Red club No. 3

Red club! I had a great afternoon today. Marg Low's red club at the patchwork apple. Our red club is a great group! I really enjoyed sewing with them today. Loz had her red club last Saturday, so I kind of knew what the small quilt was going to look like. (Go to her blog to check out the finished small quilt!) I got the initial square done and twenty squares of triangles. (I'm sure you don't know what I mean by that because reading it back I don't know what I mean!) Anyway. I have 40 more squares to make which should be a snap because Sara (the patchwork apple's teacher) showed us a really quick and easy way to make them. Even as I sewed the first 20 squares I had no idea how they would turn out. (Hey! Twenty squares from two pieces of fabric? Not gonna happen!) I just sewed, and sewed, and sewed, then looked at the sewing. Thought for a moment. Then realised that it was entirely possible that 20 squares would emerge once I had cut along the pencil marks.

Loz and I are off to Pt Pirie this weekend to a class with Gail Pan and Natalie Ross. I think I have all the luck! I will report back on my excellent weekend soon!

Silly boy!

Cause 6 ft 4 isn't tall enough, Mr 16 added grandson's ball on top of his head. The things boys will do to get a laugh! (Grandson thought this was very funny. And creepy. All at the same time.) Yep, that's what we did at sewing day.

Look at this Pip!

Wednesday saw us at Mrs 26's house for another sewing day. I stitched a little. Mostly we chatted. Miss 24 noticed this Christmas wall hanging and commented on how pretty it is. It's just hanging where it got put the day they moved in, but Mrs 26 said that she found it really inspiring in that position so she left it there.

Yep. Whenever she does the dishes she is reminded that everything is okay. (All is calm, all is bright) Mrs 26 won this in a blog giveaway that Pip had and loves it! I went to the patchwork apple today and bought some Christmas fabric. The Christmas in July theme may just linger on into August for me.

Stitching today.

I have done a little stitching today. Leanne Beasley's "Merry and Bright". Stitching is so fun!!!

Last Week

This end of July has been quite unproductive creatively. I have been sick and have spent quite some time sitting in this chair in my room. In fact I am still coughing. In between feeling gruesome I have been sewing curtains for Mr 21. He and his fiance have just bought a new house which needed curtains. My Bradley has been installing the curtain rods and I have two rooms of curtains done. Three more rooms to go! I hope to achieve something creatively this week too. I am looking for a small project! (Very small!) Hope you are all well!

Christmas in July Retreat

My Bradley and I had a weekend away this weekend. We spent the weekend in Mannum at Patchwork on Parade's "Christmas in July" retreat. I got to spend an awesome weekend sewing and Bradley got to spend an awesome weekend hanging out with me. (He really did have a good time. Honest.) I got into the spirit of the retreat by putting together my Rosalie Quinlan "Redwork Christmas" quilt. Some of you may remember the redwork that I did for it last year. (Hmm...... it never sounds very good when you use the phrase "last year" whilst talking about a current project!)


I cut fabric and organised the blocks and then began sewing. I was able to get all the blocks finished and put together. I just have the borders and quilting to do. (Just!) All my photos turned out blurry (shock!), but the one below shows how it ended up.

Sewing day

Today was sewing day at Mrs 25's house. We (Miss 13, Mr 9 and me) arrived late morning, set up and sewed into the afternoon. I sewed the aforementioned (forgotten) shaggy flannel quilt. You know, until I made my first shaggy flannel quilt a couple of years ago, I really didn't like those quilts. I always called them cheat quilts. I have made so many this year! It is because they are the warmest snuggliest quilts and my kids all want their own. (Still got one who wants one, so I'm not done yet.)


Miss 13 started a moda "pure" quilt top. She surprised me today with her patchwork knowledge. I was ready to help her, but she knew it all. There was some babysitting done by Mrs 25. She was binding a quilt that she has been working on this week. Granddaughter made sure she didn't get too much done!

The boys (Mr 9 and grandson) played shops, cubby houses, posted mail, ate (and ate and ate), and watched a video. There were some altercations but mostly it was a happy day.

Miss 13 really got to grips with string piecing...........




All in all a really fun day. We decided we should do it again soon!

Shaggy quilt finished!

I have been working on this quilt for some time. So long in fact that I had almost forgotten about it. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it) Until today when wondering out loud what I should take to the sewing day I had been invited to. (more about that later) My Bradley suggested Miss 18's shaggy quilt. "Good idea!" I thought since Miss 18 is going away this weekend and had expressed a desire to take it with her quite some time ago. Then I finished it and gave it to Miss 18. Even she had forgotten about it! So, here it is. My second finish for this month! The forgotten shaggy quilt.

School holidays = Hair Braiding

This week was the first week of the school holidays here in Adelaide. It has gone by so quickly. These holidays mark the end of semester one, so all those at school are digesting or awaiting results. It also means that it is a real break, because there is no homework! (Semester two hasn't started yet) Fake hair extensions from "Cheap As Chips" inspired the braiding going on at our house. What do you do in the school holidays?

July's first finish

On track! (Sort of. It is the 8th today!) I finished the breath of Avignon table runner today. I started out this morning by practicing my free motion quilting on a practice sandwich. Off topic - Every morning I have some kid or other telling me about the dreams they had last night. They are always pretty spectacular. Some of them dream about pokemon, others run the world. (We have a wide range of personalities here!) When they are done telling me about their dreams they always ask me about my dreams. I think, but nothing comes to me, so I tell them that I don't actually dream. Not sure if I can never think of what I dream about or if I don't think my dreams are spectacular enough to share..... So, back to the free motion quilting practice. As I practiced I realised that free motion quilting is what I dream about. Only, I'm heaps better at it in my dreams than I was this morning. Disappointing! I had been dreaming about quilting some butterflies onto the table runner. So I practiced butterflies. They were awful!!! I practiced some flowers instead and that's what went on to the table runner. And now it is finished.

On to the next table runner I say! I have been working on the French General table runner too. I put a narrow red border on it because I like red and because so many of you suggested that it needed some more red on it. So far I like it. I have one more border to put on and then I will just need to quilt it. Tomorrow I think.

Youth (I hear it's wasted on the young)

Some of my young people. Youth is to me enthusiasm. Enthusiasm for all sorts of strange things! Having had 8 children we have had a whole range of enthusiasms here. Youth!

Tablerunner progress

I'm up to quilting this table runner. I managed to quilt the border today and am planning to free motion the center tomorrow. Or some other day in the future. I always seem to get so busy! Quilting is magical. It always feels so different once you start to quilt. Many years ago I bought a wonderful book by Lee Cleland called "Quilting Makes the Quilt". Great book, brilliant title. Quilting really does make the quilt!

Hopefully I will finish the table runner in the next couple of days. I have been thinking about OPAM. (One Project A Month) It has been really valuable for me to be a part of OPAM. I guess I am someone who needs a shove every now and then! The most finishes I have managed in a month has been three. At the beginning of each month I think I will get more finishes this month. And then I don't. So this new month (July? Can you believe it's July?) I figured I should make more of a plan than thinking in bold italics. (I will.) I figure that I can get four finishes this month (I know, I'm not very ambitious at all!) if I make sure I get one finish a week. So, tomorrow is the 7th and.............. the table runner is almost finished! I have another table runner on the go and a shaggy quilt part done too, so, how hard could it be? And I've just written a blog post about it. More pressure! Good pressure though. Watch this space. I might just finish something. I might just finish four things!

Postcard Swap

I received my postcard in the Postcard swap on Friday. I know. I'm slack on the posting front! We have family visiting from Brisbane and I have been somewhat preoccupied. My beautiful postcard is from Gwynnie. I love it a lot. She turned hers into a folded card and sent it in an envelope. Very smart I thought. The postal service tends to have very little respect for postcards on their own. She also sent me one of her business cards and I couldn't resist showing you the envelope she sent. Isn't her handwriting gorgeous? Very pretty!