Busy Weekend

Had a great time with the babies on Saturday and hanging out with friends on Sunday.

A friend of mine has an outdoor pizza oven and she invited a few of us over for lunch.  Delicious.

 

I should have taken a photo of the chocolate pizza with salted caramel icecream and strawberries - thanks goodness there were a few of us there to share - it was so good.

Most of my sewing is secret Christmas business and I'm making some progress but nothing finished yet.

The embroidery machine has also been busy.

Cleared some space in the loungeroom to take a photo of Orange Swoon - up on a ladder and still couldn't fit it all in.

One last photo from quilt camp with Sarah - was so lovely to see her again.

 

Orange Swoon

When I met up with Sarah at quilt camp she gave me back Orange Swoon, which she had quilted - it's wonderful.  I started collecting fabrics for this quilt last year and began the blocks in May this year.

I need to find a space in the house so I can take a photo of the whole quilt and show the true colours - it's a whopper at 104" square.  I sewed on the binding last week when I arrived home from Tasmania and stitched the binding down over the next few nights.

I love the quilting design - it doesn't take over from the piecing but adds a lot of interest with the swirls against the sharp angles.

Starry Orange Letter Day Quilt

Picked up the quilt from the post office last Wednesday and thought I'd make a scrappy binding for it then found binding already made, so I made a scrappy binding for Orange Swoon quilt which is with Sarah for quilting, along with my Fresh quilt.

Sewed the scallop binding on and spent a couple of nights in front of the tv stitching it down.  I love this quilt - it's so fresh and happy.

Visited Karen on Saturday afternoon when she started quilting my Thimble Blossom Scrappy Sampler.  This quilt top has been finished for ages but I couldn't make a decision about quilting because I didn't want all-over quilting on the Piccadilly Circus Dresden Plate.

We decided that Karen would custom quilt the Dresden Plate with a spiral in the centre

then add a scroll design to each blade

before an over-all pattern over the rest of the quilt.

I wasn't sure about what binding to use for this quilt then I found some red binding already made in the drawer from the same fabric range as the outer border - bonus!

Can't wait to see this quilt when Karen comes over tomorrow night for stitching.

Yesterday afternoon I pin basted and quilted the little Snippets cot quilt.  The fabrics are bright Me and My Sister designs - the girls gave us a charm pack of their newest range Dot Dot Dash at the workshop and I won a charm pack of Giggles.

Scrappy Zig Zag Quilt

Last night while watching tv I finished sewing down the binding on the Scrappy Zig Zag quilt.  I love this quilt - it's so bright and fresh plus it all came out of my stash.  It measures 60-1/2" square.

 

Karen's cable design quilting looks wonderful too against the sharp points of the zig zags.

Most of last week's sewing time was spent putting Fresh together (it's 96-1/2" square).  I'm waiting for a piece of fabric to arrive then I can make the backing for this one.

and then Orange Swoon (it's 106-1/2" square) - it needs to be photographed on a king-size bed - it is a present for someone who has a king-size bed.

Orange Swoon backing has been made - I added in the test block and an extra block I'd made (I bought too many orange fabrics).

Next up will be Swell - another quilt that has been cut out for a few months.  There are some very pretty colours in these batiks.

Had a lovely Sunday - ChaCha, her Mum and Dad and Great Nan came for lunch.

So looking forward to Thursday - 3 friends and I are going to a class with Barb and Mary, the fun ladies behind Me and My Sister.  I think it will be a great day.

A Long Weekend

Last week I caught up on the Thimble Blossoms Scrappy Sampler Sew-Along.

I love this Piccadilly Circus block.  The pattern is very easy to follow.  An Instagram friend (@aqua_paisley) came up with a great way to cut the left-overs to make bonus blocks - so pleased I already had the Dresden Plate ruler.

I'm really keen to make the Piccadilly Circus quilt.  Went ahead and cut out all my strips because I'm running out of many of these fabrics and didn't want to be tempted to use them in something else.

Always great to have a long weekend.  More time to spend with the family, friends and in the sewing room.

The Stitching Girls met up on Saturday and Kerryn brought along the cot quilt we made for her little baby boy (due in 4 weeks) - the girls gave it to Kerryn at her baby shower.  I wasn't able to attend because I was at another extra-special baby bbq.  I was so pleased to see the finished quilt.  We all made blocks using the Go Four It design, this year's quilt-along pattern from American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.

During the week I made backing for Kaleidoscope and on Saturday gave the quilt to Karen for quilting.

Saw this photo on Instagram a couple of days later - the little clouds quilting looks wonderful.

A few weeks ago Karen quilted an old UFO for me - a 12" block sampler made along with my on-line stitching group.  The blocks were made in 2010 and the quilt top has been together since early 2011.

Saturday night I finally sewed bindings onto 4 quilts:  Fireworks, 12-1/2" Sampler

The Wish Quilt, and Leanne Beasley's 365 Challenge Quilt made in 2007-2008 (which Karen quilted earlier this year)

 

Mum and I spent Sunday in Sydney visiting the family - lunch with Michael and Peta then some time with with Elizabeth, Matt, Jenni and Miss ChaCha.

On Monday I went outside to bring in the washing to find the clothesline was a casualty of the huge winds blowing that morning:

Lovely new blue clothesline installed yesterday - matches the roof and trims on my house.

Monday night was the next Scrappy Sampler instalment - Vintage Tulips

It's the middle of winter here and the roses are still blooming - there are plenty of new buds too.

New Quilts Underway

Spent Thursday night in Sydney.  Caught up with Peta and Michael then had a lovely time with Elizabeth, Matt and Miss ChaCha - she is such a sweetheart and so entertaining.  4 months old yesterday.

There has been lots happening in the sewing room over the last couple of weeks - some new starts because I always procrastinate when it comes to block layout for my quilts.  All the Orange Swoon blocks are made

 

 

and this quilt has come to a standstill because the next step is to add sashing and then layout.  Orange Swoon will be ~106" sq when finished.

There are plenty of orange fabrics left over so I've cut out another orange quilt using Thimble Blossom's Red Letter Day pattern.  This time I'm adding scrappy stars instead of the large plain white squares.

On Saturday the Stitching Girls had a sewing day to work on our Shortcake quilts - designed by Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew - I love her patterns. Mine is being made from a large variety of Fig Tree fabrics.  Our only rule is that we must use stash fabric.

I need a couple of cot quilts as some of my friends are having grandbabies.  I've wanted to make a Kaleodoscope quilt for ages and babies are a great reason to try a new pattern. This one is excellent -  another design from Allison Harris and she always provides instructions for a variety of quilt sizes in each pattern.  The stitching girls and I went to Kiama on Sunday to visit the Modern Quilt Guild Show and I picked up some Peter Rabbit fabric for the kaleidoscope centres.  The grey blades are light grey with a tiny white pin dot.

For a few weeks I've been keen to start the Thimble Blossoms Scrappy Sampler Quiltalong and yesterday I received the pattern for "Lollies" (I have the other patterns) so I could start last night.  Not 100% sure about the aqua background but it does make a nice change from white/off-white/cream.

It's great to be using up so much of the fabric in my cupboards.