Thursday post

This was the photo that I posted before the Rendlesham group retreat, taken on June 13....................

...................................and this taken after that, on June 18th.............

............................................and this was taken yesterday, ready for the arrival tomorrow of another group to do the Pick a case Mystery retreat. Maybe I have not been sitting idle, twiddling my thumbs this month!! Hopefully everyone will find something that they are happy with. I will be back in a few days with a retreat report.

In amongst that job, I have managed to get some quilts finished, and here are a few photos for you.

First are quilts made by Liz, for the family of a farmer friend that died. She used his shirts and made 3 quilts.

We used a tractor tyre tread pattern, so give the quilts texture, and you can see that the shirt pockets were included.......

......and the outside borders were made from trousers, and here a part of a pocket was left in too.

 The backings used were of John Deere tractors.

This quilt is a sampler made by Marion, who is trying to finish all her UFO's, and has made steady progress with this.

This morning I headed up the highway again, and this was my view for part of the trip. It was hard enough to see oncoming vehicles even with their headlights on, but I was totally stunned that some vehicles were driving in that soup, WITHOUT LIGHTS ON??!! A bus turned onto the highway from a side road, without any warning, that caused me to brake hard, and further on a man turned onto the highway when he should have waited. And in the hills, on a 2 lane freeway, one driver chose to stay in the right lane all the way!! All I can say, it was the day for ??@@@@ drivers. Is it a full moon or something? Rant over. (Note, I did stop on the side of the road to take that photo!)

And this was the outside temperature!, But I was nice and cosy in the car, and sorry it looks like an inside car clean might be necessary!

This was my purchase today. It was an end of financial year deal that was too good to leave. It is not the current model, and is slightly used, but comes with a 3 year warranty from a dealer. Did I need another machine? No. Am I intending to trade in any of the 5 machines that I have here? No. My "good" Pfaff machine is quite old now, and having a problem that can't be fixed. I do love my Pfaffs, and already had 2, but do have Janome machines here as well. Those machines are used by others, and the angels when we have sewing days here. Or when the grandchildren have a sewing session with grandma. But no one else gets to use my Pfaff. I have tried out another brand, but it didn't feel right, and I already have lots of feet for this brand. I do feel a bit extravagant, but I am hoping that this will give me the incentive to get back to some of my own embellished quilt projects which I haven't spent time on lately. So watch this space, and remind me of my intention won't you??

Time for some shut eye, ready for a cooking session in the morning, before the arrival of another bunch of ladies. This group is quite different this weekend, with some new faces, so will be good.
I hope for a relaxing time, in between the food prep, and have sewn the binding on one of my own quilts, ready for hand sewing, in between lots of chatter and laughter.

Blessings, From Jude

Still here........

Before another week gets underway I will check in and report on last week. I had a message last night from "someone" who has been checking for newsfromjude and not found any. It seems a bit hard to believe that another week has disappeared again. And there has not been many "blog worthy" things to report on. Looking back in the photo files, has not yielded much, and the diary tells me less.
I mean you don't really want to hear that the septic tank was "desludged" last week do you??

Mostly I have been sitting at the computer, working on quilt designs for the cases. Playing around in EQ, and cutting and writing instructions. It seems like thats all I am doing lately, but there is another retreat this weekend that I need to be ready for. (And another 2 of these before the year is out, so need to keep at it.) It's just as well I enjoy doing this isn't it?

 I did receive a photo from Lynda, of her quilt, with the borders added. Thankyou Lynda.

The weather has been rather cold so it's nice to stay inside with the heater. In fact after I got home from the city on Monday, I did not venture out all week. (Except to the front lawn to pick up the paper, or to the wood shed to refill the wood box).

The purchases I made at the warehouse on Monday were delivered during the week. It's always exciting to get parcels delivered, and there should be more orders coming this week. But I won't bore you with a photo of wadding!

One thing that did happen that I have photos of, is moving day of the Gumtree Quilters. We have been meeting in the same venue since 1996, and have decided that a move was necessary. We will now be sharing a venue with the local CWA group, and Saturday was moving day. The old saying "many hands make light work" proved true in this case and it did not take long to shift our "stuff" to the new premises. The first Monday in July will be our first patchwork day in the new place.

President Pat locking the door on the old.............

...............and arriving at the new..........Parking and access at this venue is much better than the old.

Sorry I forgot to take a photo after all was put away and tidied. That will come later.

I will finish off with this photo that DD1 sent to me, of her children with Grandma. I am feeling rather short these days, as the girls are growing so tall.

That's all folks. It's time to get Max oiled up and ready for a day of edge to edges. I did manage 2 quilts last week, but unfortunately one 'got out the door' before I took a photo.

Blessings, From Jude

Weekend Report

Another week is already underway, so I better report on the weekend, before another one gets here. The days and weeks are flying by so quickly, and nearly half a year has gone.

It was a great weekend to be inside by the fire, and except for picking the paper up from the front lawn, I did not poke my nose outside all weekend. The girls arrived very soon after I arrived home from the trip to Murray Bridge for the funeral, and before I knew it, Sunday afternoon had arrived and they had all gone home. The beds were stripped and washing done, and things put away, and I sat by the heater for awhile, before heading to bed for an early night.

 I knew that time was limited as the girls were leaving just after lunch on Sunday, so we did not play bingo for the allocation process this time. It was a roll of 10 dice, to see who could score the highest, and have the first pick. That high pile of cases, now looks like this, so you know what I shall be doing for the next 2 weeks, until the next mystery retreat!

Then it was time to read the instructions, and check out the fabric in the cases.

Not sure exactly what Kathy was showing off here, but it had their attention!??

 Karen had to pair her layer cake squares........

 ............and Kathy had lots and lots of half square triangles to make.....so started ruling diagonal lines....... in fact the whole quilt was half square triangles!!

And Lynda opened the first couple of bags, and started laying out the pieces for her block, but.............. can you see those squares on the top? They should be rectangles!!!!XXAA#!@##

I sure am glad they were too big, and not too small, because it was easily rectified. Just a pity those 1/2" pieces are too small for anything, and yes they went in the bin.

I left the girls busily sewing and went to bed earlier than they did, (it had been a busy week!), but was up early in the morning, and I snapped pics of their progress which showed they did not talk all night. I must admit that after I went to bed, I heard nothing, even though they were sewing right next to my room.

I loaded an Angels quilt that needed to be quilted, and managed to get 2 done during Saturday. In between that and getting meals, I managed a few more photos.

It was late afternoon when Kathy had made all her half square triangles, and as you might expect, she decided not to use the layout that was in the quilt pattern. She had other ideas, and laid them all out on my bed. Then I began to wonder whether I would be able to get into my bed that evening.

But it was not long before she had it all under control, and had sewn the rows, and numbered them, and placed them on the table by her machine. 

And don't these rectangle units all look lovely? Well they did until I realised that they were supposed to be 2 patterned fabrics, and not with white!! Thus I did a bit of reverse stitching, and cut more rectangles to correct MY mistake. Oopsie!

Now it all looks correct.

Ready for a piano key border, which was stitched on when Karen was at home. And she sent me a photo today, which is still on my phone.

Here is the photo from my phone.

This quilt has a striped border to go on it too, so I hope to get a photo of that soon.

Kathy's quilt, all ready for a border.

Still a row to go on the side of Lyn's quilt yet, and then a few borders, but very striking in the blues.

This was the only finish for the weekend, and she was very happy. Sewing time at home is very limited, so it was all systems go for the weekend to get it done.

The photo of the Rendlesham Threads and Thimbles group, who said they would be back next year. Thankyou for coming girls, and lovely to get to know you all.

This morning I headed up the highway AGAIN, and my car registered the outside temperature to be down to 0 deg! It was time for my yearly mammogram checkup. Everything was all clear, and I have now reached the 10 year milestone. I always hold my breath until I hear those words, " all is good". I also had a few other stops to make, including finding backing fabrics for quilts, and other supplies, including a new iron. And of course a stop in Murray Bridge to see mum and dad is part of the trip as well.

My bed should be nice and warm now, so time to head there, as I was up at 4.30 am this morning.
Tomorrow I need to get back to working on some customer quilts, and hopefully I can work out the new software as I go.

Blessings, From Jude