Two months ago…

Wendy a member of our little quilting group, who used to own a Quilt Shop, came to us with an idea of a mystery quilt which she would design. She gave every-one an applique pattern for the centre block, if they wanted to do one as she had, but we could also make whatever we liked as our centre block. I thought ….hey this would be nice made in Reproduction fabrics, and as I had a block that I had made as an experiment, I thought what a perfect block to 

use.

I was away the following month, so when I arrived home I emailed and got the 2nd round for this Mystery. This is when I started to get into trouble. Nothing is easy, and I found my block measured 13”instead of the 12 1/2”required. No probs. I thought. I’ll just cut my next round down by 1/2”. Easier said than down as the round measured 1/2”finished. Anyway I accomplished this, but my next round is one short square short on each of the 4 sides. Don’t know how that happened, but it appears my 1/4” SA is on the generous size.



As it is, I am quite happy with how it looks ….I starched the living daylights out of it. Unfortunately that gave me a light square and a dark square next to each other on a couple of corners, but it’ll have to stay like that. I always think in the last century the women would not have worried about that…so neither will I. :-) VBG!
Will post the next round when done.
While I’m at it I must show you what I have been knitting. A scarf in Angora. Hopefully will be cosy when I go to our Quilt Symposium in Taupo in July. I am using these delightful to knit with needles..Knit Pro by Symfonie.



Thanks for dropping by

At Last……

I am going attempt to post on my tablet without using Windows Live Writer which I don't seem to be able to download to my tablet. While we were in Tamworth we hired a car few 3 days. I have a quilting friend whose husband is a vendor at the Cutting Horse Futurity. Karyn and I took a drive to Nundle, to Patchwork on the Hill.    A lovely shop with lots of goodies to tempt one.  I then had another day out with my two quilting   friends who visit the show every year. A lovely quilt shop in Tamworth. A couple of Mounted Police in Tamworth. Beautiful quiet horses.
When the show was over DH went home, and I flew to Brisbane where my son and his family live. Had a lovely time.....the children have grown so much ....2 are 19 and the other two are 17. Where have the years gone. The problem is I only see them once a year so they seem to grow fast. :-)  I was taken out for the day by an online blogging friend, to a couple of quilt shops in Brisbane. I managed to buy the sashing for my Nearly Insane Quilt.I figured I would be better buying it whilst away, to save postage. I also had a couple of books I had ordered a month ago and had them posted to my sons place.......again saving postage! Gosh I'm good at saving money. :-) All the more to spend on fabric!!
I was very lucky to have this lamp bought for me by my family, for my birthday & Mothers day this year.
While in Brisbane I went to a retreat at Mt Alford. What a lovely place, and I had so much fun for the 2 1/2 days I was there.
Unfortunately I had to wait until I was home again before posting this, as I couldn’t get Live Writer to work on my tablet, and I find it hard to post directly to my blog. Something I need to learn to do :-) I love it but……
Anyway thanks for dropping by…I know I am really slack with my postings. :-)

Thought I would Show you…

how far I had progressed with my Mrs Billings Hexagons. I haven’t started cutting or piecing my larger pieces yet. The Hexies are so portable that I just keep on making them. I am going to Australia in June, and will take some with me to cut, glue then stitch.

 
 
I am also trying to finish this quilt which was started about 7 years ago. Need to get it off to the Quilter in time for our show in November.
 
 

Thats all for now
Thanks for dropping by

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