First Quilt

My first proper quilt is finished.  The sub-contractor (Mum) sewed down the binding last week and the quilt is back at my place.

I am so happy with how it's turned out and my patchwork teacher was very pleased to see it finished as well.

Each Saturday morning now I'm eager to see the pattern for the Sewcialites sew-along.  I thought that when a block has lots of little pieces, I'd make it multi-coloured using pieces from my solids scrap bag.

It's nice to use up some of those little pieces.

"Patchwork Sky" is together and is being quilted this week.

Love this backing fabric.

The pile of "An Hourglass a Day" blocks is growing.  Really enjoy making these first thing each day.  Think I need 349 to make a quilt ~60" square.  Will have to cut more 5" squares.

I picked up the play quilt from Jenny (AngelCake Quilting) last week and the binding has been sewn on for Mum to stitch down.

I think it's nice to have Mum involved in making a quilt for her 13th great-grandbaby.

The Pink Room is in a bit of a mess - lots of ongoing projects:  Ring Cycles, Hourglass a Day, summer dresses for T, pyjamas for H & G, Sea Glass, Sewcialites.

Plus I've started cutting out another Chinoiserie - need two more large blocks then I can pair up the florals and border strips.  The first Chinoiserie has been claimed by my daughter-in-law. 

When I made the last Bradley Street quilt for Peta's friend's new baby, I cut out extra squares to make another one day.  On Sunday I popped in to Spotlight and bought some more Jocelyn Proust fabrics with the beautiful Australian flora designs and the teal solid to make a full-size Bradley Street quilt one day.  I've added a square of each of the florals to the Chinoiserie pile.

After seeing the pile of UFO's I worked on Sea Glass over the weekend and it's now ready to give to Karen for quilting when she visits on the weekend.  The Stitching Girls are coming for afternoon tea on Saturday - first time we've been together since the start of the year.

Took a couple of days off last week - Mum, T and I visited Jenni and Kurt on Thursday.  So nice to just spend time with them.  Jenni's now 20 weeks pregnant and, although very tired, is keeping well and looks wonderful.

Chinoiserie

 "Chinoiserie" was finished last night.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this quilt - so much that I bought some more large florals this morning to add to the stash ready to start another one as soon as they arrive.  Michelle McKillop designs vibrant, beautiful, colourful quilts and I love her style.

Jenny, from AngelCake Quilting, quilted with a design called "Narnia" - it's lovely big flowers and leaves.

The backing is from FigTree and Company's "Aloha Girl" range and the binding is from Aneela Hooey's "Little Apples" range - it features cute tortoises.

I made the second "Sewcialites" block on Saturday morning before Gulli came to spend the day.  

We had a very busy day baking, gardening, emptying out the spare room.

I've joined another sew-along.  This one is "An Hourglass a Day" made with 5" squares.  I had a bagful of Bonnie and Camille 5" squares with some already made into half square triangles - so joining this SAL was a no brainer.

When I picked up "Chinoiserie", my original sampler quilt was also ready to be picked up.  The binding has been sewn on and is now with Mum (the sub-contractor) for stitching down.

A bit hard to believe that my oldest quilting UFO will finally be complete and on a bed.

Progress has been made on "Patchwork Sky" for a customer in USA.

Blocks A and B

Blocks C and D

The lower four rows are together.  I hope to add the top three rows and sew up the backing tonight so that I can send it all off tomorrow to Karen for quilting.

The white windmill fabric has been in my stash for quite a while to make a summer dress for T and this was cut out on the weekend, along with a couple of other dresses using fabrics I'd purchased recently.

I love using my old patterns for her - they were bought for her Mummy and Auntie.

This dress is from a new pattern.  I only had 70 cms of the turquoise fabric and needed a shift style dress.

I'm taking Thursday and Friday off this week - Mum, T and I are going to visit Jenni tomorrow and then I'll have a few days at home sewing (I hope) but will be open to fun invitations.

Low Boredom Tolerance

Received an email from AngelCake Quilting yesterday with this picture showing the beautiful quilting on my sampler quilt.  It looks so lovely.  Jenny will be quilting "Chinoiserie" over the next day or so, then I'll pick up both quilts.

Last week the play/tummy time quilt top was finished.

Really happy with how this turned out and I'll add a couple of surprises when it comes back from quilting.  Just waiting for another piece of the backing fabric to arrive then it can be dropped off with Jenny for quilting.

My boredom tolerance has been tested while sewing up all these nine patches.  There are now 333.  12 six patches to make then cutting out 470 red spot triangles.

To relieve the boredom I've cut out some more quilts.  First up is another "Sea Glass" designed by Susan Ache.  I've made three other versions of this pattern and I love it each time.  I had quite a collection of Fig Tree scraps so used those before cutting into my "Catalina" fat quarter bundle.

The Fat Quarter Shop is hosting a sew-along with a block pattern being released each Saturday morning (our time).  I'm using solids that are in my stash - these are the big pieces I have; there may be enough in the solids scrap bag to make a couple of the blocks to add different colours.  The pattern comes with a sheet to colour in so you can work out colour placement in advance - time to break out the grandchildren's colouring pencils.

The patterns are available in three sizes:  3", 6" and 9" finished.  I'm making 6" finished because I have enough of the Moda Bella 97 left for that size quilt.

In August I bought some fabrics from an Etsy shop in USA for a "Patchwork Sky" quilt that a customer requested.  This first bundle arrived in about four weeks

and the second bundle arrived yesterday so the quilt can now be started.

Last weekend was very enjoyable - Saturday lunch with the Schoolgirls, T&H stayed overnight then we visited Mum after breakfast on Sunday and Elizabeth and Matt met us there to collect T&H.

WIP's

During this year Sarah, from Patchworks Plus in Tasmania, has been running a sew-along for the group to make Jen Kingwell's "Gypsy Wife" quilt.  I was late to the game and made most of the blocks for January-July in June and July and then this week I made the August and September blocks.

August

September

I'm using my Alison Glass stash - I think these fabrics suit Jen's designs so well.  Managed to snag some bundles of these fabrics in a de-stash sale on Instagram.

and bought a bundle from a shop in Victoria to add to the stash.

Jenni has asked me to make a play/tummy-time/floor quilt for the baby with strong colours and bold prints.  I had these in my stash

and bought a few more black and white fabrics to add variety.

I've started sewing the quilt top together and have been changing the layout as I go.

Finished off a little cardigan/bootees/bonnet set for the baby over the weekend.  

Forgot to post photos of "Chinoisserie" - which is now with Jenny (Angelcake Quilting) to be quilted.  This is a Michelle McKillop design and uses loads of large floral prints along with stripes, spots, plains, small florals etc for the block borders.

I had the gold/silver spot fabric in my stash, so was happy to be using some of it up for the outer borders.

This was a fun quilt to put together - all the blocks need to be laid out before sewing together so that the borders all work out correctly.

I found this FigTree fabric for the backing at a really good price at HobbySew.

There has been a lot of iso-shopping but all with a purpose in mind (well, that's my justification).

Another quilt that has gone to AngelCake Quilting is my first-ever proper quilt, which was made in classes with Dianne Gibson in 2000.  Dianne taught us everything we need to know about making patchwork blocks from scratch:  drawing up the block on graph paper, making templates, hand-piecing, needle-turn applique, curved piecing etc.  These blocks were all 12" finished but are huge when turned on point.  The idea was to make 11 blocks and choose our favourite 9 for a queen-size quilt.  I didn't want to keep 2 aside, so I made a 12th block.  The quilt was basted ready for hand-quilting but that never happened, then somehow, years ago, a bit of water was spilled on the dark red and it ran in a few places.  The quilt was washed with colour-catchers and then put aside because two of the seams had come apart for a few inches.  A month or so ago I repaired the seams.  Definitely looking forward to seeing this quilt on a bed.

Another quilt with slow progress is "Ring Cycles" - this photo is of 200 of the 332 nine patches needed for the quilt.  There will also be 12 six patch blocks.

I've come across so many old favourite fabrics.

The plan (hope) was to use all fabrics from my scrap drawers and not include any Bonnie and Camille or FigTree fabrics (a few snuck in) but I ran out of scraps, so raided the Bonnie and Camille drawer and have enough for another 60 or so.

The backing for "Santa in the Trees" finally arrived from Spoonflower - it is so very cute.  This is a quilt for a customer and she ordered this fabric.  I think she saw the fabric first and then chose a quilt to go with it.

She also wants a cushion to go on the bed.

Pretty pleased with the join in the backing fabric - the way it's printed allows for good joins.

The quilt, cushion and little wallhanging I made from the extra trees I cut out, are all with Karen (Quilting on the Coast) for quilting.  I'm still auditioning red/white stripes for binding.  It's so hard to find a red/white stripe with pure white not off-white or cream.

The weekend of socialising was fantastic but exhausting - it's been a long while since I've had a full calendar on the weekend.  The best part was having all the family together for dinner on Sunday night.  I just love sitting at the table and listening to everyone chatting away.