All Done!

Remy the neighbours's cat.

All 4 quilts are finally bound and ready to go so here they are.

This was for someone at school that Rivka and I both work with.
The  colours are great.

Signed with free motion quilting on the machine.

Similar colours to the first one.

Sweet back.

These were not my favourite colours. The morning sun washed them out which is actually a blessing!

I loved the back though.

Rivka's quilts

The last few months have been busy making quilts with and for a  friend. It has been a collaborative affair. Rivka, a friend at school, has been promising to make quilts for 4 of her closest friends but the task was just way too onerous so she never got started. One day we discovered each other's passion for fabric and talked about her unstarted projects. We began work a few months ago. Rivka chose and bought all the fabrics for the quilt tops and cut and pinned them. I did all the sewing and then we chose backings and sent them off to someone to machine quilt. 

This week I received them back from the quilter and have cut and sewn all the bindings on and hand sewn the first quilt. Its finished and ready to ship off. 

None of the quilts are quite the colours I would have chosen but they are what the receivers wanted and I am still pleased with the finished result.

So here is the first one ready to go to a new home.

Quilt Fair

Today was a big exhausting day. First stop was a great clothes warehouse sale to check out. There was some money spent! Next I went to the quilt fair. The late arrival at the fair meant that the car park was full. Not happy! I don't usually spend much money at the fairs as I go to most of them and there is not much that is too new but it is still fun to wander around the stands. I met my sister in law and we spent a few hours taking it all in. Unfortunately I did spend money. I am doing a market in November and I really want to sell my toys but I am thinking that a few cot quilts will add colour and a few pot mitts and coin purses will add utility to the stand.
Here's what I bought.

Memories from when I learned to read

Wool for my baby blankets 

Its not that I haven't been doing anything...

I missed my weekend blogging because I went away for a beautiful weekend to Blairgowrie. Although it rained in Melbourne we had two relatively pleasant winter days at the beach. We went on three walks with a couple of breakfast breaks on the morning walks. At night we entertained, cooked up a storm, lit the fire and played scrabble. I did finish binding one of my quilts while we were away. Thank you Lisa for letting us stay at your place.

Last week I also managed to go to Kazari to buy the fabric for my Japanese quilt and that binding is also completed now. It was so good to go there. There were so many choices and I was lucky to have a friend with me to give a second opinion. Sometimes it can be so confusing and I really believe that the binding on a quilt can make or break the final piece.

So here is my over the top Kaffe Fassett/Brandon Mably quilt. The colours are way to crazy. I contemplated pulling it apart and making the inner strips of sashing from a smaller print fabric but in the end I just let it go. It's on my son's bed already and although I still need to do some stitching in some of the larger squares it's found a home.

So I have been sewing but not blogging. Four quilts were basted too and Castle Peeps is ready to have its binding stitched down. Phew, soon I will back at school and all this fun will be over. Love holiday breaks!

Peeping Castles

A little girl had been born to one of my father in law's dearest friend's son. I ordered my fabric from overseas and within the week the fabric had arrived. With very little time before the party to introduce the baby to everyone I decided to just sew simple strips of colours into a cot quilt.

Finished Front and Back

With the weekend over in a flash I can happily say that the front and back of the recycled shirts' quilt has been completed.

The inside patchwork was done but in the end it was just too small to fit a grown man under so with very little blue fabric left I decided to make a white border as that was what I had lots of and in a moment if silliness I put the left over pockets  randomly around. Of course my son rearranged them for me - I think he has decided to take this project on as his own.

Then came the sewing of strips for the back. I was allowed to do anything on this side. I didn't bother with any planning, positioning, etc. I just kept on adding pieces. My only frustration has been my sewing machine. The bobbin keeps getting jammed and I had to stop / start all through the process. Painful - but finished now. So what am I going to be doing during my school holidays? Baste 3 quilts! The worst part of the process. At least it means that soon I will be able to do the binding - the best part of the process.

With a Little Help

This long weekend is all about the shirts. A few weeks ago my husband donated about 15 shirts to the quilting cause. They were either too small, faded or stained and no longer required so we cut them up and they lay around underfoot. I knew I wanted to use triangles and squares to make the quilt. I picked a block called "Winged Square" for my base. Each block had 48 triangles and 3 large squares in it. What was I thinking? Major labour intensive sewing. Anyway I cut and arranged and started putting the blocks out on the floor. Positive murmurs came from the family as it grew through the day. It looked okay but I knew I had to rearrange it. In the afternoon I had to drive one of the boys to work and by the time I came back one of my other sons had completely reorganised the blocks to a much better design. He then showed me 2 other options - all of them so much more clever than I could have done it.

He actually changed the original layout of the block and reversed some to the triangles blocks so that they created rows of colours in light and shade. Anyway he is now at work and I am anxiously awaiting his return so he can slot in the last 3 blocks.