Gingham Girls - 2nd Last Block

Met up with the stitching girls last night - had a great time and managed to do a good amount of stitching.  Second last Gingham Girls block is finished.

Phone photos with flash are a bit orange

I've been stitching Pies and Tarts for what seems like forever (on and off since 2009) and last week made the decision that I just wasn't going to finish it and it should go to a new home.

I have a feeling that a couple of other half-done quilts may move house too.

Last night Pies and Tarts left the building and moved house.  I feel great, the new owner is very happy, so it's an excellent outcome.

New lunchtime stitching is Rosalie Quinlan's Best Friends Forever BOM.

Wonder how long the attention span will last with this one?

7 sleeps till the girls and I go to Melbourne!

More SBS Blocks

Diann and I are plugging away at our Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Blocks.  I've sewn up a few over the last week and have a few more cut out ready to sew up when the mood strikes.  I had a look on-line and found some pieced alternatives to some of the foundation pieced blocks in the SBS book.

I made up for the lack of yellow blocks.

Sawtooth Star

Swamp Patch

Ohio Star

Sickle

Sarah's Choice

Shoo Fly

Corrected Milky Way - had to change it.

Last weekend I finally got around to sewing up a pouffe for Jenni - I've had this material for over a year.  It needs a bit more stuffing.  It's already stuffed with a couple of old jumpers, lots of batting off-cuts and some fibrefill.  I saw the idea for using the old jumpers in a Kathy Doughty designed pouffe in Quilters' Companion.

24" diameter x 10" high

This photo is from the car while driving to Sydney last weekend.

The little sewing bag Sarah made for me earlier this year is so handy - love it!

Last photo is of Gingham Girls Block 3 - this has been finished for months and I realised last week I hadn't taken a photo.  I'll attach buttons and pearls once the quilt top is finished and quilted.

Gingham Girls Block 3

Block 4 has been my tv-watching stitching for the last couple of weeks.  I really enjoy stitching these blocks but they may need to be put aside soon to do some Christmas goodies.

Driving Miss Lynda

Yesterday Elizabeth and Matt invited the family to their place for a bbq. I took some sewing to occupy myself on the trip to Sydney.


The new pile of pies is growing. Most lunchtimes at work I've managed to make a pie and yesterday's pies almost doubled the stack.



There are enough already appliqued to the backgrounds to make another three rows but I've added some more fabrics from my stash so don't want to sew the new rows together till these new ones are ready so I can mix them in with the other fabrics.

We had such a lovely afternoon: beautiful weather, delicious food and the best company.

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Cutting and Gluing

Miserable day on the South Coast today so a great opportunity to spend some time in the sewing room cutting out some more blocks for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler.

Over the last week or so I've also been cutting out and gluing some pies for my Pies and Tarts quilt - it's almost a year since I made any of these.  They were my lunchtime stitching at work and now that I'm working full-time for the next few weeks and have a one hour lunch break, it will be nice to make a bit of progress on this quilt again.

Lots of happy fabrics in this pile.

The travellers are home:  Elizabeth and Matt from France and Jenni from Byron Bay.  All's good in Wonderland.

The rest of the day I hope to spend quilting some more of the white hexagon blocks on the Pink Hexagons quilt.

Simple Arithmetic

Distance between my house and Canberra CBD?

8 Tarts.

I haven't sewn any of these for a few weeks -amazing how little hand-sewing I've done since I finished work.  No more lunch-time stitching.

Pies and Tarts

I have enough pies sewn to their background fabrics to make another 3 rows and plenty of tarts ready to fill in the spaces - except for the last 8 they were all made in lunch-times over the last few months at work.

We went for a drive to Canberra yesterday so that John could visit this exhibition at the Canberra Museum and Gallery

A private collection of vintage motorbikes - all running and ridden often - from early 20th century till 1960's.  I think John would have loved to have a couple of these in his garage.  After lunch and a wander around Civic, we wanted to visit another exhibition at the National Gallery but the bridge over the lake was closed to traffic as Mr Obama had just landed.

Last night I cut out a quilt from all those lovely LakeHouse Dry Goods fabrics - Row by Row designed by Natalie Bird.  I hope to have it finished by Christmas for my great-niece.

Another cot quilt is finished.

Teddy Bear Playtime

Pies and Tarts

More pies appliqued to their backgrounds.

All the pies I've made so far - enough to start sewing a row or two together and add some tarts.  There are a coupe of fabric repeats, so I'll save those pies for further into the quilt.

Time to prepare some more pie segments - hopefully over this weekend.

Friends are coming over for dinner tonight - looing forward to seeing them.  Woke up to a sunny morning - so nice after all the gloomy rain (a bit overcast now but maybe the washing will dry outside on the line).

More Blocks

On Monday night I had enough space cleared around the sewing machine to be able to sew up two more Civil War blocks:

"Railroad Crossing"



"North Star" - I love the pink/milky white Hunky Dory fabric

Last night was stitching group and I took along some completed pies to applique to their backgrounds - it takes as long to do this as it does to make a pie.  Sewed a couple more at home.


I have another 11 pies ready to applique - that will make 30, so soon I'll get around to sewing a row or two together.  In a good week at work I can stitch 5 or 6 pies - by "good" I mean that my lunchtime is uninterrupted.  I love making the pies and tarts.  I plan to make the quilt larger than the pattern suggests and have added quite a few fabrics from my stash.  Jenni has already claimed this quilt - I wonder if she realises what a long-term project this quilt is.

More sorting/tidying tonight and I may do some homework - our next Sylvia's Bridal Sampler block has been announced.

Terrible weather here at the moment - fierce winds, lots of rain etc.  Winter has definitely been here this July.

Sewing Room

Seems to me that my sewing room is a continuing Work in Progress.  Weekend before last John and I visited Ikea to buy some new shelving/wall units for the room.  Before the wall units could be built I needed to make a bit of a mess.  Many of my magazines are being donated to a local quilt group (I have scanned the patterns/designs that I want to keep).

Elizabeth visited for the weekend - we had lunch at the Nan Tien Temple, saw the amazing embroidery exhibition at the Temple, visited Mum.  We drove her home yesterday afternoon and I learned a new mathematical formula:  1 return trip to Sydney = 6 Pies sewn (for my Pies and Tarts Quilt). 

We arrived home about 5.00 pm and decided to spend some time unpacking the Ikea boxes.

By 8.30 pm they were both in the sewing room, the drawers had been assembled and the larger unit attached to the wall (we need some wall plugs as there is no joist near the screw plates, hence the drills in one of the cubicles) and we had eaten dinner.  These last few photos were taken on my phone last night - when everything is set up nicely I'll take some daylight photos on the camera.  The photos up the top show more true colours.

Even though it will take a while for me to work out what should go where, I love the look of the wall units and having all my stuff within easy reach.  The only issue I have is that I've lost my quilt-hanging space in the sewing room - I had "Leanne's House" hanging there for a few years and more recently Rosalie Quinlan's "Little Patchwork Village".

This Week's Sewing

"Sweet" is on the frame and about 1/3 quilted.  I love the spotty backing fabric.  This is the first time I've used the Aurora on the frame and it's different to using the old 830.  I'm using the BSR and have found it easier to use it with the foot pedal rather than with the stop/start button.  Actually seeing the area to be quilted is a bit of an issue with this machine as the motor over the needle/foot is much larger than I'm used to.  Aside from that the quilting is going really well and I'm happy with the stitch size, tension etc.

Lunchtime stitching is "Pies and Tarts" - I already had 7 pies appliqued to their backgrounds and all these tarts made.  Last night at stitching group I sewed the other 4 pies to their backgrounds and put them on the design sheet when I arrived home (the tarts are pinned in place and the white backgrounds are not trimmed).

When I have a few more pies finished I'll think about sewing some of the blocks together and adding some tarts - I want to make sure I don't have two backgrounds the same next to each other.  The fabrics sent in the BOM from Quilt Fabric Delights are so vivid and fresh and I've found quite a few more in my stash to add to the mix - it's going to be a lovely quilt.  There's a good chance I'll make it a bit larger than in the pattern.

Oops

Looks what happens when I'm paying enough attention.

Was easily fixed and now Block 6 is finished.

A close-up.

Block 5 is sewn together, stitcheries are traced and the applique pieces (5 butterflies) have been cut out - so, it's time to start the last block - hooray!

Lots of little tart segments have been cut and glued ready for car trips etc.

A Bargain

On Thursday night Jenni and I were shopping and I came across this seagrass blanket box at a great sale price.

On Sunday I went to the local hardware shop and bought a few cans of white spray paint

and now it's ready to hold my backing fabrics and other "stuff" under the frame in the sewing room.

One day I'll get around to lining it with some pretty fabric.  One day ...

On Saturday I went on a road trip with three friends to Canberra.  We visited Addicted to Fabric and a couple of other shops.  My shopping was very responsible/restrained - a glue pen and refills so I could start Pies and Tarts, which has been in the cupboard for about 2 years, some hexagon papers and some fabric for a swap present.

I spent most of Sunday afternoon cutting out Pies and Tarts

and then gluing the fabrics to the papers.

I had to make one pie.

Could someone who's made these blocks please let me know when the tails at the centre of the pie should be trimmed (if at all)?  Or, are they pressed until the centre lies flat?

The second Pies and Tarts parcel arrived today - more gorgeous fabrics:

One of the machine embroidered placemats and serviettes from last week. I've made 4 so far - think I'll do another 2.