By hand and machine

I needed some handwork for the train - I went into Jeff's Shed for the VicQuilter's Exhibition and Stitches and Craft Show.

I grabbed my 1800s blue English-pieced diamonds (AKA "Oh My Stars!", and tacked a stack of them. I didn't need much space, and they weren't heavy. Groovy. I did about 35 during 2 hours (that's both ways on the train).

I will share some eye candy from the quilt show ... later okay? (and some of my shopping...)

I just wanted to come home and sew!!! I am still disappointed I couldn't find my miniature quilt in time to deliver it for hanging... *sigh*

I worked on the Lizzie Mae's inner border - still need to trim the centre applique block before I can join them together..

Polite sewing...

This is the second star in my English paper-pieced stars quilt all made from bits in the stash!
I really want to use up my reproduction blue fabrics. I had a bit of time on the weekend - not sit down at my machine time unfortunately... so I made the best of it. I sewed while I stood and made polite conversation.

Yes, I think it is possible to be polite whilst sewing... it was at a quilt exhibition!! LOL!!

I just need time to sit at my machine. It feels so frustrating!

Oh my stars!

I wanted to make one full star to see whether the co-ordinated scrappy look is working. The white tabletop mimics a cream background. Let's see how it looks once I have the star pieces joined.

I hope it's not toooo scrappy looking.

I only wanted to use up some stash!

Retreat show and tell

I've so much to share with you as post-retreat show and tell.

Yes, I slept very well, ate very well and visited the beach!! (What's the point of going to Phillip Island if you don't visit the beach?).I worked on these star pieces in the car on the way...

The baby shower quilt is actually the last thing I worked on - this is why it's not finished. I have chain pieced lots of the quilt. It won't take long to finish the quilt top now!

Lucky really, as it needs to be finished for this weekend now. Eep!!

I couldn't go any further on the flower of the month stitcheries. I changed my mind, and decided to completely frame the blocks in green, rather than use sashing. I ran out of the red, I do have more, I didn't have it with me though. Drats!

Don't they look good with those colours framing them?

This little golly quilt top was sitting around for about 5 years. I quilted it, then hand-stitched the binding on in the car on the way home (I didn't drive, it's okay). VBG.

I found lots of half metre pieces of fabric in my stash during the clean-up. They were all nice fabrics, but not something that would slot easily into a quilt without designing the quilt around the fabric. Know what I mean?

These fabrics were perfect for accessories - just like these bags!

The first bag took me 2 hours to make, by the time I made the last one I had it down to 45 minutes.

My first real go at zippers.... I used the walking foot - much easier than the zipper foot.

When I made the first one, the bag instructions said to sew the second side on with the zip half closed.

I found this difficult, so I sewed it with the zip completely closed on the second bag. Whoops. The zipper tab (what DO you call that bit on a zip that goes up and down) was on the leftover bit of zip on the inside of the bag. I had to unpick and put the zip on the outside of the bag.

The third bag, I sewed the side seams with the zip closed and couldn't turn the bag right side out. Whoops again! I had to unpick a seam to slide the zipper tab (or whatever it's called) along, then re-sew the seam... then I could open the zip to turn the bag right way out.

Lots of learning, lots of show and tell. No, I didn't finish everything... Never mind.

Oh my stars!

I found these vintage flower of the month stitchery patterns on the web a few years ago, and stitched them. Today I trimmed them down ready to join into a quilt top whilst on retreat with the Phillip Island Patchworkers (VIC).The large floral fabric is from my stash. It's going to be the outer border.
I will frame the blocks in green and use the red and green print for cornerstones. The red is for binding.

Last night I started this project. I looked in my (mostly) sorted stash and saw I had a HUGE pile of green fabrics (I am very comfortable with this, I use them for stems and leaves in applique all the time). I noticed I also had a large amount of blue fabrics.
I am going to use this picture as a basis for my repro paper-pieced stars.

I herby name this quilt "My Stars!". When you say it or read it, you must pronounce it just the way Samantha would in "Bewitched" episodes.

I've already prepared some diamonds to take away on the weekend for handwork.