Australian Open Tennis

In 1976 three friends (Lynell, Robyn and Wendy) and I travelled to England, backpacked around Europe then sailed home to Australia after almost a year away.

In January the four of us went on a short cruise to Melbourne to attend the Australia Open Tennis.  This was my first cruise and I had such a good time.

The cruise for was 5 nights and we had two days at the tennis.

With Evonne Goolagong Cawley

The two days in Melbourne were pretty hot but we had booked Centre Court tickets in the shade.

The ship docked in White Bay and I thought it was amazing when we sailed in to Darling Harbour and did a three point turn to reverse into White Bay.

Pretty Birds x 2

"Pretty Birds" designed by Elizabeth Hartman is finished.  I loved making this quilt and am thrilled to bits with it.

The large quilt has arrive at its new home with my friend in USA.

The background for this quilt is called Manchester in Parchment colourway - this is the fabric suggested in the pattern - don't think I would choose to buy it again as it's quite open weave and doesn't feel very stable when sewing with it.

Nevertheless, I had plenty left over and decided to make the small version of the quilt as a wallhanging.

Cockatoos

Toucans

Cockatiels

Macaws

Lorikeets

Used the same backing as the larger quilt and the binding is an orange/yellow fabric from my stash.

I think this wallhanging will be going to my cousin's new home.

In late August I went on a quick holiday to Western Australia with my dear friend Lynell.  I haven't been to Perth since 1976, when I spent one day there on a voyage back from our trip to UK and Europe.

We went on an organised trip so something was planned for each day - better than having to make decisions and do our own planning.  We had a tour around Perth, visited Fremantle, Rottnest Island, The Pinnacles among other places.

Swoon

Camille Roskelley, the designer behind Thimble Blossoms, hosted a sew-along to make her most popular quilt design, "Swoon".  I have made this quilt a couple of times but never in Bonnie and Camille fabrics.  The SAL finished a couple of months ago and my quilt was finished just before I went on holidays.

I asked Karen (Quilting on the Coast) to use Baptist Fans on this quilt and it looks wonderful.

Always love a stripey binding and red/white is one of the best.

We had a great holiday - visited 3 theme parks, saw some friends, a bit of shopping, lots of eating out and a lovely time together.

Making Bindings

The last quilt in the previous parcel to Karen arrived home on Monday.  I love how "Berry Parfait" has turned out.  The colours are beautiful.

This week I'll start sewing down bindings on "Swoon", "Star Pop", "Happy Stripes" and "Berry Parfait" although they won't be finished before I go away on holiday on Saturday.

Another parcel of quilts has gone to Karen for quilting - the last one to be put together was "Fireworks".  The border is fairly wide because I plan to make the edge wavy.

"Starlets" is also in the parcel.  This is a lap-size quilt and was very quick to make and sew together.

On Saturday I'm flying to the Gold Coast with Elizabeth, Matt and the little sweethearts for 10 days.  I hope to catch up with my friends Diann and Bill if they're back from their travels.  Then I'll have another 10 days holiday at home before going back to work.

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.

Bonnie and Camille Sampler 3

I love making these scrappy sampler quilts and working out the jigsaw so that all the blocks can fit together without too many filler strips.

Finished this quilt early last week and love how it turned out.

Jenny at AngelCake Quilting used a new-to-me design, "Chantilly", and I'm sure I'll request this again.

Had a lovely long weekend down the Far South Coast with Lynell, Robyn and Wendy.  Took one photo all weekend - Tathra Wharf.  We stayed nearby.  Lots of local seafood to eat, lots of shopping in the nearby towns, plenty of laughing and talking.

"Gracious" designed by Vanessa Goertzen is the latest "Sewcialites" block.

Catching Up

Elizabeth's birthday lunch was so lovely.  Jenni, Mum and I decorated the table with vases of sunflowers, balloons and photos of Elizabeth from a newborn to almost 40.

Elizabeth requested a baked ricotta cheesecake with fresh canoli on top for her birthday cake - Matt did very well organising this - it was delicious.

Two days later Elizabeth, Matt, the two Sweethearts and I headed off on holiday to Cairns for 10 days.

Last time I was up north we stayed in Port Douglas - it was nice to be in Cairns this time and spend time there visiting Green Island, a couple of water parks, The Lagoon and Kuranda.  I caught the train home - wasn't game enough to take the cable car up to Kuranda.

Such beautiful carriages with pressed tin ceilings.

Little Sweetheart loves to wear dresses and needs some for summer and pre-school, so we visited the local Spotlight - it's a lovely shop - such a huge variety of fabrics.

Of course, she had her heart set on Elsa fabric and luckily there was some in stock.  She also loves My Little Pony and Space People.

We ate lots of lovely seafood at home and at a couple of great cafes/restaurants.

Someone was suffering a bit of an identity crisis on the way home:  Wonder Woman/Moana.

I was able to put together the Sampler Quilt before I went away.

After the holiday, I had a few more days off before coming back to work and pretty much all of Friday was spent in the sewing room adding borders to the Sampler Quilt, making backing and binding

and then sewing together the "Christmas Cheer" rows, my 2019 Bonnie and Camille Aussie Beehive Quilt.

The backing:

So happy with how "Christmas Cheer" has turned out - looking forward to having it on my bed this Christmas.

Mum, her friend Nora and I went to see "Ride Like a Girl" on Saturday afternoon - second time I've seen it because Mum couldn't come the first time.  Really enjoyed watching it again - love a good Australian story.

After the movie I dropped off "Christmas Cheer" and the Sampler Quilt to Karen.  On Monday, I saw via Instagram and Facebook that she was quilting "Chamomile"

and yesterday she quilted the Sampler Quilt.

I picked them both up last night and they are now awaiting binding.

On Sunday morning I finally got around to pin basting the littlest Sweetheart's quilt.  Running a bit late with this one - he's now 7-1/2 months old.

Sunday afternoon was The Hawks basketball team's first home game of the season.  Michael, Peta and Gulli were able to come along with me and The Girls and we all had a great time, even though The Hawks lost.  Now that MP&G are now living locally, they'll be able to come along to lots of games.

Sunday night I did the vertical quilting on "Little Chicken Feather".  I'll get to the horizontal quilting maybe next Sunday night.

I've also been plodding along with some "Sweet Escape" blocks - at first they were driving me nuts as the centres were a bit off kilter but they're going alright now.

Halfway with this one now.

Last year for Christmas, Jenni and Kurt told me they would paint my front entry way.  This is starting this weekend.  A trip to Bunnings to buy paint also resulted in a tin of jelly beans because I bought 8 litres of Dulux paint - hope they're nice jelly beans.