A Big Birthday

Last weekend was full of birthday celebrations for a big birthday, starting on Thursday with the arrival of my dear friends, Diann and Bill, who had driven down from near Brisbane.

My best friends, Lynell and Robyn, arrived for lunch on Friday (my birthday) with me, Diann and Bill then in the afternoon Jenni, Kurt, Vinnie and Daisy arrived.  Always a party when Vinnie is around.

Vinnie was so excited to give me a birthday present

and it was The Best Present - pink, metallic cowboy boots!

For dinner we went to a local restaurant, The Lagoon.  Elizabeth decorated the table with beautiful jars of pink and pink/white roses and loads of photos of my life on cute little gold stands.

Jenni made a delicious Lemon Poppyseed cake.

We managed to get a photo of my brother, Philip, smiling.

Cousin Steph

Diann

Lynell and Robyn

The Grandbabies

On Saturday afternoon we hosted an afternoon tea for the family and more of my friends - the weather had been dreadful for weeks and was no different on that afternoon - pouring rain all weekend.

We had a lovely time and I really enjoyed being able to spend birthday time with such lovely friends and my family.

Little Sweetheart Daisy is now 12 weeks old.

Elizabeth organised a continental birthday cake for the afternoon tea.  The table cloth was stitched by my mother-in-law in the 70's.  I think it was a kit from Family Circle.

Gulli and Daisy coincidentally wore matching outfits

Hugo and Vinnie had the best time playing "The Floor is Lava" with all the loungeroom cushions.

Sunday was Mother's Day and it was lovely having Jenni, Kurt and the little ones still here as I found the whole weekend a bit emotional being my first birthday and first Mother's Day without Mum.  I took some of Elizabeth's roses to Mum and Dad that afternoon.

All Vinnie wanted to eat at the party was hot chips and I didn't have any so, on the way home, Jenni and Kurt stopped at the McD's, about 5 mins from my house to buy Vinnie some chips - she thinks he ate 5.

Batman Quilts

A while ago my cousin asked me to make a Batman quilt for her son-in-law's birthday in June.  We found a pattern online for a Batman block (Quilt Around the Clock), ordered some yellow and black Kona Cotton from Patchworks Plus and found a Batman curtain fabric at Spotlight to use for the backing.

I made the block a bit different to the pattern by not using all 2-1/2" squares - I cut strips to suit the measurement of each part rather than having loads of seams.

As I was making the first quilt I realised I would need to make one for my son for his 40th birthday in July - he has always been a huge Batman fan - so more fabric was ordered.

Both quilts were sent to Sarah for quilting - we had found a great design with the Batman symbol and an outline of Batman's head.

The colours look best in the photo of the quilt on the bed.  These were fun, quick quilts to make and the boys love them.

Michael's birthday was last Saturday - to fit in with Michael's band's performance on Saturday night, the family went out for dinner on Friday night.  My favourite time is when the family is together.

Jenni, Kurt and Vinnie stayed over for two nights so they could come to the family dinner and also go to see Michael's band.  I was on babysitting duties.  Fortunately Vinnie was asleep before they went out.  That little sweetheart never stops till he's asleep - he has so much energy.

The weather over the last 10 days or so has been atrocious and so frightening for many people on the east coast of Australia.  Fortunately I've had no water come into the house but it's a constant worry these days.  The rainfall has been extremely heavy and constant and has now moved further north to, once again, inundate the folks who suffered terrible flooding earlier this year.

A Jumper for H

Time flies when you're busy.

Lots happening at home and work.  Haven't turned on the sewing machine for well over a week.  The backing for "All Stacked Up" arrived last week and I should make that up so the quilt can be sent away for quilting.

The Aran jumper for little H was finished 10 days ago.  Really happy with how it looks.

I started to lay out some "Blueberry Kisses" blocks but didn't sew any together.

Left the window open a bit too long on the weekend :)

Not to worry - it's a scrappy quilt and the blocks can go anywhere as long as the crosses and nine patches alternate.

I've joined in a sew-along making Thimble Blossoms' original Swoon quilt - the SAL is to make any Swoon.  Decided to make the original because I haven't made it previously in Bonnie and Camille fabrics.

Made one block.

While cutting out Swoon, I thought I might as well cut out another quilt - "Fireworks".  I made this many years ago, so I think I'll enjoy making it again.

The sub-contractor (Mum) and I are knitting a cardigan for Elizabeth - Mum is knitting the back and sleeves and I'm knitting the fronts.  It's a long cardigan and it feels like it's taking forever but the end is in sight.

Since that photo was taken, one front is finished and the other should be finished tonight or tomorrow night.

A gyprocker came last week to tear out all the old plaster and install new gyprock - the room looks great (and so much lighter).

A carpenter is coming tomorrow to replace the architraves and install new skirting boards then I can organise painting and floor sanding/polishing.  Amazing how quickly things can happen sometimes.

Last Sunday was Gulliver's 7th birthday.  The gorgeous boy had a wonderful time with his friends at Timezone and then another party at home with more of the family.

This coming Saturday, T and I are going to see "Mary Poppins" - I'm pretty excited.  Mum, Elizabeth, Jenni and I first saw the stage musical in Melbourne in 2011 and I'm very much looking forward to T's reactions to Mary flying and Bert tap dancing on the ceiling.

Not Much Sewing Happening ...

There hasn't been a lot of sewing happening the last few days.  I made three of these "Stitchery Sampler" blocks months ago and sewed up the "dash" block late last week.  The pretty fabrics are FigTree Shirtings.

I bought a new Elizabeth Hartman kit from The Next Stitch - "Robots".  Wendy was offering this design as a BOM but I preferred the whole kit.  It's a retirement project.

I'm hoping to get back to "Boho Heart" in the next little while - I have month 7 blocks made but not sewn together yet.  

This is last year's Scrap Busters Group quilt and most of the group has started this year's quilt, Tula Pink's Butterfly Quilt.  Once again, I'll be using my Alison Glass stash for the butterfly quilt.

T&H stayed over on Friday night - always fun with them around.  For Mothers' Day lunch this year we went to Amigos Mexican restaurant - two of my children worked there and the food is always great.  Celebrated another trip around the sun yesterday - Elizabeth came to campus to take me out for lunch and Mum cooked dinner last night.  Having dinner with Michael and his family tonight.

Party Boy

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day to celebrate Vinnie's first birthday.  His party was lovely and the timing fitted in well between his naps :)  Kurt's Mum and Dad were able to travel down from the Mid-North Coast, so it was wonderful to be able to see them too.

Jenni and Elizabeth made very sweet decorations for the gazebo and cupcakes.

"Master Plan" is together and on the way to Karen for quilting.  There are more than 3,200 pieces of fabric in this quilt top.  Lots of cutting and lots of chain piecing (my favourite).  Many different colours have been used but I'm finding that I have not used red in most of these very scrappy quilts.

"Joyful" arrived back from Karen last week.  Binding is still not done.  "Diagonal Plaid" quilting design looks terrific on this quilt.

In amongst the loads of fabric my friend sent to me last October, were three bundles of Jen Kingwell's "Gardenvale" fabric.  

I've been puzzling over what to make with it ever since and after looking through loads of patterns and books decided on "Jiggery Pokery" Quilt in Kaffe Fassett's "Quilt Romance" book.

I think with the bigger sections of fabric, the quilt won't look too busy and the border triangles will be the spot fabrics.  It's all cut out and packed away while I sew some other blocks.

The fabrics and pattern for "Castle Gardens" were also in the parcel from my friend and the blocs were cut out last month.  I've started sewing some blocks together.

When all the blocks are made I'll decide whether to add sashings or assemble the blocks as in the pattern.  Some of the fabrics are pretty busy

So thankful the really heavy rain seems to have finished - we're still having showers.  I can imagine a little of what everyone up north is going through but not the extent of it all - just awful.

Happy Birthday

The baby with the biggest personality, Vincent, turns one today.  Surely a sign of time flying by way too quickly.  Even though we missed a few months with him due to the lockdown last year, we've been very fortunate to be able to spend so much time with him.

Vinnie is an absolute joy in all of our lives - his cousins have so much fun with him and he is very entertaining for the adults.

Little Sweetheart H decided it was time to launch himself from his cot after his afternoon nap, so the cot was quickly converted into a bed and he's been sleeping very well.

"Sampler Spree" arrived home from Quilting on the Coast (Karen) yesterday - the Clamshells quilting looks terrific.

"Master Plan" quilt top is together and I've decided to add a chequerboard border - one side to go and it will be finished then I can choose backing/binding.

On the weekend I spent a good amount of time cutting out a blue version of "Blueberry Kisses" - so much cutting in that quilt but I think it will be lovely.  I like to have a few quilts cut out ready to sew when a quilt top is finished.

The last couple of nights I've been knitting.  Hadn't touched H's jumper since December.  It's slow going but I love the challenge.

Star Pop

"Star Pop" is a quilt designed by Emily Dennis (Quilty Love) - this is the first time I've made one of her designs which was well-written and easy to follow.  A friend sent me a f8 bundle and layer cake of "True Blue" (Zen Chic) and some blue/white fabrics were added from my stash.  The border design is based on Michelle McKillop's "Stripe Me Lucky" quilt border and was a great way to use up more of the fabrics.

I don't have any places to photograph large quilts when I don't want them on a bed.

The backing is a lovely toile wideback and the quality is beautiful.  Some wideback tend to be very open weave fabric.  The binding is Ruby Star Society "Speckled" (navy) and my friend will be stitching it down.

Karen used "Rodeo" for the quilting (chosen by my friend) and it looks lovely.

"Master Plan" is growing.  This quilt is slower to put together but enjoyable to make.  The length will be 8 full stars down the side and then I'd like to add a border but haven't decided on that yet.

Two more quilts are with Karen for quilting ("Joyful" and "Sampler Spree") and a secret sewing quilt is on the way to Sarah for quilting.

Had a fun/busy weekend with two different work farewells and basketball, Jenni/Kurt/Vinnie staying over for the weekend and little sweetheart Grandson H turning 3 on Saturday - he had such a great time at his party.  The garbage truck he received from his older cousins was a huge hit.  Two grandchildren came home with me for dinner and sweetheart T stayed over, so it was full house.  The best type of weekend.