Quilt Camp

It's been a busy few weeks with a trip to Tasmania and an overnight stay in Sydney.

Our on-line stitching group had a quilt camp near Latrobe and it was a fantastic few days away with the girls.  Met up with some old friends and met some friends I've known on-line for years.  I've had to "borrow" photos because I didn't take many.

We met up at The Cherry Shed for lunch before heading off to the camp.  I love this photo of Helen McC.  Was a sign of things to come over the weekend.

The Queensland Girls (Helen McC, Teresa, Norreen and Sandi) made Survival Kits for all of us

and Lib made each of us a thread catcher

 which she gave to us on Halloween.  There was a bit of dressing up that night.

We also had a swap - something we could use while travelling or at camp.  Vicki made me a great holder for all the cables we need to take with us these days.  Terrific fabric.

I had a gigle when I saw the pink lint remover - I'm always covered in threads.

Jo's present to Helen S was a pair of pyjamas - a friend in the US had also bought some of these pj's for me (perfect for camp).

On the floor is the quilt Sarah was making - Cosy by Cotton Way - it turned out so well.

I made Leanne a Stash and Dash bag (Tanya Whelan fabric) and also made one for her Helen (Whitewashed Cottage) for up-coming birthday.

 

I was also able to give Helen her teapot block for the birthday quilt she is making for herself.

There was some sewing done over the weekend - 716 four patch blocks to start off my Rainbow Rows quilt (designed by Lissa Alexander) - one of the "Go Four It" quilts in this year's American Patchwork and Quilting quilt-along.  Another 373 or so to go.

It was such a great trip and then the following day I was able to spend shopping with the babies and their Mums - perfect end to a lovely few days.

Long Weekend

Late last week I received a message from Sarah with a couple of photos of my Fresh quilt on her frame.  It's looking so wonderful - can't wait for it to arrive home (hopefully this week).

Last week I finally got around to finishing off the 9 patch blocks for Shortcake

and sewed half of the blocks into rows.

Shortcake is a fairly large quilt (88" x 96") and will easily fit on a queen-sized bed.

I needed a change from Shortcake over the weekend so decided to make a start on Niner - I cut out about half of the blocks in January and sewed most of them on Sunday then cut out the rest yesterday morning.

 

Another 24 nine patch blocks to go and I can start putting this one together.  The background is white with little red dots and I think it will look very cute.

Had a lovely day out in Sydney with Barbara on Saturday - we spent quite a few hours shopping and designing shoes at "Shoes of Prey" and visited both babies.  Sunday I cleaned out the spare room to set up the quilting frame (which has been dismantled in the garage for 18 months since the great flood) and met up with the stitching girls in the afternoon - it was such a hot day.  Yesterday morning, another hot day, I spent a bit of time setting up the quilting frame then Mum and I went to see "Oddball" - such a great Australian movie based on a true story, and afterwards I finished setting up the frame.

Busy Few Days

I took two days off work last week:  one to attend a class with Barb and Mary from Me and My Sister, then the next to supposedly sew for the whole day.

Thursday was such a great day.  Drove to Sydney with three friends for the class.  Barb and Mary are so delightful and friendly - just like their fabric designs.  The girls designed the Oh Cherry Oh fabric I've used a lot as well as the Text Me quilt blocks I made a while ago (still have to sew all of those blocks together).

I decided to make the log cabin quilt as I've never made a whole log cabin quilt.  We were given a jelly roll and cutting instructions beforehand, which was a big help, so much cutting.  During the day there were loads of giveaways and we each received a cute pair of scissors, made a fob for the scissors, and also received a charm pack of the girls' next range and a pattern to use the charm pack.

Early Friday morning I received an email to say my new cutting table will be on its way very soon so instead of sewing I spent the day painting, cleaning and re-arranging furniture in the sewing room.  The room hasn't been so clean for ages.

Fitted in a bit of sewing on Friday night, mainly because I had the Swell fabrics all set out on the design sheet and wanted to clear it off to pack away.  Half of the blocks are sewn - 15 more to go.

Saturday morning Jenni and I visited a friend who has a very sweet new baby boy

Machine embroidered towels for the little sweetie

then the rest of the day was spent visiting my grandbabies - that's always fun - and had a lovely day on Sunday going out for lunch with girlfriends.  Needed to come back to work for a rest. 

A Long Weekend

Last week I caught up on the Thimble Blossoms Scrappy Sampler Sew-Along.

I love this Piccadilly Circus block.  The pattern is very easy to follow.  An Instagram friend (@aqua_paisley) came up with a great way to cut the left-overs to make bonus blocks - so pleased I already had the Dresden Plate ruler.

I'm really keen to make the Piccadilly Circus quilt.  Went ahead and cut out all my strips because I'm running out of many of these fabrics and didn't want to be tempted to use them in something else.

Always great to have a long weekend.  More time to spend with the family, friends and in the sewing room.

The Stitching Girls met up on Saturday and Kerryn brought along the cot quilt we made for her little baby boy (due in 4 weeks) - the girls gave it to Kerryn at her baby shower.  I wasn't able to attend because I was at another extra-special baby bbq.  I was so pleased to see the finished quilt.  We all made blocks using the Go Four It design, this year's quilt-along pattern from American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.

During the week I made backing for Kaleidoscope and on Saturday gave the quilt to Karen for quilting.

Saw this photo on Instagram a couple of days later - the little clouds quilting looks wonderful.

A few weeks ago Karen quilted an old UFO for me - a 12" block sampler made along with my on-line stitching group.  The blocks were made in 2010 and the quilt top has been together since early 2011.

Saturday night I finally sewed bindings onto 4 quilts:  Fireworks, 12-1/2" Sampler

The Wish Quilt, and Leanne Beasley's 365 Challenge Quilt made in 2007-2008 (which Karen quilted earlier this year)

 

Mum and I spent Sunday in Sydney visiting the family - lunch with Michael and Peta then some time with with Elizabeth, Matt, Jenni and Miss ChaCha.

On Monday I went outside to bring in the washing to find the clothesline was a casualty of the huge winds blowing that morning:

Lovely new blue clothesline installed yesterday - matches the roof and trims on my house.

Monday night was the next Scrappy Sampler instalment - Vintage Tulips

It's the middle of winter here and the roses are still blooming - there are plenty of new buds too.

Mixed Bag

Aside from meeting up with the Stitching Girls on Saturday afternoon, the rest of the weekend was pretty free.

Friday night I added the borders to the alphabet blocks and then lay out all the blocks to see if my setting would work.  I'll add white strips to the rows starting with pinwheels and then maybe a white border.  I think I'll use the No 5 stripe for binding.

Somehow I managed to lose a pinwheel.  Made another.

Saturday Rhonda phoned to suggest instead of our usual stitching get-together we go for a drive to Nowra to see the quilt show.  Great idea.  Lunch in Berry on the way down.  Planned to have afternoon tea at the quilt show but the kitchen was closed by the time we'd had a look around the show, so we stopped in Berry again on the way home for tea, scones and a wander around the shops.

Actually did some weeding yesterday morning and filled the green bin with leaves - this is really out of the ordinary for me; then spent most of the afternoon in the sewing room tidying up and working on a few different things.

Sewed Floral Bouquet 2 backing together (another on the "to be quilted" pile).

Some secret sewing.

11 more X blocks have been ready to sew together for weeks - 9 to go then the Goodnight Irene quilt top can be sewn together.

And strips for the final 7 Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks to add to the pile to be pinned together.

20 blocks in all pinned last night while watching tv, so once they are all sewn up I have another quilt top to put together.

I figure that this sewing equates to tidying up because all these pieces are now blocks and not little piles in various places around the sewing room.  The main reason for tidying up is to move the quilting frame to the garage but there is so much stuff stored underneath and around it, that it is taking me ages to re-organise everything.

Received a phonecall from the Nowra Quilt Show organisers to say I'd won a minor prize in the raffle - bonus!  The lady told me it was "some quilting stuff, if you're into that kind of thing".

A Little Sewing

At stitching last Tuesday night, Karen showed us her almost finished Floral Bouquet - it looks fabulous with the black background.

The binding is now sewn down and the quilt is ready for their next adventure around Australia starting in March.

Some more Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks

and the strips for another 14.

Pinned them together ready to sew into blocks while watching the Olympics and the Goodnight Irene X's are sewn together into blocks.

Most of the weekend we were in the back yard sorting out the garden, lopping trees - working really hard - well, I'm good at holding weedmat in place, making lunch etc.  Don't think the boys will let me near the chainsaw.

 

The Site Supervisor turned up to carry out an inspection.

All the mulch is from the first lot of trees and branches that we cut down just before Christmas - there's still plenty left.

So, it's all happening at my place - I'll never be able to thank my family enough.