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 . . .

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!

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!

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!

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:

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.
 

Floral Fun - March

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

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!

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.

Luka's Birthday Presents

DD1 suggested a new book pillow for Luka for his birthday - and a new hooded towel.  His current love is Spiderman (aka Spidey).

I got some Spiderman fabric from Spotlight - and some plain red & a blue blender and made this:

Then I needed to tackle the hooded towel.  I don't have one here to work from, so found a You Tube and some written instructions, combined the two and made this:

The You Tube I watched included some fabric binding which would have made it very "Spiderman-ish", but I was concerned that over time the fabric would wear away, so I decided on appliquing some of the images and Luka's name.

We watched Luka opening his presents...after checking out the towel he placed in on the table and rested his head on it "very soft" he said.

Seems he was happy with his pillow, towel, book and light we sent him.
Happy Birthday Luka!

Chookshed Challenge #10 - Sashiko Table Runner

Another longish term finish.

I started the stitching on this in June 2020...originally purchased May 2018) and finished it in February 2021.
I found the fabric I wanted to use as a border to finish it off....but then it sat...I don't really use table runners, so that kind of explains why it didn't get finished....but it's time to wipe it off the list, so it was included as one of my Chookshed Challenge Projects.

Hearts for NICU babies

Recently the Mater Hospital in Brisbane put out a call for cotton hearts - they need sets of 3 - one for mum - one for bub in NICU and a spare.

This was mentioned by Helen in our Sunday Stitchers group.  I made 9 sets.  One of our members works at the Royal Brisbane Hospital which also uses these hearts, so we are gifting our hearts to them,

Floral Fun

Last year, when a number of the Sunday Stitchers groups were at retreat, we spied a small quilt in Quilters Companion.  One thing led to another and it became a group project for us in 2025.

In typical "Mdm Organiser" style I created a plan to spread the workload over a year...even though it is a simple & fairly quick project, a lot of us have other things on the go, so we took the "go slow" approach.

For February, we had to make 2 x Unit 1

  

RSC 2025 February - Blue

I completed 20 blocks for my Colorwash Quilt:

There is a lot more variety in the colours this month . . .amazing what you find when you raid the strip boxes.

Then I made 3 placemats...that got rid of most of the longer blue strips...still short lengths sitting around....

Sunday Stitchers - UFO Challenge 2025 - #8 - Stitch Happens

In the Chookshed Challenge for 2024 I made Stitch Happens.  I pinned it and started quilting it...but had neglected to engage the quilting foot correctly and it buckled on the back...poop...I thought.  So I put it in the naughty corner for that year.

I really wanted to get it done, so I added it to the Sunday Stitchers 2025 Challenge.

I had a few lines of quilting to remove, and I was concerned that quilting it with vertical lines would cause it to develop a wave, but it seems fine now.

I am so much happier with this than with the original "Sew Big or Go Home" that some friends and I thought we would do.

RSC 2025 (Pink) & Chookshed Challenge 2025

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

I deliberated about joining RSC again - I've done it a few years and it is great motivation to get some blocks made, . . but do I need yet another project???   NO

So, I decided to combine it with another project and the Colourwash blocks seemed ideal.

Maureen found this idea on You Tube and the plan was to motivate each other to make blocks from our stash....
The quilt on YouTube is finished with 3" squares, and there are probably 400 or so blocks. Ummm. I decided on a 4.5" cut and the total number of squares??? I have no idea yet. It depends on how it pans out, and it may end up as a colourful quilt.

I hadn't planned on any fixed number of blocks for RSC, so I just used what was easy to cut from bits I had "sitting around" ...I ended up with 16 for the first run, but decided to make 20 each month.
I will probably need a lot more for what I have in mind - and I may spread this over two years.

Obviously I tend to buy bright pinks in a similar tone.....but I am sure over time, my pinks will become more varied.

I also have quite a collection of cut strips . . . Previously, I've made string blocks for quilts for donation to DV...and I like to make placemats to donate to the local Meals on Wheels organisation...so I grabbed the pink strips that were long enough and made a simple placemat

Chookshed Challenge

For the Chookshed Challenge, #6 was the project for January, so I combined my RSC Commitment with the Challenge.  Off to a winning start

Sunday Stitchers - UFO Challenge 2025 - #6 - Hooley Dooley China Shop & Pearl's Tearooms

Many years ago - my Loose Threads group were all interested in some cushion patterns featuring Shops.  I have the full set of patterns and thought I would make them all....(in your dreams, Susan)

One of our group (Nolene) made one...and Inca had started one.   I found it when Maureen & I went through her stuff after she passed away.  It was about 3/4 done, so I decided to finish it off and give it to Helen in Sunday Stitchers who has asked each of us for any random blocks - with a plan that one day she will combine them all to make a quilt  (good luck with that I think...LOL)

The original has a lot of buttons which I don't have so I added some applique plates and cups to the China Shop, but left the tables in the tearoom bare.

Happy to pass it along to Helen now....

An Old Cross Stitch Project - Sampler Cross Stitch

A loooong time ago - I did a cross stitch of various patchwork blocks.
I am sure many of you will recognise it - it was the "flavor of the month" at the time and popular with bloggers.
Maria was one of those - and refers to it as Sampler Cross Stitch.

All the posts showing pictures are dated 2014 - with no picture of the finished work.  The link to the pattern is no longer valid - it looks like it came from "littlemissshabby" or Coriander Quilts.
Never mind now - it was all stitched.

I saw it while I was looking through a drawer (at other things) and there just happened to be some stripey fabric within eyeshot that looked a pretty good match.

So, I decided to finish it off.

Just for reference, I used DMCs in the following colours:
208    209    210    211    322    334    743    744    745    911    912    913    954    961    962   963    3716    3755    3841    3860    3861

A New Year . . .A New Project?????????????

If you read my previous post with 10 items for each of two separate challenges, you might think I had plenty to do....and if you looked at the list of "Planned Projects for 2025" you would be certain I have more than enough . . .but what happened today???
I spied a temperature cross-stitch - with a tree!!!

Now, I am a sucker for trees and houses and I have always wanted to do a temperature project - even though our temperatures don't vary widely .  . .so down the rabbit hole I went.

It just so happens I had some Aida in an oaty colour that seemed right...(trying to buy as little as possible) and I have the threads, so after a bit of sorting and cutting lengths of thread...off I went.

The pattern has one leaf per day and one color for each group of two degrees.  I'm pretty sure I will use the maximum temperature each day - that is generally between 16 and 33 - so I have allocated each day to one degree.

I started tonight and will work on the trunk downwards and the January branch before adding the leaves.

I plan to make this my FNWF and FNSI project.