A Week on Leave

Week before last I sewed together the first four sections of "Boho Heart" - happy to be up-to-date with the sew-along at the moment.

Took a day's leave on the Friday to spend the day with Miss T and Gulli - she stayed over on Thursday night.  Always a fun day with those two.

Saturday week ago was John's 70th birthday and the family all had lunch together for the celebration.  Elizabeth organised a fabulous cake.

The university was closed last week, so I decided it was a good opportunity to finish of a long-standing UFO:  "Girls Day Out".  The quilt top has been finished/basted since 2015 but not quilted.

It is now all stitched in the ditch and the squares are cross-hatched.

On Instagram I came across another weekly sew-along - Riley Blake Block Challenge.  I'm using mostly FigTree's "Chantilly" fabrics - I don't have much of this range left so have added a few little pieces from my FigTree stash in co-ordinating colours.

Caught up on "Sewcialites" blocks - Earnest designed by Vanessa Christenson and

"Hope" designed by April Rosenthal.

Karen visited during the week and brought back "Handmade with Love" and "Vintage Holiday 2".  The bindings are attached.

Stitched down two bindings while watching a couple of movies with Mum yesterday afternoon and Mum took home "Girls Day Out" to sew down the binding.

"Handmade with Love"

"Vintage Holiday 2"

Had a lovely week off - out for dinner two nights and lunch another day, basketball game on Saturday night, some sewing, time with the family.

This and That

Not a lot of sewing/stitching over the last couple of days but there was a great deal of house painting last week, most of which is now finished thanks so much to my wonderful sister-in-law and brother.  The house is looking fantastic.  A few touch-ups here and there, a couple of new verandah rails and the house will be looking so good - shame about the windows but replacing them is on the "one day" list.

Two more quilts have been cut out and a sample block of each made:  "Cheerio" and "Niner" both Camille Roskelley designs using a mixture of Bonnie and Camille fabrics.

Early last week I came across "Girls' Day Out" in my sewing room - this quilt was started in February 2008, the quilt top sewn together at a retreat in March 2010 and the last border flowers were vliesofixed on in January 2011.  The quilt top hadn't been touched since.  Two nights' worth of stitching and now the top is ready for quilting then all the beautiful buttons and beads can be sewn on.

I've been collecting some orange fabrics over a couple of months to make an orange "Swoon" quilt and the last package arrived yesterday - think I finally have enough to start cutting it out.  4 Fig Tree fabrics were added to the pile after this photo was taken.  This quilt will be a gift for someone special.

A few rows have been added to Best Friends Forever - I'm on a deadline for this now, so it will be what I sew this week if I have some spare time in amongst socialising.

I have 3 more quilt tops to give to Karen tonight at stitching and then all bar two of my quilt tops will be quilted.  One of these quilt tops was finished in 2011 so it's about time to have it quilted.

Backing for "Basket Case" and "A Year in my Life"

A couple of weeks ago at stitching I cut out another "Goodnight Irene" quilt, this time using 2 Bali Pops jelly rolls in pink, dark red, charcoal and black batiks with a black background.

I hope it looks as good finished as it does in my imagination as this is another gift quilt.

Stitching tonight so I will be collecting "Not Quite Civil War".

Little Patchwork Village

Lovely cool-ish day on the South Coast today.  It's been great having a few days off.  I've vliesofixed the last flowers onto Girls Day Out and that will be my next lot of night-time stitching now that the Little Patchwork Village blocks are stitched.

Neighbours

Posh

Quilt Shop

I'd like to start quilting "Let Me Be" later today and when that's finished (in a few days) I'll put together the Little Patchwork Village.

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.

Girls Day Out

Antique Shop - last big block.  6 small stitchery blocks to go and I'm hoping these will be stitched by the time I go to a retreat in March so that I can sew the quilt top together and then add the appliques.  Two of the other girls going to the retreat are making this quilt (Helen and Teresa) and a couple of days ago Jenny posted a photo of her beautiful, finished quilt top on her blog - she will be quilting it at the retreat. 

Girls Day Out

This block was started 4 months ago - took it out on the weekend and finished it last night - only needed to stitch the wisteria.

One large and 8 small blocks to go.  Would be wonderful if they were finished by the time I go to a retreat in March.  Very much looking forward to the retreat with Diann, Jenny, Helen, Teresa and maybe one or two others, then the following weekend I will be travelling to Nundle for the Girls Day in the Country.  Fun times coming up.

This Week ...

Jenni ready to blow out her candles on her birthday cheesecake.

"Sweet Pea's Quilt" is all but finished - Ian and Jenni are writing on a label and will bring it over on Monday. A bit windy outside this evening when I took the photo.

While fossicking around in the sewing room during the week I came across this "Girls Day Out" block - it needed about 10 minutes stitching and now it's finished.

Girls Day Out

Lunchtime stitching over the last 6 or 7 weeks - "Girls Day Out" Block 10:

"Butterfly Garden" blocks all pieced and waiting to be stitched/appliqued.

Girls Day Out

Block 5 - This block was first finished last November but I wasn't keen on the thread colour for the curtain - it was way too pale against the background fabric, so I unpicked it. Much happier with this darker colour.

Block 6 has also been almost finished for months. Changed the curtain and hat bow thread colour to match block 5.

I'm loving this quilt. The buttons will be added to the blocks after the top is together and quilted.

Girls' Day Out for Melbourne Cup

Yesterday John and I attended a Melbourne Cup function at our local racetrack with our friends, Sharon and Gary, and their daughter Kristy and son-in-law Heath.

After a good choice for my first bet of the day, I ran out of luck ... not to worry, it was a fun day and the only time of the year that I have a flutter. Last year Sharon, Gary, John and I spent Melbourne Cup day in Strahan, Tasmania.

Gary and I studying the form:

Block 5 (the cafe) of Girls' Day Out is finished - seemed to take me so long but it was lovely to stitch all that wisteria. Following are photos of blocks 4 (the lolly shop) and 5 (without buttons/beads). The fashion shop is next.

Don't forget the giveaway closing on Sunday.

Girls Day Out

Blocks 2 and 3 of "Girls Day Out".

Have a look at Julie's "Girls Day Out" blocks - they are gorgeous.

Tomorrow night am hoping to finish sewing down the binding on No 5 of Peg's Challenge. Have a couple more quilts I'd like to make/finish before the end of September (quick machine pieced and quilted on the doover). The Challenge has been a great opportunity to practise on the doover and I feel a bit more confident. Can anyone recommend where to buy easy pantograph designs for all-over quilting?

Stitching ...

The central block of "A Girls' Day Out" is now finished (the photograph is a little wonky), except for sewing on the buttons. This will be done after the quilting is finished. I'm really enjoying this quilt and hope to have time over the weekend to trace the stitcheries for the next block or two.

On to Vintage Valentines - promised myself I would finish at least 2 more of these blocks before returning to Truly Scrumptious.

Girls' Day Out

Every six weeks or so I have lunch with The Girls; Lynell, Denise and Gail. Denise and I were in kindergarten together, Lynell joined the next year and Gail came along in Year 11 high school. We started having lunch at each others' houses when our babies were small but these days we meet up at various cafes in Sydney/Wollongong/Kiama - two live in southern Sydney and two near Wollongong. Amazing to think that I've been friends with Denise for almost 49 years.

Our lives have taken quite different paths. We all have different interests (basketball, knitting, silver jewellery making, art, patchwork, cross stitch) - none of us are interested in much the same thing except probably theatre (but that varies) and food. We've experienced some unbelievable heartbreak together (one of us more than the others); lots of happy times and laughing. We try to go away for a few days to celebrate major birthdays - the year we turned 40 we had 4 days in Noosa and the year we turned 50 we had 4 days in Melbourne. We're now thinking that we might need to celebrate "5" birthdays as well as the "0" birthdays.

Yesterday 3 of us met for lunch and a wander around the shops in Shellharbour - was a beautiful day with a lovely breeze blowing in off the ocean.

When I arrived home, John was getting ready to go out with some mates and Jenni was about to leave for work so I had a few hours at home alone. Doesn't happen very often. I decided the time had come to sort out the centre block for "Girls' Day Out" - I bought the background and 2 border fabrics plus all the buttons last year and will use stash fabrics for all the appliques. Think I'm going to enjoy this quilt - lots of stitching as well as the appliques.

The rose fabric would have to be up there with my favourite fabrics of all time. My friend Helen sent me a fat quarter of it for my birthday a couple of years ago and since then I'd been trawling the net and every fabric shop I came across to buy some more. In March last year John and I visited his sister and family in Coffs Harbour. I called in at "Hunters and Collectors Barn" and the first thing I saw was a bolt of the rose fabric.


2 sleeps. Yahoo!