New Cutting Table

Anyone following me on Instagram or Facebook knows that I have a new cutting table.  It arrived yesterday and I'm so tickled pink with it.

I've been using a chest of drawers as a cutting bench for the last 6 years and it's worked very well but the time has come for something bigger.

A while ago I saw a great kitchen island in Ikea that I thought would work for a cutting table but when I measured the spaces in my sewing room it was too long and would have meant too much re-organisation of the room.  Then I had a brainwave of having a kitchen company build one for me but that turned out to be very expensive (over twice the cost of the Ikea bench) so I started looking on Ebay and Gum Tree.  I found a cabinet-maker on Gum Tree who could build exactly what I was after and arrange delivery from Victoria.

 

I moved some of the girls' childhood furniture into the room as well for some more storage and it's all set, except for some tidying/cleaning out of the wardrobe and shelves.   Think I might need a white machine cabinet next.

Busy Few Days

I took two days off work last week:  one to attend a class with Barb and Mary from Me and My Sister, then the next to supposedly sew for the whole day.

Thursday was such a great day.  Drove to Sydney with three friends for the class.  Barb and Mary are so delightful and friendly - just like their fabric designs.  The girls designed the Oh Cherry Oh fabric I've used a lot as well as the Text Me quilt blocks I made a while ago (still have to sew all of those blocks together).

I decided to make the log cabin quilt as I've never made a whole log cabin quilt.  We were given a jelly roll and cutting instructions beforehand, which was a big help, so much cutting.  During the day there were loads of giveaways and we each received a cute pair of scissors, made a fob for the scissors, and also received a charm pack of the girls' next range and a pattern to use the charm pack.

Early Friday morning I received an email to say my new cutting table will be on its way very soon so instead of sewing I spent the day painting, cleaning and re-arranging furniture in the sewing room.  The room hasn't been so clean for ages.

Fitted in a bit of sewing on Friday night, mainly because I had the Swell fabrics all set out on the design sheet and wanted to clear it off to pack away.  Half of the blocks are sewn - 15 more to go.

Saturday morning Jenni and I visited a friend who has a very sweet new baby boy

Machine embroidered towels for the little sweetie

then the rest of the day was spent visiting my grandbabies - that's always fun - and had a lovely day on Sunday going out for lunch with girlfriends.  Needed to come back to work for a rest. 

Scrappy Zig Zag Quilt

Last night while watching tv I finished sewing down the binding on the Scrappy Zig Zag quilt.  I love this quilt - it's so bright and fresh plus it all came out of my stash.  It measures 60-1/2" square.

 

Karen's cable design quilting looks wonderful too against the sharp points of the zig zags.

Most of last week's sewing time was spent putting Fresh together (it's 96-1/2" square).  I'm waiting for a piece of fabric to arrive then I can make the backing for this one.

and then Orange Swoon (it's 106-1/2" square) - it needs to be photographed on a king-size bed - it is a present for someone who has a king-size bed.

Orange Swoon backing has been made - I added in the test block and an extra block I'd made (I bought too many orange fabrics).

Next up will be Swell - another quilt that has been cut out for a few months.  There are some very pretty colours in these batiks.

Had a lovely Sunday - ChaCha, her Mum and Dad and Great Nan came for lunch.

So looking forward to Thursday - 3 friends and I are going to a class with Barb and Mary, the fun ladies behind Me and My Sister.  I think it will be a great day.

A Few Days Off Work

I've been sewing "Fresh" blocks over the last week.  This Thimble Blossoms design using Fig Tree fabrics - a favourite combination either way - has been cut out for 3 months or so.

 

4 blocks to make and the quilt top can be sewn together - after my least favourite job:  laying out the blocks. I've made one little change to the original design by adding coloured squares to the outer corners of each block rather than having a plain background piece.

I had 3 days off work last week - went way too fast.  Saw "Les Miserables" in Sydney on Wednesday night with Mum and my girls - would really love to see it again.  Dinner with a friend on Thursday night, a bit of shopping and lunch with friends on Friday, great local production of "Mary Poppins" on Saturday night and then visiting the family in Sydney yesterday.  A great few days.

Little Chicken Feather

"Little Chicken Feather" is a Red Brolly Design from a book of the same name.  It has lots of cute patterns for nursery quilts and other goodies.

My little grandson was born on 19 June - what a wonderful few months - two healthy, beautiful babies.  He is a little sweetheart (even though he doesn't like sleeping very much).

The quilt top has been mostly finished for a few months - I just needed to stitch his name etc after he arrived.  Early ast week I pin-basted the quilt

and Friday night decided it was time to get it quilted

Saturday morning I sewed on the binding and stitched it down at stitching with the girls that afternoon.

A few months ago I decided to make this quilt because Smudgie's Mum and Dad's petnames for each other is "Chicken".  Had a lovely time with the family yesterday for Michael's birthday - of course little Smudgie, who doesn't like to sleep, slept the whole time and I had lots of time to play with ChaCha.

Other sewing last week was putting the Thimble Blossoms Scrappy Sampler Sewalong quilt top together.

I've really enjoyed making all these blocks and am looking forward to starting Piccadilly Circus soon.

Short work week for me - having Wed/Thurs/Fri off.  Going to see "Les Miserables" on Wednesday night.  Pretty excited about that.  Then a few days at home catching up on a few jobs and sewing, and going to see a local production of "Mary Poppins" on Saturday night.