Many Thanks Jenny, Jo, Erika and Joan.

 I received this lovely quilt top from Jenny B. in New Zealand and it's quilted and ready to be donated to Peter Mac.  I hope Jenny doesn't mind but I removed a couple of rows from the sides and a row from the top and bottom as it's a large quilt.  I often do this if they are a bit big for donation quilts as the larger ones use up a lot of batting. I have saved the removed rows and will be using them in another quilt in the future so nothing is wasted . The quilt is much brighter in real life and will bring comfort to its recipient, so thank you very much Jenny B.

 This lovely quilt was also a larger quilt from Jo L. from Qld. I divided it into 2 tops and the first one has already been quilted and donated. This is a lovely quilt in bright colours and will brighten the room of a Peter Mac patient . Thank you so much for your support Jo.

This large top was donated by Erika C. from NSW and she found it in a bag of fabric and thought of my quilt projects. I think it was probably a cheater fabric and it will make 2 and possibly 3 quilts,  especially if I add borders. The fabric will make lovely quilts to donate so I want to send a big thank you to Erika for your support.
     Joan G. from Vic also donated 4 large bags and 2 boxes of fabric for donation quilts and I have already started to use her lovely fabric as backing and binding for Jo's quilt. Many thanks for thinking of my quilt projects again when you were down sizing, Joan. As lots of the fabric was in very large pieces it will be ideal for backings and bindings as well as making more tops.
 

Thank you all so much for your ongoing support with these quilt projects to bring comfort to others. Every quilt we finish and donate does make a huge impact on letting others know we're thinking of them as they deal with various challenges in their lives. There's also nothing which warms my heart more than seeing someone wrapped in a quilt we have donated so I  need to keep quilting and donating. I'm  thrilled that I am getting lots of long term UFOs finished and donated too and have a couple more ready to quilt so hope to share them soon.

Many thanks again dear friends.

Hugs, Jan Mac 

Aidan's Quilt.

 I had a free day for sewing yesterday as the girl's day out we'd planned had to be canceled as one of my friends wasn't well.  I spent the day quilting instead and finished Aidan's quilt. I gave it to him today so I'm able to share photos now. He's caught Jake's head cold but he's still a happy baby.

 The pattern was from an old issue of Quiltmaker nagazine and luckily I found it easily as his nursery theme is teddy bears.

Jake was giving lots of kisses and cuddles and grabbing his nose, saying "honk, honk" like PaPa does. Now I need to finish Jake's 3rd quilt which is his favourite animals machine appliqued and as it's also a UFO I gave added incentive to finish it, even though it's not one of my older UFOs. I also have a girl baby quilt to make in the next 2 weeks and another baby quilt due soon, but the gender hasn't been revealed yet. Maybe there will be time to make one of each and be prepared for the next baby as I'm sure there will be more in the family sooner rather than later.
Hugs, Jan Mac 

Gum Valley Patchwork.

Gumnut Valley Patchwork had a pop up shop at the Vic Quilter's AGM last week and there were some lovely fabrics and kits for purchase. Linda White's patchwork shop is in the Western District of Victoria, 3 hours from me, but online shopping makes it very easy to purchase. I thought her kits were lovely and the prices were very reasonable too.

I bought 4 kits for small project bags and paper pieces,  fabric, pattern and required zippers etc were all included. Now that I am making bags for the Peter Mac auxiliary shop I thought it would be good to have some easy patterns.

This cute bag has a snap shut closure which is threaded through at the top.

This one uses 1/4 inch hexagons but I could also use 1/2 inch hexies for decoration.

These little project bags will be ideal for taking my hand stitching along to meetings and Sit and Sew gatherings. Now I just need to work on one  at a time so they don't get put away and forgotten.
       I have no affiliations with Linda's business but thought I would give her business a "shout out" as I thought her kits were well priced and very cute. Perhaps it's time for me to make a few new things for me but the call if more UFOs is also insistent.  Check back to see which won.
Hugs, Jan Mac 

UFO Monday and Family Fun.

 The evenings in the past week have been spent working on this long term UFO as I love it and really want to finish it.  This will be one of the few quilts I keep for me. I had pieced up to the green centre and this week I made and added the outer flowers. I have one more of these to make and I will add this to the main piece when I have added the aqua and dark blue outer hexies.

 I'd forgotten how relaxing it can be to piece hexies together. I have a finished diamond to add to thd main piece and one more diamond to make and then a row of 4 hexies all around the main piece.

 Jake had his second birthday on Saturday and he was still recovering today. He's also cutting his final molars and was loving lots of cuddles and book reading.

 He celebrated Saturday with custard and "happy cake" after he ate his meat and veges. Custard is his special treat he shares with PaPa and a big incentive to eat those veges.

 This delightful little boy is 12 weeks old and today I found he has cut his first tooth. He'd been dribbling a lot and a bit unsettled off and on for the past couple of weeks and I did wonder if a tooth was coming as Jake had his first teeth at 4 months, but I was surprised to feel it today.

 He's a very chilled little boy who lives to smile, coo and sleep.

 Jake loves giving his little brother lots of "cuggles" and kisses.

It's hard to get them both smiling at the same time and looking in the same direction so you can imagine how many photos are taken on a daily basis.
It looks like being another productive week and I have Aidan's quilt top ready to quilt and 2 more tops basted for quilting tomorrow.
   My other UFO I want to finish ASAP is Jake's quilt with all his favourite things like "ladybubs", butterflies, birds, caterpillars and ants. I'm really going to prioritize that one this week and hopefully get the top finished. Check back to see how I went next Monday.
Hugs, Jan Mac
PS. Many thanks to everyone for your very kind comments. Xx

Weekly Catch Up.

 I had a couple of child-free days this week so I took advantage of having more free time to finish off some more quilt tops. These 6 tops were all made by members of my quilting group, AQA.
     As members often don't have hand stitching to work on at meetings,  I started preparing some of our scrap fabric into 1 inch hexagons. Then I bagged them up and our other gift quilt ladies helped as well and we put out a basket of them bagged up, at each meeting for members to stitch and return. These are then used to make more gift quilts and the first 3 quilts here use some of those hexagons. They look good with scraps stitched into Chinese Coins strips.

 We used to run a block pattern each month for members to try new patterns and make one to donate and one to go into a "draw". If you won the "draw" then you won a set of blocks.  We have suspended that now and one of our gifg quilt ladies is a whiz at finding free patterns online and making up kits for members to take home to piece. She looks for designs which use new techniques and it teaches members new skills.

All if our gift quilts differ in colour and design and I enjoy quilting and binding them. That way I have the fun of playing with lots of different fabrics and I don't have to store more quilts for me. My monthly target is 8 tops quilted for our Gift Quilt Program and I am hoping to expand that to 100 a year. Once I have finished those gor the month, I then work on my UFOs to finish and donate as well as finishing donated QAYG blocks and making more quilts from donated fabric.

 It was also our precious grandson, Jake's birthday yesterday and we had a lovely day of celebrations. He has been playing with more hexagon cardboard and fabric during the week and loves copying what I do.

It's hard to believe that he's 2 already and such a wonderful addition to our lives. I didn't get any photos at his party as I was too busy but hope to have some of my DD's to share soon.

Another busy week but lots of fun too.

Hugs, Jan Mac 

UFO Monday.

 No UFO finish this week but I have made lots of progress and have finished piecing this top from 1 inch hexies. I had a jelly roll and I wanted some hand stitching to do so this has been a fun project. Yesterday I bought fabric for borders and it wasn't exactly what I was looking for so will look at it for a few days before I start to applique the top to the borders. Once I make a decision on it I will get the borders on and quilt it. This quilt will most likely be donated to Peter Mac.

 I also found this long term UFO of half inch hexies and have started piecing them again. I love this quilt top and it will be one I will keep as it is going to be over 2 metres in size and a few years in the making.

I'm making different components and then joining them to the main piece so it seems to be growing slowly but I don't mind as I love it.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Weekly Catch Up.

 The first quilt was a top that I quilted for AQA, my quilting group and it's a lovely bright one.

 The next 2 are donated tops for my group, Oz Comfort Quilts,  and it's great to get some more if them finished.  I also pinned another 4 tops so I will get them quilted as time allows.

 I finished another baby cardigan for sale in the Peter Mac auxiliary shop. My knitting has slowed down as I have been doing more hand stitching so I can finish more of my UFOs, and I will share my progress tomorrow.

 PaPa and Jake made cupcakes for the first time and it's hard to know who enjoyed it more.

 There was lots of licking of the bowl and beaters and then tasting too. I put some into the freezer so they didn't eat them all.

I've also rejoined Vic Quilters for the third time and plan on getting more involved now that I live closer for meetings. The AGM was held on Saturday and it was lovely to catch up with Lola and Pam, 2 of my blog readers, as well as meeting new friends. It would have been very easy to stay at home and sew but decided that I need to maintain social contacts and be inspired by the work of other quilters. I really enjoyed the day and also took the opportunity to buy from the pop up shops. Today was spent in buying fabric for 2 quilt tops I want to finish as well as quilting more tops.  I hope you are having a productive weekend too.
Hugs, Jan Mac 

UFO Monday - 24th UFO Finish.

 This first quilt is a UFO from 10 years or so ago. It was a large quilt top which was donated. As it was too large for a donation quilt to the organizations I support, I took off some of the surrounding blocks, which required me re-stitching some of the applique and blocks. It's been half finished for too long and it's great to finally have it finished.  It will now be a lovely sized quilt for Peter Mac.

I've also spent most evenings hand stitching this hexagon UFO as I want to get it finished soon too. It's surprising how quickly it's coming near completion with a few nights of steady stitching.
Hugs, Jan Mac 

Weekly Catch Up.

 These 3 quilts were tops made by AQA, my quilting group, and I only needed to machine quilt and bind them.  It's very rewarding to be able to finish them off in readiness for donation. The first one is a wonderful scrappy quilt which uses up lots of older scraps of fabric. The bright blue sashing and borders helps to tie them all together.

The border fabric in the quilt below reminds me of passion fruit flowers . I love quilting these tops and seeing how others have cleverly used fabric and it's fun to work on different tops all the time.

I didn't finish any baby jackets this week as I've put together the donated crochet squares from Jo and Delys and combined with mine, there was enough to make a blanket so it will be donated to a group which helps the homeless.
   I've also been working on some of my larger UFOs and I will have a finish to share tomorrow . I hope you've all enjoyed some stitching time too.
Hugs, Jan Mac 

A Magical Day.

 Victoria and the southern states have had an unexpected blast of severe storms and cold weather but we'd planned a family day out to celebrate our wonderful son-in law's birthday so we decided to go for our planned drive.
   Imagine our surprise to find freshly falling snow and introducing young Jake to making his first snowballs.

 Father and son had a brief but fun time in the snow.

 Jake was reluctant to touch the snow at first but it wasn't cold.

 We were only an hour or so from home and it was a new area for us to see as we haven't had much time to explore yet. We were heading for tye Ada tree, the largest tree in Vic, but didn't make it as baby Aidan was due for a feed and travel was slower due to the bad weather.

 It was raining heavily until we reached the snow and it was magical to be driving through falling snow- a new experience for us.

 We finished with a burger lunch at the Powelly Pub and can highly recommend them for a great meal in a pleasant location and a heavenly roaring fire. The staff were even kind enough to supply Jake with colouring book, stickers and crayons, which kept him entertained while Aidan was fed and had some playtime.

We drove home into sunshine and we were thrilled with our unexpected day in the snow and we'll go back when the weather's better to see the Ada tree. Family time is always special whatever we do and today has left us with many lovely memories.
Hugs, Jan Mac