October the first part there of

 September chookshed chllenge for me was my Oh My Stars quilt, well I got the top finished but not even a photo... I'm waiting for a backing and then a finish.

I did manage to finish a baby sized fish quilt for our nephews baby boy, Dad is a keen fisherman and I have been hoarding these fishy fabrics for a long time, they are almost antique!

My last chookshed challenge project is the Free Wheelin Single Girl quilt, now Denise Schmidt, the designer and Wendy from the Last Stitch are holding a FWSG SAL this month very handy indeed, So I had made a few bits for the quilt I just need to reconnect with it and the whole process

I'm off to Mudgee for the weekend sewing with the Coolah ladies, I have way to many projects packed but we will see what gets done. 

I am doing an advent swap so I am making a few little things for that, I made a bunch of cards the other week and will include them I had hand cream, body lotion and lip balm but was told the person I'm swapping with has severe allergies so no chocolates, biccies or perfumed goodies. Poor her.

The Iris's are flowering and are so pretty
A client gave me a tray of lemons last week so I made several jars of Lemon Butter and froze the juice for future recipes.

Have a good month

September stuff.

Well I went to Sydney last weekend for an Applique workshop at My Sewing Supplies Sylvania, with the wondeful but soon to be retiring Deb Louie. Now when I got the email about the workshop I was excited... they normally do midweek classes but this one was the whole weekend... Sylvania is about 10-15 minutes from Brad and Sophies place.... win win. So I booked it in and then I realised that the Sydney quilt show was that week as well so I left the husband, cats and home earlyish Friday and made my way to Rosehill racecourse for a quick trip around the quilt show. There were some amazing quilts... some a bit meh and surprisingly a new to me list of winners not all the same old winners.

 

These are just a few that I liked.

Then it was do a bit of craft shopping but to me the shops there were a bit disappointing, never mind.

Then off to Brads place and settle in for the night. 

Saturday morning off to Sylvania and a wonderful class with 6 other ladies, 2 had only been sewing for a year so they were wide eyed all day. The first applique technique was blind hem applique or machine needle turn, that is what I was there for.

Then we did some fused applique and played with the decorative stitches on our machines. Now I love my machine but I know I don't use it to its full potential, so it was fun to play with different threads and stitches. Deb has a huge bundle of quilts that I now want to replicate, one that I don't have a picture of is called bubbles it is cot size and lots and lots of 2",3" and 4" circles of fabric with no repeats, like an I spy quilt . 

Saturday night we went out for mexican the restaurant or Cantina has 600 ml frozen margaritas.... yumm and the food was good too but the place was very open and noisy. 

Sunday I went back to class with my homework done and proceeded to try more stitches and thicker thread, my machine didn't like this at all. never mind I did samples with other threads and shopped up a little storm, they had 20% off fabric, patterns and precuts. I refrained from precuts but I may have 12 more metres of beautifullness to pack away for a rainy day.

Monday was back home and all I wanted to do was sew and do some of the things that I learnt but no dinner, washing and work called.

August update

 Well its near the end of August, we have a few birthdays in August, Brad on the 14th and Dave on the 23rd.

I picked up my big machine from the doctor in Tamworth this week, I missed it and it's features, who would have thought that having to lift the foot manually would be so hard to remember..... Big machine is stitching beautifully again, it was stitching so tiny I couldn't quilt anything.

So when i was in Tamworth I went to Spotlight and they had these patchwork fabrics for $8 a metre so I grabbed a couple of each for backings and the stripe for binding.

I read this book over the last few weks it was hard to put down.

I have been making relish and sauce from the last of the tomatoes, and burning marmalade made from some gifted cumquats. I don't think I'am a jam maker.

August

 August used to be the windy month in Wollongong, here in Gunnedah it is just cold. Although it was wet and windy on the weekend and the house was cold, seeing as we had been in Wollongong for the mother in laws funeral for the last week.

It was freezing in Wollongong but we caught up with family and friends. We went to all the right spots, the fruit market, wholesale butcher, kmart and big W. Yes we have a K Hub here and a Big W in Tamworth but the Wollongong ones are better. This is the view down the road when you leave the highway to go into Wollongong.

Right now here in Gunnedah, there are warnings everywhere and roads blocked due to the river flooding, we are 2 blocks away from the water, so no need to panic.

Chookshed Stitchers Challenge July didn't have enough done so no pics, I was busy with other things.

 Deanna has drawn No 7 for August! my number 7 is the 20 Blue baskets quilt, all needleturn so only2 blocks completed , this will take me years.... I should have machine appliqued it but I like the idea of needleturn.

I was going to Wollongong by myself originally so I didn't take any crochet only a bit of hand sewing but I bought a few balls of wool in Kmart and a crochet hook in Big W and I started a C2C rug, it will be a donation when it's done, it's a tad bigger now. 

I was going to see The Book Of Mormon in Sydney with Shane and Chandi, it was very funny, very rude, very clever. We had an incredible Vegan meal at Vandal in Newtown before the show, Shane and Chandi being vegan they had been there before. We had an 8 course set menu sort of Tapas style, my favourite courses were the pickled watermelon tostida and the Zuchini flowers stuffed with almond cheese.

That's all thanks for reading

I made a Bag!!!!!

 I finished my version of By Annie's  Divide and Conquer, this was to be part of my May chookshed challenge and it took all that time to finish it.

I love it. It ws to be for my EPP things and maybe it will at the moment it is still sitting on the coffee table on my EPP PROJECT BOX.

This is the small size when I got the fabric I couldn't get enough of the lining fabric to make the large size, never mind. There are 2 pockets on each of the front and back outer pieces 2 vinyl pockets on each side inside and 2 double sided mesh pockets so there should be enough pockets.

      Just saying it's very cold and wet here today

July Number 9

 Deanna has drawn number 9 for July! My number 9 is Scrappy Crossroads from one of the many Lori Holt books that I have I am thinking it is Scrappiness is Happiness, I could walk to the next room to check but I'm not. My quilting goal for July is the Whirligig Quilt but it won't get done . 

For June I have been plugging away at my EPP BOM fom 2015, it is going to be very pretty I think. I have almost finished my Divide and Conquer bag for May. By Annie bags come together beautifully but they are a lot of work.

It is very cold today and windy it isn't often windy here which came as a nice change after living in Wollongong, here is a pic of my car in the driveway after a bit of wind last week

In other sewing news I have finished my quilted jacket and I love it.

In the garden the tomatoes have almost all finished there are a few plants that are growing amongst the blackberries, I have made 4 lots of green tomato pickles and I think 5 batches of pasta sauce and there is a double lot of passata in the pot today, I am over tomatoes but I am glad that we don't have to buy them they have skyrocketed. We are being inundated with snow peas which are selling at a ridiculous price of $34 a kilo. I have frozen enough for us for the year I think.

See ya

June news

 We had a great long weekend,King's birthday weekend just gone. Brad and Sophie came up on Friday evening, Saturday while the husband was at work Brad and I made some green tomato chutney and a lemon meringue pie. Sunday we went out to a friends sons property to help clear a huge pile of wood, that's how nice we are... firewood for us. 

It was freezing, Winter was definately here. While we were there we had a little target practice, which was fun.

This was Month 1 of Pick  Petal, then my trial block for Month 2, I have decided to do Month 2 on the machine I have cut all the pieces, all 260 to make the 20 blocks of this design.

This is my EPP set up in the lounge room, I'm doing a BOM from 2015 I may get all the blocks done this month and I may not.

I'm making another batch of pasta sauce today and that will be Chicken Cacciatore for tomorrows dinner.

I am now going to tidy my sewing table it's a mess.