Upgrading & rejuvenating

Hi all,
Have had a frustrating few days over the last few weeks. First had arranged for plumber to replace existing shower with a more user friendly one, and secondly, to replace all pipes from house to septic tank (not really a topic for quilting blog, maybe will change name to life blog). Plumber visited to assess & make quote, and didn't return for a fortnight. Shower base replaced on the Friday, hubby & I attempted to put remainder of shower together - Base was 100mm larger than ordered - so contacted retail company, requested remainder of shower be replaced for components to fit base, at no extra cost to us. This was accepted - now waiting for remainder of shower cubicle to arrive. Plumbers supposed to return on following Monday - no show!  Contacted company & advised that workers were off sick. Work began, & completed, on Tuesday, now we have a dust bowl  in the back yard & the dirt ends up in the house - yay. Anyway, enough rambling, onto something more interesting - making quilts

Blessings to All

Japanese Quilt

Well, I am slowly getting back into my quilting and other things, after very intermitent work. About 12 months ago, I purchased a beautiful Japanese Quilt Kit. put it aside until I thought I had enough experience and expertise to produce perfect work, but then I decided that it would be ok to start making the blocks, as long as I took it slowly and checked everything for each block many times. I began the first block within a few weeks of purchasing the kit, and have now almost completed this first block, but it is so pretty that I am putting a photo on my blog now. The only part not finished, is the moss at the base of the tree.
So, here is the block that I am very proud of - I thought that I would make a mess of it. Now I can begin the second block. Sorry about the sideways photo, but I don't know how to make it turn

The blocks will be posted as they are finished, then the quilt when it has been completed.

I have set myself a challenge to complete a project every 2 months. I was going to make it every month, but that sounded too close - I will see how it goes.

Blessings to all

Give away at LeKaQuilt

Hi everyone, drop over to lekaquilt for a very nice give away, it finishes in August

Almost Wedding Ring Quilt Workshop

This is the pride of my quilting accomplishments. I began this as a rank beginner, in July last year, and finally finished it in June, this year. I was very nervous about attempting this quilt, as it takes me a little while to get the concept of some things (which makes me a little slower at getting things done). On the first day of the workshop, I was so stressed by the whole thing, that I almost did not complete the workshop, but one of the other ladies gave me a bit of moral support & I completed the workshop. I am so proud of the fact that I completed the remainder of the work on the quilt, with very little assistance from anyone else. My grand-daughter loves the quilt - it was supposed to be for her 9th birthday, in October 2010, but she has got it now and it has pride of place on her bed.
In this quilt, I have also learnt how to do freehand quilting, and have also been able to add little pictures into the stitching. Unfortunately, I have not taken the photo in a way that will make this feature visible, so I cannot show off that little bit. I will be continuing to practice this skill, as I like the way it looks on the quilt.
Well, that is all for this small feature, so until next time, happy sewing and many blessings

Christmas Table Runner

Hi all, since my last post, I experienced some interesting turns. Firstly, I decided that it was time to retire, and let the yongsters step up to a higher level of responsibility - so now I can sew or quilt whenever I want. The second turn was a car crash - I escaped with no injuries, but the car was written off, so now I have a beautiful new car. On to the photo, this is a challenge for thguid that I attend, and it s a Christmas table runner. My daughter says it looks good, so I am trusting her judgement.

That's all for this post, but I hope to have more projects finished.

This I via mobile phone, so I will probably need to edit when I have internet back on track



New projects and old

 Hi all,

This is a catch up blog of things I have achieved while I have been quiet. Miss Four, my second grand daughter began Kindy this year, and she was a very happy little girl when she received her new kindy bag for Christmas. It was supposed to be for her 4th birthday, which was in February this year, but she needed it before her birthday - hence it became a Christmas gift. The photos of the bag show Miss Four and Miss 20 months. This bag is adapted from a pattern in "Kaleidescope" by Mellie and Me.

The following photos are of a denim bag I made for myself one day when I was feeling very frustrated about the style of bags available in the shops. I used a pair of old childrens jeans, and just cut the legs off and lined the end result. Pockets were added to the inside of the bag, then the strap was added - to the length which I like.

This bag is the first of many bags that I hope to make, as I have many pairs of unwanted jeans, that will make interesting bags of varying sizes.

I have also begun to work on my uncompleted projects, so that I can get ready for new work. I have six projects on the go (not bad for someone who was only going to work on one project at a time) 

The first project I am trying to finish is a quilt for Miss T - she has been waiting for this for 2 years. This will be the second quilt I have made, and it is harder than I thought it should have been. The pattern is the Irish Triple Chain - a very simple beginner level quilt - not! I ask you, why begin with an easy quilt when you can drive yourself crazy with a difficult one. The fun is obviously in the challenge - but once begun, it has to be finished, and there is a lot of learning before the final stitch is finished.

When I began this quilt, I bought the material then had to go and buy more, because I didn't get enough. Then it took me a while to get the courage to cut the pattern, as there were so many different patterns for the Triple Chain, and they are all done differently - so that made life real easy for the novice.

Well Miss T still hasn't got her quilt - her birthday is today (24th July), but it is closer to being finished now.
I have progressed from having separate squares of Irish Triple Chain to having the main front panel completed. The next step completed was securing the panel to the wadding and the quilt backing, and now I have finally got the border of the quilt in place. The quilt was supposed to have two boardering colours, but there has been a change in plan and it now only has the one colour. I decided that there was plenty of white in the quilt already. There are only two remaining steps for the quilt to be completed, and they are for the edge of the quilt to be hand sewn, so that the black edging is completely connected to the turquoise (not teal) boarder, and then the addition of some free hand (machine) quilting for the finishing touch. I am hoping to have the final touches completed before the end of next week, show it to the ladies at Guild (with all the faults intact), then give it to my daughter on the weekend - and hope that she really does like it. The photos below show the quilt before the boarder was put in place. Completed quilt photos will be posted later, hopefully with other project work.

Blessings to all, and may the threads be kind

Cheers

Ellice

Winnings

Here I am again, but this time it is not to show something I have made, but to show the beautiful quilt that I won from a raffle at a "Biggest Morning Tea". It was donated to the cause by a member of the Quilting Guild of which I am a member. This is the first item I have won for quite a number of years.

It isn't a very good photo, but I will put a better one on later

Cheers