Charity Quilt Finished!

 

The quilt I started making a few months ago is finished and ready to be auctioned when my Ag n Chat group stages our Australian Year of the Farmer Ball at the end of October.  It was a very easy quilt to make and I think it's simplicity really shows off the beautiful fabrics I used.  We have quite a few handmade items all made by our members that will be auctioned on the night for charity.  Our plans for the Ball are progressing well, and we're all just a bit excited for the night to finally come.  Lots of new dresses have been bought, and we're watching our diets and exercising so we all look fantastic on the night - we don't get to really dress up very often!!  Normally it's just jeans, shirts and workboots for us farmers wives!!

Special Quilts

This afternoon, in between filling up mobile tanks with liquid nitrogen, delivering them to the air seeder and filling up it's tanks, and helping Farmer Phil scrub nozzles off the boom spray unit, I whipped up two cot-size quilts for two very special little boys - although I still need to get the bindings done.

My oldest friend Andrea who I met when we were 11 year old school girls has just become a first time mum!  I'm so excited for her because at almost 43 she and her husband were beginning to lose hope.  They eventually became parents to Maxwell and Alexander after many IVF attempts and the help of a surrogate mother in the USA!

The quilts will be sent off to NZ at the end of the week!  As you can imagine, the mother of twins doesn't get a lot of spare time to herself so there's no danger of ruining my surprise because Andrea is too busy to have a look at my blog!

The fabric is called "Peak Hour" - perfect for 2 active little boys!

The fabric is so fun I decided to just cut it up into 6" strips and quilt it in the ditch - so simple!

The end result!

Pennant Banner

Yesterday afternoon I spent a couple of hours cutting and sewing some pennants to make a fabric banner to decorate our hall for Ag n Chat's "Ball in the Hall" in October.  I have lots and lots of fabric scraps so the banner will be a very cheap way to jazz up the hall.  It's about 7m long, but I might make a few more pennants to make it up to 10m.

A Little Bit of Sewing

This afternoon I've been a bit productive and churned out the centre of a quilt top.  I'm still waiting on the rest of the fabric to arrive via Australia Post to add the borders on and get it sent off to the quilter. 

Our Ag n Chat group has decided that since 2012 is the Year of the Farmer we should put on an event to recognise and celebrate the impact farmers have on our community, region, state, nation and even the world.  Our event will be a "Ball in the Hall" in October and we'll have a lovely dinner and dance with some raffles and items to auction.  I volunteered to make a quilt as one of the prizes.  More details will come in the next few months as we finalise all the details of our night.

Can you see why the fabric is called "Prince Charming"?!

Dress Ups!

Tomorrow night we have our very good friends Jason and Kellie's combined 40th birthday party. It is a costume party and you have to come dressed as something starting with either J or K. I "Googled" both letters and came up with a long list - Jack and Jill, Jesus, Jack Sparrow, jillaroo/jackaroo, jockey, Kath and Kim, king, koala, kangaroo, knight and Kermit to name a few. I finally settled on what seemed easiest to sew.

Here's what I've come up with today.

Farmer Phil will be a Jedi

I will be a Jailbird

I'll take my camera and show you some of the costumes our friends came up with. Should be a fun night although we're supposed to get between 40 and 80mm of rain again tomorrow - we've had 150mm since Tuesday!

Emma's Birthday Quilt

I only decided about a month ago that I should make Emma a quilt for her birthday, so it was buy the fabric online quick sticks and get stuck into making it.

I cheated a bit by purchasing pre-cut charm squares to save time, I then sent the quilt top to Fabric 23 in Griffith to be machine quilted by Morganne, and I machine stitched the binding on instead of sewing it by hand.

It's come up really well and Emma loved it when she saw it. She only got a quick look at it this morning as she had to leave by 7am for the school bus, but it'll be on her bed when she comes home from school this weekend.

PS - Click on the photo if you want a closer look at the pretty Amy Butler fabric and quilt stitch pattern.

Birthday Gifts

It's Emma's birthday next week and I wanted to show you a couple of gifts we've bought for her. The necklace and earrings arrived in the mail today from Etsy shop Lala Design Studio. They were very reasonably priced for sterling silver - the necklace was $36 and earrings $12. With the Australian dollar at parity with the US dollar it's very reasonable to buy from overseas at the moment.

Names on necklaces are very popular at the moment and this one is just a bit different to the ones I've seen in jewellery shops here.

As Emma is a big music fan I thought that these treble clefs would be perfect for her.

I'll show you all her presents next week - I've also made her a beautiful quilt from Amy Butler "Love" fabrics that I hope she loves!

Today

Since coming home from holidays Farmer Phil has been trying to get as much spraying done as he can when the weather conditions allow. The weeds have been growing like Topsy since before harvest so it's a full time job to keep on top of them.



Today it's decided to rain so Farmer Phil has picked Ryan and Emma up from school to take them water skiing for the day at Albury to have some training with coach Cathryn. We are all booked to go to the Australian Water Ski Nationals held in Townsville this year over the Easter weekend. To qualify for them you need to ski to a certain standard so both Ryan and Emma need as much coaching and time on the water as possible.

So, while I have the house to myself I've decided to get some more work done on this quilt I started last year. I originally started to make it as a Christmas gift for a member of the family but I loved the fabric so much that I'm keeping it for myself to put on our bed. The fabric is from Anna Maria Horner and is very bright and cheerful.

Hope you all have a productive day!

Button Bouquet

I made this quick and easy gift the other day for a very good water skiing friend who has done many good deeds for us when we're busy with farm work. Today she's bringing Ryan and Emma back from Port Macquarie to Sydney after another water ski training camp this week. I'll drive to Sydney tonight to pick them up.

The button bouquet is so easy to make - just thread buttons onto florists wire, twist the wires together and make into a posy with a ribbon!

Present Sewing

Last Saturday Emma's singing teacher Cathy and husband Jon welcomed their first child Isabella into the world. During the week I quickly made up this simple floor quilt as a gift for them. I've had the fabrics for a few years and didn't know what to do with them - I couldn't bear to cut up the beautiful Kaffe Fassett floral so I just cut it in half!

Kaftan Sewing

Today was windy, cold and miserable with rain so I decided not to go outside at all but sit and sew for the day - remember I'm still home alone with no distractions! I produced this "Shearwater Kaftan" from a "make it perfect" pattern. I bought the fabric yesterday at Spotlight for only $8/m so it ended up only costing $12 to make. It'll go nicely over a pair of swimmers and denim shorts when Summer finally arrives. It's really comfy and super easy to make.

Sewing Again!

I've taken the cover off the sewing machine for the first time in 6 months to start making this quilt. It's made from the left over Anna Maria Horner Garden Party fabric I had from making Rachael and Jess's wedding quilt last year. I had the intention of making it as a Christmas gift for a family member, but now it's made I don't know whether I can part with it because I love the fabrics so much!!!

I also completed this dress using Anna Maria Horner fabric again. Here is the link for the pattern from her blog. I love this fabric also and it was the simplest dress I've ever attempted. It'll be lovely and cool for Summer. Sorry about the dodgy photo but it's really hard to take a photo using the bathroom mirror!!

Wedding Dress Exhibition

There was an exhibition of wedding dresses designed and made by local Deniliquin designer Jane Frazer at the Peppin Heritage Centre also. Jane actually designed a few outfits for the late Princess Diana, so she's no slouch at her craft! There were too many dresses to put on the blog, so I just chose a few of my favourites.

This one is made entirely from wool and was entered into a competition for outfits made from wool. It is very simple, but stunning!

This one is made from a fine georgette and just draped beautifully and had a sprinkle of beading.

Emma thought this one was very elegant and simple again.

Pillows

In between my tractor driving shifts, I managed to sew a few pillows with the scraps left over from Rachael and Jess' quilt, and some extra fat quarters I bought at the same time. It's gorgeous, bright fabric from Anna Maria Horner's Garden Party range. Farmer Phil thought they were a bit bright, but I just love them!

Finally Finished Graham's Quilt

Well, here's Graham's birthday quilt/wall hanging all finished as of last night - I got it done with three days to spare! All I've done in the last three weeks is drive the tractor sowing the crops and sewing this quilt! I'd get home after tea most nights and have a quick shower then get straight into sewing. Farmer Phil found me asleep on the lounge quite a few nights trying to get it finished! I know Graham will appreciate the quilt very much, so that's what kept me going!

Update on Graham's Quilt

I stayed up late last night and rose early this morning to get Graham's quilt started. I've Vliesofixed all the pictures to their backgrounds, so now all I have to do is blanket stitch around the pieces and then put it all together. Easy!!?? Graham will be 70 on May 23, so that gives me three weeks to get it finished. I should get it done as long as Farmer Phil lets me have some time off the tractor!

The "Inverloch" homestead.

Graham on his Massey Ferguson header.

The Bulldog Lanz tractor.

Graham and Aunty Eula.

A magpie and galah on a farm gate.

A bee with it's hive.

Chooks, ducks and rabbits.

The milking house cow.

Merino ram, ewe and lamb.

Wedding Quilt

The Wedding Quilt is finally completed! I finished hand sewing the binding on yesterday and gave it a wash. It's now wrapped and ready to give to Jess and Rachael today. It's a beautiful sunny, Autumn day so the wedding should be absolutely perfect! I took a photo of the card which I bought especially for Rach and Jess at a cute little gift shop in Beechworth last year. It's made in Holland and features really pretty embossed patchwork hearts.

Wedding Quilt Update

Jess and Rachael's wedding is only a week away. I had the quilt machine quilted by Morganne from Fabric 23 in Griffith. She did a trailing vines design in hot pink thread. I think it looks very effective and the vine leaves look like love hearts which is just perfect for a wedding quilt. I've sewn the binding on by machine so I've just got to hand stitch it down. I made a label as well. I'll show you the finished product in a week or so, but I wish I was keeping this one for myself!

Wedding Quilt Update

I started to cut out the Garden Wall wedding quilt last week - boy did it take some time!! Anna Maria says on the pattern that you'll spend more time cutting than sewing, and I think she's right! I sewed 4 blocks yesterday afternoon, only 5 to go then put the sashings on and send it off to be machine quilted. It's coming together really easily and I think it looks very effective. You can see the dark garden wall, and then the green foliage and pink and yellow flowers.

Farmer Phil is at a Controlled Traffic Workshop today, so hopefully I'll get the other 5 blocks made and put together.

You're thinking, what on earth is a Controlled Traffic Workshop?! No, he's not becoming a traffic cop!! It's a day where like minded farmers get together with the experts to see whether this farming system would suit their business. Controlled Traffic is a no-till farming system using machinery with wider axles and confining paddock traffic to permanent tracks using GPS. The experts believe that growers using this system have significant yield advantages in dry seasons and potentially stand to capitalise in average and good seasons through enhanced moisture retention, crops growing in uncompacted soils and machinery using less fuel whilst operating on hard permanent tracks.

It all makes sense, but there is the added complication of extra costs from having to either convert your existing machinery or buying new machines. We already use a no-till system, meaning we don't plough the paddocks 2 or 3 times before we actually sow them. Our seeding machine will sow straight into last years stubble and then leave that stubble on top of the ground to act as a mulch - just like everyone should use mulch in their garden to retain moisture. Farming is really just large scale gardening, just using bigger machinery!

Bill and Molly

Quite a few years ago I was making teddy bears like lots of other crafty people out there. Bill and Molly are my favourites. They sit together on their little shelf like an old married couple! They're only about 2-3inches tall when sitting. I think they're cute!