A Quilt for Baby Riggs

My great-nephew and Mum's 14th great-grandchild was born in July and his quilt was finished a little while ago - we finally had the quilt delivered to Riggs last week.

I used Carried Away Quilting's "Next Up" pattern and added his name at the top using the "Spell it With Moda" letters.

During last week I sewed up another bunch of "Sweet Escape" log cabin blocks.

18 blocks to go and then comes the dreaded block layout - my least favourite part of the quilt-making process.

Karen quilted "Christmas Cheer" on Friday.  Hoping to pick it up this week.

It will be lovely to have this quilt on my bed for Christmas.  I now have three quilts to bind.

As soon as Little Sweetheart heard that Jenni and Kurt were coming for the weekend, she wanted to stay over Friday night to help with the painting.  She was pretty disappointed that the whole time she was there not a tin of paint was opened.  We spent all Friday night and Saturday until dinner time scraping, sanding, filling repeat.  The walls in this part of my house would be at least 80 years old and have the old horse hair plaster.

On Saturday afternoon, before Little Sweetheart went home, we did open the paint can of jelly beans.

There was a nice surprise for her inside the tin - Milly the English Sheep Dog puppy (and a bag of jelly beans).

After dinner on Saturday night we starting undercoating and ran out of paint around 10.30 pm.  By the time we finished on Sunday dinner time all the walls and ceiling had been undercoated, there was some cutting in with the coloured topcoat

and the front door had one coat of topcoat gloss.

This is a huge job but we're now over the worst part.  No painting next weekend because it's Kurt's birthday on Saturday, but maybe the weekend after.  The biggest part of cutting in painting will be the double fancy cornice.

No sewing over the weekend.

Tonight we're going to the basketball - hope the Hawks play well.  It's about time they had a win.

Catching Up

Elizabeth's birthday lunch was so lovely.  Jenni, Mum and I decorated the table with vases of sunflowers, balloons and photos of Elizabeth from a newborn to almost 40.

Elizabeth requested a baked ricotta cheesecake with fresh canoli on top for her birthday cake - Matt did very well organising this - it was delicious.

Two days later Elizabeth, Matt, the two Sweethearts and I headed off on holiday to Cairns for 10 days.

Last time I was up north we stayed in Port Douglas - it was nice to be in Cairns this time and spend time there visiting Green Island, a couple of water parks, The Lagoon and Kuranda.  I caught the train home - wasn't game enough to take the cable car up to Kuranda.

Such beautiful carriages with pressed tin ceilings.

Little Sweetheart loves to wear dresses and needs some for summer and pre-school, so we visited the local Spotlight - it's a lovely shop - such a huge variety of fabrics.

Of course, she had her heart set on Elsa fabric and luckily there was some in stock.  She also loves My Little Pony and Space People.

We ate lots of lovely seafood at home and at a couple of great cafes/restaurants.

Someone was suffering a bit of an identity crisis on the way home:  Wonder Woman/Moana.

I was able to put together the Sampler Quilt before I went away.

After the holiday, I had a few more days off before coming back to work and pretty much all of Friday was spent in the sewing room adding borders to the Sampler Quilt, making backing and binding

and then sewing together the "Christmas Cheer" rows, my 2019 Bonnie and Camille Aussie Beehive Quilt.

The backing:

So happy with how "Christmas Cheer" has turned out - looking forward to having it on my bed this Christmas.

Mum, her friend Nora and I went to see "Ride Like a Girl" on Saturday afternoon - second time I've seen it because Mum couldn't come the first time.  Really enjoyed watching it again - love a good Australian story.

After the movie I dropped off "Christmas Cheer" and the Sampler Quilt to Karen.  On Monday, I saw via Instagram and Facebook that she was quilting "Chamomile"

and yesterday she quilted the Sampler Quilt.

I picked them both up last night and they are now awaiting binding.

On Sunday morning I finally got around to pin basting the littlest Sweetheart's quilt.  Running a bit late with this one - he's now 7-1/2 months old.

Sunday afternoon was The Hawks basketball team's first home game of the season.  Michael, Peta and Gulli were able to come along with me and The Girls and we all had a great time, even though The Hawks lost.  Now that MP&G are now living locally, they'll be able to come along to lots of games.

Sunday night I did the vertical quilting on "Little Chicken Feather".  I'll get to the horizontal quilting maybe next Sunday night.

I've also been plodding along with some "Sweet Escape" blocks - at first they were driving me nuts as the centres were a bit off kilter but they're going alright now.

Halfway with this one now.

Last year for Christmas, Jenni and Kurt told me they would paint my front entry way.  This is starting this weekend.  A trip to Bunnings to buy paint also resulted in a tin of jelly beans because I bought 8 litres of Dulux paint - hope they're nice jelly beans.

"Chamomile" quilt top is together and with Karen for some quilting.

The backing was a nice find at my local HobbySew shop and the binding is the same fabric as the sashing in the quilt top.

This week I've been working on my second Sampler Quilt, which is made up of a block from each quilt I've started this year plus blocks made for the Aussie Bonnie & Camille Bee.

"Lemon Meringue", Coriander Quilts

"Shining Brightly", Thimble Blossoms

"Basket Case", Cluck, Cluck, Sew

The lower half of the Sampler Quilt is together - it's fun making the jigsaw puzzle of blocks fit and working out the sizes for filler blocks.

The Eisteddfod finished on Saturday for another year.  On Sunday Mum, her friend Nora and I went to see "Downton Abbey" - LOVED it and am looking forward to seeing it again very soon with Elizabeth.

Tonight, along with some friends, I'm going to a fund-raiser screening of "Ride Like a Girl" - think I'll enjoy this movie too.

Earlier this week I finished off something that was started in 1996 and worked on during much of that year and 1997.  I'm embarrassed to say it took me all of 30 minutes to do the couching stitches on the gold threads.

Saturday is a big day for our family.  Our eldest baby, Elizabeth, is turning 40.  What a fabulous, wonderful 40 years!

So Little Time

Not much sewing time last week due to work, my hectic social life and weekends at the eisteddfod.  Next Saturday to go and the eisteddfod will be over for another year.

I've started sewing "Chamomile" blocks together - so happy with how this quilt is looking.  So thrilled I have enough of the coral to make the little nine patches - the colour looks so pretty with the sashing print.  The sashing print is directional so I'm being very careful to cut the strips with the little rose bouquets facing the correct way.

There will be a white outer border and I have just enough of the green floral sashing fabric to use for binding.

I went to see a local production of "Mamma Mia" on Saturday night - it was SO good.  Can't go wrong with ABBA music, wonderful performers and a fun script.

Picked up our season passes for the basketball this morning - the whole city is so excited about the upcoming season and can't wait for the first game on 6 October.  A great team this year, including a superstar young player who could well be next year's No 1 Draft Pick for the NBA.

Stitching with the girls tonight - haven't had a catch up for a while.  Mum and I are hoping to see the new "Downton Abbey" movie next Sunday.

Another Start ...

The attention span is very short these days.  A while ago I cut out strips to start making "Chamomile" designed by Allison Jensen (@woodberryway) and last night I sewed up a few blocks. 

The idea to use only fabrics in my stash for the quilt top was going well until it came time to cut out the little nine patch blocks for the posts.  The strips for the nine patches are 1-1/2" wide and I needed one more strip 6" long or one 3" square.  Fortunately this morning (after a bit of on-line discussion with a couple of IG friends) I had a brainwave and found a strip in my leftover Figtree bindings roll.  I keep most of my leftover bindings to use when I want a scrappy binding.

There will be just enough of the pretty green sashing fabric (another Figtree design) to use for binding on this quilt.

A bit of progress ...

I had some free time on Saturday afternoon away from the eisteddfod and was able to add the final borders to the baby's quilt.  The backing is made and hopefully pin basting and quilting will happen over the next month or so.

Another cot quilt I've been working on is "Next Up" designed by Carried Away Quilting.  This is made in "Safari Life" by Stacy Iest Hsu, a brand new fabric and I had to wait a few months for the yardage to be released so that I could buy fabric finish the top of the quilt and for backing.

This one is for Mum's newest great-grandbaby (14th) and was dropped off for quilting yesterday.

"Lemon Meringue" by Coriander Quilts has been cut out and I've made the first block.

"Shining Brightly" by Thimble Blossoms is also cut out.

Both of these quilts are being made using Bonnie and Camille's "Early Bird" range with Moda Bella Solid 200 Porcelain for the background fabric.  200 looks a bit more milky-white compared with 97, and suits the background of the "Early Bird" fabrics.

Monday night I sewed up last month's "Christmas Cheer" row for my Aussie B&C 2019 quilt.

Only a couple more rows to go and the quilt top will be done and, hopefully, quilted and finished to be on my bed for Christmas.

Life is pretty busy with weekends at the eisteddfod but I have lots of fun times coming up later in the month.

Little Sweetheart and I saw "The Lion King" last week.  I wasn't really sure what to expect but was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  Pumbaa and Timone are still the funniest guys around and the opening and closing "Circle of Life" scenes are as majestic as ever.