A.Whole. Day, an F2F finish and no chocolate

.........A whole day to make two blocks!! yikes!....although in my defence, I did spend a lot of that time looking for just the right blocks to make. But I don't know if I'm particularly slow, or that's about normal....I suppose the main thing is they get done and done well, and I had nothing else I needed to do, so  in the sewing room was a good place to be. The blocks are for Miss October Lynn in the F2F block swap that I've mentioned here  and here, and I was playing with a pretty colour palette similar to this, but with a darker grey for the background.  Lynn wanted just pops of coral, so I wanted to find blocks where just a small amount could be added.

I finally managed to find two more and they're done and will be in the mail today, Lynn.  A relief for once not to be posting on the last day of the month.  I can't show you the blocks yet, but if you go to the F2F gallery, you'll be able to see all the wonderfully creative blocks sent so far.

Sue, who was Miss September, has let me know she's received hers, so I can show you what I sent her.  Sue requested black and white with a hot colour.  Her choices reminded me of Jan Mullen's  Stargazey quilts of the 90s.......crooked wonky blocks in crazy bold mixed up colours, and so I made these blocks in a similar way.  When I told Sue where I got my inspiration from, she said she loved Jan's quilting style and even had one of her books! All of Sue's blocks can be seen here, scroll right to the end of the Gallery.

l to r ....wonky churn dash; quartered log cabin and a scrappy star

And that 'no chocolate in the post title?  Not the eating sort, but the scrappy RSC sort.  I haven't made any blocks this week, but I did find a purple wonky star when I was doing some sorting and packing. I felt sure I'd made one, but as it wasn't where it should've been and I had another ready to sew in different shades, I thought my memory was playing tricks, but no, there it was tossed in with other fabrics. So I only have indigo and green to make now to catch up with my stars, I'll try to do them this week so I'm ready for the colour change this weekend.

***

My daily view has looked like this for the past week or so, dark clouds hanging low on the mountain, and lots of storms rumbling around.  This is the view across the river with the "legal graffiti" on the levee wall, painted by unemployed youth doing Work for the Dole.(unemployment benefit)...... a great idea to let them do what they love, while brightening up the riverbank.....not everyone's cup of tea though, there's lots of grumbles about the horrible eyesore, but I quite like it.

That's all , my house was listed to sell over the weekend, so time to tidy up and have it looking respectable in case a call comes to say someone is interested in looking......I hope so!

so till next time..............

Purple and other colours

....Rainbow Scrap Challenge

April has been purple month, and with only a few days until we change to another colour, I thought it was time I posted my April purple projects......which isn't very much!

Another wonky star....

 more squares cut ready for another wonky star in these different purpley shades

Lots more scraps to play with

.....purple bunting for an 8 year old's birthday

with a nice bit of bling

Those other colours I mentioned are black, yellow and red.  I've been working on this quilt which  is to be raffled and the proceeds to go to a local group of Aboriginal kids ( this link goes to their Fb page, and so is in the public domain and ok to post here) who've just started to learn about their culture, language and dance.  They're doing so well, they've been invited to dance at a Corroboree Gathering in far north Queensland in June.  Whatever the raffle makes will give the kids some pocket money to take with them.  Another border to add, then I can start quilting.

Disappearing 9 patch in Indigenous colours

Our autumn weather's been wonderful, cool crisp mornings and beautifully sunny days with no humidity, so I've been in the garden a lot, cleaning up after summer and planting winter vegetables, flowers and bulbs.  Photos are taking forever to load tonight, so no garden pics, I can't be bothered sitting up for another waiting for them to do their thing.

...'till next time

ps......if you'd like to see what everyone else has made with their purple scraps, pop over to Angela's blog and have a look. 

Swaps and sewing

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd been doing some secret Christmas sewing, for the Santa Sack Swap.  Cheryll from Stitching Cubbyhole blog organises this every year.  My partner this year was Lyn in New Zealand and we had 6 months to get know each other and make 5 gifts plus a stocking, tote or sack.  Lyn and I both decided we wanted a tote.  We were both running late with our gifts - Lyn had lots of report writing to finish and I had dengue fever, so we agreed we'd give ourselves an extra week.  Today was the day we opened our gifts and I received these wonderful gifts.

Beautifully wrapped


Cute NZ card

Tote bag.  Already in use with my latest project! 

Little wall hanging

Christmas tree napkins.....such a clever idea and beautifully folded ...too pretty to wipe the gravy off my chin with.....and  a sewing purse, here it is open.  It has 4 pockets for keeping all my sewing needs together

Thread catcher...I need this, I end up with snipped threads all over the place, fabric with NZ birds...a pukeko I think...on it and the sewing purse closed.  A purple theme happening here.....it's my favourite colour, Lyn did a good job stalking my blog :)

Beautifully stitched Christmas cushion...oh and there were chocolates too..hmm wonder where they went?

For some reason, probably trying to get everything packed up to send, I didn't take photos of the gifts I made for Lyn, but I made some very nice things.  Hopefully Lyn will take photos and I can borrow them from her blog Stitches from the Mainland.
Thanks to Cheryll for organising this swap.  Swaps like this make blogging and the internet a fun and positive place, "meeting" new people far and near, people I might never meet but still connect with.  And the gifts are a special bonus, Lyn and I were commenting that we plan and organise, choose colours and projects we think, hope our partner will like, then stitch away making our gifts , forgetting that someone else is doing the same, so it's wonderful when that parcel arrives, with thoughtfully chosen presents.  Thanks Lyn for being my partner.

'til next time