Nesting Nellie and her Girls

This Melly & Me pattern is in Homespun No 64.  A friend's birthday is this coming Thursday and as her family is from Ukrania, I thought these dolls would be a good present.

I love the tiniest doll - she looks like she's nursing a baby.

The Old and The New

Tuesday last week our dear old car

decided that

428,615 kms was enough and she wasn't moving from her warm spot in the sun outside our house.

We had an inkling that the car was on its last legs and John and I have spent the last few weekends checking out cars and going for some test drives.  What an unbelievable car the Tarago has been - 20 years old and 2 minor mechanical repairs until last week's issues.

Today we collected our new car.

I have really liked this model since I first saw one a few years ago parked outside Camden Quilt Show (must have been a sign) and never thought we would own one.  It's a dream to drive.  Looks like 2010 is our big year for upgrades - sewing machine, car - wonder if John will want an upgrade on his wife?

Block 8 Tail Feathers is finished and I stitched 1-1/2 corner blocks on the train to Sydney today.

Was hoping to finish Block 9 over the weekend then remembered I need a birthday present for Wednesday - I'm going to make Melly & Me's Matryoshka Dolls from Homespun No 64.

And now for something completely different

I am Tail Feathered out - on Tuesday when the stitchy girls came over I felt like doing something different so I found my knitting bag.  In there was one finished and one half-finished sock.  The second sock is now complete and the socks have gone home with Jennifer.

I bought the sock wool 3 or 4 years ago and started knitting immediately, so the unfinished sock has been hanging around for quite some time.

This is the first star block sewn together.  So many great Moda fabrics in that stack - Chocolat, Roman Holiday, Shangri-La, Poetry, Vienna Nights.  I have finished two and another two are set up on the design sheet.  Bec called it my "big adventure" - I think that's a great name.  I wish I was brave enough to put all the squares into a bag and just sew them together as I pulled them with regardless of which colour goes where.

Back to Tail Feathers tomorrow night.

The birthday boy blowing out his candles last Sunday.  Jenni made the cake for him - buttercake covered in chocolate ganache and crushed hazelnuts - v e r y nice.  A view of inside the cake:

John's favourite colour combination is blue and green.

Little Birdies

Block 7 Tail Feathers and two corner blocks are finished - starting to feel the anticipation of a finish.

A few months ago I came across this picture on Red Pepper Quilts' blog.  RPQ's quilt was inspired by this photo.  I have a stash of large-ish pieces of older Moda fabrics and thought they would look nice in this design, so out came the pencil and paper to work out the maths.  I have made about 500 of these squares.

About half are trimmed.  This has been an ongoing project for the last few months and will be for quite some time - it's great for when I feel like just sewing.  The fun will start when I'm ready to sew the block components together.

The Right Chair

Mum and I went back to Ikea on Sunday so that I could pick up the correct chair

John and I put it together last night - very happy with it and the back cushion Jenny made me for Christmas a couple of years ago fits well.

Also bought a new lampshade for the sewing room

Block 6 Tail Feathers is finished

and I made the log cabin blocks for the outer border

Looking forward to putting this quilt top together.  2-1/2 blocks to stitch.  Baby Tail Feathers is due in 4 weeks.

Alphabet Soup

Alphabet Soup is finished (54-1/4" square plus prairie points).

I can't take any credit for the design of this quilt - I saw it on a website advertising Holly Holderman's Alphabet Panel and decided to have a go at working out the maths for the star blocks.  The only fabrics I bought were the alphabet panel and the turquoise/white stripe for the border - all the rest, including the backing fabrics, came out of the cupboard (which happened to contain some of the lovely Holly Holderman cherry, check and baby rabbit fabrics).

Also in one of my cupboards is a stack of hexagons my Mum stitched a few years ago - these are for Bouquet Garden from Homespun No 21.  The hexagons form a central medallion which is surrounded by 9 borders.  All the borders were also cut out years ago.  This will be the next quilt for me to finish off as well as continuing with Tail Feathers.  Haven't touched The Wish Quilt for a good few weeks and think it will again be on the back-burner for quite a while.

Jenni and I had a lovely day out yesterday - she bought everything on her list and a bit more.  Guess what?  I have to go back - fell in love with an office chair that I thought would look so pretty in my sewing room, brought it home and found I'd picked up the wrong box - same style, wrong colour.

Easter Sewing

Over the Easter break I added the borders to Alphabet Soup

made the backing (the dark spot is the shadow from the peg basket)

and quilted it

Prairie points and binding are now attached.  It's looking very sweet - just waiting for a baby to be born.

Also made the next block in our on-line group's 12-1/2" BOM - Annie's New Year's Eve Star - Peg chose well - everyone has loved making this block.

Progress on the next Tail Feathers block has been slow.

Day off work tomorrow - Jenni and I are going to Ikea.

The Wedding

Present wrapped -

The wedding was held at the bride's family home.  Bride arrives

The happy couple during the ceremony

Then rain fell so we all moved into the marquee to continue the ceremony.  It poured on and off all afternoon.

The wedding cake

The bride is so very clever - she made the wedding cake decorations and all the table decorations - they were beautiful -

With the mother of the groom and a dear friend.  The weather started to clear as it was time to leave.

Beautiful wedding in a beautiful setting.

For Sale - SOLD

While tidying up my fabric cupboards I came across this kit (Quilt Aid 2009, Bluebirds of Hope) that I won't get around to making for quite some time, so I'd like to sell it. In the kit are all fabrics and patterns to complete the twelve (12) blocks, one finishing kit (including pattern and fabrics for a central block) as well as 4 yards (minus a 3" square cut from one edge) of backing fabric from the same range as the kit.  The backing fabric is the background of the photo.

All up it cost me a bit over $440 Australian for the kits and backing fabric. If anyone is interested in buying the quilt kit, please email me with an offer. I will pay postage (domestic or international).  Most of the pattern packs have not been opened and they have been stored in a smoke-free/pet-free house.

Bullseye

Bullseys is finished!  I'm tickled pink with how it's turned out.

 

 (Might have to hire a new quilt model.)  The quilt measures 66" x 84" and sits nicely on a queen sized bed.

I'll sew the labels on tonight then it can be wrapped up for the wedding tomorrow - I hope the weather tomorrow is as beautiful as today.  Plans are for the wedding to be outside.

Block 5 Tail Feathers

I'm hoping to piece blocks 7, 8 and 9 today then trace the stitcheries.