A Week Off

It's been a huge couple of weeks - Jenni and Kurt's wedding followed by a week off work during which I was hoping to sew and watch movies but plans changed (and that's not always a bad thing).

First up I sewed the "Dashing" blocks together.  This is such a great pattern - goes together very quickly and has a lovely secondary design.  The "Chantilly" fabric is so pretty.  I'm waiting for the backing fabric to arrive then it can be quilted.

I cut out the rest of the "Fresh" blocks.

The blocks are so big I can only fit four on my design sheet. 

Five blocks have been sewn together - eleven to go.

May's row for "Christmas Cheer"

and, as May is my month to receive blocks, the Christmas Stockings and Santa Hats have been arriving.

Re-made September's "Lucky" block so that each segment is out of a single fabric - the scrappy block can go into my next sampler.

Late last week Bonnie and Camille released their patterns to go with their new fabric range "Early Bird" - I bought a couple of patterns and had to cut fabrics to start the scrappy version of "Spinning Stars".  Think I'm going to love this quilt.

Been a while since I've had so many quilts on the go.

Lastly, I don't have many photos from the wedding - we're excitedly awaiting the "official" photos. This is one of my favourites.

These cute peppermint blocks make a row in my "Christmas Cheer" quilt - the quilt I chose for this year's Aussie B&C Bee.  May is my month and the Santa Hats and Christmas Stockings will start to arrive.

There has been some "Nine Patch Waltz" progress

but before sewing the blocks into rows I was, once again, distracted and cut out blocks for the next few months B&C Bee girls.

"Lighthearted" - June

"Patchwork Sky" - July

"Patchwork Sky" - August

"Lucky" - September

I'm having a week off after Jenni and Kurt's wedding with plans to watch movies and sew.  I have some quilts cut out and at various stages ("Dashing", "Nine Patch Waltz", "Sweet Escape", "Long Time Gone" plus some others that haven't been touched for years) - last night I decided to start cutting another quilt "Fresh" from Thimble Blossoms' book "Simply Retro". 

I first made this quilt in 2015 using FigTree & Co fabrics.

The original pattern doesn't have the four patch blocks inside the diamond shape.  This time I'm going to make a square on point with half-square triangles.

In 2017 I made a lap-quilt "Fresh" using "Kumari Holiday" fabrics.

I have always planned to make one in Bonnie and Camille fabrics. 

Four sleeps and my darling girl will be a Bride.

Knitting

Last October I started knitting for our newest sweetheart and finished the last cardigan this week - most of the knitting has been done during lunchtimes at work.  Hard to believe he is 7 weeks old already.

Here's hoping he likes to wear hand-knits - his sister won't wear anything woollen or with buttons.

A couple of quick-knits out of Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 4 ply.

The pattern for the grey cardigan was a bit weird with the button bands knitted as you go - much prefer the finish of separately-knitted button bands.

As of 6.00 pm last night The Wedding sewing is finished.

In between wedding sewing, I've been working on "Dashing" blocks - these blocks come together very quickly and make a fun design,

Tonight I'll be cutting out some Aussie Bonnie and Camille Beehive blocks.

Two Butterfly Patch Quilts

Earlier this year I made two "Butterfly Patch" quilts.  The first one is in Bonnie and Camille's "The Good Life" range of fabrics.

The quilts were sent to Sarah to quilt with wavy lines and I'm so happy with them.

The second quilt was made with Bonnie and Camille's "Smitten" fabric.  I added a border to this quilt to make it queen bed size and also made a pair of matching pillow cases.

The Smitten quilt was given to Jenni and Kurt for their engagement/wedding present.

Easter Break

The Easter break was a fun time spent with family and friends, starting on Thursday afternoon with Gulliver's Easter Hat Parade at pre-school.  Gulli's hat was a mega, epic, original that he decorated with loads of pictures of his favourites:  Batman, Star Wars and Spiderman as well as chickens, eggs, rabbits, ribbons, pipecleaners, googly eyes etc.

On Good Friday I went to our annual sewing day with Karen and Rhonda - it was a shame Paula couldn't join us.

I made some "Dashing" blocks.  FigTree's new "Chantilly" fabrics are so pretty.

The design is very clever in how the blocks line up to make the white arrows and lines through the quilt top.

Saturday I finally cut out my skirt for the wedding, started to cut out my jacket and then did some cooking for the family lunch on Easter Sunday.

Easter Sunday was such a lovely day with the family.  Michael, Peta and Gulli were away for the weekend so Little Sweetheart had the Easter egg hunt to herself.

That night I had dinner at Robyn's along with Lynell and Darren.  We had pizzas made in Robyn's wood-fired pizza oven and then Baileys shots in Easter eggs - they were all yum.

Monday was the day to finish cutting out and start sewing my wedding clothes.  The jacket is almost finished and I'll make the skirt on Thursday (ANZAC Day).  Mum and I visited Michael, Peta and Gulli in the afternoon - always good fun to see them.

Spent most evenings sewing down bindings on three quilts - one more quilt to come home and then I'll be done with binding for a while.

A great long weekend.