Handmade with Love

Another Thimble Blossoms quilt I've made for the second time - lovely big blocks that show off the pretty Bonnie and Camille fabrics.  This is a great design to make with any style of fabrics and it still looks Christmassy but not too over-the-top.

Love the Rainbow Hearts quilting by Karen (Quilting on the Coast).

"Kaleidoscope" is ready to be picked up from AngelCake Quilting - it's looking great.  "Strawberry Social" and "Pineapple Party" are also quilted so there will be some binding happening over the next week or so.

Last week's Sewcialites block is Delight designed by Me and My Sister.  No 30 coming up this weekend then there will be 6 more to go.  I'll be sad to finish making these blocks - I've enjoyed the whole sew-along.

Caught up on Month Six of the "Shine On" Sampler.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been sewing "Stripe Me Lucky" blocks and they were all sewn together on the weekend.

Flying Geese blocks are needed for the borders and these are now made and I'll add them in a little while.

Last week I made a tiny start on H's "Dinosaurs" quilt - ferns and cycads.

I've joined a sew-along - "Another Story" designed by Thimbles and Needles starting on Instagram mid-May.  The blocks are 3" hexagrams.  I bought the cute umbrella fabric for the backing and I had enough "Kaleidoscope" background left to use in "Another Story".  Hoping that I will have no fabric repeats in the hexagons.  I've arranged to swap some hexies with another couple of ladies also making this quilt.

Jenni and Kurt's wedding anniversary yesterday - hard to believe that wonderful day was two years ago and that their little sweetheart is 2 months old already.

Exciting weekend coming up - trip to the theatre in Sydney on Saturday then Mothers' Day and birthday celebrations on Sunday.

Vintage Holiday 2

 This is the second time I've made this quilt - the baubles are lots of fun to make.  I was able to buy some Bonnie and Camille "Vintage Holiday" fabric earlier this year from a friend having a destash and it was designed for this quilt.

Love this backing fabric - bows have always been a favourite and so is this Modern Loops quilting by Karen (Quilting on the Coast).

A Week on Leave

Week before last I sewed together the first four sections of "Boho Heart" - happy to be up-to-date with the sew-along at the moment.

Took a day's leave on the Friday to spend the day with Miss T and Gulli - she stayed over on Thursday night.  Always a fun day with those two.

Saturday week ago was John's 70th birthday and the family all had lunch together for the celebration.  Elizabeth organised a fabulous cake.

The university was closed last week, so I decided it was a good opportunity to finish of a long-standing UFO:  "Girls Day Out".  The quilt top has been finished/basted since 2015 but not quilted.

It is now all stitched in the ditch and the squares are cross-hatched.

On Instagram I came across another weekly sew-along - Riley Blake Block Challenge.  I'm using mostly FigTree's "Chantilly" fabrics - I don't have much of this range left so have added a few little pieces from my FigTree stash in co-ordinating colours.

Caught up on "Sewcialites" blocks - Earnest designed by Vanessa Christenson and

"Hope" designed by April Rosenthal.

Karen visited during the week and brought back "Handmade with Love" and "Vintage Holiday 2".  The bindings are attached.

Stitched down two bindings while watching a couple of movies with Mum yesterday afternoon and Mum took home "Girls Day Out" to sew down the binding.

"Handmade with Love"

"Vintage Holiday 2"

Had a lovely week off - out for dinner two nights and lunch another day, basketball game on Saturday night, some sewing, time with the family.

Making Blocks

Seems like I've been making blocks for the last few days.  Most of my current sewing is for quilt-alongs or sew-alongs.  Now up-to-date with the Boho Heart blocks.

I bought some fabrics to use for the backing strips and found a few in my stash to add to the mix.  Started sewing Section 1 together yesterday - seems to take longer than making the blocks :)

Last week's "Sewcialites" block is called Courage and designed by Joanna Figueroa (FigTree and Co).

Caught up on the "Shine On Sampler" blocks for this month.

Month 5

Yesterday Karen posted this photo on Instagram - so pleased with how this quilt looks now it's quilted.

Had a busy, fun weekend.  Little Sweetheart T stayed over on Thursday night and then Gulli joined us on Friday - lots of playing and a visit to Sushi train for lunch and more playing at the local Time Out.  Basketball on Friday night - a very exciting game which The Hawks won.

Travelled to Sydney on Saturday with Lynell and Robyn where we met up with Wendy and we went to the "Monet and Friends", a light and colour exhibition of Impressionist Art.  So wonderful.

Spent most of Sunday in The Pink Room and then went to the basketball to watch The Hawks win another very close game - so enjoyable and then we all went for dinner.  Fun weekend.

Flower Girl

"Flower Girl" is a fun design by Camille Roskelley (Thimble Blossoms) and is quick to make with the large pieces and large blocks.  A sew-along was hosted on Instagram a couple of months ago but I was busy with other sewing.  Realised it would be a good pattern to use some of the "Catalina" fat quarter bundle in my stash.

The fun quilting design is called "Flowers for Lynda" - I asked Karen to choose a design for this quilt.  She chose very well.

Finished sewing down the binding last night.

Also finished the second set of "Boho Heart" blocks.  These are so enjoyable to make.

Three basketball home games from tonight till Sunday - hope The Hawks play much better than they have lately.

Stroll

 "Stroll", a quilt designed by Camille Roskelley, Thimble Blossoms, is a fun design.  Really enjoyed making this quilt, especially the strawberries.

Last week's "Sewcialites" block was Virtue designed by Bonnie Olaveson, Bonnie Cottonway.

Blocks 1-25 laid out as per original design.

"Pineapple Party" is together and ready to be quilted.  Such a fun design to make.  I'd like to resize the blocks to make a cot size version.

Fun backing fabric and binding ready to go.

I think this background fabric is up there as my most favourite background ever.

Decided that the Easter break would be a good time to sew "Gypsy Wife" together - the blocks have been made for many months but I was a bit intimidated about making the background strips.  Once I had sorted out the order of the colours and had the strips numbered, it all went pretty smoothly - there were only a couple of sections that needed unpicking.

Section 1

Sections 1-6

"Gypsy Wife" top

I bought some lovely Art Gallery fabric for the backing and the mid-grey will be the binding.

As a reward to myself for finally sewing up "Gypsy Wife", I started making blocks for this year's Scrap Busters' SAL - "Boho Heart", another Jen Kingwell Quilt (this one was designed with Andrea Bair).

I have another 3 lots of blocks to make then I will be caught up.

Had a lovely Easter break - Easter hat parades, family lunch, grandchildren playing together, Easter egg hunt, time with friends.