Block A Day Challenge has come to a halt

Well, I'm afraid my Block A Day Challenge came to a grinding halt with the completion of my big rainbow blocks. I was going to make some smaller blocks as part of the quilt, but I don't think it needs them.  I had been pondering on what to make to continue the challenge but have decided that given the pressures and stresses of family life at the moment I will concentrate on completing the quilt and working on some other smaller projects as I can do them when I have time. 
It's only May and so far this year has been very difficult with two members of our close family being very sick.  One being my Stepfather who sadly passed away on Saturday evening after spending nearly 3 months in  hospital after a fall at home in early February.  He fought a long hard battle trying to get home to his beloved antiques and comforts but it was not to be.   My focus now is on supporting Mum but as she is 7 hours drive away I am going to be traveling a lot.
I would like to especially thank Robyn of Daisy Quilts for hosting the Block A Day Challenge, it really got me motivated to make the blocks for my Rainbow Quilt.  It would still be in the idea stage if I hadn't joined the challenge!  I will be stopping by to visit your blogs to admire your progress in the challenge and I will of course post my progress with the Rainbow Quilt too.

Final colour of my big BaD Blocks

This is the last of the colours/shades of my daughter's leaving home quilt.  I am undecided on the smaller border blocks now as the quilt may be big enough without them.  I'm off to our local patchwork shop, where my dear friend works, to have a look at a background fabric she thinks might suit.  After I have seen that I will decide on the next step.

BaD blocks - better late than never

I'm a little late with this post, but here are my violet blocks.  I only have one more colour to go and then I am done with the big blocks for the quilt.  I have decided to make smaller ones as part of the border, so you will get to see the colours all over again! 

Oh dear I've been BaD

It's Monday, the day to post our week's worth of blocks and guess what??  They are not done. They are still in pieces on my ironing board...

It was a busy week and a busy weekend, so I just didn't get any further than cutting the blocks out.  

I had a wonderful crafty kind of day with friends on Saturday (just not a "sewing my Block of the Day" kind of day).  We went to the Wauchope Patchwork Quilters exhibition and then we spent the afternoon at a Shabbilicious Painting Technique Workshop with Kerry of  Woodberry Designs.  Kerry took us through a range of painting techniques and happily shared her extensive knowledge and experience with us. Her studio has displays of her beautiful work all around...so inspiring.

We were treated to a delightful devonshire tea and received a beautiful little box of chocolates to take home.  We had a ball!

Blue BaD blocks

I've been working on the blue tones and found it very hard going on my eyes as my cutting board is blue and the lines on my ruler are blue too!  Not very good planning on my part.
This is a short post  as I am about to start a very crazy day of work, 2 dental appointments (yes, 2 ), a quick lunch with my best friend, a webinar and then a much needed yoga class to calm the mind, body and spirit. 

Setting myself up with Bloglovin'

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Happy Easter

It's a long post from me for a change. 
Here are my BaD blocks for the week, with some Easter Bunnies.  I loved working with my  favourite colours of teal and aqua,  unfortunately the photograph does not do them justice.

My sewing room/office has become my retreat and oasis whilst we are in the midst of some family dramas .
I started the year determined to try some new techniques, so I gave myself a treat by enrolling in an online class on the  Joggles website.  My class is a "Textured and Treated Reticule" by Christen Brown.  I  spent some happy hours yesterday, playing with fabric, yarns and a new product to me called "Texture Magic" which is a steam activated shrinking fabric.

Here are a few shots of my work so far

Twin Needle Stitching with rayon and metallic threads

Using "Texture Magic" on the back - before steaming with the iron

After steaming with the iron - amazing texture!

Couching threads and yarns

On Good Friday my daughter and I took a walk on the beach and poked around in the logs, trees and branches that have ended up on the shore after all our floods.  Some creative people have been making "sculptures" on the beach out of the wood

I'll close my post this week with a shot of my daughter on the beach.  She is on a Gap Year this year, working and traveling.  She  is off to Japan on Thursday for a 3 week holiday with a friend. Japan is her passion and she will be studying Japanese at University next year  It's her first overseas trip without a parent  and she is so excited. I am so happy for her, but a bit anxious as well...my apron strings are getting very frayed , it's almost time to cut them off.

BaD Blocks this week

It's a very quick post from me today, as there are electricity workers in our street and our power will be going off any minute now for 6 hours.  Nooooo!!!  I have lots of bookkeeping to do but it needs electricity.   I will just have to visit the library and then get on with a bit of hand sewing :)
Here are my block a day challenge blocks - deeper green this week.

Green for St Patrick's Day!

I'm sneaking this post in a day early as I just realised it's St Patrick's Day and I am working on lime green blocks!    I did tomorrow's block in advance just so I could post this today. 
It's blowing a gale here on the Mid North Coast and I spent a great deal of time running around the garden catching my blocks as they took off with the gusts of wind.  I thought the grass would make the perfect green background :)
The photo hasn't come out quite true to the colours, the yellow tones in the photo are most definitely a zesty lime green in real life.

Sunshine and Sunny Blocks

After falling behind in the Block A Day Challenge I had a chance to spend a bit of time at the sewing machine today and catch up.   I think I might now be one block ahead!

 

I had my usual morning walk this morning and ended up getting soaked as it poured with rain (again!) , but now we are having a wonderful sunny day.  It is so nice to see the sun :)

Storms and Squares

What a week of horrible weather!
Here on the Mid North Coast of NSW we had torrential rain and gale force winds which resulted in flooding and lots of fallen trees. We are fortunate to live on the top of a hill so no flooding, thank goodness, and only minor damage to our garden. 
This is a shot, taken on my mobile phone, at the back of one of our shopping centres.  There is  a raised concrete walkway that allows you to cross to the other side of the river at low or high tide, but it's low tide here and the walkway is completely covered.

These are my latest Block A Day Challenge blocks

17 days of the Block A Day Challenge

17 rainbow blocks    I have sewn my way through the pinks and reds and now I'm on to orange. 
Whilst working on the red blocks I noticed a distinct lack of red fabric in my stash, it has never been a favourite colour of mine and I struggled to find even the teeniest scrap to use.  Even the pack of rainbow moderns I ordered were a bit lacking on red fabrics, only 2 reds compared to 6 oranges.  Those juicy orange fabrics are right in front of me now demanding some attention...so onto block 18!

A night away has worked wonders

Last weekend we took our "new" camper/trailer (we bought it second or third hand just before Christmas) for our first night away in it.

We went to one of our favourite places, Hat Head, which is not too far away from home.

We wanted to test out the camper on a short trip in case there were any problems and we did encounter a few that will need a bit of attention, but nothing too dramatic. We also needed to have a little break from the stresses of work and family things.
We went bushwalking and swimming in the tidal creek, aren't these tree roots amazing under the water? 

I forgot to pack a lot of things including half of our dinner ingredients but that didn't matter too much as I had remembered to pack the chocolate!
Whilst away I had time to give my block choice some further thought and I have decided to keep going with my square rainbow blocks until I have enough for the quilt and then I will start making a different type of block...not sure what yet, but I have plenty of time to ponder on that.

I feel much happier now I have decided to continue with the rainbow blocks, especially when the fabrics I ordered arrived in the mail yesterday.

Hmmm, I've changed my mind on the block

After making 6 of the square blocks I am not feeling terribly inspired with them. As they are big and would look best with sashing,  they are really not a suitable block for this kind of project. Silly me,  I didn't think it through properly.
I have decided to change the block, but keep with the rainbow theme.  I am thinking of the Flying Geese block and will ponder on this whilst I am at work :)

Block A Day Challenge 2013

I have started the challenge!  I have decided on a square-in-a-square block and variations on that theme, in the colours of the rainbow as I just love rainbow quilts.  The blocks will be 8" finished.   I haven't decided on how the final quilt will look as yet.   I hope to make my daughter a quilt to take with her when she moves away from home to go to University next year and perhaps one for me with the left overs :)

As I had pink thread in the machine and some nice pink scraps this is what I have made for Feb 1, 2 and 3.

A new challenge

 I have been offline for quite a few days since the wild storms that hit the Mid North Coast on the weekend.  Our telephone and internet services were out of order and a call for help was placed to the telephone company.  We were on the list for repairs and then this morning we discovered it had fixed itself!  The technician still came out and confirmed that all was up and running again.  I was amazed at how many times I went to use the internet during the time it was down, I have become so used to having the world at my fingertips.  The teens were getting very twitchy and were delighted to find out we were back online this morning (and so was I!).

I have decided to join a new challenge hosted by Robyn of  Daisy Quilts . I so enjoyed Robyn's 366 photos challenge last year and this year one of my goals was to be more creative.
I was a bit daunted at making one block a day (or around 30 a month), but I have decided that this will be an excellent way to push me on those days when I make a thousand excuses not to do anything creative :)
I still haven't quite decided what block to make, but I do have some ideas forming.
Stay tuned....

Almost done

Machine quilting on the last day of my break.

I popped it on the spare bed for a photo and all it needs now is a label and it will be on it's way to my customer :)

Summer holidays and sewing

It's Summer time here in Oz and most of my bookkeeping clients have been closed for the Christmas break so I have been indulging in some sewing.  

This mess is the start of a denim quilt for my Stepson who is about to leave home and start University.  I was inspired by this quilt on the Piece N Quilt blog .I ripped up the denim into lengths and by the time I had finished, my sewing room and I were covered in a fine layer of denim "dust".

Some days later I finished the quilt top.  It's just draped over a bed to test the size.

I plan on backing it very simply with flannelette sheeting as it is a very heavy quilt already.  I may even use a flannelette sheet, although I doubt there will be any in the shops at this time of the year.

In the meantime, I have received my first commission to make a quilt similar to the baby quilt I made in December. It will be a single bed size for a teenage girl.  The pattern is by Elizabeth Hartman at Oh, Fransson!. 

Here is the fabric

 


 

Day 366/366

The final day of our challenge has arrived. Participating in this challenge has been such an enjoyable experience.  I have learned so many new things, I have become far more observant of my surroundings, I have broken 2 cameras (!), I have met some wonderful people online and also surprised a few of my family and friends at my commitment to the project.  I am very grateful to Robyn of Fine Arts Journal for hosting this challenge. Thank you so much.   Thank you also to Robyn and the other challenge participants for your kind comments and words of encouragement.  I have loved seeing your photographs and getting to know you a little through your blogs.
So here are my final photographs....yes I have taken a bit of a liberty here publishing a few.   My daily walks have been a source of many of my photographs throughout the year and here are a few things that I saw on my last walk for the year.

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Day 365/366

A chook on the barbie (translation from Oz to English - a chicken on the barbeque ;)  My husband is from New Zealand but has now lived in Australia longer than his home country.  I think he is truly an Aussie as he has finally mastered the art of the bbq.

Day 364/366

There were lots of Dragonflies in the garden today

Day 363/366

I have finished the baby quilt and now have an order to make another one :)