Not more scraps!

I don't want you to think that I have a log cabin fetish, but................ here's another one hot off the machine.   

Still scrappy, because I have an ENORMOUS pile of scraps to use up, but also because I love the scrappy look.  It's getting that I'm not so keen on co-ordinated anymore.  And I've never tried putting log cabin blocks on point before, and I had to concentrate very hard on getting the darks and lights in the correct place when making the half blocks.

I can't decide if it reminds me more of baskets, or some sort of water container - I like it; but I have no idea what to call it!

Brisbane Quilt Show

Last week I visited the Brisbane Craft and Quilt Fair, and had a lovely time looking at all the exciting new products and patterns that are available.  I don't buy very much these days though, because my cupboards are already pretty full.  A pack of 1/2metre cuts and some rotary cutter blades - what a spendthrift!

The Fair incorporates the Queensland Quilt Show, and the exhibits were really fabulous and very inspiring.  I probably shouldn't post the photos I took without the permission of the quiltmakers, but you can see pictures of the winning quilts on the Queensland Quilters Inc. website.  It makes me weak at the knees just thinking about how much work went into these quilts!

Spring has sprung!

We know that spring is really here when the jacaranda trees come into bloom.  You can see by the sky behind though, that it's also the start of the storm season.  On Thursday some parts of Brisbane had a very hard hailstorm that caused a lot of damage but luckily it missed us here on the Sunshine Coast.

 

I've been busy out and about socialising with friends this week.  I've had a fabulous week, but not much has happened "at home with Bev"!  But I have managed to sew these Log Cabin blocks together - all 144 of them! 

I'll show you more when the quilt is finished, but it might be a while yet.  Did you hear that, Steven?  I'm thinking that rather than quilting, perhaps I'll tie this quilt - with red in the red hearth squares.  The blocks finish at 5.5" so it should be enough.  What do you think?

Scrapology

I've become the SRU for my local Linus group. That's Scrap Repository Unit.

This is what comes to me.

I made it known to my fellow quilters that I stuff pillowcases with all my small unusable bits of fabric, sew them closed, and take them to the animal refuge centre for bedding. I made sure to tell the staff at the refuge that if the dogs rip them open, there's going to be a heck of a mess, so they mostly just use them for the cats.
While I was going through these "cat scraps" to make sure there wasn't any pins or nasties mixed in with them (and sometimes there is!) I found that there's also some rather lovely usable bits and pieces: long strips trimmed from backings; reject blocks; ends of strip pieced units; and odd shapes left from cutting applique pieces. So I saved them up and made quilts out of them!

Some of the girls think I'm quite mad (and some days I agree with them), but look here at the gold that I salvaged out of them. The white bucket is full of strings, and there's metres of 2 1/2" strips and 2" strips and lovely 5" squares. I think I've gone to scrap heaven!
I have a sneaking suspicion that they pepper their scraps with good bits just to see if I'm paying attention. But I don't think I miss much.

 Below are the results of some of my scrap saving.

Waiting for a new family

I've been knitting these bears for about 10 years. No, not these particular bears, but ones like them. My Mum and I started making them and we had 51 of them ready when a friend was visiting an orphanage for blind children in Vietnam. It was just dumb luck that there happened to be 51 little kids in that facility. We kept on knitting them and gave them to Red Cross, and the police and the ambo's. They keep them in their cars to help comfort little kids who are caught up in traumatic events: fires, traffic accidents, domestic violence issues and such. We've sent out a couple of hundred of them.

Mum's moved on to a better place now, but I keep on knitting these little guys. They've become kind of like family members, and a little bit of me goes with each one. This litter is off to the Emergency Accommodation Centre, and they'll be adopted out there. I have to say though, that I'm not sure about that short fat guy in the middle. I'm wondering what the heck his mother got up to; and with whom!