It’s been so long….

Since I last posted. Unfortunately Facebook is so easy, that one tends to forget about posting on the blog. It’s easier on Facebook. One sentence will often suffice! haha! even though I am known for having plenty to say!
However I now have a new Smartphone Galaxy 4 so photo taking should prove to be a lot easier! Well I said should be ….I just have to remember not to shake when I take it. It’s less forgiving I think than my camera.
I have just finished Block 49 in the saga of making my Nearly Insane quilt. I have decided to start looking for the sashing fabric, so I can at least get some of the blocks sewn together. I think I have made about 44 blocks so far. 



The little quilt group I am in- Village Green Quilters are having a Mystery Quilt project this year, and I have made my centre block. This quilt is going to be a Medallion style quilt. Actually the block I am using was a block I stitched together for another project and didn’t use, so I thought I would use it in this quilt. I am going to use Reproduction fabrics for mine. 



Just a little chat for now and thanks for dropping by

A lovely day out in Adelaide

With my quilting blog friends Pip, Sheila ( no Blog) and Tara :-)
I have corresponded with these lovely ladies for a while now, so it was great to finally meet them. I had already met Pip whose parents live in NZ.




They took me to two really nice Patchwork shops, then after lunch to Hetties Patch. What a treat that was. I just had to buy these two spotted pieces just because I loved them, and the blue for my Mrs Billings quilt. The templates are to make The Sunburst block and the yummy book which has some gorgeous quilts in it. 

 

This was across the walking and cycling only path from our accommodation in Glenelg.

  



Home again - I went out the back door last night to go up and close the road gate – nearly put my foot in my shoe when I saw this – Can you see the mouse? I let out a shriek of course, but then realised although he was still alive he was only just.
 
Before we left I managed to finish a baby quilt for Braxton, our 7th GGChild.   Not so keen on the straight line quilting, but once I started it was too late to undo.
Bye for now

Another Scrappy Quilt

ready for quilting. This was a lot of fun to make
Sorry about the quality of the shot but it’s hard to find good help! VBG!        The quilt isn’t really screwed up like it looks!
Hopefully I’ll manage a better photo when I’ve quilted it.
Thanks for dropping by

Scrappy Quilts

I spent a lovely weekend at a friends holiday beach bach a couple of weeks ago. Five of us all brought our scraps along with the sole purpose of making a scrappy quilt each, we had seen at a show recently. We were going to share scraps/strips, but it soon became obvious that we would never in a million years use all we had. I’m sure my baskets were no less full than when I started!


We had a well deserved ice cream after all our hard work.

And a walk along this glorious beach!

I haven’t got a photo of what every-one made yet, but this is my end result!

Problem now is to quilt it! Any ideas?? Maybe just ditch stitching. I pieced this onto very light weight vilene  so probably only needs a pellon batting??.
Thanks for dropping by after my long absence! 

Nearly Finished

My Scrappy Trip around the World. I am using the instructions kindly given by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltvilles Quips and Snips. I still have 2 more blocks to make then I can get this baby basted ready for me to practise my machine quilting skills on it.

I have made 34 blocks. I was going to make it 6x7 12”blocks but have decided that 6x6 = 72”square will be big enough for a 10 year old girls bed. Or maybe I should make it 60”x84” . Let me know what you think?
Thanks for dropping by

Back Home from ChristChurch

I had a lovely week with my sister visiting the Garden City, in time for the Ellerslie Flower Show. Every year we try and catch up, usually near my birthday in March. We live approx. 8 hours apart, so its lovely to have this time together.
 

It was awful to see the amount of damage still to be cleared in Christchurch. Some of the streets in places were like driving on a rollercoaster. Up and down, but still drivable. It bought tears to my eyes to see the wonderful old Cathedral in ruins.

 

Every one of these chairs represents one person who died in the February 2011 earthquake. They are placed in a vacant lot near the CTV bldg that came down, killing 115 people. 

 
(Click on the above photos to enlarge)




We spent 5 days touring around and two days shopping, and managed to see so much, including the ChristChurch Botanic Gardens. Some of the trees are well over 100 years old, and have the most beautiful trunks.












The Herbaceous Border at the Botanic Gardens was developed in the 1920’s and is said to be the longest HB in the Southern Hemisphere




To make this post a bit quilty I took all these pieces of fabrics with me to make up into hexies.



 

In other words I hardly did anything. I didn’t cut up a single strip!
These hexies were already cut, and I just glued them!
Ah well, I had a great time, and that’s all that matters.
Thanks for dropping by

hello

At last I’m back in business.  No excuses really, except life sometimes gets in the way, plus we bought a new laptop – Windows 8 and I have been getting used to it. Its different but no problems really and I’m quite proud of myself having sussed it by trial and error!
I have been blog watching though which, although takes up a lot of time is Very enjoyable. 

I saw a few ( quite a few actually) people are revamping the Scrappy Trip around the World from Bonnie at http://quiltville.blogspot.co.nz/2005/06/scrappy-trips-around-world.html

I also found this site to drool over :-) http://lucyandnorman.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/its-scrappy-trip-along.html

This made me think about the 3 drawers of modern fabrics I have acquired. It was bothering me that the collection was growing, and not depleting  any way, and the fact that I have a grand daughter that I haven’t as yet made a quilt for. So out came the trust cutter and ruler and voila! 


Then some stitching.



Now to make about another 30 and I will have enough for a King Single Quilt.
Thanks for not losing interest in my blog and
Thanks for dropping by

How Cute is this!

Born one month ago today. She was given a paddock name by one of the grandchildren of Icecream because of the shape of the coronet on her head.
I thought I would post a photo of a quilt that I made in 2000 to commemorate the new Millinium. I was in a 2 1/2” squares of fabric exchange through out the world. It was alot harder to do in those days :-) as I wasn’t as computer literate as I am now. The exchange was 24 different squares plus a calico square with your name and where in the world you came from. I had the need to use it for the first time last night, and thought how lovely it looked. I also figured what is the point of it being in the cupboard, and not being enjoyed. I’m not sure if anything these days will be heirlooms in 100 years or so.

One of these blocks came from Italy, the other from USA. I kept every square that the quilter sent me, in the same block and didn't muddle anything up, as I thought it was nicer to do that. I also received a letter from each quilter, telling me about her life etc. It is a wonderful memory quilt. The sashing was a fabric that was printed with 2000 all over it. It looks so nice on the bed that it will stay there for some time..

Recently I finished a table runner for a friend in a Christmas exchange.

I practised my machine quilting and was quite pleased with the result. Much easier when its small!

I hope you all have a great Christmas with your families.
Thanks for dropping by