Goodnight Irene

In January I cut out a second Goodnight Irene quilt, on Saturday the label was attached and the quilt was given to my dear friends to celebrate their milestone birthdays - between them they turned 100.  This is quite a large quilt at 88-1/2" square and I think it goes well with their bright personalities.

Karen quilted it with a hearts and flowers design, which is a great pattern that doesn't detract from the piecing.  I bought a wideback for the backing and it's so nice to have a backing with no seams.

I'm a few months behind making a quilt for a family member.  The blocks for Orange Swoon have been cut out for 6 months but other things have got in the way.  Friday night I started working on these blocks - they are a huge 24" finished.

12 blocks to go - the original pattern has 9 blocks but I'd like to make this king-size.  I've collected 32 different orange fabrics - such a big range in shades of orange.

A Day Off

I had a few flex hours saved up so took Thursday off work to sew my Goodnight Irene blocks into a quilt top.  Had a few things to do in the morning, started sewing after lunch and by evening the top was together.

Saturday I attached the first border

and the final three borders went on yesterday.  I've watched/listed to many "Gilmore Girls" episodes while sewing the last few days.

Need to make the backing then it can go off to be quilted.  At 96-1/2" square it's a bit big for me to quilt at the moment.  Really happy because I've used up all the fabric.  Will be so happy when this one is finished as it was due to go to its new home a little while ago.

Saturday night I went to a great birthday party for two dear friends - they had a wonderful time with so many friends, fun music etc.  When I went to see "Marigold Hotel" last weekend a trailer was shown for a new movie with David Tennant and Billy Connolly - "What We Did on Our Holiday".  Mum and I went to see it yesterday.  Fantastic movie.  We laughed and laughed.  There are some sad moments too.  Loved it.

Not a lot planned for Easter except spending some time with the family, some time in the garden and hopefully the sewing room as well as meeting up with the stitching girls.

A Little Finish

Our on-line group's birthday gifts this year include embroidery scissors and a scissor fob.  My partner's birthday was early March.  I very much enjoyed making this cross-stitched scissor fob.  Many years have gone by since I did some cross stitch.  I have a couple of very large WIP's that I might get back to one day.

My time in the sewing room over the last few days has been spent making X blocks for Goodnight Irene.  It's time to lay out the 16-patch blocks with these X's and start sewing them into rows.

The Little Chicken Feather stitcheries are progressing well - the smaller stitcheries are being done at lunchtime at work and the larger ones while I watch tv at night.  Two rows and another block are now finished and I'm so happy with these colours/fabrics from my stash.  The smaller stitcheries are on a white-on-white "Miss Kate" fabric from Bonnie and Camille and the larger stitcheries are on an off-white linen fabric.

Paula and I went to see "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" on the weekend - I loved it just as much the second time.

Basket Case

I think this is a great name for a quilt - we all experience times when we feel like a "basket case" and want to curl up under a quilt.

"Basket Case" is another fantastic design from Cluck Cluck Sew.  Allison's patterns are always so well written with excellent instructions and lots of diagrams.  I started making this quilt in May last year hoping to use up lots of my Oh Cherry Oh fabric - I still have quite a few pieces left but not enough to make a whole quilt, so the leftovers can now go into the general stash.

Karen quilted this for me using a very sweet cherry design (what else would a person choose?).

A couple of smaller quilts have been cut out.  One is Cluck Cluck Sew's new pattern called "Frolic" - a very sweet zig-zag cot quilt that is great for using up 2-1/2" squares and strips, and the other is a simple block quilt using "Puss in the Corner" blocks and a couple of Whitewashed Cottage charm packs with some Moda Bella Solid Snow.

Little Chicken Feather stitcheries are progressing - LCF himself is finished.  I'm currently stitching a pig on a bicycle.

Mum, Paula and I went to see "Sweet Charity" on Saturday night - it was a wonderful production and so nice to recognise one of the cast from a few years ago when he used to perform at our local eisteddfod.  Had a bit of sewing time over the weekend - working on the x-blocks of the pink/red/black Goodnight Irene.  Feels so different working with so much black in a quilt.  Hope to start putting the x's together over this coming weekend.

As I'm working in Sydney for a couple of days, I spent last night with Elizabeth, Matt and ChaCha - she is such a little sweetie - smiling, "talking" - so wonderful how a smile can melt my heart.

Clowning Around

At long last the Clown Alphabet quilt is finished - this one has been in the "to be quilted" pile for almost three years.  Karen ditch-stitched the blocks and quilted in the borders - just enough to set off the lovely bright fabrics and clowns.

Time is passing way too quickly.  Had a great weekend - Friday night went to a surprise birthday party and the birthday girl was so surprised - everyone was astonished that I could keep a secret.  Saturday, a friend visited for the afternoon and we had a lovely chat over some cuppas - it's great to have some time out.  Saturday night I did some more work on the cot quilt for Jenni's friend.  It's now together (and does sit flat).  Next up is choosing backing then it will be off to Karen to be quilted.

Sunday and Monday night sewed some Goodnight Irene blocks - the 16 patch blocks are all done and might start on the X-blocks over the weekend.

I have way too many things on the go, including Fireworks - made another block last night.  10 blocks to go.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I can make my design sheet hang nicely?  My blocks always look yuk because the cloth is free hanging.  I don't have wallspace to pin it flat.  It hangs from a piece of dowell (with another piece of dowell stapled to the bottom edge) over my wardrobe doors so that it can be removed when not in use.

Heading up to Sydney tonight to visit my favourite little person and spend tomorrow 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".