I have finally uploaded my friendship blocks after borrowing a camera.

Unfortunately I put them on my design wall which is white so one has to imagine the

corners etc on the blocks

This block is called Little Boys Britches, look at the corners.

Some months we get two patterns for our friendship blocks

Another month has gone by. I haven't been slacking, I have been sewing my friendship swap blocks, finished another Seattle Streets Quilt for local hostel and pieced a very bright top for my granddaughter. As well as all this I have had a week in Western Australia, visiting my son. My very big problem at the moment is that my camera has finally died. Bills, bills and more bills mean that a new one will have to wait for a while so no pictures can be posted unless I can borrow my daughters for a while and get some photos up.
As a member of Stashbusters I am trying to make my quilts without purchasing too much fabric. Most of the time this is okay but for my granddaughters latest, she wanted lots of green and orange and as I'm definitely not a green person a trip to the stores was in order!!! I've decided to do it 'quilt as you go' so I don't have to wrestle with it on my machine.
I've been doing some reading of other quilters blogs and wow are there some very talented ladies out there, both with their sewing and their blogs.

Wow where does the time go. I have been busy though so haven't had time to post here, anyway I belong to the BWO, so it doesn't matter. I am off on a weekend retreat, nothing but sewing all weekend and no cooking, housework etc. Can't wait. I might just get my second 'Seattle Streets' quilt finished and be able to post a photo. Its been a really fun quilt, that's why I have made two.

Here are a few photos of quilts sent to Melinda.

I have just had word from Melinda that she is thrilled with the quilts we sent for the bushfire victims. I thought she would be as there was some lovely quilts.

Back to my own quilting now. I am currently doing 'Laurie Beithan's "Seattle Streets" design' which can be found via the Stashbusters website. It is great fun and even better I am getting to use up all my hand dyed fabrics. At present I am just doing the strips. When I have put together some blocks I'll put them up.

Its been a while since I have posted. All the bushfire quilts have gone off to Melinda and Pam in Alexandra, I'm sure they will be happy with them. I'm not sure of the exact number, I think about 18 plus 4 or 5 tops. For a small group I think we did pretty well.
I can now get down to catching up with my blocks for my friendship groups pattern and fabric swaps. I made a mistake in my calculations and haven't got quite enough fabric for the design I have decided on for the fabric swap. Have been able to get some more but is a much lighter dye lot. Presently I am trying to darken it with coffee dye which isn't too bad. I know I could change the whole design but truthfully I don't want to so will use a bit of creative license and use the coffee dyed fabric even though it is not strictly the same.
Our pattern this month is one called 'Little boys britches' and is it a difficult pattern to do my machine. I'm sure it was designed to do by hand. Not one I will be doing again.

And another, our group is made up of a wonderful bunch of ladies

And another.

Another lovely quilt made by one of the group members.

And some more wonderful ladies working hard

Here we all are last month with machines and fabric everywhere making quilts to send to Alexandra for distribution to bushfire victims.

Another great day with my friendship group yesterday. We had another group visit, which is always fun. Show and tell was inspiring. Most had their 'bushfire quilts' with them some finished some still being worked on but they looked great, I'm sure the people who receive them will be delighted. I didn't get photos yesterday but next month they will all be brought along finished so they can be bundled up to go to Alexandra at Easter so I will take photos then and post here. I also received another bag of FQs and some batting pieces yesterday so I had best get started on another.

Here is my latest offering to the bushfire relief. It is an I Spy type and probably geared more for a boy with dinasaurs etc. Tomorrow is my friendship group's normal monthly meeting and I am hopeful that members will have quite a few finished items which were started last month at our 'working bee' for bushfire quilts for want of a better term. We will be visited by another group from 'over the water' tomorrow and they always have a lot of show and tell so hopefully my ladies will keep up with them this time. They are a wonderful bunch of ladies and we enjoy visits to and from yearly. I am hopeful Melinda from Alexandra will be the recipient of quite a few really nice quilts and tops for her groups effort of delivering quilts to a few of the smaller towns effected by the bushfires.

I have been working diligently on another quilt for the bushfire relief. This time an I Spy type probably suitable for a young boy. I decided to use Keryn's method of Quilt As You Go which is shown as a tutorial on her blog www. quiltingtwin.blogspot.com. Her instructions are excellent and I find the method, although a bit more sewing than Jan Macs way, very neat. The only thing I did different was omit the part where she joins the two blocks together with a zig zag stitch. I found my machine tended to distort the blocks and really they all went together very well without doing this. All up to the individual, like most things with patchwork. With a bit of luck I will get it finished today and be able to put a picture up during the week.

What with the fires and also extreme flooding up north, and another cyclone approaching, I think we will need to keep at the machines. So many in need at the moment in this vast land of ours, and from one extreme to the other.

Here is the pastel colored version.

This is the latest of my monthly blocks ' Perpetual Motion' contributed by one of the members of the group.

This is my first finished quilt to go to an unfortunate person who lost their belongings in the recent fires here in Victoria. I have another on the go and hope to finish it soon. I know of lots of people who are making these Quilt As You Go type quilts but I'm sure it will be a long time before we have made enough. As well Northern Australia has been experiencing devestating floods and at the moment they tend to have been forgotten because of the fires but they are also in need of our help. Back to the machine

Friday is forecast to be another very bad fire day. I am hoping it is no where near as bad as 'Black Saturday' as it is now being called. I learned today that a quilter friend's brother was killed in the fires. It really makes you feel helpless as there is absolutely nothing you can do or say except let them know that you care. I guess the message is we never know whats around the corner so let everyone you care about know it now!!!

Today is a national day of mourning here in Australia. I know it was televised Australia wide but not sure about elsewhere. It was a very moving ceremony. Tears were never far away throughout the ceremony. It just really hit home just how devestating the tragic fires of two weeks ago were. In know we are all trying to do our little bit eg. making quilts, getting together small stashes and kits for those who have lost theirs, but it seemed just so incidental today, the magnitude of the loss of unbelievable. But in true Aussie spirit many are already beginning to get on with their lives and rebuilt bits and pieces of their communities, sports club etc. I wish them well. I spent today once again working on what we now term bush fire quilts, I wish I had another term as this seems so inadequate, and I don't want to call them victims as most them were 'fighters' not victims and survivers portrays a meaning which I don't want to face just yet. My prayers are with them all.

Wednesday and today were once again spent sewing for the bushfire quilts. A few are just about finished now and they are looking really nice. The quilt as you go method is definitely the way to go when wanting to do quilts in a hurry, in fact one of the group says she only intends to use this method from now on as it is the quilting which gets to her (me to). Hand sewing is now finished except for the binding so back onto the machine tomorrow to put the finishing touches then the binding, my least preferred part of quilting.

These are the latest additions to my second sampler quilt using the small 6 inch blocks. I have just got a new pattern but haven't got around to doing it yet, concentrating on blocks for the bushfire quiltt at the moment

I have completed 18 blocks of the 30 needed for a QAYG string quilt for the bushfire victims. I have never done this method before but am finding it very easy. Not only that but I am using up mega scrap from my strip boxes. I actually have 2 empty large shoes boxes now and I haven't seen an empty one of these for years. Its incredible to think you make a lovely quilt completely out of scraps, so I am certainly 'stashbusting' here. A few of my friendship group are going to get together on Wednesday and again on Friday in the hopes of getting another few finished. Another mad firebug has been at work in the Otway Region which is closer to where I am but still a fair way away, but considering how quickly the fires spread last week one can never be sure. Precautions, precautions, I think are the order of the day at the moment.

Wow what a week! It was suggested by one of the members of my local group that we use our regular monthly meeting (yesterday) to make quilts for the bushfire victims (now up to about 1800 homes gone, so that means goodness knows how many homeless). I made a few phone calls and untold emails asking for people to come with their machines, fabric from their stashes, bits and pieces of batting etc. I was completely overwhelmed by everyone generosity. We had a great day. About 20 ladies spent the day, cutting, sewing and hand stitching. Most of us decided to use Jan Mac's method http://sewmanyquiltstoolittletime.blogspot.com quilt as you go as we want to get these quilts sewn and off as soon as possible. Many thanks to Jan for her tutorial, she is a fellow Southern Cross Quilter, and she does magnificent work for charity!
All in all I think we would end up with about 10 or so quilts (when they are all finished) and the members would like to either adopt a family or town. As yet I don't know how to go about this but with all the messages tooing and froing on the Southern Cross Quilters List I'm sure it will be possible in the near future. I hope so anyway. If not we will leave it to others to distribute.

What a very sad weekend. So much devestation, loss of life, property and wildlife here in Victoria from horrific bushfires. I spent much of the weekend listening to the radio to keep updated on the fire situation around the State. Saturday was far too hot to sew, about 44C here, so instead spent much of the day checking out a lot of great blogs via the blog rings I am a member of. Yesterday was much cooler down into the low 20s much better for sewing. I was able to get two heart blocks done for Southern Cross Quilters who are having a tough time at the moment either through sickness or loss of a family member.

I had hoped to post photos of two more 6 inch blocks but my camera decided it had had enough (probably heat stress!!) so this will have to wait until it has had a visit to the repair shop or been replaced with a new one. As I am now to the end of my download month this will probably be my last post for a while.