Angels Day

 

Last week we had our first Gumnut Angels sewing day for almost a year. There was a buildup of quilts waiting for the quilter, so decided that was the task for the day. And that meant bindings to sew on, so there was plenty for the girls to do. More quilts were started that day too. There is no shortage of fabric on the shelves to be sewn. This group is a subgroup of our Patchwork group and was set up for the purpose of making quilts, mostly from donated fabric to give to others who may be ill or going through tough times. It helps them to know that someone cares. Since 2007 the Angels have donated more than 150 quilts to others. In between quilting with Max, I snuck (is that a word??) around and took some photos.

Marie donated this I Spy quilt, and now that it has been quilted and bound and has already been delivered to a 7 year old local boy who has been in hospital for a few weeks.

I had been looking at the increasing pile of tops waiting for the quilter, so was very thankful when Sue happily took a few to quilt on her machine. Here is the first one back.

Max had a busy day and these were all quilted with a very simple edge to edge pattern. It's amazing what can be achieved with donated scrap fabrics.

We took the opportunity that day for a group photo, of our smiling Angels.

That is another post that I can cross off the list. There are still another couple in the files, that can wait for another day. It has been a hectic few weeks although not many photos that I can post to show for it. But I have been crossing a lot of jobs off the gunnado list. There is still a bit of the History book to finish up with, and a visit next week from a group of quilters will be happening. After that, perhaps life can get back to "normal", although what exactly is normal these days? 

Back soon,

Blessings, From Jude

Recent quilting.........and a sewing project

If you have been reading my blog lately, you could be forgiven for thinking that customer quilts aren't on my agenda. When I looked back to see whose quilt I had posted last, I had to go back to last year to find any posts with customer quilts. And it seems like another 10 days have flown by, so this morning while I am waiting for it to be light enough to go outside to do some jobs, I shall make a start on this. The weather has warmed up again this week, so early mornings are the best time to be up and at it, and I shall wilt later in the day. There is lots happening here at the moment and I shall cover that in another post.

First up is a quilt by Pat, and although there were 2 just like this, I have only posted one. Both made with Kaffe fabrics into simple blocks to showcase the fabrics. This was quilted allover with Daisy Days and the other with Kaitlins e2e.

Erica made this quilt with Anita Hooley fabric range Sherbet Pips, for her granddaughter. I could not find a pattern that suited the fabrics, so we decided it just needed texture, and I loaded it lengthways, so that the pattern runs up and down, and quilted Modern Beads on it.

Jenny brought me a large pile of quilts last year and I am gradually working my way through them. The next 3 are all quilted edge to edge..... The first one is a large drunkards patch quilt, made with Oriental fabrics, and I used Flowers and Butterflys, a pattern by Deb Geisler...........

...............this quilt was made with the Black Tie Affair range of fabrics and Jenny said she wanted a pattern that was Elegant. I used Pearl Feather, an allover that I not used before, and we were both really happy with how it came out..........

........this quilt was made with Aussie fabrics featuring wombats and platypus' and was quilted allover with Inside Out.

It is daylight outside now, so I shall be back to finish this post sometime later................

Sometime much later............

                         This big star quilt was made by Donna and was less dense Custom quilted. 

Lois made this quilt for a young girl and wanted it quilted allover with something soft and pretty.

I used an edge to edge pattern called Soft and Sweet.

This is Helen's Mysolation quilt, made in an online Mystery with Rachelle Denneny. It was quilted allover with a pattern called Fandangle.

I have had this quilt of Cheryl's here since last year, so it was time to get it done. This was custom quilted and we are both very happy with how it came up. I was able to use the tools available on the Statler software to adjust the block pattern to fit the piecing. A combination of computer patterns and freehand.

The next project is not exactly quilting, but is sewing related. Years ago mum and dad had a swing seat when they were out on the farm and used to sit on it out in the verandah a lot. Then it moved into the town house and it was debatable when mum moved to the village just what to do with it. It was starting to rust and look a bit forlorn. My sister has lots of memories of sitting with Dad on the swing, so was a bit reluctant for it to be discarded. Mum decided that it was to be restored and given to her as a 50th birthday present. Those seats were looking a bit sad too........

                            .......a bit grubby and worn in places...............

So what is a sister who sews to do?? Of course I offered to make new covers for the seats. My fairy went to Spotlight and found some striped canvas fabric on sale. It was a bit tricky working out the best way to do this...........and I only wasted a little bit of the fabric.............until I came up with this.

The opening so that they can be removed and washed is just a fold and under the seat part. The original waterproof covers are still under the new covers.

And here they are, my baby sister and my mum, and the seat is back in action and good as new again.

I left this blog at daylight to go outside and work, washed windows and watered the garden. Came back in for breakfast, attacked some spiders behind the desk, and sorted mail and paperwork. Went to the Post office and supermarket and called into our Patchwork sewing day to say hello and came home just after lunch. By that time I was hot and weary, the temperature has gone up and the wind was blowing. I had a video chat with family in Melbourne and a visitor here and by that time I wilted and spent an hour in the recliner with some shut eye. Then it was back to the computer and now this post is done and I can hit publish. 

My apologies for being way behind in reading blogs. Be back soon with another update, I hope!

Blessings, From Jude

My baby sister...............

It was 50 years ago that my baby sister was born. I had 3 younger brothers and always wanted a sister. But it wasn't until I had left home and was working that she came along. If I tell you that she is 16 1/2 years younger, then I guess you can do the maths and work out my age, which is not really a secret anyway. And not long after that I married and moved away from the district.  Not long after I had children of my own, so they are more like sisters with her. (photo below is my sister in the middle and my eldest 2 girls).

Moving on a few years and she has children of her own, and the age gap doesn't seem so much.

Today I drove up the highway to join her for lunch with Mum and 2 of my brothers and their wives. This was as much as we could do to celebrate her special birthday, as she didn't want a party!

When the restaurant staff heard it was a birthday, they organised a cup cake with sparkler, and played Happy Birthday.

Hope you had a lovely day Sister dear and many more to come! xx

I have another part of this birthday story to share that involves sewing, but that can wait for another day, as my bed is calling. 

Blessings, from Jude

Catching up..............

 

As promised here is the newsfromjude update............ it's not so easy to remember just what I have been up to when I don't report in as often, and I have to say that there is not a lot of photos to show for how busy life has been. But I will attempt to remember, and once again we might try the headings again as there seems to be lots of bits and bobs to mention.

I'VE GOT MAIL....

I always look forward to receiving my blog book in the mail. Even with the supposed delays in mail deliveries due to covid, this still managed to arrive from the US in just over 2 weeks! It seems to be fatter than normal this time, so perhaps I had too much to say for the last 6 months??

IT GOT HOT!

The temperatures for summer have been very liveable, but just occasionally we get a few hot days and the weekend before Australia Day the temperature went up and the air conditioner did overtime! The temp got up to 44deg, although it was only for one day and then cooler weather arrived again. We have even had good rains for January, which has helped the garden and the tank. Yesterday we received another rain and I drove home in the heaviest rain we had seen for awhile. I can't believe how some people just seem to drive at the maximum speed allowable when the conditions are so bad with water all over the road!! Many vehicles passed me as I slowed down.

AUSTRALIA DAY

As I haven't got back to having retreats again, Australia Day celebrations were much quieter here this year, although I did wear my Aussie shirt and there were a few callers in and out. The fairy came to stay just before Australia Day and was here for 2 weeks which was great. There was a lot of chatter around the table..............

..............and there might even have been a little nip or two!

BEING ANGELS........

The Gumnut Angels, our charity sewing group have not met for most of last year, and there was an accumulation of quilts waiting "patiently" in the queue for the quilter. These all needed backings and waddings to be cut for them and a few of the girls that called in for Australia Day got to work and did this, so we can hope that they will move to the front of the queue soon??

SEWING TIME

As mentioned Raylene arrived to spend some time and she started out sewing one of her own bindings while I sewed scrappy string blocks.

Val had started these a few weeks ago and there were 6 on the pile. I made a few more until there were 16 altogether. They have now been put away until I come back and sash and border them.

While sewing the blocks I had left out all the black and white strings and after looking at the heap on the table, Raylene and I thought they would make a good collection of their own with a grey added to the mix. This turned out to be Raylene's next project ........

We decided they looked pretty good and wondered about a sashing .........

.........of black and white stripes... with a little touch of red as cornerstones???

The fairy must have enjoyed doing these, as she made all 16 blocks in one day. We thought it needed to be bigger and there were still loads of strings in the tub, so a string border was sewn, edged in a little border of red and then a grey to finish. And there are still heaps of strings in that drawer, so perhaps there will be a kit made up for this?

This is now in the tub with a backing prepared, and waiting for the quilter!

THE HISTORY

I mentioned in a previous post that I was writing a 25 year history for our local group. This has been where I have spent most of the past 2 to 3 weeks and I can see an end in sight. So far there is almost 80 pages. As publicity officer I had accumulated a quantity of newspaper clippings of events, and inherited similar from previous publicity ladies. These really needed to be some organisation, and who is the "QUEEN" of organisation, but the fairy. She was very excited to get these clippings in some sort of order and what an amazing job she did!! They are all in a folder in dated order and now easy for all to look at. Even our photo albums have been sorted. Thankyou Raylene. 

STITCHES ARE OUT

Those 7 stitches are now out, and a good result eventuated. The margin was clear, although if the BCC had not been removed it might not have been so good. I now have an appointment to get a thorough skin check next month.

IN THE GARDEN.............

Much time has been spent outside in the last month or so, after many months of neglect, and progress has been achieved. I realise that gardens take a lot of maintenance and I hope I can keep it tidier now. Someone did say to me recently that you can't be in the garden and sewing too, but I shall try to manage both??

My dahlia's are flowering..........

........the hollyhocks...........

.............a pink mandala...............

I was quite surprised to see this bromeliad and how the flower looks...........

...and the agapanthus were passed their best by the time I had taken this photo, and a few days previously to this, I had watched the honeyeaters busy on these flowers, so perhaps that is why they look a bit weary?

Even the flowers on the kurrajong tree look pretty, although I can't say the same about the horrid pods that they drop on the ground.

Last Sunday morning I was out in the garden at the front attacking those wild violets that I have been trying to remove. After clearing and then watering this area, there were still some little shoots as there are a lot of roots still in the ground. 

I went around the back to get the green waste bin that was near my garage and lo and behold, what a shock I found!! During the night part of a tree had come down and crushed the fence and straddled the road!

This turned my next few days upside down as I tried to organise the clearing of the road and subsequent cleanup. The whole tree did not come down, so now I need to get the "tree man" to come in and take out the remainder which is unsafe and that happens this week. I have been cleaning up the garden area of my block and putting a lot of rubbish in my yard, behind the shed to worry about later. The fence is high, and the "stuff" is hidden behind it. I guess I gotta laugh because now my fence has been flattened, and all my messy back yard is "exposed" for the world to see!? Is there a sermon here somewhere? We can't hide anything from God, he sees all and knows us from the inside.

I will come back with another post of more garden photos and recent customer quilting, another day. 

It is well past my bedtime. 

Blessings, From Jude