H2H Charity Quilt Challenge 2013

It's time to sign up for the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge.  This challenge has been running for the last couple of years and, although I didn't quite get one finished by the end of the challenge in 2011 (it was my first year of quilting and things just all got on top of me), I did finish one off last year which was sent through to one of our military personnel over seas as a part of the Aussie Hero Quilts group.  

This year they'll be quilting for two charities based in America (which is normal, though as International quilters, we also have the option of either sending over the top & backing to be finished off or donating to our own homegrown charity to alleviate costs of postage), Happy Chemo and Quilts Beyond Borders - two great charities.  You could make one (or more) for each (or other groups here) and spread the love if you want.

You can read more about the Challenge here and sign up at the same time.  There will be a giveaway for folks who sign up by this Saturday night (30 March 2013, America time) and lots of giveaways at the end of the Challenge for those who participate!

They don't need to be fancy quilts - a simple design is really all that is necessary! This was the quilt I made last year ...

You can read more about it here.

Last year I was the only Aussie participating - how about add a few more to the mix?!!

My first full-size bed quilt ...

Mid-April I showed images of my first full-size quilt top here.  At this stage I was hand-stitching the binding on, and it was all ready to go after that.

I have since finished this, and have informed Jan-Maree from Aussie Hero Quilts that this quilt is ready and available to send either when she gets a request this would fit well, or the Christmas posting ... For those who don't know about the Aussie Hero Quilts movement (lol) group, Jan-Maree has just finished posting a five-part Aussie Hero's 101 series which will give you more clear information that I could possible do.  Part One {what 'we' do, and quilt basics} can be found here, and then follow-up posts can be found on the right of the screen in the archives (end of May, 1st of June)

Just quickly, in Jan-Maree's words ...

What do we do?   The Friends of Aussie Heroes are spread all over the country and we make quilts and laundry bags to send to serving members currently serving overseas.  We send twice a year with the welfare mail but if we get a request from a spouse or a member and are supplied with the address we can send a quilt any time of the year.  All we need is two or three weeks to get a quilt made and two or three weeks for the post to cover the distance.  So far we have coped well with any requests that have come our way and in fact I think we could cope with a few more.  We would certainly do our best.  We started sending to guys and gals in Afghanistan and are now sending to Egypt as well.  We are happy to send anywhere and if requests came in for members in any of the other regions I would be delighted!  {source}

 Anyway, I have finally gotten to taking some photos of this quilt ... this last month I've been stressing majorly about my uni (still going, lol), and then though I was supposed to write this post yesterday ... I developed a horrid sore throat and headache - still here, even Panafen is not helping completely!!  At least I have a doctors appointment (originally for an unrelated issue ... sore ear) tomorrow morning, so hopefully I can get something to help get fight the infection before it gets any worse!!

Okay, photos ...

On my daughter's bed, so please don't mind the pink walls, pillow and embroidered pillows there, lol!

 I used up the remainder of a civil war reproduction jelly roll from moda ... I think it was a 2010 or 11 range.  With this I added a mottled burgundy/brown fabric for the wide border, and a blue for the thin border and binding (thanks ladies for this suggestion!  NEVER would have thought of it myself, but it looks great!!

The blocks were 12in rail fence blocks, which didn't take very long to put together... just to lay out, lol!

I quilted it with a stippling/meandering design all-over the blocks, adding a trailing feather along the two borders.  It was great to actually put my FMQing skills into a BIGger project than a small 8 x 16in block!!!  I used Mettler silk-finish multi quilting thread in a variegated brown (No.50), and only needed one 500yd spool ... with leftover thread.

A closeup of the feathering in the border ...

I was wanting to link this quilt up with the Hands2Help challenge linkup as this was my contribution to this challenge, but that will depend on what Sarah says, as I have missed it by about 5 hours (was sleeping the afternoon away ... as I don't feel my throat when I'm asleep ... after struggling through church and the lunch afterwards - which I'd already prepared a couple of recipes for, so I felt I still needed to go).  Head on over to have a look at what the other women have made for the two selected charities in America ... I was the only Aussie involved, so when I asked Sarah if I could donate it to AHQ, she said yes ... much easier and cheaper than having to send it over to America!!!  Either way, this quilt is waiting in the wings for Jan-Maree to let me know where and to whom to send this to.  Been praying it will bless the future recipient, even before it arrives in his arms!!

Have a great week!  I am hoping to get caught up with all my uni this week, alongside my Proverbs 31 study (which I'm doing through the Women Living Well and Good Morning Girls blogs - WONDERFUL blogs for Christian women by the way!!) and hanging out with my DD ... can hardly believe she'll be 4 in two weeks!!

15 minute challenge update: week 3

Just a quick update today as I really need to get back to that H2H Quilt that really needs to be finished this week - plus I have a 1000wd assignment due on Monday which I need to work on tomorrow - so not much time spare.

This week's progress has been good,  though this has been mainly as things need to get done!  I did plan on getting hours done yesterday, but the tv caught me at dinner time and didn't let me go until way after midnight - not good.  I did get a number of shapes for paper piecing drawn up and cut out though!

So, without further ado...

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Tuesday, 19th July:  2+hrs, 6in block swap for Sue

Wednesday, 20th July: 1+hrs, (can't remember what I worked on)

Thursday, 21st July: 2+hrs, Quilt Blocks and Hands2Help Quilt (one block finished)

Friday, 22nd July (FNSI): 45mins, mending pram hold-all under where you put child

Saturday, 23rd July: 1hr, 1H2HQB finished

Sunday, 24th July: 5hrs, 4H2HQBs finished

Monday, 25th July: 2.5+hrs, 2.5 H2HQBs finished

Tuesday, 26th July: 45mins, tracing and cutting out shapes for English paper piecing.
------------

All in all, pretty good.  Approximately 15hours across the week!  Though now I really do need to get going.  I need to finish my last H2H Block, sew these together and get it ready to layer tonight so I can get some in-the-ditch sewing done tonight.

I hope you had just as productive a week!

**Photos to come later in the week!**

I am In LOVE!! (...and WESI update)

As of 12:01 this morning, I have officially finished 6 out of 9 blocks needed for my H2H Quilt, excepting the horizontal sashings within 5 of them (not yet cut).  This is BIG!!  Before the weekend I had a grand total of ... ONE! Saturday saw me finish another one (long day outing with daughter and cousins) and yesterday I completed the other four.

Why the change of pace?

Well, for starters I am no longer taking the time to draw in my seam markers.

Secondly ... I got myself a 1/4in w/ Guide Presser Foot!!  YAY!!! *happy dance*

Source

And I am officially in LOVE with it!

It is seriously making this SO much quicker!  And, in conjunction with my 1/4in ruler and (also new) finger presser, I am getting these blocks measured out (some are slightly - <1/8in - too small) and sewn so much quicker!!

Source

I never realised just how much quicker these tools would make my sewing/piecing time!!  And with the finger presser, I don't need to have the iron on nearby while I am doing the squares - which makes it so much safer when I am doing it with my daughter nearby!!

So, 6 out of 9 blocks pretty well done.  3 all laid out to sew.  And then to cut the horizontal, then separating sashings ... I am hoping to have a full flimsy ready to show for tomorrow's 15min challenge update!!  And you can bet I have been up to way more than 15mins a day!!!

Oh, my FNSI didn't really pan out how I wanted it to - of course, lol!  We had a public holiday here on Friday as our local 'show' was on this past weekend, which meant that my parents were home - letting me sleep in!  Ah, I had a GOOD sleep-in ... certainly longer than I'd thought once I woke up (11am!).  I couldn't believe it!  Though, since DD woke up a few times overnight (and was quite grumpy about having to go back to sleep at 5am!) I relished the opportunity.  While I slept, DD had breakfast and was out in the garden with her grandparents!

((  She even worked out the frisbee on Friday - something we'd been working on on occasions over the week.  Yay!!  ))

So, after filling my day with lots of stuff Friday, that evening only saw me fix the bottom 'basket' from our pram.  It's a job that has been on the 'to do' list for a while now, it just didn't get done till now.  Basically, a few months ago I pulled the pram apart and washed everything in the machine, not realising that the boards in the bottom 'basket' (can't think of the correct term, but it's that place underneath the main part of the pram [where you put the child], where you can put store the stuff you'd otherwise have to carry) was cardboard.  Not good.  It was pulp by the time it came out.

I had to:
- unpick;
- remove afore mentioned pulp (and vaccum out!);
- cut out appropriate sized pieces of architects presentation board to provide required level-ness and structure to the bottom of the 'basket';
- insert boards into the correct slips of fabric; and
- sew up seams again.

If you can follow that - CONGRATULATIONS!!  Lol!

It took me about an hour, but by the time I finished this it was too late to get onto anything else.  I did however do a lot of sewing over the weekend, as previously mentioned, so hopefully this makes up for my pitiful FNSI (also why I named it WESI - WeekEnd Sew In!)

Anyway must go - gotta finish those blocks for tomorrow!  What did you get up to this weekend just gone?

15 minute challenge update: week 2

Well, this week I have once again done a really good job in doing at least 15 minutes of craft every day.  Keep in mind, times given are in approximations as I didn't actually make a record of how long I was working, thus the longer times given may have been either slightly shorter or longer.

- - - - - - - -

Tuesday: 3hrs crochet + cut out twenty seven 6in x 6in squares from three FQs for H2H quilt along with some 2.5in strips for binding from leftover FQ fabric.

Wednesday: 2hrs, cutting fabrics for H2H Quilt & began working on 1st quilt block

Thursday: 2hrs, H2H Quilt

Friday: no sewing, however I did a deep clean and re-organised my desk and sewing area as well as my bedroom

Saturday: 1hr, crochet

Sunday: 1hr sewing, finished off Christmas Block Swap for Leena 

Monday: 15-20mins, crochet

Tuesday (today): 1.5hrs (so far, doing more after posting...), 6in block swap blocks for Sue.

- - - - - - - - 

Hands2Hands Challenge: Pretty good, though the H2H blocks were frustrating me as a few of the FQs were not cut quite right, leaving some squares 1/8th inch smaller than needed which is, as you can imagine, making it quite difficult to ensure exact seams.  First block is nearly done - just one more seam to finish it off.

Block Swaps: I finally finished off the block for Leena, who has been been incredibly understanding of me.  It was officially in the mail Monday morning, so should arrive either tomorrow or Thursday.  I am just glad I kept in touch throughout it.  Sue's blocks will be in the mail tomorrow afternoon - one is finished and I am working on finishing the second after I finish writing this post!  

Tomorrow I need to finish making up the remaining blocks for the H2H quilt and put the top together so I can go in and get the batting and border/backing fabrics on Thurs (child-free day) to finish it next week - yes, I know I said I would try to do this last week, but this week I really need to get it done!  I also need to work on a few more blocks for swaps this week - Fiona, Gina this is you - and a mug rug for my partner Bobbie.  

I have linked this blog to this week's 15 minute Challenge post, as hosted by Kate @ Life in Pieces.  

My recent crafty achievements (pics!)...

I realised yesterday that I hadn't put up any photos of some of the things I've been up to, craft-wise, so I am going to attempt to quickly show them now.  Beware, photo-heavy post ahead...
Also, better grab a cuppa - I'm going through a lot!

First off, I have a couple of block swaps received ...

The first from Julie, my June partner for QBSA.  A lovely couple of bright pinwheel blocks with a beautiful floral card...

What a lucky girl was I ... two gorgeous blocks!!

My block for her was the lovely Lady of the Lake 2 in blue and yellow...

My very late blocks for Monica (from the USA, no blog), my 6inBSA partner will be receiving two of these blocks in the mail shortly.  They are the Interlocked Squares blocks in civil war fabrics.  It primarily took so long for me to get these done as I was waiting for the fabrics from America.  I haven't received my blocks from her yet, though since they are coming from so far away I am not all that concerned yet...

I also received in the mail two blocks from Sue, my June 6inBSA partner.  A gorgeous version of pinwheels I haven't seen before now, plus an extra (smaller) traditional pinwheel to boot!

Gorgeous colours!! What a lucky, lucky girl am I!

Your blocks will (hopefully) be in the mail early next week Sue.

Another block I have made - though not sent yet as after I took the photo I realised that it was 1/4 in too small and some of the corners weren't quite right so I had to unpick and re-sew the outer 'borders' around the central 9 square.  I will only put up a sneak peek as it hasn't gotten to her yet.  A block for my June (yes, I am sorry it is so late!) Christmas block for my partner Leena (no blog).

If you are reading this Leena, I am getting onto the last three seams (had to re-do these a second time) as soon as I finish writing this post.

Okay, I think that is all the block swaps I can post on atm, lol.  A few more coming in the next week or so, also with a mug rug swap too.

I have mentioned a few times that I am a recent recruit of the crochet-loving crafters, lol.  I originally learnt (well, taught myself along with some confirmation from my mother) this craft when I found a pattern for a cushion cover that I thought was perfect to give my grandmother for Christmas last year.  Mind you, this was in mid-November ... and I had never done any crochet before!  I ended up getting it done, and it looks lovely - though when mum went down there to visit last week she reported that this cushion had been put on a bed to reside, rather than used on the lounge to replace one of the dead (!) old ones as intended, lol.

Anyway, I have since been working on another cover, this time for myself, though in the last couple of months I have expanded my 'repertoire', so to speak, and tried out some different patterns.  The first one was the doily below.  This pattern I unfortunately had to adapt (the second-to-last row had to be 'pushed over' about 3 stitches), but this was easy enough to work out when I had a play around with it.  I have a third almost finished that I was working on Sunday in the service (sermon ... I need something to do with my hands so I can concentrate on the message - otherwise my mind goes off on all manner of tangents and I finally realise it has finished when the last song begins) which will be finished soon.

The flowers are from a pattern I sourced through Lisa @ Cubby House Crafts.  She has a gorgeous blog - check it out if you haven't already ... her flowers are shown in her header and are just gorgeous!  I prefer the pink ones over the purply-pinky-white flowers, though I do think they'll look even better if I can find some plain coloured thread.  The smaller one was an adaptation to the bigger flower.  I was wondering if it would work, had a fiddle, and I think it looks very cute.

Since working on these was relatively easy I decided I would throw myself in the deep end *chuckle* and try a finer pattern.  This is my progress so far, with the pattern in the top left ...

Very pretty, delicate ... and tough on my fingers!

Finally, an update on my Hands2Help quilt progress.  The other night I finally began cutting out the fabrics.  I say 'finally' as this needs to be in America in a months' time - thus I have, at the most, two weeks to get it done and in the post.  I am hoping to have the quilt top done by the end of this weekend, though am beginning to put the blocks together today after I have finished Leena's block (above).  I decided on a Sudoku-style quilt, with 1in strips of black between the purple squares to separate them, and a 2.5in strip between the blocks of nine.

I just need to decide whether to border these with a 2.5, 3 or 3.5in strip of black outside the squares as the final border.  I will be heading to the fabric store either later today or early tomorrow for some purple floral or stripy backing fabric and some batting so I can get it ready for quilting next week.  I am still thinking about how I am going to quilt it.  Been looking at The Free Motion Quilting Project and am thinking stippling over the blocks and either trailing tears or nothing through the sashings.  I will look at it more closely once the flimsy is done though.  Either way, I will have to find myself a practice block - never in my life have I done any quilting past straight in-the-ditch lines!

Phew!  What a long post!!!  What are you up to this weekend?

H2H May Update

Living in Australia has made receiving the fabrics from my gorgeous partner Ann, a little longer than all the other lovely participants for the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge, however no matter - they are here now, arriving two or three weeks ago (my memory escapes me atm).  And they are BEAUTIFUL!!  One of my favourite colours is purple - crazy, eh?!  *giggle* 

Unfortunately, the last few weeks have been kind of crazy in regards to 'things that must be done', with my last drawings for my uni course to be finished in the next few days (aren't extensions great when you are really having a major meltdown about your own inabilities?!!), so I haven't been able to get onto this quilt yet - Thank-you Lord that I have another 6 weeks to get this finished (taking into consideration enough postage time to get to Judi in America).  

I have another three drawings to do as of 'right now', plus a finish of another and a 500-word written assignment detailing how I feel my drawing has developed over the course of the unit; so I am hoping to get onto this in the next week-or-so in amongst making a whole bunch of stuff for my daughter (turns 3 in 2.5weeks!) and a number of quilt blocks I need to make for swaps (priority #1 after these drawings).

Anyway, I'm a little unsure yet of what exactly I'm going to do with this quilt.  I'm thinking maybe either 

a) a sudoku-style top with 5in blocks of colours with 1in strips between each square and a border;

b) a top made up of 4 x 4 'prickly pear' blocks; or

c) some kind of star-blocks.

Any ideas or suggestions?

**I am linking this post up with Sarah's linky-post for this months' update.  Pop over to check out what the other participants have been up to - quite a few have finished either the quilt tops or the entire quilt - a few are even on a second or third!  Amazing women!!

Project Purge: Shoes; and Hands2Help Challenge

Just as Tsh's Project Simplify challenge moved towards its conclusion the other week, Jen @ iHeartOrganising began her April "30 items in 30 days" organising challenge, renamed "Project Purge" as of yesterday.  This is fantastic for me as, since I've begun the simplification process last month I have really begun taking a serious look at my possessions (and I have many as the 'hoarder' gene definitely embedded itself in my DNA!), and having a (somewhat) 'deadline' means that I am more likely to tackle those areas I've planned to talked about attacking for quite a few years. 

Though I am rather late off the bat in discussing Week 1's focus, I thought I'd do it anyway - if only for a personal visual record of my efforts.  In Jen's first week, she began by placing her focus upon the entryway, or rather, one's SHOES.  Now, we don't really store our shoes in the entry of our house excepting a pair of thongs and sneakers for easy access when we go outside; but my shoes collection in my room had begun to look like noone loved them!  


Unfortunately most of my shoes I had pre-motherhood and, as I still weigh approximately 13kgs (27 pounds) heavier than I was before I fell pregnant [5 kgs heavier than when 9 months pregnant, and have lost 6 kgs since the beginning of February], my feet are still a lot bigger than when I was able to wear them and thus many no longer fit.  This helped in my decision making, though I still kept one or two pairs which are slightly tight as I am aiming to be weighing even less than then by the end of the year.


Before

A good four or five years back, when there was a sale on clear shoe boxes at Coles, I purchased a whole heap of them intending to use them to help me organise and store all my collection.  Since having my daughter I haven't touched many, leaving most in their boxes for years and me forgetting I had them.  A lot of my pre-motherhood shoes were also high heels, a style I rarely wear these days due both to my added weight and the fact that it is so much harder running after a enthusiastic 'little tacker' in heels than it is in flats.  Nowadays I only wear them at church, since I rarely go out without my daughter and haven't been on a date for over four years.

After

Once I collected all the shoes together in a central place (my daughter likes grabbing ones she thinks are 'pretty' to toddle around the house in *grin*) I was able to really see what it was I owned.  Those I knew I wouldn't wear again, due to size and/or comfort (I need more padding under the ball of my foot than I seemed to need all those years ago), immediately went to the "give away" pile.  From the remaining shoes I then paired down some of the similar styles so that I didn't have quite so many double-ups - especially since I seem to really only wear certain shoes 'all' the time rather than others.

I also pulled out the shoe organiser I bought from Target almost a year ago, and put that together, before dusting out the bottom of the cupboard and putting everything back (I plan to attack my closet in the next few weeks as I get everything washed and ironed, and I'll do a more thorough clean then).

It looks so much clearer now - and a lot easier to see what I have!  The two pairs in clear shoe boxes (yes, I kept two - but two dozen are on their way to the op shop as soon as my car is back from the shop for repairs) are my 'old' ballroom dancing shoes.  Even though I haven't done it for years, I plan on getting back some day - and since they were expensive and still fit they're staying! My short faux 'ugg's are front and centre as the dry season will be upon is in a couple of months (Darwin weather is 6mths 'dry season' when we consider it to get cold, and 6 months of 'build-up' and 'wet season' when it gets all hot and humid before bringing glorious thunderstorms like no other - oh, and the cyclones).  The pink suede with brown trim heels at the bottom of the organiser are slightly tight - ie, I couldn't walk in them, but I can get them on - are staying as I LOVE them, and am hoping to wear them again one day soon.  The rest is a collection of black or brown heels of various heights.

Below are the shoes that are headed to the op shop ... 

I HATE to give away the three pink pairs on the left, mainly for the memories they carry, and the silver ones in the bottom centre-left were my bridesmaid shoes, but I decided I need to be ruthless - and most of them don't fit now anyway.  They are all well-worn, but if I don't give them away, I know they'll just hide away in my closet.

That's 9 pairs, and if I add to that the 11 bags (and dis-regard the two Huggies boxs worth of books, spare stationary supplies and other goodies) I also purged this month, I am well on the way to exceeding the "30 items in 30 days" amount.  So far so good!