My new quilting frame and machine

I am now the proud owner of a quilting Frame. I have a Grace Pinnacle crib to King size frame with a Janome 1600P series sewing machine.

checking out the new machine

The drill I got for Christmas really did come in handy!

some how this has to be put back together!

It has been fun picking it up from a place near Geelong and bringing it home and setting it up. Yesterday I had my first try at doing some stitching - lots of practice needed!!!

this is how it's meant to look

3 hours to fit the speed regulator!

the machine really works!

Where have the last 5 months gone?

Time seems to be going by so fast. I can't believe it's really been five months since I made a post!
Here's an outline of my life since my last posting......

* July - place Andrew's house on the market. 

* Monday 6 August  - operation on knee to replace plastic sheath. Home on Thursday and ready to start physiotherapy the next week.

* August... and continuing... Issues with work - lawyers involved.. not a good situation at all.  Medical assessments, meetings with lawyers, paperwork and more paperwork. .. now on extended sick leave.

Bev's 80th birthday quilt

Heather's 40th birthday quilt

Helga's blue and white quilt

September
* My return to work delayed.  Wound not healing - days filled with physiotherapy, weekly hospital appointments to check and dress the wound and sewing a quilts. One for Bev's 80th birthday and one for a friend in a nursing home and another one for a 40th birthday present

* Weekends with Andrew spent looking at houses - no intention of buying until Andrew's house  sells but good to get to know the market

* Saturday 22nd.. see another house we both really love but decide we can't make an offer until   Andrew's house sells (this is the 3rd house we would have brought if we had already sold Andrew's)

* Sunday 23rd.... Andrew sent text to agent to discuss an offer
* Monday 24th ... agent replies and agrees to take the offer to the owner
* Monday 24th  - 4.30pm... meet agent at house, make an offer and sign the papers

Signing the paperwork at our new house!

* Monday 24th -  8.30pm... offer accepted!

Arghhh!...  2 weeks to get full deposit together... settlement in 30 days

Arghhh! ... need to get my unit on the market this week

* Thursday 27th - meet bank manager to apply for loan for house...the wait for approval begins
* Thursday 28th .. place my unit on the market 
* Weekly inspections on Andrew's house continue... no offers... disappointment all round

* Sunday 30th ... Andrew's mother's 80th birthday party. She loves her quilt. 

Bev with her quilt

October
*Monday 1st - another operation to repair wound - only in for the day. This time the wound heals.

* Time to start serious cleaning and de-cluttering my unit - so much to do before Saturday!!!

* Both places on the market now - ready for weekly open inspections

* Saturday 6th ... first inspection of my unit...great hopes of a quick sale dashed - only 2 people turn up - no interest.

* Enter a quilt in the Spotlight store quilt show... excited.. won 1st prize!!

* Friday 12th ... deposit on new house due... finance approved!. Bank papers signed - Sold sign placed on our new home.

It's ours

It's really ours!!

* Open inspections continue on both Andrew's house and my unit.. lots of disappointment but still confident that they will sell before Christmas

November

*Thursday 8th ... Settlement of new house...pick up the keys..  it's really ours!!

The new fridge being delivered

It fits!!

* Friday 9th... new fridge arrives. New recliner chairs are ordered.

* Packing up unit...taking loads over to the house everyday and putting things away into cupboards.
* Friday 23th ... big moving day.. truck arrives... I'm really moving!

December

the slats for the Venetian blinds in the bathrooms 

Fabric for roman blinds in the bedrooms &living rooms

* Wednesday 5th  - Spotlight quote for new blinds... Roman blinds throughout!! 

Our new raised veggie tins

* Thursday 6th  ... more excitement.. raised veggie tins arrive!

* Saturday 8th .. 8am.. move some furniture down from Andrew's house to new house

* Saturday 8th ..4pm  received an offer on Andrew's house!!!

* Wednesday 12th .. pass the cooling off period for Andrew's sale.. it's really sold!

* Thursday 13th ... received an offer on my place!!!

* Wednesday 19th ... pass the cooling off period... my place is really sold too!!

Sold!!

Sold!!!

Relief and excitement all round.

*Thursday 20th ... move last load of furniture from Andrew's place

*Thursday 20th ... Andrew's birthday - cook special dinner and bake a birthday cake 

Andrew's birthday cake

The week before Christmas.... 

Christmas baking

the Christmas dinner table setting

....  baking Christmas cakes & boiled fruit puddings, present shopping, food shopping, posting Christmas parcels, baking more Christmas goodies.... and before I knew it it was Christmas day! A lovely day shared with my mother and Andrew's family.

Christmas day
Andrew's family and my mother for dinner. Cook full roast vegetables with turkey and ham. Plum pudding and Swiss chocolate trifle for dessert. Everyone happy - a lovely day.

Well, there you have it... an outline of my life since July!  

Other projects and more...

As well as the quilts I've been making I've had a few other projects that I have been working on recently.

More doggie hats and coats

more hats

Russo's coat and matching hat

I had a call from the dog groomer wanting two dog hats adjusted for a customer. This order led to making another dog coat and hat to make for my bosses dog. 

Russo in his new outfit

 Kids Hope

tweety bird

I've been volunteering as a Kid's Hope mentor again this year. It's a wonderful program run by my chruch and World Vision. As a mentor I go to the school for one hour once a week and spend time with a child. First and second term I had a little grade three girl. We had lots of fun together making this cat, tweety bird and a patchwork bag for her to keep. The bird and cat were made from felt and apart from the seems everything was glued on and I used split pins for the eyes and nose.

Another jumper for Andrew

Andrew's new jumper

I've started knitting another jumper for Andrew. It was going to have the same collar as his last jumper but with moving from the cold of the Dandenongs I've changed the collar to a round neck so that it's not so hot to wear. I've knitted the back and have knitted half the front.



Table mats for Glen Park Cafe

Table mats for work

At work with have a cafe so I was asked to 'fix' the 'things' that were placed on the centre of each table with the salt and pepper shakers and menu's. Basically they were pieces of fabric cut into crooked squares!  I squared each piece of fabric and tried out some embroidery stitches around the hems.


 Postcards from Paris quilt 

I have finally hung my Postcards from Paris quilt. It now graces the wall in the dinning room.

A box of ties

A friend asked me if I would like some ties to make something with. She was sorting through her husbands ties and was getting rid of a few. I said yes not realising just how many ties she meant! I now have a big crate of over 100 ties all with different patterns - some flowers, some plain and some cartoon. I am looking forward to making a quilt or two out of these ties for my friend.

A box of ties

A portrait of Charlie

I am lucky enough to work at a community centre where there are many talented students and tutors. One such lady is Anne who did this chalk portrait of Charlie.

Anne with Charlie s portrait

Meeting the Prime Minister

Another bonus of working at the community centre was that I got to meet the Prime Minister - Julia Gillard

Why I'm making quilts for my family

When my great nephew and nieces were visiting in April I showed them their quilts. Lachlan asked if he could have his quilt over him while he slept - I think it was because he wasn't keen on having a pink quilt on him!

Sewing, sewing and more sewing!

I feel like I've spent every spare minute of the past two months sewing quilts. As I look back over what I have made it's probably not too far from the truth!

Kelly's quilt

Kelly's quilt ready for the binding to be stitched down

Since my last quilting post in April I have all but finished Kelly's quilt - it's just waiting for the binding to be hand sewn in place. A job I have left until I am at home recuperating after my operation which is scheduled for the 6th August.

Quilt top made from the leftover blocks from Kelly's quilt

I had a lot of blocks left over from Kelly's quilt so I have made them into a smaller quilt top which is sitting on my new quilt ladder waiting to be backed and quilted.

Quilting ladder

I love my new quilting ladder! I had been wondering what to do with all my quilts that I had on the go - each at different stages of being stitched. I decided to ask the guys in the Men's shed at work if they would be able make me a ladder - to my delight they happily made me a ladder for my quilts.

Quilts for sale

I was asked to make a quilt to sell at a fundraising auction for my work. I ended up making two quilts, a small cot quilt made from lovely bright red fabrics with beetles on it and a single bed quilt. For the single bed quilt I used my 'retro' fabrics that I had brought at the January sales earlier in the year. It was exciting and a little scary watching people bid on my quilts. I was worried that no-one would bid or if they did, that the reserve prices wouldn't be met. I need not have worried as lots of people bid and the reserve prices were exceeded!

One of the things I was encouraged to do was to put a label with my name and the date on each quilt I make. A friend made me a couple of labels to use but it's something that I need to look into getting made to sew onto the quilts I make for other people.

My 'Retro' fabric

sewing lots and lots of strips for 9 square blocks!

finally coming together...

my name label

The finished 'retro' quilt

my red beetle quilt sold at auction

Owl Quilts

Charlie checking out Andrew's quilt

Andrew has his first quilt!


After making Edna's 'Owl' quilt I decided to make another one just because I liked the fabrics. I had hoped that someone would like it enough to want it so I was really happy that Andrew asked if he could have it for himself.
The quilt is now hanging on the wall above his bed where it will stay until he sells his house.

Andrew's Owl quilt hanging above his bed

Helga's 'Owl' quilt

With the left over fabric I made up another (my 3rd!) 'owl' quilt. This quilt was brought by a lovely lady, Helga. Helga calls it her 'wisdom quilt' and has it sitting on a chair in her nursing home

Heidi's Quilt

After finishing the quilts for the auction I was asked to make a quilt for my bosses 40th birthday. This was to be quilt for her partner to give as a gift. Apart from only having three weeks to make the quilt I had to work out the pattern and colors. I found a lovely range of fabric by Moda called 'Pure'. Time, or lack of it was a major factor in deciding the design of the quilt. I decided that squares were the fastest to cut and easiest to sew and machine quilt. I decided to make six inch squares and alternate them with four square blocks.

Some of the 'Pure' range from Moda 

The design suited that fabrics but I didn't take into account just how many three inch squares I'd have to cut!  With the 200 three inch squares and 50 six inch squares cut I spent every spare minute at the sewing machine. I machine quilted the quilt with a simple 1/4 inch shadow stitch around all of the six inch blocks. After a lot of long days of sewing and late nights I finished the quilt just in time for the birthday

Blocks laid out ready to sew together

Heidi's quilt