I actually cooked.

My hubby has been away and I am still catching up on my rest. At least I am back to eating. 

I cooked myself Roast Pork for the first time ever. My hubby can't eat pork so it is something I enjoy when I am out. Not today, I cooked my own. It was yummy.

I love the crackle and it cooked up so crisp.

A feast for me.. and there is plenty there for another two nights so I don't have to cook. Win Win....

Sarah this is for you. Yep, I went to the library and have spent the weekend listening to this. I really enjoyed the story while I sewed away.

Working my way through the list to catch up...

I'm back to sewing.

Thanks to all my friends checking up on me.
I was back at work this week and am totally exhausted.
I'd come home, take my brothers dog for a walk, eat tea, sit for a while then bed.
I am dog sitting for 2 weeks while my brother and hubby are away 4 wheel driving/camping through the Simpson Desert.

Friday night saw me finish off a few Dear Jane blocks that needed some hand appliqué.

The blocks for March were... F6, G10, A12 & D3.

Aprils blocks are I4, L7, K13 & B9.

I have decided not to trim them back to the 5". I think I am going to do QAYG and join them with the 1/2" sashings. This might help me to get it done. 

I have fallen behind but I am catching up...

I've been feeling under the weather....

For the past week I have been dressed in my pjs. Not eating much and drinking only water. I have been feeling terrible. Yep, the dreaded flu... Time to rest.. The only thing is I haven't even had the energy to sew until today... I finished hand quilting the border on my very special scrap quilt made by my friend, Sue... 

I am doing this back to front. Yes, that means I started quilting the centre to see the design then I moved on to the border. Now the border is finished I have trimmed it and on goes the binding to protect the edge.  Then I can do the centre at any time..

I sewed around the whole quilt and look how much is left. I have made diagonal seams when joining the strips but I am not worrying about here. This last seam is going to be straight. I'm not adding in extra. It's staying like this... I'm happy. 

Here is the binding all machined on ready for turning. I used different leftover strips for the binding.

 I think it matches well.

 I am liking the way it is looking with the binding stitched down.

lunch time crochet

I have been doing a bit of crochet. This is the one I am doing at work during my lunch lour.

I have so much yarn to use.

 I showed my friend how to do this pattern which I got from Lyn. (Thanks)

I am nearly to the size where I want to create the sides into a rectangular shape.

This one is made with 8 ply yarn.

Here is one I am doing with 5 ply.

Here is the first one I finished at work.

This sits on my chair in case I need it over my legs when there is a draught. 

So far I am still wearing my t shirts..

Aussie Hero special blocks... & a thankyou...

W don't send of quilts to the Aussie Heroes for any special attention. We do it to support the special people who are out there protecting us.
I was lucky enough to receive a thankyou for my Busta quilt..
My Hero also shared it on Facebook (which I am not) .. But it was also put on the Aussie Hero blogpost.
If you want to read some thankyou messages from the heart have a read and look at this post.
http://aussieheroquilts.blogspot.com.au/2017/08/thanks-on-thursday.html
Here is Sarah with her quilt... I think she likes it.

THANK YOU TO OUR HEROES...

I made these fun Aussie animal blocks. They measure 10" and will be trimmed to 9.5".

I liked the look of them in what I hope seems like it is a photo.

Remember years ago we had the instant polaroids.

That was my aim.

 Look at my toes poking out..

 I was out with the measuring so they became straight on squares.

And the group of blocks

Next I worked on some cute Poppy blocks.

They measure 7"

And the last 2

I decided to do something different with this one. The cute owls wanted me to fly round & round & round & round again. It was easy enough but took hours. It's very effective though.

Next time I won't do them the foot width. They will be at least an inch wide...

I'm glad this one is finally finished. I do love how the spiral quilting looks though.

It was the last of the four to be quilted and crazy as I am I chose the longest way to do it...

It took forever.

172" of binding and a whopping 8 bobbins for a quilt that measures 39" x 47".

This has 228" of binding and took 6 bobbins.

 This recipient wanted Aussie native animals & Gary on it...

It is stippled all over.

I'm sorry if I have bored you over the past couple of weeks with these quilts but I thought it was best to break down the posts into stages...

I had a marathon quilting session and used up a total of 23 bobbins & 750" of binding.

I'm having a break with charity quilts for now.

I do have some Aussie Hero bags and blocks to make then I will be focussing on our quilt show and trade table makes.

I might even catch up on my Dear Jane blocks I am so far behind with. 

I also have to finish my movie challenge quilt.

I'm sure I will get side tracked and find something else to go on with...

I got to sewing with BLUES...

OH SCRAP

http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com.au/2017/07/oh-scrap-improv-stripes.html

I tipped all my scrap blues out for my next project.

I was on the way to make 2 special laundry bags for Aussie Heroes.

What a pile of scraps...

I came across this great tutorial for the ANCHOR block.

http://hopefulhomemaker.com/2013/08/07/anchor-quilt-block-tutorial/

Jennifer has done a brilliant job with step by step photos and instructions.

They are very accurate and easy to follow.

I will definitely make more of these if needed. 

As you can see I have used all different scraps too.

A good size sailing boat.

The anchor pattern bag looks great.

So here you can see lots of blue work happening.

http://superscrappy.blogspot.com.au/2017/07/scraphappy-farewell-to-bue.html

I order what colour August will be...