The countdown is on…..

We are in a rush now to get sorted before our trip to Australia on 24th December. Hopefully to lots of sunshine, although today is really nice, but very humid.
I wanted to show you what I have been making for various Christmas gifts. Firstly a swap with my local quilt group. The brief if we wanted to participate was to make a table runner.


  

Unfortunately the photos don’t show the lovely gold on the fabric.  I stitched around some of the shapes using gold thread and I was happy to put my name to it on the label!!
Next was a bag made for a friend in a secret swap. This bag is a great bag,  as it has a square base, and is good for putting by the couch with your knitting or whatever in.
 
I have made about 4 of these bags. Sometimes you find a pattern that just really works! Photo below shows the bottom of the bag.

 

Next is a bag for my sister.



This is a pattern by Wendy Williams and I have made 3 of these! I practised some straight line quilting as you go that I learned from a Craftsy site.
And lastly another table runner for my friend Carole! This table runner also had lots of gold on the fabric, but the photos I took with my phone don’t really do the fabric justice.



I hope every-one who takes the time to look at my blog has a wonderful and safe Christmas, and a very happy and healthy 2015. Thank you for all your comments!
Lots of hugs

What I am up to…..

At the moment I have a few things on the go, like most of us do. :-)
A QAL ( quilt along) run by Humble Quilts is the latest thing I am piecing. Now waiting for the next part. This is a mystery doll size quilt.




Received the final part of the QAL yesterday and this is what I have sewn.

 

Also have gotten back into my Nearly Insane Quilt which I hope to finish in 2015.

I have started piecing the blocks in rows, so I can work out the colours for my half blocks. I was worried that my sashing was too light in colour, but after asking a few friends they said it was perfectly fine! The sashing has a tiny green diagonal pattern on it.

Also in between times, I knitted this hat and scarf combo for my Grand-daughters birthday. I sure hope they go to the snow somewhere so she can wear it. :-)

Thanks for dropping by

Some more Nearly Insane Blocks….

on my new Bernina 710, which I love, except it doesn’t have a light that comes on when the bobbin is nearing the end. I couldn’t believe that a $5000. machine doesn’t have this as a normal function. Anyway I have been busy sewing a few more blocks and the end is in sight. I am starting to add the sashing to work out if any blocks need re-sewing.


I have finished blocks 33,   
 


And, the end is in sight. I have about 18 more blocks to make.
Must carry on, so thanks for dropping by

Back to my Nearly Insane…..

Now that Mrs Billings ( refer previous post) is on holiday awaiting the Festival of Quilts, I thought I would get out my Nearly Insane blocks and try to finish this quilt.
I have done more than half the blocks, and decided I should get some of the half blocks made so I can start piecing the quilt. I need to do this to decide if I have the colours in the right place. This quilt is pieced on the diagonal.
Half Blocks 97 and 98.

Last month I was down with a bad enough cold and cough to have a few days in bed. Why Not? I did ‘cause I could! Anyway as I came right I managed to complete a few easy blocks.Blocks 76, 78 and 46


Hopefully I can keep up with these blocks in between all the gardening and lawn mowing that have been sadly neglected for the last  6 months or more.
Thanks for dropping by

Mrs Billings Returns….

and I MADE my self imposed deadline.
As those of you who follow my sporadic blog…<smile> I have been piecing and hand quilting Mrs Billings Coverlet. A pattern reproduced by Karen Styles of Somerset Patchwork in Australia. I have included a little of the history of the Quilt as written by Karen on her Blog. 

The Billings’ Coverlet 1805-1810
The original coverlet can be found in the collection of The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles. This is the amazingly detailed quilt on which I based my Mrs Billings. A square coverlet made from fifteen frames of printed cotton hexagons, squares on point, kites and long diamonds made from triangles. Some of the fabrics date from the 1770s, and several have three blue threads in the selvedge. The majority of the fabrics are made from dress prints, although there are some furnishing prints represented. The coverlet had been passed down through the donor's family from her Great Grandmother, who was a housekeeper in a large house in the Leeds area.
 
This is my version
 

At last it is now finished. At this stage this is the only photo I have as its in storage awaiting the Festival of Quilts show in Auckland on the 7th, 8th and 9th November.
I am really thrilled with how it turned out, and if I’d known what a mammoth job it was I may not have kept at it….but I did. Over 500 hours of hand quilting!




Thanks for dropping by

A Little sideline….

from quilting Mrs. Billings. I am hand piecing a “Trip Around the World” and loving it. I am using the Inklingo method which I find really good. Makes my seams near perfect! 

TAW  is an online quilt-along with Brigitte Giblin  and I am now onto row 19. Its quite addictive and I manage to stitch about 2 hours each night. It makes a nice change from the Hand Quilting. 

Thanks for dropping by

Home again…

From a lovely week in Sydney. I traveled by train down to a small town called Berry, where I was attending a Quilters Retreat.
I had a wonderful time – all the quilters I met were really nice and friendly and I saw so many happy faces!
One of my class mates Julie Kennedy offered me a lift back to Sydney on the Sunday evening, which saved me about 3 or so hours traveling by train on the Monday. This gave me more time on Monday and Tuesday to go shopping. I REALLY needed to add to my stash – Yea Right!

I feel a little embarrassed at the collection. When I laid them all out for a photo I must admit I was a little shocked at how much I bought home, and no excess luggage.
The reason I had room in my bag was that I had taken some gifts over and posted them to the Gt Grand children in Perth. Back and front photos of the Hungry Caterpillar Quilt made for baby Hayley Jane.
 

Michelle Marvigs Class

Some of the Moulin Rouge Challenge

The start of my quilt made in class with Kathy Doughty

Back to hand quilting Mrs Billings – she is too big to take any decent photos so I’ll wait until she’s finished and hanging.
Thanks for dropping by and looking at my very spasmodic blogging. Facebook has made it too easy to keep up with friends. :-)

On target….

with quilting my Mrs Billings quilt. I haven’t been anywhere much, and most of my friends have pretty much given up asking me out but, all is going well with my quilting. I have been borrowing Audio Books from the library, and I must admit, I stay quilting longer whilst listening to a good mystery. The only problem with borrowing is, the last book, I got up to nearly the end of the book, and it automatically went back to the library before I found out who murdered the three people. I had to re order it to find out. :-)
Here is a photo of my progress. I have allowed myself up to the end of August to finish these 4 borders. I am onto the 2nd border now. I have planned a week in Sydney at the end of August and when I get home I will have a month to finish the quilt.

Thanks for dropping by

I tell a Fib….

I said I wasn’t going to get side tracked by any other project whilst making Mrs Billings, but when I went to Brisbane in June, I had the perfect excuse to start hand piecing a quilt top in a challenge put out by Brigitte Giblin. Sorry, its closed now but here a a couple of photos from my progress.

The challenge is to make from ones stash ( of course)

 

The centre HAD to be a red spot fabric and this was to be repeated at row 13 or 14. I am a little slow with mine as I’m juggling hand piecing with hand quilting at night.

 

I have changed direction a little with my fabrics, as I realised after row 4 I wanted it to look more old fashioned and not so modern.

The hardest part is trying to work out what fabric to use in the next round. I have also been using Inkling to mark the backs of every second row, so I have an accurate stitching line.

There are about 100 people doing this Hand Piecing Challenge, and we had one person allocated to us to send a fat quarter to, and this is to be added to our quilt somewhere. Haven’t been told yet! Such fun, and we have a facebook page where we post our photos and see what everyone else is doing.

Now…back to Mrs Billings. :-)

Thanks for dropping by