Starts, finishes and a little progress.

Hello! Is there anyone out there?

Its been a while since I posted here, but there has been some sewing happening, between visits to my DD and her new son.

My latest start is on a Lone Star quilt. I have been waning to make a lone star quilt for a very long time. Several of the ladies in the Friday Girls at Somerset sewing group I am a part of started lone star quilts, so I decided to join in.

So far I have the diamonds cut out for one of the 8 wedges.

The red block will be the centre of the star.

I am using a mixture of old and new fabrics.

I had some help to arrange the "swirl" diamonds so they will make a continuous path around the star.

Today I sewed together just 2 of the 9 strips.
It has been a long time since I did much hand piecing. It feels great to be piecing again!


I have finished appliqueing the latest CCCQ block.

Block 23 Mary Watkins.


Last night I finished making templates and chose all the fabrics for the next 4 Noah and Matilda blocks.

A couple of weeks ago the Quilt and Craft Fair was here in Melbourne.

I bought this pattern.

Last year this quilt was offered as a BOM by two (Cathy) ladies  (Emma) at Treehouse Textiles. This year the pattern is available. I will be using the Cotton+Steel fabrics I won earlier this year.

I also found these needles. Isn't this cute packaging....

These are a size 10 Applique needle. They aren't as fine as the size 12 needles I have been using recently, but the have a larger eye (much easier for threading) and do feel good as they glide through the fabric.

I bought another pattern at the show. This one is to make a cloth book for my Grandson. So far I prepared 5 pages and the cover ready to stitch. I will be using blanket stitch on my sewing machine to stitch these down.

Slow progress is happening with Mountmellick. I have completed stitching down all the flowers. Next will be the border and the corner hexagons with the leaves. This version is using the BOM fabrics supplied by Threadbear.

And just one photo of my grandson earlier this week. :)

Blocks of the Month and Blogiversary

Wow, it has been 5 years today since I started my blog!!!

A single rose blooming this morning, still with a couple of raindrops.

The sun is shining, although it is a bit chilly. I'm celebrating my birthday today too. I'm planning a walk in the sunshine and plenty of sewing before a family dinner tonight.

Back to Mountmellick today.

In the last few days I have been working on my BOMs.

I finished the Cherries block for Noah and Matilda.

Those are the tiniest circles I have ever made!!! The chain stitch I embroidered using a single strand of DMC floss.

I also finished June's bock for CCCQ.

Block 22 Jesse Jackson Smith.


Thank to to all my readers, followers, commenters and fellow bloggers for 5 years of encouragement and inspiration!!! Here's to the next 5 years!! :)

Things that make me happy! :)

Family

My new grandson and his daddy's hands. I love this photo my daughter sent me. They are going to take this photo every year on the baby's birthday. I wonder how long it will take for both hands to be the same size.

Mummy and son's hands.

This week my niece and her partner also welcomed a new baby into their family. This means that my husband and his brother both became grandfathers within less than a week of each other!

More things that make me happy...

A strawberry in the garden in June!! It was delicious!

Hand sewing.

Two more applique blocks for Noah and Matilda.

cactus..

and double flower.

To finish the May blocks I have lots of little cherries to make.
The June installment is the patterns for the corner blocks and the borders. I think I will be saving those patterns and get back to Noah and Matilda in July.

Happy mail. :)

Recently I discovered Alison of Cotton Factory on Instagram. I ordered this little bundle of Amy Butler fat quarters. Alison kindly included the 2 patterns too! :) I love that top fabric! (so much so I ordered some more! Lol)

A win!!

This is a big one!

Lynne of Lily's Quilts had a giveaway on her blog and her Facebook and Instagram pages. The prize is supplied by Brenda of Pink Castle fabrics and is membership of their Cotton and Steel Club.
Each month, for 12 months, I will receive 12 fat quarters from Cotton and Steel's brand new collections. That is 144 fat quarters of delicious fabric!

Flowers in the garden.

We had a very mild May and temperatures continue to be above average in June, so there are some surprising blooms for this time of year.

And last, but not least, all my followers and readers.   Thank you!

There is a new little man in my life!!

Our daughter and her husband presented us with our first grandchild at 4:11 am on Friday 30th May.
Riley weighed 2.53 kg (5 lb 9 oz) and was a week early.

I knitted these little booties the day our daughter told us we would be grandparents.

In between all my usual quilting, for the last 5 or 6 months I have been busy knitting, crocheting and sewing for the baby.
These are some things I have made.

A crocheted wrap in pure wool.

Some knitting....

A hooded jacket in moss stitch using a bamboo and wool yarn.

A cable beanie in bamboo and wool blend and a striped beanie in Geelong colours from a bamboo and cotton blend. (Riley's Dad follows Geelong in the Australian Football league, so a Geelong football jumper won't be far away!!)

As my daughter was in labour I kept myself busy making these booties.

Plenty of sewing too!

Baby wraps. Just a metre of flannelette from Spotlight with a decorative stitch on the hem.

A little minkie rabbit. Pattern from the Spring Bunny tutorial on Sew Mama Sew (pattern originally from Lorraine of Ikat Bag)

A divided basket. Pattern from Noodlehead.

A nappy bag. This pattern is the Aeroplane Bag from Sew Sweetness.

I quilted around the circles....

Inside...

There are zip pockets on each side..

I made one modification to the pattern and added patch pockets to each side. ( a bit hard to see with the same fabric!)

Lastly, of course I made a quilt!!! :)

This quilt was inspired by a quilt I saw on Jan's blog, Be*mused. Jan made a quilt for her niece Kate's baby, Alice. A quilt for Alice. This photo says it all!! :)

Rita of Red Pepper Quilts has a tutorial for Economy blocks (or square in square blocks) here.

My daughter and I had fun choosing fabrics!

It is simply quilted in the ditch.

Today I will make the label for this quilt.

Little Riley Duncan is the light of our lives!

Slowly appliqueing and making puffy grapes...

This month my applique is progressing slowly.

Luckily this month's CCCQ block was relatively fast to make.

Block 21 Mary Trayner.

I decided I wanted my block a little more symmetrical than the original, so I made a mirror image using just one half of the block.

In my last post I included photos of 2 Noah and Matilda blocks where I hadn't completed the embroidery embellishment.

The original block had 2 rows of satin stitch around each element. I decided to just embroider around the 4 plain red pieces.

I used 1 strand of DMC embroidery floss.

Next is the grape block.

Again, I used one strand of DMC floss.

To make the grapes I used Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Circles.

They're tiny!

Cutting out the circles, leaving an small seam allowance extra.

The extra fabric helped to puff up the grapes.

I also put a tiny circle of cotton batting into each grape to puff them up further.

Puffy grapes!

Last night I began stitching the first block for this month's set. Hopefully I can finish all 4 before the end of the month. Wish me luck!