Away on retreat

 Well everyone I am away on retreat again. This time is a bit quieter than the last as we have only 18 ladies. We were able to get here from 11am on Thursday so that’s when I arrived. An early start to get sewing. This was the view from where I was sitting and sewing.

 

Great progress has been made. My first project was a chair cushion with pockets. Others have said they don’t use their pockets but I will. I wanted somewhere to put the things you don’t need on your table but still use. I was give the old curtain samples from work so used one of them. I had an old piece of foam saved for about 3 years and it was time I used it. It’s all in one piece with a pocket on each side. The pockets have elastic at the top to hold it better.

Next I started on a project bag come ruler bag. I wanted to make a project bag/pouch but wanted it to store my quilting rulers. I wanted it double sided but also need a pocket for my 12” cross hair ruler. Thinking cap on. Okay, now to work out how. So I played, thought cut, pulled out and sewed again. Then off to bed.

I got up as my usual self. Then breakfast but stayed in my pyjamas. (Normal for me). Now to sew again. Well it took far longer than I thought. I did get it worked out and finished. The final piece had a few rough patches but overall it is great. It could have been a bit bigger but my rulers just fit in. The best part of all they are all in one place.

2 pockets on each side and one in the middle

After dinner with a glass of red

next on the agenda was to finish a quilt for an Aussie Hero. All I had to do was to put the word TRIATHLON on it and blanket stitch. Completed. 

Still not dressed but now ready for bed I planned my next project A fiddle cloth for display at our quilt show.

I am up, dressed and first in line for breakfast.

 See I can do it. Just need to keep everyone guessing. Can’t be too predictable.

I have sent off another Aussie Hero Quilt

 You may all remember this quilt I made a while back.

I watch the email every Monday until I find someone requesting what I have already made. Finally I was lucky enough to have someone request RED, WHITE & BLUE.

There have been so many months where the requests have been so hard. They either request so many things or so many hard things to interpret. It gets very overwhelming. I have kept this one simple. This person requested more but we are doing this as a charity so I’m not going to stress.

This is what I have made& sent.

The front

The back

Or which ever way you want to use it.

This recipient loves the Western Bulldogs. AFL

2Charity quilts are finished

  I made these quilts a while back. They are the size for AUSSIE HERO’S and are completed. 

I found 4 fat 1/4s in the red, white & blues. Sewed them together and cut the strips using my new stripology ruler. 

This was really easy to use and my strips were cut in no time. All joined in to one length and ironed in half. 

Got them all ironed

Rolled them up and started to sew.

The bindings are being attached 

This is one side of both of them..

But the reverse sides are different.

This one can be used either side.

Now I just need to wait for a suitable recipient.

QUEENS birthday weekend 2020, Chooky' 8th birthday & overcoming COVID-19 social distancing... QUILTERS RULE....

WOW. What a weekend I have had.
CHOOKY invited anyone and everyone to join in celebrating her virtual 8th birthday party via ZOOM. It was amazing. There was about 30 ladies that dropped in and out over the day. Ranging from 8am to 11pm. Well done CHOOKY.
Thankyou from all of us who joined in. It was a real winner.
https://chookyblue.blogspot.com



It was amazing to be part of this ZOOM meeting. To see all the people on the screen and be able to chat with each other. There were ladies from all over the world, Belgium, Germany, France, England, Canada, USA, New Zealand, and of course us here in Australia. Due to the time differences, people were coming in and out of "the room". Most were sewing while they were chatting, by hand or machine, and some were knitting or cross stitching. I started the chat at 8 am in bed. Moved into my lounge room and then into the sewing room. About lunch time I ducked off for a sower, some lunch and a stretch. It was so good seeing and talking to people I have been blogging with for a few years. Some I have been I swaps with, others I have been chatting via email. It was great to hear a voice and put faces to blog names. There were even new contacts which I will enjoy hopping on to their blogs and doing a catch up read....





CHOOKY has put up a list HERE of everyone who joined in.
I will have a great time linking in and seeing what they are all up to.

While sitting and chatting all day to ladies around the world I was working on my BONNIE HUNTER FROLIC MYSTERY...
My blocks are now all sewn... What a job...


Now to do the  I must have been too busy talking...
Oh my... I read that I had to cut for my sashings 1.5" * 12.5" neutral strips for the sashings of my blocks. So I cut all 64.. Guess what.... I was wrong. The total unit was to be 1.5" * 12.5"..
So I had to trim all the strips I had cut.... These new strips had to be cut back to 4.5". What a silly mistake.... but I am back on track...

I am busy sewing these strips together... They shouldn't take too long.....

Here are my sashings Resewn and ready to attach to my FROLIC QUILT.
Well those leftover 1.5" * 8" strips are just going to have to be used up into a quilt Deana is working on. TRAIL MIX....


Have a look at what Deana got up to....
http://dreamworthyquilts.blogspot.com
This is what Deana has already made.


You can get the FREE pattern HERE for TRAIL MIX

http://jannimary.blogspot.com. Janice might be starting it too.
I wonder who else might give it a go.....

I have also finished my AUSSIE HERO QUILT... It's quilted, binding on & label on..


Look at this backing. It has all the landmarks of Melbourne. I was raised in Melbourne and know these landmarks. So this represents my input. We do not know where our recipient lives but we can surely share our part of the world..


Here my recipient is racing his bike around the PHILLIP ISLAND TRACK. This quilt is personalised just for him.

Check out AUSSIE HERO QUILTS HERE to see what it's all about and how you can help....

I have been saving tea bag strings for my friend who has been knitting scarves. They are lovely Lacey designs. Just knitted in plain knit stitch.

But now she has said she has done enough. So the strings I had sitting here I have tied them together and now I am going to knit. Call me crazy but now I need more strings.
If you want to help out I need strings. No tags.
Please send me some...
I am going to start knitting tonight ..
I need between 4,000 - 6,000 strings to complete my scarf.
No. 4.5mm needles and 40sts... Here I go....

Happy sewing everyone.

Keep safe and be happy.....

AHQ in progress ready for a HERO

I have decided to do an urgent AHQ.
Request was for--- RED,WHITE & BLUE, Honda Racing, photos of recipient racing his own bike and some other emblems I don't know what they are so are not being included.
I started out with red, white & blue 2.5" strips and sewed them together like the well known Jelly Roll race. It was wide enough but not long enough for the specifics of an AHQ.




So I added a blue strip....
This was already in my cupboard. So when the request came in I knew I could do it easily. Without too much fuss.


Now to unpick the blue strip.
Print some photos, add an emblem appliqué, join them to fit and sew them back into the quilt.....

I am happy with what I have done with this AHQ. 

The photos are of the recipient at Phillip Island racing around the track.

By the sounds of it he loves his bike and racing as these photos were part of his request.

AUSSIE HERO QUILTS.....

You all know I support AHQ.  Well, this week, along with everyone else I was shocked to hear of Jan-Maree's illness. She is not looking for sympathy but understanding and support.

We as quilters have know so many over our sewing years that have needed support. So many have gone through stressful times. We will continue to sew and support in the ways we know...

Thinking of you Jan-Maree.

http://aussieheroquilts.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-personal-message-from-jan-maree.html

I would like to share with everyone the fantastic work everyone does that sends off their quilts to the troops.

Have a look here to see some beautiful work sent to cheer some people up.

http://aussieheroquilts.blogspot.com/2020/04/weekly-dispatches-17th-april-2020.html

This is another one that has been posted....

And my Lorraine Cocker quilt has been quilted.

This was a UFO CHALLENGE for me... NO... 2 is completed.

Here they both are together.

A happy finish of 2 quilts..

I am happy to be making these quilts for our troops on deployment but Australia Post has made it more difficult to post them. The boxes they sold that fitted the requirements for free postage to the troops are no longer being sold at the post office. This size fitted a magazine, a quilt and sometimes a pack of biscuits or chocolate. All this came in under 2 kgs so was free. Now the boxes are way too small to fit a quilt or too large that you need to pay postage. Thanks for your support Aust Post.

I was told you could get them from Officeworks but no, not in Mildura. Getting around in these COVID times is hard enough let alone searching for boxes. I then tried BUNNINGS. Yes, Fantastic. They had a smaller box than the original we used but a quilt still fits perfectly. Not sure what else you could squeeze in as it only weighed 1.5 kgs...  They were also sold  seperately too.

These are what they look like as a flattened box.. $2.69 @ BUNNINGS.....

I was so happy to find these at Bunnings that I sent a message to thank them. I got a lovely message back from Steve the manager. He is an ex serviceman who was in the forces for 12 years and thanked me for what I am doing. In return he offered to supply me with more boxes.

Thankyou STEVE @ Mildura BUNNINGS for your offer to supply me with more boxes as required. I appreciate your support and I will accept the boxes.

Convergence... Scrappy Strings

Okay,

My convergence quilt centre is now in one piece ......

What to do with it now.

I'll have to put my thinking cap on.

I want to make this into an AUSSIE HERO QUILT 

But to work out how to make it longer..

This is where I got my inspiration from --- http://adventuresinquiltingandsailing.blogspot.com/2010/04/ricky-timms-convergence-quilt-workshop.html 
It was a great help with the photos and instructions.

While I have been doing my stitching over the last couple of weeks I have been making string blocks.

These will be made into a string half square triangle block for CHARITY.

I will be working on these for a while.

These will be something I'll be showing my group and hopefully they will be joining  in too.

This was what I showed them on a weekend away.
EASY AND EFFECTIVE

A special project.

INVICTUS GAMES 2018

This is the quilt I have made for my participant in the games.
He is in Archery and cycling.

Here is the general side of the laundry bag




Both sides of the laundry bag

I finished making them, got them in the mail and they were presented to the team and my recipient.
Meet the team.
http://www.defence.gov.au/Events/InvictusGames/team/

  

I'm happy with the finished quilt.

I had fun doing the quilting.

 The personalised side.

Here is the main side finished.. 

Have a look at this link to see all the bags and quilts that were donated to the participants of the games.

http://aussieheroquilts.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2018-08-17T15:57:00%2B10:00&max-results=7

GO TEAM AUSTRALIA