UFO Monday.

 Now that I have restarted working on my La Passion quilt I'm really enjoying it and have fallen in love with the design again. I've worked on it most evenings for the last couple of weeks and have joined the circle piece and a diamond to the main piece.

 Joining these segments to the main piece involves making lots of small hexie flowers and stitching the pale blue background hexies to join the segments. There doesn't seem to be much progress each night but overall the main piece is growing.

 Today AQA celebrated it's 40th anniversary and we had a morning tea to celebrate. I was too busy to take photos but I did win a jelly roll for a raffle prize, which was very generous of the Committee.

Of course it will be made into a gift quilt and donated but I will enjoy trying out a new pattern. I bought this jelly roll pattern book recently so I plan to select one and put a top together . As I'm busy finishing up UFOs I have only made 2 new quilts this year, and they were for new babies in the family, so I will allow myself to enjoy making a new quilt but I have to make sure that I finish it and then get back to my UFOs so I don't get distracted by new projects.
   I have several quilts pinned and ready to go so hopefully tomorrow will be a big day of quilting. I'm sure I can create a little bit of time even if the boys are here during the week.
Hugs, Jan Mac 

Weekly Catch Up and 27th UFO Finish.

 This Bargello quilt was my 27th UFO finish for the year and it will be donated to Peter Mac. It's in lovely bright colours and will brighten any room and warm every heart.

 This was another donated top and it's a lovely I Spy which will be lots of fun for a child.

This lovely quilt in greens and brown was a donated top which I made a bit smaller and the leftovers will be used to make another quilt when I make more blocks. I also packed up the quilts I have on hand and there are 24 already finished for Peter Mac so I should be able to drop off 25 this week which will create some more room. Today was very productive with lots of tops being pinned and backings made so I will have more to share soon.
Hugs, Jan Mac 

Leukaemia Fundraiser

 Today was a special day when I attended a fundraising event to raise money for leukaemia research. It was organized by Carol of Sewn and Quilted and held in honour if Di Ford Hall who was diagnosed with a rare form if leukaemia about 18 months ago. Di has been a very influential quilter, running classes in her shop for years,  as well as writing 2 books for Quiltmania, and now designing fabric for Andover. It was a testament to Di that 300 quilters attended and $40,000 was raised.

 Jen Kingwell of Amitie Textiles, was the very entertaining guest speaker and she shared her quilting journey, starting with classes from Di, to where she is today,  designing fabric and writing a patchwork book. Jen shared her beautiful quilts with us and discussed how they progressed from an idea to a fjnished quilt.

 There was also an exhibition of quilts from Di's group, the Secret Sisterhood of Stitch and their book, Labours of Love. The quilts were reproductions of Jane Lury's fabulous of antique quilts and they were all masterpieces.

 I came home extremely tired but inspired to keep making donation quilts as they do bring comfort where they are donated. I was lucky enough to speak with a gentleman who has been living with leukaemia for 9 years and he said some days are just overwhelming tiring and that lying on the couch under a quilt anonymously donated lifts the spirit in ways that would only be understood by those undergoing similar challenges.  It was very heartwarming to hear that our quilts do make such a difference so I came home and pinned another donated top ready for quilting tomorrow.

I also received this lovely card from the Peter Mac auxiliary shop thanking us for all the items we have donated for sale and to raise funds for patients.
     Tomorrow I am planning on more quilting and boxing up quilts for the next delivery to Peter Mac. I haven't counted them yet and hope to have 20 before I deliver them so I'd better get busy if there aren't 20 finished and ready yet.
Hugs, Jan Mac 

26th UFO Finish.

 What a difference it made to use a pretty lemon fabric for alternate blocks and the striped border fabric looks better than the plain darker blue that I was initially going to use.

Once I made the decision to use alternate lemon blocks it was a fairly quick process to put it together and get it finished.  This is my 26th UFO finish for the year and a larger project, so I'm really happy with my decision to finish off UFOs this year. There's still plenty of mine , as well as donated UFOs from others, to finish so I can see that I will have plenty to continue on with next year. As they will donated too it will help to keep the donated quilts reaching where they are needed.
Hugs, Jan Mac 

UFO Monday.

 While I'm excavating my sewing room again I'm finding more UFOs to finish and it's great to finally get lots of these finished and ready to be donated. This lovely Bargello top was donated at least 10 years ago and sat waiting to be finished. It's long and narrow so I cut some off to make the proportions better.

 Then I added borders and it is ready for basting and quilting so hopefully it will be finished by next week.

 These donated blocks are also probably 10 years or so in age and I think they were from an on line swap. I tried a few ideas, including adding sashing but I didn't have suitable fabric and it would still have been a small quilt but not really suitable for a child.

 I found this pretty lemon fabric in the boxes that Joan G. donated and it made a softer alternate block as well as making the top large enough for an adult.

I found this pretty blue and yellow striped fabric in my stash and yesterday I pin basted the top ready for quilting. The quilting was finished tonight so I  will share the finished UFO tomorrow when I can get better light for photos. I still have a few more UFOs I'm currently working on and I am trying to work on long term UFOs as well as those which don't need as much work, so I can still see that I'm progressing through them. I'm aiming to have at least 30 UFOs finished for the year and, as most will be donated my pile of quilts ready to donate to Peter Mac is growing.
Hugs, Jan Mac 

Weekly Catch Up.

 I had a bit more sewing time this week, despite having a nasty head cold, and I made this first quilt from scratch. It was made from Sue M.'s donated nativity panel, shown below. I decided to combine it with some donated hand dyed fabric using a Broken Dishes pattern.

 There were lots of half square triangles which I don't mind at all. Cutting the panel into 5 inch strips and then into triangles meant that the nativity scene wasn't obvious and yet the colours still work together. I added borders and quilted it and it will be donated to Peter Mac.

 The following two quilts were tops made by members of my quilting group, AQA. The first one was a lot larger but I took some of it apart to make it smaller. I have to add to that section to make another top.

 These star blocks were donated and put together into another quilt for Peter Mac.  I need to count how many I have finished so I can see if there are enough for another delivery to Peter Mac. I dropped off a large box of items, consisting of small quilts, cloth bags and pouches, fleece hats and baby jackets, for the Peter Mac auxiliary shop during the week and need to start getting some more items ready for them.

My cold is almost gone and the weather is getting warmer so it's been good to have more time for quilting too. Today was also spent working on UFOs and cleaning my sewing room so I will have more to share tomorrow .
Hugs, Jan Mac 

UFO Monday -25th UFO Finish.

 Finally this top is finished and quilted. It was started in 2007 after I swapped signature squares and 6.5 inch Asian fabric with members of my online group, Southern Cross Quilters. I was able to cut 3 star segments from each 6.5 inch square and it is completely hand pieced with the exception of the borders which were machine sewn to finish the top.
   It's my 25th UFO finish for the year and it will be donated to Peter Mac for one of their patients. I'm thrilled to have completed 25 UFOs so far this year and I'm going to keep working on them as I still have many more to finish - most are mine but some have been donated too. A lot of mine are more long term projects and now I'm working on those as well in the evenings so I can keep moving them towards a finish.

 I have been stitching and removing about 30 hexagons a night as well as prepping more for stitching. The large round piece has been added to the "mother ship" of the main quilt top and I am stitching around the edges with the pale blue.

 Now I'm making the green floral hexagon flowers which go between the diamond and round sections. I have the next diamond piece finished and ready to be added to the "mother ship", and the last round piece is half way to being pieced and I have one large diamond left to piece before I commence the outer section .

These small flowers are used between the round and diamond sections and I have been piecing more of them and getting ready to add them to the main section. It may not look like much is happening but I can see progress and I'm excited to see a finish in my future. It will still be a year or two but I think it will be worth it.
Hugs, Jan Mac