Confessions of a Walking Foot.

I have finished quilting this quilt. It was quick, just a quarter of an inch on one side of each row. Since taking this photo this morning the binding is all one ready to be hand sewn down. We are back to school next week and I am cramming as much sewing in as possible in these last few days as term 1 is a big one this year, 12 weeks long! The teacher, teachers aide and two students in this house are going to be exhausted at the end of it! Thinking about planning a trip here at the end of those 12 weeks, something to focus on.

So I quilted this with my walking foot, I have a love/hate relationship with it. Was so disappointed in the quilting that I produced with it on this quilt last year. I was getting quilt drag with that quilt, so with this one I was determined to do it the proper way, down one row, rotate and then back the other way, so you aren't going in the same direction all the time. I did that for maybe 8 rows and it was pulling badly on the back, getting dragged again. So then I decided to go just one way and everything then clicked. No drag, lovely smooth quilting. So then I unpicked those first 8 rows and redid them going the same way as the others and it is perfect. Flat and smooth and no drag. Go figure. Walking foot I don't understand you but thank you for doing what I wanted you to do on this quilt.

Pink Squares Finished!

Wow, that is a lot!!! Well done to everyone involved, a great effort. Congratulations go to Cristina who won my quilt with her generous bid of $200!! I'm designing a label for Cristina now and then hopefully it will be in the mail to her by the weekend.

Also in the mail tomorrow is this quilt to Corrie for her collection of quilts.

Pebble quilting all finished, binding sewn down.

Label on. I put my email address on it as I don't know who is going to get this quilt so it would be nice to think that one day, maybe, to get an email saying hi, I got your quilt. I loved the binding for this one. There was no red in the pink squares, but somehow it just went!

Bit of pebble quilting close up.

And just from another angle. The vine on the right is that one with the purple flowers, it is a weed I know, but I love how it crawls along the back fence. We are hopeless gardeners Daz and I but up here everything is so lush and green. Anyway, I hope whoever ends up with this quilt likes it as much as I do.

Around the Block - January.

I received this from Kate last week. Just perfect!! Thanks Kate. And a good reminder for myself too of this months Around the Block 2 commitments.

So without further ado I grabbed an envelope and picked this for Abbe who requested stacked coins. Reminds me of book spines. Nice cool colours to work with.

And while in the mood I used some of the scraps Kate had sent back along with the scraps I had received from others to who up quickly 4 more 6.5 inch blocks to mare another 12.5 inch block! I'm hoping to make one for each I receive.

Then with Grace's help I lay them all out. A nice balance so far!

My auction closes tonight! Still a chance to bid here!

365 days ago....

A year ago today we moved here to this town called Kununurra that we now call home. Stepping off that plane, dazed, immediately wrapped in a warm blanket of heat and humidity. Welcomed by strangers that have become friends. Our thoughts ranged from "What have we done??" to "How exciting!! What an adventure!" We think we are pretty lucky to have scored Kununurra as a placement, such a beautiful corner of Australia. I can see us staying up here for awhile.... To celebrate 365 days here, we went out this afternoon to Middle Springs. We had been here once before, but this time we went to the same place but somewhere a little different.

We walked up the side of the falls, followed the stream. It wasn't a hard walk, 10 minutes or so.

Took in the sights along the way! We have had a few decent days of rain this week and so the waterfalls are flowing.

And up the top is a collection of flowing pools. Some where waist deep, others knee deep, others a few meters deep. All connected by the stream rushing through. I tried a self timer shot but couldn't get back in time! Yes, I am wearing shoes in the water, we all wear them, our trekking shoes we call them. My camera battery died after I took the first photo in this post. The pool in the first photo was on the other side of the pool above. The water fell into the next pool, it was so beautiful up there. I was cross my camera battery died, we will just have to go back again.

Sewing Frenzy!

I love summer holidays! Now we are back from the "official" holiday we are all relaxing at home and I am on a sewing frenzy at the moment. Finished the pebble quilting on the pink squares quilt, binding is all pinned into place, ready to hand sew down.

Inspired by Corrie, I whipped out the jelly roll I had left over from making Ruby's quilt and sewed all the strips together in a few hours. Wolah! Quilt ready to sandwich. This one is going to her Quilts For Queensland appeal too.

And in between that I have started a new quilt. Rainbow squares. Pretty much like the pink squares but bigger and brighter, I love sewing these blocks. Picking out a centre then thinking oh yes, that would look nice framing that, sew it, then ohhhh, how about that spotty fabric? Yes, perfect, sew it!

These are my favourites so far. I'm up to purple, green and blue to go next.

But we haven't been sitting around home all the time. Have taken advantage of the rain and having our own 4WD and getting out and seeing some of the waterfalls around only in the wet season.

This one is Black Rock which we have been to a few times before. It holds a special place in my heart as it was the first place we ever visited when we came up here. Okay, back to the sewing!

Quilting Pink Squares.

Yesterday was my monthly quilting group sewing day. I used their large table to sandwich the pink squares quilt that has been folded up over the ironing board since I finished it back here.

I decided to do large pebble quilting all over in white, give it some texture. I still have a third to go and I think I am on my 5th bobbin, certainly going through the thread but it looks effective. I have decided to mail it over to Corrie when done, she is collecting blocks to make quilts and finished quilts too if you want to make something for her appeal.

Toni has the master list of all the auctions for the QLD Flood Appeal. Check them all out here! It's massive!

2010 Quilt Review.

I have been meaning to do this since I got home from holidays. The annual year in review in the quilting land of Mini Grey. I made 16 quilts in 2010, not bad. I'm not counting all the block swaps, there would be at least 16 of them. As I was cutting and pasting this post together I noticed a lot of squares, a lot of wonky houses, a lot of floral and a lot of colour!! The first quilt for 2010 was finished in February for my partner in flickrs Doll Quilt Swap #8.

For a friends new baby, also finished in February.

For my 600th post I gave away this mini quilt in March.

Finished in April, now up for auction for the Queensland Flood Appeal. Bidding is still welcome here!

I made this one for my lovely blogging buddy Lynne in a private swap in April.

This is the mini quilt was all free pieced and offered up for Give Away Day with Sew Mama Sew in May.

This dolls quilt was made for the EB Quilters Dolls Quilt Swap #4 in May.

I also finished this little bassinet sized quilt for one of Milly's friends to wrap her dolly in.

I signed up for the Placemat Swap and made this for Kimmie in May.

And also finally finished the quilting and binding on my Round Robin Quilt in May too. A busy month!

In July I finished my favorite quilt for the year. Something about the smoothness of the blues against the white.

Then a blue and orange version finished in August.

Then I made some dolls quilts for Flickr DQS#9 in August. Here is Version 1!

And version 2!

And version 3! This one ended up being a private swap with the lovely Krista in Canada but I tricked her and let her think she was getting a wonky house instead.

November saw me finish Milly's wonky house quilt made with blocks from my Around The Block swap. Single bed size, the second quilt I have ever sent away to be quilted. It came back stunning! So that is 2010 in a nut shell. Bring on 2011.

QLD Flood Appeal Auctions.

The news over the last week from Queensland has not been good. The images of the floods are just unbelievable. Heartbreaking. And to think we were in Brisbane last week! And now it is flooded. I feel like I can't do much sitting up in this corner of Australia and then saw that Toni from Make It Perfect has come up with the great idea of holding some auctions amongst the crafting blogging community.

On Monday 17th January, she will have a master list of bloggers who will be running auctions from their blogs, selling products that they make or from their stores. Auctions will close at midnight on Monday 24th January. Some are up and running now so I am putting up the following quilt for auction.

It measures 37 x 44 inches. It is made from Lila Tueller Santorini's charm squares.

The back. I can make a label for the winner if they would like.

A close up of the stippling. The colours on this quilt are lovely.

How this auction will work:
1. Bidding will start at $30 (Australian).
2. You can place a bid by leaving a comment on this blog post with your bid amount and email address. Please make sure that your bid is higher than the previous bidder.
3. Your bid must be in whole dollar increments.
4. This auction is open to everyone, however $25 will be charged for International addresses, I will cover the rest. Postage is FREE for Australian residents.
5. The auction begins NOW and will END at midnight on Monday 24th January 2011 (AWST).
6. At the close of the auction, I will contact the winner (please make sure your bid comment includes your email address). The winner will pay the winning amount directly into the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal and send me proof of payment via email. Once proof of payment has been received, I will post your quilt to you.
7. Thank you for participating and happy bidding!!! Please someone bid!

Holiday Fabric!

I managed to get a bit of hand sewing in during our holidays. Kununurra to Darwin is a mere 832 kms away so I made a start on my Honeysuckle stitching.

One of the best things about going to Queensland was that finally after 4 years of online chatting and blogging together, I got to meet AJ! She arranged a whole day of fabric shopping for us! Any excuse hey? Her sister Carissa came along as somebody had to type the addresses into the Navcom from the back seat! And we thought we were pretty clever all managing to dress in blue tops and denim bottoms!

We meet at a place in Eagleby which I think was called Fabric Frenzy? It was kinda a seconds shop, one third fabric and the rest toys and cheap kitchenware. I still managed to get 7 meters which is the blues, reds and orange in the bottom of the above photo!

Next stop was.... um, I can't remember! I brought this pattern here, Japanese Fans by Judy Niemeyer. It's foundation paper piecing which I could technically print onto paper myself but, its already done on A2 sized sheets and that will save sticking A4 sheets together so that sold me!

There was a Spotlight next door so we popped in and I got some more thread and upgraded to a larger carrier!

Then we drove onto Patches Indooroopilly. A great shop!! Was my favorite. We drove up and parked out the front but the car in front of us wasn't quite in their marked spot, so we decided to reverse and park at the back of the shop in the customer parking. We looked at the shop window and saw the "Yes we are open, please come in" sign, all good, so we go park. Walk back down the driveway, look in the window at the display and then we notice the "Sorry we are closed, please come again" sign. Huh? We are standing there under the veranda talking amongst ourselves that didn't the sign just say open? We check the opening hours and it closed at 2 and it was spot on 2. So we are standing there going oh no!!! And then the door opens and a lady says "I can hear you ladies, would you like to come in?" and she very kindly opened the shop for us! An hour later...... I got the pink and green fabric in the top left of the first photo and all the fabric around the Japanese Fans pattern (except for the white, Mum gave that to me for Christmas). The lady behind the counter was lovely and took these photos for us. AJ wanted us to stand in front of this quilt as she is going to make it! It was the perfect shopping trip, thanks AJ!

Then a few days later, Dad drove Mum and I and the girls over the border into New South Wales to Fantazia Fabric Land! All $10 a metre except the back wall which was $12! Great range. I got a rainbow selection of tone on tone prints in the top right of the first photo and I got at last the backing fabric for my daizee quilt, the green floral, 2.4 meters wide.

And then I got home to have more fabric waiting in my mail box! Ad sent me up this bundle of white on white for Christmas and when we got back there was this parcel from Bec of fabric that I brought from her shop before Christmas! I would like to say publically that I am not puchasing any more fabric till SIT in March!