Camp/Retreat Swaps...Received...

Of course there are two sides to any swap and I received lovely pressies in return for the project pouches I made...first up Stawell Quilters September camp present (the swap that didn't happen at camp but in bits between us)...a fat quarter pack of lovely batik fabrics...they are happily residing on a shelf in the emporium waiting their turn to jump up and down and yell pick me pick me...

Stawell Quilters March camp....the present that matched my ticket number was a kit for a bag...

with all the ingredients included...

Scrub Stitchin'...the ticket number I held matched the present from Sharmayne...a roll of pretty fun fabrics, a wee pouch that will come in very handy, a crochet cloth that I have popped into the travel cutlery roll (along with the jar opener cloth Jo made in our Scrub Stitchin' goodie bags) and a sweet smelling drawer sachet...thank you Sharm 😊

Lovely swaps...thank you very much to all...

 

Happy Stitching...

Plenty of Project Pouches...

Some time in the second half of last year (don't remember when and it appears I forgot to start a blog post at the time)...I made a project pouch based on a couple of Hugs 'n' Kisses patterns, really just to give a different kind of project pouch pattern a whirl...I skipped the fancy bits of each pattern and just worked out the size of using a whole piece of fabric instead of clam shells and/or applique...(The patterns are Simply Sonja for one but the other one I can't find on the website...basically the same just a different size/embellishment - not where the sewing room is at the moment so I can't grab the patterns to check.)

 

The vinyl isn't deformed or marked, it's just gone a bit wonky lighting wise in the photo...

I really liked the concept of bagging it out and not having binding and having a wee handle to grab it with...

 

I needed swap presents for Stawell Quilters camps and Scrub Stitchin', and as I like to make something I hope the recipient will find useful, was leaning towards this pouch pattern when I saw a post somewhere of a pouch made with mesh instead of clear vinyl for the pocket...so had to give that a try...

 

The first one I made from a black/white house fabric (NZ cottages) with white mesh...this one was for Stawell Quilters September camp at Halls Gap (and was finally gifted the week before our March camp this year! The second half of last year was a continual challenge of being being sick, start to get well, get another virus, oh let's have COVID again, let's just fall in a huge hole of on and off sickness from August to December so making it to camp was an achievement in itself let alone remembering to sort the swap present and take it with me)...and for our March long weekend camp at Cave Hill Creek a second one using same print fabric but in sepia/brown tones with tan mesh (forgot to take a picture so use your imagination).

Added some needles and cute little wooden magnetic needle minders from The Quilters Angel in Queensland...

While I was flinging fabric about at the start of the exercise I put together a combination that I liked but then decided against for the Stawell Quilter versions...but, I left the fabrics on the table and, after getting over wondering if it was a bit too bright, used with black mesh and a grey fancy zip for my Scrub Stitchin' "Make It, Bake It or Fake It" swap present...

Added needles and a set of needle minders...

Jules got this one...I hope she gets good use from it.

 

I might need to make me another one using mesh instead of vinyl at some point.

 

Happy Stitching...

 

A Quilt Show to Start 2025...

A good start to 2025...visiting a quilt show!  It's been a long time...I didn't even make it so see our own group's Oct 2024 show...a trip to Warrnambool to the biennial Southern Right Creative Festival show...lots of lovely quilty eye candy and inspiration, shop stalls lining the walls and unexpected social catch-ups one of which was Kiwikid!...I took lots of pics...these are some of my favs...

There was also a display of some fun crochet items...

 

My shopping list consisted of a trip to Spotlight for a skein of embroidery floss (essential) and if I saw some of those fancy zips on a stall get some coloured ones...I just may have gone off list!...

 

I couldn't resist the Red Tractor bird fabric...the other fabrics were in a $6/metre bargain bin at Spotty, I was looking at them both trying to decide if I needed one or the other when my friend pointed out they went together and who was I to argue! ha ha ha...

 

Hopefully the start of getting back to making it to more shows this year...

Happy Stitching...

The Never Ending Wagga...Progresses...

Way back in 2010 I wrote a post on having actually worked on The Never Ending Wagga...and then it went back in its box and waited some more...the next step was some wool embroidery on the applique...every now and then I'd stumble across it...take it out...look at it...have absolutely no inspiration or motivation and put it back again...I did manage a few bits of embroidery a couple of years ago but it went back into the too hard pile...anyway, a couple of weeks ago it was stumbled upon yet again but this time it came out into the light...the wool threads were taken out of their plastic bag and the embroidery stitch books were pulled from the shelf...I started with the leaves and kept on going...and now we have...a wagga top (well wagga-esque)...

 

I really enjoyed working on it this time, and now...ta dah!...the finished top...

At 58" x 64 3/4" it's a useful size...and while shopping online a couple of days ago I added a variegated perle thread to the shopping cart in anticipation of it wanting to be big stitch hand quilted eventually...you never know, it could happen!

 

Happy Stitching...

Lullaby...

Way back in January 2011, at the last Summer School hosted by Susan Smith in Wodonga, one of the quilts started with Karen Cunningham was "Lullaby".  It had been ages since I'd opened that box, thinking I had an issue with one of the triangle borders to figure out and a heap to do to finish the centre.  Getting ready for Scrub Stitching I opened its box to find it not so far off to finish that centre - the two cactus (which were ready to be appliqued) and the circles.  Right, get it ready to take on holiday and maybe get it a little closer to being finished.

 

After laying the cactus pieces out, I was pinning away and huh! one of pieces had gone missing - I have no idea where it went and it hasn't been seen since (I actually lost two pieces, from separate projects, that day and the other one turned up in a really weird place but this piece never has)...a frantic rummage through every box and project and miraculously I found a piece of the fabric and could re-cut the applique piece..whew!...

 

It didn't get finished at Barradine, it went to quilting group a few times but it didn't go back on the shelf...plugged away and eventually a couple of months ago...ta dah!...a finished top...

Karen used a plain white for the background and heavily quilted border...I didn't want white or the heavily quilted plain border.  The border is the fabric the centre square was fussy cut out of, the width determined by the piece of fabric (which was missing a corner square).  To bring it up to size needed a spacer...I was going to use the blue background fabric - it didn't look right...OK, make it smaller and ditch the spacer...nope too busy...needs a spacer but what colour...rummage through the scraps and find the perfect pink, of course nowhere near big enough to do anything with...that scrap took a trip to the shops for the closest to it pink homespun I could find...

 

Entirely hand sewn, borders as well...it is only a wee quilt a metre square-ish (very roughly measured - it is supposed to be 39" x 39").

 

No idea how to quilt it...that's a ponder for another time...for now, wahoo it's a finished top and a project box emptied...

 

Happy Stitching...

Sherbert Pips - AKA The Experiment...Ta Dah!...

Sherbet Pips...AKA The Experiment (because I experimented with chopping the corners of a Sherbet Pips by Aneela Hoey layer cake to make big hexies and machined them together)...that was started so long ago I don't even remember...but a trip back through 15 years of blog posts (this one and the original Wordpress one just in case) has turned up two posts...one from 23 July 2011 when I sewed the rows together and one from 16 July 2012 when the top was finished...hey, only a year apart that is a miracle in itself....so started sometime in the first half of 2011 I suspect...hand quilting started maybe 2-3 years ago? can't remember that either...quilting finished and trimmed up on the weekend of 11 and 12 May 2024...you just can't rush these things...

Big stitch hand quilted in perle 5 silvery thread in lines 1/2" apart.  I liked the idea of modern quilts matchstick quilting but 1/4" apart was just too much madness.

 

I was so excited, pulled out the piece of fabric from the range put aside for the binding all those years ago...and...It Did Not Work At All...seriously wrong...disaster and disappointment.  Scrounging about to see if I had any bits of the other prints (nope) I found a scrap of a solid grey that was just enough to audition to see if a solid was what it needed and...yep...perfect! Except, probably poly not cotton and a 6" scrap wasn't going to be enough regardless.  I'd have to wait until I could get to a shop - whenever that might be.  I ran out of patience within a few days and started the online search. Found what seemed the right colour in a Devonshire solid...tossed up between two shades...considered buying both - I only needed 1/2 metre so to get both wouldn't be too much of stretch...decided that was silly and went for the one I thought was closest...probably should have gone with the other as it seemed a bit light when it arrived but too bad so sad it will have to do...

Ta dah!  Quilted and bound...so happy...it still needs a good bath which will snuggle it up nicely but it's so so so cold and randomly has remembered how to rain again (we haven't had rain for months so that's not a bad thing), so still waiting a couple of weeks since it was finished...maybe this weekend...

There has been more but I don't want to cause too much shock so one thing at a time...

Happy Stitching...

On the Road...Return from Scrub Stitching...the Final Instalment...

The time had come to conclude the 2023 catch up tour and return back to reality from Scrub Stitching 2024...it was going to be a long day to fit in detours I wanted to make along the way, so the car was packed up reasonably early, with room for E to fit to travel back to Victoria so I could pop her on V/Line (the regional train) Saturday morning to take her into Melbourne to visit with her daughter...it was only 40 minutes to the first stop...across the border from the ACT into NSW to Murrumbateman...the painted water tank is located next to the cemetery but not in the cemetery so I was OK with that...

We were not disappointed with the first stop...the mural is gorgeous...onwards to the next on the list...Murrumburrah and the mill mural...

I think we may have missed some of it and not gone all the way around but it was a bit tricky to figure out as this part is on the side on the boundary with a private residence, not facing the main road. Might have to put it back on the list to visit again.

 

The next stop on the list was Tarcutta but I forgot to back track to Harden to turn down to the Hume Hwy so we ended up going to Cootamundra - not a problem, it was the other option I'd tossed up the night before when mapping what to do. Lunch time was approaching and where better than the Junee liquorice factory.  Every time I go there it has grown, the first time all those years ago it was just a production area with a small area for the shop! It just gets bigger and better.  Lunch was delicious and of course we had to visit the shop - a lot more products now...it's not optional! ha ha ha...

Back on the road as we approached Yerong Creek we spied...another painted water tower! Because the original plan was the Hume Highway and not the Olympic Highway I hadn't thought about this one...bonus!

The colours, the details, all the aspects of community life...great little reserve...very happy we stopped off for a view...we had to keep moving, I had a deadline to meet...

 

Next stop on the list was the painted silo at Walla Walla...a lovely little town and silo...

The deadline was to make it to Howlong in time to visit the patchwork shop Whatever Where-ever Craft...it took a bit to find as it isn't in the wee town shop area but in a residential area...but we made it before 5:00 pm and were greeted very enthusiastically by poodles (the lovely ladies were very friendly and welcoming too!). Where to look first!  A fabric just inside the door caught my eye...such a pretty colour...no you don't need it...move away from the fabric! Into the rest of the shop and I spied the prettiest variegated sashiko thread...a rummage through the sashiko cloths hanging next to the threads and one with water lillies...it was meant to be!  I couldn't leave the fabric behind, it was just screaming take me take me...so I did...being a bolt end it was 10% off if taking the lot so for a bit less than the price per metre I came home with 1.3 metres - bargain! I've realised since that the fabric and the thread are a match made in heaven! Very happy with my finds and would happily put this shop back on the visit list.

No more sightseeing stops, over the River back into Victoria as it was starting to move to dark, just a quick stop in Shepparton to pick up something to eat as it was just going to be that hour too far to worry about tea when we got home and back to reality...Scrub Stitching 2024 and the 2023 make up tour had come to an end....time to start planning for 2025! ha ha ha...

 

Happy Stitching...