Back to work

It was back to work for me after 3 weeks holiday.  I have finished quilting my Purple Challenge quilt and even if I say so myself, it doesn't look too bad.  Will put the photo on here on the 31st March.  I think I will go and buy batting and backing for one of my unfinished projects on my day off this week so I can do some more quilting on my fantastic new sewing machine.

My Cushion

This is my cushion.  I bought a book last year with some lovely applique designs and really wanted to make the rabbit.  I wanted my cushion to be in my favourite colours which are blue and yellow.  The applique was sewn on my new sewing machine and doesn't look too bad if I do say so myself.  On the back I haphazardly sewed fabirc together to make a square and used the same big print fabric as a border.  All these fabrics were bought for a round robin I did through Grandmothers Garden.  My Round Robin came back a lot smaller than I imagined and I plan to finally quilt it as practice on machine quilting something bigger than a tablerunner.

At Western Quilters Circle last year we could participate in a block of the month project.  We were given a requirements list and each month given a pattern for a block.  January was the last block and at the February workshop I put the sashing around the blocks.

At home I completed the borders and now it is on my pile to be quilted.  I was lucky enough to buy some more of my feature print to use as the outer border.

Stu's cushion

I made the cushion Stuart wanted so he can sit comfortably on the outdoor furniture after his surgery.  I had made the blocks a couple of years ago as I was going to make him an American theme quilt.  I had gone off that idea and decided to use these in this cushion which is 24 inches in size.  I made it on the day he was coming home from hospital and had it sitting on the swingseat for his arrival home.  He loves it and now I need to make one for me as it is very comfortable.

This is the other side of the cushion.

I picked up my new sewing machine on Friday and made a block on it.  I have worked the weekend and now have 3 days off to play only I have to take Stuart to the doctor soon which cuts in to my playing time.  I am almost a little scared to use it which is why I have procrastinated and played on Facebook and now written this.

Weekend sewing

I spent time at the weekend making 2 cushions for Cheryl as it is her birthday this week.  I am in the process of making her a quilt.  She is paying for all the materials and I am making it.  The top is complete and now we need to go shopping for the backing and batting.  She wants a flannel back which limits where we can look.  There is a distance factor too and I live in Waitakere and she lives at Stillwater.  About 50 kms from me.  I made the cushions to match the quilt in fabric.  the design is different.  They are identical with a side of each shown.  I hope she likes them. 

My next project is a large cushion for Stuart for when he comes out of surgery next week.

Day off

It was my day off yesterday and I finally managed a whole day of sewing.  I made this tablerunner  out of charm squares for my penpal in Australia for her birthday.  I did as my book said and put on some nice music, set myself up comfortably at the sewing machine and quilted.  Free motion quilting is fun!!!!  I have to keep telling myself.  Other than lacking imagination on what to quilt it came out pretty well.  I hate the pattern that says "quilt how you like". 
Back at work today so no more sewing until the weekend.

UFO's

I decided to make a list of all my UFO's yesterday.  That was rather scary as it is longer than I thought it would be.  Last year was supposed to be my finishing projects year, but from the list I didn't achieve much.  Hopefully I will have paid off my new sewing machine by the beginning of February and then I hope to start quilting some of the tops I have waiting to be finished.  In the meantime I plan to finish some of the smaller projects and keep up to date with the block of the month I am doing presently.  Of course a lot of projects get interrupted by work, agility and the need "to do now for presents" as birthdays, etc appear.  If I was more organised I would be more prepared.  Enough rambling from this tired worker who has just completed 9 days working in a row.  I now need a week to recover and I have a whole 3 days.

McKenna Ryan

Back on the 27th Nov 2009, I was lucky enough to be able to attend both the " Meet McKenna Ryan" session and attend the workshop at Quilters Dream.  I have "Storybook Farm" and "When Friends Gather" which I got as blocks of the month.  I had made the pig block in Storybook farm and laid out the main panel with the house and clothes line and then decided it was all too hard. 

Seeing McKenna Ryan's quilts was amazing.  She is a lovely person and gave a great talk about her life and her designing.  She is such a talented lady.  We were able to touch and photograph her lovely quilts and then in the afternoon we put together one of the roosters from "All Cooped Up" called "Dawn Patrol".

It was great learning how to lay it out and how she sews them in 1 step using monofilament thread.  I went home all fired up and although didn't manage to sew it that day, I did finish it and it looks great.