FNWF, FIUF and Some Stitching With Friends

I have a couple of finishes this week.

My Lumiere quilt in French General fabric.

Also a little Samosa Zipper Pouch.

I can count this finish for OPAM. My average has only been one finish per month. I might have more than one finish this month at this rate as it is only early June.

My friend Fairy Floss Stitches has recently returned from a quilting trip to the United States and was lucky enough to attend the quilt show in Paducah and visit some antique stores and people who trade in quilts. She brought a flimsy made around 1930. All hand pieced and constructed with the traditional 'make do' philosophy that was so necessary during the depression. 

I'm sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the whole quilt, but you can see part of it on my quilting frame. 

We spent some time on Tuesday and Wednesday basting it so she can hand quilt it and finish this gorgeous project decades after it was started.

Sometimes a different fabric in a similar colour was substituted to complete the blocks.

Sometimes the pieces in the blocks were pieced to provide a square or rectangle big enough to complete the block.

This quilt will make such a lovely memento from her trip.

I'm sure the person who made this quilt so long ago would never had imagined that it would make the journey to Australia to be quilted, bound and find a home here.

Finally, I had a real life friend to sew with me while I participated in the virtual sew in for Friday Night With Friends. My friend Julie worked on her Smitten quilt, this quilt is progressing quickly.

And I worked on a couple more stars.

So, I am linking up with FNSI and Finish It Up Friday. 

Hope you are enjoying the long weekend. 

FNSI

I did manage to do a little bit of sewing last night to join everyone during Friday Night Sew In. My EPP Scrappy Star quilt has grown from this...

to this...

Four rows almost complete (plus a little bit). I have lots of stars ready to add. Most of this progress was made during the road trip we took at Easter.

I am using up scraps from my stash and a few friends have also donated some of theirs.

Pop over here to see what everyone else got up to.

Stitching With Friends

 Last Sunday my friend Kylie came over to baste her 'Gardener's Journal' quilt on my quilting frame.

The frame is empty at the moment, so it was a good chance to practice basting a quilt. I have to say, I much prefer basting onto the frame rather than taping a quilt to the floor and having to crawl around  on hands and knees. A very relaxing way to spend the afternoon with a friend.

On Monday Fairy Floss and I met at our friend Julie's house.

 Fairy Floss was making cute little bunnies. There will be some little boys visiting her farm over the Easter weekend, so she is going to hide them in the garden along with some eggs. They are going to be SO cute.

Julie and I cut out the border fabric for the 'Lumiere' quilt we started at our retreat at Two Rivers in February.

All of my blocks have been sewn into rows. 

Now that we have cut out all of the fabric, I need to finish sewing the border stripe fabric between the rest of the rows and add the borders. A job for after Easter.

Today I am packing for our road trip. The most important items are ready to go....my sewing and portable lamp of course. 

I am taking my EPP Star Quilt. I cut lots of star and border pieces at Julie's and they are ready in little snap lock bags. The sun visor caddy I made in preparation for this trip is in place. 

First stop, Broken Hill. Just 1011km away. Google estimates 10 hours and 39 minutes to drive to Broken Hill. I wonder how many stars I can piece in that time?

Emergency Sewing

Do you take 'Emergency Sewing' with you whenever you leave the house? 

You know, some sewing to fill in those times you are held up or kept waiting...usually unexpectedly.

 Our car broke down a couple of weeks ago, about 9km from the nearest town, 30km from home and no mobile phone coverage. When I was finally able to call NRMA (Roadside Assistance), I was informed that there would be a 45 minute wait for someone to tow the car back to town. Well.....how lucky was I that I packed some Emergency Sewing? 

What a shame it would have been to waste a perfectly good sewing opportunity if I had left it at home.

I had just enough time to stitch another star and a half for my EPP Star Quilt.

My tally with this project stands at 78 stars cut out...

thirty six stars stitched...

...and 11 stars stitched together.

I was just thinking how my Sun Visor Sewing Caddy (shown in my last post), would be perfect for storing Emergency Sewing in the car. 

Emergency Sewing: Don't leave home without it.

Linking up with Jess at Life Under Quilts for the Monday Morning Star Count.

Friday Night Sew In

Last night I joined in on FNSI and added a few more stars to my collection.

Not sure about the one on the right. I am realising that not all of my stars will make the final cut. I have made over 20 stars now and probably should start thinking about putting a few together. Can't decide whether to use random placement...

Or rows of colour...

Or rows of colour on the diagonal...

Or am I just making it WAY too hard?

What do you think?

Monday Mornng Star Count, OPAM and A Catch Up

I recently replaced out old dinosaur of a computer with a laptop. There seems to be so much to do and relearn before you can get back into the regular business you do everyday on these clever devices.

So now to catch you up on what I have been doing, apart from experience a bit of  'techno rage'. I really do not posses any  patience when dealing with technology.

The technical difficulties meant I couldn't catch up with Monday Morning Star Count last week, so here is my progress for the last two weeks. I have now completed 15 stars and think I will need about 150, so a tenth of the way there. Haven't started joining them yet, still thinking about layout. I am really enjoying using bright fabrics from my stash during this beautiful Spring weather.

I also rescued a special quilt. My sons music teacher has a, well....it's more like a 'blankie' than a quilt. It was in need of repair and he asked if I could mend it for him.

His Grandma had quilted a blanket inside some nursery fabric. You can see how the edges had just worn away with use.The pictures in the designs were quite cute. 

 I had to reinforce the corners where the fabric had worn down to the blanket inside. I then simply bound it with extra wide binding. 

 Rescuing this special memento of his Grandmother made me think.... I hope my boys (and maybe one day grandchildren), get so much use out of their quilts as they get older. Loved so much until they are threadbare as well.  

Finally...sorry this post is very long. I made two of these yesterday. Can you guess what it is?

Here it is folded up and upside down.

Now right way up.

Now unfolded.

A view from the top.

It's a thread catcher that folds up to take up no space at all in your sewing kit. I made it in fabrics to match a bag I carry my EPP Star Quilt in.

 That makes my OPAM tally for September three finished items. Cant show you the other thread catcher just yet...more secret birthday sewing.

Hope you are enjoying your day.

Monday Morning Star Count

 

 I found these stars a bit addictive and last week just kept sewing them no matter where I was. However, the plan for this quilt is to be my new portable project for when I'm out and about filling in time when waiting for children to finish. You know what I mean....finish soccer training...finish music lessons...etc.

 

 

My friend Julie (no blog) has a great selection of brights and she let me loose on her stash. Here is a selection ready to be cut into diamonds.

 

 

So I needed a distraction from my EPP stars when at home. I am approaching what I call 'Birthday Season'. There are about ten birthdays between now and Christmas and thought I might make a few gifts. Here is a sneak peek of something I pieced on the weekend and am currently quilting.

 

Linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts 'Monday Morning Star Count'.

 

Have a great week.

Something Old and Something New.

Remember this? 

Well I have just finished appliqueing the flowers onto the final border.

 

 Job for the upcoming holidays? Sew the next border stripe print and the flower/scallop border and 'A legacy From Violet' IS FINISHED!!! Hooray!!

 So...now I need a new portable project.

Using bright fabrics from my stash, I decided on a star quilt with an aqua micro dot background.

 My progress so far...

I have also decided to link up with a blog I have been following for a while. Jessica at  Life Under Quilts organises a Monday Morning Star count. If you are into EPP, pop over and take a peek at other blogs that have linked in. Jessica has a great link to her YouTube footage with some great tips for EPP stars.

Happy Stitching.