March has gone............

 April has arrived, so I better update newsfromjude to the end of March. So what have I been up to? 

The fairy came for a week and wore her fingers out sewing bindings on donation quilts. She brought 3 back from their city holiday all finished, and promptly started on the next 3 that had been quilted. During the week I quilted another 5 and binding was made for those as well. In about 4 days she had made the binding, machine sewn to the quilts, and hand stitched a total of 8 quilts, which I have worked out to be about 1700" of binding!! I have to believe her when she tells me she enjoys hand sewing, but I know it's not my favourite thing to do, so I am very very thankful for my fairy.  

These are the 11 we have done, and another 2 were donated by a group member, and there are 3 more made and waiting to be quilted and bound, to make up the total of 16 quilts that I have promised for a June delivery. We are almost there! (I will post photos of them all when they are done.)

Once the bindings were done, it was time to look around for another job. This lady doesn't like to be idle...... and just loves to get busy with the Go Cutter...........

........and there are always more scraps to be sorted. We used to have a system where each drawer contained a specified size, but there is a change now. We have drawers sorted with colours instead, so hopefully this system will work?

A friend knew how disappointed I was in my tomato harvest, so brought me a bucket of her surplus, which have been stewed and are now in the freezer for future use.

True confessions!  This is a story about how NOT to burn down your house! One morning I decided to boil some eggs, and put cold water in the saucepan. Hmm, while it boils and before I put the eggs in, I'll just go and check something on the computer!!! And one thing led to another and I forgot about the saucepan,....... until much, much later.......... and rushed back into the kitchen...... water was definitely boiled, in fact it was boiled dry..... and the saucepan was so hot, I believe it wouldn't have been long before the knob on the lid melted?? So I grabbed the saucepan and was going to put it in the sink and put water on it, but..... I had been slack that morning and filled the sink with the dishes and hot water and not come back to wash them...... so couldn't put the saucepan in there could I? Quickly thinking, (but prob not good thinking!!) and I grabbed a tea towel to put the saucepan on the bench so I didn't burn the bench!! Wrong! You can see what happened to my tea towel, and I am so glad I didn't go out of the kitchen this time, because it wasn't long before the smoke was coming from the tea towel. A fire would have been the next step, but I grabbed it and headed out to the lawn and the hose. Lesson learned! Don't leave anything on the stove and leave the room! One thing to be thankful for, I hadn't put the eggs in the water! Imagine the smell of burnt eggs??

Max has been fortunate this week and had the royal treatment that we have been waiting years for. My dealer from Sydney has retired and there are not many specialized people to service and fix these machines. It was great to hear recently that the tech from Brisbane was doing to rounds of our state and he came on Tuesday! A few things were adjusted and replaced, but apparently Max is in good condition for his age and the thousands of quilts he has done! Thankyou Moreno. 

He did find a nest of thread in a place that I couldn't get at.

River City Quilts in Brisbane are collecting quilts for the flood victims of Qld and NSW, and it was a great opportunity to get quilts freighted back to Brisbane in the van with Moreno. Our local group have donated 22 quilts to this cause and here they are all packed ready to go with him. (The only problem was these were all stacked neatly by my front door, and he was parked by my workroom sliding door and he was about to leave when I remembered the quilts were all still by the front door!! I almost had to chase him over the border!)

Here are the pictures of the quilts that were donated by various members of the Gum Tree Quilters.

I have spent a bit of time in the garden planting some winter veges, but need to be out there more than I am. My 'get up and go' has 'got up and left', so I am trying to resolve this fatigue issue and hopefully I will feel more motivated. 

I have enjoyed my stitching time and trying to use up the scraps that seem to be lying around everywhere here. It was lovely to spend some time yesterday sewing with a friend who was in town for a few days.

My 20 year celebration plans have been put on hold again. The covid situation has not got better, in fact numbers are increasing, so I am not venturing too far. I hope things are good in your world, and you are staying safe. 

Time to finish this post and head to the kitchen and find something to eat. Be back 'sometime'.

Blessings, From Jude