Bonnie and Camille Scrappy Sampler 2

Last night I finished stitching down the binding on my second Bonnie and Camille Sampler.  This is the last of my navy and white striped The Good Life fabric - I love stripey fabrics for binding.  I have about 3 metres of the same fabric in red so should get a few quilts out of that.

There are many quilt designers represented in this quilt:  Cotton Way, Thimble Blossoms, Coriander Quilts, FigTree & Co, Moda Lissa, Carried Away Quilting, Cluck Cluck Sew.  From last year when I've started a new quilt or made a block for the Aussie B&C Beehive, I also made a block in B&C fabrics to go into my next sampler.

The quilt is quite large at 86" x 89".  There were plenty of blocks to make it larger but those extra blocks can be the start of my next sampler.

Karen quilted it with Orange Peel - always a favourite design.

Some of the blocks up close:

Catching up with some old friends for dinner tonight - my children's dance teacher and her husband - it's been way too long.  So looking forward to this coming weekend - Lynell, Robyn and I are going to see Anthony Warlow in "Jekyll and Hyde" - we've had the tickets for months.

Birthday Present

A certain son-in-law has a sloth or two (not real) in the house and when I saw the pattern for a knitted sloth in a recent Homespun magazine, I thought it would make a fun birthday present.

I used Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 8 ply and learned a new technique or two.

Christmas Cheer

For this year's Aussie Bonnie & Camille Beehive, I chose a Bonnie Olaveson (Cotton Way) pattern called "Christmas Cheer".  I thought it would be fun for the girls to make the Santa Hats and Christmas Stockings, while I made the other rows - one per month.

Karen quilted it with "Party Streamers", which is a fun design.

I'm looking forward to having this on my bed for Christmas this year.

I particularly like the backing fabric.  There may be enough left to make something for Little Sweetheart to wear at Christmas time.

So pleased to have made another quilt entirely from stash and a quilt that was made with the help of 11 other quilters.

Entry Room (the Parlour) Makeover

By the time Jenni and Kurt went home two weeks ago all the prep work and undercoating had been completed as well as a first coat on the back of the front door, some architraves and some cutting in around doors.

They came back on Saturday morning and were straight into it.

Gulliver was with us on Sunday and he was on kitchen duty helping to feed Jenni and Kurt

as well as providing entertainment with Mum.

By the time Gulliver and I left to go to the basketball game, the room was done.  Such a huge job that Jenni and Kurt finished in two weekends.  Unbelievably thrilled and grateful.  They even styled the room before they left so that it would look pretty when my friends and I arrived home from the game.

 Happy Christmas 2018 to me - the most generous present.

Chamomile

The strips to make "Chamomile" (designed by Allison Jensen, @woodberry_way) were cut out a while ago and I started sewing up blocks in early September.  This is a great design when a quilt is needed in a hurry and I was so pleased to be able to make it using only fabrics from my stash, except for the backing (so that's ok).

Lots of pretty low volume fabrics and favourite FigTree & Co fabrics for the sashings, binding and posts.

I love Baptist Fan quilting and it looks so pretty on this quilt.

Little Chicken Feather 2

"I'm late, I'm late for a very important date" - 8 months late actually.

Baby Sweetheart was born a little over 8 months ago and his quilt was finally delivered last Thursday.

I made "Little Chicken Feather" because I couldn't find another embroidered baby boy quilt that I liked better.

I bought the "Guess How Much I Love You" fabrics long before he was born.  The colours and designs are so sweet.

Mum stitched down the binding on this quilt - it's nice to have GG involved in making a quilt for our littlest sweetheart.

There's been a few finishes over the last week or so - not all sewing related. 

Sewing

I've visited Karen a few times to pick up quilts lately and it's hard to leave without "shopping in her cupboards".  Last visit I bought some Bonnie and Camille fabrics for quilt backings.

Had a few bindings to sew on.

as well as the scrappy sampler binding.  Mum is stitching down the bindings on "Little Chicken Feather" and "Christmas Cheer" and I'm yet to start on the other two.  I've been a bit busy with other sewing and socialising.

The Hawks played on Monday night and had a win (just), which was great for the home crowd.  There's another game tonight, so we're hoping for another win, especially because it's Robyn's birthday.  On Tuesday nights I go to trivia with friends at a local club - it's always a fun time and uses the brain cells.

During the week I sewed up the last "Sweet Escape" blocks.  I've put these aside for a while because I'm not ready to tackle the layout just yet.

I have a box containing fabrics already cut out ready to sew into blocks/quilts.  "Basket Case" has been cut out for a couple of months, so I started sewing up some "Basket Case" blocks.

These blocks, along with "Sweet Escape" are good blocks to sew while catching up on a tv show or listening to music.

Saturday morning there was lots of house cleaning, although in some parts it doesn't look like it - lots of dust everywhere from all the sanding, and then I went to meet up with the Stitching Girls at Rhonda's in the afternoon.  So nice to just sit, drink tea, eat cake and chat (and do a bit of knitting).

Sunday I had decided would be spent in The Pink Room.  It was time to make the Little Sweetheart's pre-school dresses using the fabric we bought on our holiday in Cairns.

A few hours of cutting out then I was ready to start sewing.  Two dresses and a pair of shorts for Little Sweetheart

and a t-shirt for Auntie Jenni.

Sewing with knit fabrics is so quick and easy.  "Space People", what she calls "Star Wars", and "Frozen" still to sew up for her and there's a couple of t-shirts cut out for Gulli and Baby Sweetheart in there as well.

Mum has finished stitching down the binding on "Little Chicken Feather" so now I have to find the label I stitched a few weeks ago - it's somewhere in The Pink Room.  Maybe I'll just give it to Baby Sweetheart as is and stitch on the label when I find it.

A Quilt for Baby Riggs

My great-nephew and Mum's 14th great-grandchild was born in July and his quilt was finished a little while ago - we finally had the quilt delivered to Riggs last week.

I used Carried Away Quilting's "Next Up" pattern and added his name at the top using the "Spell it With Moda" letters.

During last week I sewed up another bunch of "Sweet Escape" log cabin blocks.

18 blocks to go and then comes the dreaded block layout - my least favourite part of the quilt-making process.

Karen quilted "Christmas Cheer" on Friday.  Hoping to pick it up this week.

It will be lovely to have this quilt on my bed for Christmas.  I now have three quilts to bind.

As soon as Little Sweetheart heard that Jenni and Kurt were coming for the weekend, she wanted to stay over Friday night to help with the painting.  She was pretty disappointed that the whole time she was there not a tin of paint was opened.  We spent all Friday night and Saturday until dinner time scraping, sanding, filling repeat.  The walls in this part of my house would be at least 80 years old and have the old horse hair plaster.

On Saturday afternoon, before Little Sweetheart went home, we did open the paint can of jelly beans.

There was a nice surprise for her inside the tin - Milly the English Sheep Dog puppy (and a bag of jelly beans).

After dinner on Saturday night we starting undercoating and ran out of paint around 10.30 pm.  By the time we finished on Sunday dinner time all the walls and ceiling had been undercoated, there was some cutting in with the coloured topcoat

and the front door had one coat of topcoat gloss.

This is a huge job but we're now over the worst part.  No painting next weekend because it's Kurt's birthday on Saturday, but maybe the weekend after.  The biggest part of cutting in painting will be the double fancy cornice.

No sewing over the weekend.

Tonight we're going to the basketball - hope the Hawks play well.  It's about time they had a win.