Gypsy Wife

My friend, Sarah from Patchworks Plus in Tasmania, organised a sew-along at the end of 2019 to make Jen Kingwell's "Gypsy Wife" quilt in 2020.  Sarah worked out a schedule of blocks to make each month and by the end of the year we would have a finished quilt top.

I kind of kept up but stalled when it came to putting the quilt top together.  I had bought 6 different greys from Sarah's shop but it took me a while to work out how I'd like to put them together.

The quilt was sent to Sarah for quilting - "Square Buns".  The linear design looks great.

Another row is ready to add to "Nine Patch Waltz" and two rows of "Rainbow Baby" blocks are sewn together - orange and yellow stars are next.  I don't have enough of either colour to make a whole row without repeating the fabrics 3 or 4 times.

Last week's "Sewcialites" block - "Bright" designed by Chelsi Stratton.  4 more blocks to go.

I'd like to set my Rile Blake Block Challenge blocks on point and will need more blocks than those in the Challenge, so I searched Quilter's Cache for more 10" finished blocks and made three last night.  I'm having to add more FigTree fabrics to the ever-dwindling bag of "Chantilly" fabrics.

A big weekend with little sweethearts T and H staying over for two nights.  Lots of fun and cuddles.  And then a great basketball game on Sunday evening.

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.

Catch Up

Last Friday night I wasn't sure what I felt like sewing and then I noticed the stack of Gypsy Wife blocks - hadn't made the blocks for last month or this month.

October:

November:

All the blocks are done and it's time to start cutting the strips to bring all these blocks together into a quilt top.  That's a job for next month or next year.  I'm very much looking forward to the next SAL:  "Boho Heart".

Last week's "Sewcialites" block is called "Soulful" and designed by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree and Co.

On Friday, Leanne, our receptionist at SMART, retired.  We went out for lunch to wish Leanne well - so lovely to be able to all go out together for an enjoyable afternoon.  We've worked together for 8 years and the office is now very quiet without Leanne.

Sunday was the day to pack away my year-round decorations and bring out the boxes of Christmas goodies.  It will take a couple of weeks to put it all up, especially with going away this weekend.  Looking forward to a weekend down the coast.

Finished putting "Picnic" together last night and will be delivering it to the quilter tomorrow after work.

I'll be picking up the Bonnie and Camille Sampler when I visit Jenny tomorrow.  It's turned out so beautifully.

I've never posted a photo of my Sweetheart T but this action shot is so fantastic.  She loves her soccer games with her team, The Unicorns - what else would a team of 5 year old girls be called?

WIP's

During this year Sarah, from Patchworks Plus in Tasmania, has been running a sew-along for the group to make Jen Kingwell's "Gypsy Wife" quilt.  I was late to the game and made most of the blocks for January-July in June and July and then this week I made the August and September blocks.

August

September

I'm using my Alison Glass stash - I think these fabrics suit Jen's designs so well.  Managed to snag some bundles of these fabrics in a de-stash sale on Instagram.

and bought a bundle from a shop in Victoria to add to the stash.

Jenni has asked me to make a play/tummy-time/floor quilt for the baby with strong colours and bold prints.  I had these in my stash

and bought a few more black and white fabrics to add variety.

I've started sewing the quilt top together and have been changing the layout as I go.

Finished off a little cardigan/bootees/bonnet set for the baby over the weekend.  

Forgot to post photos of "Chinoisserie" - which is now with Jenny (Angelcake Quilting) to be quilted.  This is a Michelle McKillop design and uses loads of large floral prints along with stripes, spots, plains, small florals etc for the block borders.

I had the gold/silver spot fabric in my stash, so was happy to be using some of it up for the outer borders.

This was a fun quilt to put together - all the blocks need to be laid out before sewing together so that the borders all work out correctly.

I found this FigTree fabric for the backing at a really good price at HobbySew.

There has been a lot of iso-shopping but all with a purpose in mind (well, that's my justification).

Another quilt that has gone to AngelCake Quilting is my first-ever proper quilt, which was made in classes with Dianne Gibson in 2000.  Dianne taught us everything we need to know about making patchwork blocks from scratch:  drawing up the block on graph paper, making templates, hand-piecing, needle-turn applique, curved piecing etc.  These blocks were all 12" finished but are huge when turned on point.  The idea was to make 11 blocks and choose our favourite 9 for a queen-size quilt.  I didn't want to keep 2 aside, so I made a 12th block.  The quilt was basted ready for hand-quilting but that never happened, then somehow, years ago, a bit of water was spilled on the dark red and it ran in a few places.  The quilt was washed with colour-catchers and then put aside because two of the seams had come apart for a few inches.  A month or so ago I repaired the seams.  Definitely looking forward to seeing this quilt on a bed.

Another quilt with slow progress is "Ring Cycles" - this photo is of 200 of the 332 nine patches needed for the quilt.  There will also be 12 six patch blocks.

I've come across so many old favourite fabrics.

The plan (hope) was to use all fabrics from my scrap drawers and not include any Bonnie and Camille or FigTree fabrics (a few snuck in) but I ran out of scraps, so raided the Bonnie and Camille drawer and have enough for another 60 or so.

The backing for "Santa in the Trees" finally arrived from Spoonflower - it is so very cute.  This is a quilt for a customer and she ordered this fabric.  I think she saw the fabric first and then chose a quilt to go with it.

She also wants a cushion to go on the bed.

Pretty pleased with the join in the backing fabric - the way it's printed allows for good joins.

The quilt, cushion and little wallhanging I made from the extra trees I cut out, are all with Karen (Quilting on the Coast) for quilting.  I'm still auditioning red/white stripes for binding.  It's so hard to find a red/white stripe with pure white not off-white or cream.

The weekend of socialising was fantastic but exhausting - it's been a long while since I've had a full calendar on the weekend.  The best part was having all the family together for dinner on Sunday night.  I just love sitting at the table and listening to everyone chatting away.