Friday 29 December 2017

On Ringo Lake Part 5

Part 5 complete and even ironed and I now have many many more 'bonus triangles'.
Have a look at what others are doing on Bonnie's Week 5 Linkup Party.

So in moving on to some other sewing, ModaBlockHeads, I was able to use some of the brown bonus triangles in the next block. Think I will need to store the little baggy of brown triangles with the BlockHead blocks. They did save me a lot of time.
I also started some Elvis mug rugs to take to the Elvis Festival.
I have many more to make.
I took a break from Bonnie's leaders and enders 2017 blocks to work on an Aussie Christmas bunting, that I purchased some years ago. I will look great when I finish it. Meanwhile I'll be off to Spotlight shortly to see what specials they have on Christmas fabric and pre-cuts.
Happy New Year Everyone, and Happy Sewing.

Thursday 21 December 2017

Ringo Lake part 4

Finally caught up and ready to start part 5 tomorrow.

After I posted to Bonnie's Part 4 Link up Party with my parts 2 and 3, I had a look at some other links and came across some great ideas and lovely colour choices - BUT I'm not changing my colours now 😏. One of the random links I came across was Vireya's Blog - wow, I'm so glad I did. Vireya shared a way to make unit 4 blocks without using cut triangles. Vireya also includes a link to how to make  this unit in a different way. You will have to use Bonnie's measurements in the adjustment, and it worked. I followed Bonnie's suggestion of cutting a cardboard template to check on one block and double checked using my triangle ruler. So, I continued to cut out the pieces and sew the units.
Ready to start part 5. It really pays to see what others are doing. You can see Bonnie's Monday Link Up here.

I also had time to make a few more fabric coasters, and this time I adapted the method. I will post about that in another blog post, when I've taken photos of the process.
 

Tuesday 19 December 2017

Ringo Lake Catch Up

Home from a wonderful New Zealand Cruise and back to the sewing machine. I didn't do a lot of sewing on the trip, only a few hexies. I'm 'sew' glad I completed part 1 before I left, so only had two parts to catch up on. As I wrote in the last blog, part one was easy being 9 patch, and as in previous Bonnie mysteries, I'm only doing half the blocks. I also got to add some more 'coral' shaded fabric from the trip for part two.
Part 2 wasn't too bad, and I do like bonus triangles. I'm not sure what I will do with them yet, maybe in a border, or on my quilted jacket.
Part 3 used the same colours, and wow, more bonus triangles. I have rather a lot now ... way too many to even count! There were a lot more pieces in part 3, so it took me longer ... and then there was the ironing. I don't like ironing, but these pieces needed it.
I haven't started part 4 yet and still plan to have part 4 complete before part 5 on Friday. I haven't had a lot of time to do other sewing, but I did catch up on my YouTube subscriptions of Midnight Quilt Show, Simply Colorful Fibre Cast and a few cruising vblogs. On Simply Colorful, host Lynn showed us some quick and easy Christmas Coasters to make and they really are quick and simple. I'm going to make some more today before starting part 4.

Click here for Bonnie's Monday Link Up to see what others are doing.

Monday 27 November 2017

Mystery Quilt Time of the Year

I often spend my Saturdays, when I'm at home, catching up on YouTube quilting shows and one was Missouri Star's Jenny, and I happened to come across a 'Fall Shenanigans' wall hanging.  Even though we do not celebrate Halloween in Australia, it is our daughter's birthday, so parties were always Halloween themed. So out came the Halloween fabrics and in a day I made the top - who knows how long it will take for me to sandwich and quilt it!!!!

I have always looked forward to this time of the year - Halloween and Christmas. Not only is it getting closer to Christmas, a happy time, it is Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt time!! A time to create a beautiful quilt, step by step and spend a calming time sewing. Not all sewers would agree as at times Bonnie's Quilts can be quite involved, but never the less, I do enjoy the stress relief these mysteries have provided over the years.
Now that I'm retired, the joy of the mystery is still there, as is the relaxing, calming, peaceful time that it brings.
This year Bonnie's mystery is titled 'On Ringo Lake'. You can find the fabric requirements and instructions here. First impressions - I was very happy with the colour choices. I usually change Bonnie's colour suggestions, but this year I had all the fabric on hand - although I almost changed the browns for dark purples, but as they didn't look as good, so I went back to browns.
 Part one was released on Friday, and compared to other years this clue is quite easy - thank goodness. (This is not a whinge Bonnie 😊).

Bonnie's mystery is the start of the mysteries. I will still have two New Year Mysteries, (including Merry Mayhem's - with fabric and cutting instructions released today) and the Super Bowl mysteries to make - and I'm looking forward to it. We will be away on a cruise the next few weeks (woo hoo), so I'll be playing catch-up mid December. (See my travel blog: Are We There Yet?)
To see what others are doing go to Bonnie's Monday Link up.

Monday 23 October 2017

Busy week

This week I decided to add another border to the Simply Colourful Brown Bag Mystery quilt. I had run out of some of the suggested fabric, so substituted a pink, that had already been used in the quilt and a teal fabric. Looks so good!

And Sew Foxy Mama's 100 Hexies in 100 days. We are up to week 11, and the theme is "I Spy" - guess I may be doing some fussy cutting - like I haven't already 😊.
Week 4 - wishes
Week 5 - big and small
Week 6 spots and strips - but I chose spots, as that was the fabric I had.
 Week 7 - floral
 Week 8 - travel - gee I wish I had chosen travel places, maybe I still will?
 Week 9 was woodland and last week, week 10 (below) was in the sky.
I have completed week 9, but neglected to take a photo.
 I also finished the new Simply Colourful Mystery by Colour Wheel Quilts, Scrappy Square Dance top. I decided to make two lap quilts (baby quilts). One is for my new granddaughter, due in February, so I still have a few months to quilt and bind it.
 Also on the go is the continuing Moda Blockheads. 
I'm still behind, but getting there - and there is no rush.
 

Sunday 8 October 2017

Roll the Dice Update

About a month ago I decided to do what my friend Jenny does, and choose 6 projects / UFO's to check off the 'to do' list.

  1. Caravan Quilt top to quilt
  2. Brown Bag Mystery to finish
  3. "???" baby quilt to start
  4. Row by Row top to quilt
  5. Halloween Mystery to finish
  6. "?????" baby quilt to start
So I am very happy to say that I have completed 2. Brown Bag Mystery Quilt by Simply Colorful, and it is adorable. I really like the way it looks, and if I every make another one - which I probably won't, as it had too much paper piecing - I would swap the orange for bright pink. Shock, right, LOL.
I must say that looking at the individual blocks I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but look at it - wow.
So now I need to quilt it, so I'm making the new 2. Brown Bag Mystery - to quilt.
Also No 3. and 6. I might use Color Wheel mystery as one baby quilt, and Peace and Love mystery as the other.

Thursday 28 September 2017

Under my needle...

I've made a lot of progress with the Brown Bag Mystery the past few weeks while at home. Then we were able to go on another short two week trip to the central coast of NSW for my Auntie's 80th, so I started another challenge -100 hexies in 100 days, created by Sew Foxy Mama. I know, so many projects on the go, but I needed something simple that I could easily pick up and sew, a few stitches at a time.

With the hexies, each week is a different theme, so that took a stop at two LQS's and Spotlight to find some of the fabric to suit the themes. Luckily I found some scrap bags and was able to make some of the hexies needed.
Now we are home again I'm back to the Brown Bag Mystery and also the new mystery quilt by Colour Wheel Quilts - Scrappy Square Dance - sponsored by Simply Colorful. All caught up and waiting for Friday's new clue.
 Now back to brown bag mystery....

Thursday 31 August 2017

Roll the Dice ......

I have been working on catching up with ModaBlockHeads, and once caught up I didn't know what to move onto, as I have so many UFO's.
Some months ago a blogger friend of mine Jenny, mentioned in her blog about rolling the dice to decide what to sew next. Great idea..right! Well, I had so much difficulty trying to work out which 6 UFO's to put on the list, that it has taken me this long to work it out, but here it is
  1. Caravan Quilt top to quilt
  2. Brown Bag Mystery to finish
  3. "???" baby quilt to start
  4. Row by Row top to quilt
  5. Halloween Mystery to finish
  6. "?????" baby quilt to start
As you can see I have two quilts to start, two quilts to finish, and two quilts to quilt. Happened by accident, but still I think it will be a good idea to keep this pattern. I will still be doing Farmers Wife blocks by hand, and Moda BlockHeads each week, as well as any other mystery quilts that take my fancy, but when not doing these I will be choosing one of the above, and if I can't chose I will roll the dice.
Also interesting with the above, 1, 2, 4 and 5 are all Simply Colorful mystery quilts or inspired  by Simply Colorful.
So, as I have caught up BlockHeads, I am going to continue with 2. Brown Bag Mystery.
This time last year I was in the middle of this mystery and two things happened. One, I needed a fabric panel that was difficult to find in Australia; and two we booked a last minute Trans-Pacific Cruise. OK, I'll find the panel in Hawaii, or so I thought. No luck, so move on. The half complete quilt has sat in it's box on my sewing table for a year.
A few months ago while walking through Spotlight 
(OK, deliberate visit to Spotlight to buy more fabric that I don't need),
I came across a purple graduated fabric, so as it was like the panel I needed, I bought two metres. Now I am ready to go - after I find the final clues - and start pinning all the templates onto the purple fabric - woo hoo!! Luckily I saved all the clues so spent a great deal of the afternoon tracing and pinning the labels onto the fabric.
 
Once labelled I cut each piece and I'm ready to go onto finishing Clue three.
The only problem now is the pattern is so complicated that I need to adapt the English Paper Piecing to make the blocks more machine user friendly. To do that I need a printer, and ours is out of ink. So to wait for Peter to come home with new ink.
Maybe I'll cut out some Farmers Wife pieces for hand sewing on our next trip.





Saturday 26 August 2017

Quick catch-up

Most of the last six weeks have been looking after our granddaughters from England, so it has been pretty full on with lots of visitors. With a family wedding on Fraser Island and so many 'comings and goings' I am only now able to get back to some sewing. 
I have managed to do two more ModaBlockHead blocks and sew a mattress protector (along with adjusting bridesmaid dresses). Today I should be able to get a lot done - sewing wise - before going back to cleaning and tidying the house, then we are off on another adventure.

BE QUICK FOR THIS ONE

However the aim of this quick post is to let you know about a free pattern to download, but you must be quick.
Today (26/08/2017) Craftsy has a free download of a Caravan and Camping Quilt Pattern.
Get it quick if you are signed into Craftsy, if not become a member and join it is free.


Friday 14 July 2017

The weather is cold - time to sew.

Here in the southern hemisphere it is winter..... and it is cold, well by our standards. DD in England is sweltering with 24 degree temperatures, and I'm freezing with 20!! Anyway, a good time to sew.
We spent most of June traveling in the van so hand sewing was readily on hand. I took away the hexies, of course, and the Farmers Wife blocks, but also had a new project to do. While traveling last year I came across a Christmas Countdown Calendar in an Australian theme at a lovely quilt shop in Cowra. I bought two panels. I have finished one, well the sewing of the pockets are done, and all that is left is the backing and quilting. This first one is for our English granddaughters to take back home.
Before we left on our last trip I decided to make a small needle pouch. I was past the needle in the thread spool stage and wanted something, not only safer but also pretty. I had left over fabric from a mystery quilt earlier in the year so made this little pouch. Think I will need to make some more, so each hand sewing project box has their own little pouch.
 
This is the mystery quilt - finished and gifted. 
I did find some lovely fabric while traveling - these were from the Craftbasket in Orbost.
  
Back home again, I started a block-a-thon. It actually started in March, so I've been playing catch up. It is run by Bear Creek Quilting and is called Moda Blockheads 2017. A block pattern is released each week and it is presently up to block 19. I finished block 14 last night. I have been leaving out the applique blocks, but will get organised to take them as hand sewing on our trips. The top two photos also show some leaders and enders I've made from the block leftovers. I chose browns as I purchased three FQ packs of 6FQ's for $5 each pack. Much of the fabric was brown AND only one FQ was duplicated - so that's why I'm not using 'my' colours. One has to use some of the stash some of the time.
Bonnie this past week also introduced this years 'Leaders and Enders' Quilt Challenge - so why not start another project.😄 It involves making railpost blocks. What a great idea. Bonnie is using a checkerboard for two of the rows, so I thought ...why not! I chose a 1.5inch jelly roll that I've had for some time and made a sample block, first in blue and white checks then in black and white checks. Liked the black and white so that's what I'm doing.
With so many little pieces in the blockhead blocks, I have been able to sew a lot of leaders and enders. I have drawn up a plan and cut all the fabric strips so I'm ready to go.