Nothing's Happening !

My postings are non-existant, but for a good reason! I can't even find my sewing table! Why? We are pulling up all the carpets in our house and replacing them with floating floorboards. Ourselves!  So for the time being not much is happening for me in the quilting department, and it's NOT GOOD. The floors will look amazing when done though, so I need patience!

This is my dining room where my sewing happens...before and after.  But at present our main bedroom furniture is in there and we are sleeping in the guest room!

What To Do?

Due to circumstances my Quilting Lady is not able to rent out her quilting machine any longer. What a disappointment! So, how to quilt my quilts now? Don't have room for a longarm and not the $$$$$$ either! So I am looking for a smaller version for a home quilter. After a week of searching on the internet I found an Australian made frame... the Happy Jack.  This might work????  Will investigate some more. There is another one from the States, the HandiQuilter that looks awesome, but the $$$$$ are way more. Hmmm....

In the meantime, Ruth's charity quilt was auctioned on Saturday night for a fortune! People are so generous. I am blown away. 

I am currently working on a double bed quilt for my youngest teenager, a pinweel from the Sizzling Sixties book (made with a Jelly Roll) and a finished top that needs quilting. 

Oh, and Saturday morning there was a mini quilt show at the Presbytarian Church in Wamberal, and needless to say some fabric, two charm packs, a pincushion and a pattern found its way home....

Ruth's Quilt - First Charity Quilt

Ruth is a wonderful girl! She is my daughter's Youth Leader at church and such a role model for the younger girls! Ruth is envolved in more charity projects than I can recall, seven I think? Well Ruth is forever busy with fundraisers so I offered to make her a quilt for a project for orphan kids overseas.  It is finished at last,  hope you like it Ruth and that you will raise a few dollars with it. 

The pattern is from the Jelly Roll Quilts book by Pam and Nicky Lintott, called Sparkling Gemstones. I just used fat quarters  and cut my own jelly roll strips.  Quilted by myself on the long arm quilting machine.

Almost Done

Phew, this 9 patch has been HARD WORK. Never ending, and all the little seam pressings in between ! I was determined to finish the top yesterday! It was over 30 Degrees outside and I was struggling. Nine o'clock last night I had it! But, the piecing is done and I just need to go around to my local quilt shop and get  more of the plain fabric for the borders. But I am happy so far.... a bit worried about some 'waves' around the outer edge, must have stretched it somehow. Hope the borders will rectify it somehow!

Long Arm Quilting Day

I have a scraps box with ....scraps collected over the past 12 or more years. I just used to move the box this way or that way, too scared to open it! Who knows what might live there! Last year my friends and I decided to do a disappearing 9 patch quilt at our monthly quilt class. K had the most beautiful Moda fabric she used to make a quilt for her 10 year old. Looked like candy!

Me?   Out came the scrap box. I decided it can stay in the box for another 12 years or I can make an ungly scrappy quilt, hence my Ugly Scrappy Picnic Quilt. I only had to by 3 Fat Q's and the border fabric in order to get it done. There is a small bit of scraps left.

I took my Ugly Scrappy Picnic Quilt to Jenelle's last week and had my second go on her quilting machine. This time I just did a freehand stipple. Now just need to do the binding and it's done!

Slowly getting there

I managed to get a few of the 9 patch blocks sashed. The quilt will have 10 blocks per row and 12  blocks going down. I was going to do just the plain homespun sashing between the rows, but as I bought a layer cake in the same fabric I might add a square in order to have a chain effect..... will show you later what I meant when it's done.

My messy dining room table as a result!

My friend and I popped in at another popular patchwork shop in Wyong today by the name of Blueberries. I bought a little Moda kit to make the Lil Zippered Purse by Vickie E and quickly whipped it up when I got home, all done in an hour. Even my two  teenagers are impressed!

Out of the Closet

This was only my second sampler quilt which I pieced 12 years ago in New Zealand when I started quilting! It was a beginners class in Palmerston North . All these years it was just sleeping on a shelf. I started quilting again last year and wanted to learn to use a longarm quilting machine this year and needed a small project to 'practice' on, so guess who came out of the closet last week?  The quilting was done using just a simple pattern to get te feel of the machine. It was good fun, and I am going back for more!

9 Patch Blocks ALL DONE ! yeah

the Jelly Roll I bought at the recent CraftExpo (previous post) has now been cut and sewn and I finished them all over the weekend. HUNDRED AND TWENTY of them. Now I need to work out the sashing !

FIRST TIME Machine Quilting

Today was so exciting. I had my first attempt at quilting with a long arm quilting machine ! I did a simple scollop pattern and after a few tries , just went for it and did it . My instructor was Jenelle Kent from Pieces to Treasure, a very successful designer, teacher and patchwork shop owner. She has a beautiful cottage where you can just go and forget about the world outside and quilt! A few friends and I go once a month and it is always a pleasure.

Jelly Roll 9 Patch

After hours and hours visiting so many other fabulous quilting blogs and looking at tons of photos I am putting my new Jelly Roll to use and started a 9 Patch project.  I don't have a pattern, so it grows as we go.  After a few trial cuts and unpicking I now figured out what length to cut the JR strips and even made the first 9 blocks tonight.