Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Claytons Scrub Stitchin' - Plans

My plan for my Claytons Scrub Stitchin'

2 x Goat Blocks
Token Quilt Progress
Drawstring bags
Sewing machine cover
Be My Neighbour - Blocks 5 and 6
RSC - Red placemat/s ~ 20 Colourwash blocks
Fish blocks - eyes, cut additional square blocks & arrange

We all know plans can be changed....

If I had been travelling to Baradine - I would have left home on Tuesday, and arrived home Sunday night or maybe late Monday, so I will count anything I work on in that period.
I do have a few things to do in that period, but will try to focus on these projects when I can.

Of course, I will need to be a little domestic and cook meals etc . . .but they will be kept simple. I better stock up on some bubbly drinks!


Monday, March 31, 2025

Boonah Outlook Retreat

Yes, you read that right—another retreat!!!!! I came home on Sunday, the 23rd March, and I went on another retreat from Friday, the 28th! I had just enough time to unpack clothes, wash them, and repack them.
Sewing projects were pretty much organised before the first retreat, so a bit of fine tuning on the supplies list...and off I went.

We met for morning tea at a local Bakery/Cafe, then shopped at the local drapery store (Maynards).  It is full of "stuff" - clothing, shoes etc - and - patchwork fabrics.   I resisted a lot of it and settled on a 30cm cut of fabric - just because.

After unloading the car, setting up tables and chairs, etc., I was looking for a simple sewing exercise, so I spent a couple of hours making pieces for Crumb Blocks for De, who will complete them in due course. I sorted her "Crumb Bag," removing all the odds and ends.

Then I thought I better get stuck into the sewing...

Firstly, I made a couple of blocks for Raewyn to make into a quilt at the upcoming Scrub Stitchin' retreat. The quilt will be donated to Macquarie Home Stay for the room that Chooky and her family raised funds for.


Then I worked on making some kid's quilt tops for our DV Charity.

These are all similar - Two with orange stitching and fabric and one with green.  Again, I have used the decorative stitches on the machine to add a touch of interest.  Theu finish at about 40" so only one width of normal fabric is needed to back them.






There wasn't much stripey fabric left by the time I got to this one.

Then I made up another tree skirt - this time in red & green and a lot larger.


I also joined my FPP Nature blocks - I don't think I posted all the blocks when I did them - I started them in April 2024 - when Scrub Stitchin' 2024 was on.
There were 9 in the pattern from Quiet Play - then I added more to make 20.  This will be the centre of a Kids Quilt for DV.


I also snuck in a bit of sashiko stitching and some crochet.


Overall, I was happy with what I got done - I had one more project that I could have worked on, but (1) I had neglected to cut enough fabric - and - (2) I spent time with De preparing some rose blocks for her to make another quilt similar to this.


 We had a lot of fun...we were all reasonably productive.  We had "group lunches" of ham cheese & tomatoes toasted sandwiches and Take-Away Chinese one night.  There were loads of sweets & treats, plenty of tea & coffee and a comfy bed.  What more could we ask for???
(well, maybe a cute porter to unload and load up our cars...LOL)

Next retreat???  Not til June . . .


Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Chookshed Challenge #2 - Placemats for Meals on Wheels

My #2 for the Chookshed Challenge was to make placemats to donate to Meals on Wheels.  I didn't specify a number, but wanted to use a pile of fabrics that had been lingering . . .

I made 6 of these:



and 7 of these


Thanks Deanna for hosting our challenge...it is really motivating!



Monday, March 24, 2025

Retreat at Glenrose (in the House)

Last year I went to Glenrose (House) with a group of people - some of whom I had sewed with before, some not.
The booking for 2025 had been retained but none of the other ladies were able to go this year, so I took it over and roped in the usual sewing buddies.

The booking is from Thursday at 4PM to Sunday at 2PM, so it's shorter than a "week" booking, but we're always up for a retreat.

I was able to finish the I Spy top for Montana's 2nd Birthday coming up in July.


I joined the wedges for a Christmas tree skirt.  I have a red & green one cut ready to go too - but realise I will need to make the hole in the centre bigger...so can fix that before I sew the other one.


For DV projects, I put this Coin Quilt together (the strips of "coins" had been made & hanging around for a long while).

And I put the borders on this top - which had also been hanging around for a while.

 I had been saving this for a retreat with Helen as she had a nifty way of making the mitered corners....it was quite easy!

Some of the other things that the girls worked on
Maureen made several Crowns for the border of her Chuck Nohara quilt...these are just a few..

Maureen also put together this quilt top for the DV project

Helen made a bag - the fabric is so lovely

and added the borders to this DV quilt top


Sandi made and bound 22 strip-pieced placemats, which I will give to the local Meals on Wheels group. She also experimented with finishing the binding by machine—we decided that using the Ditch foot was the most successful method.



De made another giraffe quilt top - so cute!!!


Lynda put a quilt top together - but I missed getting a photo! 

Both Helen & De made up this Quilters Retreat Panel - all the Needle Girls have one to make up by November.
Here is Helens - no picture of De's 😖



The girls are well-trained and know to save the Teabags so I can collect the strings for Jo.


No retreat would be complete without some retail therapy and there is a new shop in Warwick - so off we went.   I found a new "must have" project, as did most of us....and we spied this cute wall hanging - well, we all like the machine part...maybe not the dingle dangles.
It's a machine embroidery design so I have - of course - purchased it...(Designs by Juju..)

The booking is in place for next year.   But I have a few more retreats this year - one next weekend!!!!!, then June, August & November...I am quite the expert in planning & prepping!



Thursday, March 20, 2025

Be My Neighbour - March

Continuing on with Be My Neighbour - these are the March blocks.



Fiona has posted hers here - and joined February and March to make a street...She is a funny lady!


Wednesday, March 19, 2025

DV Quilts

I haven't contributed much to our DV quilting efforts recently - Christmas may have interrupted it a bit and then there were a few distractions with projects that I was tempted with . . .

But here are two that I have finished off recently - both made by splitting a panel, adding fabric and an embroidered strip in the middle.   My machine has a good variety of decorative stitches, so I might as well use them!
Both tops were made at retreat last November




Here is a close up of the stitched middle panel:


Monday, March 17, 2025

Sunday Stitchers - UFO Challenge 2025 - #9 - Three vases Cross Stitch

I got very flexible with my UFO Challenge list for March....Originally #9 was "Token Quilt - Progress"...but I decided that was a big ask . . . .so I swapped it to My Small World - Finish"
- which meant pinning and then quilting it.... should be OK I thought.....
There were a few distractions .. . and I had a string of meetings and such out of the house . ..still plenty of time I thought....THEN it was predicted that we could get Tropical Cyclone Alfred landing on us . . . .so some preparation was needed . . . I put it aside....

On the 9th of March I decided, it wasn't going to happen so I swapped my #9 again . . progress on the 3 Vases Cross Stitch would have to do...

Here is where I got to last time - & funnily enough it was project #9 last year - it was meant to be!!!


and now it's looking like this:
It's a bit like "Spot the Difference"!!!   LOL

Stitching the pink flower is tedious as the pattern is only in black and white and it is hard to discern the backstitch lines from the chart and symbols.....the stitching in the background is far more pleasurable...Anyway some progress was made , . . . on it goes...
More may happen later this year...


Tropical Cyclone Alfred

Fortunately, Tropical Cyclone Alfred turned into a Tropical Low before it really hit our area, though a lot of SE Qld has had damage, power loss, etc. At one point, over 300,000 customers were without power, some for days. Luckily, our power loss was short-lived—only 12 hours—so there was no food loss and no major inconvenience.
We had put bags of water in place along the doors leading to our pergola area in the hope of preventing any buildup of water seeping under the doors....


For those overseas...this cyclone could have been named Anthony - but Alfred was chosen instead.
We are due for Federal Elections very soon - our current Prime Minister is Anthony Albanese....it was decided to use Alfred for this one instead...to "avoid confusion". 
I suspect it was more like - so that the combination "Anthony &/or Cyclone" couldn't be used together....LOL
Whichever party wins, we won't end up in the mess that another country has...not mentioning any names.
 

Friday, March 14, 2025

Floral Fun - March

The March deadline was to make 2 more Unit 1 pieces. 



Sunday, March 9, 2025

RSC 2025 March - Yellow

Yellow is a hard one for me - I do not have a lot of yellow (or red or orange).  But I raided the strip collection and made two placemats - luckily someone had recently gifted me some fabrics they no longer wanted and there were a few larger yellow pieces so that helped with the backings and bindings of these.



Then I used the left over strips to start on the colourwash blocks.  I had to cut some pieces from my very limited stash of yellow.  I ended up with 24, so it will do for now.



NOTE - UPDATE
The problem I was having where I wasn't getting emails when you comment. seems to have been resolved.,...I am blaming the cyclone!

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Be My Neighbour - February

A while back...in 2024....I saw a quilt called Be My Neighbour - a freebie from Moda  . . .and I no longer remember how it came to be that both Fiona and I decided to make it.

I drew up a plan for us to follow - to keep it simple, I spread it over a year or so - we both have numerous other projects to work on.  So, basically, it is 2 blocks a month - 16 in all.  And we gave January a miss!

At some stage I found this picture of it:


And I've decided to follow the general colour scheme....not my normal way to go...but it will save a lot of "umming and aahing" over fabric selection.
They are big blocks - Block 1 is 18" x 18" and #2 is 15" x 18".
I can already anticipate that Fiona will do a great job of quilting hers...mine??   - we will we'll see...

February blocks are done:  (They were finished before the end of February - the post is a bit late.)


Fiona is working with Tilda fabrics and hers are here.