Continuing the Baradine story - so what did I sew?

 When we arrived at Baradine we had been allocated a work space and a bag of goodies which included a beautiful mug, some coconut ice made by Brenda, some other nibbles and a small parcel to be opened later. This parcel turned out to be a kawandi kit but mine is still at Stephanie's so no photo here. We had a workshop on that when Jo arrived.

While there was lots of space I cut the length of fabric Jen (Mudgee) had given me to add flowers to my hexie project (more later)

My next project was to make squares to match Stephanie's for our black quilt we started as a joint project a while back.

I ended up with enough for this layout and a few left over so I will make a few more to complete another row. I ran out of black fabric so will need to finish that at home.

Another project was to start quilting a tea towel to make a wall hanging for my kitchen. This is now nearly done.

Then back to my hexie project. The donated fabric left overs are in the back of this photo. My main aim was to experiment with attaching the completed hexies  to their background which will range from green to purple. These are just a few. 

I was able to buy an appropriate colour thread at the little shop that Sandi had brought along. The colour is a taupe and disappears nicely on most colours while still looking like blanket stitch. Click on the picture above to see the various options I tried.

Then last night in front of TV I was able to start one of the flower hexies to see how they work out. I think they could work well. I'll make lots but may not use them all depending on how they look on the quilt. These will be the larger feature hexies in the quilt.

Some of the quilts in the show and tell (photos in the previous post) give an idea of this finished quilt top. 

I feel satisfied with what I achieved over the 4 days and am pleased now to know that I can actually do an 8 hour drive without untoward issues.

Bags from Baradine

 Stephanie and I had a great trip to Baradine and lots of bags were involved. On the way up we stayed over at a friend's in Mudgee and she donated two bags of treasures as she is downsizing her patchwork activities.

She also donated a floral fabric that I am now using in one of my projects so it does not appear here.

Di donated a huge bag of bits but unfortunately most of them were too small to work with. Scraps need to be big enough to trim to at least 2" square or 1" strips. So these scraps will go straight to rag waste and used by someone else to stuff dog beds. These now fill two large shopping bags.

This is the pile saved from the waste.

Jenny donated another bag of 'bits' but these were much larger pieces!!!

They are all now flattened and there will be lots of usable pieces. Di's pieces are on the top right and Chooky's and mine are the tiny pieces on the top left.

Stephanie had been given lots of fabric so before she came she cut out lots of bags to make at Baradine. They look fabulous and the ladies she was making them for will be able to raise money for their causes.

Of course there was a show and tell session and I photographed quilts that I could use all these scraps in.

Stephanie's 'Oh my gosh' top

Janice's Hexie quilt

Brenda's Hexie quilt

Raewyn put together two of these quilts from blocks we had all made from our scraps and they will be donated to Macquarie Home Stay.

Brenda was a great sewing buddy who was able to solve a lot of my issues with my projects which I will put in a separate post. Thank you Brenda.

And Jo was my other sewing buddy who had such a lovely attitude to using scraps and making mistakes. Here she is knitting up some of the tea bag strings that we all save for her. Thank you Jo for your ideas.

And thank you to Chooky who hosted and organised the group and all the other ladies who came to enjoy working and chatting together.

When Quilters Tour

  On Friday, after 2 hours of rehab, I returned home to await the arrival of Chooky (Coonamble) and Janice (Bathurst) who were coming to stay at mine. Stephanie joined us for afternoon tea as well.

On Saturday Stephanie came back to mine and we all travelled by train to the city to meet up with Janet (Utah) and use a wander around Sydney as the background to meeting in real life (rather than on Zoom). 

Before meeting Janet we met up with Jules (Coonamble), another quilting friend, and took a little detour via Customs House at Circular Quay for the surprise in the floor.

After meeting up with Janet, her husband and two friends she was travelling with, our next stop was to City Extra for lunch.

By then we were quite a crowd as Leah (another friend of Chooky's) had joined us. Janet's 3 travel companions then left us to tour on the Red Bus while we others took the ferry to Manly.

The day was very hot but we were able to stay in the shade most of the time.

When we arrived at Manly Stephanie and I stayed at the ferry terminal enjoying an ice cream which melted as quickly as we could eat it while the others walked to the beach so Janet could put her feet in the Pacific Ocean (or is it the Tasman at that point?). Of course she came back with her jeans wet to the knees!

Once we returned to Circular Quay we returned to Customs House to show Janet where she was in Sydney and enjoyed a coffee nearby. We then caught the Light Rail to the QVB. 

Janet was suitably impressed with the stunning interior of the QVB. We then walked through to Haighs where Stephanie just had to buy supplies. We all sampled the chocolate buttons. Yum!

It was then time to start heading home so we caught a train to Mascot station then while some people walked I caught an Uber with others to the Moxy Airport hotel where Janet and friends were staying for just one night before leaving on a cruise the next day.

We enjoyed dinner together at the Moxy before saying our goodbyes to the Utah mob. How unfortunate that they only had one day in Sydney but maybe they'll be back again. 

The four remaining of us caught an Uber back to my car at Allawah and I drove home to a surprise meeting with Geoff and the girls who were at mine to collect their beehive. Stephanie drove home to hers. This was followed by a bit of a wind down and a long sleep.

On Sunday our quilting day together started at about 10am. We were joined by Stephanie again as well as Karen and Linda.

What a weekend we all had. By the time everyone had left for their respective return journeys I just collapsed in front of TV until bed time. We had had an amazing long weekend with so many friends and look forward to repeating the idea again soon.

Thank you Janet for being the catalyst for this gathering.

Scrub Stitchin' 3

 Up early again and I even beat Chooky to the sewing room.

Camp Cypress certainly lives up to its name with dozens of cypress pines dotting the area.

I continued with blocks for the Jacobs' quilt after Chooky helped me to swap tables before many people arrived for breakfast. A much more stable table. By about morning tea time I had finished all of one set of blocks.

Stephanie and I drove to the National Parks Discovery Centre in Baradine then also drove around for a "tour of the 'burbs" after a coffee at the Embassy Cafe. Baradine is a small town of about 600 residents but does have a hospital.

I then went ahead to finish binding the Jewel Quilt before dinner was served.

After dinner I started the project that Chooky introduced us to and by bedtime I had figured out how to change a one ended section into one that travelled in two directions to create a table runner.

Another day of sewing and chatting and a show and tell of all our projects and things we'd also brought with us.

At sunset we were all ushered out of the sewing room for drinks and nibbles in the cool of the evening while the room was prepared for our final night dinner. The theme was stars.

Fun was had by all and an exchange of gifts was enjoyed. Mine was a lovely sewing kit made by Janice.

Other gifts that were in our starry bag on our desk when we arrived included...

I spent a bit of time on our last morning experimenting with creating slabs of fabric from everyone's scraps before packing to leave after lunch.

Everyone set out their zig zag projects to see what they could look like.

We stayed another night with Jen and Alex on our way home and enjoyed dinner at their favourite haunt.

Of course I had to stop on the way home at the Capertee Valley lookout. Such a magnificent view and very significant to Surrey and I.

Scrub Stitchin' 2

 I was up early for my birthday and spent most of the day sewing. My first job was binding the Jewel Quilt I had finished at home, 

then to break it up I started the Woven Jacobs' Ladder quilt I am making. I had cut all the pieces for it from Surrey's shirts and brought them with me.

Even though the Jacobs' quilt was to be my main project for the week I had to stop as I got to a stage where the machine was too unmanageable on its wobbly table with some of the thickest seams. I got all the centre blocks finished but not the ones with the large square in the middle of them.

We had lunch and dinner prepared for us today and both meals were most welcome being all the more delicious because we did not have to do anything.

All day I had to wear the birthday sash and also received lots of birthday emails and messages from friends and family.

When any of us needed a break we wandered around the room to see what others were doing and learning from each other as we swapped ideas and tricks. We also had a show and tell when anyone finished their project.