The Making of a Quilt...Forty Years of Light and OPAM (One Project A Month)

5 years on and off in the planning and how to execute this quilt

for my Son's birthday
I even thought perhaps I'll make a Log Cabin one 

Who else to ask for advice but my dear Friend Geo (no blog)

This required a few hours drive and a couple of overnight stays
We arrived and not too long afterwards Geo got into the drawing of The Triangle

I was assigned the ironing in preparation for The Rainbow

Sewing away with a smile lol

Step 1 Rainbow done!!!!!!

Precision work here

Meanwhile Mr Armchair entertains JoJo

As does Geo's DH Lloyd

And loookeeee it's coming together

And wow a Quilt Top in 2 days

We were all sooooooo happy and excited

Geo assigned JoJo the task of decorating the Christmas Tree

She was so happy to do this

I reckon she would do this for a living if she could lol

I'm pretty new to quilting and this was a precise job being very straight angles and lines

Everything had to be exact

Quilting away

Whoever thought I would love this

I need to learn more about it especially free motion and hand quilting

Another day and still quilting

All done and time for a photo shoot

For this one I thought I would choose a bush setting as DS loves the bush and practically 

grew up in it

So we headed off the the Gold Rush Colony home of our Melodramas

All rolled up

The back is black with gold musical notes

The day before we  handed it over

I thought we had to do a photo shoot here in our yard and on the beach our extended front yard

Mr Armchair quite liked the seaside daisies here

We came across this sweet little Love Heart

Then I thought I had to have a bag to put Forty Years of Light into

And it's all done!!!!!

So happy with it all

Thank you so much to Mr Armchair for helping out with the Mathematics of it all

Geo for The Triangle and lots of patchworky advice

Lloyd for entertaining JoJo and keeping the meals up to us all

JoJo for keeping us on our toes

And to both of you Geo and Lloyd for being such wonderful hosts

We had a fabulous weekend

Mmmmmm what will we make next???

*****************

The quilt and the bag are my OPAM for this month

Thank you so much Sweet Peg and Kris for hosting again this year

~OPAM September 2013......A Gardener's Journal FINISHED~

Hi Everyone

Introducing my OPAM (One Project A Month) for this month

doing a great big Happy Dance wooo hoooo

my Gardener's Journal quilt is finally finished

and I am soooo happy with it!!!

I remember a few months into starting this quilt I broke my arm which just put me back several months in everything and at one stage wondered if I would ever get it done!!! 

 I'll never take the use of 2 arms for granted again....

Thank you so much Chooky and Peg who are the inspiration for doing this Quilt in Stitch-a-long

and also thank you to all the fellow stitchers out there for all the support and encouragement along the way in getting this quilt finally completed....

I have thoroughly enjoyed doing my Gardener's Journal and I will bring it up to Nundle next year to show it off.....

And thank you Peg and Kris for hosting OPAM
I love that most months I can get a project complete no matter how small

Till then.....Happy Stitching

'bye, Dzintra xoxo

And this is how it all started off
A Gardener's Journal pattern by Anni Downes of Hatched and Patched

~A Class with Deb Louie...A Primitive Book...and Pirates of Penzance~

Last week I had the absolute pleasure in attending a very comprehensive quilting workshop at Steph's with the lovely Deborah Louie

I did a one day workshop and boy did I learn heaps!!!

Above is fabric Deb had drawn up for us showing cables, cross hatch and straight lines where we learnt to lift and drag...

Deb also showed us how to prepare a quilt for quilting

My lift and drag...

Cables and cross hatches

I had never really been shown this before and I am so pleased I did this workshop

I thoroughly enjoyed it and hopefully will be able to attend the 2 day one next year if it runs

Thanks Deb......I have learnt so much from you and can't wait to do some cross hatching

During the week I received this Primitive magazine from The Stitching Post which I couldn't resist and ended up signing up for it

lots of lovely projects in warm autumn colours

Rehearsals have started for Gilbert & Sullivan's Gilbert and Sullivans Pirates of Penzance at our local Amateur Theatre Group

I'm in the Chorus of Police and learning heaps......even some acting and singing along with a bunch of other Highly Nervous Police......and having lots of fun

I'm away this weekend with a bunch of school friends that I haven't seen for a while

Mr Armchair is going to take over care duties for JoJo while I go and kick up my heels with my buddies

So I better go and pack now and I'll be back after the weekend with some pics of our rehearsals!!!

~My Finished Bag...with a photoshoot at the beach~

I have finished my 'No Place Like Home Bag' by Anni Downs

I have thoroughly enjoyed this bag and I love it to bits

from cutting the squares

to joining them into strips

and then hand quilting

sewing the binding on

down to choosing the buttons

I looked through my collection and saw that I had timber ones back from the eighties when I knitted Mr Armchair a cardigan......

the other ones I though were a perfect tealy colour to match

the pic shows the teal one on the reverse side but further down there is the other side

I even tried to machine sew the buttons on but ended up doing it by hand

I woke up Sunday morning thinking I'll do a photo shoot down the beach when I have finished the bag

Didn't get there till nearly 5pm though

I wanted JoJo to come with me but she can be hard to move especially if she is engrossed in her music

So off I toddled by myself and about 10 minutes later her and Mr Armchair appeared!!!!

This is the first shot and lucky 2 bits of driftwood were already there......

I took lots of pics of the front of the bag

the tide was coming in so had to be careful although it did get a little wet

I don't mind that though......love the idea of sea water on it

Then going back I thought it might look nice in the grass which of course it did!!!

Then Mr A said what about the back of it

well I hadn't thought of that......so back down to the beach

and he came up with the idea of burying a part of the timber and hanging the back

Great idea I thought (just as well he came down)

and this is the last shot!!!

I have thoroughly enjoyed making this bag.....it was such a pleasure and a lot of fun

especially with Anni's great instructions!!!

Thanks so much Anni for a wonderful bag pattern and kit

I have loved every step of the way of this!!!!