The white quilt

Time for photos of the white quilt that I made in January. It has been a long process, communicating with my client about what she wanted, deciding on fabrics, and ordering them, and waiting for some on backorder. As this lady was not a quilter, or sewer, I was worried about us both being “on the same page” with ideas. It was a bit trickier when it came to the quilting and I knew that she wanted the fabrics to show, and this was more difficult because all the fabrics were different whites. It is a bit like quilting a wholecloth and the quilting being the main feature, and I wanted the quilting to be background. Bit tricky wasn’t it? I knew that the first pattern I started quilting was not right and really took over. So after 6 hours of unpicking we went back to the “drawing board” and I sent her to a website to look at patterns, and where they had photos of quilts quilted with these patterns. As a result of her choices, I quilted Square Dance in the centre of the quilt, and used a chevron pattern in the border.

The quilt was delivered today, and I received a text showing a photo of the quilt on her bed, and saying that she loved it, so now I can relax. The photos below, which I took on my bed, don’t show the fabrics so well, but they do show up better in real life.

I better get back to the machine, as I am almost finished a custom quilt today, with lots of applique. A Noah’s Ark quilt for some lucky child.

I think the eyes are starting to feel better, and as tomorrow is a day of rest, I might just do that and quilting can happen again on Monday.

I will be back tomorrow, with another post of more news that has happened in the last week.

Blessings, From Jude

Back to school

South Australian schools returned this week after the long holiday break from mid December. In the first photo the little man on the right had his first day at kindy. He’s not too sure whether he wants to stay all day, so do hope he warms up to it soon.

And this little man in the middle of his 2 sisters had his first day of school  I spoke to him by phone after his first day, and he was happy with his day and liked his teacher.

It’s scary just how fast the years are flying by.

I managed to finish 2 edge to edge quilts today, before I had another visit to the doctor, with my eyes. The infection is not clearing up and in fact spreading, so more treatment ahead. It is not easy to put drops and ointment into your own eye. But I have to report that the arm is good now, and the dressing is off.

Bye for now,

Blessings, From Jude

Aussie retreat and more

This first photo is of my niece who I told you about a week ago and this is the finish of her quilt. A great achievement for a first quilt and she is 8 years old! 

Sorry for the blurry photo, I was looking into the sun. My cousin and her husband, who are from Queensland have been travelling this great country of ours in their caravan and recently spent time with relatives here in South Australia. As children we spent a lot of time together, but since the family moved north it has not been often, so it was good to have a catch up. They are on there way north again now and touring the along the Murray River before veering up to Queensland.

AUSTRALIA DAY RETREAT

The Sanctuary was home to a fun group of ladies last weekend. We had lots of laughs and sewed our own projects, and shared the catering. Just a few photos of our time.

First is our floral arrangement from Pat's garden of our Australian Banksia flower.

 We had our flags attached to the sewing machines all lined up the tables.

You have to have lamb chops on Australia Day, and sorry the photo is sideways, and I don't know how to change it when I am posting straight from blogspot.

Pat is working on her hourglass blocks for the next border, which is due to be finished by next Monday. I managed to get mine done, and will photograph it later. Pat is also running short of fabric and looking for more. Maybe is was not a good idea for either of us to start with such large centres. And we still have 2 borders to go yet.

Sorry, another sideways photo, of Val's progress with her Paper Bag Mystery quilt. She missed the last Paper Bag retreat because she was in hospital, and is now catching up to the others.

There are a few boxes of fabric remnants for the girls to help themselves to, and this lady is wondering if this piece of fabric would make some nice trousers! What do you think?

 And Helen was working on a bargello quilt which is to be a gift for some friends.Looks good.

And this clever lady has made herself some arm protection for when she is driving the car, and has used a pair of sox with the ends cut out, and a hole for the thumbs! Not sure why, but her son did not want her to go into the shop wearing them!!

Well that's it from me for this post.I thought I had more photos, but this will do for now. I still need to post photos of the white quilt, which is to be delivered to the owner this week, and I have more to report on the happenings in the past week, so will be back soon. I had a lovely part weekend, and my week of "time out" just did not happen. I am back to quilting today.

Blessings, From Jude

27 years on….

 

and another generation is about to be born. The new year has brought the exciting news that another grandchild, number 7, is due in July! Following is a photo of the scan, and  I know that this in is the very early stage, but modern technology is amazing, and I believe that I can see a family likeness.

At the time I said that we did not have unltrasound scans back “in those days”, but when I was sorting out “stuff” in the desk recently, I found an envelope marked ultrasound, which is below. I obviously had a senior moment, and did have a scan for my last baby, but not the older 3. The quality of this scan is quite different and it is much harder to see any features.

As exciting as this news is, I am finding it difficult to imagine my baby as a father! It is a reminder of just how the years are passing. But I am wondering just what colour hair the baby will have, and will the hands be dainty like the mother, or big like the father!  Already 2015 is shaping up to be an eventful one. I have had intentions on doing this post earlier this month, but there has been so much happening it’s hard to keep up.

Hope your Australia Day holiday weekend has been a good one, whatever you did. My intentions of having a week’s holiday did not happen, but I shall be back soon with a further update of newsfromjude!

Blessings, From Jude

Pickings and purchases

 

This is what I found in the garden this morning. My vegie patch is seriously neglected. One of those should do’s that had to go. But it seems like the corn produced anyway, even though the tomatoes look sad, and the weeds have taken over. The pumpkin vine is spreading so I might be lucky there too.

And this is my “little”  buy up yesterday. Some to add to the jelly rolls I had purchased for the  Paper Bag Mystery quilts, and some just because!

It is amazing just how busy you can be when you are having time off. The weather is warming up today, and I have watered both gardens this morning. What shall I do for the rest of the day? Looking forward to tomorrow when I go on retreat. I have so many projects “in progress” that I don’t know which one to work on first!

Always lots of fun when quilters get together to sew and chat. And the weather is looking good. It is a public holiday in Australia on Monday to celebrate Australia Day. I have got the flags out ready to hang out at The Sanctuary, and we might eat some Aussie food as well. I still can’t believe that the end of January is in sight, and the first month of 2015 will have been and gone!

Catch ya another day,

Blessings, From Jude

The next border

 

Yesterday I sat at my sewing machine and sewed hourglass blocks for the next round of our Head for the Border project. It is due to be done by early February. This is my progress so far. It has been a challenging exercise to add borders, and not knowing what is coming ahead, and get them all to look as though they belong! One of my dilemma’s was limited fabric, and I have been looking everywhere for some pinks and greens to match. And the larger this gets, the more fabrics I need.  I purchased these fabrics back in 2005, and the pinks and greens now are just so different. I did manage to find a pink in the charity donated fabrics pile that works pretty good, so have used it this round.

I need to confess that I started making my blocks, and after a visit by Marie, worked out that I was making the wrong block. That did not help my fabric quantities at all, as I had to recut strips in the right size. And then I was a tad short of the green spot fabric, so ended up joining some small bits to make one of the triangles. Not something I have done before, but I see lots of people do that in the quilts that I quilt for them. If anyone looks hard enough to find it I won’t mind.

This is the quilt so far, before I add the hourglass border. In the interest of saving fabric, my hourglass blocks will only be on the 4 corners, and not all the way around the quilt. There are 2 more borders to do after this one. I hope that I don’t have to work a circle border into this!!  It is very pink and green isn’t it? Don’t think I would choose so much pink if I was buying the fabrics now. Maybe the quilter will work some magic on it to tone it down??

That was a lovely way to spend day one of my “timeout”. Now what shall I do today?

The next update of Creative Studio is released today, so might download it and check out what’s new. Probably won’t transfer it to “Max” until next week. Looks as though there are some great new features to play with.

Have a great day, whatever you are doing.

Blessings, From Jude

Happy Birthday

 

to my oldest granddaughter, who is 14 today! It only seems like yesterday that she was born, and we were waiting for news of her birth. Hope you have a great day, and wishing you many blessings in the year ahead, with love from “Granny”.

Will be back soon with more exciting family news.

Blessings, From Jude

My "Get up and go"

has "got up and left"! I don't know exactly where it has gone, but I would like it back if you find it!

My word for 2014 was BALANCE, and I think I can safely say that I failed miserably with that one. My intentions were good, and the mind was willing, but it just did not translate into action. I am still working on how I can actually make that happen while I am trying to do what I do.
All the

•  should do's....
•  would like to do....
•  need to do......
•  have to do.....     are all there clamouring for a part of my life.

This  month I have had to really look at all of those things, and make some decisions about "what to do", and some of the should do's, and would like to do things, and even the need to do's have been shelved. It has not been an easy decision to make, but I think God has got my attention and I am listening. 

I had another visit to the doctor today for another dressing on my arm, which is healing, but being in the position on my arm that it is, makes it tricky to work with. Another week and the bandage can come off. I also have an infection in my eye, so came home with some antibiotic cream for that as well. And I am waiting for a specialist appointment for another issue that is on my mind.  Add to that the fact that I am very tired and often have "nanna naps" in the afternoon, I have decided that maybe I need some "timeout" to see if I can find that "get up and go"! Time to look after me, and I don't mean to be selfish when I say that.

I shall be around the place, but possibly not doing quilts for a week or so, having a few nanna naps, pottering in the garden, and taking time to "smell the roses". And I will be on retreat this weekend at The Sanctuary. It is a shared catering weekend, so I only have to provide one meal, and I can spend time at my sewing machine working on something of my own. I remember when I first started patchwork, and it was my sanity and therapy for some difficult times. 

I don't think I shall have a word for 2015. I shall just go with the flow and see where God takes me, and make sure I am still often enough to listen.

If you have read this far, thanks for sharing my life.

Blessings, From Jude

Quilting update

Time for another quilt show. I found these that I have not posted.

First is Jenny’s quilt, which had a simple custom quilting treatment that gave the hexagons a different look.

And this is Sherrel’s Paper Bag Mystery quilt that she made in the October retreat. Again a  custom quilting job, and you can see from the photo of the back the quilting is a bit clearer.

Another from Jenny, this time the quilt she made at the retreat back in April, quilted all over with a pattern called Modern Geometry.

This is Jean’s quilt, quilted allover with a clamshell pattern.

And this was hand pieced by Rosie, who loves to use up little pieces of fabric, instead of cutting up yardage. I basted this so that Rosie can hand quilt it.

And now it’s time to get back to the white quilt. I spent yesterday working on the binding. I have 1 side left to hand stitch! What a marathon this has been. Hope to put it on the bed for photos later today. I still have some holes from my unpicking to get out yet, although I worked on that a bit while it was on the frame and they are almost out.

Be back soon with another post about “other stuff”.

Blessings, From Jude

Pink and pretty

 

I received a text message yesterday with this photo of my very happy, 8 year old niece, who had been sewing some squares together in her first sewing project. It is fantastic to see the younger generation learning to sew, and I have to say well done to her dad, who was the one to take her to the patchwork shop, and to show her how to use the sewing machine! The machine that you can see on the table in the photo was my very first, a gift from my parents for my 18th birthday, and is an Elna. Still goes well and has had lots of use over the years.

I had hoped to have finished the white quilt by now, but yesterday was busy when my cousin came back to load up more furniture. I only have one more border to quilt, and then it will be onto the binding.

I better get too and start my day as there is lots on the agenda. I was woken up at 5am this morning with the joyful sound of the kookaburras. I love the early mornings listening to the birds singing. But I will admit to finding my bed before it’s dark in the evenings. I am not a night person at all. Maybe that is because of years of early morning rising to milk cows?

Blessings, From Jude

Lesson learned

Monday morning I learned that steam coming from a boiling kettle is HOT! A dumb move at the wrong time. Sometimes the things we do without thinking can be rather painful. You would think that I would be old enough to have worked this out by now. And it’s not in a good place because the arm brushes against the body when you walk, and leans on the desk to write (because it is the left arm!!) And another thing that was not in my schedule this week.

Still, it could have been worse, and with all the happenings in the world this last week or so, not really drastic at all.

AUSSIE DAY RETREAT

I still have a couple of places left in the Aussie Day Retreat at The Sanctuary, from January 23 to 26. If you would like some time to work on your own projects, with like minded ladies, and eat some Aussie food and fly the flag, I would like to hear from you.

Well, Max has stopped at the end of his row, so better roll the quilt on and do the last half of the quilt. Good working weather this week, so need to make the most of it before it gets hot again. We have had lovely rain this week too. The biggest recordings since July. A bit late for the farmers crops which are harvested now, but it’s lovely on the garden and in the tanks. Gives me a reprieve from shifting sprinklers each morning, just for a few days anyway!

Blessings, From Jude

Much has been achieved

in the past 2 days! Apart from going out to church this morning, I have been in the house all weekend, just sorting, and throwing, shredding, and generally getting some order into the mess. I posted the files photo yesterday, and by about 9pm last night I was happy with a clear table, and 3 drawers sorted. Still one to attack, but another time. (Sorry, no photo.)

These are the fabric samples sent by various suppliers over the last 13 years, which is almost how long I have been machine quilting for others!  I almost threw these away, and after a closer inspection, decided I only needed to remove a few staples, and labels and I had more to add to the scrap stash. (I must admit to the scrap stash being a bit disorganised as well, and well overdue for some attention.) And probably I don’t really need any more fabric, but I just can’t throw them out, can I?Might have just the piece I need one day!

Now this photo I almost did not post! But it is what it is, or was! Earlier in the year I had a bit of a declutter and sort out in the rest of the house. Sent a lot of things home with my children, to put into their homes now. And all the things that did not belong in other parts of the house, ended up in my bedroom, on this desk. It got to the stage where I could not even close the top. And it has been like this for months now, gathering dust and just waiting, waiting,….. The whole year has been busy with quilting and retreats at The Sanctuary, and they were the priority jobs, that paid the bills. Noone else comes into my bedroom, so this was the logical place for all this stuff to be, wasn’t it?? As long as the bed was clear, for me to sleep, the rest of the room did not matter. But, today was the day.

And this is what it looks like now. You can see boxes still, but there is organisation in the boxes now. I still have a lot of work to finish here yet. Those 2 large boxes at the side of the desk are full of files, (yes more files) of financial stuff from our farming days. And I just told you that I have been machine quilting for 13 years, so that tells you how old some of that “stuff” is!! I intend to go through those, in due course, and keep the interesting information and relevant papers, for when I start writing the history of my life. But I am not saying when that will be! And all the coloured boxes contain photos and messages, dried flowers etc, and are for each of my grandchildren for “one day”.

I feel really great that I have made this progress this weekend. It is a task that had been hanging heavy on my mind. When I do a house clean, due to time restraints, my room has always been the one that got left. My dressing table, which is behind me in the photo above, and just inside the door way has had a dust, clean and polish. Now that confession time is here, I will tell you that a glass was dropped in the entry hall just by my door, and broke into a million pieces, back in the month of October. And today I found pieces of that glass on the dressing table!! So you can see why I feel a great sense of achievement tonight.

And while I had the camera in hand, this is a photo of my teddy bear collection, sitting on their seat just inside my front door. I can see that someone has had a rearrange of my bears! And the seat is one made by my son, when he was doing a course at school. It just fits lovely in the entry hall and the teddy bears don’t get it dirty. He always jokingly says that he is going to take it to his house, but I tell him, only when I don’t need it any more. (Although I don’t phrase it like that exactly, it’s more like when I’m dead and gone!).

Time for bed, hope to come back with more quilt photos soon, enough of cleaning and sorting, that’s not very interesting.

We were supposed to get big rains on the weekend, and did get some, but now the forecast is for rain Monday and Tuesday instead. We will wait and see. It’s a long time since we had a big rain. Areas in the north of the state have had flooding rain. Fire and flood, all in the one week! That’s the country we live in.

Blessings, From Jude

Sorting files

It is a bit damp outside today, and I decided to take a couple of days from quilts, and start on the mammoth job of sorting out the filing cabinet, and some plastic tubs of older files. I have binned a lot of old catalogues and information from suppliers, and working my way through the 4 drawer filing cabinet. I could be here for years, so if you don’t hear from me, maybe someone should come looking for me! A lot of financial stuff is all over the place and will need some serious work later. But I am feeling better already just having got this far.

Catch ya another time,

Blessings, From Jude

Cooler temperatures

are here for a few days. We have had some rain, which hopefully has put the fires out. I will enjoy the next few days and Saturday’s estimate is for 21deg, When the last 2 days have been 44 and 42, that is a drop of 20 deg in the space of 3 days! Need to make the most of the cool to get some jobs done. Photo below is a visitor to my pergola yesterday for a drink in the saucer of the pot. Not sure who got the biggest shock, me or the lizard when we saw each other. It was too hot for me to stay out there very long, so not sure how long my visitor stayed!

And this is what I am doing today. Unpicking what I quilted yesterday. After 1 1/2 rows I decided I was not happy and stopped. I have 2 hours work left. What took 1/2 hour for Max to quilt is taking me 6 hours to unpick! Still to decide what I shall actually quilt though. And this hold up was not in my schedule either!

In between the job above I have been trying to sort out “stuff” that needs attending too. I have finally taken down the Christmas tree and put the decorations away until next time. Pity I could not leave them out, as they will all be out again for Christmas in July! And I even sorted out the things that I never use that were taking up space in the box, and deposited them into the bin! I could get quite ruthless with this decluttering. Next job will be sorting out all the paper work that has landed onto my desk. Either find a home, or it’s out! And then I need to send out some emails for the Aussie retreat which is just over 2 weeks away!  But now it’s back to the unpicking.

Blessings, From Jude

Unanswered questions and the “what if’s……”

 

I have debated and thought all day about this and whether I should include it as a blog posting or not. But, this blog is turning out to be more than quilts and retreats, it is a diary and record of my life and so I shall attempt to put today’s thoughts into words. As I posted earlier, I was up early with lots to do. I knew what the date was, so there has been lots of thinking today. Today would have been my husband’s 62nd birthday. Today was a day to wonder about so many things. Not that I don’t think these things on other days, but the special dates, like birthdays, anniversaries, and the date of his passing are different days. I was going along ok, keeping busy and passing the time. Then a message from my daughter and a posting on facebook brought the memories, and tears, flooding in.

As a family, we all have so many unanswered questions, and wonder whether, if we had done this, or said that, could it have been different. There is that sense of failure, and all those regrets. How could we have made him want to stay? There is sadness, sorrow, grieving and yes, there is anger too. All the reassurance in the world did not make any difference. Depression and anxiety are real illnesses and very much misunderstood. There are no easy answers, and I miss him. And it is hard to live with, both for the person and their families. I know that he is at peace now, and I can have peace that God is in control and will bring us comfort and strength if we trust in Him.

Top photo was at my 40th birthday, so is 20 years ago, and the photo below is him with GD2, who is almost 14 now.

__________________________________________________________________________

NEARLY A FINISH!!

On a lighter note, I finally finished piecing the quilt top today, and it is all ready to be loaded onto Max in the morning. And then the binding to be done, and it can be posted off to it’s owner. Do hope she likes it.

And another bright moment in my day was the arrival of a parcel addressed to me. In the tin, were 2 little birds. They are friendship birds from a special kindred friend for me to put on the mantelpiece at The Sanctuary. Thankyou so much, it cheered me up today when I needed it. Not sure what they are made out of, but are very heavy.

Over and out, time for bed, it’s been a long day, and hot, hot again. Tomorrow will be about 40 and then it’s cooler with the hope of some rain!!

Blessings, From Jude

Quilt update

It seems awhile since I posted quilt photos, so better start to catch up. Although I must admit that not so many quilts have been done in the last month due to Christmas and family activities. It seems hard to believe that we are already a week into January!

First up is a Jelly Roll quilt made by Val. The colours are much brighter than they appear in the photo, and it just seemed very summery to me, so I used an Ann Bright pattern called Summer, and an orange thread. I am normally a “blendy  thread” type of person, so this was out of my comfort zone, but I was really happy with how it turned out.

This quilt was made by Sue, and custom quilted. She intends to scallop the edges, so I chose a pattern to suit. Sue was very pleased with this quilt when she received it in the mail just before Christmas.

I woke up just before 5am this morning, so have been out watering before another couple of hot days arrive. Forecast is for 37 today and 39 tomorrow.

I hope to finish the white top today. I have made it in 4 sections and adding the borders to each quarter before I join them together. Hope to have it on the machine by end of today. I still need to join the backing. It will be quilted with an allover pattern and then I have the binding to do as well.

I had planned on finishing the piecing yesterday while another quilt was being quilted, but the best laid plans just don’t always work out do they? I had a repair job on Max as the bobbin winder just was not working properly. Has been a bit “off” for awhile, but yesterday it just stopped winding. I am not very mechanical, so hate it when things don’t work! Thought it might have been the O ring that needed to be replaced, so I found my machine manual, and unscrewed the screws and investigated inside. Found it was more than the O ring, as the whole wheel had fallen off inside the machine! I tried to put it back on, but things still did not work. So if all else fails, pick up the phone and call the dealer! Thankfully Bruce was able to help me. I had the wheel attached to the wrong place and when it was moved to the place it should have been, what a difference!! But if you listened to our conversation you would have laughed, because I just don’t know the proper names for the parts and we are talking in different languages. When I say the black piece that is sticking out the side, he has a proper name for it, and I have forgotten what it was already. It is all working as it should be now, but I do still need to replace the O ring, which is very worn. “Max” is coming up to it’s 8th birthday in February.

Enjoy your day, stay cool if you live in the south, and stay warm if you are in the north.

Blessings, From Jude