Summer Nights

After making "Wish Upon a Star" and "Red Letter Day" I still had loads of red Bonnie and Camille fabrics left so I bought some more Riley Blake Swiss Dots and cut out "Summer Nights" using up some leftover red Kona Solid for the centre of the stars rather than using background fabric.

The quilt was finished last week.

 

"Orange Peel" quilting always looks lovely although Karen must be sick of using this design on my quilts - I ask for it so often.

Another round has been added to "Aviatrix Medallion"

One more round to go - butterflies, then it can go to be quilted.

A couple more quilt tops have been finished over the last week or so.  These were both cut out last August and I've been taking some time to make them.

"Lemon Meringue" designed by Coriander Quilts

and "Shining Brightly" designed by Thimble Blossoms.  This quilt involved a lot of trimming so I split the blocks into groups by colour and trimmed/sewed them one colour at a time.

Had an enjoyable long weekend - went for a drive to the Southern Highlands with Lynell and Robyn on Saturday afternoon, Mum visited on Sunday and I spent yesterday afternoon with Elizabeth, Matt and the little ones.

Still working from home - no definite plans for returning to the office yet.

Sweet Escape Wallhanging

A lady in USA asked me to make her a wallhanging to fit a particular spot in her house.  She wanted this design, "Sweet Escape" in Bonnie and Camille fabrics with yellow backing and the red/white stripe for binding.  She also asked for Orange Peel quilting so I sent the quilt to Karen for quilting.

Karen has also been busy quilting another two of my quilts.  "Gypsy Girl" designed by Anka's Treasures in FigTree and Company's pretty "Chantilly" range.

And "Summer Nights" in red Bonnie and Camille fabrics.

Both of these quilts are home and waiting for me to sew on the bindings.

Many years ago I bought the pattern for "Strawberry Social" and just never got around to making it - I thought it would be a good quilt to make now so I sorted through my red box of fabrics and had plenty to make the strawberries (without using any Bonnie & Camille or FigTree fabrics).

I did make one smaller Bonnie and Camille strawberry to add to my next Bonnie and Camille Sampler.

The quilt top is now finished and is with Jenny for quilting.

I bought the cute strawberry fabric last year from Auntie's Quaint Quilts to use with this quilt and the binding has been in the drawer for years - made it for a quilt and didn't use it, so that's a bonus.

Still working from home but there is talk of going back to the office some time next month.

Catch Up

I had a small pile of squares left over from the Bonnie and Camille Kindness Project quilt, so I went through the crates holding Bonnie and Camille fabrics and cut more squares to make a "Cakewalk" quilt.

I've made this design a couple of times before and really like how it shows off the lovely fabrics.

My stash of Bonnie and Camille fabrics is dangerously low.  Looks like they have a new range coming out later this year and it's very pretty.

Made a little progress on "Shining Brightly" - the pink, aqua and taupe stars are finished.

The second "Village"blocks are made - no Bonnie and Camille or FigTree fabrics in this one either.  Obviously, I have too much fabric hanging around.

"Summer Nights" blocks have been made for a couple of weeks, so they were sewn together late last week.  Still to make the backing.

Two years ago, Elizabeth and her family bought me these beautiful Alison Glass fabrics as a birthday present.  I started making Jen Kingwell's "Long Time Gone" quilt and it's been in the cupboard since December 2018.  I deliberately wanted to take my time making this quilt because I love making all the different blocks and working out which colours should go where, but didn't realise I had left it for so long.

I made some more blocks over the last few days -

Churn Dash

Courthouse Steps

Log Cabin

Blocks made roughly in position.  I am going to LOVE this quilt - the colours are so beautiful.

Working from home is a whole new world of not speaking face-to-face with people for days on end except via WebEx or Zoom or when I visit Mum to take up some groceries or a couple of meals.

This is the backing for the It Takes a Village Dwell quilt - leftover strips from a variety of quilt backings.  The quilt has arrived in Queensland to be quilted by my Instagram friend, Julie, who was in the Dwell Swap with me.

Peta has asked me to make a special quilt - one of her best friends is having a baby in the next couple of weeks and Peta bought these beautiful Australian fabrics.  We've decided on the sage green for the setting triangles.

Once again I'm using "Bradley Street"because it shows off the fabrics.

This sensational May Gibbs linen/cotton fabric is for the backing and also to go in the blank squares in the photo above.

I've been making "Summer Nights" blocks.  These are blocks 1-20/49.

At this very unsettling time, Moda Fabrics has made a Miss Rosie Quilt Co pattern called "Village" available for anyone to download for free.  I wasn't going to join in but saw an IG friend making some lovely houses and thought I could go through all my older fabrics and cut out some house pieces.  As usual, I've cut out way too many, probably enough for two quilts, and I'll start sewing some together over the weekend.  There are so many fabric memories in those stacks.  These quilts will be donated to Keepsafe Quilts, who give them to women's refuges for the families to keep.

I have two quilts to pick up from AngelCake Quilting - Red Letter Day (love this new-to-me cable)

and Scrappy Trip Around the World

I will enjoy binding these two.

"Dwell" Swap

Two Instagram friends and I swapped "Dwell" blocks.  "Dwell" is a quilt designed by Thimble Blossoms from her "Simply Retro" book and we added 6" blocks for the house "interiors".

The plan was to make 5 blocks to send to each other and 5 for ourselves - I got carried away with the block centres and ended up making 6 each.

The houses I received from Julie:

and the houses I received from Karen:

These are the my blocks all together - I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these yet but I'm leaning towards Anne Boundy's "It Takes a Village" Quilt with a large Swoon block surrounded by a couple of borders and the houses.

"Red Letter Day" quilt top is almost finished - I didn't have enough red polka dot fabric to finish the 4th side and add the last border.  I'm hoping a package of the fabric will be in the letter box today.  So happy with the look of this quilt so far.

Having some red fabric left over I thought I'd make another "Summer Nights" quilt - I'll be able to use up loads of the scrappy pieces from "Red Letter Day" and "Wish Upon a Star".

Before Christmas I joined a sew-along to make "Hide and Seek" (designed by Thimble Blossoms).  The plan was to have the quilt top finished in early January.  I kept up for the first few weeks but then Christmas, family time, other sewing commitments became more pressing and this was put aside.  It was finished on the weekend and I'm so glad it's done - sorting out where to put which little coloured square was driving me bonkers.  I had so many aqua/red four patches towards the end that I ended up pulling them apart on Saturday night and adding more colour.

The Backing

Last night I sewed up the "Plain and Fancy" Dresden Plates - this "Chantilly" fabric, designed by FigTree & Co, is so pretty and I'm looking forward to seeing this quilt come together.

Little Sweetheart T came over for the weekend - we visited Mum, did some shopping, make pancakes for breakfast, played games - had a great time.  Jenni visited yesterday afternoon and it was lovely to spend some time with her.