Wrap up of my April Goals and Setting my May ones

Reviewing my April Goals.

On April 1st I set myself some Goals for April. These were

1. Finish Sombrero Stars (quilt 3 of SOMB quilts... Shirt Off My Back)
2. Finish Not so Sombre Stars
3. Make an Easter Wall Hanging
4. Empty Scrap basket - cut into useful units and put away
5. Look for and hopefully find Tea Shop Applique Quilt pattern 

6. Cover theatre couches in black fabric

7. Make Curtains for Spare Room.

Now that it is the end of April how did I go?

1 Sombrero Stars. All finished = quilted and bound. Not labelled yet as I am still deciding who to give it to but its done.

2, Not So Sombre Stars. The top is done (as I detailed yesterday) Its had a name change as I am giving it to a friend. Not So Sombre Stars for Derek. Backing not made yet... waiting for the signature blocks to roll in

3 Make an Easter Hanging. Didn't happen. Didn't even look like happening. Ho hum.

4 Empty Scrap basket. This got done... twice. It was totally empty this morning. However since I am in the process of completely rearranging my sewing room which means going through all my drawers with fabric in them... the scrap basket is brimming once again with all the fabric scraps I found hidden in various nooks and crannies

5 Look for and hopefully find Tea Shop Applique quilt pattern. No luck finding the pattern I bought but having tracked it down on line I am determined that I will order it and go from there.

                                                         

6 Cover theatre couches in black fabric. Done. My daughter, Fangirl, and I worked on them a couple of weeks ago and both the couches that she needs to use in the production she is directing (and I am prompting in) have been covered in black fabric. I don't have a photo of the couches but here is the poster for the play

                                                           

7 Make Curtains for spare room. Didn't happen. I did get the fabric out today so maybe I will get inspired to do it when I tidy the sewing area up. They won't take long to make and when I do its an easy 4.5m usage to be able to count since I added it in when I bought it. Just have to do it.

May Goals

1. Finish Not So Sombre Stars for Derek

2. Tidy my sewing room (photo of the current mess will be posted here soon)

3 Make the Curtains for the Spare Room

4 Empty Scrap basket again

5 Order Tea Room Pattern (my Mothers' Day gift to myself perhaps)

6 Do at least one of my Craftsy Classes.

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

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

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

Sunday Stash Report- nothing ventured nothing gained

I think this is the first week since I started doing my stash report that I have nothing to report. Nothing finished nothing bought.

I am close to a finish on my Sombrero Stars. Well at least the Top is finished and I am close to finishing off the backing. Then I have to sandwich it and quilt it... owe... well... maybe NOT so close to a finish as I thought. Hopefully I will get it done this week. That is my plan.

I haven't bought any fabric this week. I did walk through Lincraft in the Myer Centre in Brisbane CBD on Friday morning but was strong and didn't even look properly. I didn't need anything so didn't buy anything and I was very proud of myself..

So my stats are the same as last week

Used                               0m
purchased                        0m



Used YTD                      53.06m
Purchased YTD              22.81m

Net usage YTD              30.25

Linking up with Stash Report at Patchwork Times

WIP Wednesday

This week I have progressed two of my quilts.

Disappearing Into the Blue - my disappearing pinwheel quilt that I am making in blue fabrics for my spare bedroom. I only work on this on Wednesday at our quilt groups sewing day up at our sewing rooms. 

We got a new sign for our patchwork rooms today... cool eh?

Today despite having to reverse sew two full width of quilt seams, I eventually got all the rows of blocks put together. My first lot of reversing (unpicking) came when I realised that I had sewn one of the strips of sashing on the wrong way around. It is hard to tell with tone on tone white (especially when your eye sight isn't as sharp as it used to be) 

The white tone on tone of the sashing was a bit lighter than that in the blocks which made it easier to reverse. Grrr 1

No sooner had I reattached that correctly than I realised another mistake. In the whole quilt there are only two blocks made from the same fabric and you guessed it.... I had managed to get them side by side in adjoining rows. Not happy Jan (for non Aussie's reading this... that is a phrase from a television ad popular here a few years ago. The phrase has stuck even though the ad has long since moved on)

Mistake 2... identical blocks next to each other. Grrrr 2

By the time I was ready to leave I had all the rows put together and need only to attach the top and bottom sashing for the centre to be complete. I have pinwheels made for the first border and then plan on a piano key border as well so its still a way off being completed.

The quilt top centre... still missing the sashing off the sides

Sombrero Stars - SOMB Quilt 3. I worked on this over the week at home and am very pleased to be able to say that I got the top finished last night. Yay. Now to make the backing and get it quilted. I had a 2nd hand doona cover I was going to repurpose for this but have decided, in consultation with Fangirl (who came over this afternoon and helped me fix a few glitches in my blog set up) that the colour is not right. I have found some brown fabric that had been a mattress cover and some cream from a table cloth that was my mother in law's, which will be a better fit

Sombrero Stars top all done.

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 

WIP Wednesday

Have had a busy week but no finishes. Still have sewn and done lots of creative things so that is good. Guess my Marchalong report from yesterday would really cover today but....

I currently have 3 quilts in progress.

Not So Sombre Stars

The fabric is all cut for this and safely tucked into a clear plastic box waiting its turn to make it to the top of the working pile. I love using the plastic storage boxes for my WIPs. I haven't done it before this last month so its a new thing for me but I just love it. I can see easily where the projects are and if I need to add something to the project that is easily found and done. eg I bought some buttons on the weekend at the Craft Show I went to that were for my Tea Shop quilt that I am going to make one day (found some lovely buttons featuring little cakes. Perfect!) I was able to find the box that I have that project in and add the buttons.

My Project boxes. Top Tea Shop Quilt. 2nd box Sombrero Stars, 3rd Not So Sombre Stars and bottom Christmas Stockings. (I have to make my son's partner Earthy Yu)

Sombrero Stars

Not only is the fabric all cut but all the flying geese for it made (120 of them) AND I have put together the first block. I knew I wouldn't have time to sew this week so snuck in the time to make one last Friday before I flew to Brisbane. I left myself very little time to have my shower and finish getting ready to leave for the airport but we made it. AND I have a finished block as well!! The goodies for this quilt are all in their own little box as well

Disappearing into the Blue

As usual I worked on this at our Patchwork Group meeting today. I didn't spend as long up there as usual because of my busy week here at home (more about that later) but I was able to get the sashing for the blocks cut and the blocks sewn into rows. It was great to lay the quilt out and try to arrange the blocks in a pleasing way. It is hard to choose how to lay the blocks out. There are 30 of them - all different shades of blue (only one repeat) Trying to get a spread of the really dark blocks and the really light blocks plus some blocks are heavily patterned and there are few unusual blues. I am sure you quilters all face this dilemma too each time you have to lay out a scrappy quilt. I must admit I tend to give up and just go with whatever in the end. As soon as I move two dark ones away from each other I find that I have moved a heavily patterned one in next to another heavily patterned one etc etc. Then after spending ages agonising over the arrangement when I pick them up to sew the strips together I seem to get them mixed up and end up with two similar ones next to each other anyway!!

I nearly didn't stay at patchwork. I found that I had left my sewing box at home. I had my project in its box and my machine stays in the car all the time. The sewing box has my pins, thread, scissors, seam ripper, rotary cutter etc in it. I thought I might just cut the sashing fabric and then come home but decided to duck home (only 5 minutes away from our sewing room) and grab what I needed. I took time to put the washing into the dryer whilst I was there, check on the dog and grab my sewing box.



Why I am busy

On Saturday I am hosting an "English Afternoon Tea" here in my garden (or on my patio if the current rain we are experiencing keeps up) Not sure how many people are going to turn up. I've got about 15 definites and maybe another 15! Hopefully numbers will be clearer tomorrow when acceptances close (and even clearer as people respond late on Friday and Saturday morning) Its a fundraiser for School Chaplaincy which our church helps support. 2 of my friends are school chaplains here in our town so its a cause dear to my heart.

Fangirl and I have been cooking up a storm all week and I am supposed to be cleaning up the house and the garden... yeah... supposed to be.

And what else?

My dog Annie is very unwell. She's a 9 year old Australian Terrier cross who belongs officially to my youngest son. Whilst I was in Brisbane on the weekend Fixit Guy found that her belly was very swollen so took her to the vet who admitted her and ran some tests. Whilst x-raying her to check what was going on with the swelling in her belly they found that there is a large mass of some description in one lung. She has been very breathless for a few months. We had mentioned this to the vet at her check up but they couldn't find anything at the time (no x-ray then as we didn't push it ) and we all put it down to increased age, the heat etc. Anyway they aren't sure what is going on with the lung. It is is full of fluid which could be pus, but not likely since no other indications of infection. It could be blood but blood tests have indicated that unless it is a very slow leak into the lung that isn't it. The most likely thing is that it is a tumour and the fluid is associated with that. The vet is getting a second opinion on that. He could extract fluid with a syringe but didn't want to go ahead without advice. The x-rays showed that she is extremely constipated. He gave her a laxative but it had minimal affect. The next thing to try is an enema but that apparently would also require sedation and at the moment with her lungs so compromised he doesn't want to do that. The swelling did come down somewhat. I bought her home on Tuesday (yesterday) and spent a good bit of the day sitting with her and cuddling her. She was bright enough when I picked her up but then refused to eat (hadn't eaten at the vets much either) brought up what she did eat, and laid around the yard doing nothing all day.

She was brighter last night and was interested in food and trotted about a bit. This morning she even wanted to come on a walk with our other dog but the vet said not to exert her at all. She ate a bit from me when offered (had to get her tablets into her... antibiotics and diuretic) However has been very quiet and laying about the yard again not doing anything. Her belly is very swollen again this afternoon. Not sure when the vet is going to get back to us re the specialist. I will ring later this afternoon and check. She doesn't seem very distressed or in pain. We will play it by ear. I won't let her suffer but whilst she has some quality of life we will enjoy her company and say good bye when the time comes.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

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