Hexagon Madness.

 I'm not sure why I stopped working on this hexie project but it must have been to finish off a UFO or make more donation quilts. Anyway I've pulled it out again and I really feel like I am making progress. In fact I'm enjoying it so much that DH wants me to make another one in different colors. Lol.
     I have more than 2,500 joined of the 17,500 required and they are starting to feel quite large in size now I have stitched so many of them. The hexies are half inch in size but not hard to work with and I have the Insanity Quilt in progress in half inch hexies too, so hexie madness has taken over. They make a very portable project for when we are traveling too.
   I've also been stitching my star pieces and hope to have that top finished soon. In the meantime it's back to more paid work to do.
Hugs, Jan Mac

My Pieceful Day.

 Today was my meeting day for my Castlemaine  Quilting Group and despite the very wet weather it was a day of seeing fabulous quilts and fun. It's a bit over a 2 hour drive for me but well worth it to stitch and chat and be inspired by beautiful quilts.  We had a guest speaker, Deborah Dorward, who shared her quilt journey and her quilts were fabulous. My camera stopped working for our Show and Tell but the photos I did capture made up for that.
  It was a lovely day and I won't even complain about the heavy rain as we really need more to fill our tanks.
  I hope you all had some time to stitch as well.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Side Tracked Again.

 I found my Civil War Bride blocks and decided this will be my next UFO to finish. I had already completed half of this block and it didn't take long to stitch the ostriches, although the feet were the fiddly bits to needle turn.   I need to make some more bias stems for the next block and I have already traced the next block ready for back basting so plan on getting started on that soon.
   However while I was looking for some fabric to use on another hexie project I found the cream background fabric for this UFO. I think I started it 6 years ago, using 6 inch squares from an internet swap. The theme was Oriental and I was able to get 3 stars, measuring 2 inches along each side, from each square. I had almost finished it but misplaced the cream fabric so the project stalled. I have 8 more stars to piece and then add them to the top. As the fabric is oriental the stars are multi-colored and red was the predominant color for many of them. Now I need to think about a quilting design so I can finish this project before I lose any more pieces again.
    It will be great to have another UFO finished and I must keep working on my Civil War Bride top too so that one will soon be finished. This cold weather is good for stitching as my cold is keeping me indoors too. I guess finishing another UFO is a good way to be side tracked.
 Hugs, Jan Mac

My Melbourne Meeting.

Yesterday was a lovely day at my AQA quilters meeting. We celebrated the 90th birthday one one of our founding members and the occasion was celebrated with warm tributes to the birthday girl, an insight into the history of the group, and of course a lovely cake.

It's always good to catch up with like-minded quilting friends and I also managed to back baste two blocks from my Chester Criswell County quilt. I have all the patterns now and a few weeks of concentrated stitching will see them finished.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs, Jan Mac

Two UFO Finishes.

 I took a two day class of Stained Glass Appliqué technique with Dianne Johnston, about 8 years ago. I completed the floral wall hanging in the first day so I bought one of her patterns and completed the Pelican wall hanging on the second day. All I had to do was stitch them down and complete the quilting. The technique uses raw edge appliqué which I haven't done before as my favorite technique is needle turn appliqué.
    Maybe that is why it took me so long to finish them but most likely it was because there was a need for me to finish donation quilts at the time. I had shown the Pelicans on my blog recently but I hadn't finished the edges then.
    I'm very happy to have these two UFOs off my long list and it has spurred me on to complete some more so I have pulled two more UFOs out to work on. I'm going to try to be strong and only quilt 3 or 4 donation quilts each month and get some more of my own quilts completed. It's hard to break the habit of 20 years and not just make quilts to donate but I'm going to try.
    I also have cross stitch UFOs I want to finish and I was doing well with them when I set aside a day a week to work on them so I probably need to get back to that system. Does anyone else have a plan which works to prevent the buildup of UFOs? Please let me know if you think it will help.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Time For Some Finishes.

 These tops have all been finished this week,and will be donated to warm the needy. Our nights are cold here now and I'm very grateful for my warm bed, especially as I have a chest infection and lots of coughing is happening here. I didn't feel well enough to quilt but I'm happy I made the effort and my chest infection is improving now.
    The last quilt was made from various orphan blocks and the first two were donated tops. I left to find the labels and when I returned I found that the cat in residence had found a warm spot to rest.
  Now I am working on a few more finishes so will have more to share very soon.
Hugs Jan Mac

Family Gatherings.

Before we left on our latest trip we all got together to celebrate my Dad's 90th birthday. There was lots of chatter and laughter as well all caught up with family, cuddling new babies and hearing about the family's news.
   It was also a good opportunity to hand over one of the quilts for the new babies. They had flown down from Qld and it was lovely to finally meet the newest arrival. The quilt was made in colours selected by the new mum and she was thrilled with it. Using such a limited colour palette made it difficult to find a variety of suitable fabrics but she was happy so that's all that matters.
  I didn't get the second baby quilt finished but they live locally so a finish wasn't as urgent.
  We're home again after a lovely trip which was cut short due to me getting sick and we decided to finish the Simpson Desert part of the trip when the school holidays are over. Now I'm getting over the chest infection, it's time to finish off some more UFOs and quilts to donate.
 I hope you are enjoying some warm weather wherever you live.
hugs, Jan Mac