Joyful

 "Joyful" arrived back from Karen a fortnight or so ago and I've been slow to add the binding.  Finished it off last week and I love how this quilt has turned out.

Bonnie and Camille fabrics are so pretty.  This quilt is designed by Camille Roskelley (Thimble Blossoms) and I've used lots of scraps and smaller pieces from my stash.

Karen quilted it with "Diagonal Plaid" and the texture is lovely.

I now have three Bonnie and Camille fat quarter bundles that haven't been cut into - think it's about time I did.

Party Boy

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day to celebrate Vinnie's first birthday.  His party was lovely and the timing fitted in well between his naps :)  Kurt's Mum and Dad were able to travel down from the Mid-North Coast, so it was wonderful to be able to see them too.

Jenni and Elizabeth made very sweet decorations for the gazebo and cupcakes.

"Master Plan" is together and on the way to Karen for quilting.  There are more than 3,200 pieces of fabric in this quilt top.  Lots of cutting and lots of chain piecing (my favourite).  Many different colours have been used but I'm finding that I have not used red in most of these very scrappy quilts.

"Joyful" arrived back from Karen last week.  Binding is still not done.  "Diagonal Plaid" quilting design looks terrific on this quilt.

In amongst the loads of fabric my friend sent to me last October, were three bundles of Jen Kingwell's "Gardenvale" fabric.  

I've been puzzling over what to make with it ever since and after looking through loads of patterns and books decided on "Jiggery Pokery" Quilt in Kaffe Fassett's "Quilt Romance" book.

I think with the bigger sections of fabric, the quilt won't look too busy and the border triangles will be the spot fabrics.  It's all cut out and packed away while I sew some other blocks.

The fabrics and pattern for "Castle Gardens" were also in the parcel from my friend and the blocs were cut out last month.  I've started sewing some blocks together.

When all the blocks are made I'll decide whether to add sashings or assemble the blocks as in the pattern.  Some of the fabrics are pretty busy

So thankful the really heavy rain seems to have finished - we're still having showers.  I can imagine a little of what everyone up north is going through but not the extent of it all - just awful.

Catching Up

Before sewing up "Star Pop" I sewed up "Joyful" - a quilt deigned by Thimble Blossoms (Camille Roskelley).  This was cut out last October.

Lots of chain piecing making half square triangles and I was able to chain piece the blocks as well

The quilt top is now on the pile to go to Karen later this week.

I am now finally sewing "Sampler Spree" blocks together - these were finished over 6 months ago.  Took me ages to decide on a border colour - the border is actually a rockmelon colour but looks gold in the night-time photo.

Susan Ache is a very clever designer - this border is brilliant!

After this quilt top is together I think I have one more stack of blocks to sew up - "Sewcialites".

Soon I am going to cut out "Pretty Birds" designed by Elizabeth Hartman in these beautiful Alison Glass fabrics.  It's going to be so colourful and gorgeous.  Just need to decide on background fabric.

Last night I was fortunate to see the dress rehearsal of "9 to 5" at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney.  Very funny show.  Caroline O'Connor stopped the show with one note!  Casey Donovan was fantastic - her singing is brilliant and she performed the comedy so well.  All the ticket funds were donated to United Way which is affiliated with Dolly Parton's charity to provide a book each month to children aged 0-5 in Australia.

Eva Dress

I had just enough of this pink/navy check plisse fabric to make an Eva dress for Jenni - I would have preferred to add sleeves but there just wasn't enough fabric.  The fabric has been in my cupboard for years and was in a friend's cupboard for about 20 years before that :)  This is such a comfy design to wear.

Three quilts are back from Karen (Quilting on the Coast) and the binding has been attached ready for sewing down while watching the Olympics.

"Floral Bouquet" with "Flowers for Linda" quilting

"Loveliness" with "Fancy Hearts" quilting

"Shine On Sampler" with "Modern Twist" quilting

Two quilts have been cut out:

"Castle Gardens" designed by Sarah Fielke

in her "Enchanted" fabric range,

and "Star Pop" designed by Emily Dennis in Zen Chic's "True Blue" fabrics with some added from my stash.  "Star Pop" is all sewn up and ready to be sent to Karen for quilting.

I had loads of cut out fabric left over and decided to add a border rather than making more blocks.  The border design is based on the "Stripe Me Lucky" quilt pattern designed by Michelle McKillop.

The backing fabric is a lovely toile wideback.

Way behind in my blog posts.

Quilt Tops

After the dressmaking finished I started piecing "Master Plan", a quilt designed by Carrie Nelson, Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.  I've had this cut out for a good while.

Spent a couple of days piecing 113 flying geese blocks (456 units) and 225 four patch blocks.

This quilt top has to be sewn together in rows so they need to be laid out before sewing all the pieces into rows - my design sheet isn't big enough so I think I'll do it in sections.

I was soon tired of all the pressing and trimming so thought it might be time to sew together one of the stack of blocks into a quilt top.

First up was "Shine on Sampler" from Bonnie and Camille's "Quilt Bee" book.

The quilt top together:

I moved around some of the blocks in the lower right-hand section so that the colours and fabric designs were more mixed.

Backing and binding:

Next up from the pile of blocks was "Loveliness" designed by Corey Yoder, Coriander Quilts.

I was walking by the quilt in The Pink Room when I noticed that one of the hourglass blocks was out by 90 degrees - it's fixed now.

Backing - the binding will be scrappy Bonnie and Camille fabrics.

Before I tackle the next pile of blocks I'm starting "Joyful" - this was cut out last October.

I think this will be pretty.

Next blocks to sew into a quilt top will be "Floral Bouquet" - they are already set out on the design bed.

Backing for this arrived today so I hope to sew it up soon and pack it up with the other two to send to Karen to quilt.

Think I'm up-to-date now ...