Sunday is Quilting Day

Yesterday I decided that it was time to quilt "Citrus Crush". Not using the doover this time as I want to ditch stitch this quilt first then see if it needs any more quilting. The main advantage when using the doover is that a quilt doesn't need to be pin basted.

Block 2 of "The Wish Quilt" is finished. Will be putting this aside for the next few weeks as I have some swap goodies to make. I love stitching on linen but it does need a good ironing to look fresh.

Beautiful day on the lovely south coast - Spring is definitely here this weekend (lovely after the incredibly cold days during last week).

The Wish Quilt - corrections

Someone left a comment saying that there are errors in The Wish Quilt instructions in recent Homespun magazines. http://www.completecraft.com.au/ under the tab "corrections" has the correct instructions.

The postman came today and left a parcel - some lovely Moda "Odelia" fabric to back a couple of quilts, gorgeous patterns and pretty "Ava Rose" fat quarter pack to use in "Butterfly Garden" next year.

Miss Diann's Quilts

After a weekend sewing retreat, my dear buddy Miss Diann (with no blog) has almost finished these two quilts - binding to be added and then they're done. They are both so gorgeous - such pretty colours - that when I received these photos from another of our friends, I had to ask if I could put them on my blog for everyone to see. This first quilt is "Christmas Belles" by Mum's Moment and is for Miss Diann's grand-daugher.

And this quilt is "Truly Scrumptious" - it sure is! This quilt is for Diann's darling daughter and she's absolutely scrumptious.

Terrific to see another TS quilt together.

Lunchtime Sewing

My lunchtime stitching over the last few weeks (and for the next few months) is "The Wish Quilt" which is in Homespun 62, 63 and 64. This is the first block I've finished (tiny red buttons to be added to Santa's coat when the quilt is together).

Saturday afternoon and night I spent a fair bit of time in the sewing room and now "Citrus Crush" and "Truly Scrumptious" are ready to be basted. Tickled pink with the look of the quilt tops and, once again, I'm blown away by the size of the quilts - doesn't matter how many times I read the measurements on a pattern, it doesn't sink in.

Happy Days are here again

"Happy Days", a design from Anni Downs of Hatched & Patched, is finished. This quilt has been made for our daughter's 29th birthday (a bit late).

The backing:
A goal for this year was to make some quilts to be quilted on the doover and 5 have been done, so I'm pretty chuffed about that.

My tv stitching is the Cafe block of "Girls Day Out" - boy, there's a lot of stitching on that block. Will take photos when it's finished.

Lastly, here's a photo from my sewing day at Sharon's on our October holiday Monday - ran out of fibrefill. Sharon's Santa looked about the same. "Prim Olde Santa" will be finished for Christmas (hope they are famous last words).

Illawarra Quilt Show

On Sunday Mum, my friend from work Tammy (a new quilter) and I visited the Illawarra Quilters' Show. Some gorgeous quilts on show - lots of hand-quilting this year. There was no judging this time only viewers' choice.

Loved the colours in this quilt:

This quilt is made with all hand-dyed batting - looked fantastic - the colours were so vivid (shame the photo isn't):

This quilt is wall-hanging size - such neat, tiny appliques and quilting:

Loved this:

This quilt is Helen Stubbings' "Daisy Dance" - is beautiful in "real life":

Mum particularly liked this quilt - really beautifully sewn:

This quilt was my favourite - a selection of "Dear Jane" blocks surrounded by beautiful needleturn applique and mattress ticking all hand-quilted:

Found it a bit difficult to take photos as there wasn't a lot of space between the rows of quilts but I hope these show some of the lovely quilts displayed.

Postman Came Today

The postman left 2 parcels today - one from Mrs Martin's Quilt Shop containing the Dear Jane book and the two new Bronwyn Hayes Christmas Hangers/Baskets. Dear Jane is definitely on the far-out-in-the-future list.
The other parcel contained the books - my after-Christmas reading. I first read about "The Time Traveller's Wife" a few months ago on this blog, which I love to read.

Today is a roster day and I also took a day off yesterday to go shopping with two dear friends. John and I have been looking for an everyday dinner set with no luck. First shop the girls and I walked into had two of this dinner set - love it, love it, love it - and both boxes were very quickly loaded into the back of the Tarago.

We had such a great day - can't believe how quickly the time went. Left home at 9.00 am and walked back in at about 10.40 pm. We blamed the lateness on the lack of customer service people in the shops - we spent a lot of time waiting for service in shoe departments.

The house has been cleaned/tidied, the washing is drying in the spring sunshine so the plan for this afternoon is to quilt "Happy Days".

I haven't quilted a quilt in one go, so I'm curious about how long it will take me to do this quilt. Here's a close-up of some progress.

It's now 5.05 pm and the quilting is finished - large meander. Took roughly 2-1/2 hours with a lot of interruptions. Still working on even stitch tension and haven't been brave enough to try free form shapes (hearts, stars, flowers etc) on a quilt yet. Maybe that's something I can practise tomorrow.

Tonight I might start appliqueing these flowers - they will have about 1/2" of the turquoise fabric as a border. I've already blanketstitched the flowers to the turquoise fabric.

Illawarra Quilters are holding their quilt show this weekend at the Ribbonwood Centre, Dapto. Planning to visit on Sunday.

In the sewing room ...

A few months ago I bought these Amy Butler fabrics to make "Happy Days" quilt for Elizabeth.

The quilt is now ready to go onto the doover prior to appliqueing flowers (managed to take a couple of terrible photos). Elizabeth didn't want appliqued flowers nor the frill as per the pattern, so I'll be appliqueing the green flowers cut from the border/backing fabric and I've added some ric-rac to match some cushions I made for her birthday.

Instead of making the pieced backing (suggested in the pattern), I've used yardage of one fabric and there's enough of the others left over to make "Citrus Crush" for a dear friend's daughter for her birthday/Christmas. Love slicing into a stack of material - one of my favourite parts of the whole quilt-making process.

Lunchtime stitching now is the Bronwyn Hayes Christmas Quilt in the recent Homespun magazines - this will be a WIP for quite some time and I've been stitching a bit more on Girls Day Out at home when watching tv.

Long weekend here in NSW and I'm hoping to trace/vliesofix another Vintage Valentine block or two - time that baby was finished. We're going to see a preview of "My Fairy Lady" on Sunday and on Monday Sharon and I will be having a sewing day making Prim Santa from Homespun 63 - looking forward to that.