Back Home from Quilt Camp

We had a great time on our weekend at Boonah, a rural area about an hour away from home. We stayed at a place called The Outlook which has a lovely big room where we can set up our machines and just sew. Even though we did our own cooking, we still had plenty of time to devote to our projects as we were only rostered on to prepare one meal and cleaning up afterwards was a combined effort and completed in no time.
As you can see by the photos below, I managed to get a fair bit done amid all the eating, laughing, talking and joke telling. My daughter's quilt top now has the borders on it with of course, the quilting still to come. I am quite happy with how it turned out as it is the first time I have made a quilt without using some sort of pattern so it was a bit of trial and error at times. My Verandah Views wall hanging is ready to quilt and I also got a fair bit of A Christmas Wish stitched together but forgot to take a photo so next time I am in my quilting room, I will take one.

Kym's Quilt - Sophistikitties.
Verandah Views.
By the time I got home, I was pretty tired but I just love going, it is such a fun weekend. Our next one is in March, I'm planning already.........

Getting ready for Boonah Camp / Oscar

This little fellow is my cat Oscar. He is usually perched on my knee helping me with my stitching but last night he decided he was just tooooo tired to help so he sat on the arm of the chair, covered his eyes and slept. I must say, I got a lot more stitching done then I usually do. We inherited him as a kitten after some kind soul threw him out of their car as they were driving along the highway and he just happened to sail over my son's car bonnet. He luckily survived his ordeal and has turned out to be lovely natured puss.

I am getting quite excited as this week-end is our quilting camp at Boonah, the second for the year. Eleven of us will head off on Friday morning for the 3 day camp. I have a few things on the go so will just take them along to try and finish some off. I have completed the stitchery on my Mistletoe Madness quilt top so hope to get this basted together ready to begin hand quilting when I get back. I also have more borders to go on Kym's quilt, A Christmas Wish quilt and my Beach Days quilt (photos in previous posts) so am sure this will be enough to keep me busy. I always think I will get such a lot done but we usually do more talking and laughing than anything else so in the long run, we all come home feeling great and that's really what matters.

And still more BOM finishes

Well here I am again with 2 more block finishes. Block 8 of Verandah Views and Block 8 of A Tisket A Tasket. Just have to add borders to Verandah Views Blocks 7 and 8 and will be up to date with both these ones. The stitching on Block 8 A Christmas Wish is also nearly completed and then I will be really up to date with these three BOM's.

Last week my Giggle Button Club pattern and buttons arrived and it is a very pretty stitchery. This time Sonya included a transfer of the pattern so it was great to be able to use that instead of having to trace the pattern onto my fabric. I have used my Derwent pencils to colour some of the flowers and sealed them with some fabric medium. It is already to stitch but I must admit, I still haven't got around to stitching the needlecase one I received in June so a bit of work to do there.

I also started to stitch the borders on Kym's quilt and had put the first one on when my machine decided to play up. When I turned it on to do the second side, it decided to start on its own and stitch really fast. Before I could quickly turn it off, the needle had broken. I gave it a good clean but it still did the same thing afterwards so I will have to take it to be looked at. Luckily I have another machine, a Bernina, but have not used it much as I tend to stick with my old familiar one so will have to get out my book and do a bit of practise as I have the 'Think Pink' camp coming up in a few weeks and plan to do a fair bit of machine work while I am there.

Anyway must go now as my hubby has the day off today (for show day holiday here in Brisbane) and he and I are going to spend some time together by going out for lunch. Our first date for a while. How exciting!!!!!!!

Progress at last!!

Today I managed to get into my quilting room for a few hours. I worked on my Giggle Button project so need to quilt it tomorrow (if time permits) and then add binding. I added some ric rac to it and am quite pleased with how is has turned out. Will post a photo soon, I hope. I also completed the middle section of my daughter's quilt. The purple colour in the photo above isn't very good, I'm afraid. I really want to get this finished soon as I have quite a few tops to quilt and once I complete this one, I will try to get most of them quilted before I start any other big projects (I know, I know, famous last words).

I have caught up on my BOM's. Verandah Views and Bunny Hill completed with just a few more lasy daisy leaves to go on A Christmas Wish. This is my favourite block for VV so far, I just love chooks although my girls aren't laying any eggs at the moment.

If you check out my side bar you will see a button for a Paper Bag Swap. Check it out, you can still join in until end of May. This is the first swap I have joined so I am looking forward to it.

Happy Mothers Day / April BOM's completed

Tomorrow is Mother's Day and we are going to see my youngest grandson play footy. He plays in the under sixes. All the family are coming to the game and then we are going for morning tea. Not sure where we will have it but surprises are always good aren't they : just like the flowers above which my hubby gave me today when he arrived home from work. Love you Chris.

'HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO EVERYONE'

Verandah Views Block 4 Bunny Hill Block 4

A Christmas Wish Block 4

At last I have finished block 4 for Bunny Hill, Gail Pan's Christmas Wish and Verandah Views. Going away at Easter certainly put me behind but HOORAY, they are done. Of course, today, I prepared all of the blocks for May but am hoping to get them done much faster.

I worked on Kym's quilt today and did a bit of unpicking as I am not happy with how it looks. Will have a bit more of a play around with the blocks tomorrow if I get time. I am also almost finished my Giggle Button project. I was going to put it in a frame but didn't have a frame big enough so am going to make a wall hanging out of it instead.

Well this has been quite a long post so I had better close until next time..............

Boonah Quilting Retreat

Last Friday we headed to 'The Outlook' at Boonah for our quilting group's retreat. We had a lovely time quilting, crafting, eating, laughing, talking, more eating and even more quilting. Within our group we have a varied number of handcrafts being undertaken including doll making, bag making, knitting/crochet and card making. A number of lovely things were made with many tips shared and everyone happy with what they had accomplished. I have made some wonderful friends since joining the group, one's I am sure I will have for many years to come. I was working on a quilt for my daughter Kym in black,white and purple. I cut up a quilt panel from Lorelie Harris with cats on it which I bought several years ago at a quilt show. The quilt is made up of 15 cat blocks with purple borders added and nine patch blocks in between with a central larger block. I got a bit bogged down with the centre block as I had miscalculated the measurements, not by much but as you know with quilting a quarter inch here or there makes all the difference. It is the first big quilt I have designed so I am not too unhappy with my efforts. It just meant I didn't get a lot done, so the photo above shows my nine patches. I also completed the cat blocks but forgot to take a photo of them. Will show more later when I get back to it after Easter.

This is just a short post as we leave today for Goulburn to attend the Hotrod Nationals. We will head up to Toowoomba this afternoon and stay there the night, leaving in the morning at 6am with 3 or 4 other hotrodders. Should be there by Thursday sometime with another stop over night on the way. Goulburn is about 1100 klms away in New South Wales. Morning temperatures in the area have been down to 4 degrees C so have packed some warm gear. Room in the hotrod's boot is quite minimal so we can't take too much but I have managed to fit in some quilting magazines and a couple of stitcheries that need completing. Well must close and finish those last minute things that need doing. Above is a photo of our hotrod - 1928 Model A Ford Roadster.