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.........

Place mat Challenge from Tamborine, OPAM Finish

Hope every-one had a great Easter.  Ours was very quiet.  Chris and I spent a couple of days in the yard cutting back the trees and 4 loads to the dump later, it looks much tidier.  Everything has certainly grown with all the wet weather of late.  Our family day on Monday was most enjoyable as we headed to the coast and spent some time on the beach  before a lovely B-B-Q dinner at my sons.  Good to see all the kids & grand-children in one place.  This week I have been looking after Jake & Tom so no sewing done but thought I would show you some of the photos of the place mats made for the challenge at the quilt camp I attended a couple of weeks ago. 

Above is the the one I made.  I found a pattern on the net which allowed me to make the tumbling blocks without using y-seams. Quite easy in the end. First finish for April OPAM.     

The red and black one on the right won the challenge .  Hollow cubes were the feature of this mat.   

The box on the left held a cup & then opened out to place mat size.  Very clever idea.

Each table held a dressed water bottle.

The next camp in August has the theme Hearts & Flowers.  It will be interesting to see what every-one comes up with.  
Cheers for now...........

March Quilting Camps

Last weekend I went to Tamborine for a 4 day camp starting on Wednesday afternoon.  I love this camp as everyone joins in the spirit of it so well & if you need some advice there are always several people willing to share their knowledge with you.  I find I always come home with lots of good hints & tips. We also had to make a place mat to use for our meals and they were all outstanding but I will leave those photos for another post as there are quite a few.   

The two quilts below were made by Sue W as were many others samples placed around the room to represent the theme of the camp, Tumbling Blocks & Hollow Cubes.  The second quilt was just beautiful with the bows adding an extra dimension to it.  

Hollow cubes sample by Sue

Above is the name badge I received and the little notebook cover made by Sue the co-ordinator of the camp.  About 30 people attended and everyone was given one, all made by Sue.  We also have a fat quarter swap and this is the one I received.

Below are photos of some of the dress-ups on Saturday night.  I am in the middle of the first photo with my friends Chris & Liz.  The colour theme of the camp was Black & White. 

Chris, me & Liz

Three bad witches and one good witch

The Ref, Flying Nun & Jail Bird

Below are some of the quilts displayed during Show & Tell on Saturday night.  Blue Tie-dyed made by Carol, Wonky Donkey by Chris & Fairy Quilt designed by Natalie Bird and made by Jenny.

My quilt group enjoyed our camp at Boonah a couple of weeks ago although as usual it always seems to go too quickly.  I took lots of projects along to do but didn't seem to achieve as much as I would have liked.  We arrived Friday lunch and I left Sunday after lunch so just 2 days to squeeze in as much sewing as I could.  I managed to get all the blocks done for my Secret Garden quilt, some blocks stitched together for my grandson's quilt and I started to cut out and stitch together the fabrics for my mystery quilt which I am doing with my friends from NSW, Chris & Liz.  We are going to have a quilt reveal in September as in all 10 people are doing this quilt.  The pattern comes from a shop in Canada owned by a relative of Chris.

Below are a few photos from the camp.  We managed to put down tools and fit in a Happy Hour on the covered deck.  Of course, we stitched into the night to make up for it as the photo below proves.

My work area.  Stitching together strips for my Mystery Quilt

These are the blocks for  my Secret Garden Quilt. A work still in progress. Fabric used is Good Fortune.

Cindy's Secret Garden

A different colour-way of Secret Garden

Lyn's Fish Quilt ready for quilting.

It is lovely to be able to go away with like-minded ladies and enjoy their company.  We always have such a great time, I am looking forward to the next one already.
Till next time............

Tamborine Camp

Well, I haven't had time to post from my camp last week-end at Boonah so will have to do a big post when I return from this week's camp with the Beaudesert Quilter's at Tamborine.  This camp starts tomorrow afternoon and finishes Sunday lunch so I will be able to continue on with the things I started working on at Boonah.  It has been a hectic few days as in amongst all the quilting, Chris and I celebrated our 17 th wedding anniversary.  I left Boonah early so we could go to see Tim McGraw & Faith Hill on Sunday night at the Entertainment Centre at Boondall.  WOW, what a great concert, we thoroughly enjoyed seeing them live. Here is a picture of them on the big screen.

 Well, till next time..........Happy Stitching

Camp Prep & 3 OPAM Finishes

This week, I have been preparing some quilting projects for my group's Boonah quilt camp this week-end. At our last camp in October, we had to take along an ugly fat quarter (or at least one we thought fitted that description) to swap.  I think most of them weren't really that ugly, but anyway, I ended up with a piece of fabric that had a black background with yellow hibiscus over it.  Our challenge for this camp was to make a pillow case using the fat quarter.  You could use as little or as much as you wanted in the finished case.  Here is what I did with my mine.  Quite bright, but I am happy with how it turned out and it should help keep me awake for all that late night sewing I want to get done at the camp.

I also spent about an hour last night trying to work out the placement for the blocks in the photo below.  The blocks have been sitting in a box waiting to be put together since last year. Still not sure if this will be it  but I need to get this one finished for my grandson. He has a king single so this should fit the bill when the sashing and borders go on.  I love this fabric by Sweetwater, one of my favourite designers. Their fabric lines always look so fresh and I have to admit I have lots more of their fabric in my stash. These blocks are made using a layer cake.  

Below are 2 more finishes for this month, a baby quilt and another mug rug.  My son has a new niece, Crystal, born in January. He asked me if I would finish off this panel he bought from Spotlight and add a label with his & the boys names on it.  So here it is below being held by my grandson Jacob.  I just love owls at the moment, they are so cute.  Hope Crystal enjoys lying on this when she gets a bit bigger and of course 'Congratulations' to the new parents.

I made this mug rug for one of my special quilting friends. I gave it to her on Monday as she will be holidaying with her family on Friday, when she celebrates her 70 th BIRTHDAY. Have a wonderful day,  I will be thinking of you and will miss you at our camp this week-end.
Well, that's about it for me tonight.   Till next time..........

Toowoomba Hot Rod Week-end

Last week-end we headed to a destination about 2 hours away from our home to attend a hot rod weekend hosted by the Toowoomba Hot Rodders.  We have been going to this event for several years and always have a great time.  We stayed at our friends' place and here we are below heading off for breakfast at the show grounds with the rest of the group on Saturday morning.

After a breakfast of eggs, sausages, grilled tomato and bacon, we headed off on our rod run to the Army Air Museum at Oakey about 30 minutes away.  Here we were given a tour of the museum and workshops where many of the planes have been restored and others are in the process of being rebuilt to their former glory by a band of volunteers.  The tour guide had lots of interesting stories to tell us about the planes and in all we really enjoyed the informative morning.  I wasn't really aware that the army  flew and maintained their own planes.

Sunday morning we all headed into the city for the Show and Shine in the main street.  Below are just a few of the cars on show.  We had a lovely time catching up with our friends and checking out some new hot rods we hadn't seen before.  The weather was beautiful, a wonderful end to our weekend away.

Our car  1928 Model A Roadster

1928 Model A Tudor

Model A Pick-up Roadster

1932 Tudor

Will be back soon with a couple of finishes...........  Till then.....    Happy Stitching.

Give-away Win, New Goodies

A couple of  weeks ago, I entered Teresa's, of All Things Vintage, 3rd year bloggerversary give-away and I was lucky enough to win. Yesterday, I received my gift.  The above photos don't do the journal justice.  It is just beautiful with lace and a cameo button on the front. I  have known Teresa for a number of years and have always admired the things she makes so thank you so much Teresa. I look forward to using the journal to record my quilting progress and am sure I will find something special to make with the charm squares and buttons.
Below are the goodies I bought from Pauline of Quilters World when we had our class on Monday.  I have been thinking of getting a sew slip mat to make FMQ a bit easier so that was number one on my list when I saw it.  Some of the other purchases were things that were used in the techniques demonstrated.  I can't wait to use the glue on my applique pieces, no more viseofix sounds good to me.  

Till next time..... Happy Stitching