Surfin' Safari

What a FABULOUS time Barbara and I had last night!

 

Such wonderful singing and glorious harmonies.  I was very skeptical about the show but was blown away by how good they guys sounded.  Great non-stop party with the crowd on its feet dancing and singing along to hit after hit - they sang 52 songs!  I will be forever grateful to Barbara for taking me with her.

Tick Tock

The new clock is hanging on the wall in my sewing room.

The pattern is from Natalie Bird's book "With Needle and Thread".  I've been wanting to make one for myself for a good while now - love it.  Such a simple, clever design.

This and That

More busy times here.  I loaded Hunky Dory Spin onto the frame early last week

and the quilting is now finished and it's time to add the binding.

The Pretty Maids quilt top, the little Baboushkas, is together and ready for basting.  Maybe on the weekend.

Tomorrow my friend, Barbara, and I are going to see The Beach Boys - I really hope it's a good concert and their voices are still there.  Last Friday's show, Tap Dogs, was sensational - loved every beat of it.

Fathers' Day on Sunday is also Jenni's 25th birthday, so the family is coming for lunch - looking forward to that.

This Week

This week I have been jumping from one thing to another.  Started off loading Hunky Dory Spin onto the quilting frame and did a few rows, finished stitching out the Baboushka machine embroideries, stitched out some very cute Ragdoll Critters, finished the stitchery for a clock for my sewing room (made a couple of these in 2009 for Christmas presents and never got around to making one for myself) and yesterday I cut out the block pieces for the Baboushka quilt

Think I have just enough of both fabrics left for borders and binding

and finished putting together my Little Apples Imagine from Carrie Nelson's "Schnibbles Two".

Waiting to be pressed

Today I have a visit to the hairdresser plus Mum and I are going to see "Hope Springs", the new Meryl Streep movie - Margaret and David weren't very kind about the film, they could be wrong.  Eisteddfod set up and some cooking tomorrow then "Tap Dogs" tomorrow night with Jenni and a couple of friends, really looking forward to that.

Little Apples Double Irish Chain

Another WIP is finished at last:  Little Apples Double Irish Chain featuring Annela Hoey's very cute "Little Apples" range of fabrics.

 

I love the feature fabric on the front and decided to use it for the backing.  All the little creatures in this range are so sweet.  Hunky Dory Spin is almost loaded onto the frame.

Beautiful almost spring day here today - we've had lots of wind lately.

Pretty Maids

Had an idea for a new quilt on Wednesday so started up the embroidery machine and have been stitching out some pretty Baboushka/Matryoshka designs.

I think there are 12 different designs all up.

Another two pincushions are finished:  Anni Downs design from "Some Kind of Wonderful" and Natalie Bird design from "With Needle and Thread".

Another weekend at the eisteddfod coming up but nowhere as busy as last weekend.  Little Apples Double Irish Chain is quilted, the binding is sewn on and ready for stitching down - maybe start tonight and might have some time over the weekend to sew it down as well.  I'm working up the courage to put Hunky Dory Spin on the frame - could be this afternoon.

Big Weekend

We had a huge weekend - I'm exhausted but it's been great.  Thursday was eisteddfod cooking; Friday I spent about 5 hours at the hall helping to set up for troupe weekend then came home and started preparing for the engagement bbq.  All Friday the wind howled and we were a bit concerned that we wouldn't be able to cook outside on Saturday.  Was still very windy on Saturday but not too bad - John rigged up some windbreaks and managed to cook.  We had a houseful on Saturday for lunch and it was so lovely.  We've spent a fair bit of time with Matt's family over the (9) years and it's even better to see them to celebrate such a happy event.

Elizabeth and Matt cutting the engagement cheesecake (made by Jenni)

Sunday was spent at the eisteddfod cooking, cooking, cooking - I don't want to see or smell bacon and eggs or chicken schnitzel for quite a while.  Was there for over 12 hours but I love troupe weekend.

This morning I walked into the bedroom where Elizabeth and Matt stayed and found Elizabeth's glasses, makeup, contacts solution etc so decided to make a quick trip to Sydney - caught the train up and quite enjoyed the time to be able to read my book.  Met Elizabeth at QVB and she treated me to lunch.  We had a walk around QVB and I tried on a couple of dresses.  Just seeing what's around that I may like for the wedding - no date yet as they're still deciding on a venue.  Lovely surprise day out.

Hexagons and Little Apples

The first pile of half inch hexagons is now stitched together and ready for sewing.


The next pile of little hexagons is ready for stitching together.


Today I finished sewing Little Apples Double Irish Chain quilt top. This has been half done for a few months. It will make a great child's quilt.


Maybe next week I'll get around to making up some backings and put these quilt tops onto the frame.

Lovely weekend coming up. BBQ lunch here on Saturday with our family and Matt's family to celebrate the engagement and then a busy day at the eisteddfod of Sunday.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

UFO

In early 2010 Peg kindly sent me a pattern to make a Hexagon quilt and I went through my stash to find pink, white and red fabric. I ended up buying a few pieces along the way as well. I finished putting the quilt top together yesterday afternoon.


For the border I used a stripe


but I didn't want any of the very dark red and burgundy so I cut them out of the stripe and sewed the stripes back together; I'm really happy with how the border turned out.


I've also done a little more pincushion stitching.


This one by Natalie Bird is ready to sew up.

I've pulled out another half-finished quilt top to work on this afternoon.


Stitching group tonight - think I'll work on my tiny hexagons. Beautiful sunny day and not quite so chilly.

Stitching

After enjoying making the Turtle pincushion so much I've decided to make pincushions for the Tuesday Girls as part of their Christmas presents.  When I visited The Home Patch in January I bought Anni's book "Some Kind of Wonderful" and a little kit for the pincushion - so many wonderful designs in this book.  The stitchery was traced the other afternoon and stitched over the last two nights watching the Olympics.

A nice change from sewing those tiny hexagons.  Continuing the hexagon sewing theme of late, I took out another UFO quilt yesterday afternoon:

This quilt was started over 2 years ago and 6 rows have been added since this photo.  10 more rows are ready to sew on and then I can add borders.

Eisteddfod cooking is finished for this weekend and we are now leaving to set up the hall - looking forward to some great singing over the next 2 days.

Another Top

While pottering around in the sewing room yesterday afternoon tracing some little stitcheries for pincushions, I came across Scrappy Simplicity.  All that needed to be done to finish off this quilt top was sew on two borders, which were already made.  So, I did that and the top is now finished.

 

I've darkened the last two photos a bit to enhance the pinwheels - the colours are so soft and pretty.  I'm finding it difficult to photograph them well.  I love this quilt top and am so happy with how it's turned out considering it came from a pile of little flying geese cut offs and a bagful of scraps.

One blog I love to read is Pretty by Hand.  I love how Kristyne expresses herself, what she makes and her great sense of fun.  Her last message is about the cost of quilting and, according to her philosophy, this quilt top has cost me nothing.  I agree.

A Day Out

Last Thursday Karen and I went for a drive to Penrith to collect her sewing machine.  Karen was kind enough to then drive us to Drummoyne so we could visit Material Obsession - an absolute feast for the eyes.  I was VERY restrained in my purchases.

Some large florals to store with my "Candied Hexagons" stash - I think one or two of those birds will look wonderful in the quilt as well as the large flowers.  And, when I saw the Dio de los Muertos fabric, I had to buy a metre of that to make something for Peta or I can give it to Jenni if she would like to make something.

So much to see in the shop and so much I could buy.

I spent a good part of yesterday in the sewing room and Hunky Dory Spin is together.

Hunky Dory Spin ~ 96" x 84"

I haven't made a quilt this large before.  It will be interesting to see how I go quilting this one on the frame.