More UFOs finished

This is the Birds in the Air miniature quilt I've just finished. I scanned it so the last border is missing. I'll take a photo of this one soon. It was my first attempt at foundation piecing and it's about 8 years old.
Yesterday I finished my second UFO for the year and today I quilted my third one but just need to finish the binding before I can claim that one as finished. I quilted 5 quilts today and my back is sore now but it was great to get them done. I haven't been able to quilt as much last week as our DS was home and the machine wakes him up. Tomorrow will be a day of binding and taking photos of the finished UFOs. It's great to get some of my own projects done.

Progress

I've been working away at quilting the quilts to be donated but haven't had much time to work on some of my other projects. However, I made good progress for the last two days. I made a set of 9 patches I owed, 3 sets of curtains for my DD1, and almost finished a quilting bag which has been a UFO for about 9 years and am just finishing the binding on a miniature quilt which has also been a UFO for about 8 years. I'll post the photos ASAP but in the meantime here's another of a quilt at the recent AQC. The Baltimore Quilt was too large to fit in the whole photo but was so stunning I took a photo of part of it anyway.

Quilting Helper

Here is Tiger, the head of the house. She's 20 years old and still very lively. She is shown testing some of my quilts and if I put any new ones on the couch to show the family, she will invariably want to lie on it. She also loves to lie down in my sewing room on all the batting off-cuts, so I've made her a cushion of her own.
It was the least I could do as I cleaned the room and she didn't have a comfy place to lie. Now I need to get busy with more quilts as the room is tidier but I have some clothes sewing to do first, as Stephanie needs skirts made for work. I did manage to put some donated blocks together into a top and tomorrow I have several quilts to finish off. In the meantime I've been knitting hats and scarves to send to Pakistan.

More UFOs

I couldn't resist adding another close-up of one of my favourite quilts at AQC. I love feather quilting but will probably have to continue to do them with hand quilting as my machine quilting isn't good enough yet. I must post a photo of one of my blue and cream quilts with hand quilted feathers.
I'm still plugging away on sewing up my box of 3.5" sqs into 4 patch blocks and I'm about to move onto the 4.5" size. They will be set with plain alternate blocks and it will be good to clear some of them away.
Not satisifed with having an unlisted number of my own UFOs to work on, I bought 2 more sets of vintage blocks to piece into quilts. It was the first time I've bought from ebay and now I'm strongly resisting checking out any more possible buys. I love rescuing old quilts, tops and blocks but need to work on what I have now. I'll post photos when they arrive. Of course just looking can't hurt can it? No I better not just yet!

Cleaning out batting

I've worked the last 3 days and have today off which is lucky as Australia is playing Sri Lanka in the final of one day cricket. While I was waiting for the game to start I've been making large cushions for Stephanie's class room. It's her first teaching job and she has grades 2 and 3 and wanted some large cushions for her room. I'm using fabric which wasn't suitable for quilts and stuffing them with all those bits of batting I've had taking up room in the sewing room. I've made one and half filled another, hopefully the sewing room will look emptier but it hasn't happened yet.
The photo is one of an Art Quilt from the AQC. The cigarette butts and bottle tops are real. I love these types of quilts but I'm not artistic enough to make them myself. Enjoy!

More quilts from AQC

This is one of the lovely quilts from the Australiasian Quilters Convention. There were shops, classes and several quilt displays as well as the Best of the Best from New Zealand and the States of Australia. The quilts were so beautiful I'm not sure if they inspired me or caused me to despair about my own quilting. LOL
It was crowded so difficult to take good photos of the quilts so I concentrated on getting some close-ups of the quilting.
I love blue and cream quilts and also applique so these stood out for me.

Another busy week with my birthday as well. I took the day off and went to see Walk the Line with my DH, Ray. We really enjoyed the movie and met up with my sister for coffee afterwards. Ray went off to cricket practice and my sister and I chatted for 2 hours LOL. Now I'm busy quilting again and have 6 quilts waiting for binding. I finished the rainbow scarf and have knitted 2 hats as well. I didn't work on any of my UFOs though. The photo shows part of a handquilted wholecloth quilt by Narelle Grieve. She was awarded the Rajah Award last year in recognition of her contribution to quilting in Australia. She is known for her handquilting. I took the photo at the Australasian Quilt Convention a couple of weeks ago and will share some more photos soon. Back to the charity quilts for now.

Vintage blocks

I've managed to show a photo of the 1940s blocks before I work on them. So far I've hand stitched 2 to a new background and they are looking good. I had hoped to do more but I've been busy getting a shipment of quilts, blankets and warm garments off to Pakistan and East Timor. I only managed 49 quilts this month as well as 7 boxes of clothing and 8 crocheted blankets. I just heard that there are over 3 million people left homeless by the earthquakes in Pakistan so it's harder to fiddle with my own sewing when I can get quilts finished and sent where they are most needed. Of course the quilts I'm sending a a mere drop in the ocean but will help a few people. Now I'm back to knitting a rainbow coloured scarf while I watch TV.