This is the backing for the It Takes a Village Dwell quilt - leftover strips from a variety of quilt backings.  The quilt has arrived in Queensland to be quilted by my Instagram friend, Julie, who was in the Dwell Swap with me.

Peta has asked me to make a special quilt - one of her best friends is having a baby in the next couple of weeks and Peta bought these beautiful Australian fabrics.  We've decided on the sage green for the setting triangles.

Once again I'm using "Bradley Street"because it shows off the fabrics.

This sensational May Gibbs linen/cotton fabric is for the backing and also to go in the blank squares in the photo above.

I've been making "Summer Nights" blocks.  These are blocks 1-20/49.

At this very unsettling time, Moda Fabrics has made a Miss Rosie Quilt Co pattern called "Village" available for anyone to download for free.  I wasn't going to join in but saw an IG friend making some lovely houses and thought I could go through all my older fabrics and cut out some house pieces.  As usual, I've cut out way too many, probably enough for two quilts, and I'll start sewing some together over the weekend.  There are so many fabric memories in those stacks.  These quilts will be donated to Keepsafe Quilts, who give them to women's refuges for the families to keep.

I have two quilts to pick up from AngelCake Quilting - Red Letter Day (love this new-to-me cable)

and Scrappy Trip Around the World

I will enjoy binding these two.

Quilt Tops

"Red Letter Day" quilt top is together and at the quilter waiting its turn to be quilted.  This is the second red/white quit top finished this year.  One more cut out to start in a little while.

Love this fabric for the backing.  I've used the pink and aqua in this design and had been saving the red for something special.

After "Red Letter Day" was done, I started making Ohio Stars for the Dresden Plate centres on "Plain and Fancy".  This is such a pretty quilt in the "Chantilly" fabric.

Pretty backing fabric.



One of my Instagram friends, Anne Boundy, designed a layout for some "Dwell" blocks she had received a couple of years ago.  Her blocks were centred around a "Swoon" block with "Fresh" stars in the corners (all blocks designed by Thimble Blossoms).  I added a scalloped border and this should be large enough to go on my bed. 

The backing for this quilt is going to be made of lots of edge strips saved from other quilt backings.  I'm sending this to Julie in Queensland to quilt - Julie was one of my swap partners.

The University is starting mid-semester break early so there will be virtually no undergraduates on campus from Monday.  Our office is all set up for working at home if necessary.  So far the family is all healthy.

"Dwell" Swap

Two Instagram friends and I swapped "Dwell" blocks.  "Dwell" is a quilt designed by Thimble Blossoms from her "Simply Retro" book and we added 6" blocks for the house "interiors".

The plan was to make 5 blocks to send to each other and 5 for ourselves - I got carried away with the block centres and ended up making 6 each.

The houses I received from Julie:

and the houses I received from Karen:

These are the my blocks all together - I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these yet but I'm leaning towards Anne Boundy's "It Takes a Village" Quilt with a large Swoon block surrounded by a couple of borders and the houses.

"Red Letter Day" quilt top is almost finished - I didn't have enough red polka dot fabric to finish the 4th side and add the last border.  I'm hoping a package of the fabric will be in the letter box today.  So happy with the look of this quilt so far.

Having some red fabric left over I thought I'd make another "Summer Nights" quilt - I'll be able to use up loads of the scrappy pieces from "Red Letter Day" and "Wish Upon a Star".

Before Christmas I joined a sew-along to make "Hide and Seek" (designed by Thimble Blossoms).  The plan was to have the quilt top finished in early January.  I kept up for the first few weeks but then Christmas, family time, other sewing commitments became more pressing and this was put aside.  It was finished on the weekend and I'm so glad it's done - sorting out where to put which little coloured square was driving me bonkers.  I had so many aqua/red four patches towards the end that I ended up pulling them apart on Saturday night and adding more colour.

The Backing

Last night I sewed up the "Plain and Fancy" Dresden Plates - this "Chantilly" fabric, designed by FigTree & Co, is so pretty and I'm looking forward to seeing this quilt come together.

Little Sweetheart T came over for the weekend - we visited Mum, did some shopping, make pancakes for breakfast, played games - had a great time.  Jenni visited yesterday afternoon and it was lovely to spend some time with her.

"Wish Upon a Star"

This quilt is the second I have made of this design by Cotton Way.  I used as many Bonnie and Camille red fabrics as I had in my stash and also bought quite a few extra.

It was quilted by Jenny from Angel Cake Quilting in Orange Peel.

The quilt is now on its way to Canada.

I love quilts with red polka dot backgrounds.

New Start

"Scrappy Trip Around the World" quilt top was finished last week

and the backing was made.

"Scrappy Trip" and "Wish Upon a Star" were delivered to Jenny (Angel Cake Quilting) on Thursday and I'm looking forward to seeing them quilted.  I'll be picking up "Wish Upon a Star" on the way home this evening.

I felt the need to work with a different colour scheme, so cut out a "Plain and Fancy" block (quilt designed by Coriander Quilts).  Was really happy with how the first block turned out.  I've been wondering what to make with the leftovers of my "Chantilly" fat quarter bundle and was able to buy some more of the coral fabric. 

Back to "Red Letter Day" tonight.

Had a very social weekend - Friday night went out for dinner then to the pictures to see the staged concert version of "Les Miserables" starring Michael Ball, Alfie Boe and Matt Lucas (SO fabulous); littlest Sweetheart's first birthday party on Saturday with all the family and friends; Kathy Lette at IPAC on Saturday night; took Gulliver to a birthday party yesterday afternoon as his Mummy and Daddy were both working.