Stitch 'n' Bitch goes away for the weekend

A few weekends ago, actually it was the last weekend in March, our little Stitch 'n' Bitch group went away for a long weekend to Smiths Beach on Phillip Island SW of Melbourne. It was forecast to be a lovely weekend and we weren't disappointed.

By the time I (B1) picked up the key and got organised it was lunch time before I picked up Pam (B2) and headed off. In the meantime we had a call from Nita (B3) to find out what was taking us so long as she was already in Cranbourne.

B1 & B2 finally arrived mid afternoon to find B3 happily sitting in her car stitching away in the sunshine and generally enjoying the peace & quite. We unloaded our gear and happily started stitching.

This is the view from the balcony of the house we were staying at looking up the road to the beach car park & the sea. It is a wonderful view.

This is (B3) improvising to trace a pattern.

It was B2's birthday on the day we arrived so we had to have cake. B3's daughter made this lovely cake, it was apple streudel or something like that, it was scrumptious. B2 is showing off one of her birthday pressies.

B2's project was to continue working on finishing this QAYG quilt she was making for her daughters 21st birthday.....in Feb 2008....B2 has been a little bit slack. So the quilt police were active on the weekend.

We had some of the locals come and check out what we were up to over the weekend. I wonder if it could have been the drunken revelry which attracted them. Not us of course, it must have been the neighbours.

These are some QAYG blocks I put together using up some of the overflowing scrap box. They are destined for a double/queen quilt for the Victoria bushfire survivors.

This is another quilt I put together which is also destined for the Victoria bushfire survivors. They are flannel prints, lovely & bright, perfect for a kids quilt. The blocks are all sewn together, I now just have to find something for the border to make it into a single & finish it off.

We all had a great weekend. Although we ate too much and probably could have got more stitching done, however we were all satisfied with what we achieved and were totally relaxed at the end of the weekend. None of us wanted to go home though.

I can now post my 4SQS5 which I made "Daisies in the Garden"

This is the wall hanging which I made for Tina from San Diego in the 4SQS5. It is made up of mini log cabins around 4" square which I hand stitched. I then machine stitched all of the squares together and the border. It is machine quilted in the ditch. The daises are appliqued and the centres are stuffed to give some dimension. At the last minute I decided to add some coloured seed beads to give some sparkle. It made the world of difference.

I decided to add a bit of colour in the backing with some wattle and parrots/rosellas. The binding ties it all together.

When I send items overseas I always like to add postage stamps instead of the ticket which Australia Post prints out. I put stamps aside when I buy a 20 pack for this purpose. I feel it makes the parcel all the more exciting (and colourful) when it reaches its destination.

I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of this swap. It was monochramatic with either black or white added. Tina's colour choices were green or pink/red and the season chosen was Spring. I opted for greens as it is one of my favourite colours.

A big thank you to Margaret the host of this swap for allowing me to join in on this swap and I look forward to joining in on the next one...hopefully.

Its arrived and its all mine!!!!

Above are some pictures of a wall hanging which I received from Sarah in Memphis, Tennesee as part of the 4SQS5. I just love this wall hanging. Honestly the pictures do not do it justice. With the white background and the way the quilting has been done those little green pinwheels just jump right of the wall to great you. And the triangles in each corner of the back make it so easy to hang. Sarah has done a wonderful job with this, and reading her blog I'm surprised that I even got it. I think that I very nearly didn't. But I'm so glad that she was able to give it up as it has come to a nice home downunder and I will treasure it. It is currently hanging at the office in my workspace to brighten my days. I only put it up this morning and so many people have commented on it. Thank you once again and have I mentioned that I love it. Also a big thank you to Margaret (the swap organiser) who allowed me to join in on this swap as a newbie.

2nd prize on its way

Whilst I was finishing the 1st prize for one of the winners of Sooziii's Decorate your blog for Christmas competition, I put together these two small stitcheries for one of the 2nd place getters. One for the wall and one for the tree. These were also posted off today. They very nearly didn't get sent because I liked them myself. I'll just have to make myself a couple before the next silly season.

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1st prize on its way....

Today I posted of the above to one of the 1st prize winners in Sooziii's Decorate your blog for Christmas competition. I know I am very late, but I hadn't finished it. I had totally lost motivation for sewing with all of the hot weather we have been having since Christmas and then I moved onto making charity quilts for the bushfire survivors in Victoria. So on the weekend I decided it was long overdue and finally got it completed. I hope the lucky recipient likes it. I cannot say at this stage who the recipient is, 'cos it would spoil the surprise.

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Get It Done challenge

Well I have finally made a start on some UFO's. As I am a relatively new quilter (3/4 years) I haven't had to delve into the deep dark depths of cupboards, etc. Having said that doesn't mean that I don't have UFO's. I'm sure that I have at least one or two for each year I have been quilting...possibly more. To start I have chosen two wall hangings and a table runner which I started in the latter half of 2008. My reason for choosing these is that they were on the top of the pile and they are relatively smallish projects, so they won't take months to complete.

1. This is a wall hanging which I am making from a panel. There is a lot of faux embroidery stitching in the sashing, but it is difficult to see. I have overstitched these through the three layers which will hold it all together. I now just have to trim it up, do the binding, add somthing to enable hanging and add a label.

2. Christmas table runner. I actually bought this fabric around Xmas 2007, but didn't find a pattern I liked until 2008. This one I still have to quilt, bind and label. You can just see all of the pins in the picture which are holding it together at the moment. I was debating to machine quilt this one, but not ever having machine quilted before I think I might hand quilt it until I can practice on the machine a bit.

3. Another wall hanging. 'Chooks Rule the Roost'

There legless at the moment, so I'm surprised they haven't fallen off the roost yet!! LOL My attempt at some humour. Still have some more to add to the top, then it will need sandwiching, quilting and binding.

Now, one of the above projects will be for one of the blogs in 'Sooziii's decorate your blog for Xmas' comp. And I'm not saying which one, that will be the surprise.

Camera battery found

Yippeee!! I finally found the battery charger for the camera and the batteries are now charged and pictures taken. Moral of this is to unpack all items from bag after a trip away before putting bag away.
Below are some of the sewing related items which I have been working on the last few months and have actually completed.





Left: disappearing 9 patch with vintage chenille borders









Below: Maria quilt challenge finally completed. Read more about this subject in previous post....click here





Left: first batch of mini plum puddings

Left: they look good enough to eat don't you think!!

Above, left & below: Puzzle balls. They also rattle...great for babies. These were actually quite fun to make.

Above, left & below: Now I don't particularly like mice, but I do luv these cute little fabric mice. Fun to make and I luv these Moda fabrics. I've got some more in the making but this time with more bright retro fabrics.

Trip to the Country

I recently spent four days in Horsham attending my niece's 21st birthday party. It was also my mums 79th birthday, so I got to spend some time with her as well. I cleaned some of my mum's windows as a birthday present, which she said was better than any present I could have bought her. Now she can keep an eye on the comings & goings in the neighbourhood.

While I was at my mum's she brought out a quilt to throw on the bed as the nights are mighty cold up that way. I had totally forgotten about this quilt. It is a shaggy raggy quilt which mum & I made together when she was visiting a couple of years ago. As you can see from the pictures it has an assortment of cotton fabrics on the top and the back was made up of an assortment of chenilles from some old bedspreads. Along with the batting the chenille makes this a very warm snugly quilt.

I also came across this plaque at my mum's house. It was something which as a teenager I made at high school in woodwork & metalwork. From memory it was when I was in Form 1 or 2. Goodness it is that long ago. It did bring back some memories. I also made an egg flip as another project. That I think has long ago been discarded.

My niece Megs who just turned 21, with her current boyfriend & my mum.

Megs with her dad & mum (one of my older sisters), and her three older siblings.

Sisterly love.

In December 2007 Sooziii organised a 'Decorate your blog competition'.

Sooziii's Decorate Your Blog Competition Of course being new to the world of blogging I figured that I should get in on the act. And Sooziii was going to give a prize to the blog which was voted to be the best...even better. Then aubirdwoman and Lindi said that they would supply a prize for 2nd & 3rd places. Well I was lucky & was placed 2nd. I received this lovely wall hanging from aubirdwoman for my efforts.

This will now be hung every Xmas along with all the other decorations.
I love the french knot detail in these sprigs which I think represent holly.

Angels guard over Santa from the back.
Thank you Sooziii for running the competition & thank you Sheila (aka aubirdwoman) for the gorgeous wall hanging. I'm a little late with this posting, however as the saying goes 'better late than never'.

Maria Quilt Challenge

My friend Marg put forward a challenge to a few fellow quilters at the end of last year, which involved making a quilt with only the following supplies...

a small hessian bag that contained: one piece of tape; one oz. of pins; one hundred needles; four balls of white sewing cotton; one ditto black; one ditto blue; one ditto red; two balls of black worsted, half an oz. each; twenty-four hanks of coloured thread, one of cloth, with 8 darning needles and one small bodkin fastened on it; two stay laces; one thimble; one pair of scissors; one pair of spectacles, when required; two lbs of patchwork pieces.

The inspiration behind this challenge is based on the work that Elizabeth Fry did with female convicts in England in the 1800's. Some of the female convicts being transported to Australia where given the above supplies to use on the sea voyage, either to make clothes or utility items for themselves or to sell. The result of one of these voyages is the Rajah Quilt.

The quilt is to be handsewn using only the tools in the hessian bag. No template plastic, no iron, no pencils, no paper. Well it took me a while to gather two pounds of patchwork fabric/scraps. Now one would think it would be relatively easy, considering that most quilters have a fairly large fabric stash (I'm no exception to that) and bags of scraps coming out of our ears. Well when I went through my fabrics there were a lot which I didn't think would be suitable. I wanted to try and select fabrics which I thought would be available in the 1800's, or at least reasonably close in pattern & colours. I eventually scraped together the two pounds of fabric which included a lot of scraps, some calico and even some old cotton checked shirts of my husbands which were destined for the rag bag.

The next challenge was to come up with a design. Now this was difficult as there was no paper or writing implements in the hessian bag. So it had to be all done in the mind and designed as I went along. I decided to go with a medallion centre which was a style which was used quite alot in the 1800's and just add various borders, style to be decided at the time, until I run out of fabric or get sick of it. So I roughly cut out a square of calico. I decided to go with stylised vines coming out of an urn. To do this I had to set the medallion square on point. Then I cut out some long strips to create the stems and stitched them down. Then lots of leaf shapes to attach to the stems. These weren't as hard as I thought they were going to be. I stacked 4/6 pieces of scraps on top of each other, then just cut an ovalish shape. They are not all the same, which is fine, as nothing is identical in nature. I attached these using a blanket stitch around the edge with embroidery cotton. Next came the triangle to create the urn. I then put a narrow border of black & white check (hubby's old shirt) around the medallion. One of the challenges was cutting straight lines without the aid of a ruler, which was difficult. Hence one of the reasons for using the checked fabric for the narrow border. I could use the lines created by the checks to at least get a strip of fabric which was relatively the same width at the beginning and end. I then added calico triangles to create the square. This was difficult without the aid of a ruler, so I just roughly cut them out, bigger than required, then just trimmed them up once I had sewn all four on. Another narrow border of black & white frames this square.

At this point I was very pleased with the way things were going. I then fussy cut some floral bouquets and appliqued (needleturned) these into the calico triangles. I really didn't know if I liked these or not. But after hanging and viewing I decided that it wasn't too bad and they sort of fitted in with the theme. One of the other challenges which I have found difficult was not being able to use the iron. I can be some what of a perfectionist (ask any of my quilting friends) and am a quilter who usually likes to press my seams etc as I go along. However I have had to do with just finger pressing the seams and/or using the handles of my scissors to press down on the seams.

Stay tuned for the next stage of the Maria Quilt Challenge.