Challenge accepted!

Judy at Sunshine Quilts has offered us a Stashbusting Challenge, and I wholeheartedly accept! She has challenged us to choose our favourite piece of fabric, you know, the one you don't want to cut up, and rather than continue to gaze at it, use it!

This is my favourite piece of fabric (well, it's actually my favourite pack of fabrics). My wonderful friend Linda gave it to me when I visited in 2000, and I have been so reluctant to cut it up. I justified this by saying it would have to be a very special project to tempt me to cut into this fabric. Well, I'm going to start that special project for this challenge. I'm strong today about the challenge, I hope I continue to be as strong when it's time to wield the rotary cutter.

I have the day to myself today, and there are three different things I'd like to work on. I have a new scrap block I'd like to try, and there are two new quilts I'd like to start ... I wonder which one will pull me in first. Hopefully you'll see the results soon enough!

Scrap Boxes

Yesterday I didn't sew a single thing. Not a scrap ... nothing ... nada. What a strange day for me! I didn't really have lots of chances, but also I just didn't feel like it!

Cameron started back at Kindy yesterday, and he had a great afternoon. He found it a little tricky to grasp that some of the slightly older kids he'd played with before have gone on to school. Kindy time would have been prime 'me' time in the past, but since Amy doesn't start back at school until next week, I took her shopping and then to a sleepover at one of her friends homes.

After picking Cam up from Kindy, and since Marty had the day off, we travelled to Spotlight - he has been making a cat tree/scratcher, and wanted to get some fluffy or carpet like fabric to cover the perches. We found what he was looking for right near the quilting fabrics, and I was not tempted to buy a single thing. I did look ... but I have to confess I don't like to fabric shop while he's around ...

And when we got home it was time to do dinner and a little laundry ... so I didn't really have an opportunity to sew until after Cam went to bed. Instead of sewing, I decided to cut up some more of my scraps from recent projects and bits and pieces in my fabric boxes. I didn't plan to do heaps, but cut until 11.30pm (with a small break for making lunches for the next day). You see my scrap boxes in the picture. I have 1.5" strips, 2" strips, 2.5" strips, 2.5" squares, and 3.5" strips. I do have some other boxes of scraps, but they're 10.5" backing pieces, and other Thimbleberries scraps. I have so much Thimbleberries stuff left over from club projects etc that I keep them separate.

Now I just need to start working these scraps into some more quilts. I'm always amazed at how much sewing you can do will not much of a visible dent in the stash. I'm determined to keep at it, I know I'll see results some day!

Whip that stash!

Yesterday afternoon I decided to start working on the back for the Zig Zag Nine patch. I like to use Bonnie's 10.5" unfinished squares method for making up scrap backs. It sure does whip that stash into shape and uses up uglies that have found their way in there ... or things you've bought and just don't love anymore - for example that blue and yellow stripey piece. What was I thinking???

I'm just so lazy at times , and I thought rather than cut quite so many 10.5" squares, I'd also use multiples of 10 if I had large pieces of stash, so some of the pieces you see in the picture are 20 x 40", 10 x 40", 10 x 20" etc. Not so many seams for me to piece, still stashbusting, and still interesting to look at. Whip the stash ... whip it good!

After dinner last night, I really felt like doing some piecing, and I didn't know what I wanted to work on. I have a few new projects in my head I'd like to get started on, but I will need to do a little planning first. So I decided while watching TV to start putting a few of the blue and cream blocks together. I started by making pairs of blocks, then fours etc ...

The picture is as far as I got, there are still many rounds to go. It's nice to see the pattern forming. Even once I've assembled all the blocks I've made, I don't know that I'll add borders just yet, I may make up more blocks, these ones are fun. I have 100 so far, so let's see how big this quilt grows.

Shortly I will take Cam and Amy to the park so they can ride their bikes around. Cam can work off some of his energy so we can have a quiet afternoon. I really would like to watch the men's tennis final. Should be a ripper game.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

USA Memories top done

I seem to get a lot of stitching done right now while watching/listening to the tennis. I was so surprised to watch the mens semi final last night between Federer and Roddick. I expected it to be a long and tough match, but it ended up being completely one sided.

But I digress ... during the game I made up a mug mat gift for Cam's old day care lady - Betty. We're going to visit her today while Amy is at a birthday party, and I thought it'd be nice to have a little treat for her.

Her home is in very traditional colours, so I chose a heritage green mug for her last time I was at the store, and made up a 5" log cabin block in green and browns from my Thimbleberries scrap box for the little mat.

I have made a few of these now, so I'll have to keep track of who I give them to.

After the mug mat, I was able to put two of the corner sections on the USA Memories quilt, and this morning I finished it up by putting the last two corners on.

I have no idea how I managed to have such a brain fade, but I cut both the setting triangles AND the corner triangles at the wrong size. I made the setting triangles too small, and the corners too large. Obviously I could cut the corner tri's down, but I had to cut the setting triangles anew ... and I really hated wasting those pieces of fabric. I've put them aside to trim down into the scrap boxes, I hope there's not too much waste. I just love the toile fabric. In fact, I don't think I've met a toile I didn't like! The toile came from Carolea's in Sunnyvale from her legendary back porch while I was in the US last year. Such a shame the store is closed now.

I've now completed all my goals for this month, which is unexpected! I think I will busy myself piecing a back from 10" squares for my Zig Zag Nine Patch so that I can quilt it next month. Other than that ... who knows ... it's like free play!

To all my Aussie friends ... Happy Australia Day - I hope you have a wonderful day!

And another breakthrough!

It's finished. Yes, don't adjust your screen, you read that correctly! The Winnie The Pooh quilt is finally finished! Long time readers will know how I've struggled with this project, and now that it's done I really don't know why I had such mental struggles with it.

I guess maybe it was the series of mini-hurdles. Not enough navy fabric to finish the borders. The size of it daunted me with regard to machine quilting. Running out of bobbin thread, and then running out of top thread.

But it's all behind me now, I've finished it, and even Cameron is thrilled. I sewed the last binding stitches down last night watching the mens quarter finals in the Aust Open Tennis. Such a good game, I was enthralled.

Today Amy has a friend over for a play-date, and later we have to go pay for her school books and fees for the year. I don't know how much stitching I'll get done today, but I'm looking forward to doing more work on my USA Memories quilt. Have a wonderful day everyone!

Breakthrough!

We have a name! Drumroll please ... HOLLY! It was hard to find a name we all agreed on. Especially Cameron - he wanted to name her Ninja. I don't know how you all feel about that particular name ... the rest of us didn't think it suited.

But how appropriate is Holly? She is named for Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Holly Golightly had a ginger coloured unnamed cat.

So, our kitty is unnamed no more ... and hopefully will respond to her new name :-) Welcome to the family Holly!

More hours in a day please!

Yesterday was one of those days that was just so fun I didn't want it to end! Amy came home, and was just soooooo excited to meet kitty. She just adores her. Last night Amy did let Madaline sleep on her bed though, she doesn't want her to feel left out. What a honey.

While watching the tennis in the afternoon, I made up my last three DJ blocks for this month. The green one at the top is H11 - Piercing Rays. A cute block with many Y-seams. Bottom left is H5 - Michael's Motorcycle. This is the first time I've made this block, it was made by a DJ friend in my other quilt, it was super easy to make. Bottom right is I8 - Pete's Paintbox. Last time I foundation pieced this block in five sections, but this time it was much easier to use freezer paper piecing. This means I've achieved my DJ goal for this month! Yay!

Next on my list of things to do was to make up another batch of preserves. My new(ish) Fowlers Vacola unit can only take 8 jars at one time, so I have to plan a little if I have a lot of fruit. The four jars on the left are ground tomatoes. We have a few tomato plants and I freeze the tomatoes as they ripen and when I have enough, preserve them with a bay leaf and some basil. Super yummy for making pasta.

And on the right some more peaches ... and the tree is still going, so there will probably be more to come. The smaller size 20 jars are one pint, and I've run out of them entirely now, the two in the back are about one litre (which I think is around one quart). I'll have to get busy labelling the jars, or I'm going to get the peaches mixed up with the apricots that I made last month. They look kind of similar.

And last night while I was watching yet more tennis, I started assembling my USA memories quilt. This is going to be a beauty, I can tell!

The block in the centre is by Sue, the two together top left are by Donna and Karen. Top right are blocks by Linda and Lynn. Bottom right is made by Liz and one by me. Bottom right are made by Linda and Gerri. There are still three more blocks that the girls made which will be added to the quilt, and I will make up one more block to even it up.

After working on DJ blocks during the day with tiny pieces, working on this quilt in the evening was so funny. It felt like I was working with huge bedsheet size pieces!

A big HI to Linda and all the Quilt Batts. Thank you so much for making blocks for me, I really love them, and they're just the most wonderful memory of my fabulous trip to the USA.

Heartstrings

Mother Nature is just wonderful sometimes. We have desperately needed rain, and lo and behold, the heavens have opened! And with rain comes wonderful indoor time, and I've taken advantage of that!

Yesterday I made up seven Heartstrings blocks in honour of Nancy's birthday. Happy belated birthday Nancy!. I'll mail them out with my other parcels on Tuesday or Wednesday. I can see how Mary has declared these blocks addictive. I challenge everyone to get involved in the cause, I see so many of you are already. I'm going to put the button in my sidebar, so go check out the Heartstrings site. Thank you so much to ForestJane for making up the button for us all, and also for sharing the cute picture for stash-quilts.

Having some wind and rain also meant that some of our peaches have fallen from the tree. Rather than let them go to waste (we can only eat so many while they're fresh) I've cut them up and bottled them. We'll be able to have yummy peaches for the year to come.

These are Elberta peaches - old fashioned free-stone ones that taste just divine! This is the first year we've had peaches on our tree, as it's just a baby, and believe me, we're thrilled with it.

And here is my final piece of work for the day. One more DJ block. This one is J2 - Picture Perfect. I love this block, and I think it's perfect if I do say so myself. All the little seams line up so nicely. Those little white pieces are 1/4" wide. I have the freezer paper marked and cut up ready for three more blocks, so I may get them done today. I've done my chores this morning, so I have the afternoon to myself.

Because of the rain I haven't ventured far from home this weekend, so I haven't been to the quilt store to pick up the thread for the WTP quilt, I'll do that in the next day or so ... I'm so looking forward to finishing it. Hope you're all having a great weekend!