Astra Quilt

"Astra" is a quilt designed by Zahmco and a customer from USA asked me to make it for her.  The colour-scheme is based on a quilt made by one of the pattern testers.  It's a whopper!  90" wide x 108" long.

Karen quilted it with grey thread using "Square Dance" design - it looks great.

My customer chose the backing from Australian Widebacks and Karen said it was great to work with.

The quilt arrived at its new home on Monday and the client is extremely happy with it.

I have cut out another "Astra" quilt (a smaller version) to make later in the year for my brother for Christmas.  All those fabrics were in my stash.  This one has a navy background.

In March I went through all my Figtree scrap fabrics and cut out strips to make a Figtree Tiny Nine Patch quilt.

I had enough of the Figtree Favourites light tan pindot on ivory for the nine patches and the Figtree "Stitched" fabric for the alternate squares and borders.

The plan was to make this later in the year but, once I started, I couldn't stop.

At the start of April I cut out some blocks for Vinnie's "Dinosaur" quilt designed by Elizabeth Hartman.  This will be my second full-size version of this quilt and I'll have plenty left over to make the smaller size.

I'm using the Robots kit fabrics because Vinnie liked the Dinosaurs rather than Robots.

There is a lot of prep-work involved in Elizabeth Hartman's quilts but once the cutting out is done the patterns are so easy to follow and the blocks go together like a dream.

Next up are the Stegosauruses

Christmas 2024 Sewing

Lots of sewing last November/December.

Had a good sort through my backing offcuts and dressmaking fabrics to make a bunch of clothes for Daisy for a Christmas present.  They were in a variety of sizes using patterns I had sewn for my own children.

Size 1

Size 18 months

Size 2

Size 3

Size 4

Also made a stocking for Daisy to add to the family swag (still waiting for her nametag to arrive),

a May Blossom "Jumbleberry Santa"

new stockings for Daisy and Kurt

and a Mill Hill ornament for each of the little ones.

Also made a Christmas shirt for Vinnie.

Other Quilt Tops

In March the two "Piece and Quilt" sampler quilt tops were finished - they are ready to be sent to Karen for quilting.

I fell a bit behind with the last blocks for the SAL.

Month 7:

Month 8:

Month 9:

The quilt tops are now together and ready to be sent to Karen for quilting.

Thimble Blossoms' "Shoreline":

Scrappy Figtree:

Seaglass Quilt

I can't remember how many years ago I cut out these Bonnie and Camille 1-1/2" x 2-1/2" strips to make Susan Ache's "Seaglass Variation".

The alternate blocks are a red spot on white cotton.  I started sewing the strips together in early February.

I asked Karen to use Clamshells for the quilting - always a favourite.

The backing is made of two pieces:  Bonnie and Camille's  "Shine On" and Thimble Blossoms' "Lighthearted".

Last October I finished making the blocks for Thimble Blossoms' "Night Sky" quilt and, for some unknown reason, they sat in the Pink Room until early March when I decided to sew them together and add a border.

I made this backing to use for Tiny Nine Patch but it goes much better with "Night Sky".

The binding is sewn on ready to stitch down, hopefully tonight.

Australian Open Tennis

In 1976 three friends (Lynell, Robyn and Wendy) and I travelled to England, backpacked around Europe then sailed home to Australia after almost a year away.

In January the four of us went on a short cruise to Melbourne to attend the Australia Open Tennis.  This was my first cruise and I had such a good time.

The cruise for was 5 nights and we had two days at the tennis.

With Evonne Goolagong Cawley

The two days in Melbourne were pretty hot but we had booked Centre Court tickets in the shade.

The ship docked in White Bay and I thought it was amazing when we sailed in to Darling Harbour and did a three point turn to reverse into White Bay.