A Long Weekend

Last week I caught up on the Thimble Blossoms Scrappy Sampler Sew-Along.

I love this Piccadilly Circus block.  The pattern is very easy to follow.  An Instagram friend (@aqua_paisley) came up with a great way to cut the left-overs to make bonus blocks - so pleased I already had the Dresden Plate ruler.

I'm really keen to make the Piccadilly Circus quilt.  Went ahead and cut out all my strips because I'm running out of many of these fabrics and didn't want to be tempted to use them in something else.

Always great to have a long weekend.  More time to spend with the family, friends and in the sewing room.

The Stitching Girls met up on Saturday and Kerryn brought along the cot quilt we made for her little baby boy (due in 4 weeks) - the girls gave it to Kerryn at her baby shower.  I wasn't able to attend because I was at another extra-special baby bbq.  I was so pleased to see the finished quilt.  We all made blocks using the Go Four It design, this year's quilt-along pattern from American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.

During the week I made backing for Kaleidoscope and on Saturday gave the quilt to Karen for quilting.

Saw this photo on Instagram a couple of days later - the little clouds quilting looks wonderful.

A few weeks ago Karen quilted an old UFO for me - a 12" block sampler made along with my on-line stitching group.  The blocks were made in 2010 and the quilt top has been together since early 2011.

Saturday night I finally sewed bindings onto 4 quilts:  Fireworks, 12-1/2" Sampler

The Wish Quilt, and Leanne Beasley's 365 Challenge Quilt made in 2007-2008 (which Karen quilted earlier this year)

 

Mum and I spent Sunday in Sydney visiting the family - lunch with Michael and Peta then some time with with Elizabeth, Matt, Jenni and Miss ChaCha.

On Monday I went outside to bring in the washing to find the clothesline was a casualty of the huge winds blowing that morning:

Lovely new blue clothesline installed yesterday - matches the roof and trims on my house.

Monday night was the next Scrappy Sampler instalment - Vintage Tulips

It's the middle of winter here and the roses are still blooming - there are plenty of new buds too.

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.

Small Quilts

The binding has been added to a couple of small quilts and these quilts will be going to their new homes later this week. 

The Zig-Zag quilt was made from left-over Fireworks fabrics.  Lovely bright, fresh colours.

Backing, binding and quilting by Karen.

The X-block quilt had been cut out for a couple of years and it's good to have this one finished.  My friend, Diann, gave me the ruler and book as a birthday present and I've made quite a few quilts using this ruler.  There is a great variety of designs that can be made.

Backing, binding and quilting by Karen.

The binding on this quilt was added using a method/tutorial from Linda at Flourishing Palms - a great way to use two different fabrics to finish off a quilt.

Last week a friend sent me a link on Facebook to some very cute crocheted characters - had to buy the book/kit.

Made a lot of mess in the sewing room cutting strips and squares for a very scrappy quilt I hope to start in a little while.  It's going to take a long time to make this quilt - over 1,000 2-1/2" 4 patches.  Lots of chain piecing.

Four more Orange Swoon blocks to add to the stack - halfway now.  So many different shades of orange.

 

Had some great company this weekend - friends came for lunch on Saturday and Sunday and I also spent some time with another old friend.

Goodnight Irene

In January I cut out a second Goodnight Irene quilt, on Saturday the label was attached and the quilt was given to my dear friends to celebrate their milestone birthdays - between them they turned 100.  This is quite a large quilt at 88-1/2" square and I think it goes well with their bright personalities.

Karen quilted it with a hearts and flowers design, which is a great pattern that doesn't detract from the piecing.  I bought a wideback for the backing and it's so nice to have a backing with no seams.

I'm a few months behind making a quilt for a family member.  The blocks for Orange Swoon have been cut out for 6 months but other things have got in the way.  Friday night I started working on these blocks - they are a huge 24" finished.

12 blocks to go - the original pattern has 9 blocks but I'd like to make this king-size.  I've collected 32 different orange fabrics - such a big range in shades of orange.

Presents

Fireworks is together.  I love the border fabric - such a great mix of all the fabrics in the quilt top.

There was a fair stack of these lovely bright fabrics left, so I decided to make a quick zig-zag quilt - I owe a few people baby quilts.  This one will be going to a sweet 2 year old soon.

I had a day off last week and took these two quilts and the X-block cot quilt over to Karen for her to quilt.  

My friend Barbara is recently home from a 5 weeks cruise around Asia.  We had dinner together last week and she gave me this huge box containing my birthday present but I couldn't open it till I was at home.

This is what was inside - it's just fabulous!  And it suits my home (and me) so well.

 

For our on-line group's birthday present, Sarah was sending to me and this is how my parcel arrived - stitched up all the way around!  Cheeky thing.  Such a fun idea and she used lovely Fig Tree fabric for the "wrapping".

Out came the unpicker.  So many lovely, handmade goodies inside - all made using more beautiful Fig Tree fabrics.

Had a lovely birthday/Mothers' Day with all the family and catching up with friends during the week.

A friend, Lynda, came to visit during the week and also brought me a present:

 My friends have great taste and style :)

Last Night of the Proms

Months ago I received an email from Sydney Symphony Orchestra about the "Last Night of the Proms" concert coming up in early May.  Thought it would be a great Mothers' Day present for Mum so bought tickets and off we went last Saturday.  We had lunch at one of the cafes on the concourse - such a busy, bustling place.

The concert was so wonderful - beautiful music and then lots of audience singing towards the end of the second half, flag-waving, streamers etc.  Loved it.
 

Following the concert we had dinner with Matt, Elizabeth and our little sweetheart - it was Matt's birthday on Sunday.

Finally got around to sewing the last four "Fireworks" blocks and spent some time arranging and re-arranging the blocks with some help from my friend Amy in Oklahoma - a little more tweaking and I'll be ready to put the quilt top together - can't have two orange-centred blocks next to each other.  These fabics are so bright, they might even glow in the dark!

A little bit of shopping this week from a favourite shop - thinking very carefully about what to make with this lovely stack.

The Best News came yesterday with the safe arrival home of my dear friends Lynell, Darren and Robyn - they were in Nepal when the earthquake struck, trekking within a few kilometres of the epicentre.  They had to walk for days over the most rugged terrain to find an area where a satellite phone worked to be able to get a message out that their group was ok and then to arrange for helicopter evacuation back to Kathmandu.  So wonderful to have a chat with Lynell last night.

Another Frolic

Love when a plan comes together quickly and easily.  I wanted to make a quilt for a very special little boy, knew he loves Mickey Mouse and had recently seen some very cute fabric that happened to go with a small jelly roll I had at home of navy/red/black/white spots and stripes.  So, another Frolic quilt came about with Mickey Mouse fabric as the feature rows.

Karen quilted it with very cute Mickey and Minnie heads and I sewed the binding on a couple of nights ago.

Finished stitching the binding down last night while catching up on some recorded tv shows after delicious roast lamb dinner Jenni cooked.

I have another 3 quilts to bind then I'll be caught up.