Mildura Quilt Show

First weekend in September was the date for Sunraysia Patchwork Friends quilt show - perfect excuse for a bit of a drive (only nearly 400kms one way, just around the corner *LOL*)...

The show was lovely...held in the Red Cliffs Civic Centre, a great venue...with about 80 quilts hanging with a great variety of techniques and themes...a challenge...and a secondary exhibition of vintage dresses decorating the hall...two shows in one!..

Hexies...

Fun and Arty...

This one was all embroidery...

The wings were 3-D...

 

Miniatures and small....

 

 

 

 

The group challenge for this show was Story Book and Jo came second with her entry...The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly...very clever idea to have all the things she swallowed on a ribbon coming out of the pocket in her dress (yes, a functioning pocket! it was unzipped for display purposes)...

The group had a project/challenge at one point where a number of members made a storm at sea quilt and there was a selection of those, no two alike and some great interpreting of the storm at sea block/theme...

 Whales in the sea...

 

 This one may be familiar...it is Jo's version...

 

 Happy orange fish swimming through the storm...

 Some of the vintage dresses...

 

 This pretty blue one was my favourite...

Decorated bike in the foyer...a fun variation on the quilt covered car (which was out the front)...

Well done ladies, so glad I made the trip...

Happy Stitching...

Zooming with Alice Progress...

Yesterday was a Zoom day with Chookyblue and the bloggy ladies from all over...

I didn't join in until lunch time as I got all the distractions sorted and out of the way first so I could stay and play without feeling I needed to multi-task...once settled I got stuck back into the centre medallion for  "Alice"...

At the start of the session I was still at the point of attaching the background/teal units around the blue block and by the end of the day all stitched together...missing the top middle orange hexagons because something went wrong with my counting skills and I need to prep three more orange dinner plate hexies to go in there...once the "picture" is applique into the centre it will be time to prepare the half and quarter hexies to square up...definitely a slow stitching project and not yet bored and wanting to put it away for a while so keep moving before the interest wanes (which very much could happen at the prep the squaring up pieces stage, we'll see)...

Another fun day with lots of catching up, laughs, oohs and ahs over each others projects and solving the problems of the world...balm for the soul...thanks again Chooky, best thing to come out of the COVID pandemic...

 Happy Stitching...

Owl Story - Borders...

After the spurt of action in getting the owl swap blocks together (last post) I kept up the impetus in searching for border fabric...I landed on orange with blue binding and had the exact right shade of orange in the fabric emporium...well I had a scrap of a fat quarter in the exact right shade of orange so hardly enough for a cornerstone let alone a border *sigh*....to the internets!!!!...spent a few hours thinking "oh that's the one"..."oh no this one's better"...flicking back and forth between browser tabs comparing and holding my wee scrap of orange up to the monitor (yes, I know all about graphic cards and colours not necessarily being on point on monitors but it was what it was)...in the end I found two fabrics I was happy with at the one shop (instead of a blue at one and an orange at another and double postage!)...Jemima's in Craigieburn won the day and delivery was as swift as Australia Post would allow (dispatch by the shop was pretty much next day, let's not talk about how long Australia Post holds parcels hostage in what can be various distribution centres depending on where the parcel is coming from)...

Today's excuse for avoiding doing the ironing and mowing...borders...

The orange is a little more "red" than I first wanted, with my scrap being a clear true orange, but it works in well with the blocks.

I have the binding fabric but I will have to sort a backing...not to worry it is now a top and can go into the tub of pretty sheets (completed tops)...

Oh and I realised while it was laid out on the floor that one block is "signed" with the year...2010...not as long ago as I had imagined...only 11 years, almost yesterday!

Happy Stitching...

Flannel Chevron...

A few weeks ago when the weather started turning I couldn't find a flannel quilt that I knew should be ... somewhere! ... turned out it is, in the press at the K house so I left it there (it's even colder there most of the time) and decided I could just make another one for here.  The thing is though I don't have large pieces of flannel in the stash...while the flannel tub is not at all verging on the side of being any where near short of fabric it is pretty much all fat quarters and scraps.  I decided to do a chevron pattern but didn't have enough of any one fabric to use a constant background or constant main colour so mix and match it was...working with the one fabric I had enough of to use as a border...so pink and green it is...

Pieced a backing of fabrics in the tub that used up checks and tartans that I honestly probably wouldn't use in a top no matter how small the pieces were cut to hid the "ugly"...bonus of clearing those fabrics out of the tub...

 

Simple echo quilting following the chevrons and it is doing its job on couch.

Happy Stitching...

Kalamazoo...

I found this post languishing in drafts from 2015...yes folks, six years biding its time in drafts...Kalamzaoo...a Quilt As You Go by Michelle Marvig...

It had progressed from this to having its sashing strips sewn on and applique shapes vlisofixed down but that is where it had been left...and forgotten about.

 

A few weeks ago I quite randomly unearthed the quilt in the bottom of a tub on a Saturday night and left it out in the light determined that I should just get it done...the next morning my darling friend A texted me to say she was remembering us talking about this quilt years ago and was returning to hers...and I laughed and replied look what I found last night!!!!!

Nothing else for it, the Universe was telling me it had to be finished.  I sucked up the courage to do the applique on the machine (definitely not my best skill - let's face it I generally suck at machine applique) and after a little consultation with another friend for back-up went for it...and...

It. Is. Done.

Absolutely nothing near perfect or even worthy of being viewed from any closer than two kilometres down the road on a foggy day but done it is and it will do a job as a knock-about quilt.

And...it's out of the tub!

Happy Stitching

Nature's Journey

Spurred on by Michelle Ridgway showing her Nature's Journey blocks I pulled mine back out (let's be honest, it was a reminder that taken I'd it down from where it was hanging and tucked it away when the electrician was working here).  Started in 2015 when Chooky choose it for that year's stitch-a-long, the applique parts were long finished and a frame added to the centre square but I couldn't come at putting it together...when I pulled it back out I realised I had already cut enough 2 1/2" squares to fill in the space between the centre frame border and the applique borders...then looking for something else entirely came across a little pile of half square triangle squares in fabrics which worked just nicely and would make pinwheels to add interest, I have no idea where they came from, maybe a pile of scraps someone had given me at some time, but it didn't matter they were just right...rather than take the squares to the outer borders I decided to add another internal frame.

I've also decided that I don't want another border and will just bind it in the same fabric that I've used on the two frame borders. It's about 6" smaller than the original but that's OK, it's ended up being more or less based on Anni Down's Nature's Journey rather than a faithful reproduction of the original as I've mucked about with quite a few elements.  No idea how to quilt it yet, that will be a decision for another time.

Happy Stitching...

A Flannel Finish...

So I'm at the K house a while back, before Lockdown 2.0, and it was so cold (OK so it was end-ish June and Winter but no excuse) and I thought...need a quilt big enough to go on the bed, not one of the myriad of small ones in the press there.  Came back to the house where the sewing room now resides, rummaged through the quilt top tub (the quilt tops outgrew the quilt top cupboard under the cutting table) and found a flannel top...hey that will do the job, not really bothered about aesthetics it's warmth I'm looking for.  Rummage rummage in the flannel tub pulling out all the biggest pieces I could find, not an easy job as mostly fat quarters in there, to piece together a backing and a piece just big enough for the binding I wanted...go to C's and sandwich it on her big table (much easier than me rolling around on the floor trying to do it). The idea was take it back to K, pull out the big machine and use the kitchen table to quilt the thing because it is big (for me anyway, fits exactly on the top of the queen size bed with no overhang ends or sides) and will be easier than using P-faff. When bam, shut out again, Lockdown and the Shire gets lumped in with Melbourne and who knows when I'll be able to go back, have to stay safe where the day job is.  So used P-faff, which was a little tricky, only just fits through, and just did straight lines on the seams to hold it together and straight lines on the borders...P-faff did much better than I expected but anything more complicated wouldn't have been possible, just not enough room...

I sewed the binding when I was back in K a couple of weeks ago (finally able to get back in and catch up on 7 weeks of work) and slept under it even thought it hadn't been washed...it was too wet to wash it there and get it dry before coming back, so bought it back intending to give it a bath here...it's still waiting...it's been far too wet and cold but in the meantime it has done very nicely keeping me warm in bed here.  Quickly hung it on the line tonight after work for a picture while it wasn't raining.

A simple disappearing nine patch from long ago using canine themed fabrics...

Not at all fancy but it is fulfilling the brief of being a quilt brilliantly, it is keeping me nice and cosy warm.

Happy Stitching...

Gardening Quilt...

Once upon a time long long ago a trip was made to The Patchwork Angel in Queensland (back when Lynette Anderson owned the shop)...stitcheries were purchased...said stitcheries were worked...fabrics were purchased to go with...and they all lived happily in a paper bag for many many many years...until one day in 2018 a clammer arose and the stitcheries and the fabrics got together and made lots of noise until the sew-er took notice and let them out for some air...the stitcheries put their case forward that they wanted to be surrounded by the fabrics and made all the same size...and so they were...

 Garden Shop - Bronwyn Hayes for The Patchwork Angel

 Garden Angel - Lynette Anderson for The Patchwork Angel

 Gardeners Bounty - Lynette Anderson for The Patchwork Angel

The Allotment - Lynette Anderson for The Patchwork Angel

and they hung on the "design sheet" and decorated the sewing room happily for a few months until the sew-er ripped them down and painted the door they were hanging over! The blocks were unhappy lying on the cutting table so they rose up and demanded to be made as one...and so they were...

...floral fabrics purchased from goodness knows where and goodness knows when but it was a long time ago...the silvery contrast was added from the cupboard stash at the time of construction...

Not unhappy with it at all...a couple of the stitcheries have ceramic buttons but I've taken them off so they don't get broken and will re-attach after it is quilted (no rush!)...

Happy Stitching...