Tuesday Museday

Greetings and salutations. This blog post is going to be a mixture of updates - monthly Goals, Marchalong and Blogging A to Z.

Starting with the last one - I have just scheduled all my blog posts for the month. I have scheduled them to come out at 8 AM each day of the challenge in April. At the moment they consist of a title, some labels and that is it! It means I am going to have to get my butt into gear and write those posts otherwise you will get a blank blog post. I managed, with the help of my friends on Twilters, to come up with a vaguely patchwork related theme for each day. Some of them are a stretch I acknowledge but you get that sometimes. My daughter (Fangirl) is coming up with 2 separate blogposts for each day AND is cross stitching 2 figures for each day as well. She is mad. But she is also committed, fiendishly organised and.... having just moved to the city not very involved in other things (besides her work). So.... that is where I am at with the challenge.

March Goals.

I have been busy but haven't completed any more of the goals from my last checking

1. Baby quilt for Megan. DONE Bub arrived yesterday but haven't heard the name yet so haven't made the label

2. 15 minutes quilt related work each day. This is part of Darla, the Scientific Quilter, Marchalong for March. Continuing to do more than 15 minutes each day... yay

3 Complete Diamond Dash quilt 1 Dash That Cat. I have started quilting this. I have completed the blocks and am now doing the sashing and border.

4 Work on Diamond Dash Quilt 2 Haven't done any work on this quilt so far this month. 

5 Work on Hexie Quilt I am up to the final bit of the top.... stitching together the sky to the rest of the quilt. Then I have to take out the last of the papers, make the backing and work out how to quilt it.

6 Pin and quilt hashtag quilt The quilt is pinned but not yet quilted. 

7 Make 2 Gruffalo capes for Kylie DONE

8 Empty scrap basket Not yet... 

Marchalong

17th Thursday. Hand stitching on the hexie quilt.

18th Friday. Handstitching on hexie quilt

19th Saturday Busy day with pre-wedding party in the morning, guests for lunch and then a lazy afternoon stitching in my chair 

20th Sunday Handstitching again - working on stitching the little bits into the top of the hexie quilt to even it off - half hexies that will be trimmed down. Also wrote blog posts

21st Monday Started quiting Drat that Cat. Got all the block rows done and started on the sashing strips.

22nd Tuesday Spent the morning at Handmade With Love. Made a little zipper purse and a casserole carrier. Not bad for a mornings work. Home again I have spent several hours on the blog, setting up the blog posts for April's A to Z challenge, and writing this post.

March along update

8th - Tuesday. Some hand stitching on hexie quilt including some during panel discussion at morning tea. Made 2 Gruffalo capes for my friend Kylie. Watched some more Missouri Star quilt company videos. Wrote blog post for Marchalong.

9th - Wednesday. I babysat a gorgeous little girl today - the lovely Miss Teesh. She is 2 and entertained herself really well and then had a massive 3.5 hour sleep so lots of hand stitching time

10th - Thursday Babysat Miss Teesh again. She was more demanding today... thought I should play blocks on the floor with her as well as take her for a walk and only a 2.5 hour sleep during which I had a visitor to plan a pre wedding party for a friend... so not as much hand stitching time but still some. Lots more at night though - and I wrote a WIP Wednesday post

11th - Friday - took my hand stitching to bible study but forgot both the pattern (photo on my phone) and the needles... so not much done BUT did do a fair bit in the afternoon. (Go me) Fixit Guy was away for 2 nights so lots of uninterrupted stitching

12th Saturday The morning was spent at a Mud Run. Yes not only did a run (well jogged a bit and lots of walking) but I also waded, swam, crawled and slid through mud and muddy water. I also struggled over various obstacles and NO at this point I have no photos (all our group was in the mud so no one to hold onto phones or cameras and take photos of us although there are some professional ones out there on the net somewhere) After we got home I had another shower (we had one out there too) and then flopped on the couch for 5 hours and stitched and snoozed. Had dinner with a friend and then did more stitching

13th Sunday. Did a bit of handstitching during church but had a very busy day - early to church for singing practice, the service, morning tea and then a run through of songs for a cantata we are going to be putting on. Home for lunch and make scones and then up to Café 126 where I worked making tea and coffee for the residents who came to the café. (at our aged care facility) Home and got to sit and stitch for a while.

14th Monday Hand stitching on the hexie quilt for the afternoon and evening.

15th Tuesday  Handmade with Love - folding and sorting donated fabric followed by stitching on labels onto the items that had been made over the last couple of months... by hand and by machine. Spent the afternoon and evening piecing together a cuddle quilt for a baby due soon. Used various pieces of Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric Pieced the front and back

16th Wednesday Patchwork group. Pinned the VHC quilt and Dash That Cat. That was 3 hours worth of work! In the afternoon I quilted the VHC, made the binding and attached it. I also wrote my WIP Wednesday blog post.

March Along Check in

Happy International Women's Day. I hope that where ever you are in the world you are able to stop for a moment and appreciate the women in our lives. Our own achievements or the achievements of those around us.

I'm not long back from a morning tea put on by our Shire Council for International Women's Day. As well as a lovely morning tea there was a panel discussion featuring women from our region discussing their lives and their successes. There were 3 panels who were listed as Economic, Social and Political. The discussion was live streamed as well so that people who couldn't make the discussion were able to watch a it where ever they were. It was very interesting. Alison, the Director of Our Rainbow House was on the social panel and spoke of the work of the charity as well as her life as a working mother and wife.

A week of the March Along in March has past and so it is time for me to report in about my activities.

1st Tuesday. We drove into Rockhampton and back  (3 hours approximately each way) for a Drs appointment. Had an hour and 15 minute wait in the surgery (Dr had to go out and assist a colleague with a procedure before seeing us) Lots of hand stitching done. Some more when we got home too veging in front of the tv. Working on my hexie quilt.

2nd Wednesday. Patchwork Group sewing morning. Pinned out my hashtag quilt.

Also did lots of hand stitching at home on the hexie quilt - making some hexie flowers and stitching them into quilt.

Wrote blog posts - 3 actually. February goal review, March goals  and WIP Wednesday

3rd Thursday Hand stitching again. Got a chunk of flowers stitched into place plus a few more flowers made.

4th Friday. Took my hand stitching to bible study with me and stitched a couple more flowers. At home worked on stitching the flowers into chunks to attach body of the quilt.

5th Saturday. Kylie came over today with fabric and pattern to make her 2 older children cloaks as part of a Gruffalo costume. Some hand stitching done as well and listened to a podcast or 2 as I stitched

6th Sunday. We drove to Clermont this morning (1hr 10 mins) for church and then back to Capella (35 mins) for another church service. I wasn't game to stitch during church (the minister and congregations didn't know me and may have found it disruptive) Back home I wrote a blog post (Stash Report) and started listening to another crafting podcast.

I finally managed to get myself sufficiently inspired to get on with the backing of the Diamond Dash 1 Quilt (Or Dash that Cat as I am calling it) I managed to get it completed by the end of the day. Yay. Go me. Some hand stitching as well. I had a lot of help from my daughter Fangirls's cat whilst I stitched. Its a wonder she didn't end up with her eye poked out.

7th Monday. Went looking for a pattern to make a quilt for someone special. I have the fabrics... and I wanted a pattern that had large chunks that would enable me to feature that fabric.. ie not tiny pieces. I had asked on Twilters for a pattern a while back and got some suggestions but had managed to lose the post and not keep the patterns. No one has come up with anything yet. I went looking through Missouri Star Quilt Company YouTube channel to see if I could find something suitable. I looked at heaps of videos and there are lots of great patterns there I am keen to try sometime.

I did find one that I think will be suitable. It promises to be fairly quick to make as well which is another advantage. Jenny uses pre cuts and I don't usually so will be cutting my own fabric for it

A friend recommended this block, another one from Missouri Star Quilt Company and it looks intriguing too

I also did quite a bit of hand stitching. I have the bottom part of the quilt laid out... well all the flowers that is. I am stitching the flowers together and filling in the spaces with green hexies now to be the grass.

This week I have a couple of projects that I need to work on. I have to stop playing with the hexie quilt for a while as it has no deadline attached to it. I have to get on with the cloaks for Kylie's kids and also a baby quilt for a little one due this month. And the Dash the Cat... have to get it pinned and quilted. But the siren call of that hexie quilt is strong.

March Goals

Its a new month so that means a new set of goals. I didn't do too well on completing last months goals. Hopefully I will do better this month.

• Complete my first Diamond Dash quilt. This means make the backing, pin and quilt it.
• Work on second Diamond Dash quilt.
• Work on Hexie quilt - I have almost half of the top assembled. I have made most of the hexie flowers. I have to do the sky/clouds top piece and the grassy bottom bits. I might make a few more green and blue hexies if I decide that the multi-coloured blues and green ones I have made aren't suitable.
• Pin and quilt hash tag quilt.
• empty scrap basket at least once during month

I'm joining in Darla (the Scientific Quilter)'s March-A-Long. (go here for all the details) where we commit to sewing 15 minutes every day in March. This is easy for me... cause I am retired. For working people it can be more difficult. I will report in each week what I have achieved for the week. so

• 15 minutes quilt related activity each day in March

http://scientificquilter.com/2016/02/28/39-3-announcing-march-a-long-goals-2016/

Marchalong... final report

Marchalong is almost over... the month when people tried to quilt or do something quilting related for 15 minutes every day. Not sure I managed it this week as I was so busy but if I put my mind to it... I probably did. I wrote my last update on Tuesday of last week

Wednesday 26th was our groups sewing day so I was down at our patchwork room from about 9.30 till 1 PM. I made great progress on my Disappearing into the Blue quilt. (see my WIP Wednesday report for details) I forgot to take a photo of the quilt laid out so you get this

Thursday was my birthday (happy birthday to me) I visited my LQS and fabric was purchased (see Sunday Stash report for details. I also did some sewing at home as I was taking a break from my preparations for the afternoon tea I was hosting on Saturday. I started sewing together the blocks for my Sombrero Stars.

Friday I did some more sewing on the Sombrero Stars once I established that I had done all that could be done for the Afternoon Tea up to that point.

Saturday was "The Afternoon Tea" I ended up hosting 23 ladies and 4 children in my backyard. The morning was spent in lots of the on the day and last minute preparations stuff and the afternoon... well  Much yummy food was consumed. Fangirl and I took great delight in getting out and using lots of our lovely china that we both collect. (We both love English China and collect cup saucer and plates) We use real linen table cloths but do go for paper serviettes 

However after the guests had gone and the washing up was done and the stuff cleaned up as much as needs be... and the church had been cleaned (yeah... it was our weekend on for that... not good timing) well then I settled down and did some more block putting together on Sombrero Stars.

Sunday The morning was all taken up with The Rainbow Run - a colour run where people walk or run the course and every kilometre you get powder paint thrown at you so that at the end of the 5 km course your white clothes have all turned pretty colours. (and your skin.... and hair if you don't wear a hat...) 

Before

After Sorry... no full body pictures yet. I was running on my own and didn't have anyone but the official photographer to take photos. I pick those up tomorrow

And then a quick shower and turning up 30 mins late for church... then church and afterwards encouraging people to eat eat eat the leftovers from the afternoon tea. But in the afternoon ... I got to sit down and do some more sewing and by the end of the day I had completed the 30 blocks and they are now spread out on my floor.

Monday - today... nothing done yet as I write this. I have been looking at the blocks spread out over my floor and I have written this blog... I am working out what to sash it with (or indeed whether or not to sash it at all.) And the backing too. My aim is to use repurprosed fabric only in these quilts but it is getting harder to do. I have a table cloth that will go nicely for the backing. Actually it was originally an Indian sari my parents bought back from a visit there. Its very simple fabric and I used it mostly as a table cloth although it is very narrow. It must have been designed for a very short person.

So that is my Marchalong wrap for this year. Hopefully I will do it all again next year. More Marchalong madness and mayhem at 

Marchalong - week 3 or is it 4

Have continued to find time to sew or do quilty/sewing related stuff every day.

Tuesday 18th continued cutting fabric for my next two SOMB quilts Not so Sombre Stars and Sombrero Stars. There were a lot of pieces needed from as many different recycled fabrics as I could find. I worked out that for the 2 quilts I needed 560 x 2.75" sqs, 440 2.75"x5", 200 5" sqs plus 55  of the 5" sq 9 patches which I had already made. No wonder I was cutting for so long!! I couldn't strip cut too much as I was working with bits and pieces plus I needed to keep a track of how many of each colour I had.

Wednesday was my patchwork day. Didn't get to sew the whole time as to start with we had a cleaning bee to get the rooms ready for a weekend workshop that the group had on. Did get to sew from about 11 AM though through till 3 PM (apart from lunch of course) I worked on the pinwheels for the border of my Disappearing into the Blue pinwheel quilt. I got them all sewn and pressed too.

Thursday I started to sew flying geese units for the Sombrero Stars quilt. Got them all made and the first of the blocks done before I left for the airport on Friday afternoon.

Friday in between packing to go away, preparing for and then teaching my Religion classes at the school (I teach 2 half hour lessons to Gd 3) and sewing the flying geese I also worked out the layout for the Disappearing in the Blue Quilt and what fabric I would need for the sashing and borders. On the flight to Brisbane (1.5 hours approx) I did a bit of hand stitching (and a lot of reading)

Saturday went to Stitches and Craft Show for 4 hours. Bought some fabric, ruler, mat and other bits and pieces. (See Stash Report for more details and photos)

Sunday went to Spotlight and bought the white tone on tone fabric I wanted for the sashing and borders for Disappearing into the Blue and also some stripey fabric for the binding. On the plane home I stitched some more on my hand project.

Yesterday, Monday I unpacked my fabric and photographed it for the blog. I read some blogs and I wrote a couple of blog posts. (stash report and Quilty Resolutions)

Today I have written this post and might get the fabric I bought put away and find a home for my other new bits and pieces. Not sure how much else I will get done. I am hosting an afternoon tea at my place on Saturday and since the end of my week is usually fairly busy I have been trying to get some preparation done for that.

More about Marchalong at Scientific Quilter

Marchalong

The idea of March-along is to spend at least 15 minutes every day in March  doing something quilt related. Sewing, cutting, reading, sorting, watching a class online, browsing quilt related websites ... anything quilt related counts

It started on March 1st but I didn't hear about it till later in the first week. My first weekend of knowing about it got a bit sabotaged by life.  

Friday 7th I left home at 10.45 AM to drive 4 hours to Mackay for our church (Uniting Church of Australia) Presbytery (Central Queensland) meetings. They are held every 4 months (well 3 times a year) around our presbytery and the minister and a member of the congregation goes to  the meetings for each congregation. I am the journal secretary ie I take the minutes so don't represent our congregation. I traveled with our rep, his wife and our minister. No chance to sew before I went (Does a bit of tidying up of my sewing area count? Hope so) I flicked through a quilting magazine in the car. We had meetings that night 7.30-9 PM

Saturday Meetings started at 8 AM and ran through till 9 PM (we do get morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner breaks) I looked at another magazine when I got back to our unit and also read some blogs during the day when I didn't have to be paying attention

Sunday. Worship 9-10.15 was the closing activity of Presbytery. We stopped at Spotlight (big fabric/habbie/craft/homewares store) for about 20 minutes... not for me but our minister. I had a brief look at fabric but no purchases. Home 4.30. I got organised for some quilting ... don't think I started that night although I might have. I didn't actually sew

Monday. Got me my quilty on well and truly. I started quilting my "Pretty Pinwheels" Disappearing Pinwheels Quilt from Missouri Star Quilt Company. Worked on it all day and eventually got it finished including binding

Tuesday. Worked on my "Sombre Blue" My Shirt Off My Back Recycling quilt. Its from a challenge that we had at our 2013 retreat where we swapped pieces of men's shirts and had to make a quilt using the fabric. Got it done including the sashing

Wednesday Our regular patchwork group get together (we have our own rooms and can go up there whenever we like but our regular sewing day is Wednesday) I was up there from 9-3. I worked on my other disappearing Pinwheel quilt which I am doing in blues. I've called it "Disappearing into the Blue". I got all the blocks assembled by the end of the day and had even started on some of the pinwheels for the border.

Thursday I ironed my disappearing pinwheel blocks.

Friday I started quilting my Brown SOMBrero (my other Shirt off My Back quilt which features some brown sashing instead of blue) after dinner. Ran out of the thread I was using so had to stop mid evening

Saturday Finished quilting Brown Sombrero including the sashing.

Sunday I have started cutting fabric for my hopefully last project using the fabric from the SOMB blocks. I had made 350 nine patches from the fabric. Have used 121 in Sombre Blue and 144 on the front of Brown Sombrero and another 20 or so on the back. Have just under 60 left to use up. My aim is to try to use just recycled fabric in all the projects. Currently cutting extra fabric for the block I am planning on using in the last one. Its going to have the nine patches in the centre of a star block. Cutting rectangles and squares to make flying geese units to go around that as well as corner blocks etc. Having fun trying to figure them out.

Monday Continued cutting the scraps for the block. I am using fabric from old curtains, sheets, doona covers, shirts.... its fun but time consuming. I will get there... eventually. Don't think I am going to have any finishes at this rate for a while though.

Pieces for the star blocks I am making

Any fabric not the right size for my next quilt I am cutting up to go in my scrap boxes

You can read more about Marchalong at Scientific Quilter