July Month End.....

Another month has come and almost gone....

Hubz is officially retired from his job.... however he is staying another month to hand over and work on a specific project (mostly from home hopefully).... my children are calling him John Farnham (known for his repeat last tours!)

Golf sticks have been purchased....

WOOFA

Thanks Cheryll for hosting WOOFA and encouraging towards finishing up those projects....  

I finished off a bunch of tray mats which have been hanging around...

Wish You Well was completed...

shocking pink quilt top got made from scrap HST's...

mouse quilt top got put together....

this last week I have worked hard on practicing quilting ...

This one was my first effort after my calico wriggles ... big loopy swirls on a small lap quilt....

This I spy quilt is a nice single bed size and I did an all over sort of watery design....

This is a small lap quilt and I worked with curved and straight rulers.... in the ditch and orange peels in the squares... lots of lines in the border...

This is a square medium sized... ruler used for the lines around the feathers and then lots of smaller swirls in the white....  

Learning what I can and cannot do in this machine.... In some ways it is  alot easier than the sit down machine but I think there is less flexibility for moving around and changing thread colours.... I don't know how they manage to do a feathery border down the sides....

Anyway I now have 4 quilts to bind!!!  And a quick trip out to the local big store that always has sales on and got some wadding for a good price... great for the practicing...

OPAM

7 tray mats 

1 mug rug

4 dilly bags

2 bondi tops

30's star baby quilt

Wish You Well quilt

Thanks Kris for keeping a tally and keeping us finishing those projects....

It was good looking back... I got a lot more done than I thought I had... my handwork projects have not made a lot of progress though....

I have been on jury duty but so far only been called in one morning.... and not selected for that jury so that was a short visit.  

The quick edit link for the gadgets on the side bar has disappeared.... I will have to find another way to keep my lists - perhaps pages.... Mr google did find a way of fixing but really didn't understand it.

Keep safe everyone... and have a lovely weekend...

Catching Up and Cleaning Up

My little blackwork sampler has the 6 lollies done (sewing with friends and we are doing 4 a month)

As you can see I have done a few extra borders... I find it easier to just use up thread that I have out....  These little designs I do find quite challenging and have to concentrate on placement for all those little stitches.  I am using Aida cloth but most of the others are using linen - I really admire that as it must be even more concentration! 

Whilst cleaning out some drawers I found some lengths of dress fabric I had kept.... I'm not sure what the fabric is .... but I liked them and decided to make a couple of my ever faithful Bondi tops....

It's still too cold to want to wear them but they will get a work out in a few months...

Then I found a bunch of pieces I had made up using scraps .... so I quilted and bound them and now I have some new tray mats ... and a mug rug!

This is the reason for the big clean up in my sewing room.....

Handiquilter have brought out an affordable no bells and whistles long arm machine on a smaller frame  - I have wanted one for ages but could not justify the expense.  This one was made for the home quilter...  Not computerised so I have to learn to drive it......

However, it's like learning a whole new language... whilst I felt fairly proficient moving my hands around to make designs I am struggling using that bullhorn steering handles!!

lots of kinks and starts and lack of small motor control for me..... I hear it does get better with practice but at night I worry I made a poor decision....

Today, I took out a little quilt and worked on just large loops... a lot of the circles are kinky but it will hold together....  maybe a little dog would enjoy it????

Wish me luck.....  

Righto, Gotto Go... time for practice, practice, practice....

A windy day out....

Marilyn and I went to Warwick for the day...  Warwick is a country town about an hours drive from Toowoomba and they host Jumpers and Jazz annually (last year covid cancelled)

We chose to go on the coldest windiest day but it was the only time the two of us could spare a whole day together over the festival time ....

The theme for dressing the trees was cracker... and what fun it was to see the different interpretations

(lots of pictures)

fire crackers

not sure what this one was cracked out to be... but it was fun!

extra flowers... in a crack(ed) pot

cheese and  crackers... with ants

Nothing cracker about do-nuts except the sign!

lovely giraffe....

tree house 

caravanning...

creatures birthed from eggs... which have to crack for them to birth....

very cute jumpers on this tree.... 

the city hall has lovely leggings...

outside the gallery....

gotta love the bin-chicken....

some viewers were bored and sleepy....

The theme in the art gallery was Music and various textile artists show their work.... I am always impressed with the imagination and creativity.... 

I should have taken pictures showing the artists...my apologies.. they were all amazing...

this was a very large piece at the entrance...

made from old music things...

music themed dress...

several pieces using old doilies....

made using pianola papers...

loved these wedding ring design.... music fabrics and crochet doilies...

crocheted using old cassette tape....

art quilts with a music theme ...

this coat was made with the pianola papers...

another art quilt... loved the colours ...

in another room it was all done in knitted and crochet covered items.... these are used each year but it always looks different...

my favourite is the flying ducks on the wall...

the bowls are full of treats....

We did stop for lunch at one of the cafe's... green coconut soup... just perfect for the cold windy day...

usually the man about town has a beanie and scarf.. he needed a shawl this year....

at a pop up shop the wooly jumper met us...

There was also 3 patchwork/fabric shops that needed to be visited..... we had a fun day out....

Righto, Gotto Go... I need a cuppa after explaining all that... you probably do too!!!