D8 - Dee Dee's Delight

She's done and I just loved doing it.

All in needle turn applique.

F-1 Big Top

This one was easier for me.

... and I made it by making 2 sets of ½ square triangles, making sure that the second set was opposite colours to the first, then cut the second set to the smaller size required and needle turned it down into position. I then cut the excess out from behind the block. Then I added the calico triangles on each corner similar to a square within a square block and then needle turned the red triangles into each calico corner. Lastly I trimmed the block to size.

.... and I even worked out how to take a better photo.

K10

What a task that was for me.

I haven't done a lot of paper piecing before this and found it quite difficult to complete the block.

First of I redrafted the block in CorelDraw and then printed out a ½ dozen copies and started sewing but for the life of me couldn't work out why it didn't look like it should, slowly the penny dropped .... I needed it to be mirror image. Once I redrew the block I started moving forward.

I did it in 5 rows and then sewed the rows together. The top and bottom row was done in 1 piece, but 2,3 and 4 were done in 3 pieces each and you really don't want to know how long it took me ... alright about 6 hours not counting minutes. I really do hope that the next challenge is a little easier.

BOW Challenge

Finished!

Another one to cross off the list. This one was a tad harder.

I first made ½square triangles, joined them into a rows of 3x3, put a border around the four sides mitre-ing the corners.

I then needle turned appliqued the triangles in diagonally opposite corners and then cut the borders down to size, measuring and cutting so that the wonky look was correct.

This was successful after the second try, first time I cut the border and then sewed on the triangles and of course after finishing I realised that I had cut the borders the wrong way and the border was wide where it was supposed to be narrow.

DJ Journey

Last year I decided that the computer was taking up too much of my time so I stopped blogging.

Now I've restarted my dear jane journey and I want to journalise my completed blocks. I've joined the American dear janers to keep me on the straight and narrow and hopefully will be able to keep up with the blocks of the week (BOW)

To be completed by last Sunday night was E7 - Bread Basket and I DID IT!!! in time too. I needle turned in reverse the edge triangles, needle turned the centre square on point and then needle turned the bias strips (must get myself a bias turner that adds the vliesofix at the same time) and then log cabin'd the outside strips.

This weeks is H12 - Hannah Lou's Hearts - and here it is - a nice easy one done needle turn applique.

Oh boy!

It only seems like yesterday that I last updated. The kids have been at me to get typing.
At the moment I'm unwell with infected sinuses, I don't feel like doing anything. Do I sound like I'm whinging? Yep, I am.

So much has happened since June.

I went down to Montville to my friend Leonie and had a 3 day sewing retreat where I ate too much and spent too much - it was wonderful. I had a play on her new long arm quilting machine that frightened the hector out of me. It is absolutely fantastic and Leonie makes it sing, me, I made it squark. I then went and stayed for 5days with my parents at Gympie and sorted out Dad's computer and finally after 11years altered the quilt on the guest bed. This quilt was in my parent's caravan and Mum thought is was too good for travelling so brought it inside the house to use on the guest bed. Small problem - van quilt's are made to suit a van bed that have rounded ends, so did the quilt, so on the normal bed we had to tuck the rounded end up and under and we did and always said one day when I'm visiting we'll get in and fix that. So now it's fixed, the job took about 1½hours and wasn't that hard. Isn't it always the way.

At Leonie's we visited Maleny Magic P&Q shop and i finally found the right material for the log cabin quilt for our bed, I worked it out on the computer and had all the measurements and the amounts of material needed, I even bought .25m more of each fabric. Big miscalculation, BIG. My bed is king I worked out for single. I made 56 blocks and kept thinking something is wrong here, finally the penny fell and luckily I was able to get more material, so now I can get in and finish the quilt.

At the moment I have a few irons in the fire.
1. A beginners quilt that I will be teaching in a few week's time.
2. My Heart's in Blue quilt that I am halfway through quilting.
3. My Redwork Annie quilt is pinned and ready for quilting - as soon as I finish Hearts in Blue.
4. The curtains for the front sleepout have to be altered for this house. I brought them with me from Samford, luckily was able to buy more of the same material and now just have to sew and alter. Finished one before these darn sinuses hit me for 6.
5. Halfway through the curtains to hang on my shelves in the Sew'n Shed the blockout is up, just have to finish the sleepout curtains so I can take down the make do curtains which just happen to be the ones that are for the Sew'n Shed.
6. Just thought I'd add that number, but I really do have another half a dozen things on the go. Knitting a pair of socks, finishing off heart blocks to send to quilters who need a long distance hug, still working on my ½" hexagon tablecloth and of course trying to get xmas cards made. I made a mental rule, if I sit down at this desk I have to make a xmas card before I do anything else. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

That'll do for this post, I promise to take photos of all of the above and post them here when I'm back on top.

Long Weekend, Kenilworth Quilt Show and More ...

We went to Rick and June's at Imbil for the June long weekend and had a lovely time. Hans, Marg, Phil, Kym, Mike, Narelle with their son Aaron, Tony and his kids Ashley, Zac and Teanna were there as well, we were camped all over the place, luckily they have acreage. We had a fire each night that usually needed a lot of help to get going.


Here's a photo of the fellows hard at work bending the elbow and exercising the jaw.


On that same weekend the Kenilworth Quilters had their quilt show so on Sunday morning four of us gals headed off to take a look. Some beautiful work. Here's just a couple to whet your appetite.

All right I can't count.

The driveway and path are finished and looks fantastic. In these photos the blokes are still hard at work.

After the weekend Ian and I had to head down to the Sunshine Coast for a couple of appointments - Ian for the dermatologist (gave us some good news and a script for a sun spot cream) and I finally had my colours done at Kerryn's Fabric World in Prinder Ave Maroochydore. A lovely lady who truly enjoys her work. I am a Cool Deep and I now know everything to know about making myself look slimmer and taller. Now to put it all into practice.

While we were down there Ian finally made the decision to trade in his ute. Last month we were trading in my commodore, but the ute needed some repairs done that were going to cost MONEY and so we started looking. Here is a photo of the old girl.

We had a good look at a yard in Buderim and found a 2001 Toyota GXL wagon and even took it for a test drive, then Ian crawled under and said we wouldn't be buying this one. He said that the chassis had swelled with rust and the threads on the bolts just came off on his fingers. Was a nice looking vehicle and in our price range too. While we were there we met Frank who was also looking for a towing vehicle and put us onto one at Ken Mills Nambour, so off we went and ended up buying it. Frank reckons we owe him a bottle of good stuff. This is our new vehicle - well, new to us. A 1999 Toyota GXL Landcruiser wagon with 109ks on the clock - just run in.

We have had her for a week now and she runs well and is lovely to travel in, nice and smooth compared to the ute. The only problem we have now is NO ute. On our way home from Nambour I picked up 4 Pekins (chooks) and of course they had to travel in our new vehicle. On the Sunday after we got home I had to have son-in-law Pete bring a bag of horse manure over on his truck 'cause I wasn't allowed to put it in the back of the wagon. I think we need a trailer!