Each year, early in June, Chooky has a party to celebrate the "birthday" of her sewing space, which is called the Chookshed. Most years she has some friends stay with her for a weekend of sewing, and others join her from far and wide and post on their blogs. I do remember having some friends here one year and "helping" her celebrate. In current conditions she was unable to have friends with her in the chookshed, so she planned a Zoom meeting instead. Thankyou Chooky for organising this event, and lovely to meet with so many new friends. I am so thankful for the modern technology we have, that in current restrictions, we can keep in touch with family and friends in so many way.
In this photo, you can see someone "sharing' their freshly baked biscuits, although she did refer to them as cookies, which tells you what country she lived in!! We told her they were biscuits! Recipes were shared, and we talked about the weather where we all lived, and there was much talk of isolation and the restrictions we are all dealing with.
Most years Chooky has organised a retreat for blog friends called Scrub Stitching and this year Raylene and I had considered attending, which was to have been early April. After much deliberation, and considering it would have been a 12 hour drive, we made the decision not to go. And then the world went crazy and everyone went into isolation and we couldn't have gone anyway. But Chooky had planned the following project for all attendees, and so one of these duly arrived in my mailbox.
And here it is, all done, although I did not round the corners as per the instructions. Thankyou Chooky.
While Pat was doing the above, she gave me a lesson in how to use a needle and thread and do chain stitch. It is not easy for a right handed person, to demonstrate to a left hander, but she managed, and here is my effort, the mouth of the sheep!! And I also sewed the button eyes on. On some of the other animals on this quilt, I was able to use the sewing machine stitches instead. I can't see that I will be doing a lot of hand work in my future. ( I do get teased because "they" say that I use a crow bar for a needle).
I am still working on Rachelle's Mystery quilt, and did manage some, but this was not in the plan, so out came the unpicker!!
I have stitched all the triangles onto one side of these units, but still have the other side to do, and this is only step 1, and step 2 came out a few days ago. I am running behind, but sitting at the machine is still not the most comfortable position for my injuries yet.
This was my first time attending a Zoom meeting, and it's just been amazing, to see all the people on the screen and be able to chat with each other. There were ladies from all over the world, Belgium, Germany, France, England, Canada, USA, New Zealand, and of course Australia. Due to the time differences, people were coming in and out of "the room". Most were sewing while they were chatting, by hand or machine, and some were knitting or cross stitching.
In this photo, you can see someone "sharing' their freshly baked biscuits, although she did refer to them as cookies, which tells you what country she lived in!! We told her they were biscuits! Recipes were shared, and we talked about the weather where we all lived, and there was much talk of isolation and the restrictions we are all dealing with.
Of course, there was much talk of quilting and sewing projects too, and show and tell featured. Here you can see one of the show and tell....
Most years Chooky has organised a retreat for blog friends called Scrub Stitching and this year Raylene and I had considered attending, which was to have been early April. After much deliberation, and considering it would have been a 12 hour drive, we made the decision not to go. And then the world went crazy and everyone went into isolation and we couldn't have gone anyway. But Chooky had planned the following project for all attendees, and so one of these duly arrived in my mailbox.
If anyone knows me, they know that a hand sewer, I am NOT! Give me a machine any day. Pat arrived yesterday to join Raylene and myself, and she is a hand sewer, so I thought it would be appropriate to get this packet out. (I know that Pat had brought one of her own UFO's to work on, but she couldn't help herself and set to work on this).
And here is the embroidery bit all done, and the rest of the construction was handed to me to finish, by machine on course!!
And here it is, all done, although I did not round the corners as per the instructions. Thankyou Chooky.
While Pat was doing the above, she gave me a lesson in how to use a needle and thread and do chain stitch. It is not easy for a right handed person, to demonstrate to a left hander, but she managed, and here is my effort, the mouth of the sheep!! And I also sewed the button eyes on. On some of the other animals on this quilt, I was able to use the sewing machine stitches instead. I can't see that I will be doing a lot of hand work in my future. ( I do get teased because "they" say that I use a crow bar for a needle).
This is more my style, using the machine!
I am still working on Rachelle's Mystery quilt, and did manage some, but this was not in the plan, so out came the unpicker!!
I have stitched all the triangles onto one side of these units, but still have the other side to do, and this is only step 1, and step 2 came out a few days ago. I am running behind, but sitting at the machine is still not the most comfortable position for my injuries yet.
I did the above sewing while the Zoom meeting was in progress, which was most of Saturday, and Sunday morning.
After lunch on Sunday, Kathy and Chris came for a visit. Kathy's patchwork group were due to come for a Mystery retreat in June, and of course, with current regulations, that is not possible now. They decided that they would still like the kits and Kathy came to pick them up yesterday.
Hopefully Kathy will send me photos of the girls sewing these and I can post them on my blog, as I would have if they had been here. I look forward to seeing more of the quilts come to life.
It is a long weekend here, and today is a Public holiday. I have yet to decide if I will have another day to do my own thing, or whether I will try to do some customer work with Max.
Meanwhile, it is 7.30am and I have been on the computer for 2 hours now. I welcome new followers and visitors to my space, and have updated my sidebar with new blogs to follow. As I am still in my dressing gown, perhaps I need to head for the shower and get dressed.
Be back soon, with more newsfromjude.
Blessings, From Jude
13 comments:
It was a wonderful party with Chooky, and lovely to meet lots of new bloggers. You got a lot of sewing done, and I am glad your lesson from Pat worked 😁😁. Hang in there with your crowbar, You have to go with what works best for you. Your zippy pouch looks great. Raewyn and I came up from Victoria last year for Scrub stitching, we had an over night stop just over half way and it worked well.
It was amazing celebrating Chooky Blue’s Chookshed 8th. Birthday via Zoom. Meeting so many like minded people & hearing of where they live, their weather, their lives & their families was enlightening. Chooky was a wonderful host who engaged us all. I’d love to meet her sometime 🐓
I had so much fun meeting everyone and learning the true meaning of 'biscuit'. The event was beyond my expectations and hope for another Zoom time with ya'll.
It was great chatting with everyone. It doesn't matter if you enjoy machining most. Make what you can when you can and share the craft. I definitely have more blogs to follow now. It's 11.30 and I'm still in my pj's. You can see how I relax on weekends... haha.
Have a great day.
I can definitely relate to sewing only by machine. I am known in my quilting group as "being welded to my machine". Hopefully we can all "meet" again one day.
Hello Jude. It was a joy to meet you! All those kits are so neatly organized and filed. I wish so much I could come do a mystery kit with the Auzie girls some day in your shop. It is ok though because blogging keeps us in touch pretty good.
How fun that you mentioned my cookies (biscuits). I just made a reminder note to blog about them and the recipe. It was also fun to see my Dorinda quilt on your blog today. Zoom was such a joy! I still cannot believe how many hours I spent the past two days on it.
it was a fun time - especially with the random comings & goings - some interesting tales and recipes - especially the alcohols that Sylvia makes - though you may have missed that.
You can continue to cheat and use a triple stitch where others would back stitch or chain stitch - but shhh - don't tell!
It was a fabulous way to GTG for both the Scrub Stitching and Chookshed party .
Your pouch looks great and you can sew it any way you like.....
Oh sheesh!! I missed both!! Oh well, next year... good to see you doing some hand stitching!! xx
I Love your little pouch! I think you did well to find friend to do that pesky hand stitching for you! It was such a fun weekend! Blessed Be.
Good to find out a little more about you Jude. I do love hand sewing and that little Anni Downs pouch is gorgeous. xx
Team effort for you and Pat to the the pouch made.........enjoy using it........lovely that Raelene could join in also....lovely to have the girls staying for the weekend or longer in Raelene's case.......so pleased you enjoyed the wekeend......even just sitting and chatting is great for motivation when you see what the others are doing........
Hello again! Thought I would return the visit. It's so lovely to meet you and learn more about you. I love the gorgeous little sheep and the pouch x
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