welcome 2020

and what a start to the new decade here in Australia - I took this photo the day before new year's eve in Hobart - no filters needed.  Its amazing to think we're already 10 days into the new year and it feels like there's a hush over the whole country.

I had plans for a roundup post in January so I could link up to Helen and Archie's Furtle Around but over the Christmas - New Year break the bushfires, already burning in parts of Australia, turned up a notch and so those plans were put on hold.  By Christmas Day there were bushfires raging in every part of Australia.

photo - https://myfirewatch.landgate.wa.gov.au/

The town of Tumbarumba where I lived until a few years ago had fires at the edge of town on New Year's Eve and lost the mobile phone tower that night - by Friday the town was evacuated.  Such a scary situation to be in.  Thankfully no lives were lost.

Its such a tragic situation that its hard not to get drawn into the hopelessness. I'm listing a few places if you would like to donate directly.

Red Cross Australia

Wires Animal Rescue

Australian World Wildlife Fund

so instead of planning projects for the new year I started sewing pouches for wildlife and this week I worked on the first challenge for Season 11 of Project Quilting which I'll post about later.

I'll still have a roundup post to show off some of my makes from last year including my finally finished Double Wedding Ring quilt that I started five or six years ago - there are so many Finish Along posts about this quilt its probably the most mentioned quilt here - I might check the stats on that :)

and I'll also post my plans for this year which include finishing my Midnight at the Oasis quilt !

so a belated happy new year and cheers to another year of creativity :)
 

a little progress !

at the beginning of January I posted about my UFO/WISP plans for 2017.  I’m concentrating on a handful of projects at a time to try and get some finished.

I was thinking a quarterly update would be fine but then I thought that I should do an update each month to keep these projects uppermost in my thoughts as I've discovered I'm very much an "out of sight out of mind" kind of girl !

I'm happy to say I've actually made some progress on most of the UFOs on my current list !

1. Bubbles block info

I’ve made another block and have three more to do - my deadline for these is March !

2017 quilt project planning

It seems a lot of quilters are planning their goals for this year and like me are taking a different approach to goal setting !!

With so many projects on the go and after a few years of planning and not getting things done or planning and then doing totally different projects I've decided to do things differently this year and only plan a handful of projects that I'd like to get done.

I'm hoping that by having a list with only a few hand sewing and machine sewing projects on it I might actually get some finished which might just motivate me to keep going - I'm also allowing myself a couple of new projects so I don't think I'm missing out altogether !

First on my short-term short list is the Bubbles Bee - this is a Flickr bee and its my only commitment this year - I only have four more blocks to make for this Bee and one of them is already overdue from November !!

almost a finish !

its down to the wire for the second quarter finishes of the 2013 finish-a-long over at she can quilt and I'm not going to get the binding finished on Lucy's quilt...oh well, there's always next time !

the results of my second quarter list are ...

Lucy's quilt - just needed to quilt and bind this to finish but I only started the quilting yesterday so I'm pretty happy that its at least quilted and the binding is sewn on - just needs to be hand sewn down which we all knows takes more than a few hours :)  I'm hoping to get it finished this week though.

I promised my mum that I wouldn't show another photo of this quilt until it was finished so here's a quick sneak peak with the quilting done and the binding on ...

as its an hourglass block I straight stitched either side of the seam lines on the diagonals and I've only just realised this afternoon that this is my first "big" quilt that I've machine quilted - I was pretty happy with my set up - the ironing board was a big help

but I'm going to have to find somewhere else to quilt my Mod Pop as Lucy's quilt is only 40 x 50 inches and the Mod Pop is 60 x 60 inches and I want to do a bit more quilting so I think it will be a bit too much for my small sewing area - I think I'll give the dining table a try and see how I go !

speaking of the Mod Pop - no I didn't get it finished but I did get the back sewn together so that's one more step done - I decided to use some of the mistake curved blocks from the front and piece the back - it took quite a while to decide on the design and as I didn't want to make more blocks I went with the flower block - I'm thinking they are retro looking flowers so they should look ok !  (there aren't marks on the fabric - I've got other blocks on the design wall underneath)

and my other projects listed were my twin whirlygig mini wild things - I actually finished the top of one of these which was a pretty good effort since only some of the blocks were cut - I still need to get the other one done though (sigh)

I did have another project listed but I've realised that its not really a UFO - its a block I cut out after seeing some fabric (that's been in my stash for over a year) while I was on the phone a few months ago and it was like I hadn't seen it before and immediately had to make a dresden plate (as in as soon as I got off the phone) !  I'm intending to make a quilt top and have found some other stripe fabric to join these blocks - I'm also going to piece the plates rather than applique them but I've decided to put this project on the backburner until I get my UFOs done so maybe next year or maybe the 4th quarter !

well - that's my unfinished second quarter of the 2013 finish-a-long ... the next quarter has to be better doesn't it ?

there are some amazing finishes over at the linky party so if you need some inspiration you should take a look :)

a lovely year of finishes for February

after consulting my wisp list I've finally decided on my a lovely year of finishes project for February - its a pink candlewick embroidery cushion cover that needs to be finished into a cushion.

I actually have two candlewick embroideries that need to be made into cushions plus a stencilled one so that's three projects but as they were started around the same era (mid 1990's - gasp!) I think they should be finished at the same time too !

I made the stencilled bunnies cushion in a crafty class that I took while living in Bunbury, Western Australia, so it was actually made in 1995 - the classes were held one night a week over 6 weeks at a gorgeous little school in the centre of town and we learnt to make all kinds of different things including beeswax candles, marinated feta cheese, and spool dolls, as well as stencilling - it was great fun and I think started my love of crafting :)

I moved to Perth not long after that and discovered the gorgeous Heirloom Elegance in Subiaco - I did heaps of classes at that wonderful shop - ribbon embroidery, wool embroidery, as well as a candlewicking class by Sandie Meldrum who was an amazing teacher (her book Traditional Candlewicking has been reprinted 4 times).

I really loved doing candlewicking and of course I bent the rules and used the pink thread for the second embroidery I did :) I made the first one in the traditional cream on cream.  Both of these cushion tops are dated - the cream one was made in 1995 and the pink one in 1998.

I'd recently been thinking about making some cushions for my couch so when I came across a box of UFOs and these cushion tops a few weeks ago while I was cleaning out my garage  - it was definitely kismet !

When I pulled the pink one out of the box I immediately decided to put a border around it and I found the perfect fabric - like it was made for the design !  The cream on cream top already has a green border with mitred corners and also has a gathered trim that needs to be sewn on - it always amazes me that these ufos are still in good condition with all their bits together, especially when I think about all of the moves I've done - since sewing those two candlewick embroideries I've moved two states and ten houses !!

The stencilled cushion needs a new border - the current one is a poly/cotton blend and old fabric that just wouldn't suit my couch !  I'm sure I'll find something else suitable in my stash !

Linking up to a lovely year of finishes 

2013 resolutions

at the end of last year while frantically trying to get ahead in my swap commitments I decided that 2013 was going to be all about me ... and getting my ufos finished rather than joining in any swaps or starting new projects.

Well of course before the new year started I signed up for two block of the months for 2013 !

Kristy from Quiet Play is hosting - And Sew On - a sewing related paper pieced block of the month- I like the idea of making a wall hanging for my sewing room so I just had to join in :)


I also signed up to the Sugar Block Club - a block of the month with a sweet treat being run by Amy Gibson who hosted the craftsy BOM that I did last year - I signed mum up as well so we will be doing it together - long distance style !

I'll still be taking part in the design camp swap which finishes in a few months and the Star of Africa swap which finishes mid year - and I'm also continuing with the do.good stitches care circle - this year I'm a quilter as well which I'm really looking forward to.

I've also joined a few craftsy classes - mainly to learn free motion quilting and thankfully there aren't any projects to be finished with those - only practice - phew !

But apart from those (hopefully I'll have some time left !) I've joined two groups to focus on finishing my ufos.

Leanne from she can quilt is hosting the 2013 finish a long where you nominate projects to get finished each quarter.  I'm going to concentrate on getting some of my quilt tops turned into finished quilts with this finish-a-long - luckily I've got a few days before I have to post about what projects I'm going to tackle first as I have quite a list to go through !

I was also invited to join a lovely year of finishes group being hosted by Shanna at fiber of all sorts and Melissa of bittersweet designs - this group will focus on one project a month with a bit more finishing off and catching up rather than having a totally finished quilt - so hopefully I can add my overdue swap blocks to this one :)

I'm going to list all of my ufos as a separate page so I can cross them off as I go - maybe I should call it my wall of shame !!
I'm really looking forward to cutting it down by the end of the year.

With mum's machine arriving next week I'm hoping to be able to do more quilting and get those tops done - I'm happy to straight line quilt as well as trying to learn some free motion quilting - mum's machine will make any quilting easier than my wonderful (but not built for quilting) Elna :)

so how about you - do you have a list of 2013 resolutions ?

here's to hopes and dreams and sticking to those new year resolutions :)

first mod pop block

my plan for the weekend was to get a start on the totally groovy and the mod pop quilt-along quilts, but of course, the best laid plans always change !

I did manage to get a block of the mod pop quilt cut out and I finished sewing it up last night - I'm using pezzy mono pink and kona azalea :)

the curves were a little less stressful to do than the first ones for the totally groovy quilt and craftsy blocks and hopefully they'll improve as I do more !

I've decided to take a leaf from the finish-along girls who link up over at Quilter in the Gap and do a make list so that I get the things I need to done and don't start anything else !

so here goes - my list of things to be done between now and early December - did I mention I'll be cruising the South Pacific in December - well in 1 month, 30 days, and 16 hours according to the cruise countdown widget at the bottom of the page :)

1. star of africa swap blocks - my plan is to make two blocks each weekend until I'm up to date !
2. pram/capsule cover for baby lucy - hopefully I'll get this done soon
3. hourglass quilt for baby lucy - maybe a christmas present!
4. design camp 2 swap blocks - I've got two overdue blocks with another due this month - I hope to get these done during the week
5. long distance quilting bee swap blocks - september and october blocks plus the march block which I've now misplaced but I'm going to find and get it finished - I'm hoping to get these done during the week as well
6. modern she made swap - this needs to be sent by mid november
7. totally groovy quilt - top finished
8. mod pop quilt - top finished
9. craftsy block of the month - october blocks done and top finished
10. blogger's block of the month - top finished

and in between I hope to get more hexies done for the hexy mf quilt-along and then there's the spinning stars quilt-along that I need to start - maybe that will be my first January project !