At last the long awaited Hex Labs are starting at Stitchmap. The templates are are here and printed and stored in the envelope waiting for the next installment.
These are the main templates. At first I did have a problem printing them, because I am in Australia we use A4 210 x 297 mm paper and the pages are Letter 8.5" x 11" our paper is slightly smaller. Usually all I do is change the paper size on the printer and then print but in this case the templates distorted. So what I did was pretend I was using Letter paper and all was well.

As an added bonus there are the extra templates that were cut from the main templates.

This is going to be great fun I love hxies and can hardly wait to see what our great mentors have in store for us. Let the fun begin.

Crazy Quilting Journal Project - Block 1

I have finished my first block in my Journal Project. This has been a tough one. Half way through I decided I hated the fabrics, hated the stitching and all in all hated the project.
But I decided to persevere. I had given myself criteria that was outside my comfort zone. No buttons, beads or charms. I intend to use this as a throw in my lounge room and the item needs to be able to be laundered.
I am a big bling person so that was very difficult and I am sure is not going to get any easier over the coming months.

I am still not happy with my fabric selection but hopefully it will grow on me. For the stitching I am using the TAST list of stitches and hope to incorporate everyone of them eventually.

I had the most beautiful experience yesterday. A dear friend asked us to his daughter Amanda's engagement party. Jim and I were in 2 minds whether to go or not as the weather here is very hot and the party was to be away from the coast in the western suburbs area of Newcastle. To cut a long story short we decided to go. We have known the friends for over 30 years and Amanda since she was born. 
As expected the weather was nearing the 40 degree Celsius and we were having a lovely time talking with Amanda's grandparents and catching up when an overdressed gentleman arrived carrying a table, tablecloth and avery large book.
Yes it was a surprise wedding!!! The bride and groom had given their parents 7 weeks to help organize everything. Even the grandparents did not know. I wish I had taken my camera with me so I could show you all how beautiful the bride was. They were married in the garden of their new home and I think this is one of the most romantic weddings I have ever been to. 

I have decided to do Leah Day's "Building Blocks Quiltalong" so I have just made my first 3 blocks.

I intend to make this a scrappy reversible quilt with the brown blocks to tie it all together. This could be fun or another of my UFOs but we shall see. Off now to try my hand at freehand machine quilting.
I have tried this before but because I haven't stuck with it I am not very good at it but here goes I will post when I finish even if it is a disaster. This is my year to learn new skills or hone old ones.

I am so excited I just got my first Spinning Wheel. It doesn't matter I have no idea how to use her I will learn.

Her name is Sally and she is quite old. Made for an old man for his wife she is showing her age like me but I think she is beautiful.
There is a story to me getting her. For Christmas my husband decided to surprise me with a SLR camera but could not find one in his price range, just as well 2 days before Christmas the battery in our car died so my present was a new battery. Very romantic I know but that is the way we are.
Then a friend gave me the fleece from an Alpaca, what on earth was I going to do with that? Why learn to spin of course so then we went looking for a spinning wheel and found Sally. So a new era starts. I said this year I was only doing things for myself and the family and it looks as if there will be no time for anything else.

Happy New Year to you all
I am  involved with the  and am determined this year to at least achieve some of the monthly deadlines. I have prepared 4x6" blocks so at least I have started the right way. Now I want to start some stitching. For inspirationI have decided to use the TAST stitch list and hopefully I will use all the stitches on the list on my blocks.

I am having a break this year from Round Robins and am going to do stitching for myself and my family. There are a few tutorials I want to do as well as the Project and the Hex Labs from Stitchmap. 
I also want to do some Sane Quilting but that is for another message.