OPAM Finish for April

 Today I am linking up with Finish It Up Friday and OPAM as I do the big TADAAAA!!

and show you my Star Flannel Quilt finally finished. I hand quilted this in DMC Perle 8 thread. Please excuse the washing hanging either side. As you can see, its an overcast day and I needed to get the boring jobs done before doing the fun stuff.

 Quilting on the back...

 

I quilted eight pointed stars on the larger blocks.

Here it is on my son's bed. An antique one I purchased at an auction years ago.

 

 

I love the carving at the head and foot. The whole thing was painted fire engine red when I bought it.

 

The carving  reminds me of the Legacy Torch and and the wreaths we lay on ANZAC Day. I must research the significance of this one day as my Uncle thinks it was made back as early as 1920.

Which leads me to my final photos.

 Son No. 3 played euphonium during the ANZAC Day parade yesterday. He took part in three parades. The first one in a small town nearby. It only has about 1500 people and they were very excited to have a band lead the parade for the very first time. Then back on the bus to head down the highway to play during the parade and commemorative services in two more towns.

 

 



 

 Perfect Autumn weather prevailed as we remembered those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

 

Lest we forget.

FNSI and Toes In the Sand catch up

Yesterday was very quiet. Mr Stitch unfortunately working this Easter weekend. Son No. 1 home tonight for Easter break. Son No. 2 spending time with his girlfriend and her family before she heads back to uni and Son No. 3 recovering from birthday sleep over with mates.

 

Nothing to do here but sew.
 

I decided to catch up on my Toes in the Sand BOM. I was  three months behind. But I am all caught up now.

 

Block 10

Block 11

Block 12

 

All blocks are now completed and I have fabric to finish this quilt. Thanks goodness for holidays. It might be a finished flimsy before too long.

 

During the evening I joined in with Friday Night Sew In. Pop over to Wendy's blog if you would like to sign up or take a look at what other people were up to. I kept plugging along with the quilting on my Star Flannel quilt.

 

 I am looking forward to all of my family being home tomorrow and celebrating Easter.

Happy Easter to you and your family.



Phew!!

 

I am so excited, no, make that relieved that the problems I experienced when attaching the star border are resolved and I have finished adding border number four....the hexagons and diamonds. It is SO big now, I have to stand on the dining room table to take a picture!! Over 80 inches in each direction.

 

To jog your memory, here is a photo of me trying to ease the star border on last year. The result was a VERY bumpy quilt. The quilt was banished to the cupboard for a few months until I stopped sulking had a little think about it. Anyone who does EPP knows, there is no point moving on because the rest of the quilt will not fit together.

 

 

Now I have a smooth, flat flimsy. I never really knew until this border was on if it was going to be OK.

PHEW!!!!

So next border is the third and final border stripe. I have the papers ready to cover with fabric....

...and the scallops on the final border are joined and glued onto the background and currently being appliqued.

So, I am going to take a little rest from Violet while I finish the quilting on this WIP. This flannel was almost finished when Summer hit. I just couldn't swelter under it any longer and put it away until Autumn arrived. Now the nights are cooler, I am determined to make it my next OPAM finish.

 

I hope you have time to stitch too.



FNWF, Cassislis and Violet Progress

The tittle of this post is long, but don't worry, have told the story in pictures rather than lots of boring words.

 Friday Night With Friends (FNWF) started early with our bi-monthly get together of the Cassilis Quilters.

Julie bound her daughter's quilt.



Kylie worked on her Rosalie Quinlan Stitchery. 

Susan worked on her Irish Circles and Lea on her Lynette Anderson project from Nundle.

 

 

I joined scalloped pieces before lunch and then stared to add the fourth (hexagon) border afterwards. I finished adding these borders last night during FNWF. If you look closely, you will see that flowers have been appliqued on the star border....did that last week.

Some of these flowers have been fussy cut...and some made out of some REALLY ugly fabric. I apologies to all lovers of purple, but it is my least favourite colour. These flowers were stitched on the long flight to visit my brother in London back in 2007!! They have been hiding patiently in a box waiting to  finally see the light of day. Eighteen lucky ones are now on the quilt. The other eighty will have to wait a little longer until I have completed the scallops on the sixth and final border.

 

 

If you would like to see what others got up to last night, click on the image above.

 

Have a great weekend.

Border Three Finished

I know, two posts in two weeks! After my slack efforts so far this year, I can't believe it either.

Border three is on my Violet quilt!!

It now measures about 50x52 inches. I'm so excited to see it grow!

Now that all of the papers are out, I can go back and applique the hexie flowers onto border two in between the stars.

 

I am well on the way with preparation for the sixth and final border.

Templates are made...

 

...papers are cut...

...half the fabrics have been cut out.

I've even had a little practice because I've never used scallops before and wasn't sure about covering the papers with this shape. With the help of my glue pen, so far it is going well. So this border is the portable part of this project while I keep adding borders at home.

 

Hope you are enjoying the weekend and this beautiful Autumn weather.

 



FNSI and a catchup

OK,  so it's been WEEKS since my last post and I am not going to bore you all with my excuses. Just know that I have been sewing, just not taken the time to post about it. Here is what I did while participating in Friday Night Sew In and a quick catch up.

 

 

Last night I started to sew the next border onto my A Legacy From Violet Quilt. This border is hard to see because it is blending into my floor boards, but is a border stripe print. It is very exciting to finally be at this stage. Those who have followed my progress with this quilt will know that I made a VERY large error and I am hoping that the steps I took to overcome this will work. (Click on the 'Label' on the right to see what I mean).

 

Once I have sewn these narrow borders on, I can add the next and widest border. Finished these about a week ago. It's finally growing !! There are 270 hexagons plus all the filler diamonds and half diamonds in this border. 

 

I'd like to finish with an apology to the OPAM team. I let the team down during February, not a single finish. BUT! I am on the ball for March. I finished this at a retreat with my friends Fairy Floss, Country Wishes-Kylie, Cardygirl and my non blogging freinds Caron and Julie on the first of March. If only 2014 was a leap year I would have scraped in with a few hours to spare. Oh well.

 

The needle case and pin cushion I made an age ago now have a home.

Hoefully I will be more organised and more regular with my updates from now on.

Happy Stitching!



Last Skirt

This is the last of four skirts I have made recently. It is the third variation on an A-line skirt. This one has two layers, rather than strips of fabric sewn together. Hems are made with continuous binding and then bound as if you are binding a quilt.
The fabric choices seemed like a good idea at the time of purchase. When I brought them home I started looking at them over and over again repeating just one sound...

 

'Hmmmmmm'.

 

I think it will be fine with the black or slate grey Tshirt I have and a nice bright bangle...Hmmmm.

 

Oh well! It is nice and bright so hopefully the children at preschool will like it. 
 

Today I am linking up with Finish It Up Friday. Pop over and see what other people have been creating.
Below are the other skirts I made, my favourite is definitely the orange and pink one. Just love the little frill at the bottom.