Goodnight Irene

Earlier this year I came across Terry's blog and she was hosting a sew-along to make a quilt using Goodnight Irene blocks.  Terry was making her quilt using blue/green batiks and I remembered I had a Tonga Treat pack in my stash called "Pink Lemonade", beautiful oranges, yellows, pinks and some fuschia.

The quilt top was finished in March and joined the pile of quiltops to be quilted.  My quilting frame was dismantled after the flood and moved to the garage.  It's still not re-assembled, so when my friend, Karen, bought herself a long-arm quilting machine, I gave this to her to quilt for me (along with a few others).  Karen quilted 8 quilts for me in two weeks so I have lots of binding ahead of me.

This is the first time I've used Batik fabrics and I love the colours in this quilt.  So glad I found Terry's blog.

Sewing Room

Six and a half months ago my sewing room looked like this:

We had an enormous storm and my sewing room and the spare bedroom were both flooded plus there was water damage in the kitchen and loungeroom.  The repair work was finally completed recently and by Sunday morning the sewing room was full of stuff (my great family moved all the heavy stuff in a couple of weeks ago).

 

Sorting it all out didn't take as long as I thought and by Sunday evening (after going to the movies to see "Gone Girl") the room was finished.

I had a temporary sewing area set up in another room during this time - luckily I have another spare room at the front of the house.

Yesterday, for the first time in over 9 weeks, I sat at the sewing machine and sewed bindings on three of the quilts Karen quilted for me recently.  I have 3 more bindings to sew on then lots of handstitching.

"Goodnight Irene"

"Kiss Me"

"X and +"

7 sleeps till I go to Melbourne for Elizabeth's university graduation and then head off to Hobart for a few days with The Schoolgirls.  We have lots to celebrate.

PS:  Really enjoyed the movie, didn't think I would - lots of twists and turns and there was only one part when I had to close my eyes.

X Blocks

Until this year I had never made an X Block and now I have three quilt tops at various stages using this block:

Goodnight Irene Sew-along

X and + (only one block made so far)

Seville Limes

After finishing off the Seville Limes X Blocks last night I laid out all the blocks on the design "wall"

Seville Limes - 3 more rows to be added

I love how this design makes circles.

The last of the happy mail arrived yesterday:

Backing fabrics for Spell it with Moda (the alphabet quilt), X and + Quilt and Seville Limes plus some more white to use as background.

Lots of exterior painting happening at the house and it's looking fantastic.

Swap Presents

The sun is shining today - had a good storm last night but the rest of the weekend was lovely.  Some more happy mail arrived during the week - backing for Scrappy Trip Around the World and centre/border fabrics for another Scrappy Spiderweb (one day).  One more parcel of fabric to arrive (hopefuly this week) as well as new outside lights for the house and a hose.

The theme for our on-line group's first swap this year was "Gail Pan Designs" and this is the present I received from Leanne - I love the hot pink Tilda fabric and it looks fantastic with the pretty stitchery and the grey/white spot trim.

My other partner was Sue - I made Gail's "Little Birdie" sewing set (this was a popular choice - I think 3 of us made this design including Sue).

The new sewing area is working out well.  Finished putting together the Goodnight Irene quilt top

Still not pressed.

and started piecing Seville Limes.

Most of the weekend was spent packing the bedroom and sewing room furniture into the spare rooms to get the rest of the house back in order and in the garden with my sister-in-law, brother and niece.  Outside is looking so good.

Tone it Down

Friday afternoon I picked up "Tone it Down"  the APQ Quiltalong quilt from the post office.  Ripped open the package as soon as arrived home to see Sarah's quilting - it is so lovely.

First job Friday evening was to make the binding and sew it on before sitting down to watch some tv and start stitching it down.

Finished it off on Sunday night and took some photos.  Waiting for a nice day to take some photos outside to show the true colours.

 

Visited my second-favourite shop on Sunday (Bunnings) to buy a lemon tree, lime tree and crimson pom pom (love the name).

 One border was sewn to Goodnight Irene over the weekend.

The other 3 borders are ready to sew on later this week.

Swap parcel was posted on Monday and arrived on Tuesday - amazing.

Had a bit of an excess water problem on Monday - so much rain fell in the Illawarra.

All's well - furniture has been moved out, the insurance carpet person is coming this afternoon and new sewing area is set up at the other end of the house.

Good thing I have plenty of space in the house.

More Blocks

Arrived home on Monday night to find a package from Quiltmania in the mail - so excited - Anni Downs' new book.

The book is fantastic.  The main reason I wanted the book was for the bag pattern - there are so many beautiful designs for projects of all sizes.

Finished off some blocks this week:  "Scrappy Trip Around the World" and "Goodnight Irene"

Have a few quilt tops to sew together over the next weeks but I could be tempted to start something new as I have blocks for at least 2 more quilt tops already cut.

I believe my "Tone it Down" quilt is going onto Sarah's frame tomorrow - very exciting.   Backing fabric for "Scrappy Trip" has been bought.  Hoping I have a large enough piece of backing fabric for "Goodnight Irene" already in the sewing room.
 
Another package arrived yesterday - prize from the Nowra Quilt Show - a honey bun of some Moda fabric.  Lovely surprise.

Busy weekend coming up - there's always something happening at my place.

Mixed Bag

Aside from meeting up with the Stitching Girls on Saturday afternoon, the rest of the weekend was pretty free.

Friday night I added the borders to the alphabet blocks and then lay out all the blocks to see if my setting would work.  I'll add white strips to the rows starting with pinwheels and then maybe a white border.  I think I'll use the No 5 stripe for binding.

Somehow I managed to lose a pinwheel.  Made another.

Saturday Rhonda phoned to suggest instead of our usual stitching get-together we go for a drive to Nowra to see the quilt show.  Great idea.  Lunch in Berry on the way down.  Planned to have afternoon tea at the quilt show but the kitchen was closed by the time we'd had a look around the show, so we stopped in Berry again on the way home for tea, scones and a wander around the shops.

Actually did some weeding yesterday morning and filled the green bin with leaves - this is really out of the ordinary for me; then spent most of the afternoon in the sewing room tidying up and working on a few different things.

Sewed Floral Bouquet 2 backing together (another on the "to be quilted" pile).

Some secret sewing.

11 more X blocks have been ready to sew together for weeks - 9 to go then the Goodnight Irene quilt top can be sewn together.

And strips for the final 7 Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks to add to the pile to be pinned together.

20 blocks in all pinned last night while watching tv, so once they are all sewn up I have another quilt top to put together.

I figure that this sewing equates to tidying up because all these pieces are now blocks and not little piles in various places around the sewing room.  The main reason for tidying up is to move the quilting frame to the garage but there is so much stuff stored underneath and around it, that it is taking me ages to re-organise everything.

Received a phonecall from the Nowra Quilt Show organisers to say I'd won a minor prize in the raffle - bonus!  The lady told me it was "some quilting stuff, if you're into that kind of thing".

Change of Plans

So much rain fell on Friday night and during Saturday.  Consequently, no painting or gardening over the weekend.  The footpath around the back of my house was a little flooded.

After a visit from my brother, sister-in-law and nephew to carry out some flood mitigation, the water quickly drained away.  Once the housework was done, I was able to spend some time in the sewing room.  Friday night I cut out all the pieces to make Moda's Spell it with Fabric alphabet blocks - I wanted to use the bright fabrics in this overflowing box.

These blocks are very quick to cut out and piece.  Had them all sewn up before I went to bed on Saturday night.  Last night I cut out the pieces for the number blocks. 

Another cold, drizzly, miserable day yesterday.  Visited Bunnings to buy some longer screws to attach the new handles to the drawers.

Most of the afternoon I was in the sewing room - ironing.  Then pinning these Goodnight Irene strips into 16 patch blocks. 

Sewed them up - all of the 16 patches are now made.  Love these Pink Lemonade colours.

Started on some of the X block segments - quite a few more of these to go.

One of the WIP's that's been hanging around for 2 years or so is a pinwheel mystery BOM - I had 36 pinwheels for the borders made plus 4 or 5 large blocks featuring a variety of pinwheels.  Decided to undo these larger blocks and I'll use all the pinwheels to the Alphabet Quilt to make it single bed size.  There's well over 60 pinwheels and the fabrics are the same as I've used for the letters and numbers.

Don't feel like I've made much of a dent in that stash of brights.

Counted up the Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks - 44 have been made; 20 to go - some progress happening with this.

Hoping for a quiet week this week although will be going to Sydney for work tomorrow.

A Little Sewing

At stitching last Tuesday night, Karen showed us her almost finished Floral Bouquet - it looks fabulous with the black background.

The binding is now sewn down and the quilt is ready for their next adventure around Australia starting in March.

Some more Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks

and the strips for another 14.

Pinned them together ready to sew into blocks while watching the Olympics and the Goodnight Irene X's are sewn together into blocks.

Most of the weekend we were in the back yard sorting out the garden, lopping trees - working really hard - well, I'm good at holding weedmat in place, making lunch etc.  Don't think the boys will let me near the chainsaw.

 

The Site Supervisor turned up to carry out an inspection.

All the mulch is from the first lot of trees and branches that we cut down just before Christmas - there's still plenty left.

So, it's all happening at my place - I'll never be able to thank my family enough.