A QUILTY CATCHUP............Hoping this all works.

 Over most of this year I've been struggling with technical issues in all areas, including this PC, my laptop, our home phone and my very old mobile which I've replaced too.  Oh...... and my long-arm machine has also thrown a few hissy fits, probably because I've been so stressed and lost a lot of mojo for everything.  Along with all that my younger brother has had health issues.

Putting all that on my blog, may help me get started with this blog again.  Loading photos has been an issue, so if I've already shown some of these I apologise.  Most of these were made in 2023/4, and not all are quilted yet, so here goes.

MALTED MYSTERY.

This first photo is a QAL I was participating in with Cheryl Brickey from Meadow Mist Quilting blog & although this photo hasn't got the outer borders, it is now awaiting quilting.

TINKER TOYS.

I saw that my friend Sandra from MMM quilts had a lovely pattern in a recent magazine, so purchased the said magazine & used some lovely little sweet pea panels for the centre of the blocks.  This photo doesn't show the colours all that well & I'm still getting to grips with how the photo app works.  This is also waiting in the to-be quilted tub.  I may rename this, but this is Sandra's name for it.

MEMORIES.

One of my own designs to showcase an embroidery I did last year.  I got the beautiful embroidery from the internet, so not one I could even hope to draw myself.  I'm pleased with how it turned out so far.  To be quilted too and named properly.

ALL TOGETHER.

This was another QAL with Cheryl using her latest book Just Two Charm Pack Quilts.  I chose to use 3 different blocks from the book & work out how to fit them together.  I'm so pleased with the result & it is quilted.  We had a fun photo shoot day down on the coast overlooking Bass Strait.

CUDDLES.

Now this little baby quilt is one of my own design to use some "baby" fabric I had in my stash, ready for a little one coming & not knowing whether it was a boy or girl.  HE is here now & the quilt winged its way across the sky & ended up in beautiful Yorkshire.

MEADOW FLOWERS.

Now this is a fun photo of a very, very old quilt I made and never taken a photo or labelled it.  Out one day and seeing this great little Morris not far from home, made me think I could do a silly photo shoot.  It was hard to get a good shot with both bright sunlight & wind.  Anyway, I did the best I could.

WHITE ROSE OF YORKSHIRE QUILT.

Another not so good photo, but I may try again at some stage.  The centre of this quilt happens to be the White Rose of Yorkshire, which I did way back at the beginning of my blog in 2013/4 and last year I turned it into this and did straight line quilting on my ordinary machine.  I'm so pleased with the result.

TONKA TOYS.

Lost the plot here a bit with where I want to type, but I'll do this one differently.  

One of my own designs which reminded of the toys our sons used to play with when little boys.

I've only just done this so not quilted as yet, but did want to include it here.

HAPPPY SCRAPPY

Last, but not least and this was a fun day out for a quilt photo shoot.  Taken up at the very small rail museum at Noojee in the foothills north of us on the way to Mt. Baw Baw.  I designed this for using up some of my mountains of scraps.  It is quilted & awaiting its label.

OK enough for today & hope I can get this posted and will try and do a few posts over the coming weeks of a couple of great times away, though not a lot of good photos, due to not knowing how to download the photos from my camera to this Windows 11 setup.  Is there anyone out there with similar problems.  Just call me old-fashioned or maybe ancient.

Thanks for reading this if you come along & find me again,

Take care and hugs from Susan.

MY QUILT VILLAGE...............SO FAR.

 

I'm linking today with Sandra from mmmquilts in Canada with what I have achieved so far with my take on her Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL.  Mine is to be a quaint village, reminiscent of English villages and will be going to the Special School to hang on the wall.  

I'll start with an overall photo on the design wall and then each individual building.  Two still need to have embroidered letters for School & Library.  Wonder if you might guess which 2 they are?  Here goes..........

I've completed 8 of the 9 so far.

Trying so hard to put 2 photos on side by side so they don't take up much space, but cannot work it out.

These 4 above are my houses.

Next we have..................

The garden Pot Shop or maybe even an actual pottery.

Next comes.................

The Post Office.

I will see if anyone can guess what the next 2 might be.

I mirror reversed this one which will be in the centre of the 9.

Last of the eight I've done.

If you look closely or click to make the image larger, there is a giveaway hint in the windowpane.

The last building to come is something I think my friend Jo will probably guess before anyone else.

After nearly spitting the dummy, this will have to do for the layout of this post.  Maybe one day I'll learn the easy way of popping 2 photos side by side.

One last note of a funny day out on Sunday.  I was talking to someone at the Car Club on Saturday who just happened to mention his wife (not met her yet), was at a small local Quilt Show that was on the weekend, so off we headed on Sunday, only to find it was on Saturday ONLY.  So what did we do?

Went for a drive and ate some lunch looking out over Bass Strait & came home on some back roads.  A few photos follow.  I might add that the day was strange weather wise, with strong winds, cloud, a bit of rain occasionally followed by snippets of sun.

Taken from the car as it was so windy.
Kilcunda.

Driving through Mirboo North on a street we generally don't go down I noticed this gorgeous mural.

                                Not really the best photos as it was just starting to rain again.

OK, that's my lot for today and I'm posting this as is and must sort out a few more posts of catching up with our meanderings of late, The Silo Trail and other trivial bits.  The weather is absolutely foul again today, cold and wet and we have the woodburner lit.  Trying to dry washing too & have to do the grocery shopping this afternoon.  

Take care all and big warm hugs from down under.

Susan.

   

               

A LINKY THING AND A QUICK UPDATE.

Oh dear, I have been wayward of late, but what with public holidays and just plain feeling a bit "blah", I've not had the inclination to blog or do too much else.  Hopefully things are starting to settle on our patch a little and I'm trying to catch up with blog reading and putting some photos and words into place.

We'll start with this...

Linking with Sandra at mmm.quilts for her current QAL, which I am participating in.                                   Fabrics chosen and I'm hoping to do 2, one for moi and another for a baby due in July.

Two colourways chosen and I don't think I need explain which one is which.

I'm busily sewing the floral one first and have a few bits done.

We have flying geese units.

Also, the half square tringles.

A day out yesterday with DD, S-I-L & our 2 grandchildren was great, although we didn't do what they were doing at The Enchanted Garden which is on The Mornington Peninsular.  It has a few mazes, some wonderful sculptures, a tube slide and many walking tracks, but it's main attraction is "Tree Surfing", more for younger people than us oldies.  I'll pop on  a few photos below of some of the features.

Looks scary, but most were having a good time with helmets and harnesses to make it safe.

There was also a tube slide which brought many shrieks & much laughter from those that went on it.

A few more snaps of what could be seen when walking about.

The beautifully carved relief on the hedge.

Elegant statue at the end of a path.

These reminded e of the Terracotta Army figures in China.

Can you see the laser cut rusty iron native animals?

                                                    Two of my favourites below.

Curly snails

Carved timber kangaroo.

Ok, I've waffled on enough so I'll finish up here and hope that everyone had a good Easter break and for those in Oz, this, another long weekend, it being Anzac Day today was both relaxing and thoughtful, especially with all that is happening at the moment.

Take care all and big hugs from the land down under.

Oh, and one last photo of the small lake with fountain.

FOLLOW YOUR OWN PATH FINISH & LINKUP.

Today I am linking with Sandra from mmm.quilts to finally reveal my two versions of Follow Your Own Path which she ran as a QAL.  

We started this in early April and I put up a teaser a couple of posts ago which was this.....

The backings & quilting detail.
If you click on any of the photos, they will be brought up larger for more detail.

Folded and waiting patiently for some "In the Wild" photos which weren't quite what I had in mind due to our inclement weather.  I suppose it is winter.........😒

I worked on the one below first and went just a little wayward, using an old Rainbows pack (jelly roll) from Victorian Textiles and finding some neutral pale grey fabric for the background.  I also renamed both whilst stitching them together.

The first photo was taken in the reserve on one of the new estates we walk through over a small rotunda railing.

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                                                                     I DID IT MY WAY.                                                    

This  lower photo was taken along a short boardwalk in a local park which we pass on our local walking routes and I was surprised to find many "chimneys" made by our Burrowing Crayfish which are supposed to be endangered, but we see these around in many of our walks lately.

The said mud chimneys.

The small boardwalk.

Next up came this one below and I again used a Rainbows pack, but this time a black/white one & was actually able to shop for a red background in May.  Of course we are limited again at the moment with enforced restrictions throughout Victoria, hence also having to find local places for my photos.

I found a sign on our travels one day with an "ARROW" and took a photo draped over, with poor DH holding it as I definitely couldn't reach, being less than 5ft these days.  Thank heavens for a tall better half.  Wonder if anyone was amused by what we were doing?

Which Direction.

Another two photos of each taken inside in my sewing room when we had a little sunshine happening.  I had so many ideas for photos but the weather just has not been playing along.  

Which Direction measures 40.5" x 44.5" and is quilted with 
a pattern called Point the Way by Naomi Hynes using
Signature thread, colour Cherry.

I Did It My Way is 32.5" x 43.5", quilted with a pattern
called Which Direction also by Naomi Hynes.
The thread is Signature in colour Oyster Shell.

Not often I give details, but thought it might be interesting to do that.

OK, that is enough of my waffling.  Thanks for taking a peek;

Take care all, stay safe & hugs from down under.

Susan.

PS:  I am also participating in a few other QALs at the moment, so I will be back shortly.

QUICK PROGRESS REPORT.

 Popping in tonight with a photo of my first row for the Bedding Plants Quiltalong.

This is actually the bottom row of "Roses" in the pattern.
As I'm using my scraps, it could look very different from those of the other participants, which I will not see until the full reveal as I don't use either FB or IG, but I am having fun so far and finding all sorts in my scrap tubs which I'd forgotten about.

Not much else to report on today, except that it basically rained all day non-stop, is freezing cold and we've had a few wind gusts, so outside has been a no-no.  Probably the reason I actually finished my row of 6.  Tomorrow I'm having a long overdue haircut and I'm procrastinating as to how short I want to go in this cold weather.  Time will tell.

Take care all, stay safe & huggles from down under.

Susan.

QAL PROGRESS.

 A very quick progress about a couple of Quiltalongs I am joining in with at the moment.

One is with my good friend Joy in Ballarat from Days filled with Joy blog and this is a small wall hanging we are participating in.  Our first block was a doddle, which is good as another I decided to join in with is quite fiddly.  First photo is of the Sewcial Quilt block No. 17.

Now the next QAL is from Jo Avery in Scotland and she is someone I've followed in Love Patchwork & Quilting Magazine from Britain which I've purchased for many years.  It sounded quite interesting so I'm giving it a go, though in a slightly smaller version.

Her book.

This is the quilt and the row at the bottom is the one we are starting with.
As of yesterday I had completed one rose block.

I am going to use scraps for all my flowers and an assortment of white leftovers from my stash for each row background.  Could be an interesting exercise.

Behind the book photo which I took on my ironing board is some new fabric on the top of board, because I ended up with a very worn spot and then ripped it, hence replaced old fabric, shown below.  It's really cute.

One last snippet.

I think I mentioned another QAL with Sandra from mmm.quilts who has her link up and reveal on the 15th of June, but here is a little teaser.  I made two of Follow your own Path.  They are both finished, but not labelled.  Want to have a look..................

The back of each one.

OK enough from me now and I will pop on progress reports of the QALs from time to time and should catch up with some garden photos too.

Thanks for all my lovely comments lately, take care, stay safe and hugs from down under.

Susan.