New Lap Quilt

This past month I've been working on a new lap quilt. Nothing fancy, just traditional 12 inch blocks using what was in my stash. All I've had to buy (well at this time, 'cause I've had to buy the material at some stage in the past) to make this are 3 reels of thread (600m). I'm pretty pleased with the quilting and the colours are just right for a Crusaders/Canterbury rugby fan.

Here is the back view. You can see that I've used variegated red/cream/black thread. Finished size is 50 inches square.

Tote & Gloat Challenge Quilts

Tomorrow is set-up day for Saturday's Tote & Gloat. A day of sweat and sore muscles at the end of it - we have to lay out chairs for 500+ people, tables, quilt stands to be erected, display quilts (this year will be the Happy Villages and Landscapes from the Karen Eckmeier workshops) to be hung and the merchant mall area will be busy with merchants setting up their stalls. All in anticipation of the day on Saturday.
The challenge quilt theme for Rose City Quilters members is Opposites. This year the committee have not given a set size, it just has to be no bigger than 2m. This is an attempt to get members to enter the challenges - there are great prizes at stake too!.
I have made 3 wall hangings for this challenge.

This one uses the 3 primary colours and it's opposite, plus the black/white combination - I randomly picked a different block to show these off and then attached them together with different types of fastenings.







Are My Lines Straight? was the first one I made and I quilted it with fractal lines to give it even more unbalance.



Evening Standard uses some of the off-cuts from Are My Lines Straight? I did go to town with the quilting - can you see the fantails at the bottom?

Now, these are very simple quilts, and I don't expect to win anything, but if the work is neat and imaginative, I think that there is no harm in entering. Who knows what the judge will like and what other entries there will be!

The Sheep Are Shorn

We got it done this morning - thank goodness! Last night we drove them to a friend's (Don and Margaret) place - they have a shearing shed and live about 1.5kms from us. So with the help of Nolan and his dog, Meg, plus bodies on bikes to stop them from veering into driveways, the little flock scurried along, and were shedded up for the night. About 8:00am this morning, young Danny from Feilding, arrived with his gear and the lambs were shorn first - not that there's a lot of wool on their backs, but the summer will be easier to bear.
Here's Alice awaiting her turn - she's our favourite. She comes when she's called and just loves to find bread or nuts in your pocket. She has twins and her wool is a grey/cream colour.
Here is Coco being shorn, she is our 'black' Romney - although her wool is very light brown on top now.
I have kept only Alice's, Coco's and Rosie's fleeces. These I will get washed and carded and eventually spin the wool - I will probably ply Coco's with a brown alpaca fleece I have.
While we were there, Don and Margaret had a baby Alpaca (cria) born. Here is the little sweetie (female) at 1 hour old.
After the sheep were drenched (all purpose worm) we 'drove' them home again - funny how they remembered and were keen to get back into their own paddock.
That's a great job done, but we won't get much for the wool because prices are down from last year :-(