Mixed Bag

Aside from meeting up with the Stitching Girls on Saturday afternoon, the rest of the weekend was pretty free.

Friday night I added the borders to the alphabet blocks and then lay out all the blocks to see if my setting would work.  I'll add white strips to the rows starting with pinwheels and then maybe a white border.  I think I'll use the No 5 stripe for binding.

Somehow I managed to lose a pinwheel.  Made another.

Saturday Rhonda phoned to suggest instead of our usual stitching get-together we go for a drive to Nowra to see the quilt show.  Great idea.  Lunch in Berry on the way down.  Planned to have afternoon tea at the quilt show but the kitchen was closed by the time we'd had a look around the show, so we stopped in Berry again on the way home for tea, scones and a wander around the shops.

Actually did some weeding yesterday morning and filled the green bin with leaves - this is really out of the ordinary for me; then spent most of the afternoon in the sewing room tidying up and working on a few different things.

Sewed Floral Bouquet 2 backing together (another on the "to be quilted" pile).

Some secret sewing.

11 more X blocks have been ready to sew together for weeks - 9 to go then the Goodnight Irene quilt top can be sewn together.

And strips for the final 7 Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks to add to the pile to be pinned together.

20 blocks in all pinned last night while watching tv, so once they are all sewn up I have another quilt top to put together.

I figure that this sewing equates to tidying up because all these pieces are now blocks and not little piles in various places around the sewing room.  The main reason for tidying up is to move the quilting frame to the garage but there is so much stuff stored underneath and around it, that it is taking me ages to re-organise everything.

Received a phonecall from the Nowra Quilt Show organisers to say I'd won a minor prize in the raffle - bonus!  The lady told me it was "some quilting stuff, if you're into that kind of thing".

Numbers

Over the last few nights I've stitched the number blocks for the Spell it with Fabric alphabet quilt.

The instruction page didn't print correctly and I didn't check the arithmetic, so the number blocks have ended up a little smaller than the letter blocks - not to worry, I sorted out the difference when adding the borders.

Had a little play with the block layout this morning and I think I've worked it out - my block borders will be a little different to the original design (not shown in the layout).

 

 

The X's will be the pinwheel blocks.

I'm looking forward to seeing this quilt top together.

Change of Plans

So much rain fell on Friday night and during Saturday.  Consequently, no painting or gardening over the weekend.  The footpath around the back of my house was a little flooded.

After a visit from my brother, sister-in-law and nephew to carry out some flood mitigation, the water quickly drained away.  Once the housework was done, I was able to spend some time in the sewing room.  Friday night I cut out all the pieces to make Moda's Spell it with Fabric alphabet blocks - I wanted to use the bright fabrics in this overflowing box.

These blocks are very quick to cut out and piece.  Had them all sewn up before I went to bed on Saturday night.  Last night I cut out the pieces for the number blocks. 

Another cold, drizzly, miserable day yesterday.  Visited Bunnings to buy some longer screws to attach the new handles to the drawers.

Most of the afternoon I was in the sewing room - ironing.  Then pinning these Goodnight Irene strips into 16 patch blocks. 

Sewed them up - all of the 16 patches are now made.  Love these Pink Lemonade colours.

Started on some of the X block segments - quite a few more of these to go.

One of the WIP's that's been hanging around for 2 years or so is a pinwheel mystery BOM - I had 36 pinwheels for the borders made plus 4 or 5 large blocks featuring a variety of pinwheels.  Decided to undo these larger blocks and I'll use all the pinwheels to the Alphabet Quilt to make it single bed size.  There's well over 60 pinwheels and the fabrics are the same as I've used for the letters and numbers.

Don't feel like I've made much of a dent in that stash of brights.

Counted up the Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks - 44 have been made; 20 to go - some progress happening with this.

Hoping for a quiet week this week although will be going to Sydney for work tomorrow.

What a Week!

It's been one of those weeks - lots happening, some planned, some not, but all so enjoyable and a lot of fun.

Tuesday night I was invited along to see "Mrs Brown's Boys Live" - Wollongong is the first stop on the national tour.  I knew hardly anything about this show but I laughed all the way through.  It was hilarious.  Tears streaming down my face.

Wednesday evening I finished off another BFF BOM stitchery block - didn't realise this one only needed a few stitches.

New door handles for the kitchen cupboards arrived and I'm so pleased with them - I really would have liked the Swarovski crystal handles I saw a few months ago but at $3,000+ for the 35 handles I need, it was just a little over-the-top.  Nevertheless, I love these.

A big improvement in my 90's kitchen.

 

Last night I enjoyed one of my Christmas presents from all the kids:  dinner and two tickets to "Bob, Sweat and Tears".  Barbara, my shopping/travelling/show buddy came along too.  The best part was my children were all there too.  Pretty hairy drive to Sydney through fog at Bulli Tops.  Delicious dinner at Sydney Dance Lounge Cafe followed by another night of constant laughs - Bob Downe is so much fun, genuinely loves to entertain and the surprise guests were faaaaaaaaabulous.

It's pouring here so not sure what will be happening over the weekend but I know something will happen.

No Sewing

That's right - a weekend without sewing even when the stitching girls came over on Saturday afternoon.

The weekend started off on Friday night - dinner with the Schoolgirls.  Lovely company and delicious dinner.  Always so good to see these girls.

Saturday morning housework before Philip and Tracy came over to do some more work in the yard then they made two trips to the tip.  The Stitching Girls came over later in the afternoon and we spent most of the time chatting.  I did have a play with my quilting sewing machine to make sure the tension is behaving itself but that's the only sewing I did all weekend.  Karen is leaving in 2 weeks for her next jaunt around Australia - 6 months this time.  I will look forward to her return.

Saturday night I started moving/sorting/tidying all the stuff that is stored underneath the quilting frame.  I plan to move the frame to the garage but first need to find a new home for this precious stuff.  It will be lovely to have some free space in the sewing room but I think I'd like a kitchen island or something similar in there eventually.

Sunday we were all working in the yard again and by mid-afternoon Tracy started painting.  I was sanding the front door and sidelights and did a bit of painting - trust me to miss two spots on the door.

No sewing/stitching again last night - it was a big enough effort to watch tv.

A bit of stitching at lunchtime today and the first instalment of "Best Friends Forever" is all stitched.  This fourth block has taken me well over a month to stitch and I haven't been stitching at home so the second instalment blocks are languishing

Not sure how I feel about these stitchery blocks.  The designs are lovely but I find the thought of stitching 32 of these blocks all a bit much.  Maybe I need to sew on some of the surrounds, make a few of the filler blocks and stitch a few together - that might spark up the enthusiasm.

Looking forward to lots of laughs and great entertainment on Thursday night - one of my Christmas presents from my family is to see "Bob, Sweat and Tears" starring The Prince of Polyester, Bob Downe, and they're all coming with me along with dear friend Barbara. 

Source

This Week ...

The gardeners visited on Tuesday to plant out the Treadle Garden - it's looking wonderful.

Borders and binding for Floral Bouquet No 2 have been cut for over a month.

As a change from Scrappy Trip Around the World and Goodnight Irene, I sewed them up

and added the borders to the quilt top.  Finished last night.

Once the backing is made, it can go onto the pile of waiting quilt tops.

Yesterday I sent Tone it Down to Sarah for quilting - it's too large to put on my own frame at the moment.  I need to add the extension and will do that once the frame is moved to its new home.  Pretty excited - only second time I've sent off a quilt for professional quilting.

Treadle in the Garden

Arrived home from work on Friday evening to find that the gardening gurus (sister-in-law, brother, niece, nephews and their grand-babies) had visited during the afternoon.  I am flabbergasted by how much they achieve and so quickly!

Left - Friday evening; Right - Saturday afternoon

Top left - Friday afternoon; bottom left and right - Saturday afternoon

By Saturday afternoon another long garden bed had been dug along the opposite fence.  I've had this old treadle sitting on the verandah for ages (a friend used it for a fish tank stand) - Tracy decided it was a very appropriate garden feature and next minute it was in the garden.

Rained all Saturday night and most of yesterday morning, so I thought I'd sneak in a bit of sewing to finish up some more Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks.  The rows have been pinned into blocks for a few weeks.

35 blocks finished, 5 ready to sew together - another 24 to cut/piece

Many of the lovely Bliss pieces that Marina sent to me are in these blocks and the layer cake leftovers from X and Plus will be in the next batch of blocks.  This will be a large quilt (96" x 96").

The garden gurus arrived late yesterday morning and, once the rain stopped, we spent the afternoon working outside again - lots more exciting things happening to the house as well as the yard.