Sewing and Snowing Weekend !

A few days until the 'official' start of summer and this is what greeted us as we arrived at our highlands shack on Thursday night.  Snow and one of the coldest nights I have spent at the shack in a long while.  Hard to believe that we were shivering in this weather while the mainland states were being ravaged by bushfires and extremely high temperatures.

 We had just got everything unpacked from the car and it started snowing again quite heavy, snowed a little more overnight and it was all gone by Friday lunchtime.  Saturday was a nice sunny warm spring day (as it should be).

I had made this Santa Sack with matching Bib as a Christmas present and had another to make over the weekend.  I just need to get the name sewn onto that sack and they will be in the post to Canberra.

 My weekend sewing at the shack was lots of flying geese, foundation pieced in long strips.  Wonder what they will be used for...stay tuned !

 I also managed to make another two blocks for this ongoing scrap log cabin quilt which is pinned to the 'design wall'.  I hope to get this one finished over the Christmas/New Year break.

This is our first pick of this season's strawberries and raspberries.  The raspberry canes are full of fruit waiting to ripen so there should be ample for Christmas celebrations and raspberry jam.

Happy sewing !

It's a Quilting Week !

My replacement walking foot arrived in the mail on Monday morning so this week I will be working overtime to get the quilting done on a few quilts.  I managed to get two more of my selvedge quilts finished before my Janome Acqufeed walking foot disintegrated mid-way through quilting.  I must admit it has been working hard for the past 6 months or so.

Unfortunately this morning I had a major migraine which restricted my quilting time somewhat but I did get the quilting done on this small Christmas Tree wallhanging.  Let me tell you it is hard work concentrating on sewing a straight line when your vision is blurry and your head is throbbing like crazy.  I like my crooked star, many of the decorated trees I see in the lead into Christmas have the star sitting at a precarious position at the top of the tree.

 My headache improved (with lots of medication) in the afternoon so I was able to get some quilting done on this scrappy lap quilt.  

 Last week, while I was waiting on the replacement walking foot, I decided to sew these smaller selvedges into blocks.  I was given these selvedges both plain and wording, cut into 5 inch strips, so I drew up some triangle foundations ready to make a quick quilt.

 So far, I have done 48 blocks with word selvedges and about 20 blocks done with plain selvedges.  I should have enough done to start joining them together by the weekend, when I have a sewing day here at home with a few quilting friends.

Happy quilting !  Thanks for stopping by.

Felt Christmas Tree

I came across this post on Facebook a couple of days ago and thought it was a great idea

 Just so happened I was in Spotlight on Friday so bought some felt and yesterday cut out the tree.  To make it a bit more sturdy, I backed it (with felt) as well.

 I sewed around the edge of the tree (zigzag would work) and it is now ready for the decorations. 

 Lots of Christmas fabrics and panels were 50% off so found this cute panel to cut up for presents, candy cane, stars and Santa.

And this one for baubles 

 Here they are all ready to have the piece of felt attached.  I used the off-cuts of the green felt and some red felt I had on hand.

 I sewed around the outside of each decoration, added some extra stitching to a few of them and trimmed them, ready for the tree

 And here is the tree decorated.  I still have a few decorations to finish off but it is looking great don't you think.

 Here is a closeup of some of the decorations

A great idea for the little ones who love to play with the real Christmas tree decorations.  Now they can decorate their very own tree as many times as they like.

Happy sewing !

Selvedge Project Done !

My Selvedge Vest is finally done !  What a fun project to do, although it was painstakingly slow because I sort of planned where each selvedge bit would go.  I am really pleased with the final result and it now sits on my paper mache mannequin bust.

This is the front view 

 A side view 

 And the back view

I have another project already started as I have lots more selvedge leftover bits and pieces that I don't use in my selvedge quilts.  I am now covering one of my paper mache bowls with selvedges and the paper mache tray in the background has been covered with plain selvedges sewn together.

I'm am truly selvedged !

Twister Sewing Weekend

I had another lovely 4 day weekend at the shack and managed to get 2 twister quilts cut out and sewn together.    I got started early on Friday morning cutting out the rows and got this far and was about to begin sewing the rows together when the power went off (for an agonising 9 hours) 

Saturday morning and the power was back on and the big Twister quilt top got sewed together by lunchtime (shame I can't hold the camera straight to take the photo)

I also got a smaller version of another twister quilt cut and sewed together but haven't taken a photo of this one yet.

As well as the resident wombat living under the shack, we have a very quiet kookaburra who hangs out near the shack.  This kookaburra lost its mate a couple of years ago in the creek beside the shack (they mate for life) and has never left the area since then.  They are such beautiful birds and this one regularly sits and laughs at us as we lounge on the verandah.  You can just see the kookaburra sitting on the post in front of the verandah (it was a gloomy day and you can barely see the lake for mist)

Happy sewing !