Swap Presents

The sun is shining today - had a good storm last night but the rest of the weekend was lovely.  Some more happy mail arrived during the week - backing for Scrappy Trip Around the World and centre/border fabrics for another Scrappy Spiderweb (one day).  One more parcel of fabric to arrive (hopefuly this week) as well as new outside lights for the house and a hose.

The theme for our on-line group's first swap this year was "Gail Pan Designs" and this is the present I received from Leanne - I love the hot pink Tilda fabric and it looks fantastic with the pretty stitchery and the grey/white spot trim.

My other partner was Sue - I made Gail's "Little Birdie" sewing set (this was a popular choice - I think 3 of us made this design including Sue).

The new sewing area is working out well.  Finished putting together the Goodnight Irene quilt top

Still not pressed.

and started piecing Seville Limes.

Most of the weekend was spent packing the bedroom and sewing room furniture into the spare rooms to get the rest of the house back in order and in the garden with my sister-in-law, brother and niece.  Outside is looking so good.

Tone it Down

Friday afternoon I picked up "Tone it Down"  the APQ Quiltalong quilt from the post office.  Ripped open the package as soon as arrived home to see Sarah's quilting - it is so lovely.

First job Friday evening was to make the binding and sew it on before sitting down to watch some tv and start stitching it down.

Finished it off on Sunday night and took some photos.  Waiting for a nice day to take some photos outside to show the true colours.

 

Visited my second-favourite shop on Sunday (Bunnings) to buy a lemon tree, lime tree and crimson pom pom (love the name).

 One border was sewn to Goodnight Irene over the weekend.

The other 3 borders are ready to sew on later this week.

Swap parcel was posted on Monday and arrived on Tuesday - amazing.

Had a bit of an excess water problem on Monday - so much rain fell in the Illawarra.

All's well - furniture has been moved out, the insurance carpet person is coming this afternoon and new sewing area is set up at the other end of the house.

Good thing I have plenty of space in the house.

Cutting, Quilting, Binding

In 2010 I bought a few beautiful green/white fabrics from Quiltsmith - they have been stored away all this time and on Monday I had the bright idea that they would look great in Cluck Cluck Sew's "Seville" design, which I bought in 2011.

Of course I didn't have the right "white" in my stash but I do now.  Luckily I found some more of the fabric on-line for backing - really happy with that and the service from Cotton Capers is fantastic.

The fabric diet is broken - think I did well to last so long.  In my defence, I have plans for most of these fabrics (and the other 3 parcels that are on their way).  The stripe is for another scrappy spiderweb, the red spot for the scrappy sandwiches quilt on PatchworknPlay's blog, one of the linens will be for an Anni Downs bag and the pink spot is just because I like it.

Wednesday night I sewed together the second half rows of the Spell it with Moda Alphabet quilt and put it together on Thursday night.

Lots of excitement yesterday morning while I was at work.  Tracy, my Wonder Woman sister-in-law, sent me a photo of what was happening in the back yard.

And this was the scene behind the garage less than an hour later.  Hopefully grass will grow here along with a lemon tree and a lime tree.

 

A cousin commented that I was "decluttering" - sure am, in a big way :)

To add to the excitement my quilt arrived back from Sarah.  I love the orange peel quilting.

Quickly set about trimming the quilt and I made the binding out of the leftover backing (Allspice Tapestry by Fig Tree & Co) to sew on.

Started sewing it down while watch tv later last night - about halfway round, I'd had enough.  The milk chocolate brown gives the quilt a nice edge.  Hoping to finish off some secret sewing this afternoon.

Monday Again ...

Sarah sent me some photos of the back of my Tone it Down Quilt then told me that the quilting was finished and it would be on the way home today - so exciting.  Can't wait to finish this quilt.

Friday night had the best time having dinner with Barbara (our favourite pizza place) and then we went to the pictures to see "The Monuments Men".   I recognised some of these works of art I saw during my travels around Europe when I was much younger, so I am very grateful to these men.

Saturday was a mixed up kind of day - the usual housework and then I  played with some scraps.
 

I saw a great scrappy block on Susan's blog and would like to have a go at making some of these.  Lots of strips in varying widths ready to sew together soon.  I've ordered some red spot on white for the triangles.

Late Saturday afternoon I took Mum to the pictures to see "The Monuments Men" - twice in two days.  I was happy to see it again and Mum loved it.  Saturday night, thought I'd sew a few alphabet blocks together.  Reached halfway and called it a night.

 

Went along to a christening yesterday morning - it was so lovely.  The baby is the grandson of dear friends and he is gorgeous.  He looked so sweet in the christening gown made by his great-great-grandma for his daddy's christening.  After the christening came home to meet up with Louise and Tracy who were painting.  My contribution was the little gate at the top of the front steps, while Louise painted verandah posts on the large and small verandahs and Tracy tackled the small verandah ceiling then some of the fascia boards.  The house is looking fantastic.

 

We then attacked the lattice fence that goes across the yard before knocking off at 7.00 pm - an excellent day's effort.  Think I'd rather be at home painting today.

It's Happening

My "Tone it Down" quilt is on the frame at Sarah's shop right now - it's looking fabulous!

So looking forward to the quilt coming back for binding.

More Blocks

Arrived home on Monday night to find a package from Quiltmania in the mail - so excited - Anni Downs' new book.

The book is fantastic.  The main reason I wanted the book was for the bag pattern - there are so many beautiful designs for projects of all sizes.

Finished off some blocks this week:  "Scrappy Trip Around the World" and "Goodnight Irene"

Have a few quilt tops to sew together over the next weeks but I could be tempted to start something new as I have blocks for at least 2 more quilt tops already cut.

I believe my "Tone it Down" quilt is going onto Sarah's frame tomorrow - very exciting.   Backing fabric for "Scrappy Trip" has been bought.  Hoping I have a large enough piece of backing fabric for "Goodnight Irene" already in the sewing room.
 
Another package arrived yesterday - prize from the Nowra Quilt Show - a honey bun of some Moda fabric.  Lovely surprise.

Busy weekend coming up - there's always something happening at my place.

Mixed Bag

Aside from meeting up with the Stitching Girls on Saturday afternoon, the rest of the weekend was pretty free.

Friday night I added the borders to the alphabet blocks and then lay out all the blocks to see if my setting would work.  I'll add white strips to the rows starting with pinwheels and then maybe a white border.  I think I'll use the No 5 stripe for binding.

Somehow I managed to lose a pinwheel.  Made another.

Saturday Rhonda phoned to suggest instead of our usual stitching get-together we go for a drive to Nowra to see the quilt show.  Great idea.  Lunch in Berry on the way down.  Planned to have afternoon tea at the quilt show but the kitchen was closed by the time we'd had a look around the show, so we stopped in Berry again on the way home for tea, scones and a wander around the shops.

Actually did some weeding yesterday morning and filled the green bin with leaves - this is really out of the ordinary for me; then spent most of the afternoon in the sewing room tidying up and working on a few different things.

Sewed Floral Bouquet 2 backing together (another on the "to be quilted" pile).

Some secret sewing.

11 more X blocks have been ready to sew together for weeks - 9 to go then the Goodnight Irene quilt top can be sewn together.

And strips for the final 7 Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks to add to the pile to be pinned together.

20 blocks in all pinned last night while watching tv, so once they are all sewn up I have another quilt top to put together.

I figure that this sewing equates to tidying up because all these pieces are now blocks and not little piles in various places around the sewing room.  The main reason for tidying up is to move the quilting frame to the garage but there is so much stuff stored underneath and around it, that it is taking me ages to re-organise everything.

Received a phonecall from the Nowra Quilt Show organisers to say I'd won a minor prize in the raffle - bonus!  The lady told me it was "some quilting stuff, if you're into that kind of thing".

Numbers

Over the last few nights I've stitched the number blocks for the Spell it with Fabric alphabet quilt.

The instruction page didn't print correctly and I didn't check the arithmetic, so the number blocks have ended up a little smaller than the letter blocks - not to worry, I sorted out the difference when adding the borders.

Had a little play with the block layout this morning and I think I've worked it out - my block borders will be a little different to the original design (not shown in the layout).

 

 

The X's will be the pinwheel blocks.

I'm looking forward to seeing this quilt top together.

Change of Plans

So much rain fell on Friday night and during Saturday.  Consequently, no painting or gardening over the weekend.  The footpath around the back of my house was a little flooded.

After a visit from my brother, sister-in-law and nephew to carry out some flood mitigation, the water quickly drained away.  Once the housework was done, I was able to spend some time in the sewing room.  Friday night I cut out all the pieces to make Moda's Spell it with Fabric alphabet blocks - I wanted to use the bright fabrics in this overflowing box.

These blocks are very quick to cut out and piece.  Had them all sewn up before I went to bed on Saturday night.  Last night I cut out the pieces for the number blocks. 

Another cold, drizzly, miserable day yesterday.  Visited Bunnings to buy some longer screws to attach the new handles to the drawers.

Most of the afternoon I was in the sewing room - ironing.  Then pinning these Goodnight Irene strips into 16 patch blocks. 

Sewed them up - all of the 16 patches are now made.  Love these Pink Lemonade colours.

Started on some of the X block segments - quite a few more of these to go.

One of the WIP's that's been hanging around for 2 years or so is a pinwheel mystery BOM - I had 36 pinwheels for the borders made plus 4 or 5 large blocks featuring a variety of pinwheels.  Decided to undo these larger blocks and I'll use all the pinwheels to the Alphabet Quilt to make it single bed size.  There's well over 60 pinwheels and the fabrics are the same as I've used for the letters and numbers.

Don't feel like I've made much of a dent in that stash of brights.

Counted up the Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks - 44 have been made; 20 to go - some progress happening with this.

Hoping for a quiet week this week although will be going to Sydney for work tomorrow.