Machine quilting.

 I have had my bookcase basted for the whole year.

 I did a swap with the QATW girls for these blocks. It was started in 2019 and the top put together in 2020. It’s about time this one was finished.

I have started quilting it. I am using the Westalee rulers. 

My first attempt was bad. I changed needles, thread, tension and cleaned the machine. I got so frustrated with the thread breaking, fraying and skipped stitches. I could also see the backing thread on the front at repetitive areas. I couldn’t fix it. So it went on the floor. Now, we didn’t go away for Christmas so I picked it up again. Wound a new bobbin and had no issues at all. I am not the best quilter, especially when the top and bottom threads are different colours. But, I will go with how it’s working. This quilt is for me…

Storm at SEA planning and preparation

 Our sewing group is going to have a SAL in 2023. We will be sewing the Storm at Sea design quilt. We have the GO Cutter die and wanted everyone to have a goat using it. The hardest part for me was choosing a design that everyone else won’t be making. So I have combined a few patterns. Coloured in my sheet, roughly.

Spent the day sorting fabrics and ironing scraps. This is going to be totally scrappy. I haven’t even worked out what size it will be. I will worry about that when the time comes.

Saturday 6th Jan my friend and I will spend the day cutting. Then on the 1st weekend in February we have a sewing weekend where we will all start the sewing. Anyone that needs help will be put on the right track. There is no deadline for this quilt but it would be nice to have it done for our quilt exhibition in September.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 Merry Christmas to you.

Our plans have changed for this Christmas season. We had our family Christmas dinner with out daughter and grandchildren on Friday night. It was a good time. We were supposed to go to my brothers and camp for a few days but the SIL came down with covid so we have stayed home. I now have extra sewing time. I cleaned my sewing room, which took the day. Today I am planning the next quilt. More about that later.

Granddaughters Xmas gifts

 My grand daughters have been given some lovely jewellery recently so they needed somewhere to put it away. I bought them a beautiful jewellery box each. They were the same design so had to think of a way that they knew which one was theirs. Easy fix.

I have beaded name chains on them. Here is Madeleine’s

One for INDY

Here they are together

Quilts I have finished

 This is a Gypsy Wife quilt that I made with orphan blocks and donations of neutrals from the group and finally bound.

It was donated to Wings for Kids for a raffle and they raised $400.

Another quilt made with donated blocks. I assembled the quilt, another member quilted it and someone else bound it. This also went to a charity in town to raffle off. This will happen early next year so I will let you know the results.

Here is the quilt panel that was quilted by a member and bound by another. This is now in the charity pile.

This is the charity pile so far…

White lace and silver decorations.

 My friend and I have the job of decorating the tables for our Xmas break up dinner.

This year we have chosen Silver and White Lace. We are going to put white lace tablecloths, silver leaves/branches/greenery in vases and white Xmas lights on the tables.

 Silver napkins and white lacy doilies.

All boxed ready for the tables.

Don’t these look very pretty

White lights. And silver wrapped gifts table

We have the Kris Kringle gifts

The dinner tables are now set

Everyone seems happy as they eat their meals.

Our Kris Kringle gifts. We had a swap of mug bags and mug rug sets. They all worked out lovely and even though we weren’t supposed to put in a cup some did. Not everyone can follow rules.

There was also a suggestion for people to make an outfit from a quilt/doona cover. There were some talented people. Who would have guessed these were made from a doona cover. So clever. I even asked  for the pattern for one of the dresses. It was very hard to tell that they were not bought as a dress..

Look at this outfit. 

The front

The back

And check out these boots.

We did all have a great night. It was so much fun.

Thank you Maxine, Colleen, Chris for your help and every member for attending the night and joining in the fun with this special celebration.

Now the planning begins for next year……

What have I been making all year.

  It is finally here.

My friend and I have been slowly working on 2022 Xmas gifts for our quilt group.

We made sets of luggage tags. The trial cuts.

40 sets all cut out and ready to sew

We are getting there.

And hexies key rings

Time to give out these wonderful gifts.

A job well done..

All packed away in fabric envelopes made by another member.

Here they are all packaged ready to go on the tables.

Junee, part 5. The trip home.

 Okay, we had a great weekend and now it’s time to go home.

We had rain but some sunshine too. The trip home was wet and stormy.

Sylvia, this photo is to show that we do have to slow down a lot.

This is how the day started. Wet

Then road works

The floods are up to the roads edge.

The river is very close here. This hwy ended up being flooded and closed off for about 2-3 weeks. 

This was the first nights camp stop for my hubby on his bike trip. It is flooded out and closed.

Look what we were headed for.

And then the heavy rain started.

Can you see the cars headlights coming towards us.

The roads damage was very poor with bad potholes most of the way. We got home to our town now in floods. 

The weekend was worth it.