A Big Year

2016 has been a very big year in many ways, one of which is quilt finishes - 23.  20 of them are in the photo below.  Some were started a long time ago, some were orders for customers and some were made just because I liked the pattern and wanted to make them straight away.

Spool Sampler

On Friday night I looked after Gulliver overnight in Sydney.  I took Spool Sampler with me to stitch down the binding when he went to sleep for the night - think I managed to stitch down one side and turn a corner, so that was pretty good considering how hot it was.  Stitched the rest down on Saturday night.

My Instagram friend, Amy, wanted to make this quilt and asked me to make one too but, being me, I decided to change the design a bit.  So happy with how it's turned out - the original pattern has a plain background block between each sampler spool and I decided to make the quilt larger by adding more sampler spools and a three-fabric-spool between each sampler spool.  I'm not a big fan of lots of plain space.

Love the Baptist Fan quilting (Quilting on the Coast) - another lovely texture and the design doesn't overwhelm the patchwork.

 

Saturday morning Gulliver and I went out for breakfast,

then hit the shops, bought a few Christmas presents, waved to Santa and he generally had a good time singing very loudly and chatting to anyone who wanted talk to him.  Finished the morning off with a couple of turns on his favourite ride.

He wasn't happy when it was time to leave but soon changed when he saw that his Daddy was home.

Mum had a lovely birthday yesterday - most of the family was there to celebrate with her and we saw the rest at my nephew's engagement party late in the afternoon.  Thankyou to everyone who sent birthday wishes.  Mum's up with the times - has her own Facebook page - I show her what's on it every now and then :)

One little piece of Christmas sewing has been completed - a heart for the Hugs N Kisses swag that hangs in the loungeroom.

Kurt has been around for long enough now.  I've also ordered a little nameplate from Nikki Tervo for the stocking swag.

A Beautiful Surprise

Arrived home from work on Monday afternoon to find a parcel had been delivered - such a wonderful surprise present from a quilt customer who has become a friend.  I love the red foil packaging.

The mohair/wool throw is so soft and the colours - wow!  Exactly what I would choose.  It will look wonderful anywhere in my house.

The Stitching Girls had dinner together on Tuesday night - next week Paula is leaving for Christmas in Finland so it was lovely to be able to spend some time together to wish her bon voyage.  Karen brought along my quilted Spool Sampler.  I love the Baptist Fan quilting - first time I've chosen this design.

The binding has been stitched to the quilt ready for stitching down over the next few nights.

Not much sewing this week - Christmas decorating has taken over.  Mum came over on Wednesday night to help make a start.  Mum's 89th birthday is this coming Sunday and the family is coming for lunch so I wanted the tree up for the little ones to add some decorations - the lounge room is finished and I've made a start on the family room.

Going to Sydney this afternoon to spend some time with my favourite little man and hopefully do some Christmas shopping tomorrow.

Hopscotch

I picked up my Hopscotch quilt from Karen at stitching last week.  I love the orange peel quilting - it feels wonderful.  The quilt is 66-1/4" x 87-1/4".

Stitched down the binding while watching tv on Sunday night.

Had a pretty busy weekend preparing the verandahs for Christmas lights, re-arranging furniture in the loungeroom for the Christmas tree and taking the decorations, lights etc out of the cupboard.  The little sweethearts are coming for Mum's birthday lunch on 4 December and I thought they could decorate the tree with Mum so it will be nice to have most of the other decorations up as well.

I also went out for lunch on Saturday with the Schoolgirls and on Sunday with other very dear friends followed by the basketball - great game and the Hawks won by 31 points!  Lynell, Robyn and I called in at the shops on the way home because they insisted I buy some of the Christmas Disney character musicians.  The musicians are fun but little ChaCha doesn't think so - she stayed over last night and each time I started the music she kept saying "bye bye duck" and didn't want anything to do with them.

This little cheeky chops has discovered the shopping centre rides - had to ride in the Batman car.

Another busy week and weekend coming up - Schools Spectacular on Saturday with Mum and the annual Christmas trek to IKEA on Sunday.  Wonder if we'll get home earlier than last year?

The Crown

I was able to spend a fair bit of time with Miss ChaCha last week and she came for a sleepover on Friday night - always fun especially when Jenni is also home for a visit.

ChaCha and I had a busy Saturday morning shopping and visiting friends.  I bought a new smart tv for the sewing room.  At the moment it is set up in the bedroom until an antenna point is installed in the sewing room.  Such a luxury sitting up on the bed watching episodes of "The Crown" - fabulous show.  Even had Mum watching a few episodes on Sunday afternoon.

I've spent my sewing time pinning "Colorway" block sections

sewing a few sections together

 and making a few flowers for the next "Medley" border.

Received a photo from Karen  showing quilting progress on "Hopscotch" - hoping to pick this up tonight.  I love Orange Peel quilting.

Last night Tania, a work colleague, and I went to the Rob Guest Endowment grand final concert at the Lyric Theatre - such a great night showcasing new talent and wonderful guest artists.

Thought I was really clever - the finalists performed "I Hope I Get It" from "A Chorus Line" as the opening to the concert and I picked the winner before I'd even heard him sing on his own.  Paulini sang "I Have Nothing", Whitney Houston's song from the new show "The Bodyguard" - absolutely stunning.

Stitching tonight, a few other things on this week and a busy weekend coming up - lunch with The Schoolgirls on Saturday, lunch with other friends on Sunday plus a basketball game.  Need to find some time to start my secret Christmas sewing.

Fig Tree Diamonds

The Stitching Girls came over for lunch on Sunday and Karen brought FigTree Diamonds with her.  I sewed the binding on after basketball and spent a couple of nights stitching it down.  This is a pretty big quilt at 97.5" square and has made a bit of dent in my FigTree stash.

 

I've cut out 2 more quilts:  "Colorway" (I have trouble typing that name without the "u")

and "Cakewalk"

Looking forward to starting Cakewalk - some easy and quick piecing.

"Medley" is progressing.  All the friendship star blocks and few more borders have been added

and I'm slowly working on the flower blocks for the next border - lots of tiny pieces in these blocks.  I wish I had more of the yellow Fig Tree fabrics - they are so lovely.

Swell 2

The last stitch went into Swell on Sunday night.  This is the second time I've made this quilt and used many of the same fabrics.  It's a great scrappy quilt.

I love the swirly snail quilting design

 and this wideback backing.

Making 36 Friendship Stars for the next round of Medley is a slow process

so I made the rest of the scalloped borders instead.

The weekend was great - basketball on Friday night, visits with my two sweethearts on Saturday, friends over for dinner on Sunday followed by another basketball game.

Last week I took three quilt tops and backings over to Karen for quilting:  Swell, Spool Sampler and Hopscotch. 

Picked up Swell from Karen on the way home from work last night - it looks fantastic -

and Spool Sampler quilting is almost finished.  It's looking great too.

FigTree Diamonds quilt top has been a fun challenge to put together using a pile of half-square triangles I sewed up ages ago.

I made the backing last night and was so pleased with the joins in the fabric - it's great when the fabric design is so helpful.

For some unknown reason I had a bee in my bonnet to start Medley, again using my FigTree stash and Bella Solids for the backgrounds - I have smaller pieces in Ivory, FigTree Cream and Butter.

I think there will be just enough of each bakcground colour to make the quilt top.  This is where I stopped last night.  Friendship Star border is next.  This quilt will contain the last of many of my favourite FigTree fabrics.

We had another family birthday last week.  I made another crochet basketweave scarf - this time with fringing at each end - using Bendigo Woollen Mills Bloom wool in grey.

Had a great weekend.  Out with friends for dinner on Friday night for Robyn's birthday (Fruit Tingle cocktails are very nice).

My little Sweetheart ChaCha came for a sleepover on Saturday night and GG (Mum) joined us for dinner.

Starlight

Sarah quilted Starlight and sent it back with Cheerio.  Starlight was started in March this year and I finished stitching down the binding last night.  I love the "Hello Darling" fabric range by Bonnie and Camille, and loved using it for this big quilt (85" x 101.5").

The quilting is an all-over large wave design which is a nice contrast to the points.

Had a great weekend - fantastic basketball game on Friday night and lunch on Saturday with The Schoolgirls at Sublime Point.  Such a shame the weather was dull as the view from the cafe is spectacular.

Lynell and I picked up ChaCha on the way home from lunch.  ChaCha came for a sleepover on Saturday night - lots of fun with my sweetheart.

Was able to spend yesterday afternoon sewing and finished putting Hopscotch together (another quilt using "Hello Darling" - this has been slow-going because of bias edges and lots of points to meet up - I'm really happy with how it looks but now wish I'd made it queen-size - it will fit a single bed.

Borders have been added to Spool Sampler and I hope to add borders to Swell tonight so I can take the three quilt tops to Karen for quilting sometime soon.

The carpet in the two back bedrooms was laid this morning.  It will be so nice to have the house back to its normal state of chaos, four months after the "rain event".