It's ( sort of ) looking like Christmas

I have been very lucky to have made some great friends through blogging. ...so much so that last week and today the postie delivered these gorgeous decorations. Elf is from Michelle and Snowman is from Shez. I also got one of Michelle's mini patterns and I think that will come in very handy for next year. Thanks you both I love them and I truly value you both as friends. My tree isn't up yet but if I can con DH it will go up soon. I wrenched my shoulder at work today so have been told no lifting.

These are my attempts , the Teddy is a Nikki Tervo design and thanks to Shez for her advice on how to go about doing this. DGS will get this one. The star was provided by the Quilt Shop in Eltham where we had a Christmas sewing day. It was wonderful, we sewed, ate and sewed some more. Thanks to Alison and Sharon for the makings for this star. So lucky that the shop is so close to home.

Many thanks to the few of you that read and comment on this little blog and may you have  a wonderful Christmas and may 2018 be a blessed , happy and healthy year.

Check this out

A few weeks ago some friends and I got together to make a start on this quilt. Block 1... 5 required ( did do some reverse sewing on the first block)

block 2... 4 required. As long as you read the instructions all was well and it went together beautifully

I wasn't going to put the borders on but in the end I caved and did so here is the finished quilt. It is HUGE, covers my queen size bed with oodles of room to spare. Very happy with it though, especially as it is actually the size it was meant to be.

Here are my Dear Jane blocks for Nov. Slowly getting through them all.

Ta Da .. drum roll please

Millefiore quilt is finished. As those who know me realise, I am vertically challenged so was having trouble holding this up to show off, so.... Chris ( I think) stepped in. There is Nancy behind holding up the other corner, just hiding!!!

I was then told to get in the photo and you can see why I needed help. Anyway it is done ( thank goodness)and I love it. Still not too sure about the top right hand corner as you look at it but it is a scrappy quilt so .....

Saturday my friend's daughter was banished from her house as her fiance was having his bucks do so as this was probably the only opportunity, I gave her their wedding quilt. Claire loved it and hopefully Chris will too. Told her the stories about it which makes it special.Thanks again to Michelle for the pattern ( and signature).

Millefiore blocks done

11B...

12A

12 B and now to add them to the rest and it will be complete. Well I think I am going to applique it to a border to make it square but the hard part is done. My perpetually hexie for Nov is almost done and I have started putting that together.... one HUGE quilt. Katja Marek has another couple of quilt a longs on the go and the one starting in Jan looks sooo pretty so I am very tempted. Will see how I feel in January.

A friend showed me these bags and I thought I would give it a go. It's called the sew together bag ... the outside,

... the inside...

and the zips opened. All made with scraps, just had to buy the zips. Hopefully the next one will be easier as I know what I am doing. 

October Dear Jane

All up to date with Dear Jane blocks. Not a one was what I consider easy , but bottom right was the hardest to get my head around. Once I realised that I could cheat and satin stitch the star I was ok, and I did this one first. Really do not know how Jane Sickle managed it by hand , using scissors and in poor light.  My DJ will be " based loosely on the quilt by"

Rosette 10a of the millefiore. Forgot to take a photo before I joined it. This is at the bottom and so I am at the edge of the quilt. 10 b is on the way and is very bright. Can't wait for it to be done and then I can reveal it in all it's scrappy glory!!

Two little octopods ( according to DS2). These are a just in case for a friend who will welcome twin GD any time soon. Mum loved the owl and giraffe but these will only go to her if her babies need them. Huge thanks to Rosalie for sewing the faces.

11 done 4 to go

Once again the camera is playing silly games. Here is rosette 10b for the millefiore but it goes with the right at the top.After 11a and 11 b , there is one that is only 3 hexies big. Cannot wait for that one. Still working on Perpetually Hexie but that is slow as I had my week up in Qld,

Scuse the background but I was racing out to give these two critters away and just needed a photo.A friend's daughter is having twins so these are going to her for her babies. As they may be born a little early I am also crocheting two little octopuses ( octopi???) Story too long so google will explain.

Catching up

The quilt show was in town... Brisbane that is and I flew up and joined these lovely ladies for a day shopping and gazing at some amazing quilts. So good to catch up with Michelle and to meet Fiona (Bubz rugz) and Jeanette. I was very circumspect in my buying as I knew I had limited weight to bring back to Melbourne. Great day ladies Thanks.

You know how I love butterflies.

Freedom to fly, Rosalie.

Hexies... can't go past them,

Fell in love with this one but know I will never do anything like it.

We all know who this is. So striking in it's simplicity , yep the dark areas are just dots!

Striking combination of colours.

Bit out of order but these are my September Dear Jane blocks. Gold star Andrea???

Rosette 10 a , Millefiore quilt along.

Back to Qld. I said to Fiona that I wouldn't get to Toowoomba to the Quilters Angel which is why I had to see their stall at the show. Thursday DD2 says" why don't we drive to Toowoomba? " so we did and I visited the Quilter's Angel in it's village green setting. Ate lunch at a cafe on the other side of the green. Beautiful.

The real reason I went up to Brisbane. DD2 lives there and I only see her every 3 months or so. Must admit it was a good excuse to visit the show as well though.

Something a bit different

This is Olga the owl and ...

This will be Gracie Giraffe when I get round to making her. I bought these  kits from Spotlight last year thinking I could make up one for my GS and one for his second cousin. Hmmm well that was last year. They are both now too old for them so I am giving them to a friend of mine for her daughter. My friend has triplet boys as well as two  older girls. The daughter is having twins! Fun to make but fiddly and I soooo hate sewing things up.

This is rosette 9 of the New Hexagon Millefiore quilt.

My sister in law is going to be a great grandmother again in January and this is for her GGS. The book came with the kit so will go with the quilt. Very simple but sweet.

I have started on Rosette 10 a , 4 of these hexies,

one of this,

and two of these. Will be interesting to see how it all looks together.... and I'm not sure where I put the other one of this that I was sewing last night. Agh, me and my memory.

Linked with Anthea at Hibiscus stitching and her EPP party

and September rolls around

September Perpetually hexie... It's a lot brighter in real life but this is a happy Spring block and I am very happy with it.

Rosette 8 of the millefiore. Hmmmm, as I am just using scraps it's a case of whatever comes to mind. Some of the fabrics in this come from DS2's quilt so that has  memories which is what I am loving about this quilt. DS2 was very involved in the making of his quilt, even asking what colour I was going to use for the cornerstones! Top marks for listening to me.

I have one more rosette like this and then 6 more much smaller ones( maybe 5 or 3 hexies) which fill in the gaps so it's getting there.Have to get it done as Katja is launching a new one in Houston for next year and you just never know.

Hopefully will link with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitching

a little bit of progress.

Rosette no 7 of millefiore... forgot to take a photo before attaching it to it's neighbour. Like this one.

I decided to start putting all the rosettes together as I had lots of adjoining ones. I was a bit worried about the one on the right with the bright pink flowers so I left it out and sewed all the others. Once I got the one on the left in ,with it's brown tones, I decided the other one was ok.Bit disappointed that the star doesn't show up very well but I love that block so all good.

Dear Jane blocks for August. Official ones from Kilmore. The group is continuing on with them so I am now 4 ahead of myself. This is G11, K2, L2 and M1.

Can you guess what this is???? I decided I needed more clamshells cut out so unusually for me I did the correct thing and ironed the fabric first. Got to one piece and the iron was sticking. Strange..... yes I had put the iron on the plastic template. OOPS

This is the iron after I had scraped the melted plastic off the sole plate. It has come a bit cleaner but maybe next time I'll leave the fabric wrinkled.

August Perpetually hexie

Here is the next wreath in the perpetually hexie quilt. I got a bit behind and made a bad choice with a couple of the colours but I ain't doing it again. Looking at the photo it looks a bit like it's not quite centred but again it's staying as is. 

I found out a couple of days ago that the person organising our Dear Jane challenge isn't going to continue running it but as we are all fairly experienced sewers I think we can get the quilt done. Thanks to Maree for all the hard work she put in up to this stage. 

I decided that I would try doing my blocks, as per the challenge, 4 at a time( I can just go as fast as I want) Here are the next 4 that I decided to do. I am using one particular beige in alternate blocks so I am going to do all the ones that need that fabric so I can hopefully use it in the border triangles as well. I have about 3 metres and want to make sure it goes the distance.

This is my finished Hunter's Star. I am soooo happy with this, love the way it is looking and I think it has a bit of movement to it. Still not sure if it needs a border  but I am leaning towards not.

Another rosette

Rosette no 6 of the millefiore quilt. I have started the Aug perpetually hexie rosette but wanted to get this done first.

Have you had a look at Katje's website??? She has another quiltalong, hexplosion, .. I have downloaded the pattern but will wait until I have the other two finished before I think about this one.

Had a  great morning at Jeff's shed, spent too much money on not a lot of things but what the heck, this is my addiction.

Hunter's Star

A work in progress

 The 8 times 15 triangles sewn for the next part of this quilt.

Sunday 16th July saw me at a class learning this block.. Hunter's Star. Using lots of scraps and I love it. As that day should have been DS1's 32 birthday this quilt will be "Christopher's Star" I just need now to lay all those triangles out and see which should go where. It's scrappy so I think it will look good no matter where I put them.

Rosette no 5 in Millefiore ( Katje Marek). It almost has a 3D effect when looked at like this. Very happy with this one , despite my earlier oops!

This is the centre for no 6. I just need a couple of other fabrics and I can get this all together.

Think yesterday should have been an EPP day at Hibiscus stitching so when I have a chance (and when the link is up) I will link.

Off to Jeff's shed on Sat for the quilt show.