Summer Days

Another quilt finished in April - "Summer Days" designed by Bonnie Olaveson (Cotton Way) and made using loads of Bonnie and Camille fabrics.  I added Sawtooth Star blocks and wider sashing to make the quilt bigger.

I love the Baptist Fan quilting Karen added to this quilt. 

For my birthday this year I bought myself a stack of Tula Pink's "Everglow" fabrics.  This is the first Tula Pink fabric I've used and the colours are fantastic.

I immediately knew which quilt I would make - "All Stacked Up" designed by Kaffe Fasset.  I've made this quilt before and thought it would work really well with all the stripes and spots.  The larger prints are beautiful.

Pretty trimmings.

This quilt needs to laid out as you go when putting it together.

I added an extra row to the width and two rows to the length.

The binding has been attached and will be stitched down soon.

Summer Days

"Summer Days" was quilted last week and is now on its way to friend who wanted the quilt and she is going to stitch down the binding.  The narrow Churn Dashes are a lovely border for the blocks.  I used Bonnie and Camille fabrics (mainly "Shine On") for this Cotton Way design.

The backing is from Bonnie and Camille's "Early Bird" range - such a gorgeous red.

Jenny, AngelCake Quilting, quilted this so beautifully with Baptist Fans.

The first 10 "Sampler Spree" blocks are finished.  The theme was "blue".  FigTree's cornflower blue is so lovely - I added in a couple of lighter blues and pale aquas for variety.  There will be an "aqua" month but I'll be using teal shades for that one.

Sewed up the last "Sewcialites" block on the weekend.  Purple Kindness provided by Bunny Hill Designs.  The last six blocks together:

A couple of layouts I'm thinking about:

I'm leaning towards the first star.

Saturday was Gulliver's 6th birthday - he had a great time at his party - lots of school friends and cousins at Flip Out (the local trampoline place).

I started sewing some "Another Story" blocks into rows yesterday.  The rows will be moved around a bit before being sewn together.

Last night's video of our littlest family member:

Can't help but smile when I watch this.

This and That

Another couple of rows are ready to add to the Nine Patch Waltz quilt and I'm also making some more blocks to make the quilt wider.  This quilt is a special request and she wants the quilt to be at least 100" square - with another two blocks added to the width and the borders, it should end up around 102.5" sq.

"Rainbow Baby" reached halfway late last week and the next row (green) should be ready to add this week.

Last week's Riley Blake Block Challenge block

and last week's "Sewcialites" block - Passion designed by Carrie Nelson.  Two blocks to go.

 This month's "Shine On" Sampler blocks.

Finished up all the blocks for "Summer Days" late last week

and the quilt top was completed on Monday night - the yellow Sawtooth Stars are an addition to the original design and the quilt top is ~85" sq.

Three basketball games last week - two wins and one loss but the Hawks were already in the playoffs before the last game - very exciting.

One of my bosses is running for Lord Mayor in the September Council elections.  Had a fun time at a fund-raising trivia night on Friday with a bunch of friends.  Some of the Hawks were guest quiz masters.

Ended up having a quiet weekend at home (mostly in bed or the sewing room) with a cold, so no fun time with the family etc.

Hourglass a Day

Last October, a quilter I follow in Instagram posted a message about making an hourglass block each day using Cluck Cluck Sew's tutorial and then in a few months we would have enough blocks to make a quilt.  I had a few Bonnie and Camille charm packs plus a bundle of already cut 5" squares, so this was a great idea for me to use up those fabrics.  5" coloured square + 5" background square = 2 finished 3-1'2" hourglass blocks.

In November I started making two blocks a day and enough blocks were made by the end of March.

Love this "Hello Darling" fabric backing.

I wanted a curvy quilting design as a contrast to all the angles and points in the blocks and Karen used "Wind and Waves" - it looks great.

I signed up for another quilt-along.  "Another Story" designed by Thimbles and Needles using up the leftover background from "Kaleidoscope" and lots of fabrics from my stash plus some hexagons swapped with two other participants.  Some progress has been made on the blocks.

The design sheet isn't big enough to hold them all.

I need to cut out another six hexagons and then make the side half-hexies to fill in the gaps.

Last week's "Sewcialites" block is "Inspire" designed by Lori Holt - this was a fun block to make.

Last year I had planned to cut out Cotton Way's "Summer Days" quilt but it just didn't happen until a month or so ago.  I changed the Friendship Stars to green fabrics and used yellow to make Sawtooth Stars plus I made 6 of each block instead of 5 so that I'd have a bigger quilt.

The red/aqua blocks are done.

Out for dinner last Thursday night with The Schoolgirls, lunch with work friends on Friday to farewell two of our staff then out for the evening to farewell another.  Had a lovely day on Saturday - Mum and I went to Sydney to visit Jenni, Kurt and Vincent.  They are all going so well.  Vincent is laughing now and is a very happy baby.

Some housework and sewing on Sunday before an afternoon Hawks game - good win.  Games tonight and Thursday night and the season is over (but they might make the play-offs).

I really like house blocks and made this house from Thimble Blossoms' "Autumnville" pattern to go into my sampler.

The sampler is now together - some of the newer blocks didn't make it into the finished top but they will probably be used in the next one.  I still try to make a block in B&C fabrics from each quilt I make, so that gives me a good headstart for another sampler.

Backing fabric arrived yesterday and this pretty aqua will be the binding.

Over the last few weeks I've been cutting out fabric for a second "Chinoiserie" quilt.  Started sewing the blocks on Sunday evening and the lower four rows are together.

My "An Hourglass a Day" stack is growing.  On Sunday I started making two hourglasses a day (four blocks) - I think I'll need 400+ so it's fair enough to increase the daily number.

Sewcialites Block 6 "Devotion" - I've found this one the most difficult so far.  It's not very neat but will hopefully sit in the quilt top ok when it's all together.

Had a fun weekend catching up with The Schoolgirls for brunch on Saturday, then T & G came over on Sunday - they don't keep still and make me laugh.

Last night I started cutting out "Stroll", a new Thimble Blossoms pattern using mostly scraps (lots of cutting) and I also want to cut out Cotton Way's "Summer Days" from the B&C scrap bin.