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.

X and +

After some emails to and from Sarah, I wanted to try making an "X and +" quilt block.  Had a go at one last night and after tweaking the maths, finally worked out what size pieces I needed.

I've cut into my "Bliss" layer cake to make this quilt - caused a bit of discussion on Instagram.

I'm hanging out to buy some new fabrics so I will use up this layer cake and, hopefully, more of my Bonnie and Camille stash.

More gardening this weekend and some Scrappy Tripping Around the World (I hope).

A Little Sewing

At stitching last Tuesday night, Karen showed us her almost finished Floral Bouquet - it looks fabulous with the black background.

The binding is now sewn down and the quilt is ready for their next adventure around Australia starting in March.

Some more Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks

and the strips for another 14.

Pinned them together ready to sew into blocks while watching the Olympics and the Goodnight Irene X's are sewn together into blocks.

Most of the weekend we were in the back yard sorting out the garden, lopping trees - working really hard - well, I'm good at holding weedmat in place, making lunch etc.  Don't think the boys will let me near the chainsaw.

 

The Site Supervisor turned up to carry out an inspection.

All the mulch is from the first lot of trees and branches that we cut down just before Christmas - there's still plenty left.

So, it's all happening at my place - I'll never be able to thank my family enough.

Sewing Blocks

I think I'm up-to-date with the "Goodnight Irene Sew-Along".  Hoping to make my quilt a bit larger than the original plan.

Last weekend a couple of friends celebrated Big Birthdays - had a lovely time on Saturday night at Barbara's birthday dinner.

Dear Marina sent me a fantastic bagful of Bonnie and Camille "Bliss" offcuts.  I've added these to my stash of "Ruby" and a couple of "Vintage Modern" fabrics and have started making the "Scrappy Trip Around the World" - a short attention span has struck again.

All the blocks have the tiny polka dot as the central diagonal

So far none of the blocks are pressed after the initial strips are sewen together and the blocks aren't sewn together - I'm not keen on pressing the blocks until the final layout is decided because there are so many seams.