DBM #3...at the Female Factory

Nothing on my Design Board today.....for me it will have to wait another day because I have had a very special visitor for the weekend. A gorgeous young man who I first met 27 years ago when they put this squawking little baby in my arms. He changed my life forever and it was so nice to have my boy, Red, over for his first visit to our new home.

So...no sewing has been done since Friday when he arrived but we did pay another visit to the Fossil Coast and yesterday we spent the day in Hobart Town where we visited the Cascade Female Factory. And this is as close as I got to anything quilty for the weekend.

clicking the picture will make it bigger and hopefully better to read

 I may be wrong, but I think I have seen the actual quilt at an exhibition that was touring the country last year. Unfortunately, no photo's were allowed at that exhibition so I my recollection is hazy. This quilt is quite different, being made out of metal squares but it did catch my eye the minute we walked through the entrance gate.

The rusted effect is how it is supposed to look, fitting in with the other aspects of this heritage site. A close up of one of the squares shows a lovely filigree metal cutout.

Just in case you are mystified by the name of Female Factory, as I was, it is not somewhere to manufacture items for women (actually, I could not imagine a reason at all for a female factory). It is in fact a Female Prison from the 1800s. This particular one has not been preserved very well and part of it is now re-developed into a Childcare centre and one of the yards has even been reclaimed from a tennis court built on the site in the 1920's. The walls are really all that are left... and the matron's cottage along one of the walls. I will be writing more about our weekend travels over at Cath@Home over the coming week.

You will still find the Link Party below and I am really keen to see what you will all be getting up to this week.

If you would like to party along.....

• link anything that you are working on this week or over the past week....needle and thread is all it takes!
• Please add a link back to Bits 'n Bobs as part of your post (cut and paste the badge, if you like)
• Please make the effort to visit other link users and leave them a comment to make their day!
• Link will be open until Sunday 4/10/15

 

Design Board Monday #2.....A new BOM

*If you are visiting through Val's Quilting Studio, please note that this Link Party is now closed, there is another one active at the moment HERE and you are welcome to link up*

 

Hello to you all and firstly, thank you so much for taking part in last weeks Link Party.....I am so appreciative and never in my wildest dreams did I expect to have 9 "guinea pigs"!  You are the best! Look out for this weeks Linky below.

I have been hinting about this BOM for awhile and now that I am eventually ready to start, I would like to share it with you all.

It was really my own indecision that kept me from starting this project earlier because the recommended threads were not part of the BOM and I couldn't decide if I wanted to use them or not....in the end, the heart won out and they arrived with the 2nd lot of BOM blocks....seems like time to get started on the 1st lot!

Lets back up the truck a bit to that visit I made to The Old Church closing down event way back in June...the day I met both Leonie Bateman and Sue Daley. I initially fell in love with Sue's quilt, "Lancaster" which was one of many on display but I also got a chance to look at Leonie's design...Brookfield which is soooo much nicer in real life.....no picture can do it justice.

I could only afford to get one of these quilts and two factors helped me make up my mind.....1) I already have two Sue Daley kits that are waiting to be sewn....'Marmalade' & 'Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows'; and 2) I really wanted to work with wool felt.

I got started with a couple of blocks on Friday, just to give me an idea of the process and then today I started the production line. The little basket template comes in so handy because it is so much easier to trace around a template rather than trace one through freezer paper.

 This production line was going to be a breeze. First off....tracing the design and ironing the freezer paper onto the felt squares.

 Then cutting out the baskets and adding some glue to the back of them.....using the bonus BOM gift, a Sue Daley sandpaper board, kept those felt bits nice and stable for a swipe of glue.

After that, the felt baskets were glued to the shirt fabric backing and I took them back to the ironing board to affix the whisperweft.

After that was done, I did something which I have never, ever done before......I stapled the applique to the backing fabric!! Because felt doesn't fray, a stabilising medium isn't necessary, and it would make it to hard to sew through as well, I imagine. That is why it is a good idea to staple the basket shapes to the background....extra insurance for less movement.

And this is what I will be setting my mind to for the week.....the first 8 basket blocks for "Brookfield" by Leonie Bateman Designs.

6 out of the 8

Now it's your turn.....

If you would like to party along.....

• link anything that you are working on this week or over the past week....needle and thread is all it takes!
• Please add a link back to Bits 'n Bobs as part of your post (cut and paste the badge, if you like)
• Please make the effort to visit other link users and leave them a comment to make their day!
• Link will be open until Sunday 27/9/15

  

Linking in to: 

BOMs Away at What a Hoot

Monday Makings at Love Laugh Quilt 

Main Crush Monday at Cookin Up Quilts

On Your Toes...it's time to stitch!

I have had such a lovely busy day today.....I started off getting various flower seeds and carrot seeds ready for germination, planted out my lettuce seedlings and got my strawberry plants into bigger pots. Then I headed indoors to get dinner in the slow cooker for later..and then I was free to get into the sewing room.

slow cooked Chilli Con Carne

I prepped some blocks for a BOM that I haven't revealed yet....but be prepared to stay in the dark a bit longer.....I expect to start stitching those over the weekend and I will showcase them in their own post because they really do deserve that. In the meantime...here is a teaser...

After tea time, I decided to continue stitching Dancing with Brolgas from the Australian Afternoon BOM. I had a few more ballet shoes to satin stitch so my birds could perform flawless pointe and perfect their arabesque and grand jetes.

All that is left is to stitch the audience who are sat there in raptured awe...

 and just as well....look what came in the post yesterday.

Looks like I will have to concentrate on Block 2 from A Country Tea Party now and no doubt Flowerville will probably arrive soon too....Australian Afternoon will have to be put away for awhile.

1. Thank you to Wendy at Sugarlane Designs for hosting us for FNSI.  I have just checked and there were 50 friends sewing last night.  Its going to be a fun and busy weekend visiting them all.
2. Kathy at Kathy's Quilts for hosting Slow Stitch Sunday
3.  Beth at Cooking Up Quilts for hosting Main Crush Monday
4. Super Mom - No Cape for hosting Stitchery Link Party 
5. A Quilting Reader's Garden for WIPs be Gone
6. Last but definitely not least....a thank you also to Lynette at What a Hoot for hosting BOMs Away.

My Blog Notes 

• I am hosting "Design Board Monday" Link Party at Bits 'n Bobs on  Mondays, would love to see you there so mark your calendar. It's open all week!
• The Link Up at Cath@Home is still open for another week......take a look and enter...because

 

No More Excuses & Dancing Brolgas

There should be no more excuses from me about blogging issues due to computer frustrations....because today I sorted out that problem. That's right, I hot-footed it into town today to buy a NEW computer.  I spat the dummy yesterday when it took me the whole day to write a couple of blog posts and link in to two other blogs....I kid you not! Nothing else got done all day.

All in all I had the most amazingly successful day.  Since it was a Tuesday morning I decided to stop by Frangipani Fabrics as they have a social sewing group on Tuesdays and I was just in time to introduce myself and have a cup of tea with them....there was cake too but I am abstaining at the moment. They are such a lovely group of ladies, I am going to enjoy heading there for a regular social outlet.  I did take some stitching with me so I added a few stitches to "Dancing Brolgas"

Afterwards, I headed down the road a few hundred metres to THAT thread shop that I missed out on when I last visited town.  What a treasure trove.....it's a tiny shop and full of bobbins of ric-rac, buttons, ribbons and threads, threads, threads...plus tapestry and cross stitch patterns....and much more. The shop is called A Stitch in Time and I can't wait to visit again. I did find the two missing threads for Australian Afternoon so can stitch to my hearts content now.

I was out later than I intended but as soon as I got home I got my computer started up and set up....thank goodness there was something in the freezer that I could count on for dinner tonight!

I would really like to thank all my little "Guinea Pigs" for indulging me and linking up to the party yesterday.....You are all Simply Amazing! There is still time to link if you want....CLICK HERE or to visit those who did.

Trial Design Board Monday

A while ago, I regularly participated in a link party, posting about what was finding itself on my design wall for the week. After a while I stopped contributing because there was no interaction from the link host blog or other contributing blogs which sort of made me feel like a spare wheel. I am learning that I am the kind of  person that needs rountine and regular posting on Link Parties is helpful with that which is why I would like to start my own Linky for Design Board Monday.

This week I decided it was time to cut a fabric that I bought on my last trip up to Brisbane. This is actually secret sewing but I doubt the recipient reads my blog so I may be safe.

I had initially wanted to use a pattern which incorportated the rail fence block.....like this one I pinned.

Realising that the birdie fabric would be too difficult to cut into the required block sizes, I needed to rethink without excluding the complimentary fabrics I had bought for this project a few weeks ago.

 I have spent the past couple of weeks rehashing block sizes and tearing my hair out thinking how I could make that above pattern work...until...I came across another pictureof another pattern that I though might just work better.  It is a Moda Bakeshop  Jelly Roll pattern which I will have to resize slightly due to the width of the birds. Yes, it was time to cut!

I started with the square-in-a-square block...as you can't continue until these units are pieced.  I pieced my blocks a bit different to the pattern which is maybe why my blocks finished up at just under 6.5" so I cut the blocks back to 6".

After a couple of hours in the sewing room, I was really happy with the results

There is plenty for me to carry on with for the rest of the week.

And, with that, I will get to the Linky......now I am new at this, so bear with me. Link a post of whatever you are working on this week in your sewing room...no design board or wall necessary. It could be piecing, stitching, knitting, crochet......anything involving needle and thread.

Here goes! Come on over and be my guinea pigs!

When you have finished linking up here, head on over to Main Crush Mondays over at Cooking Up Quilts and Making Mondays at Love Laugh Quilt......that's where I am linking up as well.
 

Some Threads to Stitch

I did quick trip into Hobart yesterday to get a last few threads so I could finish stitching a couple of WIP blocks. Well the trip IN was quick....more about that later.

 My first stop was Spotlight because I know I can get DMC threads there....besides, I was also looking for something in the homewares aisle. Out of the 7 colours I needed,....suprise, suprise...I could only find 5!

 No probs, this time I remembered that there is a thread shop in town so off I went to find it.  Not much help though as they had closed early!! The ones I had would have to do. The trip home was interesting. I had no idea how to get home from where I was so I called on my TomTom to help and it took me home on the windy trecherous route which was definitely not the quickest route.  By the time I realised, I decided to just go with it......at least, the scenery was amazing around the base of Mt Wellington.

The two threads colours I didn't have were not necessary for finishing the blocks that I wanted to so today I sat down to finish them.  And here they are:

First off, the daisies on block 1 of 'A Country Tea Party' ......so pretty

Then I pulled out my first two unfinished blocks from "Australian Afternoon". Here is Emu makes a Duck.

and lastly I finished off Possum Reading

I loved stitching the little yellow daisies.

They sort of remind me of the daffodils that I keep finding in the garden and which I keep picking for little pops of spring all over the house.

While I wait for my next BOM blocks to arrive in the mail, I am going to stitch
The Brolgas are Dancing.

I also managed to do some block piecing today....more on that later. Actually, I got a bit done today....from stitching and sewing to herding cows to photographing sights in the yard....those are currently appearing on Cath@Home

In the meantime I am linking in to
Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

BOMs Away at What a Hoot

Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape