A new purchase

 A week ago, after a very frustrating time with faulty machines at our last gathering I happened to be walking through Aldi buying something quite mundane when I saw they had sewing machines for $129 and it seemed to be the same one as Stephanie bought some time ago and is quite a good machine.

So our group now has a new machine.

After gently testing it I discovered that something must have worked loose in transit so I took it apart in the bobbin area. I had to take Stephanie's apart to check just how it was supposed to go back together. I eventually got it running smoothly and made our next block using it.

It is quite noisy and had a slightly different foot pedal feel but once you get used to that it runs well.

Then I had to test Stephanie's machine to make sure I put it together again correctly but as I had set it up for my hexie flower project I did not want to alter the settings. It is doing just as I need it to.

So I remember the settings on it I have taken a few photos so that if we need to change them I know where to set it to keep the hexie project going between times.

We now have four sewing machines that work. That is until something else goes wrong.

Show and Tell from Stephanie

As Stephanie will miss our next gathering I am posting a few of the quilts  she has been working on. She found a stash of orphan blocks so got to work on two quilt tops.

While we were away we visited Jen in Mudgee. Here are the instructions for the game of Bones that Jen and Alex taught us. I thought you might need them over the next month or so. Have fun with this game.

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.

A Saturday upstairs with friends

 On Saturday five of us gathered in person then another three on Zoom in the afternoon.

Apparently I was a bit of slave driver but we did get the tulips bordered and sandwiched and our dark 'brick wall' ready to sandwich. Unless someone else would like to do the quilting I will do that when I have time.

While we were on Zoom we drew out our next lucky dip fabric. This one was donated by Carol and it is really beautiful. It would be good to get a stunning block design that echoed the pattern in the fabric.

We have two suggestions so far...

One Karen found online

But I wonder if another stained glass Magic Numbers block using the aqua as the peeper in random positions might work focusing on the orange tones.

Or even a stack and slash with the slashes being parallel to the edge of the fabric rather than random??

Daisies are Done

 Once I had my machine back in working order I was able to quilt the Daisy quilt and then pass it on to Elaine for binding. It is now complete and ready to donate. If you'd like it please let me know.

Machines that purr

 I recently had two of my machines serviced by a man who does mobile servicing only - Ludwig Castillo - 1300 124 122 - Castillo Machine Repairs . Stephanie came to mine and we watched the magic happen asking lots of questions and getting lots of tips. 

Here are the component scraps from the donated machine that started smoking.

It came from the huge mother board in the electrics of the machine and it turns out it is not needed these days anyway.

I would recommend Ludwig's service to anyone who has sewing machine issues. He is so thorough and willing to explain things as he goes. He demonstrated the final sewing and would not leave it until the stitches were perfect.

My other machine also had lots of issues even though I had kept it relatively clean where I could get to.

One thing I did learn about was his fabulous screw driver. None of the screw drivers supplied with machines fit under the machine properly to remove the screws in the bobbin plate but he had a short stubby one.

I'm now going to find the one he had which has interchangeable screwdriver inserts.

On Friday I'm going to give myself a sewing day with Elaine.

While I could not get on with sewing upstairs I finished the jigsaw that Janice lent me when she visited a few weeks ago. I is a lovely one.

The part I liked most about the mobile sewing machine service is that in a few hours you could watch ALL parts of the machine being serviced and know that in the end it was done thoroughly.

Thank you Ludwig.

Tread carefully and clean your machines now!

Last week Kerrie donated her mother's old sewing machine to us. It is a really good Bernina. But as it had not been used in some years I decided to give it a clean before I tried it.

Following the instruction booklet I set to and found...

Again, following the instructions I proceeded to take all the bottom section apart and got my trusty computer vacuum cleaner attachments out and really went to.

An hour later I put it back together again and plugged it all in.

Straight stitch was lovely then I changed to zig zag which seemed OK until I heard terrible noises and the electric section started smoking.

 I did not get a picture of the smoke billowing forth because I was in too much of a hurry to unplug it all and open the window so I did not have smoke alarm hassles.

I think it will be a really good machine but I think I'll leave the electrics to a machine man. 

More news to come on our new Bernina.

So on your next free day clean your machine and change the needle.

Last week's quilt gatherings

 At our last quilting weekend we had our two visitors from the Central West - Janice and Chooky (see previous post). Karen presented her latest quilt top. She says... With help from Stephanie and Linda, my leaders-and-enders quilt is now basted. It has reduced my pile of L-&-Es only slightly. 

I began with one of my practice star blocks from some years ago and then worked out from that, aiming to use as many L-&-Es as possible in various patterns, front and back. And using some other fabrics that went with those colours and for which I had no other purpose. 

Next will be a quilt using my accumulation of green, yellow and brown L-&-Es...

Stephanie busied herself putting our Betty's Garden blocks together when she was not basting Karen's quilt. Our two visitors were making Card Trick blocks for our next quilt but unfortunately the large triangles were the wrong size so they were taken home to finish but will be returned.

Then, this week Kerrie came to visit and brought her mother's sewing machine for us to use. We spent time creating extensions for her quilt that used to be a wall hanging. She wants it to be a single bed topper.

So far we have one end complete. Of course we could not match the fabrics so have decided to at least keep it in a 'country' theme. We have enough of the original green fabric for a border to add once the bottom extension is complete. After that we'll consider the next move.

Just behind Kerrie's quilt top can be seen the Betty's Garden blocks that Stephanie was trimming and sewing 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.