Wip Wednesday

I was very excited to have a finish to report on in my Stash report on Sunday (which didn't  get done till Monday....) Sombrero Stars was finally done earlier this week

Yesterday I started work on the last of my SOMB quilts which I have called Not So Sombre Stars. It is going to be very similar to the blocks in Sombrero Stars but will be a little larger. It has a 9 patch as the centre with flying geese units on all four sides. The flying geese will have a same sized rectangle attached to them and in the corners will be a large square, the same size as the centre square. I am thinking I won't sash these blocks as the stars will be floating already because the main unit of the flying geese, the rectangle and the corner squares will all be the same colour.

I should just show you a photo of a completed block and that would make it much simpler wouldn't it... just have to finish a block first. I have been working on the flying geese. Have made about half of the ones that I need (44 down... 36 to go)
(I have some photos but my phone won't talk to my computer for some reason and I can't download them... and my phone has a bubble on the screen so some of the buttons aren't working including the one with my photos in it so I can't upload them to facebook... oh its a sorry story  here!!)

Today at patchwork I worked some more on my Disappearing into the Blue quilt. I trimmed up all the pinwheel blocks for the first border (I am not fond of trimming my blocks) and then cut the strips to go between the blocks and assembled the border. The strips between the pinwheels are not going to be uniform in width... didn't want it to be too symmetrical and ordered. I have made them too big though so will have to cut down some of the strips. Unpicking is coming up. I don't like that either.

The banner we made for the visiting Sunflower Princess was completed this morning and gets presented tonight. I worked with some others in our group to cut the fabric last week and to sew the top on Thursday. I did the applique on both the front of the quilt and I also appliqued a sunflower onto the label for the back. Our town has a Sunflower Festival every Easter. A sunflower princess is selected from the entrants and her prize is a trip to Altona, Canada to take part in their Sunflower Festival. At their festival they select a princess and her prize is to come to Australia and take part in our Festival. The princess is given a gift by our Sunflower Festival committee, which for the last few years has been a quilted gift made by our group. It usually features a sunflower.

Dawn did the fabulous quilting. Just so gorgeous. She is a very clever lady

Some more of Dawn's beautiful quilting

Our group has also put up an exhibition in the Council Art Gallery. A number of my quilts are hanging there. I admit to getting quite a buzz about having them up there but need to admit that the display wasn't juried at all. We were all just asked to bring in quilts which in turn were hung up according the space available. Below are the quilts of mine that are hung at the gallery. I can't give names of all the quilts or the credit for patterns as the quilts with the labels are all at the gallery!

Square Circles... made at a workshop 

Pattern from the book "Quilts on the Double"

On left one of mine from book "Quilts on the Double" one on right made by the club to go to  neo natal ward

"Hands That Flung Stars Into Space"

The stitchery was a kit.

Some of the other quilts hanging in the gallery

I had to go over this afternoon to the art gallery to hang up a quilt that has our group name on it etc. When I got there I couldn't work out how to get it up in the space it needed to go. The mayor was wandering past and stopped to help me. Between us we found the bits and pieces we needed to get the quilt hung up where it needed to go. He was concerned as we had to take down another quilt to put it up and he was worried the person might get offended but I reassured him it was alright... it was one of mine! I didn't get a photo of me and the mayor hanging the quilt... I should have.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday

Tuesday is Museday -My Mum

I got a birthday card from my mum last week. She had typed the message in the card but had addressed the envelope herself. Her handwriting is getting very wobbly and spidery and almost illegible unless she tries really hard and then its just legible. It frustrated her no end till she made herself accept it. Even her typing is not what it was. It is hard for her but she bares it bravely and accepts her limitations without bitterness or anger although I think with regret. She gets the shakes very badly. I think its related to some of the medication she takes particularly for her eyes. She has glaucoma and has nightly drops to keep it under control but one of the side affects is the shakes. Go blind or put up with the shakes. She chose the shakes.

But despite this - her shakes - she only recently gave up playing the organ at church. When she resigned after 32 years in the job at the particular church she has attended on Sunday and Wednesday nights she was given a wonderful send off, as was appropriate. She still plays for devotions on a weekly  basis at the Aged Care hostel she has lived in since Dad died in 2008. She is 92 this year. She has  been playing the organ for church  in the various places she has lived and worshiped since she was 12.... that's almost 80 years.

Mum at the organ playing for devotions at her aged care hostel

She also keeps herself busy doing fancy work. This is something she learned to do at her mother's knee, just as her mother and grandmother before her had learned to do it from their mothers. It bemuses me that her handwriting is barely legible but she can still manage to do lovely stitching. I keep her supplied with fabric to fancy work - tracing off patterns from magazines and elsewhere for her to her to embroider.

Many of these I incorporate into quilts for new babies in the family.

 

Lucca's quilt

William's quilt

Lucy's quilt

Lucy's quilt a bit closer

Bluebirds quilt. My sister in law, Christine, designed the embroideries and mum did the fancywork. I made the quilt. This is on my bed most of the time now. Kym from PQS did the quilting

It was a block of the month pattern featuring a bluebird on each block. Top row was February, depicting Valentine's Day. Bottom left is April, depicting ANZAC Day and bottom right is May, Mothers' Day

Top left... it was something obscure for September... national cup of tea day or the like. Top right Halloween for October Bottom left you can just see a smidge of November - bird on horseshoe for Melbourne Cup Day - Australia's major horse race (known as The Race that Stops the Nation) and bottom right is Christmas.

Christine blogs at Bluebirds and Bumblebees

Mum recently completed 8 doilies, embroidering one for each of her children. They came from the stash of my Aunty Doris, who died aged 99yrs 9 months back in September 2012. Doris was my father's sister who married my mother's brother.

Inside the card that my mother sent me this week was another sample of her hand work. This time it was a crocheted coaster for my coffee cup. Its beautiful and I will treasure it just as I treasure the wonderful woman I call Mum.

Finish Along 2nd Quarter

So what do I want to accomplish in this next quarter of the year. I guess I could go back to the plans I had for April. I can't put my Sombrero Stars into the Finish along...I finished it today (bad timing!!)

So I do want to Finish

Not So Sombre Stars - currently fabric cut, centre 9 patches made
Disappearing Into the Blue - my disappearing pinwheel quilt being made in blues. The centre is together. I still have to make the borders for it... planning a pinwheel border (pinwheels made) and then a piano key border (not made) Then work out what to do re backing. Only working on this one on Wednesday at our weekly sewing days with my club
Black and White Quilt - currently fabrics started to be collected -
Gail Penberry Tea Shop Quilt - design the quilt since I'm not making it as a tea cosy.

I am trying to link in with Katy at the Littles Thistle to be part of the 2014 Finish Along

stash report Sunday on Monday. A finish at last

I am late making my report today because I have been trying very hard to get Sombrero Stars finished. I got it pinned on Wednesday but didn't get to start quilting it till Saturday afternoon. I then lost 4 hours on it as I had play rehearsals Sunday afternoon. Fangirl is directing a play and I agreed (or did I offer?) to be the prompt. Sunday was my first time at rehearsal as they aren't really scripts down yet so not so much work for the prompt to do. However one of the actors is away this week and next and in a 3 person play that is pretty significant absence so I am reading his lines 



Anyway - I finally got the quilting done this morning and the binding on as well. Had a few hold ups... ran out of the thread I was quilting with and had to substitute another; hadn't made the binding long enough, and had to add another strip; wanted to do machine binding but forgot and sewed the binding to the front as you do when you are going to hand stitch it down. Decided stuff it and did the machine binding from the back hoping it would be ok. I think it worked out alright. Ran out of the thread I was using to stitch the fancy binding on with so had to keep changing the top thread... interesting rainbow affect now. However I did manage to get it finished today. And photographed. Wooo Hooo. Have been very busy since I finished so the blog is even later.

Finished Sombrero Stars. Have to admit that I love it

Close up to show the chain of stars I did in the sashing

The back of Sombrero Stars

I echo quilted around the star and the 9 patch in the middle of each block

I have had one other finish this week. Last year I made a banner for use in our church. It features a vine or thin tree stem going the length of the quilt and has appliqued leaves on it, some three dimensional so they hang off the tree. Its in green and so can be hung for most of the year - for all the ordinary Sundays in the ecclesiastical year. Lent is purple though so I made a purple banner to hang out the front for Lent. The green banner doesn't get put away though... we hang it up the back of the church and after the first week or two of Lent I attach some grubs to the leaves. (I made some of the leaves with bite marks out of them) This year, to change it up a bit I made some chrysalis to go up when I take the grubs off. That is what I made this week. I couldn't think how to really make them and in the end I used some hessian (burlap) that was from an old camping stretcher. It was already stitched into cylinders down the sides where the bars fed through. I just cut along close to the stitching line, then cut the strip into 3 or 4 bits, sewed the bottom closed, stuffed it with wadding scraps and tied string around the top. 

Not the most successful attempt

They looked pretty bad so I removed the stuffing, rounded off the bottoms a bit, trimmed them up, restuffed them and decided that they would do. They just had to be symbolic, not be too scientifically accurate. I took the grubs down and replaced them with the chrysalis on Saturday ready for church Sunday. I didn't get any reaction to them so not sure if no one noticed or if they are being polite (If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all) Unfortunately I couldn't get decent photos of them because where the banner hangs there are lots of windows so the dark banner doesn't show up very well... and my camera isn't fancy enough to handle it

with the rounded bottoms they looked a bit better

So that's two finishes for the week.

We had a trip to Rockhampton this week and whilst there visited Spotlight. I bought 30 cm of 7 different black and white fabrics to add to my stash of fabrics I am gathering to use in a half square triangle black on white and white on black quilt I am planning.

7 more black and white fabrics for my planned quilt

I have checked over my figures and I think that I have made some mistakes in my earlier calculations

However as it stands by my reckoning

Used this week
              Sombrero Stars - 6.9m
              7 Chyrsalis           .51
 Total for week                 7.41m

Purchases
   Black and white fabric    2.1m

Net used for the week       5.31


Year to Date Used       60.47
Year to Date added      37.39
Net Used                     23.08m

Linking in with Patchwork Times Stash reports

Fitness Friday - a new milestone

This week I set myself a new personal milestone. I ran (or joggled as I more accurately describe it) for 8 kms on Wednesday. It took me almost 72 minutes which means my average speed was a tad under 9 minutes a kilometre. My fasted km was about 7mins 30 secs and my slowest was about 9 mins 30 secs. I am certainly not scorching up the miles but I am getting there.

Funny thing is I did not set out to run that far. In fact as I crept out of the house (avoiding my dogs. They love to come with me on my walks down by the river but I hate trying to run with them) I thought I would run my usual walking track... ie down by the river to the weir, turn around and come back. 

The weir

However once I reached the weir I decided to cut across the dry gully  to another road which would lead to the tarred road I usually do my distance running on. Once I got to the road... I turned right, to head further out of town, rather than right to head home. I kept on running till I got to 4km on "Endomondo" the ap I use for measuring my pace and distance. Then I turned around and ran (or joggled) home. 8 kms... done. Whoo hoo... go me.

The gully I crossed. Its popular with trail bike riders

I have had another little personal achievement. I clocked up 250kms on my fitbit. I've had it since the end of February so was happy with that as well. This week (including my weekend away at the retreat) I persisted in walking around the room or jogging on the spot, to make sure I hit my daily target of 10 000 steps.

My friends at the retreat were highly amused by my antics. One of them suggested I might be a tad obsessive and I would agree with her. I have even managed on a couple of occasions this week to be top of my list of friends in steps walked over the previous week. I have one friend Terje who averages 17km a day so she is usually in the lead... but she doesn't log in every day so I sometimes sneak ahead of her for a bit till she logs in again and then BAM I am back well behind her. (just checked. Yep Terje has logged in and I am 30 000 steps behind her!) I have another friend Sharyn who also is usually ahead of me but she too seems to not be logging in consistently and perhaps she has had something going on that she isn't walking as much. I have been ahead of her a good bit this last week too but I am pretty sure its just an aberration!

Weight wise things have been a bit steady or slight increase. I've had some peanut M'n'Ms in the cupboard and the last few days... they have been calling my name very loudly and before that it was the cookie dough truffles Fangirl had made for the Afternoon Tea. I have managed to polish them off this week too. Its not surprising my weight hasn't gone down when you think about it. (it did dip under 88kgs when I ran on Weds but dehydration had big part in that loss)

Annie dog is still doing pretty well. She comes for many walks in the stroller although sometimes she doesn't want to be bothered. Her appetite has picked up which is pleasing. I think she is starting to slow down again but is still going well enough. Our youngest son, her owner, gets  home on Good Friday which is a week away. The way she is now she will still be good when he gets here which we are happy about. Very glad that we made the decision to go ahead and have her lungs drained as she has been so much better. Don't know how long she'll last but so far so good

Annie and I on the swing that Fixit Guy made me for last Christmas

Jack and Annie with me on the swing. Jack always muscles in on any attention Annie gets

Throwback Thursday - Sho's quilt

In 2003 our daughter Fangirl had gone to Malaysia as an exchange student with AFS and that began our association with that organisation, an association that was pretty intense for a number of years. We became active in the newly established chapter of the organisation, with me becoming the inaugural chapter chair. We resisted blandishments to host the year that Fangirl went overseas as our younger boys were looking forward to having their own bedrooms for the first time ever. The following year though we agreed to host and so our first exchange son entered our lives



Sho was from Japan. He had turned 16 shortly the month before coming to Australia. He was about 6 weeks younger than our oldest son (now known as Massage Man or MM) and so went into the same year as Gavin. He had been learning English for many years at school but his written language was better than his spoken language. He came from a Christian home and fitted into our household quite well. We all became very fond of him. He was in most of MM's classes and in retrospect this was not a good thing as MM felt a bit overwhelmed at times as Sho also was in the school band, drama activities and youth group with him.

Sho was with us for 11 months and we were very sad to say goodbye to him in December. I decided to make him a quilt to take home, using many aboriginal fabrics that I had bought when our entire family had visited the Northern Territory for a 4 week camping holiday in the middle of the year. Yup 7 of us in our Toyota Landcruiser and for 2 weeks we were also joined by my Mother-in-Law.

At the end of his year with us I made him a quilt to take home with him to remember us by. I used aboriginal prints that I had bought on our trip to the NT using the Square in a Square design. The centres of each block were fussy cut from the various aboriginal prints and many featured Australian animals.

We had a bar-b-que in our backyard to farewell Sho a week or two before he left and at that we invited the guests to write him messages on fabric that I then used as the quilts backing. 

The back

A much younger (but less fit) me with our dear host son Sho with his quilt.

We have been able to see him 3 times in the 9 years since he left us in Dec 2004. The following year  he returned for a visit with his family in August (and so got to meet our next exchange student). In 2006 we (Fixit Guy and our two younger sons) visited Japan for a week and stayed with his family. In 2010 I again visited Sho in Japan, this time with Massage Man. He has now completed his teaching degree and we keep in contact on Facebook

Linking in with Quiltin' Jenny's Throwback Thursdays

WIP Wednesday

I had less time than usual to work on projects this week. Thursday I had the service at the aged care home and then I did my 2 RE lessons. I usually do these Friday but Friday morning I flew to Brisbane and didn't return home till Sunday night. I have done some work though.

Sombrero Stars

I made the backing for the quilt using the brown fabric from an old mattress cover and a linen table cloth centre. I cut the edges off the tablecloth as it had a pale green pattern in them which just didn't go with the front. I know you don't see the front and back at the same time but... it just didn't seem right. However I had to add some extra fabric to both the width and the length as the brown and cream just weren't enough. I had some pieces from what I had used for the sashing on the front of the quilt and added two strips to the width and one across the middle for the length and it ended up looking quite affective. I had hoped to get up to the quilting rooms during the week to pin it out but ran out of inclination so got it done after the meeting. Now to find the time to get it quilted - hopefully by Sunday night so I get to count it in my weekly stash report. I'm getting tired of not having any finishes.

Disappearing into the Blue
I had hoped to get some work done on this today at the club rooms but got involved with another project that our group needs to get done. I did get the remaining two sides of the white sashing sewn on. There is always next week to work on it! I am up to the pinwheel borders next

Chrysalis 
Last year I made a banner for our church which featured a vine going the length of the banner. During Lent we put "grubs" on the vine and then on Easter Sunday morning we changed out the grubs for butterflies. 

The vine banner.

This year I thought that I would try to make some chrysalis  to add to the banner. I used some hessian from old stretchers. I used the part that had already been sewn to go through the sides of the stretches and just hemmed one end, stuffed them and then tied off the tops.\Not sure that they are working. They look like hessian bags. Maybe if I sew the bottoms so as to round off the corners it might look better. They can't look worse ! Not my most successful crafting effort

         

Sunflower banner
Each year our town holds its local "Sunflower Festival" over Easter. We are twinned with a city in Canada that also has a sunflower festival but at a different time of the year. The prize for the local winner of the Sunflower Princess competition is a trip to Canada for their festival and likewise their princess gets to come visit us for ours. Our patchwork group has been asked to make a wall hanging to give to the visiting princess. Due to some delays and stuff ups we only just started to make it today so we are working against the clock to get the wall hanging made by next Wednesday night. Another lady and I worked after our meeting to get the fabric cut for the project. Another lady did a little bit of sewing for us. We will meet again tomorrow to sew some more of it. We have someone who has volunteered to quilt it and then it will be getting the binding, the hanging sleeve and the label made. It involves some hand applique and I have bought that bit home to try to get done tonight. I am going to be busy!

The stem and leaves of the banner... my evenings entertainment

stitching stitching stitching

See more WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced