"Clambake" Quilts

Lots of trips to Sydney last week - one was to the beautiful State Theatre to see Michael Ball and Alfie Boe in concert.  Fabulous, fantastic show - such wonderful voices and they both have a great sense of fun.

Friday night was dinner with The Schoolgirls - always love catching up with them - the Sangria was nice too.

On Saturday I was back in Sydney (Potts Point) with some other friends.  First off lunch in a cafe by the Archibald Fountain

then we headed to the Hayes Theatre

to see "Assassins".  I knew nothing about this musical - really enjoyed it.  All the performers were outstanding.

Sunday afternoon Mum and I went to have a look around the new shops in Wollongong then visited family.

Not many Scrappy Stars completed last week - need 101 more.

Last Thursday I picked up the two "Clambake" quilts from Jenny (AngelCake Quilting).  One is lap-size

and the other is cot-sized.

Maybe a quieter weekend coming up - the big event will be The Hawks' first home game of the season on Sunday evening.  Here's hoping for a win.

Framed

On Wednesday night Lynell, Robyn, Darren and I went to the State Theatre in Sydney for the Michael Ball/Alfie Boe concert.  It was fabulous!  Their voices are amazing and they are such wonderful performers - lots of laughs as well.

Finished stitching down the binding on "Framed" last night.  It's a lap-size quilt designed by Camille Roskelley (Thimble Blossoms) and the pattern is in her book "Simply Retro".  It's a great pattern to show off large prints and comes together very quickly.  Because of the amount of fabric I had available, this quilt is one row narrower than the pattern, and finished size is 49-1/4" x 62".

Jenny at AngelCake Quilting quilted this for me using "Mod Flower" design.

 

 

Two "Clambake" quilts to be bound next - one cot-size

and the other lap-size.

Next up is finishing ChaCha's twirling dress and then it's time to start some Christmas sewing.

Another busy (ie socialising) weekend coming up - dinner with The Schoolgirls tonight and Sydney tomorrow with other friends to see "Assassins" at the Hayes Theatre then out for dinner.

Dream Big

During last week I sewed some more Scrappy Stars.  There are now 37/145 finished.  I don't expect many stars to be made this week.  Too many other things happening.

On Thursday afternoon I collected two quilts from Jenny (AngelCake Quilting) and sewed the binding on during the weekend.  "Dream Big" is now finished - it's a cot-sized quilt made in Moda's "Whisper Muslin Mates" - a very different colourway for me to use.  All the fabrics were purchased from Karen earlier this year.

 

 

The binding on "Framed" is yet to be stitched down.

ChaCha stayed over on Friday night but wasn't well enough to come with Mum and me when we visited Michael and Gulliver on Saturday.  We had such a fun time.  Gulliver is such a busy little boy and a delight.  The treasure chest Mum gave to Gulli kept him entertained for ages and he was very impressed with his new Star Wars Bandaids.

We also visited Jenni and Kurt and popped in to see Elizabeth, Matt and ChaCha, so it was a great day out.

On Sunday afternoon I started sewing up a couple of little dresses for ChaCha.
 

This one is for twirling - her favourite thing to do at the moment.

 
Mum will be doing the hand-sewing on both of these dresses.

Tonight Robyn, Lynell, Darren and I are going to a concert at the State Theatre:  Michael Ball and Alfie Boe.  We've been looking forward to this for months.  Friday night I'm meeting up with The Schoolgirls for dinner and on Saturday, Tania and I are going to see "Assassins" at the Hayes Theatre - I know very little about this show, only that David Campbell is in it and it's a musical.

Tessellation

It's been so great to spend some time in the Pink Room during the last couple of weeks.  I have a box of cut out quilt tops and have finished sewing some together - they are all smaller quilts with large pieces so didn't take long to sew up.

A few months ago I bought a layer cake, Moda "Whisper Muslin Mates", from Karen plus some yardage for background, borders and backing.  I was able to cut out two quilts:  "Dream Big", designed by Camille Roskelley (Thimble Blossoms) from her "Simplify" book -

and "Framed" from her "Simply Retro" book.

 
Another quilt I had cut out was "Clambake" also designed by Camille.

I cut out too many blocks, so only needed to cut another 12 to have enough to make the cot-sized version, which is included in the pattern.

Recently I dropped off these four quilts plus the two pink cot quilts to a new-to-me quilter and on Monday she sent through photos of the two pink quilts.  I'm picking them up this afternoon and hope to sew on the binding over the weekend.

Jenni's birthday quilt arrived back from Sarah last Friday and the quilting looks fantastic!  The quilt needed a design to off-set all the triangles and points and "Squares All Around" was a great choice (along with the aqua thread).

Sewed on the binding on Monday and stitched it down while watching tv.  I'm so happy this one is finished and with how it turned out as "Tessellation" was a real challenge for me to make.

On Friday nightI was looking through one of my fabric boxes to cut some more 5" squares for my B&C version of "Snippets",

came across some half-square triangles and had a light bulb moment - made some hourglass blocks with them and "Scrappy Stars" was underway (another Camille Roskelley design).

We've just had a long weekend and it turned out to be a busy few days.  Saturday had a lovely time catching up with Lynell and Wendy - Robyn couldn't join us because she was in Canberra awaiting the arrival (on Saturday morning) of her brand new grandson and on Sunday Mum, Jenni, Kurt, ChaCha and I had lunch at the Audley Dancehall and Cafe - such a lovely place and loads of space for little ones to run around.

HRH

Last Friday Sarah sent through some photos of "Tessellation", which she had just finished quilting.  It looks so wonderful and I'm very much looking forward to it coming home.  The quilting design is "Squares All Around".

Very busy weekend with little ChaCha staying over for 2 nights.  We washed the car, vacuumed the sewing room floor (ChaCha wearing my high-heeled orange sandals as one does to vacuum), folded washing and a few other jobs with lots of playing in between and then entertained visitors for dinner (the guests brought dinner - they can come again!).

There has been some sewing and 4 quilt tops are ready to go to the quilter this weekend.

The backing fabric for the Kaleidoscope and Dresden Plate cot quilts is so cute.

On Friday night I started sewing "Clambake" pieces together.  This quilt goes together very quickly once the layout is sorted and it was together by Sunday night.

I had cut out too many pieces for the lap-sized quilt and, after cutting out another 12, had enough to make the cot-sized "Clambake" as well - this went together in 3 hours!  Will definitely use this pattern again.  The fabric colours are showing up much better in this photo.

After months of preparations and very hard work (by others) we had lots of excitement at work yesterday.  Our main foyer was used for an event where HRH Prince Andrew, The Duke of York KG, was the special guest.  He was a guest of the University for the whole day and going by the photos in the local newspaper, it looks as though he really enjoyed his visit.

The event MC was also a VIP - Adam Gilchrist (legendary Australian wicket keeper/batsman) is a University Ambassador and such a great person.  He spent ages with the school students attending the event and enjoyed playing with the virtual reality equipment.

Last night Michael sent through a photo with the caption:  "Bikie gang terrorises locals" -hilarious!

I've Been on a Little Trip

Recently I had a few days off work to take a little trip to Queensland and attend a family wedding in Sydney. 

The trip to Queensland was to spend some time with my friend Diann.  Diann booked us in to the Stitchers' Dream Day Out in Toowoomba and we travelled up there on the Friday evening.  The room was set up beautifully.

Libby Richardson, one of the designers for the day, is well-known for her painted bears and she gave us all lessons.  This was a first for me.

The rest of the time away was spent relaxing with some knitting

and a little bit of shopping for pink fabrics to add to my stash for cot quilts.

I'm making a couple of little pink quilts at the moment for friends who are having granddaughters.  One is Cluck Cluck Sew's "Kaleidoscope" design, which I have made many times

and the other is a Dresden Plate design.

 

The Dresden Plates are all stitched to the background and the background has been trimmed from the back of the plates ready for the blocks to be sewn together tonight.

This same pink has been used as background for Kaleidoscope - the colour is better in daylight.

The centres for the Dresden Plates and Kaleidoscope blocks are from the cutest fabric ever, "Old and New 30's" by Lecien.

Over the last little while I've been collecting fabrics to make another Medley Quilt (a special request from a friend).  The final pack of fabrics arrived last week and I'm looking forward to starting this quilt later in the year (or perhaps early next year).

Last Friday, my cousin's daughter, Gabby, was married.  Jenni came to the Hens' Night with me a couple of months ago and Elizabeth came to the wedding.  So lovely to have a night out with Elizabeth.

The wedding was beautiful, the bride stunning and the groom was in tears during the vows - perfection.

The ceremony was held in a park in Watsons Bay and the reception followed in the Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel.

I made the Pineapple Quilt for Gabby's recent birthday and I was tickled pink to see the gold pineapples used for table decorations at the wedding.