Tidying up at the end of April

Since I came out of isolation and resumed a normal life, I haven't had much chance to sew, or blog. However today it is wet so I am going to attempt to have a tidy up post before the month ends.

I took a photo of the Moda Love quilt top I made at Scrub stitching. I didn't have a complete photo to share when I showed the Moda Love quilts everyone had made, back in *this* post. I made this from a charm pack, In The Meadow by Riley Blake designs. Because I didn't plan my colours before sewing my HSTs mine went down a slightly different track. And I added borders to help the size grow a little - 

Hmm I wonder how long before I get this one quilted??! It's on the pile at least!
*Here* is a link to the Moda Love pattern. It now seems to only come up as a PDF.

Whoops, I told a lie, I did get a bit of time in the sewing room aka The Palace, yesterday. I decided to unpick a couple of the applecores in my applecore quilt to slightly redistribute the colours. Even though this is a top I didn't want to spend hours fussing to get the fabrics right, there were a few too many darker ones a bit close together which I have now swapped out. (I allowed mself to unpick four only!) This will also be bordered to so it has gone into my bag to take to work for a fabric hunt.

I've hunted out some photos of the makes I took to Scrub Stitching with me. First up, the dress up for our Australiana themed dinner - 

The Gumnut beanie - 

I used a basic beanie pattern and 14 ply (chunky) wool yarn. There are lots of cute baby hats with 'stalks' on them so I looked one up to work out how to finish mine. This actually knitted together pretty quickly - and I made two, (and unpicked one) as the first one was too small!

And to 'finish' my gum outfit, I made a gumleaf from a Twig and Tale pattern - I purchased and used the NZ leaves pattern a few years ago. This leaf is from their Australian series. Again, another quick sew which I had done in a day (just as well as I was running out of time by then!).

I left this in Australia for kiwikid Sue's wee grandson. I hope he enjoys it for some imaginative play as he grows :-)

Today Odie claimed the beanie as his own, saying that it looked like the hat that Dipsy, the green Teletubby, wears! If it will make him wear a hat, great!!!

I didn't have photos to show you the gift that I made for our mystery swap at Scrub Stitching. Janice received mine and shared photos on her blog, which I have now 'stolen'. I made this little bag that folds down to a useful container for using - 

I made one of these for my swap gift last time too (2019). Linda, who received it, loved it so I thought I may as well make it again!

The pattern is Catch All Cutie by Teresa Weaver.

One of the things I wanted to do at Scrub Stitching was to make a start on my On Williams Street QAL blocks. I had been eyeing up this QAL since it started in January but hadn't had the chance to do anything about it till now. Each month they offer a free motion quilting design for a block. Each month's block is the same, but the quilting designs are different. They are quilted as blocks and then all joined later.

The 15" block is a pretty cool block. However at this stage, one night, I decided to put this one into the corner for some time out!

Nice and fresh, back at home, I fixed it up.

And started another. Whoops, that one went into coventry too!

All fixed, 

And with its mate.

I have altered the pattern a little. Instead of sewing half square triangles for the centre, I made an economy block. And I used the 8-at-a-time method to streamline the making of the half square triangles.

If you are at all interested in enhancing your free motion quilting skills, pop along and have a look - they post a very comprehensive video each month.

Ok, I'd best be off,

'til next time,

Happy Stitches,

Done and Dusted

Wow, I can't believe that another fabulous Scrub Stitching retreat is over!

Sue and I arrived at Baradine at about lunchtime on Wednesday. It was so exciting to finally arrive - I attended in 2019 so this return trip has been a long time coming.

Here is a view of the camp - 

Inside the main room it was all set up for sewing and more sewing - 

We had lovely gift bags waiting for us (whose contents will be revealed at another stage)-

We had a full house this year - I think we had 35 sewers plus a few husbands who made themselves scarce during the days.

Doubly exciting was that, as well as Australians from (nearly) all over the country, we had Sylvia from Germany, Gail, Deana and Tracey from the USA, Chris from Canada, and Lou and myself from New Zealand. A lot of travelling!

After a bit of meeting and greeting, we got straight to sewing. I had brought along a pile of Applecores I'd cut from a Thimbleberry range a Very Long Time Ago. I found them lurking in the cupboard when I was looking for something else and decided it was time they got moved along.

I'd used the Accuquilt cutter to cut them so they were perfectly shaped with notches in the right places and they sewed together pretty quickly. (Sue kindly brought along an extra machine with her so I was able to plan lots of machine sewing.)

Sometime the next morning I had the top together. I didn't really plan it as I sewed but it worked out ok. It's turned out quite small so I'm going to hunt for the right border to add on and bring it up to a useable size. One Day.

It had been suggested that if we were at a loss for a project to do, we might like to make the Moda Love Quilt, a free Moda pattern that uses, mini charms, charms or layer cakes. So I started on that next. Meanwhile there were a few others sewing it as well - 

Jude made hers with a layer cake-

As did Pat-

And Liarnne

Susan used charms for hers-

Here is Jo's, made from a 'scrap box' she purchased - 

Maureen used mini charms, and had a sizing malfunction so ended up with a teeny tiny quilt. Completely finished with hand quilting -

Janice went all out and made hers from using mini charm size, charm size and layer cake sized blocks - 

I used the charm packs we were given in our goodie bags in 2019; after a bit of playing around-

I ended up with a slightly different version, mostly because I sewed a bunch of HSTs before working out my colours!

I have since put a white then blue border on mine to make it up to 40" but can't find a photo of it.

That evening we gathered for nibbles at the outside bar. It's a lovely place to watch the sun go down from-

Gorgeous flowering gum flowers picked by someone on the way up-

That's me about done for tonight. More photos to come another time!

'til  next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn