A Birthday, Works in progress, OPAM finish

Above is the birthday boy.  'Happy Birthday' to my wonderful son Scott, 42 years young today. 

  

Here is my first finish for July.  A potato bag for cooking potatoes in the microwave.  I bought this kit when I was in USA last year and have finally made it up.  The kit consisted of the outer and inner fabric and a piece of  warm tater batting. It will be interesting to see how well it works.  The instructions say to wrap the potato in paper towel and then heat.  Should fit two medium potatoes.  Will let you know when I try it out. 

Below are some works in progress. The first photo is of two journal covers I am making for myself. Just need to add the lining and a bit more stitching and they will be done.  The fabric I have used is the latest line from Sweetwater called Mama Says Sew and is a quilting themed fabric. I was able to purchase the pre cuts I am using from Want It, Need It, Quilt here in Brisbane some time ago.  Check this site out if you are looking for pre cuts. I love these fabrics in black, cream, grey and red.  The second photo is a machine mat to take with me on camps. It is quilted just needs the binding.  I also have a chubby charmer bag in the making and a machine cover as well.

  

I have caught up with May and June blocks for the Jimboomba Mystery Sampler BOM that I am doing with my quilt group.  Here they are below.

Well that is about it for me tonight.  Hope to be back soon with a few more finishes.  Happy stitching till then.   Hugs Noela.

Morning Tea, Mystery Quilt and other stuff...

Last Monday at group we had a morning tea to collect money for the Cancer Council.  We only had a small group as a few ladies were away on holidays so we were happy to be able to collect $110 to send away.  Look at all the lovely food- sausage rolls, ribbon sandwiches, quiche, chocolate cakes, scones with jam and cream and lots more.  It didn't take too long to make most of this disappear. Yummy........

My Mystery Quilt is starting to progress with more pieces coming together.  I have finished instalment 5 and am pleased to say that I have now have some completed blocks (last photo).  Instalment  6 here I come.

Below is the May Block of the Month I am working on with my quilt group.  Missed making it at group this month so am playing catch-up.  Just need to trim the half square triangles to size and join the block pieces together.  Can choose either block configuration but think I  like the one on the left the best so will use that.

Grid ready for stitching. I have never done my half square triangles this way before but it is such a quick way to do them.

And last but not least, this arrived on Monday.  Some beautiful new fabric called Lucy's Crab Shack.  I am going to make two quilts out of it for my grandsons.  It is a new line from Sweetwater, just so cute and the colours of blue and green are my grandsons favourites.  The blue fabric has popular names of boys and girls on it, can you find Thomas and Jake?  Hope my boys like it.  I'm sure they will love the bicycle fabric in green, navy blue and orange.

Hope this post hasn't been photo overload and you have enjoyed reading about what I have been up to. Till next time.........Happy Stitching

Mystery Sampler Block, Update to Stitchery

On Monday, at group, we did our April block for our mystery sampler.  Here is my block. My colours are quite subdued to everyone else but I am quite happy with how they are coming together.  I bought these fabrics by Blackbird designs when I first started quilting a number of years ago, so it is nice to be able to use some fabric from my stash.  

Yesterday was my friend Nancy's birthday.  I gave her the little stitchery I showed you on my last post.  I added a hanger but couldn't get one small enough so enlarged the stitchery by adding some cotton lace around the outside so above is the new improved version.  I think the lace sets it off nicely.
Well that's about it for today      Happy Stitching everyone...............

2 OPAM Finishes & UFO Catch-up

Below is a little stitchery book I purchased from my friend Michelle Ridgway of Rag-tag Stitchin.  I have just stitched one of the drawings included in the book, into a small wall hanging for one of my friends for her birthday. The drawings can be used in gift tags, book marks, tote bags or wall hangings as I have done. 

A couple of weeks ago at my quilt group, one of my fellow quilters taught a few of us how to make a beaded chatelaine to hold our scissors.  Above is my effort but I must admit I had lots of help from my friend Robyn.   Thank-you Robyn.  I love it especially the little owl. 

I finally completed my Jimboomba Mystery BOM for March which is really just as well as next Monday we are due to stitch our block for April.  Really pleased with the way it went together, my favourite so far. I used my border fabric for the center and in the outer border.  Above are three of the other ladies's blocks completed on the day.

My block

Have been busy  over the last few days trying to get some of my UFO's closer to being finished. Below is a birthday quilt for my eldest grandson.  The top is now completed. I added to the pattern to make the quilt larger as it is to cover a king single.  The centre is made from a layer cake with the extra  fabric in the second border made up of strips from extra yardage I had.  The fabric is Authentic by Sweetwater.

Corner of Josh's Quilt

Well as usual I have taken too long doing this post so must close and get a bit more stitching done so bye for now.........

Mystery BOM, Workshop Day

Last week we made the second block in our Mystery BOM quilt. A Double Star Block. Above are some of the blocks made by  other group members. Below is my block for February. I'm quite pleased with my points.

  

Today at our quilt group we had a workshop run by Pauline Rogers of Quilters World.  Pauline spoke about  and demonstrated several different topics including quick ways of making 4 patch squares and half square triangles, how to use glue instead of viseofix to attach your pieces when doing blanket stitch applique, her quilt-as-you-go method  is great, all done by machine, no hand-sewing. She gave us lots of other handy hints to make our quilting journey much easier including how to make bias tape without burning your fingers by pinning the end of the tape, then using a small iron to push the bias maker along the strip.  We were also shown how to use a glue stick to attach that bias tape to a quilt ready for stitching. Another interesting thing she talked about was the fact that all rulers don't measure the same and can be out a little.  This effects our blocks and could be why we have trouble getting our points to match sometimes.  Room for thought there. Lastly she gave us a demonstration on Free Motion Quilting.  In all the day was fantastic and I came home with so much buzzing around in my head.  I bought quite a few goodies but forgot to take a photo so will show them next time. Below are some photos of the day.

Free Motion Quilting.  Sorry the photo is a bit fuzzy.

One of Pauline's quilts

Quilt-as-you-go above and below work in progress

Above & below : getting ready for a fun day of learning

Well hope I haven't done a photo overload.... Till next time..... Happy Stitching

Mystery BOM Sampler Quilt.

Block   & Border Fabrics

Last Monday, our group, The Jimboomba Quilters and Stitchers commenced sewing a mystery sampler quilt organised by one of our members Cindi.  Each month we will make one block, 9 in total and hopefully  finish it on our retreat in October.  Over the past year we have had a few new members join who have not done much quilting before so this idea was formed to help them learn some of the quilting basics. In all, 14 people have decided to do the quilt including myself.  By the fun we all had on Monday, I think it will be a great success.  We were given our requirements list a few weeks ago so I chose to sort through some of my stash fabric and came up with the group above called Old Fashioned Charm. Only needed to buy the sashing fabric but am going to wait until I have a few blocks made before choosing one. The block below is the first completed.

Jacob's Ladder  January Block

When I started quilting a number of years ago, most of the fabrics I chose were pastels as above but I also loved country colours containing chook and cow designs so needless to say I have plenty of these fabrics floating around.  This year I am going to try to use some of these up and reduce my stash.  Wish me luck.....
Till next time ...........  HAPPY STITCHING.