2 week summary

 As I seem to have a lot of photos in the files that have not been blogged about yet, perhaps this morning is a good time to catch up with some newsfromjude. While I have written some posts in the last 2 weeks, there has been a lot more happening in the background and I have not been idle.

I showed this photo of the strips I took from those very full drawers.........

                  ............and sorted them into sets to make a scrappy trips quilt.....................

..............sewed them into tubes and cut into sections..................

                           

                                       ...............and then made 12 blocks like this..........

                                   ................which were then sewn into 4 rows of 3 blocks..................

                                        ..................... and then bordered until I had this. While this was not the                                   quickest quilt to sew, it did use up a lot of those strips.

 I made mention that I had a visitor coming to spend a few days, and she was not idle either. I am very conscious of the fact that I have a VERY LARGE collection of fabric in my house. I was using a lot of this to make the Ready Set and Sew kits for retreats, but that seems to have come to a halt, for now anyway. I do have some ideas to reduce the stash, and one of them is to make quilts for others that are not in a good place and need to know that someone cares. The scrappy trips quilt above is the start of this, and while my fairy was here she worked on some more. This has made a good reduction of strips in those drawers, and it is almost possible now to fit them all into one drawer!!

When Jean heard of our plans, she brought along 25 16 patch blocks that she had made from donated fabrics. (A friend's mother had died and when the family cleaned out her house, there was a LOT of quilting supplies and as no one in the family wanted it, they took some of it to Jean's house!!) Edit - Jean has just messaged me to say she is sewing more of those blocks, so looks like there will be another quilt coming along! 

So Raylene set to work, trimming the blocks, and chose sashing and border fabrics from my collection. We only used 20 blocks and there are 5 remaining.

Those quilts have got backings made for them, and are now waiting patiently for the quilter to do her thing, and binding to be added. I have really enjoyed my recent piecing time. I think it is time to try and make a serious dent in the stash in this house, so I better start sewing fast. Tis funny that some of us spend years accumulating our collections, and then one day you suddenly realise that time is limited!!??

Another job that has been on my "to do" list for almost a year now, is to make a quilt for Mr Jett. As he is 10 1/2 months old now, I decided to get busy. I have been saving this fabric for this purpose.

I decided to keep it simple and easy...................

.........and I soon had this constructed...................

............but there were those who told me that I had a problem.......... the border elephants were upside down???? I can see that, but what do you do??...............

............You unpick and turn them up the other way.............. but then the side borders have the elephants going head down, or bottom down??........... Probably could have thought about this earlier and then cut the side borders along the length?? Dilemmas!!??

Anyhow, it's done, and in the quilting queue, which is where the delays seem to happen! The backing will be the fabric that's 3rd from the bottom.

I still have the corner blocks of Billie's quilt to do, and hope to get some progress happening on that this weekend. I am on a mission to finish quite a few of those almost done jobs!!

I received this photo from DIL last week. Apparently Miss Bridie decided that all the people on her quilt were hungry, so she is feeding them!! Oh, the imagination of children is wonderful isn't it?

I'm not too sure how the doctor is going to eat that carrot with his mask on though!!

                    

                  There was a baking session one morning and scones for morning tea.......................

Val usually calls in on a Thursday morning, ........... and before we knew it there was another, and another........... although not quite like feeding the 5,000 though!

More baking to put in the freezer

The garden has a bit of colour......... Jean sowed a lot of packets of outdated seeds, and brought some to me to plant, although I am not too sure exactly what they are??

And my daffodils are blooming too.

Today it is my parents 67th wedding anniversary. What an amazing achievement. 

Their wedding photo, August 15th, 1953................

.......and this was taken at the nursing home on Dad's birthday in June.

We haven't had an Angels sewing day for months now, with the restrictions in place. This week a couple of girls called in and decided they would sew. To practice the social distance thing, these days will have to be restricted to limited numbers. Progress was made on a string quilt................

Jean made blocks and Val added the sash and I said I would add the borders after lunch.....................

............but I went outside to get some more wood in, and got sidetracked in the garden, (as you do!!) and decided to lay some pavers that have been waiting for a few weeks...............and I think I need more pavers yet!

Note.... I don't think I will give up my day job anytime soon!! This area will have a collection of pots of hardy plants sitting here as it gets very warm in the summer.

Friday I came back to do the borders of that angels quilt...................

...............and decided it was a day to finish off other works in progress, such as this cushion cover that I have had cut out for a couple of weeks now.................this took me back to memory lane and all the embellished sewing classes I used to do, years ago, before retreats took over!! Something I would like to get back to, as I have a few works in progress waiting in the wings. These projects are not quick though, as those stitches take awhile to sew, so it could be awhile yet before I get back to them.

I think that is more than enough for one post, and thanks if you have read all the way through!! It is time to work on the corner blocks for Billie's quilt, and try to get another quilt ready for the quilter!!??

One of the positives that has come from this virus and the restrictions imposed has been the amount of "me" sewing time that I have had!! There is always a positive in a not so good situation, although we might have to look hard for it.

Be back soon,

Blessings, From Jude