Saturday 29 April 2017

Springwood Quilt Show

Off to Springwood in the Blue Mountains for their Annual Quilt Show tomorrow. I hope it's not too cold! I was away Last year and missed it. The local ladies work very hard for this show. It always has a great display of locally made quilts. A variety of Quilt Shops come to show their new supplies and tempt fabric addicts to add to their stashes! I will meet my Partner in Crime there for a light lunch. Then a trip around the display to gain some inspiration and motivation. Have a great Sunday. Cheers Emmbee 💜

Sunday 19 March 2017

International Quilting Weekend

Well! Who knew that the weekend close to St Patrick's Day has been proclaimed by some as International Quilting Weekend? Well that's the best excuse I heard of yet! So, I finished Quilting a lap sized, scrap quilt made of four inch squares surrounded by two inch white sashing. I quilted it on the diagonal using white thread and a twin needle. The squares are all smalll prints in soft blues, pinks, yellows. greens and reds. I used two colour binding in white and yellow. I just need to join the binding and stitch it down. The two coloured binding is sewn onto the back, then folded over to the front to be machine stitched down. The second colour in the binding creates a flange effect. When stitched carefully, using monofilament thread, the stitching on the front is difficult to see. A line of stitching can be seen on the back of the quilt. I pin the binding carefully to make it as neat as possible. I cooked a yummy baked leg of lamb with roast potatoes, carrots and mixed steamed veggies with gravy! Yum! Tomorrow I'm going to help my daughter with baby Jay again. His new medication seems to have kicked in. He now only cries instead of screaming in pain. Hopefully he will be more comfortable, and we can attempt to get him to sleep in either his bassinet or cot. Cheers Emmbee! 💜

Saturday 4 March 2017

17 projects in 2017

Earlier this year I joined a challenge to complete 17 projects in 2017. Well, thanks to an exceedingly hot summer and the untimely demise of our ducted air conditioning unit, I haven't done very much at all. With the cooler days, which arrived with the beginning of autumn, I've finally managed to get into the sewing room without melting into a puddle. In early 2015, I was involved in a scrap swap with a group of seven friends. We each had to make millions hundreds of sets of scrappy 2" squares, sewn into sets of three. The result was enough sets of three for each of us, to sew into rectangles made three wide by six squares long. These were then combined with 5" plain squares set on point, to create Bonnie Hunter's scrappy 'Rick Rack Nines' quilt. The pattern can be found on her blog 'Quiltville Snips and Bits' @quiltville.blogspot.com or, check out the quilt on Pinterest. I decided to use up some 6 1/2" machine embroidered red work squares I had made several years ago for a long forgotten project. When laid them out, I discovered that I needed another 21 embroidered squares. Well, I've finally completed all of the embroidery. The stabiliser has been removed, so now they just need to be trimmed to 5" then laid out, ready to be sewn together. I found a small print fabric with a maroon background which can be used for the setting triangles and either a border or the binding, depending on the quantity available. This project is on going, but I've made another step towards completion. Savoury mince with mashed potato for tea. Cheers 💜

Tuesday 28 February 2017

Autumn

The first day in March. The first day of Autumn here in Australia. Autumn is my favourite season. The days are still warm and sunny, but with that comes a slight chill in the evening air. The humidity begins to dissipate, and my energy and enthusiasm begins to improve. Thank goodness the heatwaves of our Summer appear to be behind us. We are expecting more rain over the next week. It will be good to see the plants regenerate themselves after the appalling heat of the 2016/17 summer. Yay! I managed a photo! Part of the backyard.
Cheers Emmbee 💜

Thursday 23 February 2017

Thanks

I'm still trying to sort out how to write a post. Thanks for checking up. Cheers Emmbee 💜

Thursday 25 August 2016

Stanwell Tops ..... A Weekend Retreat

Sewing and knitting with friends! BLISS! I spent a few days away at Stanwell Tops Conference Centre. What a beautiful place. Great friends, great food, great time. I completed the top of the crosses quilt. I was also able to design the layout of a stack n whack quilt which I'd like to give away as a Christmas present. I also made a cube block. The first of many which will be used in a One Block Wonder quilt. I'll add photos if I get to figure out how. I've also been working on the blue and white ripple blanket. It's becoming quite heavy so I'll only work on it at home from now on. I'm going to revise the colour scheme of the smaller ripple blanket. There are way too many browns in it and I think it will look dull. I'm not exactly sure what changes to make. I was really pleased with the first four colours I used, so I might get some more of them and either repeat or reverse the colour sequence. The sewing store room is coming along. Still lots to do but definitely more organised.......AND labelled. I've been making some baby wraps in both muslin and flannelette. I found a Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt. It only needed some free motion quilting and the binding. It's nearly finished. I thought I'd also try to make some Modern Cloth Nappies. I was given some PUL fabric, Minky, and bamboo terry towelling. I'll make tutorials for some of these projects so that they can be posted when I figure the picture uploading dilemma. Cheers! Enjoy yourself......Emmbee

Monday 4 July 2016

4th July

American Independence Day. In Australia we still don't know who's going to be running our country! Today was a bleak winters day. Not conducive to outdoor activity at all. No work in the store room today. I spent time in my sewing room working on my second ripple blanket. I'm using another of Lucy's colour sequences and a different colour combination to any of hers. I hope it works out. I also cut some 61/2" strips of tone on tone rainbow colours which coordinate with the batiks I cut last week. I'm making a queen sized quilt for a friend in the 'Plus' sign design. I think they should work well together. Let's see if I can add a photo here. Mmmmmmmm! No photo! Sad face! Two years ago I arrived in Coventry and spent the day with my daughter. We visited Coventry Cathedral and saw Lady Godiva on her horse. We then headed off to Kenilworth to stay in a B&B as she was between houses. I met her new boyfriend. Cheers!