a last minute finish

After all the trauma of remodelling my quilt (and getting it wrong), it is finally finished.

I wanted to have it finished when I hosted “Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday” two weeks ago, but family circumstances and ill health (an upper respiratory tract infection)  got in the way.

I attached the binding and sewed it down on Wednesday. It didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would – I allowed six hours for the hand-stitching, it took four and a half!

So, may I present Scrappy Strings, which measures 57” x 68” (the size our group aims for is around 56” x 64” so I’m not too far out!)-- a last minute finish because it was done on Wednesday for submission to the Airing of the Quilts this weekend, the quilts were needed at the museum by Thursday.

Taking photos in direct sunlight is not really good; the breeze shifts the quilt and creates shadows as well as washing out the colour. But no one was home so I had to peg it to my washing line and, although I’ve made some adjustments in the editing process, it’s still not a great photo!

Here’s a close up of my choice of binding – I was going to use some more of the backing fabric but I thought the quilt needed something bright to lift it. If you look closely, you’ll see that this fabric is also in two of the quilt blocks.

In these two photos you can see my quilting: in the ditch around the sashing and then a simple horizontal and vertical line through each block. Not quilting through the sashing meant dozens of ends to sew in! (Hey look, there’s the binding fabric in that block! LOL)

And now my favourite view – I just love the back!

Inserting a panel to make the backing fabric wider has been a signature on quite a few of my quilts!
Linking up with Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday over at Quilt Matters.

Airing of the Quilts

If you are in, or able to get to, western Sydney this weekend, Caring Hearts Community Quilters’ annual “Airing of the Quilts” is on this Saturday and Sunday, from 10am till 4pm. Entry is $4.00, at the Arms of Australia Inn (Penrith Historical Society’s Museum*), Great Western Highway, Emu Plains.

*There is an entry fee to the museum, over and above the entry to the quilt show.

I’ll be there on Saturday from 12:30 till closing so if you’re in the neighbourhood, do drop by and say hello!

I believe there will be 80-100 quilts on show; I have five quilts ready to enter:

Hunter’s Cabin (which I forgot to enter last year)

Dotty Bright

Black Stump Creek

Blanket of Love #1

and Scrappy Strings II (before the bottom row was removed and turned into a column)

All very different aren’t they?
Well, maybe not – anyone would think I like strips and squares!

snippets from the craft show

Last Sunday,  DD and I went to the annual Stitches and Craft Show held at Darling Harbour, in Sydney. We were already tired from the sock workshop the day before (yes, it went well thanks). DD had missed the Show last year due to giving birth to Younger Grandson and I had missed most of it due to looking for a sewing machine on my first day’s visit and teaching knitting at the Guild stand on my second day’s visit.

DD and I went to quite a few “workshops”. I don’t know why they call them workshops – they are “talks” or, in some cases, product demonstrations. The first talk we attended was about embroidery hints and tips (and products). DD wanted to go home as soon as it was over – she was already raring to get at some handwork! Inevitably, one of us gets all excited and wants to go home within the first hour of being there!

Some “workshops” we attended together, some we went in two different directions. I attended a talk given by Reece Scannell and Kathy Doughty (Material Obsession) about the use of colour. It was only when Kathy took over for the second thirty minutes that I remembered the camera in my bag.

The final workshop we attended was Saffron Craig talking about her latest designs.
(Sorry about the hassle with the camera, Saffron, and thanks for allowing me to take and publish this photo.)

The hat in front was made from a Saffron Craig fabric by Nicole Mallalieu (You Sew Girl).

BTW, I don’t have permission to publish the photos of the quilts here, sorry. You can go to the two posts on Di’s blog (here and here) to see the photos which she has permission to publish. This is the link to the Quilt Guild of NSW website to see the prize winning quilts.

DD and I made the mistake of going to look at the quilts at 3:30; we had been at the Show since 10am. It was too much. Next year we are going for two days!