New computer

Hi Again,

I have a new computer and operating system, so I am even more computer illiterate.  I have been trying to work it out.
I found my photos of some gifts I made for the people we stayed with on Kangaroo Island.

I made a bag and some other things for my christmas swap, and will post those after christmans, so as no to spoil the surprise

When doing this a rekindled my love of stichery.

Catch ya later
Elaine

I have been busy with sticheries, and am now starting to finish the sampler quilt.  Only have the quilting in the outside border to do.  Had a creative block, but now it's full steam ahead.
I will try to post more photos soon.
Elaine

What have I been up to?

I have made this quilt for Kim's birthday.  I bought the fabric sometime ago, and it was perfect for this quilt.

This is the first quilt that I have designed the quilting pattern myself.  I think that I would not use muti coloured thread next time.

Who's getting the Quilt.

I AM.  Ian chose these colours.  I decided that I would do this quilt in different colours, and as I always tend to go for blues, I thought I would let Ian choose.  We are going to have it on our bed.  He chose to have a turquoise and orange quilt.  However, this is the closest we could get to on the day in the shop.  Easier to sleep under I think.   I will have to let someone else choose colours if I want to be totally different.  Ian and I have much the same taste.

Quilt show

More blocks, two more to make then I can put it together.  Just lacking in motivation.

We went to Cootamundra last weekend, and they had a quilt show at the town hall.  There were some fantastic quilts.  Ian came too, and he was impressed by the quilts on show.  He is all enthused about me making a quilt of an aerial view of Australia, showing the colours of the different areas.  We have one of these pictures at home, and he thought if I increased to size to about 2m x 1.7m, it could be pieced with 1" squares.
I am giving it some thought but really don't know where to start.  Any ideas?
 It is great that he has faith in my ability to pull something like this off.  Still, I will need lots of fabric, so I have a good excuse to visit fabric shops. lol
I have finished one of the Quilt aid 2010 blocks, and am well on the way with another one.
Cheers
 Elaine

Only two left to go

I have only two blocks to go on the "Hidden Stars" quilt. Thank goodness for that. I am rally not enjoying it. I love how it will look when finished , but am over the piecing.


Hi

I am into stitcheries at the moment, and have finished one block in the 2010 Quilt Aid Quilt.

I will add a picture of that next time.

Elaine

Back from Kangaroo Island

Well, after 40 hours in the trike covering over 2000NM I am back home. We had a wonderful time and met some lovely people.
Before I went I spent the weekend at a sewing retreat. Awesome. Met a lot of interesting people and got a lot of inspiration.
Here are a few more blocks of the Hidden Stars quilt

New Class

I have started a new class, Hidden Stars.

I had much more input into choosing the fabrics this time, am more confident.

Here are the fabrics





I have cut out the sashing and sashing squares, and made two blocks.

Ooops, can't figure out how to put everything in order. You can work it out I'm sure

Cheers

Photos

As promised photos of table runner

New sewing machine

Well so much has happened in the last two weeks.

I have been busy with building business, new fittings to choose and the end of the financial year.

We run a building business and are currently building a house, which is for sale. This means when choosing tiles, paint colours, carpets etc, I can't chooose what I would like but what would appeal to most people. So hard.

I also bought a Janome Memorycraft 6600 sewing machine. It has a built in walking foot and a large throat. I really enjoy quilting on this machine. I have been free motion quilting on my sampler quilt and have only the borders and the hand quilting to go. It looks great from considering I am a beginner.

I also made a D9P table runner, I saw the pattern on a blog 'A little of this and a Little of Pat'.
I stipple quilted it, need much more practice, but it was alway a practice piece and is pride of place on my table, just because I finished it.

I will post pictures later and hope not to leave it so long between posts next time.

Back Again

Hi,

Ian & I had a really great weekend, taking Ian's parents to Milton. They have mobility problems, so don't get out much. We went to Mogo Zoo. It was great. Had dinner at a winery.

Didn't do any quilting or flying, but did finish a crochet baby blanket.

Back home and back to work. End of financial year, so busy busy.

I hope to post photos of the new quilt soon

Elaine

Back again

Hi,

Had a great weekend sewing. Finished off a bag, then stitched some of the sashing for the Hidden Stars quillt, cut out some more squares and quilted some more on the Sampler Quilt.

I am not that happy with the quilting, but I hope to improve as I go along. I will never get anywhere if I don't just do it. I think I am obsessing a little.

This week I will continue to quilt a block at a time and continue to cut out Hidden Stars. When I sort out the camera I will post photos

See ya
Elaine

Full stop

I came to a full stop with my quilting. Cooper spent the day with me on Tuesday and now I'm off to work and away flying for the long weekend. Never fear, I am taking my hexies with me and should get some knitting done too.

This is the last individual block, next photo will be finished quilt.

I read a blog the other day calling for people to post work in progress. With that in mind I will post my progress on the "hidden Stars" quilt class I am starting next week.

Have a good weekend

Elaine

Quilting started

Hi

I quilted all around the big squares, the little squares and the borders in the ditch. I now need to quilt each individual square. I thing I will go for less rather than more, then it will be more snuggly.

Two daughters and grand daughters came for lunch on Sat, and were wondering what I am going to do with this quilt and the Animal Quilt. The same thing that my son wanted to know. When I decide who will get what, I know they will go to good homes. I need to make 2 more so I can give each child a quilt at the same time. Yes, they are all grown up but old habits die hard.

Off to do office work and maybe going to Berry to get supplies for bag making

Cheers

Elaine

Favourite Block

I taped the backing to the floor and proceeded to pin the quilt to it last night. It is still there, hard on the back & knees. Should finish it tonight. My son & his girlfriend came over and I asked them and my husband which was their favourite block. No one could decide on just one.

So they are all favourite blocks!

Raining again here. Good for staying inside & quilting.

Cheers

Elaine

Favourite Block

This is possibly my favourite block so far. It is flying geese block and using the strip fabric, created a lovely square in the middle. We used the idea for the sashing blocks. I say we because Carol, my lovely teacher, had a lot of imput into the design. It was her idea and I couldn't fault it. It was worth cutting out all those small pieces as you will see once it is quilted. I start that this weekend.

Off to work now

Cheers

Elaine

I had a great day yesterday catching up on all my office work. Today is washing day. The weather is clearing, so it should dry.

I am making a covering for the helmet bags which came with the new helmets, not bad for some one who up until now hated sewing.

The block above is hand appliqued. Can't wait till I quilt it

Have a good day

Elaine

I am back

Hi,

We had the best time. We sailed from Sydney, up the coast to the Whitsundays, on to Cairns, Port Douglas, around Willis Island, south to Brisbane and back to Sydney. All that and I didn't need to cook clean or lift a finger except to stitch or crochet.

I made a couple of hexie flowers and worked on a baby blanket for my niece.

Here is another block of my sampler quilt.

Chris, I wish that I had chosen the colours. Carol the teacher chose them and I agreed with her.

I had much more influence in the choice of the next quilt. The classes start on the 18th June.

Off the attack the pile of mail and office work

Cheers

Elaine

Getting ready

We are getting ready for a 10day cruise leaving tomorrow. I have lots of hexies ready to sew and am all set for a great time.

We spent the weekend flying and today I chose the fabric for the next quilt.

I will post about that when I get back

See youthen

Elaone

Needleturn applique

Another block, my first attempt at needle turn applique. Thank goodness for the patience of Carol our teacher.

I purchased the backing fabric, but won't be able to do any more on it until the first weekend in June. Till then I will post individual blocks. I hope you are interested, still I suppose if you are not, you won't come back. Isn't it great, I can indulge myself with out boring anyone else.

Off to Cootamundra this weekend for a few days flying. It will be cold though.

Have a great weekend yourself

Elaine

Shopping

This is one of the blocks on the sampler quilt. I have finished the top and now am going to purchase the backing fabric. Cooper is staying with me today so he can come and 'help'.

Lot of fiddly jobs to do in town today, but should be fun with Cooper

Cheers

Mothers Day

I hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day. I did. 3 out of 4 of my kids and partners, met me in Berry and we had a professional photo shoot. The photos should be awesome. Then all 4 kids and partners and grandkids had a picnic lunch at Greenwell Point. A really nice day and I received gift vouchers for more quilting goodies.

I was able to piece the sampler quilt and have only one border to go. Then I can look for a backing fabric. Photos to folow.

Have a great day

I made this last month. It is a block keeper, There is a tutorial on allthingsvintage-teresa.blogspot.com/2010/01block-keeper-tutorial.html sorry I don't know how to link it.

Out to lunch today with the Business Women in Touch group. I haven't been before so it will be interesting.

Cheers

Working today

I am at work today, so all the quilting I can do, is to read quilting magazines at lunch time. I really need to stich more and read less. So many nice patterns , so little time.
Cheers

This is what I was working on this weekend. This is part of a sampler quilt lessons that I did from last Octover to Feb. It is exciting to be putting it together.

Raining here today, so lots of office work ahead

Cheers

Photos

It worked today, this is the Animal Quilt that I made from fabric collected from shopping trips during flying holidays in NSW Vic & SA
.

I bought the big pictures and then added fabric as I travelled around.

I am very happy with how it turned out. The first quilt that I have designed, machine pieced and machine quilted.

Of to make small squares for my next project

Bye for now

No Photos

I tried to upload photos, but no luck. I will try again later. I will be working on my sampler quilt this weekend, and will catch up with you on Monday.
Bye

Back again

Well we are back from our long weekend trip to Yarrawonga. It is great to fly there and meet up with friends and I get to quilt too. I have made a start on my tie hexagons.

Today I will post a picture of the table runner and 8 placemats I have made for my in laws 50th wedding anniversary. All finished now and handed over.

Back again

Amimal Quilt finished

I have finished the Animal Quilt. I can't find my camera so the photo will have to wait.

I learnt so much by quilting this quilt. I am happy with the finished product. I quilted in the ditch around the blocks and was going to attempt to stipple the border. I chickened out, or should I say, I thought that to write the word WILD around the 5" border would be more in keeping with the theme. I can't write very well, but I perserved and it does not matter.

I am so proud of this quilt as it is the first that I have designed and put together with out any help from experienced quilters. Go me

I learnt to match the colour of the bobbin thread to the backing is most important if you don't want all your wonky lines to show up. I also learnt that if you do that, only you can see your wonky lines.

Getting some hand work ready for our holiday in May.

The picture is of my first ever quilt, a printed panel, which a friend helped me peice together and then I hand quilted it. I then made another in a green colourway. Still hand quilted. I intend to redo the binding now I know how to. The trick is to find the time (or is it motivation) to revist a finished quilt when there are so may more new ones to do

Enjoy your day

Elaine

Great Welcome

Wow, so many visitors, didn't expect that. I can see why people blog, so many wonderful comments. Thank you.

This is a close up of Ellie's quilt ( I hope). It is a printed panel and hand quilted. Like Cooper's which is machine pieced and hand quilted, I wrapped the backing around to finish it of.

Had a great time at the movies, the kids sat on our laps and cuddled us in the scary parts, but declared it awesome when we came out.

Machine quilted the animal quilt, in the ditch for the pictures and experimented with words on the border

I hope to finish it this arvo

Enjoy your day

This is the quilt that I made for my grandson for his first birthday. He loves it.

Finished the top of an african animal quilt last night. Today, I will prepare it for quilting . I haven't quilted on the machine yet, I usually do that by hand, but will give it a go tomorrow.

Ian is away for the weekend, so plenty of time for quilting. I am baby sitting my grandchildtren tonight, so will go and see Alice in Wonderland with them and their Aunty.

My first post

Well I have taken the plunge and started a blog. I intend to use this place to record my quilting progress.

I have not been quilting long, however I must be doing something right because I have a small stash that is expanding, a few UFO's and a pile of quilts that I want to do.

When I figure out how I will post some photos of my quilts