Rainbow Quilt

Over the years I've made a few quilts with Me and My Sister fabrics - the girls use such lovely colours and all their ranges mix well.

Basket Case designed by Cluck Cluck Sew

Jelly Rolls Gone Wild designed by Me and My Sister

Snippets designed by Bonnie Olaveson (Cotton Way)

Churn Dash

and Sylvia's Bridal Sampler which I've been making on and off (mostly off) since May 2010.  Some blocks are sewn into rows.

I currently have three quilts on the go using Me and My Sister fabrics - all the blocks (plus a couple of extras) have been made for the Jacob's Ladder Quilt.

Decided to use a rainbow layout for this one (as in Jelly Rolls Gone Wild above) and might start sewing the blocks together later in the week (there are sashings and posts between the blocks and rows).

Had such a fun day with Gulliver on Friday - we visited Centennial Park so he could ride his bike and play in the park before going home to make lots of Lego vehicles.

Gulli loves a selfie

A Sewing Weekend

Another great weekend has come and gone.  Dinner with Barbara and Jenni on Friday night - we thought about going to the pictures but, as often happens, too much to chat about.  On Saturday afternoon I visited my brother and sister-in-law to drop off a wedding present for my nephew.  Mum was there too.  Also visited some friends then spent the rest of the weekend either in the sewing room or on the couch stitching.  Saturday was a beautiful day but the cold and rain is back again.

Yesterday morning I finished putting together Oh Cherry Churn Dash.  These blocks have been finished since early March.  I need to find a backing then it will go on the frame to be quilted.  It's a whopper ~79 " x 93".

Continuing with more Oh Cherry Oh fabric - a few Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks - working out block settings.  Some blocks will be on point and some will be straight.  These blocks have been hanging around since October last year - probably time to put the quilt top together. 

Next a couple of rows on Picnic - am about halfway with this quilt top.  I have a deadline - September.

During the week I started stitching the next Gingham Girls block - finished one little stitchery last night.

"Broadchurch" started on Friday night.  Anything with David Tennant is worth watching and this looks like it's going to be a top show.

Polka Dot Girls

When I started blogging in 2007, I was quilting Polka Dot Girls - a very pretty Bronwyn Hayes quilt that I bought as a block of the month.  The machine quilting was finished and I decided to hand quilt around the edge of each stitchery block and around each appliqued heart.  The binding was sewn on and stitched down and most of the hand quilting was completed.  The quilt has been unfinished ever since.

I had a little email conversation with Bec late last week and thought it really is time for the quilt to be finished - there were 3 hearts and 6 blocks to be hand-quilted - not much at all and they were done on Friday and Saturday nights.  I am so pleased the quilt is properly finished at last.

Polka Dot Girls 61" x 60.5"

 

I added two extra hearts to the bottom of the "Gingham Girls" block - much happier with it now.

Reasonably quiet day at home on Saturday - lots of housework, a couple of visitors and then some time in the sewing room.  Thought I'd start putting my Churn Dash blocks together.  Spent ages sorting out the block placement.

I love how this is turning out - the colours look so fresh and crisp against the white.

Michael celebrated a birthday during the week, so yesterday we went to Sydney to see the birthday boy and go out for dinner.  I made an orange/lemon poppy seed cake for afternoon tea.  It was delicious.
 

Dinner, at Una's in Darlinghurst, was a lot of fun - my kids are the best company.

Labels

The embroidery machine was running yesterday - a great way to make labels.



All of the Churn Dash blocks are together and ready for sorting so the top can be sewn together.


Final thing I started today was quilting Pretty Maids - the cute machine embroidered Baboushkas.


This quilt has been pinned for months. Luckily the pins aren't leaving marks.

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Simplicity

Last Monday these two bags the postman delivered a big package to my place containing these two bags:

Inside one of the bags was my Simplicity quilt.  I started making this quilt at a retreat in Kingaroy in June 2009 and finally put the last borders on in February 2012.

I then spent the next while wondering how to quilt this pretty quilt top and at the end of last year a friend bought herself a long-arm quilter, so I sent it up to her.  The quilt looks fabulous.  I love the cross-hatching around the applique medallion and the large flowers over the rest of the quilt is great.

The pretty backing

Close-up of the lovely quilting

The last stitches in the binding were sewn last night - wonderful to finish off something that's been put aside for so long.

A few Oh Cherry Churn Dash blocks are together.  Once all the chain piecing is done it's pretty quick work assembling the blocks.

I was planning to put white sashing between the blocks but I think I like the look of the blocks without sashing.  The quilt top with have the colours randomly placed - not in single-colour rows :)  8 down, 22 to go.

I Love Weekends

Time is definitely flying by.  The weekend was excellent.  Elizabeth drove down on Friday night to go out with Jenni then the three of us went in to Wollongong to meeting up with Peta and her mum for lunch at Diggies, North Wollongong Beach (remember this place Teresa?).

 

It was such a beautiful day and a lovely way to spend the afternoon.  Visited Mum for a while and then trimmed blocks for my Churn Dash quilt.

Yesterday it was time to get stuck into finishing the quilting on this big quilt that's been on the go for a while.  I had less than 1/4 left to quilt but my frame isn't quite large enough (without the extensions) to reach edge to edge so it will need finishing on the sewing machine.

For a change I also chain-pieced another section of the Churn Dash blocks:

and last night stitched some bullion bees and bunnies on baby singlets for Jenni to give to a work friend who is having a baby in a couple of weeks.

Sounds like a lot but it isn't really when spread over the whole day.  Had a chat to my friend on the phone - I'll be up there in 3 weeks!  I watched/listened to "Argo" while I was quilting - it's an excellent movie.

Great Weekend

Last weekend was packed and a lot of fun.

After some housework etc on Saturday morning I went to my friend, Karen's, place to use her quilting frame - it's much longer than mine and I was able to easily fit my quilt onto it.  That saved me pulling my frame apart to add the extension pieces.

The quilting is 7/8 finished and I'm sure I'll be able to wrangle the quilt on my machines to finish it off.  Can't complete it on Karen's frame because she is now on a fabulous 9 month trip to WA and other far-flung parts of Australia.  I'm going to miss her being around and seeing her at our fortnightly get-togethers.

Saturday night was dinner out with friends before going to a local theatre company production of "Carousel" - it was a lovely night out.

Sunday The Bride came to spend the day with me.  We had a great day.  A bit of shopping, lunch at a sushi train

Coffee and chocolate baba at guess where?

We shared the chocolate baba

We went to see "Oz, the Great and Powerful" - we both really enjoyed the movie - and then it was time for her to go back to Sydney.  Fantastic day.

There has been only a little stitching happening at home (gotta love that raspberry red lipstick)

and a little bit of sewing - the Oh Cherry Churn Dash half-square triangle blocks are sewn and I'm trimming them up.

Very busy week at work - I'll be looking forward to a quiet weekend - although I think the three girls may have something planned, which would be wonderful.

Oh Cherry Churn Dash

My short attention span has struck again.  For a while I've been wanting to make a Churn Dash quilt - no special reason, just like the idea of it.  Yesterday, after I'd finished off some secret sewing, it got the better of me and I started cutting in the leftover Sylvia's Bridal Sampler fabrics, Oh Cherry Oh.

Sewed up a block

My design sheet definitely needs a good clean

and then continued on with some more secret sewing after dinner.  Think I'm going to love this quilt.