Another Award

I was very surprised to receive a letter inviting me to attend a presentation ceremony by my local Member of Parliament recently. Along with 6 others I was recognized for my volunteer work overseas in East Timor. The other recipients had participated in varying projects to improve the quality of life in other countries and we were all very pleased to have our small contributions acknowledged.
I'm off to the US tomorrow where I'm attending the Houston Quilt Show with some other Aussie quilters. Then we are spending 3 weeks traveling in the US and meeting up with some internet friends. I've been hoping for this trip for over 2 years and it's hard to believe that the time has come.
Thanks for your kind comments on my blogs and Amanda I'll post a tutorial on my crochet squares when I return at the end of Nov. Sorry that I've run out of time until then. In the meantime I'll try to keep my blog updated with our adventures. One thing I know for sure is that we will be having fun as my fellow travelers are entertaining and lots of laughs.
Stay safe everyone.
Hugs Jan Mac

Mostly Night Shift ...

but a little bit of finishing off things.
I packed and sent off about 200 quilts and they are on their way to Timor and Pakistan. Apart from that I've been working night shift and have made a warm hat to take when I visit New York next month. I also finished off a few blankets which have been shipped with the quilts as well as more baby jackets and knitted beanies. I've not had enough time to blog lately but only have a few more shifts to work before I fly out on our trip and hope to blog more about that.
Hugs Jan Mac

Quilts Finished

I'll post more photos on my other blog for donation quilts at http://ozcomfortquilts.blogspot.com but here you can see a QAYG quilt I finished this week. The other photo is of a pieced back which someone generously donated which gave me a gift of time to get more quilts finished instead of piecing backs.
I must count up how many QAYG quilts I've put together as there have been many, many sets of blocks donated and they did make some fabulous quilts. I still have a small pile to work with and will get them done ASAP.
Luckily I never tire of them and they all look different with the varied fabrics featured in them.
Also want to say a big thank you to everyone who leaves a message on my comments page. Thankfully I haven't had any spam messages lately which gives me more time for quilting. I received a lovely message a little while ago, I think from Alison, but I accidentally deleted it instead of publishing it so if I deleted your message I'm sorry. I hope Sheila is recovering well from her accident and I thank you for your kind words which encourages me to blog more often.
I have some clothes to sew for my upcoming trip to the US so I must get back to the sewing machine. I sewed on bindings for 3 quilts today and will post the photos later.
Hugs Jan Mac

Sunday Sewing

Today was a fun day with time to make a QAYG quilt and I just have the binding left to finish as we had visitors in the afternoon.
I've also received a parcel from Julez from Bacchus Marsh (Vic) and she very generously sent 2 beanies and 10 FQs for the donation quilts. The beanies will be going to the Pine Ridge Reservation as they are in constant need of warm clothing, especially for fostered children and the beanies will be loved. I've also been knitting hats and scarves to donate to them too and will probably take them with me when I fly to the US at the end of the month, and then post them while I'm over there.
I've also found some donated 6.5" squares in crazy patchwork which someone had donated. They all had red backing and batting included and some of them had machine stitching along the seams in the blocks. There are enough for a larger quilt if I use the backing squares as well and I've spent the afternoon unpicking the stitching and then I will join the squares and make one large top instead of a smaller QAYG project. The left over pieces of 6" batting will be used to make larger QAYG squares so nothing will be wasted.
All in all it was a relaxing and yet productive day.
I plan to machine quilt some tops tomorrow so i'll have more to show then.
Until later, Jan Mac

A Short Break Over

We're back from our camping trip with friends and spent 12 days in Sth Australia. Three days were spent in the Flinders Ranges and the rest of the time was at Port Lincoln. I'll load some photos of the scenery on my next post. We had a lovely time and really enjoyed our break.
I also managed to visit a quilt shop at Cowell as well as in Port Lincoln. I'm collecting red civil war fabric and also got a couple of double pinks as well as a couple of paisleys I couldn't resist.
I've finally caught up on the usual jobs after being away and have started putting another QAYG quilt together. I also found a pile of 2.5" squares which had been joined into strips and I've separated them back into 9 patches and plan to use them to make a donation quilt. They aren't the usual 9 patches with 5 patches in dark and 4 in light fabrics, and instead are a mixture of values in the squares so I plan to use a coordinating fabric to make a secondary pattern and make them play nicely together. At least that's the plan.
Now to find some fabrics which suit them.
More later.
Hugs Jan Mac