One Done...and One Working

Here it is!  My Cathedral Window Quilt all finished.  It was a long time in the making since this was mostly all hand sewn except for 2 small seams on the muslin base squares.  The project flew back and forth across the Pacific with me and I sewed on it in both the US and AU.  I am so happy it is finished!

Now on to other items in need of finishing.  I have decided I will try to work on finishing up projects in 2017.  I do plan to participate in some BOM sew alongs, but will try to limit myself on starting new projects until I complete some old ones.

This top has been hanging in the closet waiting to be layered and basted.  I decided now is the time.   It is about half basted after working for a few hours yesterday afternoon and I hope to finish basting today so I can begin  basting another quilt top that is complete.  That will give me 2 basted projects ready for quilting!  I will hand quilt this applique quilt, but the other quilt is a scrappy patchwork....and I may try my luck at machine quilting that one.

Please excuse the mess in my sunroom.  It is a small room, but nice and light to work in, so I just move thing against the walls in order to have space.  I love houseplants and they seem to like this room.  The big plant at the end of the quilt is now 38 years old.  It was a small plant in a 6 inch pot when I got it.  It has moved around the country with me.  My silly Christmas cactus is just beginning to bloom.  I can never get it to bloom for Christmas.

It's Been a Long Time

Wow!  I can't believe it has been over a year since I last posted to this blog.  My resolution for 2017 is to do a much better job at documenting my quilting and other needlework projects.  I have been busy in 2016, but just never bothered to post any pictures.  I have been quilting, knitting, and sewing.  I have taken pictures of some of my projects and will share them in the coming days.  I also have a tentative list of things I want to work on in 2017.  Might be a good idea to put them on this blog so I can hold myself accountable at the end of the year.

For this post I will share a view out my sewing room window.  We woke to -1F this morning and will go to a balmy 18F for our high.  There was 2.5 inches of snow yesterday and with temps as we have, there won't be a lot of melt.  I thank my neighbor often for his love of gardening.  There is always something lovely to view in his backyard...even when it is snow covered.

 My mother is in her 80's and keeps busy with her church making quilts for charity.  Her machine is a 1954 Brother straight stitch machine, and she has had issues with the tension mechanism with a wire breaking.  I live a long distance from her and cannot easily try to help her repair it, but I have been searching thrift stores to find a machine that I could give her.  I found this machine at my local ReStore.

The wiring was in awful condition, but my husband said he could fix it.  He also said he could fix the box it sits in with new covering or totally remake it.  All electrical repairs have been made and I have cleaned and oiled it and it purrs like a kitten.  The stitch is really nice.  We still have the box repair to complete.  I think my mom will be pleased as this New Home looks much like her old machine.  My mom also said that when she no longer sews, it will be given back to me.  I already have 4 machines in my house, but I have no sea foam green machines like this one.

Canning

While we were living in Australia, I decided one of the things I wanted to bring home with me was a crock from Bendigo Pottery.  We made a day trip there to visit and do a bit of shopping.  DH and I decided that a fermenting crock would be a nice souvenir and a useful addition to our kitchen.  Isn't it a pretty crock and each time I look at it, I have such fond memories of our time in AU!

A few weeks ago I started my first small batch of saurkraut.  It turned out very well.  We enjoyed eating some and I canned 3 pints for future use.  I will make a much larger batch next time as DH and I both like kraut.

Since I had the canning equipment out, I decided to also make a batch of pizza sauce and can that.  By making my own sauce I can control the ingredients to accommodate my dietary needs.  I usually make one pizza and I always have extra sauce since the cans available at my local store are large cans.  My small jars are perfect for one pizza with lots of veggies.

Tomorrow I plan to work on my mystery quilt and then maybe a few small items that I plan to give for Christmas gifts.  Hope my plans work out!

Slow but Done

I have had a busy week, but I was able to cut and sew all the half square triangles for Allietare Mystery Quilt I am participating in.  This is my first time to participate and this will be my first attempt to link up to Bonnie's website or any website for that matter.  Let's hope I can do it!

Half square triangles are not my favorite thing to make, but I did use the Easy Angle ruler and I must say it went pretty well.  My fabric choices not the best, but I am using what I have in my stash.  That's a good thing!  Use it up so there is room for new additions.

Be sure to check Bonnie K. Hunter's blog to see information about the mystery quilt and to see the work of others.

First On-Line Mystery Quilt

Even though I have so very many UFOs that I promised myself I would complete before starting anything new, I have decided to participate in Bonnie Hunter's new Allietare mystery that begins today. I will try to work on my UFOs in conjunction with the mystery quilt...time permitting.   You can find information on this mystery at Bonnie's blog.

Now for my fabric selections.  There were not many gray fabrics in my stash to pick from.
These are the larger pieces of gray that I had and some did not have the yardage necessary for the project.

In the end, this is what I have chosen to be my constant gray.

 I have selected these lights.

 There are a few strips and squares in my scrap basket and I will be adding those along with what I have here.  I have learned in my efforts to select fabrics for this mystery that my stash is severely lacking in lights and neutrals.  Hmmm!  A good reason to go shopping soon.

 The pot of soup is on the stove (freezing rain at my house) and hubby is bonding with his saw, router, and wood. Let the cutting begin!

Home Sweet Home

Our time in Australia has come to an end.  DH told me we were going for 18 months to 2 years at most.  Our time there ended up being about 5 years 8 months.  We made lots of wonderful friends and enjoyed our time there.  We returned to the US in June and life has been so hectic since.  There have been simple adjustments to life at home, trips to visit family, functions associated with my husband's work, and DD transferring with her work and moving out to her new location. Now the holiday season is upon us.  I think Thanksgiving will be a quiet one for us as both children will be staying in their respective communities.  I'm OK with that as I hate to see them drive on Thanksgiving when so many others are traveling and traffic can be a nightmare.  Low gasoline prices will only add to the quantity traveling....and our gasoline is currently as low as $1.79 per gallon.  Haven't seen prices like that in such a long time!

I am trying very hard to make my way back to my sewing and quilting.  I have slowly cleaned and organized the sewing room, but have done very little actual sewing.  I'm hoping to change that very soon.  I am planning to participate in a online mystery quilt and will journal that as I work.  I'm hoping my postings will be much more regular with some quilting progress to share each time.

 
My 18 year old kitty is now in kitty heaven.  My heart is heavy as she was a member of the family.

Sewing kit

I promised to share pictures of the kit I use for sewing on the long (13-14 hr.) flight from Sydney to LA.  Scissors was my number one issue.  While the US will usually let you carry scissors with small blades, rules in AU do not allow scissors as of the current date (they have confiscated mine before) .  I have tried using the dental floss containers, but I use a very small needle and the cut using that leaves some "fuzz" making the needle very hard to thread.  I spent time looking and came up with an alternative which works for me.

This is the little bag I use to hold my sewing.  It is a bag my husband gave me as a give away from his employer.  No money required.....saving more for the quilting supplies!  It is approximately 10 inches x 6 inches x 2 inches and fits in my backpack.

Here's a peak inside the bag before I unpack it.

This shows the items I keep in the bag.  I placed them on my cutting mat so you could get an idea of the size.  My hexagons are 1 inch and the little bag of prepare hexagons had a lot more than that in it when I started the trip back to the US.  I use snack size bags for the hexagons that are prepared for sewing.  The completed hexagon flowers are slipped into a quart size bag.  I also found a little melamine tray at a Reject Shop which is sit on the pull down tray to help keep my items from rolling off and on to the floor.  It's a big help with keeping my thread handy.

This little re-purposed pill bottle holds all my tools.

And here are all the items I can fit into the pill bottle laid out on my tray.  I put my thread conditioner in the bottom (blue square); the container with a few extra needles, which is a re-purposed tube from a friend that once contained glue;  2 small magnets (red and blue hour glass shape) from the same friend....which I use to help control my needle; 2 clover clips which I use instead of pins, if I need them; scissors, the turquoise item; and my Clover thimble, which is flexible except for the silver top.

This is the best part of all the tools

My little scissors!

I was so excited when I found these little scissors at a small quilt shop in AU.  They were expensive, but the perfect size to fit in my little bottle.  I thought they might be small enough to make it through security and I was correct.  In fact, I carried them right through 3 check points on my journey. You can see that they are tiny, but they cleanly cut the thread so I can easily thread the needle.  I didn't keep the packaging, so the only thing I can remember is they are Japanese made and they have "Canary" printed on them.

I was able to stitch away on my flight home.  I believe I completed 10 flowers, watched 3 movies, and got up and walked to restore circulation and prevent DVT.

I am slowly getting reacquainted with my sewing room.  I have cleaned, dusted and sneezed, but have found lots of things I forgot I had.  Among all of my discoveries are way too many UFOs.  Yesterday I actually sewed a little on my machine.  A long time ago I had begun to work on a string quilt since I find it so difficult to throw away usable scraps.  I use everything down to approximately 1 inch wide.  My intentions are to make a utility quilt with the rectangles.  I would like one for myself and then I will also make some for charity.  I am going to try to sew at least 3 blocks each week.  I met my goal for the week yesterday and it is only Wednesday!

Later today I will probably sew more as it is bitterly cold at my house.  We woke to 9F this morning with a wind chill of  -10F.  The temperature is suppose to drop throughout the day and be 0F by noon with wind chills in the afternoon of -15F to -20F.  After I get the big pot of soup cooking, I'll be stitching!

2015 Home for the Holidays

What a wonderful holiday season this has been.  This has been our first Christmas at home in 4 years and it has been simply wonderful to be in my own house with all our family at home for a few days.  The cold weather has made it feel like Christmas.  Somehow the hot temperatures of Christmas in Australia just isn't like home.

Our time in Australia is coming to an end.  I will return one more time to close out affairs and prepare our personal effects to be shipped home.  It's about time!  DH said we would be going for 18 months to 2 years.  That was back in October 2009.  We've been there over 5 years.  We have met a lot of nice people and made a lot of good friends.  The quilting group there welcomed me and made me feel right at home.  They are such wonderful ladies.

I have shared pictures of some of the wild life in some of my earlier posts.  We spent Christmas 2013 in Tasmania and we saw our first echidna in the wild while we were there.  Isn't he cute!

These are also in the area where we live, but we have never been lucky enough to see one.  I will miss going out to see the wildlife.

I have spent the past few days in my sewing room cleaning and organizing.  Since I have been away so long, it is like shopping for free as all of my stash seems like something new to me.  I have found a bunch of UFOs that I hope to work on in 2015.  In addition, I will have the Cathedral Window coming in the shipment from Australia.  There is still some work to do, but I would consider it 80% complete.  It will be queen sized when finished.  I am currently working on English Paper Piecing hexagons.  I had to have something to stitch on the flight home and that is something I could prepare and easily stitch.  The flight from Sydney to LA is usually about 13.5 to 14 hrs. so there is plenty time to stitch.  The most difficult thing is how to cut thread.  AU security does not allow scissors.  In my next post, I will take pictures of the little sewing kit I use when I fly and share them.

As I begin to make entries again, I plan to use my blog as a record of my work.  Entries may be fairly random as I plan to devote my time to quilting more than blogging.  It is good to be back

Lots going on in the past few weeks.  Just been too busy to post.  This past week brought lots of rain to our area of Australia.  Here's a snap shot I took.

I had been trying to make my way to the neighboring town to pick up a friend who was being released from the hospital.  Guess I don't have to tell you the friend had to spend an additional night in hospital as I couldn't get there to retreive said friend!

Not much sewing happening lately.  I hope to change that this coming week.

Move Complete!

This is the view from my back deck this morning. Earlier there were 6 black swans right near the shore. It was too dark to get a picture of them.

I'm glad the move is all done. Now if everything would just unpack and organize all by itself. Somehow I doubt that will happen, so my next few days will be spent unpacking and organizing. I'm moving slow as I have lots of sore muscles!

Packing

 

Spent most of my week packing and cleaning.  Moving day is tomorrow, and the day after that is final inspection of the old apartment.  I will be so relieved to have the move behind me!  I did find a few minutes here and there to sew a few stitches, but I didn't take any pictures as I accomplished so little.  Since I have no new pictures of sewing, I will share a kangaroo picture I took last week as I walked with DH while he played golf.  I think this was most likely a young mom and her toddler.  They were just off the fairway and they kept an eye on us as we walked by.  I wonder what they were thinking!  Maybe....silly humans following a little white ball.


                                   

Finally Some Stitching

This week I managed to get some stitching done and some pictures taken of my project.  I know there are many ways to put a Cathedral  Windows quilt together.  This is how I have chosen to do mine.  I'm putting it together in squares that are comfortable for me to work with.  I'm setting it together like a 9 patch first.   Here's one in progress.











Then....as I join the squares together, I will go back and stitch the colored squares into the windows.  These are not stitched together, but you can see the windows I will have to fill in when I do stitch them together.  I think I have more than 40 squares like this completed.  I still have a long way to go.






In addition to stitching, I like to watch birds.  These little birds are one of my favorites that I often see in the local area.  DH and I went for a bike ride on the weekend and this little guy was nice enough to pose for us.

Australia Day is this next week.  It will be a long holiday weekend for many folks.  I will finish up with the packing as we move apartments on Monday and have final inspection on the old unit on Tuesday.  It's going to be a busy two weeks so I may not post next weekend.  I will try to get back as soon as I can.

This and that...

Thanks to those of you who e-mailed and welcomed me back to blogging! I truly appreciate knowing I was missed. I will try to do better at posting. Please realize that I may not be able to show much new on the quilting front since all my work is now done by hand, but I will show what I'm doing and the slow progress I am making. That said, it won't be this week since I lost my camera on the last trip home for the holidays. Our little town of 6,000 doesn't offer a lot of shopping opportunities for cameras and electronics, so yesterday DH and I drove 1 1/2 hrs. to a bigger town where those things are readily available. DH found a replacement camera for me. Next week I may be able to post a few pictures of my Cathedral Windows blocks.

In addition to sewing, I am preparing for a move. We have been living in our current apartment here in AU for 2 years. Our lease was up in October and our landlord wanted a sizable increase in rent, so we elected to move rather than pay the increase. Our unit was completely furnished, but the bed has given us a backache since we moved in. We offered to pay for 1/2 the cost of a new mattress, but the landlord refused. We can't see paying a rent increase and still having a bed that gives us a bad backache. The new unit has a nice bed, is larger than where we now live, and has a view of the lake. It will cost a little more, but it's a price we are willing to pay for a bed that doesn't give us a backache. The new landlord is a nice person who will work to keep his property in the best shape possible. We are the kind of renters who take care of the property we rent as if it were our own home. The unit we are leaving is in better shape than when we took possession. We have repaired some things that were not working (at our own expense), but I guess the fact that we took care of the place means nothing.

Since I don't have any pictures of sewing related projects to share this week, I will share a photo I took in September. We are in a farming area and this is what the country side looked like in the spring. The lovely yellow you see in the photo is fields of canola in bloom. They raise a lot of it in this area and the yellow fields are beautiful in the spring. What is really difficult for me is the fact that I took this picture in early September........it was early spring here.....but my mind keeps telling me that it should be fall since I have always lived in the northern hemisphere. September is my birth month and my birthday was always in the fall!

Next week I promise something sewing related.....that is if I can figure out the new camera.

Update

March 2010 to January 2012....that's a long break from blogging. Life just got in the way and I lost the desire to post to my blog. I'm hoping 2012 will be a good year and I can again work on posting updates. I am still living in Australia. We were sent here on a 2 year assignment. Our 2 years was up in October 2011. At that time, DH signed us up for 2 more years. I'm OK with that as people here are nice, but I do miss my house, family, and my sewing room.

I brought only hand applique with me when we came. I worked on that until a trip home in September 2011. I brought back a Cathedral Windows quilt that I had started way back in 2007. It provides a nice break from the applique. I do love applique, but I was wanting a change. I don't do a lot of shopping for fabrics here in AU because the price is so much more than in the US. Here most fabrics in quilt shops are about $20 to $25 per meter (39 inches). With the prices like that, I have only bought a few pieces that are uniquely Australian that I will use in special quilt to remember our time living here. I would promise to post a picture, but on our last trip home I lost my camera. I'm going to have to buy another.

We have seen lots of interesting sites in the time we have been here. Being out in the bush, we see more things about Australia than the usual sites of the big cities. I can drive about 30 miles from my home....walk along the banks of a creek.....and see these little guys in the trees.

It amazes me to see the koalas in the wild! I didn't know they grunt and sound much like a pig. I make a trip to this area about once every two months just to see how many of them I can count. The fewest I have seen in a visit has been 11 and the most was 28.

OH...my, it's been a long time.

OH my, it has been a long time! Can't believe my last posting was July 30,2009. I told you in that post DH & I were getting ready for a move to Australia. In October we made that move and have been adjusting to life in a new country and seeing a few sites. You know you are not in Kansas anymore when you look out the airport window and see mostly planes that look like this.
Yep, those are all Quantas planes....and I was sitting in the Sydney airport waiting for the next leg of my flight taking me to an airport in rural Victoria where I will live for the next 2 years. Not only have I seen the kangaroos on the tail of the planes, but I regularly see them like this.
I snapped this at the local golf course. DH plays on Sunday afternoons and I walk along snapping pictures. The kangaroos are everywhere on the golf course. This momma was nice enough to stand and let me take her picture and little joey stuck his head out of the pouch at the perfect moment!

Not only have I seen kangaroos in their natural habitat, but we drove about 25 miles and saw this little guy in his natural habitat.
See that cute koala....well we went to this forest area arriving about midday and we saw 16 of these guys as we walked along the trail. Not only did we see these guys, but there were herds of kangaroo too.

We haven't traveled much yet, just to see things in our area. I've been surprised by the diversity of landscape within 2 hrs. of where we live. This is what my area looks like.....flat farmland and many, many vineyards.
See all that green......those are grape vines. There are also olive groves and lots of fruit orchards in the area. Within 2 hrs. we also have areas like this
This was taken when we drove up Mt. Buffalo. I was surprised to have mountains like this so close to us.

When I arrived in AU, I had already made contact with a group of ladies who quilt in the area where we were to live. They have taken me under wing and welcomed me so warmly. They have made the adjustment for me so much easier. We meet and sew every two weeks....or as they say... every "fortnight". Not only are they welcoming me to their sewing group, they are also teaching me "Aussie slang", introducing me to typical Australian foods, and trying to get me to develop an Australian accent to go along with my Texan...Virginian....Missouri accent.

So.....how is my stitching coming along. Well, I had to bring only sewing that I could do by hand, so I brought the papercuts on blue background that I showed in my post on April 13, 2009. I now have 9 completed and I'm well on the way to completing number 10. I haven't taken pictures of them, but I will try to lay them out and get a picture for my next post. My postings to this blog will not be regular as I do not have unlimited internet access as I had in the US. I will post as often as I can....and some postings will not have pictures. I do hope to get back to posting more often than I have been!

Where Oh Where Have I Been?

Chasing myself....or at least it feels that way.

In June, I accompanied DH on a trip to a technical engineering conference near Salt Lake City UT. We took a few days vacation on the way there. The first day out, we drove across KS. It was beautifully green.
Near Limon, CO, we drove through a hailstorm like none I've ever seen before. Thank goodness the hail was small and did no damage to our car! When the hail ended.....it looked like about an inch of snow on the ground. We went as far as Manitou Springs, CO that first night.
See that mountain with snow in the center of the photo. Well, that's Pike's Peak. After we had dinner, we went to Garden of the Gods. We had a nice evening walk there and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. I snapped a picture of some of the wildlife we saw that evening. See the deer just behind the fence. The next morning we went through Alma, CO across Hossier Pass and into Breckenridge, CO. Scenery at the pass was just beautiful.We had lunch in Breckenridge and then headed on north to Grand Lake, CO. I visited a quilt shop there and bought a few goodies. The next morning we got up early and drove into Rocky Mountain National Park. I've been there several times over the years, but always later in the season. There was still lots of snow.
Since we were early in the morning, we got to see lots of elk near the entrance on the west side of the park. We also saw 4 moose.One thing we noticed throughout Colorado was all the dying trees. Literature we got at the park entrance said this was because of a serious infestation of the Pine Beetle. See the dead trees....well there are thousands and thousands of them.

Before noon, we were on our way north through Steamboat Springs. We were headed for Salt Lake City UT. The northwest corner of CO is very arid, but we were pleasantly surprised to see so much green there this year. I snapped this at the Colorado/Utah border.We actually stayed in a hotel in Ogden UT. Two days during that week while DH was in meetings, I drove the 25 miles into downtown Salt Lake and went to the Family History Library. That place is amazing. I enjoy doing family research and was able to find some info on my Texas family there. DH and I also had a day to do some sight seeing. We drove up through Logan UT to Bear Lake on the Utah/Idaho border. It's a beautiful lake and about half of it is in each state. There was a nice visitors center on a pass overlooking the lake so we stopped and snapped a picture.We took a different route on our way home. We drove across southern Wyoming & Nebraska In Wyoming,we saw beautiful sights like these.


After we got home.....life really got crazy. We have had some decisions to make. Decisions? You might ask what kind of decisions. Well, decisions that are going to really change life for both of us......in a good way. My husband has been selected to head up a program that his company is doing in Australia. This assignment is going to require us to move to Australia for 2 years. All this is happening so quickly. We will be going soon for a 2 week visit to look at housing. Then we return home until all the government paperwork is complete. As soon as that is done, we head down to live. I may not be posting much for a while because I am cleaning, sorting, and preparing for the adventure of a lifetime.

Done!

I've been working very hard over the past few days trying to finish this baby quilt. The pressure became more intense on June 1 because the sweet little girl who is going to receive it was born on that day. She was a tiny thing weighing only 5 lbs. 9 oz. and was 18 inches long. Her name is Paige.

Here's a look at the back. I had a difficult time finding something for the back. I'm not overly crazy about this one, but it was the best I could find on short notice. Now, it's off to the post office to get it in the mail.