Baby crumbs and strings

...........tiny quilts for premmies

These little 40x40 cm (16") quilts are for Ronald McDonald House, one of this month's charities for the Aussie group, Knit4Charities.  They'll be given to the parents of sick or pre-term babies who stay in the house so they can be close to their babies, who have to stay in hospital.

I had made these blocks as part of the  Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2016, so with a bit of sashing and some borders, they've been turned into nice little quilts for a good cause.

I'll be making some for the little boys as well, so better get back to the quilting before the day gets really hot.

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

Round and round the squares

slowly...........

I made these orange scrappy log cabin blocks earlier in the year as part of the rainbow scrap challenge on Angela's blog,  put them together into a quilt top and then put it away to finish for another day.   I thought it'd be good to finish recently as one of the charities that Knit4Charities is supporting was asking for blankets, rugs, or quilts to be given to their Young Parent's Program.  This seemed like a good use for this quilt, as they want quilts or blankets for floor play, or over a car seat, so I pinned it up and have been slowly quilting it.

It's very simple quilting, just straight lines following the logs, around and around.   It's a little bit boring, but also a little bit painful, as I hurt my back being a little too enthusiastic pulling weeds, and this makes it hard to sit for long periods.  So I've been quilting at least one square every day, and trying for two.  It needs to be in the mail on Friday, so I'll just keep going round and round until it's finished. Not much left to do now, two squares I think! And then the binding.

Here's the back....a cheery orange and grey I picked up at Spotlight on sale.

So back to it, time to get today's square done.  Till next time......

Scraphappy Rainbow Days

This beautiful sunrise full of promise has turned into a grey, chilly day!

I've missed the last couple of months of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.....packing and moving house will do that, throw the schedule right off!....and although I missed the first week of April, I managed to haul out the scraps on the weekend. April's colour is orange with a touch of brown....like a jaffa!  This was timely, as I still had orange and brown scraps on the table after finishing the March F2F blocks, which were shades of brown, orange and red.

I made these two churn dash blocks...a 6.5 inch and a 9 inch.....these will be added to the blues I made in January, which I'm yet to find, I'm sure they'll turn up before I'm ready to sew these blocks into something. 

.....and a handful of scrappy log cabins. These need a few more rounds to finish, then they'll become a quilt for Maya's Rest a respite centre for terminally ill children and their families. 

The scraps will take a bit of a backseat this week while I start a quilt for my son's 40th birthday....40!!??  It's this one, it's called Radiant  and is a very simple block, but looks complicated and geometric...he'll like that.  I'm making it in shades of grey, black and white and blue/turquoise/teal for the centre blocks.  

So that's it for now, off to tackle the veggie garden that has turned into a jungle, I'm keen to do some autumn planting.

Linking up with so scrappy........ there's lots of orangery goodness to check out there.

'till next time

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..............

Extreme Sports Quilt and needle holes in my fingers

...... a finish

It's been a lovely week, bright early mornings with golden pink sunrises, followed by warm sunny days that quickly burn off the frosts, then crisp, cold nights.  It's been a week of stitching and friends and then back to the stitching......so much so, I have needle holes in my finger tips. I had to finish the Extreme Sports quilt by today, it had to be ready to go to Adelaide with the granny of the 4 yr old birthday boy. And I did it...a few late nights and oh yes, those needle holes from stitching down the binding .....yes, I know about thimbles but find them awkward to use.

There's a back story to the Extreme Sports fabric.  I bought it to make my grandson a quilt, back when I'd never made a quilt before.  Probably why it never got made, I really had no idea what to do with all those different coloured squares. That grandson is now a 21 year old and a dad to his own little one....a wee girl, and when offered, he politely refused an Extreme Sport quilt for his little princess, and thought he was too grown up now for a kid's quilt...fair enough.

So when I came across that 20 year old fabric in a tidy-up, I knew it was time, and had just the recipient....a friend's grandson with a birthday coming up, and as she was travelling south for it, no postage required. And I had more of an idea what to do with those odd squares now, or more confident anyway about "trying something/anything".

As red and blue were most predominant in each square, I used both these colours to frame and sash - first a small border in solid blue, then the rows sashed in a subtle red check, with cornerstones for interest.  The finished quilt measured 46 x 66, is backed with a lovely soft thrifted cotton sheet in blue checks, and I chose a  black and white check to bind it, echoing the iconic chequered flag of motor racing. With it's bamboo/ cotton mix batting, and  minimal grid quilting, it's a soft and cuddly, snuggle -in -to - watch - tv, kid friendly quilt.  I think Lucas will like it, yes definitely.

Now that Extreme Sports is done and gone, next on my to-do list is to catch up with the rainbow scrap challenge at superscrappy.blogspot.com.au/.  I remember organising my green scraps for June I think, and that was as far as I got.  So scrappy blocks and  finishing my August  F2F blocks for Susan desertskyquilts.wordpress.com/ is on the agenda for tomorrow, along with some time in the garden.

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.