Playing shop and Quilts in the Woolshed

Saturday 19 August saw me head out to "Springhill Country Craft Retreat" in Amby for Quilts in the Woolshed and a day of working in the patchwork shop.

It was a glorious day.

The Woolshed was decked out in quilts and other crafts.

 

 Plenty of eye candy and inspiration

 Hand spun and coloured wools

 

 

 I was playing working in the fabric shop.  It is just so pretty in there.

 Cecily was my partner in crime for the day.

 More prettiness behind me

 And even more.

 This quilt was one of my favourites. The fabrics were beautiful.

 I love old farm building so I couldn't resist taking a few snaps of the woolshed.

 

 

It was another wonderful day and, yes I may have adopted a few fabrics....

August AHQ #2

Aussie Hero Quilt #2 for August was fun to make.

I used donated blocks to make the giant stars on the top & bottom.  I love the red, white & blue star in the top section, unfortunately the bottom star is not quite as obvious, but it is still there.

This quilt used my favourite AHQ border material, Australian Flags.  it is quite a happy fabric.

 This recipient requested the rising sun and once again the AHQ embroidery fairies stepped in to provide me with one. That rising sun is very complex.

 I was also to send a laundry bag to this fellow, so I dug into my 'quirky' fabric collection to see what I had.  These black & white signs were perfect and the bag will be very distinctive.

Safe travels to the recipient.  Come home safely to your family.

Catch you soon.

Debra

August AHQ #1

August saw two Aussie Hero Quilts completed and sent.  This scrappy green quilt went to Afghanistan.

He requested the Australian Flag, Afghanistan Flag & Op Resolute badge.

(My favourite part of this quilt is the stripey binding)

 Thankfully the AHQ embroidery fairies were able to stitch the words & the Afghanistan flag for me.

 

And a close up of the binding just because I can.

 

I hope it brings joy and encouragement to its recipient.

See you soon. 

Debra

Major May Finish

Last week I posted about February's False Starts and Flimsies  well, the quilt in question was going to be my second finish for the Roma Show.

I had 3 days until the deadline and all that I needed to do was quilt and bind.

WRONG... this quilt did not have a backing, so I needed to make one (it was also Sunday and the shops were closed).  Thankfully I had a bolt of white fabric that I picked up on an amazing sale so I could create the right look. (Finished photo at the bottom of the post)

O-me was having a big week and she didn't let me down.  The quilting went very smoothly, thank goodness.

As the quilt is a star, I quilted swirls & stars as an all over design.

 I love the feeling of the last stitches.

Then I created a red binding from assorted red fabrics in my stash and bound while watching more evening drama & crime shows.  

I present "Exploding Star"  60" x 60".  

(Photo is a little dark as it was almost midnight when I took the photo)

 and the back of "Exploding Star"

I am so very proud of this quilt.  I am so excited I was able to design something that worked.  A few tweaks along the way, but that is an important part of the design process.

My boys inform me this is my best quilt yet - but they are also fairly sure they will not be permitted to use it.

So this is OPAM # 2 for May and entry 2 for Roma Show.

See you again soon.

Debra ~ Outback Crafter

Quilt Connect Brisbane

The end of April saw Queensland Quilters Inc host "Quilt Connect" an exhibit of quilts from affilliated quilt groups across Queensland.

Roma Patchwork & Crafters Inc were one of the groups who exhibited.

 Each group sent 5 quilts for display.  Once of the quilts was mine.  It was great to see them displayed in a State Wide Quilt Show.

 

 I had the opportunity to meet the President & Vice-President of Queensland Quilters. These ladies work really hard to promote quilting in Queensland and their idea of a state wide quilt show was amazing.

 There were some wonderful quilts on display.  This stained glass window was my favourite quilt.

"Rose Window" by Chris Gordon. (Quilt details below).

 These quilt was made entirely from 1/2 inch hexagons.  It is amazing.  It is approximately queens size. (Quilt info and close ups below).

  Close up of hexagons with my hand to show size.

 

Some of the fabrics were cute, others were quirky but there were so many different designs.

 

 I love the little man with the thimble hat.

Queensland Quilters have shared a post of all the exhibit quilts here.  Go and check it out, they are fantastic, varied and not all "perfect quilts".

Until next time.

Debra ~ Outback Crafter

HELLO 2015

Well it has been a very long time between blog posts.

Not for lack of desire but probably lack of time.

I have been motivated to post again by the lovely Kris from Tag Along Teddies and the launch of OPAM 2015.

Shall we say, this is a great motivator to not only finish things but to document them.

January saw me quite constructive.  As long time blog readers would be aware I sew for Aussie Hero Quilts and Laundry Bags.

I posted off a couple of quilts and laundry bags and have commenced sewing a few more.

The quilt below was sent to a female serving in the Middle East

 

This is the laundry bag sent to her

 This quilt was sent to a fellow on HMAS Success

And this is his laundry bag

So, I have been sewing and I was much more constructive than I thought.

See you back here soon with a few more finishes ( I hope),

The End of March

Well  it is the end of March & I have sewn like a machine.

Why can't I keep up this momentum during the year??? HMMM - I obviously need a deadline.

The next finish is a quilt for my wonderful friend Becc.

This is a sneak peak of it on O-me. 

 See that yellow thing there - it has made using O-me so much easier.  I can't believe how one little gadget to help get the bobbin out has made life so much easier (that goodness). Prior to this I had to use long nose tweezers, hold my tongue just right & if I was lucky grow a 3rd hand.  So thank you to the inventors of Ezi-bob.  

(I purchased mine HERE the one in the photo looks different, but this is what I got below.)

 Sorry now back to Becc's Quilt.

"Friendship Jelly" was made in 2012 while Becc was pregnant with baby #2.  Bubs came along & they left town taking an unfinished quilt with them.   In early 2013 I offered to quilt it for Becc, so it came home with me.  Then WE moved house & it was packed away.  Now early 2014, I have a quilt show looming & desperately need quilts to exhibit & I remembered it was there.  A quick message to Becc to check her requirements & a request to exhibit it & "Friendship Jelly" was on O-me being quilted.

Now bound, labelled & ready to hang.  I hope Becc likes the quilting when she gets it back.

 

My next finish "Little Boxes, Little Boxes"

 This quilt top was made to demonstrate the beautiful "Bunny Hill" half jelly rolls from Moda that I sell in my market stall.

If you look closely you can see the top in the back of this photo 

 

At the beginning of March while trying to 'unearth' O-me I found some offcuts from my Bargello Quilt made in 2010.  I realised that they matched the Little Boxes, so they became borders.

A quick couple of hours on O-Me and it was finished.

The day I photographed it was overcast & we had lovely clouds so I played around a bit with my photos.

 

This quilt is lovely but I expect it will end up back on my market stall for sale. 

(After it visits the Quilt Show.)

These finishes have been added to my OPAM count for March & make my finish total on Sew it's Finished up to 5 for 2014.