Time for sharing.

Today I spoke to the husband of my late friend D.  He said he has another box of her linens for me, and asked if I had been through the first three boxes.  I told him that I had sorted, washed and pressed all the items in those boxes, and they are ready to be shared with D's friends.  After that, I plan to make a quilt using some of the linens, and donate it to the Olivia Newton-John Cancer clinic in memory of  D, and he thought that was a lovely idea.  But I have to call them first to make sure they would welcome something like that, as they may already have a lot of quilts and such donated to them, and would not like any more at the moment.  Anyway I will ask

One of D's friends - J, came over here with her husband B. today.  J and I went through the linens, while Ken and B talked about their respective sound and hi fi systems.  They had only met briefly in the past, and I was pleased that Ken enjoyed B's company, as it can be tricky when you introduce your friends' partners to your spouse, and cross your fingers that they will find something in common!  J. took a bag of linens home with her to share with her friends who knew D, but it didn't make much of a dent in the pile!  So I will go through them again and put aside the ones I want to keep.  In the next day or so I'll call the Austin Hospital about making a quilt, and once I've got that sorted, I'll start distributing the remainder among interested friends.  I'll probably post photos here like I've done before, as I was happy to see so much go to people who would use them in some way.

Christmas in July/August at the Quilt Shop.

Alison and Sharon (owners of the Quilt Shop in Eltham) organised a lovely day for the regular Friday morning girls today.  Instead of us being there from 10 am to noon, they made today a Christmas In July event, from 10 am to 3 pm.  (it would have been July, but they ran out of time due to other commitments, so it was August instead).  They made up a dozen different Xmas craft kits for us to choose from a few weeks ago, and when we arrived this morning, our chosen kit was ready for us.  We took our own lunches, but Alison and Sharon provided morning and afternoon teas.  It was a cold rainy day, but inside the Quilt Shop a dozen women had a lovely time, stitching, eating, and laughing.  I don't think they had many other customers this afternoon, so it must have made their day to have us there to talk to!

I chose this project - everything was supplied in a kit, but anyone could do it with an assortment of green and red buttons.  I got mine finished by 3 pm, so I had something to show Ken when he picked me up!

Using Batik fabrics.

The girls at the Eltham Quilt Shop have been both amused and puzzled by me snapping up most of the Batik sample fabrics that are put out for sale by the managers.  The samples are given to quilt shops by the fabric wholesalers to choose from when ordering, and our shop sells them on to their customers for 50cents a piece, a real bargain when some of them are as big as fat quarters!  I don't know why the others leave the batiks behind, because there are so many things you can do with them.  You only have to look at Pinterest for a start, to get plenty of inspiration.  Below is my first batik project, partly inspired by Linda Steele's prize winning seascape wall hanging, and partly by a tutorial I found on You Tube.
I cut the fabrics into strips that are a bit wider at one end, to give a bit of interest to the panel, rather than all being the same width.  Machine stitched them on to a piece of stiff interfacing.

 Trimmed the sides, and started looking for some bits and pieces to embellish it.  I used freezer paper to draw the seaweed, then cut it out from another piece of batik.  I fussy cut fish from other fabrics in my stash, and found some small shells with holes drilled in them.  A friend gave them to me years ago, and they have been sitting in my stash waiting for the right project!  I haven't attached anything to the background yet; I like to sit on something for a while, show it to friends, and see if there is anything I can add, remove, or modify.  Do tell me if you have any suggestions!

Small table runner for a musical friend, and some teacup coasters.

I spend  waste far too much time on Pinterest and other links, because when it all boils down, I'm just looking and not doing!  But some things are so cute and quick, it is fun to have a go.  I found the link to these teacup coasters on the Down To Earth forum, and rushed off to make them immediately.  They looked very simple.  But I didn't stop to think about the size of the cup template, and botched my first attempt:

So the next day I tried again:

Oh...they don't actually look much different in those photos, do they?!  But none of them are as pretty as the originals on Stephanie's blog ( I will get the link later on and post it here if anyone is interested).

The table runner is for a friend who is a music teacher.  She doesn't know this is coming, so I'm hoping she isn't reading my blog regularly!

And that is just about the last of that piano keys fabric.  I bought a metre of it at a craft fair a year or so ago, and made very good use of it.

My pick of the doilies

There are over 100 doilies of varying sizes in the linens given to me, and I have had to select just a few to keep, because I already have so many, and don't want to keep items that I have no use for.  Although having said that, I have often thought about making a quilt or throw, using doilies, and perhaps my late friend's husband might like something made up with them, although she didn't stitch any herself, so it wouldn't have the same meaning for him.  I will ask him anyway.

Denise's table cloths

Finally, everything has been washed and ironed, and sorted into categories, ready to be shared among friends after I have put aside the items I wish to keep.
I hung the tablecloths on my clothes horse to photograph them with my tablet, to show the ladies at the Quilt Shop, then I emailed the photos to myself, downloaded them onto this PC so I could upload them here on to the blog! Technology....I think I will be using my ordinary camera to photograph the smaller items, as it is too much messing around with the tablet, and all the transfers mean the photos aren't as clear as I'd like them. Anyway, here they are, six per post:

Denise's table cloths.

Washing, ironing, washing, ironing...

I thought I'd never finish it!  But finally, all those clothes and doilies are all clean and pressed.  I've got them in piles on the bed in the spare room, ready to be photographed, although I don't think I'll photograph them all, there are too many.  So I will just take pics of the ones that I think will interest those who read my blog.  It is going to take time though, so be patient!
Here are some of the cloths.  I like to post a closeup of the stitching on some cloths, as the overall photos of the whole cloths don't do it justice.