The three above are Chooky's.

The two above are Annette's.  The quilting on the Elizabeth Hartman quilt was perfect for the design.

Chooky, Jenny and Jo were organised with their Twister Quilts, having their squares cut out and arranged in their order before leaving home.  I just had mine cut out.

Jo is a speed demon with her sewing and had the grid of blocks together with their border in no time flat - on the Wednesday night!

My first project to work on was my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  I did get them completed on Wednesday night. Sorry about the shadows on the photos.

Thursday saw lots more progress.

Jenny had her twister grid stitched together on Thursday.  I love seeing the different colour combos.

I played with my William Morris quilt.  The story goes that back at our very first Scrub Stitchin' Dale had a bit of a destash.  I came home with some William Morris charm squares, as I rather like his designs.  I was wondering what to do with them and finally decided to set them with hourglass blocks, but what colour?  Our goodies bag that year was a terracotta colour and it looked rather good with the fabrics, so I went with terracotta and cream.  It took me until early this year to source some suitable fabric.

I made the hourglass blocks in January when visiting friends in Queensland.  It was fun to lay out the blocks and finally see it all come together.  

This is where I was up to by bedtime on Thursday.

When I came to a stand still with this quilt, due to the irons or design wall being used, I also worked on a Swoon block and was working on some half square triangles as leaders and enders.  Yep, multitasking at its best, with three projects on the go.

By the end of Thursday Georgina had finished putting this lovely quilt top together. She had previously made the hourglass blocks and nine patches.  I love the soft colours.

Jo had her twister quilt top put together.  What a wonderful use of colour.

Brenda decided to join in on the fun and made a little twister table runner.  By the end of the weekend it had been quilted and bound.

And that takes us up to the end of Thursday.

More soon.

My Goals for April

Well, here we are in April and the weather is starting to feel somewhat autumnal.  Daylight saving has come to an end, so the mornings are lighter, but the earlier evenings are quite noticeable. Temperatures are dropping, with it only being 2 degrees C this morning.  The frost sensitive pot plants have been moved to the greenhouse and it won't be too long until our veges get pulled out for the season.  Trees are starting to develop their coloured leaves, with some dropping already.  I still have to get out at a nice time to take some photos of our street trees, which have grown so much since we moved here six  years ago.

Anyway, the main topic of this post is my goals for the month.  As usual, the aim is for them to be achievable.  This will be another very busy month for us, so my goals will be quite simple.

To start with, here are my stitching goals:

We will be heading off to Baradine on Wednesday to attend this year's Scrub Stitchin' retreat.  By arriving on Wednesday there will be three whole days of stitching.  I have several projects packed, and am sure that a lot won't even get touched, but I certainly won't run out of things to do.

Mick is coming along as well and we are taking the caravan.  It is a nice relaxing weekend for Mick and I think he will be attending a clearing sale with a couple of mates.  

ONE MONTHLY GOAL

I shared this photo last month.  The plan is to turn this pile of fabric into a quilt top using the twister ruler.  I have already cut the ten inch squares and the first border.  I need to play with a layout, before stitching together, cutting apart and stitching together again.  The fabric includes second and third borders, backing and binding.  I do not intend to get it quilted as yet.  It will go in the pile for when I am game to actually quilt a quilt with Monique the Q'nique quilting machine.

RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE

The colour this month is pink.  I have cut out my blocks, fused my applique butterflies and will do all the stitching at the retreat.

ONE PROJECT A MONTH

I already have one finish - my "Make It" swap gift for retreat.  Obviously not pics until it has been revealed.  I'm not sure if there will be any further finishes.  We'll see.

FRIDAY NIGHT WITH FRIENDS

I signed up to take part in this on Friday and once again failed to work on anything.  For some reason, I just never feel like stitching on a Friday night, so from now on will not worry about joining in.  I'll just cheer the other girls on from afar.

And that is all I will put as goals.  I'm sure I will have a couple of other fun things to share after Scrub Stitchin', but we'll just wait and see how much gets achieved.  I can't wait.

My other goals are pretty much the usual as well.

1.    READ A BOOK

Unlike last month when I didn't read any novels, I read this one completely on the first of the month.  Mick and I helped with the church fete, and during set up I noticed this book, which sounded intriguing.  Therefore, I proceeded to read it in pretty much one sitting.

The story goes that a young lady, who is at uni and has a crush on her boss, who doesn't appear to notice her, has to return home to her small town when her grandmother, who raised her, has fallen ill.  Her grandmother has a vintage clothing store, and her granddaughter steps in to run the store, despite having no real interest in vintage fashion.  She discovers that her grandmother has been writing stories of some of the garments in her store from the point of view of that garment. It is lighthearted and a nice change from murder mysteries.

Hopefully, I will get to read at least one other book this month.

2.    TRY A NEW RECIPE

While we were setting up the church fete, we sat down for morning tea and one of the ladies had provided a nice cake, with an unusual ingredient.  She has given me the recipe and I have bought the secret ingredient.  Now I just have to find the time to make the cake.

3.    HAVE A FRIDAY FUN DAY

There won't be a stand alone Friday Fun Day, but we will be having fun on several Fridays.

4.    HAVE A WEEKEND AWAY IN THE CARAVAN

    

Yes, Baradine for Scrub Stitchin'.  Not only, but also, we will be having another trip in the van, hence the lack of stitching anticipated during the month.

I'm looking forward to a fun month and hope to report back at the end of the month with lots of goals achieved.