Month 5's "Summer Moon" blocks have taken ages to make.

I haven't cut out the August blocks (Month 6) - they look a little daunting.

In between socialising and spending some time on the baby's quilt over the weekend, I cut out a "Basket Case" quilt (designed by Cluck, Cluck, Sew)

and made two sample blocks.

Also started cutting out "Lemon Meringue" designed by Corey Yoder (Coriander Quilts) in Bonnie and Camille's "Early Bird" range.  I'll need to buy some more background fabric before I can start this one.  I'd also like to cut out "Shining Brightly", another Thimble Blossoms design, using "Early Bird".

Saturday was a busy day with the family coming over for lunch along with a couple of friends.  We had such a great time.  The Honeymooners brought presents from their trip to Europe - presents are always good.

Sunday was lunch with friends to celebrate a 94 year old's birthday.  Another lovely time.

Little Sweetheart is coming to stay for a few nights this week - she will be fun company for me.  We're going to see "The Lion King" tomorrow.

Running Late

My baby grandson will be 6 months old next Monday and his quilt isn't finished.   I'm making Red Brolly's "Little Chicken Feather" (also made this one for Gulliver but couldn't find a different baby boy quilt that I liked as much to make for our new little one).

The quilt top is together, and two of three borders have been added.  I have one block to embroider/applique before I can start quilting.

The fabric is 'Guess How Much I Love You" designed by the illustrator of the book.  The colours are so beautiful.  I also bought some in the pink colourway to make a couple of baby girl quilts for when friends have baby granddaughters.

I've also been making another "Next Up" (Carried Away Quilting design) cot quilt for Mum's 14th great-grandchild (born last month) in a new fabric line called "Safari Life".

Can't complete the top section of the quilt until the fabric I have on pre-order arrives.

Life is pretty busy at the moment with the eisteddfod taking up most weekend time until mid-September, but we have this weekend off so am looking forward to the family coming for lunch on Saturday and catching up with some friends on Sunday (and perhaps stitching more of "Little Chicken Feather") or cutting out a new quilt.

Last week I won two tickets to our local picture house, Gala Cinema in Warrawong.  Turned out we could only take advantage of the tickets on Monday night "Danger Close" was the only movie at a time that suited us.  The movie is about the Battle of Long Tan.  It's been quite a while since I've seen a war movie and, while not my favourite style of movie, I appreciated the historical value and how terribly young these soldiers were to be thrown into this situation.

I would have loved to see "White Crow" (about Rudolf Nureyev) or "Late Night" with Emma Thompson but they're only on while I'm at work.

Fresh

"Fresh" is a very large quilt designed by Camille Roskelley (Thimble Blossoms) from her book "Simply Retro".  This is the third "Fresh" quilt I've made - the first one was finished in 2015 made in FigTree & Co fabrics and the second was a lap-size quilt finished in 2017 made in Dena Designs fabrics.

This one has been quilted with a new-to-me design called "Meandering Feathers" - it looks really good in all the white spaces.

The backing is a pretty fabric from Bonnie and Camille's "Smitten range" with a scrappy binding.

This quilt is pretty big:

Wollongong Song & Dance Festival started last weekend so most weekends are spent there until mid-September.  Gulliver came to stay last Saturday night - he is always such fun company.  Loves to cook and help with dinner.  He told me he "didn't want to stay over for 10 nights but might think about 4 nights".

Spinning Stars

"Spinning Stars" was also finished last week.  It's another great design by Cotton Way (Bonnie Olaveson).  I've used loads of Bonnie and Camille fabrics for the pinwheels and Sawtooth Stars and didn't have any fabric repeats.  This is a great design to use up loads from the scrap drawers.

I had this one quilted with one of my favourite designs, Orange Peel.

Stitching at home the last while has been sewing down the scrappy binding on "Fresh" - almost 400".  "Fresh" is pretty big at 96" square.

Last night Mum and I went to see "Palm Beach" - I loved it - laughed and shed a few tears.  So nice to see a movie about people my own age (and a little older and younger).  I've read some reviews that weren't too kind about the script but there's loads to love about the film and I'd be very happy to see it again.  It reminded me a little of  "The Big Chill" - one of my most favourite films ever.

Dashing

This quilt was finished last week - the top was put together in May but I had to wait a couple of months for the border/backing/binding fabric to arrive as it was a brand new release.  The quilt is a Coriander Quilts design and the pretty fabric is "Chantilly" by FigTree & Co.

I asked Karen to quilt this one with "Modern Twist".

I bought a fat quarter bundle of all the "Chantilly" fabrics and a bolt of the pretty backing fabric - I think there's enough left for backing one more quilt.  All the fabrics in this range are so pretty.

Happy Scrappy Baskets

"Happy Scrappy Baskets" is a Corey Yoder (Coriander Quilts) design.  Corey's patterns are so well-written and easy to follow.   I've made a few quilts with these fabrics and it's time for some of them to go to a new home.

The backing fabric is the lilac version of the turquoise fabric used for the baskets.

This is a great design to use up lots of 2-1/2" squares.  Karen quilted it with "Featheration" - the design looks lovely in all the white space.

Finished stitching down the binding on "Dashing" last night - two more to bind then I'm done for a while.

Binding

Lots of binding happening and more to come.

Picked up two more quilts from Karen last night:

 "Fresh"

and "Spinning Stars"

Hoping to sew the bindings on tonight for stitching down over the next few nights.  The "Fresh" binding will take some time to sew down as the quilt is 96" square.

Mum, her friend Nora and I went to see "The Keeper" on Saturday - this is a great movie; a true story about a German POW who became one of England's greatest-ever goalkeepers.  The movie is set in and around Manchester, where Mum was living at the time, but she didn't know any of the story.  Hoping to find time to see "Palm Beach" but it will be a bit difficult with my annual "community service" starting this weekend (the eisteddfod where I volunteer each year).

Nine Patch Waltz

Sunday night I finished stitching down the binding on "Nine Patch Waltz" designed by Joanna Figueroa (Fig Tree and Company).

I love everything about this quilt especially how the design makes circles with no curved piecing.

LOVE the "Strawberry Fields Revisited" backing fabric too.

This is the second time I've made this quilt and I don't think it will be the last.

And some more ...

Sampler block sewing last week - I think I have enough larger blocks.  I found a little bag containing 19 Dresden plate petals, so only needed to make one more petal, find fabric for the centre and background and a Dresden Plate block was done :)

Dresden Plate

Also had a bunch of left-over half-square triangle blocks:

Sweet Escape

Trip Around the World

Next Up

Seaglass

Last week was big - two days in Sydney for work.  Lovely surprise in my hotel room on Tuesday night:

and then Michael, Peta and Gulliver moved house last Thursday.

Michael and Peta are expert packers and these removal guys are fantastic (Chad's).

Picking up two quilts from Karen last week:

"Dashing"

"Happy Scrappy Baskets"