March update..................

 It must be time for another catchup post, and I am reminded once again by a text message from my mother tonight which said "It's time you took GS 5 off that slippery dip!" Obviously she has been checking the blog for newsfromjude and keeps seeing the photos from the birthday post on March 12th.

I am aware that a post is overdue, and I even downloaded photos from my phone yesterday, but that is as far as I went before calling it a day.

The weeks are going by so fast, it's sometimes hard to remember what I have been up to. I then went back to the last newsy post to see what I had written for February summary, and noted all the socializing that occurred. At the bottom of the post was this sentence....... 

"I apologise that I am rather behind in reading blogs lately, and even missed Chooky's 15 year party on Saturday. I hope to catch up soon. Perhaps I should stay home??"

Perhaps it's a case of be careful what you say? Not long after this, I had the dubious distinction ?? of being a double close contact of 2 people that tested positive to the covid virus. Now I had to stay at home and isolate for the required number of days! And even though I was in contact with 2 people that managed to catch it, they were very considerate in not sharing it with me. And after 2 years of this virus being around, I have now had my first PCR test! I'm not too sure just when, or if, this will ever come to an end? Back to my little bubble I think! It does make me think more about where I am going, and what I do, and I have missed family birthday celebrations. It is many months since I have ventured to the city.

In spite of the above, I have had a few very small sewing days here, in an effort to make some donation quilts.

This tray has been overflowing with precut 4" finished half square triangles already placed right sides together and I was hoping to use them up, ......

so made a trial block with 4 patch units from the 2 1/2" strip drawer....

                                                I needed 6 blocks to make the required size ............

.........and finally a finish with sashing and borders,............. and now waiting in the queue for the quilter! And I might add that the tray did not go down much.

Next quilt I was trying to use up the 3" finished HST units so proceeded with this pattern.

And I was rather pleased with my first 2 blocks, until I really studied them on the floor, and whoopsie...........perhaps there is something not quite right??

This is much better.

By this time I realised that I wasn't going to clear the trays any time soon. It was very fortunate that a special lady called into my house and she is in a group that makes many quilts for others and has a lot of contacts who help her. So I packed up a lot of these oddments and sent them on a trip with Faye to the Bedford group. Don't these fabrics look so nice at her house?? 

Now these containers can be filled with more fabrics, that are presently on my shelves.

These are some others that have been made by various people in an effort to use up scraps.

Another bundle of lovely bright fabrics 'arrived' at my house this month.

It didn't take long for me to cut this bundle of almost 100 2 1/2" strips, using the Go Cutter.

Perhaps I shall try using the windmill pattern with some of them to make another donation quilt??

There are still a few more to make, for a total of 16 that I have committed to. I have enjoyed my time at the machine in between a few customer quilts.

Some time has been spent in the garden, and I finally am harvesting a few tomatoes. The cucumbers have finished and the zucchini winding down. I have planted some winter veges this week.

I spent some time in the kitchen and tried out this new recipe for a Meat-za! Which means that the base is made of meat!! It tastes so good.

This weekend I have loaded some of these quilts onto Max and here are the first 3, waiting for the binding fairy. I have been joining 3 backings together and thus only have to load one backing which makes the process simpler.

Faye called in with the intention of taking 10 donation single bed quilts back to the city with her. In the meantime there was a callout for quilts for the flood victims in Queensland and NSW. After much thought I have sent 5 quilts back to the city with Faye and kept the others to go to Queensland. It is very fortituous that I have a way to transport quilts to Brisbane in a couple of weeks, so will be checking out my cupboards and having a clearout. It will save my children having to deal with so many 'one day' and hopefully will help those who have lost everything. My heart goes out to those who are dealing with this tragedy. Add to that the situation in Ukraine and we really have nothing to complain about, do we?

These are the 5 quilts that have gone to the city..................These will be donated to the Margaret Tobin Mental Health Centre at Flinders Hospital. This is a cause close to home as a family member spent time there, and hopefully I will have more quilts to go there in the future. 

I do have a few more photos of customer quilts, but will save that for another post, sometime.         I plan on a quiet week, with a few more quilts to make to reach 16, and a custom quilt to be loaded onto Max. I need to do some digging in the garden in readiness for planting of the garlic seed, and some lawn edges need spraying. 

Have a great week, whatever you have planned and enjoy this lovely autumn weather, where it's neither too hot nor too cold.

Blessings, From Jude