Basket Case

Karen posted a photo of her machine working on my quilt

and I picked up the finished quilt on Tuesday evening.  Wednesday night I sewed on the binding and didn't intend to stitch it down but I started watching more episodes of "The Crown" Series 3 and,  before I knew it, I had reached the last corner.

Backing for the quilt is made from all the voile/lawn fat quarters in the "Smitten" and "Little Snippets" ranges.  The fabric is lovely and soft.

I love using polka dot backgrounds and this Riley Blake "Essential Dots" fabric is gorgeous.

Last night I made the November and December Aussie B&C Beehive Blocks.  I had a little "issue" with the other piece of grey fabric so the lady who is receiving these blocks is going to fix up the green block.

The blocks went off in the post today, so that commitment is completed for this year.  I'd forgotten how big the "Red Letter Day" blocks are.

Christmas Cheer

For this year's Aussie Bonnie & Camille Beehive, I chose a Bonnie Olaveson (Cotton Way) pattern called "Christmas Cheer".  I thought it would be fun for the girls to make the Santa Hats and Christmas Stockings, while I made the other rows - one per month.

Karen quilted it with "Party Streamers", which is a fun design.

I'm looking forward to having this on my bed for Christmas this year.

I particularly like the backing fabric.  There may be enough left to make something for Little Sweetheart to wear at Christmas time.

So pleased to have made another quilt entirely from stash and a quilt that was made with the help of 11 other quilters.

These cute peppermint blocks make a row in my "Christmas Cheer" quilt - the quilt I chose for this year's Aussie B&C Bee.  May is my month and the Santa Hats and Christmas Stockings will start to arrive.

There has been some "Nine Patch Waltz" progress

but before sewing the blocks into rows I was, once again, distracted and cut out blocks for the next few months B&C Bee girls.

"Lighthearted" - June

"Patchwork Sky" - July

"Patchwork Sky" - August

"Lucky" - September

I'm having a week off after Jenni and Kurt's wedding with plans to watch movies and sew.  I have some quilts cut out and at various stages ("Dashing", "Nine Patch Waltz", "Sweet Escape", "Long Time Gone" plus some others that haven't been touched for years) - last night I decided to start cutting another quilt "Fresh" from Thimble Blossoms' book "Simply Retro". 

I first made this quilt in 2015 using FigTree & Co fabrics.

The original pattern doesn't have the four patch blocks inside the diamond shape.  This time I'm going to make a square on point with half-square triangles.

In 2017 I made a lap-quilt "Fresh" using "Kumari Holiday" fabrics.

I have always planned to make one in Bonnie and Camille fabrics. 

Four sleeps and my darling girl will be a Bride.

Weekend

A parcel arrived on Friday afternoon containing the backing fabric for my "Christmas Cheer" quilt,

so I spent some time cutting out the fabrics for the rows I will need to make

and sewed up one of each block.

I've decided to make one row each month so by November the quilt top should be ready to put together and, hopefully, will have a new quilt finished for Christmas.

Mid-way through last year I opened up my "Millhouse Inn" jelly roll and cut it up for another "Nine Patch Waltz" quilt.  I love the circles this quilt makes.

FigTree colours are so  lovely.

Sewed up the nine patches over the weekend

and they're now ready for the cream triangular corners to be added to each block.

Noticed on IG and FB that Karen was quilting my "Seaglass" quilt.  This one is lap-size.

Had a big weekend.  Took Friday off to spend the day with Elizabeth and the two little ones.  Lots of tidying on Saturday morning (even vacuumed the sewing room floor) then picked up Little Sweetheart for a sleepover - mainly because I wanted to start working on her flowergirl dress (that didn't happen but all measurements have been taken).

We visited Michael, Peta and Gulli yesterday afternoon and Jenni and Kurt were also there.  We all helped Gulli paint Easter eggs for the hat he and his Mum and Dad are making for his Easter Hat Parade - it's going to be epic!  Not many Easter hats are purple and feature Batman, Star Wars as well as eggs, chickens and purple bunnies.

B&C Quilts

"Summer Nights", the Bonnie and Camille Aussie Bee quilt, is all sewn together.

The backing has been made from larger pieces leftover from other quilt backings

and the quilt has been dropped off to Karen for quilting (hopefully before she goes away).

My two sweethearts and I visited the Bride and Groom on Saturday afternoon.  The Bride tried on her sample top and it's looking ok - needs a few tweaks but it's on the way.  We took the little ones to the park and they had a ball. 

Another procrastination quilt is underway - a sampler from all the duplicate Beehive blocks I've made.  Quilt a jigsaw puzzle to make them all fit together. 

2019 duplicate Bee blocks to add to the sampler quilt:

It's still very much a work in progress and I've made a few filler blocks.  This is an enjoyable challenge as long as it doesn't look like a dog's breakfast.

Fabrics to finish off the two butterfly quilts arrived yesterday - looking forward to working on those again soon.

New Start

Last year while making Bonnie and Camille beehive blocks, I decided to make a second block each month so that I would have a sampler quilt at the end of the year.  I forgot to make the extra "Sugar Plums" block, so it's now done.

And I had some half-square triangles and hourglass blocks left over from last year's "Snippets" quilt, so these have been sewn together to add to the Sampler pile.

More "Smitten" fabric is on the way and I've been waiting for it to start a new quilt - my patience ran out, I started "Butterfly Patch" anyway with what I already have.  This quilt will come together pretty quickly as the blocks are all 6" finished.  I'm using "Vintage Holiday" silver dot on white fabric for the Sawtooth Star block stars and will probably use a piece of "Vintage Picnic" white dot on green for the body of the butterfly.

Next Up

"Next Up" cot quilt was finished late last week.  This is a design from Carried Away Quilting and has been made using a mini charm pack of "Later Alligator" by Sandy Gervais and other fabrics from my stash.  The quilt will be going to its new home shortly.

This is the second "Next Up" quilt I've made - I'd like to make one in pinks if one of my friends has a little girl grandbaby.

Karen used a cloudy star quilting pattern - another favourite for baby quilts.

Karen has also quilted my "Seaglass" Variation quilt - have to make the binding for this one.  Not sure if I'll use the Snowman Gathering cream fabric, a brown FigTree or make it scrappy.  I love Orange Peel quilting and will be using it a lot this year.

Little Sweetheart's 4th birthday party was great fun - she had a ball with her cousins and little friends.  Elizabeth made the birthday cake - pretty spectacular and a big hit.

Today is her first day at pre-school.  It's all happening!

On Saturday night I had a go at making another pineapple block - this is the second pink one I made and it is ok.  This will be the April block to send off for the B&C beehive.

March's block is "Flower Girl" and we were each asked to use fabrics from one fabric range - I chose "Vintage Holiday".

I wanted to get ahead with the beehive blocks with Elizabeth's baby due in less than 6 weeks and Jenni and Kurt's wedding in 3 months.  May is my turn this year, so that will give me another month's grace.

Basketball is on tonight - second-last home game for the season.  I don't hold out much hope for the Hawks to reach the finals this year.