Fabric painting workshop

Our quilt group had a fabric painting night. We were to paint a small picture. About A4 size. Then needed to embellish it.

Nothing very special yet. Now I am to stitch over it and embellish it. This is not what I do best but I do like to take part in my groups activities.

Anyway,  early last year my grandsons, then aged 11 & 9, drew me a picture for when they came up on holidays. COVID hit and they never got that holidays. A few months later when they could travel they gave it to me. A very pretty flower.. signed and dated. How special am I.

My friend loved the colours and the idea came to her that she could use this for her fabric painting class. So here it is. She made a beautiful wall hanging. With 3D leaves, lace and glitter. She even put a fabric tag on it so the boys can sign it.

So here they both are side by side.

Maxine you did a wonderful job.

Thank you

Hi everyone. I’m still here

 You will need a drink, coffee or wine, whichever you choose, enjoy the following. 

This is a catch up of what I have been doing. There will be lots of photos from the last couple of weeks all in no particular order. I can’t believe that we have been in lockdown, restricted movements and I still can’t keep up with blogging. My motivation is low but hopefully with some nicer weather this may improve.

I have loads of ideas, plenty of UFO’s, projects planned and no need to shop. I have everything to make them. The fabric & time but no oomph.

It needs to change. ANYWAY, here is something to report.

Here is my finished bell with another one I was gifted. It was easy to make. And didn’t really take long. 

My friend came over to choose fabrics for masks for the kids to go back to school but you couldn’t see my sewing table, sewing room or move anywhere so a clean up was necessary. This is it now..

Now I can start to sew again. Making some masks for a work friend and her children. Kids are back to school but must wear a mask. This family wants fun ones to enjoy. 

This is what they chose.

Here are the finished masks for the kids to go back to school. She liked them so much that I need to make another rainbow stripe for her.

You all remember the panel, Australian animals, I sent to the USA for the swap I was in. Well, here we are on a public holiday, MELBOURNE CUP DAY, I get a knock at the door and it was a delivery. A parcel from the USA. Excitement set in. I was amazed when this parcel arrived. LOOK AT THAT COST. Just ridiculous. I was so shocked and thrilled at the same time. I raced in and opened it straight away.

Look at the beautiful panel I received from Mona. Thank you. It is perfect and I am a purple fan.

I will make this into a quillow and use it when I am watching tv. If I line the pocket part with polar fleece I can use this as a pocket to keep my feet warm. It is the perfect size.

I also took part in their FALL/AUTUMN mug rug swap. I don’t like doing just square items so I change them a little bit. I saw this design on the end of a table runner and thought it was perfect. I’m so happy with how it worked out. 

This is the beautiful mug rug I received.

 Looks like we were thinking along the same lines. How fun is this.

This is the fat 1/4 I won from QATW for a visit and comment I made on one of their posts. Lucky me. This will definitely get used.

We have been meeting up in the park for our sewing group. It is hard to sew in a camp chair without a little help. I bought this bed tray years ago from an op shop for about $5. It is finally getting some use.

What makes it even more special is I have been using my new zippered placemat with it and it fits perfectly. Now everyone wants to make one.

Even the ducks came for a visit.

Our group has a birthday fat 1/4 gift swap. This is how I packaged mine this month.

Now the year is over I have to find another way to wrap a fat 1/4 that is using something I have at home. I find it hard just to put it in an envelope. Maybe, I could make boxes using my birthday cards they have given me. Oh, that’s a great idea. Problem solved. This just came to me as I was typing so I might just give it a go and post a picture later if the fabric fits in the small box. 

I had a lovely friend come over for the morning. 

Before we got into the planned activity I was notified of a local garage sale. So off we headed. There wasn’t any quilting fabric like we expected but we both managed to purchase something.

My friend bought some pieces of vinyl which she uses in her pin cushions and I bought these. Some ribbons/braids, felt, bias making bars. I already have the Templar plastic ones but another set wouldn’t hurt. Also got some more zips. These are always handy for when I make bags of all sizes or the new style zippered placemats. All this for only $5.00. 

A real bargain.

Back home now for the purpose of the visit.

My friend brought her die for me to cut out heaps of hexies. 

A start on a new project. 

Why do I keep starting them… 

She was amazing and I appreciate her time and help. Now to sew them

Papers and fabrics are all cut for my future project.

I am organised and have some hand stitching to take to my sewing meeting nights or even zoom, Chooky, for quite a while.

So this is where I’m at. Hexie sewing. Who would have believed it. Gotta start somewhere.

I can say that I will not be making a quilt with these and will never in the future. 

This is not me!

Good on you all for your EPP sewing. It is amazing and I appreciate your work.  

Enjoy it and happy sewing.

Spinning tops mystery

I didn’t realise this had posted yet. So this is a mystery I did a couple of years ago. It’s about time I got it’s borders on, basted and quilted. I have to spend some more time on finishing my quilts instead of leaving them as tops.

More postcards from USA..

 My post cards are slowly coming through to me. These are what I have received lately.

From MONA

from LAURA

from PAM

Unfortunately I have to wait for my parcel with my Autumn mug rug and my panel quilt top. USA says Australia isn’t allowing parcels to be sent and others are told USA is refusing to send to Australia.

Whatever the reason the mail has been slow everywhere. Hopefully I might get mine for Xmas. It will be a nice surprise when they do turn up. The ladies in th USA are phoning their post office regularly to check. As soon as they can send they will..

A fiddling sort of day.

 I gave my friend a gift of scissors with beading to attach the cap and the handle. I had made a few at once and were always handy as a gift. Anyway, with being pulled in and out of the bag my friend broke hers. So a repair was needed.

Got them all undone and laid out again.

Re threaded and finished. Lovely job.

Next was to work on a little bit more of my Fairy Godmother for our challenge. Now to be handed in at our Xmas dinner. If that will go ahead. As we are always in and out of snap lockdowns.

My work gave everyone a gift for saying Thankyou and working together during all this covid pandemic. It has been hard for everyone and they wanted to cheer us up a bit.

So here is a lovely chocolate package.

Sweet Blue Wren coffee cup. (We had a few designs to choose from) Thos was my favourite. There were chocolates, popcorn, hot chocolate melts and marshmallows too.

Impromptu zoom with Chooky

 Friday night after work Chooky sent out an invite to a zoom meeting. I was so tired, sitting in my pj’s and watching tv. I quickly jumped up, started tea, grabbed my Xmas fabric tub and joined in.

While we were chatting away I cooked and ate tea. Then moved on to some class preparation.

Our quilt group make a Xmas decoration every year and even though we are in lockdown we are doing one again this year. We were to meet in the park today to be shown how to finish it but that is now postponed.

We needed to prepare 2 strips of Xmas fabric with fliesofix  in the centre to make it a reversible fabric.

I cutout the bell shape in template plastic and traced the pattern 8 times on to the fabric. Cut them out. Now I am ready for the class.

I have found the beads and ribbon. Now it’s time to pack my bag so I’m ready for when we can meet in the park to finish it off. I won’t forget to pack the needle and thread too.

Thanks Chooky for the catch up.It made me get this ready

Meeting up in the park…..My panel swap is on its way to the USA

 My friend and I set up a lovely meeting in the park. We shared show’n’tell, a coffee from the local van.. Bobbie’n’me. Caught up on some much needed chatting. Even though it was a bit fresh we soldiered on and it was great. The following weekend we were back in lockdown. We are trying to organise a catch up for our sewing group. Hopefully if lockdown lifts we will meet in groups of 10. If too many turn up we will make 2 groups. An easy fix.

I joined this panel swap on QATW site. My partner really liked the idea of getting something from Australia. 

So I bought this panel.

Chose fabrics.

Started sewing

I had so much trouble getting this to work. I drew it out. Measured it up and cut the strips but failed to realise I had done it wrong until I was sewing it together. The strips don’t get cut the width of the squares. So I unpicked, cut, resewed, repeated. Joined pieces together as fabric was running short. Frustration set in but I persevered.

Now the borders are on. This now measures 60” square. A great size quilt. The colours are showing a bit darker than what they actually are. I love this top

I got this in the mail on 5th Sept. It waited in Australia for weeks. 7th October it finally arrived in the USA. Now to wait until my partner gets it.

What have I been up to since the last Zoom.

 Way back when Chooky had a Zoom. I didn’t get up as early as the previous time but it was still early for me. Hello ladies

I was doing some hand quilting on a very old UFO. This started 7 years ago. Anyway a few stitches is good. And enjoyed a coffee.

The next day it was oven cleaning time.

I used this new to me product and I’ll definitely be using it again. Sorry for the people that don’t like using chemicals but I loved this one.

My oven was disgusting and well overdue for cleaning. I would say it is my most hated housework job.

Here are the filthy before shots. The racks and glass you can’t see through

Put them in the bag, pour a little on the glass.

I ran out of the good stuff on the racks and only had a little bit left for the glass. Then had to use some of the usual spray for in the oven.

Flip the bag over every so often and 4 hours later 

Give them a rinse, bring them inside and was with soapy water and a miracle has happened …. 

NO SCRUBBING AT ALL.

It was worth the $10 and I will be buying some more for in the cupboard for next time.

Now back to knitting.

My friend did a knitted vest for a teddy bear? She added a little flower too.

I got all mine completed and they are now on the way to Jan Mac. She should get them very soon.

Isn’t this little pig cute

Today Mildura starts a 7 day lockdown and our cases have risen to 37 in 3 days. I’m not sure where this will lead as we already have 4 schools closed due to exposure. Just have to cross our fingers that we are safe.

JanMac has received my parcel and will distribute them accordingly.

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