Quilt Barn

Went with a couple of friends to check out a new business venture in a town not very far away:

It's a quilt barn! Well, it is a barn-like building, which has been set up as a venue for workshops, sit & sew days, or retreats (although there is no accommodation on the property), or in this case, a fabric sale:

I didn't buy any quilt fabric today.

There's also the chance to feed ducks:

We enjoyed the peaceful surroundings. It would be a lovely spot for a workshop or get-together.


Added later - The website.

Thirty Seven

Fortunately it is only week 37, not days of 37 degrees. We came close on Wednesday, but all of this week has been below body temperature:

9/02/2018    28.1    orange
8/02/2018    29.7    orange
7/02/2018    36.6    magenta
6/02/2018    30.5    red
5/02/2018    30.3    red
4/02/2018    28.8    orange
3/02/2018    24.7    yellow

This week could be titled, "I get by with a little help from my friends", as the two red fabrics were given to me by Sharon, and the magenta and today's orange came from Jeanette. Thank you both!

Linked to Sarah's Weekly Weather Report, where there has been a lot of purple weather amongst the northern hemisphere folk. That's cold purple, not like me who put purple at the hot end of the scale.

Pizza Oven Progress

Block-work:

Noisy petrol-driven cement mixer borrowed from neighbour:

Mixes everything up very quickly:

Still a bit of manual handling needed - pouring the mix into the block-work:

A Start

This is where those little square-in-a-square blocks are going:

First border of a medallion-style quilt. Haven't decided on the corners yet. And in fact haven't sewn the centre panel onto the background fabric, either.

If the panel looks familiar, it is because it has been on my blog before -way back in May last year. And at that stage this quilt had been on my "To Do" list for a while already, so it shows you how long I think about things before I actually do anything!

Useful Gift

Last Christmas one side of the family ran a Kris Kringle instead of gifts for all. Our price limit was $5 to $10, so it wasn't an expensive activity! As the presents were opened in turn, we played one of those "steal the gift" games which can be so frustrating. I took along some Lindor balls, which one of the nieces was very happy to end up with. When it was my turn, I stole this gift:

I thought a little light box could be very useful for tracing patterns and the like. Of course it was stolen off me later, but by someone else who lives in this house so I ended up with it anyway! Whoever contributed it to the game over-spent - these cost $15 at Kmart.

Today I found another handy use for it. I started working on a project which includes some paper foundation piecing. Placing the papers face-down on the light box:

 Made it easy for me to put a dab of glue behind piece 1, then position the fabric:

 Thirty-six times!

Thirty-Six

This week has been all over the place, weather-wise:

2/02/2018      22.5    yellow
1/02/2018      18.8    green
31/01/2018    15.8    green
30/01/2018    16.9    green
29/01/2018    33.0    red
28/01/2018    37.1    magenta
27/01/2018    32.6    red

Linked to Sarah's Weekly Weather Report here.

Little Pieces

Last Thursday at the CBD meeting I was talking to a couple of people about my temperature quilt, and mentioned my dearth of red fabric. One of them offered to send me a few pieces - and look what I have now!

I think that might be enough red to take me through to the end of summer. Thank you, Sharon!

A couple of days ago I bought this:

My first fabric purchase of the year. I'm not sure what they call these packs - but it has 42 pieces of 2.5" square fabric. I've never bought something like this before. I'm not sure what people usually use them for. But the squares are big enough for my temperature hexagons, and just about every colour I'm using is included:

There are 2 of each of these. Plus there is black as well, in case we have any days over 45!