Village

 I love this pattern - an opportunity to use so many favourite fabrics no matter the colour or design.  They all look so fun together.

"Think Spring" is a pretty design chosed by Jenny at AngelCake Quilting.  I love this cute backing fabric.

"Another Story" is together and ready to go to the quilter - this was a fun quilt top to make and I was fortunate to be able to swap fabrics with another two quilters so that added more lovely fabrics to the mix.

I think this lovely umbrella fabric will make a beautiful backing for Another Story.

Close up of the background and stripe border fabrics.

"Rainbow Baby" is also ready to go to the quilter.  I've been making a sawtooth star each day for a few weeks (sometimes two) and that has been very enjoyable.

The backing has been cobbled together with some large leftover pieces of this lovely bow fabric.

The final Riley Blake Block Challenge block was published last week.  Because I'm setting these on point, I'm not making the butterfly or heart blocks

and I've made an bunch of extra blocks so that there are enough to make a reasonable sized quilt.

These are the sashings and posts.  I'm using Woodberry Way's setting for her "Chamomile" quilt.

Life is very quiet now we're in lockdown again.  Hopefully it will finish as planned on 9 July and all my friends are going well.

Summer Days

"Summer Days" was quilted last week and is now on its way to friend who wanted the quilt and she is going to stitch down the binding.  The narrow Churn Dashes are a lovely border for the blocks.  I used Bonnie and Camille fabrics (mainly "Shine On") for this Cotton Way design.

The backing is from Bonnie and Camille's "Early Bird" range - such a gorgeous red.

Jenny, AngelCake Quilting, quilted this so beautifully with Baptist Fans.

The first 10 "Sampler Spree" blocks are finished.  The theme was "blue".  FigTree's cornflower blue is so lovely - I added in a couple of lighter blues and pale aquas for variety.  There will be an "aqua" month but I'll be using teal shades for that one.

Sewed up the last "Sewcialites" block on the weekend.  Purple Kindness provided by Bunny Hill Designs.  The last six blocks together:

A couple of layouts I'm thinking about:

I'm leaning towards the first star.

Saturday was Gulliver's 6th birthday - he had a great time at his party - lots of school friends and cousins at Flip Out (the local trampoline place).

I started sewing some "Another Story" blocks into rows yesterday.  The rows will be moved around a bit before being sewn together.

Last night's video of our littlest family member:

Can't help but smile when I watch this.

Quilt Top

 Added the final two borders last night and sewed up the backing fabric for "Village".

The backing fabric is designed by Cathy Nordstrom for Andover fabrics - a nice garden for the Village houses.  

Dropping the quilt top and backing off to the quilter this afternoon and picking up "Summer Days".

My "Sampler Spree" book arrived on Tuesday - just in time for the start of the SAL yesterday (Wednesday).  Sorted out a load of FigTree jelly roll strips, scraps, etc last night into bundles of colour in the hope of using as many as possible in the Sampler Spree blocks.

Couldn't help myself - had to make two blocks before going to bed.  The plan is to make 10 blocks per week for 10 week with a specific colour designated to each week.  Week 1 is blue (not navy, teal, aqua etc).  FigTree's "Catalina" range has lots of lovely mid-blue fabrics.  Not sure how I'll go keeping up with 10 blocks/week.

Last week's "Sewcialites" block is Compassion designed by Anne Sutton.  One more block to go and that's the end of this SAL.

Gulliver is turning 6 this weekend - unbelievable how time passes even more quickly now that I'm a Nanna.  Looking forward to spending some time with him and the rest of the family.

Another Quilt Top

A little while ago I cut out loads of pieces for another "Village" quilt - this pattern is designed by one of my favourite people in the quilting world - Carrie Nelson.  Until a few years ago she published loads of patterns as "Miss Rosie's Pattern Co" and now she works for Moda Fabrics.

Last year this pattern was made available as a free download for people to sew together during the COVID lockdowns.  I made two last year and both have gone to new homes.  The pattern is designed for charm squares but any favourite fabric pieces can be used.

The body of the quilt is now together and top and bottom borders have been added.  Should be able to add the side borders and make the backing tonight.

"Rainbow Baby" is coming along well.  The green and aqua blocks are finished and can be sewn into rows to add to the top half.  I made the first navy block this morning - 5 more to go then 6 grey blocks and this will be ready to go to the quilter.

"Nine Patch Waltz" is almost halfway.  I'll continue on with this when "Village" is together.

Had a very busy weekend - watched basketball on tv on Thursday night (Hawks won), then housework and cooking on Saturday before the second Hawks playoff game (Hawks lost).  Family came for lunch on Sunday and then I went to Symbio Wildlife Park with Elizabeth, Matt and the little ones on Monday before watching the third playoff game on Monday night (Hawks lost).  So, our extra-long basketball season is over.  Don't really care who wins from here.

This and That

Another couple of rows are ready to add to the Nine Patch Waltz quilt and I'm also making some more blocks to make the quilt wider.  This quilt is a special request and she wants the quilt to be at least 100" square - with another two blocks added to the width and the borders, it should end up around 102.5" sq.

"Rainbow Baby" reached halfway late last week and the next row (green) should be ready to add this week.

Last week's Riley Blake Block Challenge block

and last week's "Sewcialites" block - Passion designed by Carrie Nelson.  Two blocks to go.

 This month's "Shine On" Sampler blocks.

Finished up all the blocks for "Summer Days" late last week

and the quilt top was completed on Monday night - the yellow Sawtooth Stars are an addition to the original design and the quilt top is ~85" sq.

Three basketball games last week - two wins and one loss but the Hawks were already in the playoffs before the last game - very exciting.

One of my bosses is running for Lord Mayor in the September Council elections.  Had a fun time at a fund-raising trivia night on Friday with a bunch of friends.  Some of the Hawks were guest quiz masters.

Ended up having a quiet weekend at home (mostly in bed or the sewing room) with a cold, so no fun time with the family etc.

Hourglass a Day

Last October, a quilter I follow in Instagram posted a message about making an hourglass block each day using Cluck Cluck Sew's tutorial and then in a few months we would have enough blocks to make a quilt.  I had a few Bonnie and Camille charm packs plus a bundle of already cut 5" squares, so this was a great idea for me to use up those fabrics.  5" coloured square + 5" background square = 2 finished 3-1'2" hourglass blocks.

In November I started making two blocks a day and enough blocks were made by the end of March.

Love this "Hello Darling" fabric backing.

I wanted a curvy quilting design as a contrast to all the angles and points in the blocks and Karen used "Wind and Waves" - it looks great.

I signed up for another quilt-along.  "Another Story" designed by Thimbles and Needles using up the leftover background from "Kaleidoscope" and lots of fabrics from my stash plus some hexagons swapped with two other participants.  Some progress has been made on the blocks.

The design sheet isn't big enough to hold them all.

I need to cut out another six hexagons and then make the side half-hexies to fill in the gaps.

Last week's "Sewcialites" block is "Inspire" designed by Lori Holt - this was a fun block to make.

Last year I had planned to cut out Cotton Way's "Summer Days" quilt but it just didn't happen until a month or so ago.  I changed the Friendship Stars to green fabrics and used yellow to make Sawtooth Stars plus I made 6 of each block instead of 5 so that I'd have a bigger quilt.

The red/aqua blocks are done.

Out for dinner last Thursday night with The Schoolgirls, lunch with work friends on Friday to farewell two of our staff then out for the evening to farewell another.  Had a lovely day on Saturday - Mum and I went to Sydney to visit Jenni, Kurt and Vincent.  They are all going so well.  Vincent is laughing now and is a very happy baby.

Some housework and sewing on Sunday before an afternoon Hawks game - good win.  Games tonight and Thursday night and the season is over (but they might make the play-offs).