This is where I have been...

To the Scquilters (southerncross quilters) retreat in Adelaide, lovely Glenelg to be precise.

Scquilters host a retreat anually, usually in a different state each year. Last year was Perth, the year before was Bendigo and next year it will be in Bathurst. Scquilters are a group for online quilters either living in Australia or New Zealand or living overseas. As usual I had a great five nights staying with my fantastic roomies, Lissa, Wendy and Mary-Anne.

We ate too much, drank too much, laughed, some of us did a tiny bit of sewing but probably more talking (or listening)

This is DJ block E6 Michelle's Medley which I finished at the airport BEFORE the retreat!

Did I mention shopped too much? This was the haul from Harbour Town, a DFO for those of you in Victoria.

Then we went shopping on the shop hop visiting six patchwork shops! I did manage to add 146 new pieces of civil war or 1800's reproduction fabric to the stash, going 1/4's with Mary-Anne, Lissa and Pam at the first shop then thirds with MA and Lissa at the next five shops so some of them are quite small but large enough for a DJ block or scrappy reproduction quilts. A few of them were also swaps at the Dear Jane get together so we didn't buy all of them!!!

I also added a couple of Kaffe Fassett's to my collection for Isabella's quilt and started a William Morris collection as we bought Michele Hill's book William Morris in Applique and a few of us decided on a challenge. It will be interesting to see if we manage to finish it.

Last but not least, I finally saw Adelaide's famous frog cakes at the airport on the way home!

Dear Jane rolls on....

I seem to be on a bit of a roll with DJ at the moment. Problem is when I am doing DJ I don't get anything else done! It is quite obsessive and I have limited time, usually only nights to do it.

This is E-4 Buffalo Tree Hopper. It is not black as it may look on some screens it is a dark purple.

D-3 Jason's Jacks. This fabric was a new one I bought on Monday it's one of the poison greens and cheddars ...but more about that later. This block was originally brown but is one that I have changed it was a very quick and easy block.

E-3 Paddle Wheels.

F-3 Snowball.

B-5 Hot Cross Buns. I must get the last two blocks of row b done!!!

Bernadette 55-5-1-1143

A forgotten block and Pam's baby Jane

I have been going back through my Dear Jane labelled posts and couldn't find three, only 47 blocks listed. Two were found in an unlabelled post but I finally worked out that poor little H-13 Farm Fields had been left out so here it is.

Last Saturday at our DJ sit and sew Pam was able to come so once again we were privledged to see her almost completed quilt. She has two sides of triangles left to quilt.

After looking at Pam's I have had a bit of a think about my quilt. I was doing it exactly the same in colour as the original. I have now had a play with the rest of the blocks and although most of the top two rows are completed I have still been able to have a bit of a play around and change some of the colours, especially in the bottom half. I have added a row of green and blue to the bottom rows following the pattern from the center blocks. I have also left a couple of the brown rows. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.
The ladies that have joined our DJ sit and sew have done very well. One of our older ladies Lorna in particular has gone right ahead and has completed 120 blocks since our first month...in March? I can't quite remember but she has done extremely well. I think I started off 5 of them and Julie has also gone past me, having completed 69 blocks. Kaye has also done extremely well, she started a few months after the others and has 30+ blocks completed.

I am a Golden Jane!

Yay I have finished my 5oth block. At this rate it will take me 4 years to complete my Baby Jane.



F-9 Autumn Aster. I wasn't very happy with my points on this applique as the red fabric kept fraying as I was trying to needleturn the points, very frustrating. I have had this trouble before with red fabrics....coincidence? I completed this block at our DJ first Saturday of the month sit and sew at Pentland Patchwork.



M5 Mother's Point which was the BOW for last week, I did complete it in time but I didn't email to say that I had! This was completed Sunday night. It was the first BOW I have completed for quite a while, maybe a year. I have to start doing it again as it means I will at least do one block a week. Hmmm....it looks a bit on the crooked side here but looks ok really so I will have to pull it out for another look.



D-1 Alison's guiding light. This weeks BOW, completed Tuesday night.



L-7 Town Square, completed Wednesday night.



The 50th block, also completed Wednesday night M-10 Simple Simon.

Bernadette 50-5-1-1078

What do you do

When your sewing area looks like this?



and this.....

or even this.......

Because you are working on so many projects at once you don't know what to work on........hold on, back up.......what is that...there on the table....is it..could it be.....a new project???? Yes unfortunately that is what seems to happen, I have soooo many going at once I get totally confused as to what I want to work on and so I start something else. Makes sense doesn't it...NOT!!So here is what I have been working on when I can't decide what to work on...

Yes I have been inspired by Jodie and I have made some selvedge projects, not that I will ever make anything as big or as totally awesome as Jodie's big project but these are for something I will be putting together shortly.




I wanted a change from the reproductions and wanted to work with something fresh and vibrant which is when I started on the selvedges and this, scrappy log cabins inspired by Melly and Me. I took part in their fabric swap a few months ago and swapped with Bridget in the US who is blogless...hello Bridget I am using some of your scraps and some are from our swaps at Jodie's get together. I have a bag full of scraps which I have cut into strips ready to piece. Well I have one pieced but lots of cutting done.



Some long overdue gifts....they are coming girls, you would have had them months ago if I hadn't decided to make something to go with them. Thanks to The Giving Flower for the tutorial.



This is what I had been working on for a few nights, I am giving DJ a bit of a break so this is my current handpiecing project. Not totally new but I had some pieces cut out and a quarter of a pie block (only) put together months ago. This quilt was a BOM at Threadbear in Castlemaine, I saw it at the Castlemaine quilt show a few years ago and couldn't wait for the pattern to come out as I just fell in love with it but as the patterns aren't released until the BOM has finished I didn't have much choice. The photo doesn't do it justice the quilt is better in real life.



I am getting lots of practise with curved piecing!












I have bought a lot of retro fabrics as I love them...but what to do with them? So I decided on the KISS principle, keep it simple and just make a quilt with 6.5" squares to showcase the fabrics with plain white sashings so those are cut out and ready to go.



I did manage to get two more DJ blocks done, B-10 Judd's Trophy



and B-2 Sweet Tater Pie. I am liking the piecing much more after pressing each seam with the iron as I go, a bit of a pain but a much better result. I think I only have about three blocks left to complete row B and I have done 45-5-1-998...only two more pieces to reach one thousand pieces!!



And last but not least.....tada.....




My very own selvedge scarf!!! I loved Jodie's so much I decided to make my own. I love it. I went to the selvedge website, followed the how to and made mine with slightly more fabric showing than Jodie's I think but to me it's like a quilting history, I can look at the fabric with the selvedge and know approximately how long I have had it, whether it's used or in the stash..etc etc. I had a piece of black velveteen in the stash from the old crazy patchwork days so I used that to back it with. So that's what Ihave been up to, I have achieved more than I thought!

Dear Jane small update

I just realised I haven't updated DJ for a while. Not that I have done much BUT I did get that block done that I had been putting off....A9 Cabin Fever so all of Row A is complete. I WILL get around to sewing that row together...sometime soon! I have also updated my chart on the side of my blog and added in my tally. I am much happier with this one as I have copied my friend Julie whose blocks all look perfect and started to press them with the iron rather than finger press, I think it gives a better result.

Below is K-12 Doris's Dilemma.

Below is K-7 Rose of Sharing.

Next post I will tell you about our blogger get together at Jodie's but in the meantime pop over to Kathryn's and have a look at her posting and all her gorgeous shabby chic creations!

Tuesday.....

Just for Di yes I have done a couple of Dear Jane blocks, one at the Perth retreat and one at our DJ sit and sew at Bacchus Marsh on Saturday. Pretty poor really two blocks in the past month....but it has been a busy month. I felt like I needed to work on a different colour and felt the need for some pink, so here they are...oh and I now up to 40 blocks so it would almost mean I was a quarter of the way...if I didn't have the triangles to do!!!!!

F-4 Old Windmill

and H-4 Abbey's Eyes

Dear Jane this week

It's been a bit of a slow old week for Dear Jane, only two new blocks to show BUT I only have one more block to go before Row A is finished. It just happens to be A-9 Cabin Fever which has the most pieces so before that I will do a simple one as I just finished A-12 Framed Fancy which wasn't my favourite (41 pieces) but at least it's done.

I have also added my block chart on the side of my blog to keep track of my progress. I am now at 38 blocks, 5 triangles, 1 corner kite and 869 pieces.




A-12 Framed Fancy once again don't look too closely!!!

(which reminds me thanks to the lovely girls that left kind comments regarding my blocks!)





A-4 Courtney's Stethoscope.

Even more Dear Jane!!!!

How good have I been....I am now up to 35 blocks, 5 triangles, 1 corner kite and 798 pieces which means I have done 10 blocks in the past week or so.Now don't look too closely and just remember as Brenda says Finished is better than Perfect!!! (especially in my case lol)

My latest DJ blocks are:-

A-2 One two buckle my shoe



B-12 Starflower - this one I tried reverse applique on, I hadn't done it in ages!




E-1 Aunt Exie's Phlox- this one I had trouble fitting the applique on, I should have used Jane's freezer paper template method I think!



A-11 Pebbles Protest, tricky little block with the order of piecing ..hmm ... might have to work on this one a bit!

A-10 Which points west?

F-13 Tour de France