This week.....

I'm always happy to see progress on my projects......  you may have noticed I have several going at once!  

Short attention span!

I had a couple of quilts which were made simply but with lovely fabrics ..... too much quilting would have taken away from the lovely fabric so all I added was texture and some playfullness with the borders.....

Loose enough to keep the quilt soft and snuggly but tight enough to give it that crinkly texture - two quite different designs 

Four more Dutch Treat blocks have been completed......  now I am coming to the end I must finally be feeling more confident as I found these ones relatively easy to do!!! haha

.... and my feather blocks are all together .....

I love, love, love them......

It's a lap size quilt 50" square - of course one can go on building as many feathers but this is the size I wanted.  I loved making them and I do have more scraps! hmmmmm

I used my colour co-ordinated scraps.  The pattern is a freebie provided by Anna Marie Horner, a generous and inspiring artist.  It can be found on HERE .  She is in Australia at the moment - wouldn't it be fun to go to one of her workshops.

Because I used scraps (as opposed to longer strips) I took tips from this TUTORIAL here but using small pieces from my scrap baskets.

Righto, Gotta Go... more quilts to add texture to ...... what fun

Weekends go so quick......

This weekend we stayed at home... there was lot of those silly little jobs that needed doing and we both just wanted to chill out quietly....

Of course I can't just do NOTHING.....  

I finished off some feather plumes that I had started on ChooseDay with the girls.....  I now have all I need and tomorrow I will put in the spines and background fabrics ... then I can play with the settings....

I also finished adding the borders to my photographic safari prints - and I also trimmed them all so now I need space on my design board to set them out and start sewing them together.....  there are lots of duplicates but that won't matter.....

Handstitching has finished off this Angel Story block.... the flying school...

... and also some chain stitch handles for ridiculously small baskets......

I was sewing while we watched "Goodbye Christopher Robin" -  I had to keep stopping cos I needed lots of tissues.... 

Some of our chores were outside - and the weather is just perfect for it... raking up leaves, composting, old branches to the tip etc etc.... (I only raked!)

My little variegated bouganvillea is looking pretty at the moment and I just loved the contrast of colours in this picture.... if you look carefully you can spot a kookaburra in the old gum tree - I think it was laughing at me raking!

Well, that was my weekend and happy playtime... now it's Monday and I need to get back to doing some real work!  At least that requires sewing too!

Now my quilt top is finished I have this pattern if anyone would like it....  it ends up about 66 x 80 and required quite a lot of fabric as it is cut on the bias - so lots of leftovers too for mini projects!

It's not a thick pattern so I'm happy to post it off to you.... let me know if you would like it and I'll choose a name if there is more than one person ...

Righto, Gotto Go.... coffee is required before work...  have a lovely week....

May - month end

Thanks to Joy who is hosting Finishing Stitches to encourage finishing those projects languishing in cupboards!  

I didn't do a lot more work on Dutch Treat this month...  this is okay as I had originally said one block a week .....

There are 32 more blocks to go.....

I quilted and bound the top of Holly Cottage this month, a Stitch-A-Long started last year

(I still have stitchalong projects from previous years waiting for quilting!!)

This quilt top had been passed on to me some years ago.... I quilted it last year and all it needed was the binding sewn down.....

Thanks to Kris and Peg host OPAM who count up all our finishes..... the two quilts are included since those projects are now done and dusted....

These others were new projects started and finished this month....

6 Tote bags were made in preparation for banning the plastic bags.... 

... and a knitted wash cloth ... 

I love handsewing in the evenings and with it cooler at night it was great doing those bindings ....

Righto, Gotto Go..... this month I want to work on......

Dutch Treat

Circles

Feathers

Safari

Angel Story

Jelly Roll

Flowerville

Mice

hmmmmmmmm....

Diamonds ......

I have seen many people remarking on the problems with comments being emailed.... I'm just adding my apologies for not sending replies to anyone.  I have commented on my individual page but many of us don't go back to the blogs - changed a setting and now my comments on comments have disappeared too!!! haha.... I shouldn't try and fix things on my own!

On Friday we had a scheduled power outage..... not that I really need an excuse but this is always a great time for me to get out my treadle machine and do some of my own sewing (usually I do work sewing during the day - except for ChooseDays!)

We treadled and hummed together .....

On Friday night at The Quilters Angel sewing we had some lovely treats... we always get delicious desserts but this time it was an assortment of lovely little treats....

Because some pressing needed to be done there was only so much I could do whilst the electricity was shut down so I continued on Saturday. 

The top is all together now.... I do love it.....  the edges will be trimmed straight post quilting....

The thread lasted me out well too!

I finished off my knitted wash cloth.  Jane from Loopy's Place put out a calender with a different craft each month.  I haven't kept up with them all but I do love handmade wash cloths and knitting (or crochet) is something I can do when sitting in the car

This top was made completely on the treadle machine..... finished size is 69" x 83"

Righto, Gotto Go - power is on - there is work to be done!

Bag Making....

Queensland is finally moving over to eliminating single use plastic bags at the shops in a month or two....

A friend had a whole lot of mesh fabric (from a business closure) and so I had a bag sewing day at the house.... Four of us made bags and bags of bags.....

These ones are for putting the potatoes and onions, apples etc.  Easy peasy to sew and then cut so it looks like a vest - and the handles can be knotted to hold them in....

I am also doing some with cords - they will make good shoe bags..... or grocery bags, or washing bags ..... 

There was plenty of mesh so I am also doing some large ones, for laundry when travelling, and also to hold quilts in.

I had some thicker cotton in bright colours so on Tuesday with the Chooseday girls I made up some tote bags....

I now have 6 good size totes for other groceries......

I think I'm ready for the plastic ban now.....

I started sewing the sides to my animal pictures for my safari photograph quilt...

ran out of the background fabric so I need to dig into my scraps (it's quilt backing so I must have some bits I cut off the sides)

Hand work has seen another 4 blocks of Dutch Treat made..... I still have over 30 to do and I have to say these ones are dragging on a bit.....

It could be because I want to sew angels.... hmmmm

Righto, Gotto Go....  powercut today so it will be treadlepower on this project.....

It's too big for my design board... so the spare room is no longer spare for the duration.....  

- better go and make that coffee before the electricity is shut down...... 

Have a lovely day/weekend.......

Panyiri .....

Panyiri is a Greek Festival held in Brisbane and this year we met up with a couple of long time friends to go to it....

We spent a couple of hours in the morning and had an early picnic lunch at a park .... a lovely well designed garden in the middle of the high rise buildings....

This beauty was enjoying the gorgeous weather.....

This area used to be where they serviced rail carriages I believe....

By the time we moved on to Panyiri we were quite thirsty........ 

The Greek Orthodox Church was open for us to see - lovely paintings of the life of Christ all around

... and of course a lot of lovely Greek treats.... this home made Baklava went down a treat - so did the honey puffs....

Of course there was a Tavern....

.... and plenty of wonderful food .....

... Zorba dancing competitions..... 

.... Ouzo cocktails....

... Haloumi cheese.....

The following day was more gentle with a walk down South Bank, a visit to the markets and some lunch and boutique beers .....

I like having some hand work for the car trips so I knitted ... this wash cloth is coming together nicely .... actually on the way back I just slept so this is only one ways worth of work! 

Good fun, good friends, good food ..... 

Righto, Gotto Go - back to real life and some work to do.....