Quiet Weekend

No trip to Sydney this weekend after being up there during the week so I had plenty of time in the sewing room to sew Frolic together.  Good weekend for sewing as the weather was pretty miserable. The quilt top turned out bigger than cot size because I wanted to use up as much of the fabrics as I could.  Finished putting it together on Saturday afternoon.

Then I found another strip of black and white fabric so decided to swap the white rectangles near the bottom for more stripes.  Much happier now.

This is the cute backing fabric.  I'll make the backing tonight and give it to Karen tomorrow night at stitching to quilt.

Picked up an Aloha Girl charm pack and a pack of older Fig Tree fat quarters from Karen on Thursday night to add to my stash then finished cutting out Fresh from Camille Roskelley's "Simply Retro" book on Saturday evening and sewed up one block yesterday afternoon.  These blocks are huge at 24" finished.  So nice to be working with larger pieces of fabric and using up lots of favourite Fig Tree fabrics with Kona Snow for the background - love this milky white colour.  Very much looking forward to making more of these blocks - it will be a lovely scrappy quilt.

Late Saturday night I cut out fabrics for another design - Swell, also from "Simply Retro" using a jelly roll of pretty batiks I've been saving for ages with aqua Bella Solid background.   Think I'm going to like this one too.

New Quilts

Weekends are way too short these days.  Had a trip to Sydney on Saturday to spend some time with ChaCha while Elizabeth and Matt went out for lunch then had a lovely with visit with dear cousin when she came over to meet the baby.

Lots of catching up at home on Sunday then I could spend some time in the sewing room later in the day.  Sewed a couple more Fireworks blocks this week

and have started stitching the last block for Little Chicken Feather.  A few frogs in this one.

Spent a bit of time cutting out - another Frolic quilt - this one will be red, navy, black and white.  I'm waiting for a feature fabric to arrive - it will add a lot of fun to the quilt.

And I've also started cutting out Thimbleblossom's Fresh quilt from her Simply Retro book using Fig Tree fabrics - I had a few charm packs at home and lots of smaller pieces to use up.  Looking forward to making Fresh.

Tuesday I had to go to our Sydney office for the day.  Great view from my colleague's office.

And yesterday had a flex day and playdate with ChaCha.

Easter Sewing

Had a lot of sewing time over Easter as the weather was yukky on Good Friday so with "Gilmore Girls" Series 4 in the dvd player, I spent all day in the sewing room.  First up was putting the small Whitewashed Cottage quilt together - it's lap size.  Some of these fabrics are so pretty but very pale.

Our stitching group is making "Shortcake" this year.  Mine is being made out of loads of Fig Tree fabrics and, of course, I decided to make the extra large version - 122 blocks.  The first blocks were finished later in the weekend

and I made a start on the second blocks.  The background fabric is a Moda Bella Solid called "Butter" - it's a lovely soft yellow, even though it looks cream in the photo above.

Saturday afternoon was spent with the stitching girls - always lovely to catch up and see what they're making.  We also were able to see a quilt being quilted on Karen's longarm.  At night I've been stitching some chickens - very appropriate for Easter.

They are for the bottom row of "Little Chicken Feather" - prefer the chickens to the little piggies in the original quilt.  Stitching the last block now.

Easter Sunday was spent with the family - we had a great time at the cafe in Centennial Park - such a magnificent day.  Perfect early autumn weather.  And on Monday, after some gardening and other jobs, was Fireworks day.  About time I got back to this quilt and made a couple more blocks.  This will a very bright quilt.

A Day Off

I had a few flex hours saved up so took Thursday off work to sew my Goodnight Irene blocks into a quilt top.  Had a few things to do in the morning, started sewing after lunch and by evening the top was together.

Saturday I attached the first border

and the final three borders went on yesterday.  I've watched/listed to many "Gilmore Girls" episodes while sewing the last few days.

Need to make the backing then it can go off to be quilted.  At 96-1/2" square it's a bit big for me to quilt at the moment.  Really happy because I've used up all the fabric.  Will be so happy when this one is finished as it was due to go to its new home a little while ago.

Saturday night I went to a great birthday party for two dear friends - they had a wonderful time with so many friends, fun music etc.  When I went to see "Marigold Hotel" last weekend a trailer was shown for a new movie with David Tennant and Billy Connolly - "What We Did on Our Holiday".  Mum and I went to see it yesterday.  Fantastic movie.  We laughed and laughed.  There are some sad moments too.  Loved it.

Not a lot planned for Easter except spending some time with the family, some time in the garden and hopefully the sewing room as well as meeting up with the stitching girls.

A Little Finish

Our on-line group's birthday gifts this year include embroidery scissors and a scissor fob.  My partner's birthday was early March.  I very much enjoyed making this cross-stitched scissor fob.  Many years have gone by since I did some cross stitch.  I have a couple of very large WIP's that I might get back to one day.

My time in the sewing room over the last few days has been spent making X blocks for Goodnight Irene.  It's time to lay out the 16-patch blocks with these X's and start sewing them into rows.

The Little Chicken Feather stitcheries are progressing well - the smaller stitcheries are being done at lunchtime at work and the larger ones while I watch tv at night.  Two rows and another block are now finished and I'm so happy with these colours/fabrics from my stash.  The smaller stitcheries are on a white-on-white "Miss Kate" fabric from Bonnie and Camille and the larger stitcheries are on an off-white linen fabric.

Paula and I went to see "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" on the weekend - I loved it just as much the second time.

Basket Case

I think this is a great name for a quilt - we all experience times when we feel like a "basket case" and want to curl up under a quilt.

"Basket Case" is another fantastic design from Cluck Cluck Sew.  Allison's patterns are always so well written with excellent instructions and lots of diagrams.  I started making this quilt in May last year hoping to use up lots of my Oh Cherry Oh fabric - I still have quite a few pieces left but not enough to make a whole quilt, so the leftovers can now go into the general stash.

Karen quilted this for me using a very sweet cherry design (what else would a person choose?).

A couple of smaller quilts have been cut out.  One is Cluck Cluck Sew's new pattern called "Frolic" - a very sweet zig-zag cot quilt that is great for using up 2-1/2" squares and strips, and the other is a simple block quilt using "Puss in the Corner" blocks and a couple of Whitewashed Cottage charm packs with some Moda Bella Solid Snow.

Little Chicken Feather stitcheries are progressing - LCF himself is finished.  I'm currently stitching a pig on a bicycle.

Mum, Paula and I went to see "Sweet Charity" on Saturday night - it was a wonderful production and so nice to recognise one of the cast from a few years ago when he used to perform at our local eisteddfod.  Had a bit of sewing time over the weekend - working on the x-blocks of the pink/red/black Goodnight Irene.  Feels so different working with so much black in a quilt.  Hope to start putting the x's together over this coming weekend.

As I'm working in Sydney for a couple of days, I spent last night with Elizabeth, Matt and ChaCha - she is such a little sweetie - smiling, "talking" - so wonderful how a smile can melt my heart.

Presents

Another week has flown by with lots happening:  sewing and family time as well as a lovely surprise.  Arrived home from work on Wednesday evening to find a package on the verandah sent by dear Helen.  Inside was a present for me and a present for little ChaCha.  Both are so sweet.  Love surprises like this.

 

The last 12 Text Me blocks are now together.  Fig Tree fabrics are lovely - the quality of the material is beautiful and the designs are so pretty.  Next step is to work on the layout of the 36 blocks - my least favourite part of the quilt-making process, so the blocks will be put away for a little while and I'll work on something else.

Binding has been sewn onto Basket Case

 and I can sew it down in between stitching Little Chicken Feather.

 

These stitcheries are so sweet.

There's also a little bit of secret sewing happening with some more Go Four It blocks in the Rainbow Rows design.

 

Planning to make a large version of this quilt using loads of scrappy pieces (brights and whites) later this year in an effort to use up the stash.

Had a lovely time with the stitching girls on Saturday afternoon - actually did a bit of stitching while I was talking.  The whole family visited Elizabeth, Matt and ChaCha yesterday - was lovely to spend some time with all my favourite people.