Centre of the Land Down Under

I finished sewing the centre part of the quilt.  It's huge!  I've sewn a lot of flying geese together already so I'm going to start adding those soon.  I did consider doing a more simple border but when I put the flying geese up on the design wall they did look good so that was an easy decision.

I've been stressing over not being able to quilt the Land Down Under quilt because the camera quilt is still up on the frame.  I also want to use the frame to make table mats for my Easter table so the camera quilt had to temporarily come off.

I quilted as much as I could to stabilise it for when it goes back up on the frame.  This will actually make it less back breaking to bury the billion threads I have created because of the custom quilting.  Who knows when it'll go back up on the frame!

I've been cracking on with my shawl and I've almost finished the ball of yarn!  I've decided to make it bigger so it's more useable.  It would be a shame to scrimp after all that work.  Mary from Patch n Quilt didn't have another ball of the same colour but she sent me over to Foodworks and I snagged the last ball there.  Phew!  Who'd have thought they'd have yarn in the Supermarket!

Apparently Easter is just around the corner so I'm going to have to rush and get things finished.  It won't matter if I don't finish everything I have planned but I do want to get the table things finished.  And May, and the deadline to finishing The Land Down Under quilt is rapidly approaching!

Oops!

Something is not quite right...

That's better!

It's growing!

My shawl is coming along too. I think I'm getting the hang of it and can even take my eyes off it for seconds at a time to glance at the TV!

I went to Spotlight yesterday with Barb.  I told her not to let me look at the wool so how did I end up with a 25 ball value pack?!!  I wanted fabric to supplement my Easter stuff and all I could get was the homespun.  The quilting fabric range is shockingly sparce!  Barb also refused to stop for morning tea because I'm on a diet.  I'm not taking Barb shopping ever again!

Progress

I finished the appliqué!  Here are all the blocks up on my design wall.  They're not in the correct positions as I just threw them up there for a photo.  Frames are next.

Here are a couple of close ups.

At my third crochet class I made this Granny Square.  I came home with the instructions to make more squares but I have the attention span of a flea when I don't want to be making something.

So I've started making this!  Actually, I should rephrase that.  I started making this, made so many mistakes that I unpicked it and then I started making it again.  I think I've got the hang of it now.  It's called the Virus Shawl and I believe it's the crochet world's version of the quilting world's Mysolation Quilt.  It's too pretty for such an ugly name!  I'm fairly sure it's supposed to be made with lighter yarn so it looks more lacy but this is the yarn I had and I wasn't buying more.  I only started crochet to learn how to do edgings on quilts!

I've also prepped the fabric for six Easter table napkins and I've finished one of them!  I'm on a roll!

Easter

19 Easters ago we were doing a reccy trip around parts of Australia to get an idea of where we wanted to live.  We loved WA so that was our first choice but we weren't fans of SA or Victoria although, to be fair, our son was sick in SA so that soured it for us and we stayed in the city in Victoria and we're not city people. Says the lady moving from Greater London ha ha!

Lo and behold we ended up in Victoria!  

Anyway, we were staying in a campsite in Warnambool during Easter and up until that year our Easter traditions were to give and receive chocolate eggs.  Because we were moving to a new country with no family we decided to make new traditions and we tend to have special dinners and fancy tableware now.

This week I saw these plates in Big W and I couldn't resist!  How cute are they?!

That meant I needed new decorations so I went to Sew Together to buy fabric.  I walked in with lovely pastel pinks, greens, blues and yellows in mind.

And walked out with this...

I tried to ignore it but it jumped into my bag and that was that!  Sew Together has lovely bunting all around the store and one of them was made from pompoms which was so cute!  So I bought some yarn...

And made some pompoms.  Messy pompoms but pompoms nevertheless.  My husband isn't a fan of the autumn palate and says it would be like having summer themed Christmas colours instead of our usual red, green and gold.  Well I like it!

I've been working on the Land Down Under quilt.  My view isn't as nice as it was while I was at retreat last week!

And I've still only finished one block.  It looks awfully lonely up on the design wall all by itself.

This pile of blocks is waiting for the black coloured blanket stitching.  I was ready to crack on when I realised I didn't have any black thread!  Once I have that thread I'll fill up that design wall in no time.  Well, at least until the next thing comes along to distract me!

March retreat

Judy and I stayed at an Airbnb in Ballarat last weekend to do some sewing.  I actually did some sewing wheeeee!  Although I did hours and hours of sewing I only came home with one block finished!

I usually don't adhere too many appliqué pieces onto the backing at once but I wanted all my blocks ready to go once I arrived at retreat.  Here is my layout before I did the Possum and the Tasmanian Devil so that I could work out what colours their clothes should be.  I managed to do all the prep work before going to retreat so I was really pleased with myself.

We changed our routine this time and instead of going to the quilt shop at Ballan we went via Gisborne and stopped in at Patch n Quilt and, a new to us, store Hummingbird Quilting.  But we did do our usual stop at Gail's Patchwork Emporium via the unsealed road through the forest which is always an adventure and we went to Spotlight where we walked out empty handed!  And guess what?  We didn't go to Beechworth Bakery!  Instead we went to a lovely café in the shopping centre across from Spotlight.

Judy's haul.  I bought some wool in Gisborne but that was all.

We've stayed at this accommodation in Cardigan previously and it's nicely set up for a couple of sewing ladies.  The only fault is that the lighting is terrible!

My plan was to thread up my machine and blanket stitch around every piece of appliqué that used that colour before changing threads and stitching the next colour.  It meant I didn't have to keep rethreading my machine but that also explains why I only have one block finished!  I did a lot though and most of the blocks only have the black (eyes and noses mostly) to finish.

Here is my work and Judy at the beginning of the first day.

And here is my work and Judy at the end of the last day.  We did move I swear!

Here are some blocks partially stitched.

And my threads!  This was taken half way through the weekend when I had to prove to Kate that I had actually been sewing for a change!

I also did some more flying geese.

And may have had a glass of wine.  Or two.

Judy was busy.  She made lots of bindings and finished some baby quilts for Sunshine Hospital.

Worked on this quilt.

And this one.

Judy also did a bit of this and that and the other.  It was a great weekend and I can't wait to go again!

I'm currently doing the worst job a quilter can do and that's taking in clothing.  Ughh!  I swear I'd rather sew a whole new outfit from scratch than alter ready made items!  These are scrubs and for some reason I can never say no!  My friend would have been better off reordering new sizes but they wouldn't have arrived in time.

 

I don't have enough hobbies

I went for coffee with a friend and somehow managed to get myself enrolled at a crochet class.  I have no idea what I'm doing and I know I'm doing something wrong.  In addition, I'm finding it quite boring.  Shhh! Don't tell my friend!

I've been working on The Land Down Under quilt and that song is annoyingly stuck in my head!

Shapes are all traced and are ready for the fabric.

Fabric is cut out.

I've started the flying geese borders.  There are 96 geese!  Yikes!  And no, I have no idea why I'm sewing the borders before I've even started on the middle!

Will I get it finished in time??

Land down under

 I was very brave and put the camera quilt on the frame!  The automation I have can come with this wonderful program called GOLD.  One of the best things about GOLD is that you can tell the machine where to quilt so, for instance, if you have an appliqué shape you want to avoid you can tell the machine to sew around it.  GOLD is a wonderful tool.  But unfortunately I don't have it!!!  I have to start and stop the machine myself and for some reason every time I press stop the machine continues sewing for longer than I want and then finishes off by sewing a billion stitches in the one spot.  It's a nightmare but the look is what I want so I'll have to persevere.  This is going to take quite some time I think!

I started making another quilt!  We have a new great nephew, Noah, so I'm making this little Irish lad an Australian quilt! 

This is The Land Down Under quilt by the Red Boot Quilt Company

I already had some fat quarters left from the sheep baby quilt so I bought similar ones and the basics to make the animals.

I started tracing the shapes onto appliqué paper.  This pattern has 25 pages of instructions so quite a bit of tracing needs to be done.  Look how blunt my pencil is!

I've helped quite a few people with appliqué over the years and I always tell them to try to use the paper wisely but at the same time to make sure there's a clear gap between the shapes.  I don't follow my own advice!  I've crammed this sheet full of shapes!  More paper was the one thing I forgot to buy while I was at Spotlight buying fabrics.

I have a few blocks I can get started on before I need to rush off and steal Judy's appliqué paper buy more paper.  

Oh and guess when this quilt needs to be finished by!  May!  Yep, not the quickest design to make hey? Wish me luck!  Or as Judy said...I'm going to be very busy at retreat soon!