Button Tree

Buttons... buttons ... buttons.
This tree was stitched while driving to Emerald a few weeks ago. It took about 4 hours to stitch this tree and I love it. I stitched it onto a 'green' bag to use for the festive season. When we go out I have been finding others trying to hijack it.I love Christmas

Christmas Outfit required

It is Christmas party season and often the invitations say "come in Christmas clothes".

This year I decided to make a Christmas skirt from ties.

Reindeer ties.



It is at least a talking point.

The Great Injune Reveal

You may recall I blogged about my Injune Creek Patchwork Challenge back in June, well Saturday was the big REVEAL day. It was great to see what everyone came up with.

To refresh your memories this is what we started with.

The Scrapbookers were given 2 solid coloured papers rather than 2 solid colour fabrics and the sewers were given either orange, green or blue solid fabric to go with the burgundy one.


So drum roll please to reveal my challenge.......


RAINBOW NINE
and some of the other creations.

Gayle's funky tin & cards. I love that tin. Gayle I will not be upset if you forget to come and collect it, I am sure it will find a use in my house.

Sue Ps creative streak. If you look closely you can see the yellow stripe & burgundy in the border, the green is in the squares and the blue is tiny dots on some of the squares
Pam's miniature bookshelf. She made the books and bound them in the yellow, the coloured cards are used inside the books and the blue is lining the shelves.
Julie's "Arty Farty Canvas" (her words)
An awesome cushion made using 'shrinking sheet' a form of interfacing that is designed to shrink up your work. This cushion was voted viewer's choice on Saturday.
And practically used as a hat.
A table runner/cloth for Fiona's outdoor table
Christmas
Shaggy quilt
This photo has all the challenges in it. Some we have seen previously and others that I didn't get very good photos of.
After all the excitement of Challenge reveal we took the time to sing some carols with the residents of the Injune Nursing Home as we were using their lounge for our party.

Thanks to Sue M and all the other Injune ladies for a great day. It was great fun. I am looking forward to more adventures in 2011.

Tree decorations

These super cute and easy directions were another project for our patchwork group late last month. We needed to make our Christmas tree more 'handmade' and these fitted the bill perfectly.

The pattern can be found here. Go check it out as my photo doesn't do them justice. (I would give you a close up photo, but I have misplaced the one tree that I bought home with me.)

Merry Christmas. I hope you have handmade decorations on your tree.

Breast Care Bags

My patchwork group decided to join the throng of women sewing bags for people who have had breast surgery. These bags are so when they leave hospital they can carry/hide their drainage bags. They were super easy to make and lots of fun as 5 of us all sewed together.

I would link to the pattern information but I can't find a link as it was sent to me as a PDF.

Anyhow, here are some of the bags we made, up close & personal
And hanging out together on the wall. We made some more blokey options as even men sometimes have to have a breast removed.

We will be sending these off to the appeal in the next week or two, so we hope they are useful to who ever receives them.

Another birthday quilt

My Neighbour, Marcie, turned 40 on the 1st November, so we decided that a significant birthday required a special gift.

So Red, white & black were called into action for the job.

Marcie has always admired the shaggy quilts I have made for others, so she received her own.
I think it looks really snuggly and I think she likes it (there is not much use for a Quilt in Qld in Summer)

Oh yeah, this was a 1 day project. Choosing the fabric always takes longer than sewing the quilt.

Mave's Quilt

This is actually a project made and finished in about a week. Mave's 80th birthday quilt. Her party was in October and I took the finished quilt with me for the guests to sign as a 'huggable guest book'.

When choosing colours for this I kept thinking that Mave loves gardening so that directed my fabric choices.
After the party I was able to grab a couple of photos of the 'signed' quilt. I love it & so does Mave.
The back used softer colours and no signatures.
So One project completed in October, many started.

Super fast jelly roll quilt

Well that is what it was called when I stumbled upon it on line. The super fast does not allow for the needing to decide what size I need the finished quilt to be and actually getting it finished and quilted, but the process was fast.

I started with this yummy jelly roll that I won at our quilt show. Isn't it beautiful and being Moda fabric it feels as good as it looks.
I then sewed all the strips together into this seemingly endless jumble of fabric.
and after more sewing and folding & cutting, came out with this.

Yes it is a fast quilt top, but UNBELIEVABLY monotonous. Add this to the UFO pile.

no Posts, but not idle

Hello blog followers, if there are any of you left. I have not really fallen off the face of the earth, just got a bit wrapped up in life to stop in & say hi.

I have not been blogging, but I have not been idle either.

A few of the projects I have been working on are

Christmas Memories Quilt - using stitcheries from "Heart of Gold Creations" and Moda layer cake Frosted memories.
I know I won't have this finished for Christmas this year, but it may lay on our bed as an un-quilted topper. Below are some border ideas I have.

Plain border
piano keys

zigzag border
squares/mini blocks

Hmmm still trying to decide. When I pull it out to finish sewing it will just come to me I am sure.

Twisted Weekend

This weekend saw me twisting and turning all weekend.

We twisted and turned our fabric (and our brains) as we had a "Twisted Bargello" workshop with Julie Latcham of Cow Paddocks Patchwork in Dulacca. Here is Julie practising her best 'twisting' action when she thought no one was watching.
GO JULIE!!

And after many hours of sewing, some results.

Below is the only quilt that left the workshop partly sewn together. Well done Cecily.
And Gayle's beautiful Pink & Green
Julie's demo wall hanging (it reminds me of the tails of a "pink ribbon")
The quilt we were aspiring to make
My TWISTED BARGELLO this is less than 1/3 of the design. I have a little way to go, but I am very happy so far.

Stitch, Scrap, Socialise... Success

We laughed, stitched, scrapped, knitted, chatted, ate, floated around and generally had a good time.

Thanks for a great night ladies.
We raised $232 for the Cancer Council.

Date Claimer

Mark your diaries for Friday October 8, 2010. You need to come to

a Girls Night In fundraiser to assist the Cancer Council Australia to continue their research into Women's cancers.

Stitch, Scrap & Socialise is exactly what it sounds like. A night of good old fashioned craft & chatter. BYO craft or just come & chat with others and check out their crafts.

So come to Studio 6, Roma Community Arts Centre, Hawthorne St Roma (opposite the cinema) from 6 -10pm. Bring a small plate of finger food to share for dinner or dessert & BYO drinks (tea & coffee provided).

Cost $4 per person plus a donation to Cancer Council. Any amount over $2 is tax deductible.

You can donate in cash on the night, or online http://qld.cancercouncilfundraising.org.au/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=220424

Looking foward to seeing you all to support this worthwhile cause.

Debra

Quilt is finished

Well this is one post I have been desperate to show you. My 'drunk path' quilt from Injune is finished. I sent it off to the wonderful Rosalie of Rose Quilting in Highfields, Qld (sorry no blog, so can't link) and she sent back an exquisite masterpiece.

As I had sewn the quilt in vines, Rosalie quilted it to follow the vines.
Look at that detail.
And 3 borders have 3 different quilting designs on them. Thanks sooooo much Rosalie. It is divine.

Now, I just need to come up with a name & hang it on my wall for a full length photo.

Braids it is

For those of you who kindly offered an opinion on the borders for my quilt a few months back, I thought I should show you my choice.

Braids won & here they are stitched into the quilt, on my bed prior to heading the the quilter.


So thanks for your opinions. I will post shortly (as soon as I take the photos) the beautiful quilting work that Rosalie did.

A baby quilt for school

Because organising a quilt show wasn't enough to keep me busy for the last few weeks, I offered to help the Prep class from school to make a 'baby quilt' for their teacher who is on Maternity leave.

Each child drew a picture onto fabric. (This is my E, modelling his drawing)

And I stitched the quilt together in the class room so the children could see how it became a 'blanket' as they all called it. We hope Mrs McGilvray likes it.

Quilt Show Success

Well Showing of the quilts has come to an end and we have it is all packed up for another 2 years.

To add to my excitement the quilt I am standing in front of won 2nd Viewer's choice prize and I won a Jelly roll of fabric. YEAH.
This is the patchwork ladies just prior to packing up. We had a great show & everyone seemed really happy.