Quilt Tops

Last Monday the Honeymooners flew out of Sydney to Amsterdam to start their European honeymoon.  Their first couple of days were spent in Eindhoven with family and they saw lots of places relating to the family.

Next stop was Brussels and overnight (our time) they arrived in Paris.

Cruising down the Seine

I had a fun start to the weekend - spending time with Gulliver while he assembled some of his birthday Lego.  He did it all by himself following the photos in the instruction book.

Saturday was lunch with the Schoolgirls - they've all been on long holidays:  Gail to South America/Europe/UK/Iceland; Lynell to Middle East/Scandinavia and Denise on a marathon caravan trip through Qld/NT.  Was fun to catch up with them after so long.

The rest of the weekend was spent in The Pink Room.  Thursday and Friday nights I sewed up blocks to make two rows for my Aussie B&C Beehive quilt "Christmas Cheer" (Sawtooth Stars and Chequerboard)

and then I sewed the lower four rows together.  The stockings were made by the Aussie B&C girls.  This quilt will be large enough to go onto my bed at Christmastime.

Saturday I sewed the "Spinning Stars" blocks into rows and by the end of the night I had a quilt top.

Plain white borders were added on Sunday morning and the backing and binding was made.

Then I started sewing "Fresh" blocks together - even though there are only 16 blocks in this quilt, it took quite a while to sew them together - lots of points to match up.

The backing has been made and the binding will be offcuts from the backing.  This quilt is huge at ~96" sq.

Don't think I have any more piles of blocks in the sewing room.   Might get back to some "Happy Scrappy Baskets" sewing - I'm halfway with this one.

While sewing, I've been binge-watching "Bed of Roses" - first watched this ABC series when it was originally on tv (2008-2011 or so) and I still love it.  Wonderful friendships, fun characters and a nice romance.

Borders

"Nine Patch Waltz" quilt top was finished last week and dropped off to Karen to quilt.  The backing is the same "Strawberry Fields Revisited" fabric as the border - I love this print.

I've been waiting for ages for a bolt of the pretty "Chantilly" fabric to arrive so that I could finish of the "Dashing" quilt top and make the backing.  It's now ready to drop off for quilting when I pick up "Nine Patch Waltz"

Such a great weekend!  Saturday the family all landed at Jenni and Kurt's place for lunch to wish them a fun (and safe) Honeymoon trip to Europe.  They will be away for almost four weeks and are going to have the best time.  Two little sweethearts had such a great time playing with each other - makes my heart happy.

Mum and I called in to Ikea on the way home (it's 2 minutes drive from Jenni and Kurt's house) - I had a shopping list of 2 items and, believe it or not, that's all I bought :)

Yesterday my dear friends, Lynell and Darren, came for lunch.  They, along with Robyn, have been away on a huge holiday to Israel and Jordan and then Lynell and Robyn went on to Sweden and Finland.  So lovely to see them and catch up on all their holiday news.

Back in The Pink Room

The final "Christmas Cheer" stocking arrived late last week so the two rows (Christmas stockings and Santa hats) can be sewn and put aside for when the rest of the rows are finished.

Haven't been doing much machine sewing over the last couple of weeks - I've been hand-stitching blocks for my grandson's quilt - only a few months behind with this quilt but have been making good headway.

Felt the need to do some machine sewing and made this month's "Summer Moon" blocks - so many teeny tiny pieces in the smallest Birds in the Air block.  I think I'm going to love this quilt once it's all finished.

I have a few piles of blocks ready to be sewn into quilt tops and I was home all day on Sunday so took the opportunity to start sewing "Nine Patch Waltz" together and the top was together last night.  I love this quilt in FigTree fabrics and also the light circles in this quilt design - secondary patterns are the best.  Borders are next - I have a few fabric choices.

Last week I saw "Rocketman" again - so fabulous and I probably loved it more the second time.  On Saturday afternoon Mum and I went to see "Yesterday".  It was written by Richard Curtis - I think he's such a great writer/director ("Four Weddings and A Funeral", "Vicar of Dibley", "Notting Hill", "Love Actually", "About Time", "The Boat That Rocked" and so many, many more).

No movies next weekend - family lunch with the Honeymooners before they leave for their European honeymoon next Monday.  Always a fun time when we're together.

Epic Birthday Party

Gulliver turned 4 last week and his birthday party was held on Sunday.  It was an epic party because of the work his Mum and Dad put into it but also because of the weather - so windy and cold but little Darth Vader (in the front of the photo) had a great time with his friends and cousins.

Nanny Barb brought a fantastic birthday cake and cupcakes.

Michael, Peta and Gulli made some papier mache Tie Fighters and one was a pinata.  They brought along pool noodles for the party-goers to make into light sabres.

Auntie Jenni and Uncle Kurt look so great at Jyn Erso and Cassion Andor.

Even Nanna dressed up

and GG was using The Force.

Towards the end of the party there was a huge battle with two left standing.

 Michael had a ball playing with all the kids and Gulli had a birthday party he'll always remember.

Not Much ...

Not much happening in The Pink Room - trimmed the rest of the half-square-triangles for "Happy Scrappy Baskets"

and laid out charm squares for another "Bradley Street" quilt using these new "Safari Life" fabrics I bought from Karen.  They will make a fun cot quilt. 

The rest of my spare time I've actually been stitching blocks for the newest Sweetheart's quilt - running very behind on this one as he's almost four months old.  Three large and two smaller stitcheries to go.

On Saturday night, along with Tania and her son, I went to see "Sweeney Todd" starring the wonderful, superstar Anthony Warlow.  Could never say that this is a favourite musical (Sondheim's music is always so jarring - I was hanging out for a nice melody) and the subject matter is so very gruesome, but Anthony Warlow was sensational.   Lynell, Robyn and I have tickets to see him in "Jekyll and Hyde" in November and I'm looking forward to that show - it's a one-off concert version in Sydney.

Yesterday afternoon Mum and I went to the pictures to see "Red Joan" - I enjoyed this suspense movie.  Judi Dench is always good value.  Looked up the real "Red Joan" afterwards - she was much more involved in espionage than depicted in the film.

Go Four It - Rainbow rows

In November 2015 I went to a quilt camp in Tasmania with a bunch of friends.  Earlier in the year American Patchwork and Quilting published a quilt designed by Lissa Alexander from Moda Fabrics and I thought it would be a great quilt to chain piece at camp.  This quilt was a great scrap-buster, using 1-1/2" and 2-1/2" squares.

I made a few hundred four-patches during the time at quilt camp

and some were sewn into nine-patches so I could see how the quilt would look.

These were put away for over three years until I was supposed to be doing some sewing for The Wedding, and I took out the packet of blocks and decided to finish the quilt top (I am the queen of procrastination).

I decided to add a border - no points to worry about when sewing on the binding,

and the quilt was sent off to Sarah for quilting.

The binding was stitched down last week and the quilt was finished.

It's huge at 92" x 98-1/2" and I'm so happy with it.

 The cable quilting design looks beautiful in lamplight.

We've just had a long weekend and it was a fun time with family.  ChaCha had two sleepovers (second one because Jenni and Kurt were also having a sleepover), also spent time with Gulliver, Mum and I went to see "Rocketman", Sunday lunch with the family and Monday was a lazy day with a bit of sewing and cutting out.

Loved "Rocketman" so much - from the first scene when Elton, wearing a fabulous orange costume with huge wings, pushes open a set of double doors, I had a smile on my face and knew that I would love the movie.  There is a lot of sadness in the movie but overall it's a story of triumph for this musical genius.  Taron Egerton is fantastic as Elton and so is Jamie Bell as Bernie Taupin.

I sewed some more "Happy Scrappy Baskets" yesterday - am now halfway and need to trim some more HST's before I can continue.

I also cut out the white strips for "Sweet Escape" - not quite in the mood to start sewing this one.

During last week I made another "Christmas Cheer" row - Friendship Stars.

Picked up the new car last Monday - was sad to hand over the other car but am enjoying driving the new car.

Looking forward to next Saturday night - going to see "Sweeney Todd" with Anthony Warlow and Gina Riley AND I've managed to buy tickets to see Anthony Warlow in a concert version of "Jekyll and Hyde" in November.

One Photo

Not much to show this week.  The Pinwheel nine patch blocks for "Spinning Stars" are finished so these are ready to be added to the Sawtooth Star blocks and sewn in to a quilt top.

Now I have three piles of blocks to be sewn into quilt tops:  "Spinning Stars", "Fresh" and "Nine Patch Waltz".

"Happy Scrappy Baskets" are slowly multiplying - 10 are finished, so another 22 to go.  Will have to do a load more trimming soon as I had trimmed enough pieces for about half of the blocks.

"Go Four It - Rainbow Rows" binding is being sewn down - hope to finish that tonight.

Definitely looking forward to the long weekend - I'm taking Friday off to run a few errands and make the weekend extra-long.  Will be spending much of the time with family and hope to see "Rocket Man".