And some more ...

Sampler block sewing last week - I think I have enough larger blocks.  I found a little bag containing 19 Dresden plate petals, so only needed to make one more petal, find fabric for the centre and background and a Dresden Plate block was done :)

Dresden Plate

Also had a bunch of left-over half-square triangle blocks:

Sweet Escape

Trip Around the World

Next Up

Seaglass

Last week was big - two days in Sydney for work.  Lovely surprise in my hotel room on Tuesday night:

and then Michael, Peta and Gulliver moved house last Thursday.

Michael and Peta are expert packers and these removal guys are fantastic (Chad's).

Picking up two quilts from Karen last week:

"Dashing"

"Happy Scrappy Baskets"

Kaleidoscope and Dresden Plate Cot Quilts

A few months ago a dear friend in USA told me her daughter was expecting twins - baby girls, and they were due to arrive in November.  Plenty of time, I thought to make two little quilts.  Then I was told they were going to be born a month early.  I bought some peony Kona Solid background fabric from Sarah and extra pink fabrics while I was in Queensland in early September to add what I already had and made two little cot quilts.

Kaleidoscope, designed by Cluck, Cluck, Sew

and Dresden Plates, a traditional design.

 

Jenny at AngelCake Quilting did me a huge favour by quilting them straight away and I was very happy to have the quilts ready to post once I knew the little babies had arrived.

The parcel took a little detour on it's way.  It was a relief to hear that the Mum and Dad had received the quilts on Wednesday.

The colours look much better in these photos

and I love these little characters in the "Old and New 30's" fabric.

Tessellation

It's been so great to spend some time in the Pink Room during the last couple of weeks.  I have a box of cut out quilt tops and have finished sewing some together - they are all smaller quilts with large pieces so didn't take long to sew up.

A few months ago I bought a layer cake, Moda "Whisper Muslin Mates", from Karen plus some yardage for background, borders and backing.  I was able to cut out two quilts:  "Dream Big", designed by Camille Roskelley (Thimble Blossoms) from her "Simplify" book -

and "Framed" from her "Simply Retro" book.

 
Another quilt I had cut out was "Clambake" also designed by Camille.

I cut out too many blocks, so only needed to cut another 12 to have enough to make the cot-sized version, which is included in the pattern.

Recently I dropped off these four quilts plus the two pink cot quilts to a new-to-me quilter and on Monday she sent through photos of the two pink quilts.  I'm picking them up this afternoon and hope to sew on the binding over the weekend.

Jenni's birthday quilt arrived back from Sarah last Friday and the quilting looks fantastic!  The quilt needed a design to off-set all the triangles and points and "Squares All Around" was a great choice (along with the aqua thread).

Sewed on the binding on Monday and stitched it down while watching tv.  I'm so happy this one is finished and with how it turned out as "Tessellation" was a real challenge for me to make.

On Friday nightI was looking through one of my fabric boxes to cut some more 5" squares for my B&C version of "Snippets",

came across some half-square triangles and had a light bulb moment - made some hourglass blocks with them and "Scrappy Stars" was underway (another Camille Roskelley design).

We've just had a long weekend and it turned out to be a busy few days.  Saturday had a lovely time catching up with Lynell and Wendy - Robyn couldn't join us because she was in Canberra awaiting the arrival (on Saturday morning) of her brand new grandson and on Sunday Mum, Jenni, Kurt, ChaCha and I had lunch at the Audley Dancehall and Cafe - such a lovely place and loads of space for little ones to run around.

HRH

Last Friday Sarah sent through some photos of "Tessellation", which she had just finished quilting.  It looks so wonderful and I'm very much looking forward to it coming home.  The quilting design is "Squares All Around".

Very busy weekend with little ChaCha staying over for 2 nights.  We washed the car, vacuumed the sewing room floor (ChaCha wearing my high-heeled orange sandals as one does to vacuum), folded washing and a few other jobs with lots of playing in between and then entertained visitors for dinner (the guests brought dinner - they can come again!).

There has been some sewing and 4 quilt tops are ready to go to the quilter this weekend.

The backing fabric for the Kaleidoscope and Dresden Plate cot quilts is so cute.

On Friday night I started sewing "Clambake" pieces together.  This quilt goes together very quickly once the layout is sorted and it was together by Sunday night.

I had cut out too many pieces for the lap-sized quilt and, after cutting out another 12, had enough to make the cot-sized "Clambake" as well - this went together in 3 hours!  Will definitely use this pattern again.  The fabric colours are showing up much better in this photo.

After months of preparations and very hard work (by others) we had lots of excitement at work yesterday.  Our main foyer was used for an event where HRH Prince Andrew, The Duke of York KG, was the special guest.  He was a guest of the University for the whole day and going by the photos in the local newspaper, it looks as though he really enjoyed his visit.

The event MC was also a VIP - Adam Gilchrist (legendary Australian wicket keeper/batsman) is a University Ambassador and such a great person.  He spent ages with the school students attending the event and enjoyed playing with the virtual reality equipment.

Last night Michael sent through a photo with the caption:  "Bikie gang terrorises locals" -hilarious!

I've Been on a Little Trip

Recently I had a few days off work to take a little trip to Queensland and attend a family wedding in Sydney.

The trip to Queensland was to spend some time with my friend Diann.  Diann booked us in to the Stitchers' Dream Day Out in Toowoomba and we travelled up there on the Friday evening.  The room was set up beautifully.

Libby Richardson, one of the designers for the day, is well-known for her painted bears and she gave us all lessons.  This was a first for me.

The rest of the time away was spent relaxing with some knitting

and a little bit of shopping for pink fabrics to add to my stash for cot quilts.

I'm making a couple of little pink quilts at the moment for friends who are having granddaughters.  One is Cluck Cluck Sew's "Kaleidoscope" design, which I have made many times

and the other is a Dresden Plate design.

 

The Dresden Plates are all stitched to the background and the background has been trimmed from the back of the plates ready for the blocks to be sewn together tonight.

This same pink has been used as background for Kaleidoscope - the colour is better in daylight.

The centres for the Dresden Plates and Kaleidoscope blocks are from the cutest fabric ever, "Old and New 30's" by Lecien.

Over the last little while I've been collecting fabrics to make another Medley Quilt (a special request from a friend).  The final pack of fabrics arrived last week and I'm looking forward to starting this quilt later in the year (or perhaps early next year).

Last Friday, my cousin's daughter, Gabby, was married.  Jenni came to the Hens' Night with me a couple of months ago and Elizabeth came to the wedding.  So lovely to have a night out with Elizabeth.

The wedding was beautiful, the bride stunning and the groom was in tears during the vows - perfection.

The ceremony was held in a park in Watsons Bay and the reception followed in the Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel.

I made the Pineapple Quilt for Gabby's recent birthday and I was tickled pink to see the gold pineapples used for table decorations at the wedding.