Spoilt Dog Quilts

Monday, November 26, 2018

Finally back to blogging!

The past five years for my husband and I have been so full. More about that later.

I’m now a radio operator with the Caloundra Volunteer Coast Guard after joining this emergency service two years ago and qualifying in May 2017.

Whilst on radio duty recently, doing a shift on a Tuesday instead of my normal rostered day (due to having to have ear surgery), I took in some scraps to cut out in to more useable shapes and sizes. I managed to get quite a bit done and was very impressed with what I got done in a few hours.

I cut out 2” squares, 1 1/2” strips and 2” strips. Marking the ruler with masking tape so I could easily see the 2” square line really speeded up the cutting.

I hadn’t ironed the fabrics before putting them in my Coast Guard bag (along with rulers, rotary cutter and a small A4 sized cutting mat) so I used the defibrillator in the Radio Room to help flatten the fabrics out. That worked a trear!

My aim is to eventually make quilts for Quilts of Valour to give to Veterans and sometimes their family members, as a thank-you for their service. I found a great website with heaps of scrappy quilt patterns that will be great for such quilts.

I’ve been honoured to present Quilts of Valour now to Veterans for 2 years so I’m looking forward to actually being able to make a quilt for them, not just be the presenter of the quilts.

https://www.quiltedtwins.com/free-patterns-layout-2/

Friday, January 25, 2013

No longer an Aussie Hero quilt "virgin"

This post is way way overdue. I blame all the business of November - Remembrance Day and poppy selling for our local Returned Services League (RSL) then the madness of December and Christmas parties galore.

Here finally is my very first Aussie Hero Quilt, made for a sailor on the HMAS ANZAC. I can't reveal his name, for obvious reasons, but I do hope that he enjoyed the quilt I made for him, below. The Aussie Hero Quilt Friends make quilts and laundry bags to send to our wonderful troops overseas as well as to Wounded Warriors. With my husband a Vietnam Veteran, I just had to make a quilt. Now that I have my first Aussie Hero quilt "under my belt" I am no long an AH "virgin". I had been hoping to make another quilt by the end of this month but fate has intervened. I'm now planning on making some blocks to be sent south to be made up in to more Aussie Hero quilts, rather than attempting another one by myself, at least for the next month or two. Here's the Aussie Hero quilt blog address if anyone wants to pop over and have a look: http://aussieheroquilts.blogspot.com.au/ .

The pieced blocks are actually orphan blocks from a quilt that I made for my dear mother-in-law Iris. She loved the Australian food fabric in the centre of the log cabin blocks and so I made a quilt for her many years ago. I had intended to make an apron or some such thing with the leftover blocks but when was tidying my sewing room (something that doesn't often happen, sad to say) I came across these leftover blocks and thought that "my" allotted sailor would appreciate the blocks even more than I would like an apron made with them.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Dare to Dresden blg hop

Thank-you so much to Christine and Madame Samm for hosting this blog hop at http://www.quiltmonstercloset.com/2013/01/dare-to-dresden-schedule.html and at http://www.sewwequilt.com/. As soon as I heard about, I was “in like Flynn”! Here is my quilt, aptly titled “I really really don’t like Dresdens!”. Of course, there is a story behind that! Oh and that’s my gorgeous husband poking out from behind the quilt in the photo below. The quilt was made in 1998 or 1999. Back then I didn’t even know to date my quilts.

I had been quilting for about 6 years before I took a sampler class series of classes. When I took my very first quilt class, it was 1992 and I did a log cabin class when I was on school holidays down in Brisbane (our capital city, about 1 000km east of the small country town where my DH (dear husband) and I were living. Living in remote Outback country towns as we were then, there weren’t any stores other than a small general store, never mind a fabric store (the closest fabric store was something like 1 200 km away (745 miles) so I had no access to classes whatsoever. I learned more about patchwork and quilting then by what I call osmosis – meaning that I read all the patchwork magazines that I could subscribe to and by teaching myself. There was no Internet back then, not in small isolated country towns at least.

My husband and I moved east closer to the coast and then we were finally close enough to where I could access patchwork classes whilst still living in small rural country towns albeit not so isolated as Wyandra and Birdsville (on the edge of the Simpson Desert). Having not really learned the very basics of patchwork and quilting, I decided to go along to a Sampler quilt series of classes.

One block that I really didn’t like, to the point of hating it, was the Dresden Plate block. I have no idea why I disliked it so strongly but I tried every excuse “in the book” to get out of going to that particular lesson. Being a teacher, I kept telling myself that wasn’t the attitude to have but I still didn’t want to go. What made me finally give in was DH – he really liked this block, so of course I went along. I really didn’t have much choice to make that block for my sampler quilt as this quilt became our (belated) wedding quilt. The sampler quilt echoed the colours of my wedding bouquet which were purple, yellow and white.

Once I made this block though, I fell in love with the Dresden Plate block and so, a couple of months after making my Wedding Quilt I made the quilt above.

As for our Wedding Quilt, I have included a photo of it below. By the time I made the sampler quilt, we had been married for 7 years but I had not long before that heard about wedding quilts.

My favourite colour is purple - who would have guessed? As a teenager I had a crush on Donny Osmond and his favourite colour was purple. I also am reknowned for my love of bright colours hence the vivacity of the colours in this quilt and many of my other quilts. Luckily for me, DH also loves purple and bright colours.

Here's the schedule for the blog hop. Do stop in and have a look at the other bloggers:

Thimble Mouse & Spouse* Moving to 1/28..

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Apple Avenue Quilts

The TreeHouse

Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much

Quilts My Way

Buzzing and Bumbling

Marjorie's Busy Corner

The Raspberry Rabbits

I Like to Quilt Blog

Cherry's Prairie Primitives

Spoilt Dog Quilts

January 25^th, 2013

Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio

Jane's Fabrics & Quilts

Tea Time Creations

Mo Broker My Creative Side

Jane's Quilting
My Patchwork Life
2muchfun

Pumpkin Patch Quilter
Quilt Monster in my Closet

January 28^th, 2013

A Reformed Heath'n

Meadowbrook

Rosemary B @ “that Other Blog”

Stitch Duchess' Crazy & Sane Quilting World

Blooming Where I am Planted

Quilting Lodge

The Tilted Quilt

Life in the Scrapatch

Pretty Bobbins
In The Boon Docks

Sew Much and More

Threading My Way
Pink Ribbon Quilts
Thimble Mouse & Spouse

January 29^th, 2013

A Peach in Stitches

Nancy W @ “that Other Blog”

Charlotte's Creations

Quilt-n-Queen
Domesticity and Other Ponderous Things

Sew Much 2 Luv

A Quilt and a Prayer

Amanda Murphy Design

Little Mushroom Cap
Kathy's Quilts

Sandra Kaye Design

January 30^th, 2013

Charlotte H @ “that Other Blog”

Clothes and Crafts

It Seams to be Sew

Merry Gay in Stitches

Water Penny

Granny Good Stuff

Under the Presser Foot

More Stars in Comanche

Sew Me Something Good

The Day Before This Day

Farm Road

Livin' Blue Quilter

I Piece 2 Mary
Kwilty Pleasures
Espritpatch
Nutz4Redwork

January 31^th, 2013

Quilting Prolifically

Patchouli Moon Studio

Shepody Mountain Crafter

Friday, November 2, 2012

My quilts on the Gen X Quilters' blog

What an honour - my first and last quilts (and some in between) have been featured on the Gen X Quilters' blog! Pop on over and have a look: http://www.genxquilters.com/ .

Choosing what quilts to include (besides the first and last ones) that represent me was so difficult. A bit like choosing one's favourite child, I would imagine. Thanks AnneMarie for featuring my quilts.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Wounded finger and Leafs me happy blog hop schedule

I must apologise to the organiser of this blog hop as I have not been posting the links every day to the Leafs me happy other bloggers. But I do have a good excuse. In June of last year - 15 months ago - I tripped over a dog mat and broke three fingers and more bones in my right hand. Just under 3 weeks ago now I had the third operation on the most badly broken finger (third finger - the one that you use so often) and I am supposed to have that hand up in a sling 99% of the time. This operation was to release the tendons in that finger as they had contracted a lot, keeping the finger bent at a sharp angle and curling under the other fingers. I am technically left-handed but am way way way more right-handed.

It is very difficult to do things one-handed hence my lack of posting the links to the other bloggers taking part in this blog hop.

To put things into perspective though, when I broke my hand so badly, whilst this hand-healing journey has been very difficult, I still have my hand and I don't have a life-threatening illness. I happened to be reading a very interesting book at the time of my accident called "No Time for Fear" by a fellow Australian, Paul de Gelder. Paul was an Australian Navy Clearance diver who was attacked by a shark in Sydney Harbour a couple of years ago, whilst on a training exercise. Some would liken Navy clearance divers to US Seals ... Paul wasn't actually supposed to be in the water at the time he was - he was helping out another diver. The shark attack caused Paul to have one of his arms and legs amputated and dramatically changed his life.

Paul is a very inspirational young man and I would recommend you read his book. It has recently been published in the US and is also available around the world. Here's a link to his website: http://pauldegelder.com/ . Paul is one tough cookie. Plus with my husband being a Vietnam Veteran and ex-service, there is that link to a fellow ex-serviceperson ...

So you see, I have nothing to really complain about (well I do tell my hand and finger that is "stupid" sometimes because it just won't do what I want it to do). Reading Paul's book put the whole accident into perspective for me. One has to be grateful for what one has. Plus I do have a very supportive husband. He doesn't do everything for me (partlly because I don't ask for much help and he is a make and a husband - vbg - and so does not see the help I need sometimes ... ) but he is there.

So here are the links to the other bloggers taking part:

Monday 1

Fuzzy Hat Quilter

The Cuddle Quilter

Quilts My Way

Country Cabin Thoughts and Crafts

Dream quilt create

Why-Knot-Kwilt

Needled Mom
Quilter in Motion

Sunshine Girl

Meadowbrook

Tuesday 2

Mrs.Pickles Garden