Here’s #22 finished

Remember that challenging Stitchin’ Mission flannel quilt I told you about?  Well here it is, all finished and looking appropriately sunny with cute little ladybugs grinning from their daisy seats.

 

 

These tied corners ought to be good enough for the quilt police, don’t you think? Oh, I wish you could feel its soft snuggliness!  I do hope the autistic tot who chooses this one will feel so loved!

Off to finish that binding on #23 before tomorrow.  I may be the only person stitching a quilt at Carols in the Domain tonight!

50 by Sunday?

I have 22 of these little beauties stacked up ready to take to church on Sunday.

- and I'm stitching like a woman possessed, trying desperately to finish the binding # 23 to add to the pile. Our Christmas quilt display is going to be spectacular!

Now ... I wonder how many Stitchin' Mission quilts Di B has at her place?

Challenging fabrics

Back when we first announced our Stitchin’ Mission Di B and I were overwhelmed with the generosity of our friends and folk here at St Marks who dug deep into their pockets and fabric stashes to help make it all possible.

All the fabric was useable, but some was a little more challenging to use, and this week I’ve been busy making a couple more quilts out of some of these.

I was given a whole bag of flannel in the most wonderful children’s colours and designs. However, since flannel can be tricky to handle, I decided not to add it to the stash of fabrics we made available to our newbies. I didn’t want to put them off before they got started!

I plan to use all this warm, snuggly fabric in our Stitchin’ Mission quilts over the next 6 months, but will probably make it up myself.

Here’s the first one, pinned ready for tying.

[By the way, the plain squares in this Quarry Stones quilt are a bright daffodil yellow, but the poor light hasn’t done it justice.]

As you can see, making every corner meet proved too much of a challenge for me too! However, after all the intersections had been tied with coloured wool, all evidence of my poor quiltmaking skills was gone. Easy! (Shhhh…..Don’t tell anyone!)

Linda’s advice, to simply back the quilt with flannel and leave it without a batting, turned out well as the quilt was quite thick enough already. It will be very cuddly for the little tot who eventually receives it.

I’m currently stitching on the binding – red with white spots – and will post pics of the finished quilt very soon. [Yes, this time I’ll take it out into better light.]

Quilts from afar

You can always count on Jenny Bowker's blog for inspirational photos and lyrical writing, but if you ever plan to visit Cairo you simply must bookmark her post for today.

I was fortunate enough to have Jenny take me to the Tentmakers' Souk in Cairo a few years ago, a particularly exciting experience for a quiltmaker! Then when she brought an exhibition of these wondrous applique quilts out to Australia in 2007 I simply had to fly to the AQC in Melbourne to see them.

When you've read Jenny's post, you might like to read about my impressions here.

Such skilled hands!

Well, there goes that theory!

I just spotted another weather widget from my homepage.

If “Sydney” actually refers to Sydney, Nova Scotia (and not Sydney, Australia), as has been suggested, can someone please tell me which “Bangkok”  is shivering with single digit temperatures? I suspect I’d be best advised to simply pop my head out the window if I want an accurate weather report (though not so easy to do for Bangkok).

Ahh, technology.  It’s great when it works!

Life’s Little Mysteries #5 – When Weather Widgets go Wonky!

Take a look at Linda’s blog. She lives in Des Moines, Iowa where she’s snowed in and it’s so cold that even her dog Hogan would rather be home in front of the fire than going for his walk!

After watching her video clips of huge snowdrifts, arduous snow-blowing and blizzard conditions I thought I’d pop over to my iGoogle home page to check on the current temperature here in Sydney, Australia.

Would you believe this?!?!?It looks as if we’re currently colder than chilly Des Moines!- and I’m sitting here in a strappy summer top, with the windows wide open .

So what’s your problem, Linda? (Very VERY big grin!)

[I must add that this particular Sydney weather widget was set up on my homepage a couple of years ago - for Sydney Australia - and has been working perfectly well providing me with my local weather conditions until today. I think Chris (see Comments) is probably right. My widget has wandered waaaaay off course!]

Southern Cross Quilters 2005 Retreat Quilt - revisited

Way back in 2005 when the online quilting group Southern Cross Quilters (known as Scquilters) held its annual retreat in Sydney I was somehow inveigled into designing a quilt for the retreatees.  (To be truthful, I didn’t need much of a nudge and I really loved the challenge!)

Each person attending was given a copy of my quilt pattern in their “goody bag”, and if they so chose they could make it up as a sort of quilty souvenir of the occasion.

 

I called the quilt “My Sydney Snapshots” and it featured ‘Suzie Scquilter’ in the foreground of all the photos she had taken of Sydney’s iconic landmarks – the Opera House, Bondi Beach, Centrepoint Tower, Luna Park, the Sydney Cricket Ground and the Sydney Harbour Bridge to name a few.

Not only had Suzie hogged her photos but she had also draped the buildings in quilt blocks appropriate to the venue. 

So the Bondi Pavilion had Ocean Waves, the entrance to Luna Park had Paths and Styles, the Opera House had Windswept Square, and the Sydney Cricket Ground where Suzie watched a Sydney Swans (AFL) game had Flying Geese!

 

So why am I telling you this?  Because last week I discovered a Scquilter who has actually made a quilt using my stitchery designs!  What’s even more exciting is that Sally has adapted (and improved) them to make a quilt that is uniquely hers and fabulous!

I particularly love the way she’s given my stitcheries a touch more colour, and she’s actually made up larger versions of the 8 quilt block designs, depicted in miniature in the stitcheries, and set them into her border.

Take a look at Sally’s blog to see how she backed her quilt.  It’s as colourful and fun as the front!

Those of you who’ve been designing for some time will probably think me a little silly, but to me it was incredibly exciting to hear from Sally and to see her work. 

You’ve made this quilt designer very happy, Sally!