Farmers Wife blocks in Echuca

 I’ve been sewing along with some ladies making Farmers Wife blocks. I have never met them but just chatting online. We have been making 2 blocks a month but I fell behind due to holidays. Bronwyn invited us to stay at her house so we could meet and sew along together. Then I had a sewing day at my quilt group and made 3 blocks on the Saturday. 

Sunday had me in the mood to sew all day and make 7 more. I caught up the weekend before heading to Echuca. This is where I was at.

We packed our caravan and headed off with my sewing machine and supplies. I was anxious about staying at someone’s house I had never met but the greeting went really well and Bronwyn, Peter, Tony and I chatted and laughed very easily. I did unpack my sewing and we got started with some sewing. Sorry, no photos.

The next morning we all went into town for a coffee, look around

and the quilt shop. SOUTH QUILTS.

I met Judi at the coffee shop. She came and did some sewing too. After lunch Shona arrived and set up her machine. So we all sat and sewed, talked, ate and then a drink. A great night was had. Next day we continued with some more sewing. As the day went on it was only Bronwyn and I left sewing. 

Soon it was time to pack away the machine. We had a break and sat by the camp fire and had a few drinks.

Enjoyed a beautiful sunset. 

then dinner and said our goodbyes as both Bronwyn and Peter were not going to be there when we got up and left. It was an amazing weekend

So, I have just unpacked everything after a couple of weeks. Here are the blocks I made for April 12

Block 87  

& Block 56

Next for April 19’s blocks

No. 36

Block no. 46

April 26th - blocks. No. 1

Block no. 86…. Oops. I missed this one

May 3rd block. Did this one out of order but she is cute. 

Block no. 29. Oh I must remember to cut my features on point …..

And all of them up on the wall. They will eventually have sashing between the blocks when I join them together. This is the order they are in the book but I will need to change some as the colour placements have to be spread around. 

I think I am up to date… No to get started on some more. They are growing nicely.

Thank you Bronwyn and Peter for your hospitality and making Tony and I feel so welcomed.

 Judi and Shona it was great meeting you.

Would love to do it again.

SPF Charity sewing Placemats

 I had some left overs from my sunflowers that were the wrong colour blue. They needed to be used up.

Our sewing group held a charity night making placemats. I did not attend but made these at home.

They could be any size which made it easier to decide what to do.

Made the blocks the same as the Irish chain blocks.

Joined some scrap wadding.

Started some simple quilting

Diagonal quilting through the squares

Placemats trimmed

BUT… OH NO!!!!!!!!!!

Oops I’ve got a date with Jack.

I have 3 the same 

But not enough to make a matching 4th one. I did have enough sunflower fabric to make a different design though.

These go to individuals that receive Meals on Wheels. So I do not need matching sets.

Bindings are yet to be done as I took sick. Had the day off work and spent it in bed.

1st May CHOOKSHED challenge no. 5 with Deana

 It’s the 1st of the month and Deana has spun the wheel. No. 5 has been drawn for us to work on this month.

Mine is to make these cute Kiwi blocks, designed and shared by Louise.

The thing is. What will I make with them?

Since I started blogging in 2013 I have been getting them printed into a book by BLOG 2 PRINT.

Sadly they are closing down but have given us all a last chance to get any printed for a discounted price.

We only have until May 15

I haven’t done any posts yet about my ‘0’ birthday and the Ghan trip.

So to finish of my last book I will do a week of posts to celebrate my wonderful birthday of 2024.

CHOOKSHED April Challenge no. 9

 Ok, April is no. 9.

Sunflowers Irish Chain

Dreamworthy Quilts with Deana

I didn’t have any luck with last months challenge so I was determined this month I would achieve something.

I was given these embroidered blocks about 10 years ago. My friend had a new embroidery machine and wanted to have a play. Lucky me. I had the fabric and knew what to make. I made a start then who knows what happened next but for some reason they were packed away.

I pulled them out again to find that I needed to make more 20 patch blocks. Problem was…. There was no navy blue fabric with the rest of the pack. I didn’t have anything that was close, neither did Spotlight.

I had a different blue which wasn’t even close so I needed to 13 more complete blocks. The colours varied too much to keep them in.

Stitching away while on Chooky’s Zoom on Friday night.

I would not have sew if it wasn’t for zoom. Thanks Chooky

Blocks are all ironed and trimmed

Rows being stitched together

Webbing being done.

Now to sort out what to do for the borders

Last border going on.

Wow. It looks good.

I DID IT.

Now to pack away for another time to get it quilted. 

Maybe next years challenge list will be to quilt a quilt each month.

What a bit of fun making iPad covers/zippered pouches . Mini tutorial.

 I am going to be doing a tutorial night at some point this year at my quilt group. We only have a 2 hour session so the project has to be quick, useful, achievable (without much to do at home) and fun.

So I searched Pinterest and YouTube to look for suitable projects. I came across a cute pouch. I then studied a few YouTube’s and mix and matched to come up with mine. 2 at a time pouches.

You can do them so they are exactly the same or completely the reverse of each other using the same piece of fabric.

I’ll try to explain how I made them step by step. 

1. Quilt your 3 layers together 

I marked mine with masking tape and quilted them one way

Moved the masking tape and crosshatched the other direction.

and trim to 24” high * 20” wide. 

Then mark down 6” from the top left. Also from the bottom right.

Cut from point to point.

You will need a 1 * 25” continuous zip with 2 zipper pulls OR 2 * 25” dress zips.

Binding/contrast fabric…. 2 lengths 2” * 24” ironed in half lengthwise

……. 2 lengths 2.5” * 24” ironed in half lengthwise

2 lengths 3” * 24” for the wrist strap (ironed like bias binding)

Optional … 2 rings or d rings for the wrist strap.

Now, lay the wrong side of the zip on to the wrong side of the angled cut.

Sew the 2” folded strip onto the right side of the zip. Matching the raw edges.

(Oops, my zip is a bit wavy.. don’t stretch it)

Peel off one side of the zip and put aside for the second pouch.

Fold seam allowance under and top stitch the zip to the pouch fabric.

Then iron over the binding to cover the raw seam and top stitch down on the right side of the pouch.

Slide the zipper pull on to one side with the rounded edge first.

Have fun getting the second side on.

Fold over and trim the side edge even

Now to make the wrist strap. Using the 3” wide bias folded piece top stitch down each edge. Then cut a 3 “ length. Thread through a ring / d ring. Attach to the side seam edge about 1” from the top of pouch.

Turn wrong side out making sure you leave the zip half open.

Align the edges and pin or clip.

Attach the binding as you would on a quilt.

Fold through the left over wrist strap and attach around the ring.

And you are done.

Now for the second one. You can make it exactly the same or sew the zip to the opposite side of the quilted piece

This will make another pouch but with reversed colours and zip opening from the other direction

2 easy identical pouches finished