Oh My, its been so long

My apologies to anyone out in bloglandia who stopped over to read. particularly my OPAM friends.

I can't believe it has been since October since I last posted. 

I have been sewing & planning a quilt show on top of my usual life, so getting the photos off my phone and blogging have been a bit hit and miss.

I'm onto it.

Off to retrieve those photos because I've got something to show you.

October OPAM

Wow, October is the busiest quilting month I think I've had for a while.

I have quilted a couple of quilts for friends & Aussie Hero Quilts.

I was asked to quilt a special quilt as a gift for a 15 year old girl.  I don't usually work in 'pretty' colours but I was so excited about how the quilting came out.

If you look just above the ricrac you will see "Amy"

 The cotton was white.  I love how it seems to have picked up the colour of the fabrics.

I have been frantically working on Aussie Hero Quilts & Laundry Bags.  I managed to convince the craft ladies that they could help me, so I have been sewing, supervising, quilting & binding to help us get our quilts off in the mail.

This Aussie flag quilt was pieced by Victoria from craft, I quilted & bound it.

I love stitching messages into the quilts... "Thank you"

 

"Aussie Hero"

 

This Rising Sun laundry bag is to accompany the Flag quilt.

  The embroidered Rising Sun was sent to me from AHQ Headquarters.

 They look great together, and no doubt they are from Australia.

 This jelly roll quilt had the Southern Cross added for an Aussie Hero

 

and backed in Wallabies Fabric.

 It was a  little fitting / sad that I was working on the binding for this quilt during the Wallabies vs All Blacks final of the rugby world cup.  Shame we didn't win, but I was at least sewing to help me keep my eyes open at 2.30am.  :) 

There are a few more Aussie Hero quilts under the needle to be sent before Christmas, so back to the sewing I go.

Thanks for stopping by.

A wedding Gift

The beginning of October saw my family attending the wedding of Bindi & Anthony.

I have been in discussions with the bride & groom in the months leading up to the wedding to find out if they wanted a quilt & if so, what should it look like.

After many text messages & phone calls the bride finally decided & gave me 2 weeks to get it made. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

 This was the inspiration quilt from http://waterpenny.net/how-to-make-a-wedding-signature-quilt/

After much deliberation they decided the quilt could be teal, grey, light coffee brown.

I got to work, cutting, piecing & appliqueing

 A finished monogram

 Quilt top

 Pieced backing

 Now onto the frame.

 An all over stipple

 It was at this point, that I had a panic attack thinking I had loaded it onto the machine incorrectly as I had forgotten the quilt had a matching backing.   Momentary panic attack.  It is very pretty when the front & back match so well.

 Ahh relief. The last quilting stitch.

 The completed quilt

 The label  & bow ready for delivery.

(sorry about upside down)

 And now for the gift opening.  I love it when the bloke notices the small details -  the fabric right beside the label says "PS I love you".

 I think they like it.

Now some quilt stats. 

This quilt was made ENTIRELY from my fabric/ wadding stash.

84" square for a queen bed

It took approx 15m fabric.

It took somewhere between 20-25 hours to sew.

I work well under pressure, so the 2 weeks before the wedding worked in my favour.

 

September OPAM & a farewell

My September finish & the only sewing I have done for a while was a farewell gift for our school Principal.  Mrs Hutton had been part of the school community for 10 years, seven of those years she was directly involved with my family.  This quilt was fun & frantic.

We had 5 weeks notice that she was leaving.  1 week in shock, 1 week planning & prepping the quilt, 2 weeks of children drawing & 1 frantic week of sewing and quilting.  The result, a quilt she loved made by 354 children & approx 30 staff.

 The Whole quilt

Block Closeups

Staff bottle tree

. 

Adorable Prep raibow

 Year 2 stars

 Year 2 tree

 Year 1 butterflies

 Year 1 lots of love

 Year 1 personalised grid

 Year 2 beehive

 Year 3 garden

 Prep H and Elmer the Patchwork Elephant

 Year 2 flower

 Prep ladybugs

 Year 3 personalised grid

 Year 3 balloons

 Special Ed Unit bees

 Prep Rainbow fish complete with sequin scale

 Year 1 love

 Year 3 personalised grid

 

The label

 The presentation, complete with a police escort

 The happy recipient.  She loved it.

I love making quilts with children. They get so excited about the process.  It reminds me why I love what I do.

The Pledge

While blog reading yesterday I stumbled across a blog post referring to "The Pledge" and a decision to be intentional about quilt making.

It struck a cord with me.    All of the info can be found at For Keeps

If this pledge strikes a chord with you, please go to For Keeps and read more.

Catch you again soon