This Week ...

The gardeners visited on Tuesday to plant out the Treadle Garden - it's looking wonderful.

Borders and binding for Floral Bouquet No 2 have been cut for over a month.

As a change from Scrappy Trip Around the World and Goodnight Irene, I sewed them up

and added the borders to the quilt top.  Finished last night.

Once the backing is made, it can go onto the pile of waiting quilt tops.

Yesterday I sent Tone it Down to Sarah for quilting - it's too large to put on my own frame at the moment.  I need to add the extension and will do that once the frame is moved to its new home.  Pretty excited - only second time I've sent off a quilt for professional quilting.

Treadle in the Garden

Arrived home from work on Friday evening to find that the gardening gurus (sister-in-law, brother, niece, nephews and their grand-babies) had visited during the afternoon.  I am flabbergasted by how much they achieve and so quickly!

Left - Friday evening; Right - Saturday afternoon

Top left - Friday afternoon; bottom left and right - Saturday afternoon

By Saturday afternoon another long garden bed had been dug along the opposite fence.  I've had this old treadle sitting on the verandah for ages (a friend used it for a fish tank stand) - Tracy decided it was a very appropriate garden feature and next minute it was in the garden.

Rained all Saturday night and most of yesterday morning, so I thought I'd sneak in a bit of sewing to finish up some more Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks.  The rows have been pinned into blocks for a few weeks.

35 blocks finished, 5 ready to sew together - another 24 to cut/piece

Many of the lovely Bliss pieces that Marina sent to me are in these blocks and the layer cake leftovers from X and Plus will be in the next batch of blocks.  This will be a large quilt (96" x 96").

The garden gurus arrived late yesterday morning and, once the rain stopped, we spent the afternoon working outside again - lots more exciting things happening to the house as well as the yard.

X and +

After some emails to and from Sarah, I wanted to try making an "X and +" quilt block.  Had a go at one last night and after tweaking the maths, finally worked out what size pieces I needed.

I've cut into my "Bliss" layer cake to make this quilt - caused a bit of discussion on Instagram.

I'm hanging out to buy some new fabrics so I will use up this layer cake and, hopefully, more of my Bonnie and Camille stash.

More gardening this weekend and some Scrappy Tripping Around the World (I hope).

A Little Sewing

At stitching last Tuesday night, Karen showed us her almost finished Floral Bouquet - it looks fabulous with the black background.

The binding is now sewn down and the quilt is ready for their next adventure around Australia starting in March.

Some more Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks

and the strips for another 14.

Pinned them together ready to sew into blocks while watching the Olympics and the Goodnight Irene X's are sewn together into blocks.

Most of the weekend we were in the back yard sorting out the garden, lopping trees - working really hard - well, I'm good at holding weedmat in place, making lunch etc.  Don't think the boys will let me near the chainsaw.

 

The Site Supervisor turned up to carry out an inspection.

All the mulch is from the first lot of trees and branches that we cut down just before Christmas - there's still plenty left.

So, it's all happening at my place - I'll never be able to thank my family enough.

Sewing Blocks

I think I'm up-to-date with the "Goodnight Irene Sew-Along".  Hoping to make my quilt a bit larger than the original plan.

Last weekend a couple of friends celebrated Big Birthdays - had a lovely time on Saturday night at Barbara's birthday dinner.

Dear Marina sent me a fantastic bagful of Bonnie and Camille "Bliss" offcuts.  I've added these to my stash of "Ruby" and a couple of "Vintage Modern" fabrics and have started making the "Scrappy Trip Around the World" - a short attention span has struck again.

All the blocks have the tiny polka dot as the central diagonal

So far none of the blocks are pressed after the initial strips are sewen together and the blocks aren't sewn together - I'm not keen on pressing the blocks until the final layout is decided because there are so many seams.

Long Weekend

I had the most wonderful Australia Day weekend - flew up to Brisbane on Friday evening and stayed with Diann, who is the most entertaining friend anyone could have.  Bill the Builder was away working for the weekend so it was just us.  We had such a relaxing time - long lunch with a bunch of friends on Saturday

Helen, me, Sandi, Diann and Teresa - only photo taken all weekend.

and breakfast with Diann's daughter and her family on Sunday morning.  The rest of the time we just talked, hung out, talked, did a bit of stitching

talked, watched some of a BBC series, talked etc.  I had the best time.

I came home to a few roses blooming and there's quite a few buds on this side of the trellis - receives more morning sun than the other side.

My lunchtime stitching is progressing very slowly.

Block 4 - Best Friends Forever

So I started stitching another packet of the blocks while I was away and think I'll continue with these as my tv-watching stitching.  Might even head back into the sewing room tonight - "Goodnight Irene" is calling to me although I should finish off  Floral Bouquet 2.

Goodnight Irene Sew-Along

My short attention span has struck again.

Something I've been trying to do over the last couple of years is use up a lot of the fabrics in my stash.  Often when a quilt top is finished, it doesn't feel like I've used very much fabric at all.  The first Floral Bouquet in a variety of Fig Tree fabrics is one example and so is "Tone it Down", the APQ Quilt-Along Quilt - even though I used about 77 different Fig Tree fabrics, there's still an awful lot left over.

I've had a pack of Timeless Treasures Pink Lemonade Treat Strips along with backing, binding and border fabric in my cupboard for a couple of years.  While browsing through some blogs the last few days, I came across the Goodnight Irene Sew-Along and thought these blocks would look pretty in Pink Lemonade.  I needed to make a couple of test blocks.

I've never used Batiks and find that although these feel different to the cottons I'm used to working with, they sew up and press beautifully.

Also found out that the blocks go together easier if the seams are pressed open.  Because I want to make quite a large quilt, I will be using the fabric I bought for borders in the "X" blocks - there is just enough fabric in the strips to make the required number of blocks.  The way the quilt is set out a border is made with the white and contrast fabrics.  I have no idea what the white fabric is - it was a 3m piece in my background fabrics box.  It feels finer than Moda Bella Solid and is a bit milkier white than the White Kona Solid I have.

My curiosity was satisfied and I did some more of Floral Bouquet 2 in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" while watching the tennis.