Aussie Hero Quilts and Laundry bags

You have seen this quilt before.  But I didn't tell you that I decided to donate this quilt to Aussie Hero Quilts and Laundry bags, to a serving member of the Australian Defence Forces.  It is now in transit overseas and hopefully when it reaches its its owner they will know that I appreciate their service, keeps them warm and is a reminder of the hard job they did and the sacrifice their families make while they are away.

 It is accompanied by a matching laundry bag.  Matching only because I had some of the left over backing fabric, which ironically has army jeeps on it and has been in my stash for a long time.  I originally brought this fabric because it was navy blue and on sale...it has been a great backing.border for several boys charity quilts.  It was only fitting that the last of it went into a quilt and laundry bag for a soldier.  

Through this donation I have met a whole bunch of new quilting friends and yesterday four of us got together in Adelaide to sew.  I had not had time to prepare anything, so I found the scrap 2.5" block box and started making more four patches.  A little pile had grown into a big pile by the end of the day.

 During the day Mary (who hosted the day at her lovely home) gifted me this block so I could work out how to make one at home.  I love scrap quilts, but never thought to use blue and green together, this is now my new favorite combo!  This block is 12" so perfect for scrappy charity quilts.

 When I got home I couldn't resist trying out the method she showed me to make the two coloured wedge bit out of scrap 2.5"strips I had sitting by my sewing table.  

 But the real temptation was to find a suitable background fabric for my scrappy four patches so I could keep sewing. I wasn't sure what size to cut the triangles, but cut a 10" square, cut twice to make four triangles, still too big, so I cut them in half and they were perfect!  Sew a new quilt is underway!

This is the loot I purchased from The Quilt Basket at Victor Harbour last weekend.  Some Aussie novelty fabrics, which I want to use in a Aussie Hero quilt, one lovely reproduction, giraffes cos they are my favorite (and the kids are still made keen on African animals) and the birds just because.  

These matching panels were irresistible, they will make a good boys quilt one day for that budding astronaut!  My first "real" job was with DSTO (Defence Science Technology Organisation) the research arm for Defence and I have long standing joke with friends about my time working with the "rocket scientists".  

Perhaps these are going "straight to the pool room"!

Happy quilting, Sue SA.

March = Autumn

On last years wish list I was going to make Spring and Autumn themed table runners.  It didn't happen so I amended the list to just a autumn wall hanging.  Now over the last few weeks I have become addicted to Pinterest and I started looking for autumn table runner patterns...free of course!  I collected a lot of pictures and decided that I had to make pumpkins!

The original pattern came from Diary of a quilter which was a  Halloween look pumpkin table runner.   I ditched the Halloween aspect, shorted the runner to fit my table and started stitching.  It just needs binding and the thread ends tidied up. I enjoyed the FMQ on this, as it was so quick and those curved lines give the pumpkins a nice rounded shape.  

I made another red and white house. I have recently realise that one has an mistake in it, but at this point I am not unpicking - I used a tiny stitch, because they were foundation pieced on paper, unpicking is next to impossible!  

Today I found this winter edition of Quilt Mania magazine while filling in time with a coffee, as the car was being fitted for brand new tyres.  So there is hope that I might get a winter wall hanging instead!

This Christmas wall hanging caught my eye.... log cabins and gingerbread men, what a cute combo! I think if I skip the holly leaves it will be perfect for winter. And I have the perfect charm pack to make it with!  So this is on my "to do" list now.. I might get around to starting it sooner rather then tackling those red houses!

I have also finished sewing the binding on my Under the Milky Way quilt.  Ta dah!  Yeah, a finish for March!

Happy quilting, Sue SA.

Some progress with my WIP's

I got the quilting done on the Milky Way quilt two weekends ago. But unfortunately I had a few puckers on the back.  So I eventually got time to unpicked and resewed. I am now just hand stitching the binding down.

I went to the shops to get a backing for the pink and white chevron quilt (found and purchased) but also came home with a neutral jelly roll and a pattern!

I finally piece the backings I had picked for the two cowboy quilts.

Last weekend I made two more houses, there is a third one still in pieces, ready to go in the bottom right corner of this picture.  The blocks are 6" square and I  want to leave it at nine blocks, lost the enthusiasm for making more.

The houses are definitely going to be a wall hanging sized project.  But I cannot decide if I should be  a) making a different block to go along side them OR b) sewing them together and adding an interesting pieced border.   What do you think?

Happy quilting, Sue SA

Red house cushion

I am really really LATE, but this my post for Friday Night With Friends to link up with Cheryl!  Hopefully next month I will be more organised!

I finished the red and white school house cushion!  It has found a home in our bedroom.

I then started making more blocks, using one solid and one print fabric.  

But I got bored!  So because I had racked up another finish I allowed myself to be totally distracted by this fantastically easy tutorial over at Seaside Stitches blog to make these cute fabric boxes!

This box is about 4" and was very quick and easy to make.  You basically quilt a square, fold it into shape, sew inside corners down and then add the buttons to make the outside corners sit down.  You can see that there is a bit of bulk inside, but these extra "corners" make great scissor holders!

I was going to make another one, but thought I had better get back to my wish list and this project has been cut out and sitting in a box for some time.  I am not sure what the patterns proper name is, but I am calling it The Milky Way Quilt.

The only problem is after I made this "test" block I realised that I was suppose to add star points at BOTH ends of the sashing!  But that's OK this block can be a corner!?  I want to make a big single bed size quilt, but there is lots of chain piecing and I got bored so stopped after a few hours Sunday!  My attention span is as long as a gnats at present and with a week of 40C degrees plus starting I think I need to stop fluffing around and get stuck into it, cos sewing under the air conditioner is about all you will be able to do at that temperature!

Happy quilting, Sue SA