Being Thankful

This week there has been lots of posts on social media, (and it is in the quilting world that I am usually spending my time,) where they are advertising all sorts of things at sale prices, for Black Friday. On a few blog posts I read there has also been much comment about the Thanksgiving long weekend. (What plans they have, and what recipes they will cook and where they will celebrate it.) While I had known about the custom of Thanksgiving, I was not really sure just when it was, so curiosity got the better of me and I googled it. (As you do).

I discovered it was the 4th Thursday of the month of November, and the following day was called Black Friday, and that was the start of Christmas shopping and many stores had discounted prices. On further investigation, I found that Thanksgiving goes back a long way, and originated as a harvest festival, a celebration of the blessings from the harvest of the year, and was a day to give thanks to God for his blessings, to pray and feast with family and friends.

While it is not something that Australia seems to do, the commercial part of the sales seems to be spreading to our country. I do think the idea of a day set aside, especially to acknowledge the things we are thankful for, has merit. I realise that we can be continually thankful and this has come into my Bible study readings this week. But we don't sit down with family for a special meal of Thanksgiving. A lot of people get into a panic in the leadup to Christmas celebrations, so I don't know how they would cope with 2 special meals in a month!

It was pretty easy to write a short list of thing that I am thankful for, as we do live in a very blessed country, although there are many places at present where they might struggle to be thankful.
I am very thankful for my family, my 4 children, 10 grandchildren, both my parents who are still with us, the care my father receives, and my extended family. I am very thankful for my faith, and God's word that he has given us, my church family, good friends and neighbours. I have a comfortable house to live in, with heating and cooling, work to do, a bed to sleep in, a garden and trees, and ample supply of good water. The list could go on and on.

Life sometimes brings circumstance that are not so good, and I can think of many of those occasions. I did struggle to give thanks for those times, but looking back, I can see the good that came out of them, and give thanks that God was there with me, and brought me to where I am now.

I have probably waffled on longer than I needed, and I give thanks if you have read this far!

Many Blessings,
From Jude

Quilting update

Once again, it seems ages since a customer quilt post. Hope you enjoy these photos, that include a wide variety of quilts. I think I have said before that I am very blessed to have a job that is like going to a quilt show every day. (If I have shown any of these before, my apologies, but it's probably not too hard to see them again.)

The first 2 were made by Helen, using a striking fabric, that you can see in the border. She has very creatively used Ricky Tim's Convergence method for the centre part of each quilt.This reminds me that I have a (or maybe 2) convergence tops, just waiting for my quilter, one day.

They were both quilted with butterfly edge to edge patterns.

Jocelyn made this string quilt, and agrees with me, that the string bin does not get any lower by using them up??

This was quilted allover with a pattern called Spring thing.

Lyn made this sampler quilt, that was quilted allover with an Oriental pattern.

This is a Mystery Retreat quilt, made by Sherrel, called Cottage Garden, and features the scrappy trips pattern, with sashing between each block.

This was quilted allover with a daisy pattern.

Lynda made this quilt in a group project, and it was quilted allover with a swirly pattern.

This was Val's Presidents Challenge made for our recent exhibition, and it was quilted allover with a pattern called Dandy.

Pat made this bed runner using the Accuquilt Cleopatra's Fan die, and it was custom quilted.

Helen made this small quilt for a friend's birthday, and it was quilted with an allover dragonfly pattern.

This is Marie's frog quilt. The frogs were made using a stencil of the frog die at our recent Go Cutter retreat. 

The frogs are swimming in the water pond fabric that Marie used in the setting blocks, and it was quilted allover with Calm Waters.

Suzie made this quilt, which featured lots of cute animal fabrics in the centre circle. It was quilted allover with Modern Waves, which gives it a lovely texture.

This was Beth's President's Challenge, made for our quilt show, and this was quilted allover with Spiral Squares, which has also given it a lot of texture.

Pat made this large quilt, featuring a roses fabric, that was quilted allover with Song Birds.

Jean made this quilt, for friends who support a footy team that has these colours. It was quilted allover with footballs.

That takes care of half of the remaining quilt photos up to now, and I will leave the others for another day. Max has been busy this week, and is now on the countdown to get a few done before Christmas week.

I managed to get the bookwork up to date, and visited with the accountant on Tuesday to complete my tax figures for last financial year. It is a relief to get that job done for another year. I don't know where the years are flying by, as I hardly submit one return and it's time for the next year!

I have been spending a little time each day in the garden, trying to get some order and progress into the vegie patch. I also have some other plants to get in, and I am a month late with them too. That's what happens when you neglect yard work, although it was unavoidable really. I just try not to open my eyes too wide when I go out to the garden!! If I don't hurry, it will be too too hot. This week the weather is much cooler than the HEAT of last week, and even a bit on the cool side. But I am not complaining.

The fabric rep called in this morning, and I might have succumbed to some bargains??

I am looking forward to seeing family tomorrow night, and then a few things on the weekend, that I shall post about later.

Blessings, From Jude

A finish, flowers, fabric, friends, family and figures!!!!

In case you thought I had given up on the blog, here I am back again, and trying to remember the events of recent days so that I can update newsfromjude. Except for the birthday message a few days ago, it looks like it is almost 2 weeks since an update.

After the retreat post, I spent quite a few days with Max, working on this Caswell quilt, that has been in my possession for longer than I care to admit. Jill started this in 2017, and it took care of many hours for her, while she sat with her mother, who was not well. It's amazing, the work in all this needleturn applique, and I can't imagine even doing one of the blocks. (Maybe, one day, when I have lots of time on my hands??? )

The quilt has now been delivered to it's owner, who is pleased to have it finished for her. She has 2 more similar quilts that she has done, and they are now waiting "patiently" in my queue. I love it, when they say, there is no hurry, as it takes the pressure from me.

Those buds, have turned into these flowers. This is a hanging basket that I purchased, and really needs to be repotted, so that's another job for the "to do" list.

Found some more flowers on my roses, that usually look quite pretty at the start of the season.

Last week the diary had events marked for being in the city, and as they were a couple of days apart, it was decided to stay, instead of making 2 trips. Pat and I headed up the highway early Monday morning, and arrived in time for a lovely lunch with members of the QGSA Judging Panel.

Following the lunch, I drove to the Barossa to catch up with family, and especially my grandson who was celebrating his 11th birthday that week. Pat joined up with friends Maxine and Dot and visited The Jam Factory in the city where they had a tour of the facility. When I arrived back in the city, we enjoyed a meal with Maxine, (thanks Maxine), and then Pat and I arrived back at the accommodation, ready for a good night's sleep. (I had driven 6 hours that day!)

It was a slow start the next morning, as I slept much later than usual!! Next stop was to the fabric agent's warehouse, for me to see what backing fabrics they had in stock. (And I might have found some other bolts to bring home with me too??) I can't wait to work out what to do with this bundle.

Then it was time to visit with more family, and while I drove there, Pat spent time with another friend, Raylene. I enjoyed some time with these special people, and we sat outside in the shade and enjoyed cake and conversation.

 It was back to the accommodation in the dark, after a total of 3 hours driving there and back. All this city driving is a bit out of my comfort zone, especially as there are lots of road works happening while they are building new expressways. Plenty of slow downs, to 40k and 60k, and although the phone app is good, and mostly giving good directions, I did think at one stage, that it had taken me the loooong way to where I needed to be!!??

The weather on both those days was warm, but not too hot, and the forecast for Wednesday was not looking too good, with strong winds and temps well into the 40's. It was Tuesday evening, when we received the notice that our meeting for Wednesday was cancelled! It was a bit disappointing, as we need not have booked 2 nights accommodation. But in hindsight, it was probably better to be home by mid Wednesday, as there were many fires in our state that day, and the weather was quite nasty. (So there was another 3 hours of driving time to get home.) Staying for 2 nights gave us a good chance to catch up with friends and family that we would not have done otherwise. (Always a positive to every negative isn't there?)

While I was away,  my trusty house sitter came to look after things for me. Val had been unwell for the last Mystery weekend, but had picked out a case to do. So her time at my house was put to good use, and she finished the quilt, called Daisy Petals, before she left for home. (It is now waiting for the quilter!)

I will finish this post with some extra photos of family, (to add to the one above,) plus some that were sent to me, and some that I have "borrowed".

How did Miss Bridie get to be old enough for kindy??

And this little man is not far away from his first birthday!?

Some hot weather has meant it's time to use their pool...........

..............and this is my first grandie, who is not far from 19 years old!!??

This little man, looks like he is almost as big as his sister..............

......and he is flexing his muscles, and almost 2 months old now, and doesn't look like he has lost much of his hair, does he?

This has mostly been my view this week, while trying to get some sort of order into my bookwork, and get figures ready for my accountant appointment on Tuesday. I still need to get the 2018/2019 tax year done, and have now worked my way up to 23rd November, in an effort to see where I am going for the next financial year.

Yesterday I attended a special "0" birthday for a friend, after which I came home and just sat! I was even too tired to do this blog post, as the week caught up with me. (Is this an age thing, or not??)

 This morning it was time for church, and I was challenged and given much to think about by our Pastor, who spoke on Worship. I wish I had taken notes of what she said, so that I can go back over it again??

That's probably caught you all up on newsfromjude, and thanks if you are still reading. It's almost time to get the next book printed, and all these copies will save me some work on my life story. Hopefully after Christmas, if I am up to date with the schedule, I will take some time off and get back to sorting photos and writing some more chapters.  I can see the year 2020 is filling up already, and I can't see that I will be bored any time soon.

Blessings, From Jude

Happy Birthday......

Today my grandson celebrates his 11th birthday.

We had some time on Monday to chat about recent happenings in his life. It doesn't seem 11 years since his birth, and it's great to watch these little ones grow and develop into special young people.
Hope you had a great day and managed to stay cool on what was an extremely HOT day. Happy birthday love from Grandma.

Blessings from Jude ,
who will be back soon with an update on newsfromjude.blogspot

Pick a Case Retreat Report..........

Once again the days have got "away" from me. Do you think that is a recurring theme lately?? 

As it is Tuesday evening already, I better get this post done before any more days go by. 

Last weekend's Mystery retreat was due to start late afternoon on Friday, and my list of "to do" items was getting crossed off, with a few left for Friday morning. My checking lady had taken quite a few of those cases home to check, and I had finished another 2 for her to check Friday after lunch when she was due to arrive. 

The "right over the other side of Melbourne" girls were due Friday afternoon, and I was breathing easy. It was about 4pm on Thursday afternoon, and my phone rang. The "other side of Melbourne" girls had decided to drive part way on Thursday and stay the night somewhere to break up their trip, as it is an 8 hour drive to Bordertown! (I do love and appreciate their dedication to drive all that way, and they do it 2 or 3 times each year!!) They had made good time on their drive and were 4 hours away, so wondered if they might arrive that evening?? Of course, not a problem, the beds were all made, so come on over!! I will say that I then did some more cleaning to finish some of those jobs I had left for Friday morning, and made some phone calls to the other girls to see if they could come earlier on Friday to start the retreat. It was all good.

I will just add a little comment here that Gayle and Lyn said to me........ They had unpacked the car, and settled into their room, and we put the kettle on for a cuppa, and Lyn said that it felt like they were at home and Gayle agreed. I felt very humbled that they thought this. My home is certainly not 5 star, and I just hope that guests feel comfortable and as though they are at home. I would like for it to be somewhere for people to come and leave any worries behind, and relax as they enter through the door.

Soon after lunch on Friday they were all here ready to start. Usually I have some sort of "allocation" process for them to choose a case, but as this was the last one for this year, I decided to let them choose from all the cases, and they did this in the order that they arrived.

This pic shows Erica and Yazmin checking out the quilts in the cases.

Mystery retreats are usually much quieter than other weekends, as they are all on a mission to get as much sewing done as possible, and most hope to leave with a completed top. 

Robyn was off to a flying start, with strip piecing for her 9 patch units. Her chosen quilt, was called Dramatic Effects, and was named after the fabric range used in the quilt.

She was very happy to get the top finished, and has chosen backing fabric and left it with the quilter!!

Cathie chose the quilt called Siena, which is also the name of the fabric used. (I do love it when I can use the fabrics to name the quilt, as this is something I struggle with.)

Cathie still needed to get the last border on, but time was against her, so will wait for a finished photo soon.

This is the border fabric that still is to be added.

Erica worked steadily all weekend, and was limited with time as she only came for days, and missed the night time sewing. Her quilt (called Cornflowers Blue), also involved a lot more complex piecing in each block, and she was meticulous in lining up her triangles).

Her quilt blocks were all sewn, and here is one row together. The fabrics in this quilt are fresh and crisp with the blues and soft grey background. 

This is how it will look with the borders.

Sherrel's quilt was called Ink Blossom, and was also named after the range of fabrics used.

The weather turned very cold and windy again for the weekend, and night temperatures were down to 3 deg early one morning, so the fire was burning. It is very unusual to have the fire going in November, but it was a good spot to wait while you queued for the iron. ( I did have 2 ironing stations, but they all seemed to prefer to wait for this one!!)

I think we all prefer to use this iron, and one of the girls referred to it as the "up/down" iron!

         And here is Sherrel's finished top, that also has the backing chosen and waiting for the quilter.

Lyn chose the quilt called Graceful Moments, which was a repeat of previous retreat quilts, and has been very popular. I am sad to say that I have used up all the fabric now and there won't be anymore.

Not long after she started to sew, her machine was not sewing well, so one of my spare machines came out to be used, and here Pat is helping wind some bobbins. (In fact all the machines at this table were from my collection, and it is good to see them get used.)

There were lots of flying geese units in this quilt, so Lyn was very proficient by the time she had finished them all. (I know she was very pleased to have some 9 patch units to make then.)

                 The last 2 borders were mitred, which gives it a nice finish.

It was about 10pm on Sunday evening when Lyn proudly had her Ta Daa moment, and she was so pleased to be finished, after her machine problems, and ALL those flying geese, and then the mitred borders, which all took her out of her comfort zone. There might have been a few little drinks to celebrate after that?? And then we sat and talked and laughed until almost midnight. Such great stories, but as what happens at retreat, stays at retreat, I am sorry I can't tell you anything!

When Gayle was choosing, she didn't really look in the cases at the quilt, as she saw one called Cat-I-Tude, so immediately picked it. This is also a range of fabrics with that name.)  This is a rework of a previous Mystery case quilt, that I substituted different fabrics in. (Will post the other quilt at the bottom.)

 The blocks are laid out on the bed, and decisions are made as to whether to make it wider or not. Most of the quilts are square, but this is not due to the number of the panel blocks used. Gayle finally decided to make it as a rectangle.

Her she is getting some TLC from Yazmin.

And another finished top, on Sunday evening, just before our late night session.

This is the other quilt, using the same pattern, but different fabrics, that Dot made in a previous retreat.

I introduced this young lady a few weeks ago when she joined us for one of the weekend's back in August. Yazmin is Pat's grand daughter and is keenly learning all she can. She wasn't down for this retreat, but called in to see Pat on Friday morning. And thus ended up coming each day to sew a quilt for herself. She does not have her own machine yet, so one of my collection came out for her.

She was worried that this quilt, called Cabin Fever would be too hard for her, but we said to just follow the directions one at a time and not think too far ahead. This is a simple log cabin quilt, with a half square triangle unit in the centre.

 There were lots of smiles, and Ta Daaa moments over the next few days...........

 ..................and here she is happily showing me that she is up to bag number 13!!

Time to lay out the blocks, and here is where she made some decisions herself. Instead of making one large quilt, she is doing 3 smaller ones, that will fit her 3 lounge seats. 

There is no finished picture yet, and here is her pile of blocks, with the border fabrics all ready for the next session.

And last, but not least we have Pat, who chose the quilt called Lenton Rose. (Another one named after the fabric range.)

                          Strip piecing at the machine...................

................and then at the ironing board. (I call these units Pointy blocks, but they probably have another name, can you help me with it???)

And the first block is sewn!!!

Now we are finally onto the second block in the quilt!!

Here you can see the clock that says 3.30pm on Monday afternoon! Pat was the last to leave, and wanted to get her borders on before she went home. (Well, I wanted her to!) We are very happy with this design, and it will appear again, but with different fabrics. It appears that she is the slow sewer, but a lot of Pat's time is taken up with helping others with their quilts, and especially her granddaughter.

Just a few comments about the quilt above, and how the design came about......................

I had come up with the following design after changing the colours around until I was happy, and Pat had been with me throughout this process. We love being able to change out the colours and design in EQ8, and often bounce ideas off each other. 

This was what we had decided on, and when I was doing the maths and writing the instructions last week, time was running short, and I had worked out the star block, of which there were 9 and then the square block of which there are 4. Now I needed to do the maths and workings for the setting triangles as all the blocks are on point. ........................

........and I had this idea of just taking those half triangle blocks out altogether so deleted them with the eraser on EQ and just coloured them with the background fabric, and presto!! What a difference this made, it saved me working out the blocks and didn't it look more interesting??

Of course, then Pat came along and had some more input. Just leave out some of those 4 patches she said....... and this is how it ended up in her quilt. Not a lot more difference, but a subtle improvement. (We could spend hours playing with this programme.)

I did get a little sewing time in between meal preparation time over the weekend, and have a quilt that I am making for a friend. The request was for a bright quilt, and it needed to be about 86" square. I cut the pieces out ages ago, and they had been in the plastic tub, just waiting, so it was time to get them out.

This is where I was up to, having made some of the units and then pieced those blocks at the top, just to see how they would look together.

I finished sewing the 4 patch blocks, and then proceeded with the half square triangles. I just loved that cutting these HST on the Go cutter, and sewing an accurate 1/4" seam means that the blocks are a perfect size and need no trimming at all!!

And now I have all the HST units stitched and still needing to be pressed. That's a job for another day, as I really need to get this finished soon??

Gayle and I took some time out on Sunday morning to attend church, which is always a special time. Sunday lunch is usually something quick to prepare after that. We had a few local visitors popping in during the weekend to say hello, which is always good. 

I have a few roses in my garden, and Pat decided that they needed to come inside for us to enjoy.

I just love this rose, which is darker than I remember it being.(I think it's Mr Lincoln??)

 And of course here is the group photo, with everyone looking pretty happy with there tops.

This is where I was about 5pm on Monday afternoon, when the washing had all been done, the kitchen cleaned, and the house was all quiet. (I might have had a bit of shut eye). It was then an early night for a catch up sleep.

Some floors and bathroom have been cleaned today, and another quilt loaded ready for the next few days. The girls were here for Bible Study today, and tomorrow Max might get turned on.

Once again it has been an amazing weekend of sewing, sharing, laughter and friendship. This was the last scheduled retreat for this year and there are plans being made for 2020. If you are interested in joining us for a Mystery weekend, or just one to work on your own projects, I look forward to hearing from you.  Perhaps you would like to get a few friends together and choose your own dates??

I have been sitting at this computer for about 3 hours now, since the KYB girls left, so perhaps it's time I stopped and hit the publish key.

Blessings, From Jude