One day after another............

It seems like too many days have gone by since the last blog post, so I should probably update you with newsfromjude. There are no trips up the highway to report on, no retreats at Number eight to tell you about, there are no visitors coming in, no coffee dates, no family celebrations and no meals out.That makes it a struggle deciding what to write about. Each day seems to come around like clockwork, and the diary pages are mostly blank. The camera doesn't come out very often so this post might be fairly boring and ordinary, but that is the "normal" at the moment. (I do have a lot of thoughts going around in the head about that subject, but that can wait for another day.)

CUSTOMER QUILTS

I am fortunate in that I can work from home, and I still have quilts to finish, and some coming in the door to add to the queue. I have managed to spend some time with Max and finish some quilts. A few have been large, custom jobs, that are show entries, so they are on the machine for awhile and I can't show you yet. State exhibitions have been postponed for a few months, so that could be end of the year before you see those photos.

 I do admit that I am spending less time with Max as a few other jobs are taking my time, in this "new normal" life.

The first 2 quilts were made by Marree, and showcase some great fabrics. This one was quilted allover with a pattern called Whatever.

This curved pieced quilt, was quilted allover with a circle pattern.

This is only Yazmin's second quilt, that she has made for her Grandma. It was one of the recent Mystery quilts and Yazmin added borders to make it the size needed for Grandma's bed. This was quilted allover with Butterfly Swirl.

This small quilt was made by Erica, using the leftover blocks from a larger quilt, and quilted allover with clouds.

Frances made this very large Civil War quilt, and I quilted the centre part with an allover Clamshell pattern with stars.

This quilt had a "friendly" pieced border, so this was treated separately and quilted with a P2P triangle pattern, so that I could keep the excess where I wanted it to be.

Maxine made this quilt, called Catalina, at the last Pick a Box Mystery retreat, and it was quilted allover with a Butterfly pattern. I love how this turned out, and have enough fabric for one more quilt like this, and then will use the same pattern with a different range of fabric.

I can't show you the whole quilt, but this is just a small tease. This block is only 3" square, so it gives you an idea of the amount of tiny pieces in the quilt, which measured 92" square!!

And this is the quilt that is loaded onto Max at the moment. I have done all the SID in seams and block frames, and quilted the border. Tomorrow it will be a job, sitting on my stool, and doing lots of SID around the applique and the background fills. Stay tuned.

THREAD BUILDUP

I did a bit of a check over Max this week, and am "patiently" waiting for the borders to open up so I can get some maintenance done, but meanwhile I checked a few things, and this is what I found in a "very hard to get at" place!! Lucky that Max moved at all.

MY TIME

 I have lots of UFO's that I have been waiting for some "time" to get finished, and now that I have some of that time, I started something new!! I spent time doing that Mystery quilt that I recently posted about and did mention the applique that I was doing. This is the Paper Doll quilt that is a free pattern being released over the next few months by the Red Boot Quilt Company. I saw this on someone's blog page and went to check it out. I decided it was time to make quilts for the little people in my life, before they get too big to think they are cute. Well, that is my justification for starting a new project. I don't know how long this isolation will go on for, so trying to make the most of my time. I am doing one shift (shorter) with Max each day, and then spending time with my machine for the rest of the day, and watching DVD's or listening to music while I sew.

I did pull out this container of scraps that have patiently waited for a sorting fairy for many years, and thought I would use them for the applique pieces. But after pulling some out, I decided that most were too small, and I couldn't make up my mind what colours to use. I put these back in the dark corner again, and chose the range of fabrics below, that all looked lovely together. This container has now been gifted to a friend who was very keen to go through and sort the many pieces, and later phoned me to say what a treasure trove it was. So a win, win all around, it's out of my house, and is loved by the new owner.

I have appliqued the first 8 blocks above, and now waiting for some more pattern releases to make more blocks. This quilt will be for Miss Bridie.

Also on the Red Boot Quilt Company page I found another free pattern for the Little Pig quilt. This quilt will be for Miss Billie, and I have another design chosen for Mr Tate and Mr Jett, but will show that another day. I have spent a lot of time in "kindergarten" lately, doing all the tracing of the patterns, and fusing and cutting the shapes to the backgrounds. This quilt has 9 blocks and I have almost finished the stitching of these, and hope to have the block borders stitched on by the end of the weekend. Did I just say weekend? Really, every day is almost the same at the moment. But weekends are the time I mostly have to myself now that the retreats are not happening, and there are no family visits up the highway.

 BAKING TIME

I have spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen lately. I had good supplies of goods in my pantry and freezer, all ready for a few retreats this year, and all of a sudden that stopped. It would take me a year to get through this all by myself, and do enjoy time in the kitchen. I have been cooking, and sharing it around, and the freezer still seems to be rather full. My thoughts are that if you are cooking for one, you may as well make a larger quantity while you are at it. This was some yummy apricot shortcake.

WINTER IS HERE

The season has been rather mild for the last few weeks, and I know a lot of people have enjoyed time in their gardens while the sun was out. But winter has come this week, and with it good rains. The temperature has dropped dramatically and the fire has been lit. Now I will be fighting the temptation to spend time in the lounge with a good book, instead of at the sewing machine!!

Well that seems to be enough for this post. I do have quite a few family photos to share, but will save that for next time. One of the positives about this isolation is the availability of social media to keep in touch with family and friends. It is lovely to "talk" to the little ones and see how much they are growing, and that the colour of their hair is changing. Videos of Mr Jett trying to get up on his knees and attempt to crawl are priceless. (And perhaps while things are closed, they might also see that Grandma's hair has suddenly changed colour too??)

Good night,
Blessings, From Jude