Bullseye

Bullseys is finished!  I'm tickled pink with how it's turned out.

 

 (Might have to hire a new quilt model.)  The quilt measures 66" x 84" and sits nicely on a queen sized bed.

I'll sew the labels on tonight then it can be wrapped up for the wedding tomorrow - I hope the weather tomorrow is as beautiful as today.  Plans are for the wedding to be outside.

Block 5 Tail Feathers

I'm hoping to piece blocks 7, 8 and 9 today then trace the stitcheries.

Progress

One more row of blocks to go then I think I'll ditch stitch around the bullseyes.

Quilting

Block 4 Tail Feathers

Ready to Quilt

I'm hoping to put Bullseye on the doover (quilting frame) tonight. The flannel backing has been purchased

and pieced together with a piano key strip along the centre.

Labels have been stitched on the embroidery machine 

Threads still to be trimmed.  The first label photo shows the colour of the thread better.

We've been invited out for dinner tomorrow night so that gives me a bit more quilting time as I won't have to cook and we'll enjoy the night with our friends.  I love weekends.

Presents

Progress has been made on Bullseye - finished sewing the strip triangles on Saturday afternoon just before John and I went to see "Avatar" 3D (which we both enjoyed, although I had my eyes shut quite often).

Yesterday, after ironing etc, I sewed the triangles into squares and trimmed them.

The blocks are sewn together and some of the bullseyes have been machine blanket-stitched - haven't had a machine that sews blanket-stitch before and I love it.  Tonight I'm hoping to finish sewing on the bullseyes and start on the borders - narrow black/white spot border and then lime green piano keys.

Our on-line group's first swap opening for 2010 was last Friday - the theme was Leanne Beasley.  I was lucky because I received my beautiful present from Jenny when I arrived in Kingaroy.  Jenny made me a basket liner (which I've always wanted) and there was another surprise when I arrived home - Jenny had sent me a basket.

Jenny liked the design so much she made one for herself.

My other partner was Bec and I combined two Leanne Beasley patterns to make her a block keeper - "Flowers for Erica" for the stitcheries and LB's block keeper pattern from Homespun No 28.

Finished stitching Block 3 of Tail Feathers last night

These blocks are so sweet - Baby Tail Feathers is due in 7 weeks.

Holiday

I am on holidays and last night returned from a fantastic 6 day stay in Queensland with my dear friend Diann.  On Friday we travelled to Kingaroy (via visiting my brother and a couple of other stops) and spent the weekend with Helen, Jenny, Teresa and Tereasa at The Quilter's Rest.  Teresa and Tereasa have some great photos on their blogs of The Quilter's Rest and what they were making.  So relaxing to be able to sew or do whatever you feel like without having to worry about cooking, housework etc and have such a great time with friends.

Diann, Jenny and Helen concentrating on their work.  Jenny quilted 3 quilts over the weekend! I have a fun video of Jenny dancing but can't work out how to upload it to blogger without putting it on You Tube.  Diann was working out block placement for her Bear Paw Quilt, which she finished putting together on Saturday night.

She was so enthusiastic she put the borders on the quilt below.

Helen was cutting, cutting, cutting then sewing, sewing, sewing - hundreds of half-square triangles and flying geese.  Her quilt will be so pretty when it's finished - the fabrics are beautiful.

What did I sew?  I spent Friday night and all of Saturday sewing together my Girls Day Out blocks.  I've borrowed this photo from Teresa because I didn't take one of the finished quilt top.  It's now ready for the roses to be appliqued then I can think about the quilting - won't be for a little while because I have a couple of other deadlines coming up.

Monday and Tuesday Diann and I continued our own retreat and I completed the centre of Alphabet Soup - borders next and finished off with prairie points.

Managed to fit in a bit of shopping at Thread and Ginger and The Quilter's Rest.

So all up it was a fantastic holiday and I don't go back to work till next Monday.  I hope to have finished all the blocks for the bright green string-pieced quilt (Bullseye) - I'm about halfway.  The circles will be appliqued on when the quilt top is together.

Girls Day Out

Stitching is finished, so after trimming all the stitchery blocks, I'll be all set to sew all the blocks together at Kingaroy next month.  So looking forward to this trip.

Started stitching the first "Tail Feathers" block on Monday night - this is for a baby due in May - and I'm working on a new lime green/black and white spot scrappy string quilt.  I'll take a photo when a few more string blocks have been sewn.  Except for the backing, I'm hoping to make all of this quilt top from my scrap drawer - lots of lime green leftovers from the "Funky Advents" made a couple of years ago.