Spool Sampler

On Friday night I looked after Gulliver overnight in Sydney.  I took Spool Sampler with me to stitch down the binding when he went to sleep for the night - think I managed to stitch down one side and turn a corner, so that was pretty good considering how hot it was.  Stitched the rest down on Saturday night.

My Instagram friend, Amy, wanted to make this quilt and asked me to make one too but, being me, I decided to change the design a bit.  So happy with how it's turned out - the original pattern has a plain background block between each sampler spool and I decided to make the quilt larger by adding more sampler spools and a three-fabric-spool between each sampler spool.  I'm not a big fan of lots of plain space.

Love the Baptist Fan quilting (Quilting on the Coast) - another lovely texture and the design doesn't overwhelm the patchwork.

 

Saturday morning Gulliver and I went out for breakfast,

then hit the shops, bought a few Christmas presents, waved to Santa and he generally had a good time singing very loudly and chatting to anyone who wanted talk to him.  Finished the morning off with a couple of turns on his favourite ride.

He wasn't happy when it was time to leave but soon changed when he saw that his Daddy was home.

Mum had a lovely birthday yesterday - most of the family was there to celebrate with her and we saw the rest at my nephew's engagement party late in the afternoon.  Thankyou to everyone who sent birthday wishes.  Mum's up with the times - has her own Facebook page - I show her what's on it every now and then :)

One little piece of Christmas sewing has been completed - a heart for the Hugs N Kisses swag that hangs in the loungeroom.

Kurt has been around for long enough now.  I've also ordered a little nameplate from Nikki Tervo for the stocking swag.

A Beautiful Surprise

Arrived home from work on Monday afternoon to find a parcel had been delivered - such a wonderful surprise present from a quilt customer who has become a friend.  I love the red foil packaging.

The mohair/wool throw is so soft and the colours - wow!  Exactly what I would choose.  It will look wonderful anywhere in my house.

The Stitching Girls had dinner together on Tuesday night - next week Paula is leaving for Christmas in Finland so it was lovely to be able to spend some time together to wish her bon voyage.  Karen brought along my quilted Spool Sampler.  I love the Baptist Fan quilting - first time I've chosen this design.

The binding has been stitched to the quilt ready for stitching down over the next few nights.

Not much sewing this week - Christmas decorating has taken over.  Mum came over on Wednesday night to help make a start.  Mum's 89th birthday is this coming Sunday and the family is coming for lunch so I wanted the tree up for the little ones to add some decorations - the lounge room is finished and I've made a start on the family room.

Going to Sydney this afternoon to spend some time with my favourite little man and hopefully do some Christmas shopping tomorrow.

Last week I took three quilt tops and backings over to Karen for quilting:  Swell, Spool Sampler and Hopscotch. 

Picked up Swell from Karen on the way home from work last night - it looks fantastic -

and Spool Sampler quilting is almost finished.  It's looking great too.

FigTree Diamonds quilt top has been a fun challenge to put together using a pile of half-square triangles I sewed up ages ago.

I made the backing last night and was so pleased with the joins in the fabric - it's great when the fabric design is so helpful.

For some unknown reason I had a bee in my bonnet to start Medley, again using my FigTree stash and Bella Solids for the backgrounds - I have smaller pieces in Ivory, FigTree Cream and Butter.

I think there will be just enough of each bakcground colour to make the quilt top.  This is where I stopped last night.  Friendship Star border is next.  This quilt will contain the last of many of my favourite FigTree fabrics.

We had another family birthday last week.  I made another crochet basketweave scarf - this time with fringing at each end - using Bendigo Woollen Mills Bloom wool in grey.

Had a great weekend.  Out with friends for dinner on Friday night for Robyn's birthday (Fruit Tingle cocktails are very nice).

My little Sweetheart ChaCha came for a sleepover on Saturday night and GG (Mum) joined us for dinner.

Starlight

Sarah quilted Starlight and sent it back with Cheerio.  Starlight was started in March this year and I finished stitching down the binding last night.  I love the "Hello Darling" fabric range by Bonnie and Camille, and loved using it for this big quilt (85" x 101.5").

The quilting is an all-over large wave design which is a nice contrast to the points.

Had a great weekend - fantastic basketball game on Friday night and lunch on Saturday with The Schoolgirls at Sublime Point.  Such a shame the weather was dull as the view from the cafe is spectacular.

Lynell and I picked up ChaCha on the way home from lunch.  ChaCha came for a sleepover on Saturday night - lots of fun with my sweetheart.

Was able to spend yesterday afternoon sewing and finished putting Hopscotch together (another quilt using "Hello Darling" - this has been slow-going because of bias edges and lots of points to meet up - I'm really happy with how it looks but now wish I'd made it queen-size - it will fit a single bed.

Borders have been added to Spool Sampler and I hope to add borders to Swell tonight so I can take the three quilt tops to Karen for quilting sometime soon.

The carpet in the two back bedrooms was laid this morning.  It will be so nice to have the house back to its normal state of chaos, four months after the "rain event".

Cheerio

The blocks for Cheerio were cut out in January 2015 and they were all sewn together in July this year.  Sarah did the quilting and the quilt arrived back at my place on Tuesday, along with Starlight.  I made the binding on Tuesday night and just as I'd started to sew it to the quilt there was a total blackout for over 3 hours so I spent some time trimming the two quilts by candlelight.
 

Sewed the binding on yesterday morning before work and then stitched it down last night while catching up on some tv shows.

I love the modern loops quilting - it gives the quilt such a great texture without overwhelming the block design.

NSW had a long weekend last weekend - so good to have time to spend with the family (one little sweetheart had her first sleepover at Nanna's) and also time in my sewing room.

Over the last couple of weeks I've sewn two other quilt tops together, Spool Sampler and Swell.

They both need borders before they go to the quilter.

And I've started another two scrappy quilts hoping to use up more of the stash.

Another fun weekend coming up.  Basketball season starts tomorrow night, lunch with The Schoolgirls on Saturday and my little sweetheart is coming for another sleepover.

Change is Good

That has been Matt's mantra for the last few weeks while he and Elizabeth were packing up their Sydney home of the last 11+ years for the big move to the South Coast yesterday.  Very exciting for me and other members of our family.  I had ChaCha for the day and we had a great time.

Last Friday was Jenni's birthday and some of the family were able to meet up for lunch on Saturday, including this little cutie and his Dad in their matching Batman t-shirts.

 

The only sewing I've managed to do lately is finish off the Spool Sampler filler blocks.

I've started another crochet basketweave scarf - great to do at lunchtimes.

Not Much Spare Time

Not much happening in The Pink Room at the moment - a few Spool Sampler blocks have been made and a couple of backings sewn up, and that's about it.

Another 57 to put together so it will take a little while with the Eisteddfod running till mid-September and other commitments.

I bought some beautiful wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills and it arrived on Monday.

The dark blue is for Gulliver, the grey is for ChaCha and the rainbow is for another someone special.  Tried out the grey on Monday night and it works really well with the other colours for ChaCha's little pinafore.

Couldn't resist starting something with the rainbow wool last night when the girls were over for stitching.  I used a tutorial that came into my FaceBook feed (http://crochet.diyeverywhere.com/2016/08/10/how-to-crochet-the-basketweave-stitch/?src=fbfan_54740&t=fbsub_crochetguide).  This is a really cool design and works so well with the rainbow wool.

Jenni is knitting a blanket using 20 ply wool - it felt quite strange strange when I tried those 1.5cm thick needles.  Jenni brought her knitting when she visited Mum recently.

Concentration

Saturday Dinner

On Saturday night Mum and I went out for dinner with my brother's family to celebrate my nephew's birthday.  We had such a lovely time and I took some photos of Mum with her youngest great-grandbaby.

 
All the 5" blocks for Spool Sampler are finished and the rest of the quilt is cut out.

Yesterday I decided to sew some Cheerio blocks together.  These blocks were finished in January, so it's about time.  Think I'm halfway and hope to sew a couple more rows tonight.

Mum wanted to see "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" (with Sam Neill) so we did yesterday - it's an enjoyable movie but a bit gory for me in a couple of hunting scenes (I just close my eyes).

Piccadilly Circus

This is the third Piccadilly Circus quilt I've finished this year and the second for a customer order.  So happy with this quilt - the lady chose the Dresden Plate centre fabrics, binding and backing and it's such a pretty quilt.

 

The clamshell quilting by Karen is great too and really suits the quilt.

A few more 5" blocks for Spools Sampler. Still a great scrap buster.

Minded ChaCha for a few hours yesterday - she had a ball at my place playing in the new shoe cupboards and pulling the Lego train tracks apart.

I've finished one of the crochet pieces I was making.  It is trimmed with pompoms and I used this contraption that came with a Better Homes and Gardens magazine last year.  Not overly happy with the pompoms as they're not very full.  I re-read the instructions and watched a view instructional videos on YouTube but I think I'm still missing something.