X and Plus/X and +

The X and + quilt was started and finished within 6 months - unusual for me at the moment :)

This quilt is made of mostly Bonnie and Camille's "Bliss" range of fabrics and I've added a few of their other fabrics to make a larger quilt.

One more binding to stitch down and one more quilt to trim and bind, then they're all done (until "Red Letter Day" arrives back from Sarah).

Sewing Room

Six and a half months ago my sewing room looked like this:

We had an enormous storm and my sewing room and the spare bedroom were both flooded plus there was water damage in the kitchen and loungeroom.  The repair work was finally completed recently and by Sunday morning the sewing room was full of stuff (my great family moved all the heavy stuff in a couple of weeks ago).

 

Sorting it all out didn't take as long as I thought and by Sunday evening (after going to the movies to see "Gone Girl") the room was finished.

I had a temporary sewing area set up in another room during this time - luckily I have another spare room at the front of the house.

Yesterday, for the first time in over 9 weeks, I sat at the sewing machine and sewed bindings on three of the quilts Karen quilted for me recently.  I have 3 more bindings to sew on then lots of handstitching.

"Goodnight Irene"

"Kiss Me"

"X and +"

7 sleeps till I go to Melbourne for Elizabeth's university graduation and then head off to Hobart for a few days with The Schoolgirls.  We have lots to celebrate.

PS:  Really enjoyed the movie, didn't think I would - lots of twists and turns and there was only one part when I had to close my eyes.

Backings

On Saturday afternoon I added some borders to the X and Plus quilt then made backings for some of the quilt tops I have finished over the last year or so.

Posted Picnic off to Sarah for quilting, so I'll be looking forward to that coming back in a few weeks.

A good while ago, almost 2 years, I cut into a quilt kit, "Pathways and Crossroads", that I had bought from Bec and ever since it has been in the sewing room cupboard.  Sunday afternoon I started sewing some of the pieces together and now have 5 blocks finished; 4 more to assemble.

 
These are all lovely Fig Tree fabrics and the quilt has interesting sashings, posts and borders.

Hanging out for the Easter break - catching up with family and probably painting.

Source

Almost the Weekend

Looking forward to this weekend - not a lot planned and any plans I have depend on the weather.  Was hoping it would be fine but the forecast is rain for the two days.

Finished sewing together the X and Plus quilt last night.  This was made using a "Bliss" layer cake plus some extra pieces from Marina and a few other Bonnie and Camille's from my stash thrown in to make a few more blocks.  It was Sarah's great idea for me to make this quilt.

I'd like to add borders to this quilt top but not sure I have enough of the right fabrics left.  I'll think about it for a while.

Started sewing some "Scrappy Trip Around the World" blocks together - love how it's looking so far.

Hope to make some quilt backings over the weekend - another quilt going to Sarah because it's been hanging around for a year unquilted and it's way too big for my frame (at the moment), especially considering the frame is dismantled.

Social Weekend

Had a great weekend.  The family came for lunch on Saturday.  It was great to spend some time together sitting around the table.  I love watching my kids interracting.  They are the best company.

For lunch I made Slow Cooked Sticky Asian Lamb - I've seen this recipe floating around facebook, and it's delicious.

For sweets I made Chocolate, Banana, Toffee Trifle - this is a Family Circle recipe from Christmas 2010.  Very easy to make.

600ml thickened cream, whipped
400g choc-coated honeycomb, smashed so some is in chunks and some is crumbs
4 bananas sliced diagonally dipped into juice of 1/2 lemon or whole lime
50g crushed roasted hazelnuts
1 jar Woolworths Select Gourmet Toffee Sauce (couldn't find it so used their Gourmet Caramel Sauce)
2 tubes Nestle Rolos (couldn't find these either, so used 100g Cadbury Caramel Chocolate)
2 x Flakes

Reserve 1/4 cup smashed honeycomb for decoration.  Place half of remaining honeycomb in base of trifle bowl, then half of hazelnuts, half bananas and half toffee sauce followed by half of the whipped cream.  Repeat.  Place Rolos on top for decoration and sprinkle over Flakes and remaining honeyomb (one Flake is plenty, have the other to have with a cup of tea).

Friday night I finished making the X and Plus blocks.  This one is next to be sewn together.

Saturday night I started sewing the Seville Limes blocks together

finished it off last night and made borders and binding.

Another top added to the pile (must set up the quilting frame).  Shouldn't have had that striped block in the corner.

Had a great day out yesterday - lunch with 3 friends I travelled around Europe with many years ago.  Lynell and Robyn I see quite often and it was lovely to see Wendy as well.

X Blocks

Until this year I had never made an X Block and now I have three quilt tops at various stages using this block:

Goodnight Irene Sew-along

X and + (only one block made so far)

Seville Limes

After finishing off the Seville Limes X Blocks last night I laid out all the blocks on the design "wall"

Seville Limes - 3 more rows to be added

I love how this design makes circles.

The last of the happy mail arrived yesterday:

Backing fabrics for Spell it with Moda (the alphabet quilt), X and + Quilt and Seville Limes plus some more white to use as background.

Lots of exterior painting happening at the house and it's looking fantastic.

X and +

After some emails to and from Sarah, I wanted to try making an "X and +" quilt block.  Had a go at one last night and after tweaking the maths, finally worked out what size pieces I needed.

I've cut into my "Bliss" layer cake to make this quilt - caused a bit of discussion on Instagram.

I'm hanging out to buy some new fabrics so I will use up this layer cake and, hopefully, more of my Bonnie and Camille stash.

More gardening this weekend and some Scrappy Tripping Around the World (I hope).