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.

A Little Trip

Borders have been sewn onto the "Swell" quilt top and the backing made - it's all ready to be quilted.

I've had such a lovely few days away with Elizabeth, Matt and ChaCha.  They are in Port Douglas for a holiday and invited me to fly up with them for a long weekend.  On Monday we drove up through the Daintree Rainforest to Cape Tribulation - some beautiful beaches along the way.  We stopped for ice cream (sapote, wattle seed, mango and coconut) at the Daintree Ice Cream Factory - such beautiful gardens there where they grow the "flavours" for the ice cream and a large variety of teas.

While I was away I started some secret stitching and I finished it off last night.  Feels good to be ahead of schedule for a change.

Last week Sarah sent me some photos of my Starry Orange Letter Day Quilt on her frame.

I picked it up from the post office today - it looks fantastic.

 

Think I'll make a scrappy orange binding for this quilt tonight.

There has also been a little bit of machine embroidery happening for Jenni's friend.

Sing-a-long

Not as much sewing over the weekend - stuff to do around the house, time with family and socialising took over.

Had the best time on Saturday night - went to Sing-a-long-a Sound of Music.  I first went 5 years ago with my family and this time was almost as much fun (anything is better with my kids).

The Starry Orange blocks were sewn together

and last night I sewed on two of the borders.  One white linen border to go.

Next up will be my Thimble Blossom Scrappy Sampler blocks then putting Orange Swoon together.

7 days till Smudgie Day - if he's on time - just a bit excited.

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.