I'm lagging behind all the other speedy stitchers who have put their Carolina Crossroads quilt tops together, but I'm entirely thrilled to have at last finished up all of the blocks.I'll have to wait a little while before I can progress any further. When the fabric I ordered the other day gets here, then I can get busy with the sashing strips for the blocks.This mystery has been a delight to work on, thank you so much to our wonderful friend Bonnie for creating the project for us.I don't have much else to report in stitching news, and nothing at all to report in stash news. Nothing came in, and nothing was used! I have been very busy working on customer quilts, and right now I'm working on quilting Lyn's 'Little Macca's Farm' quilt. It's very cute indeed.Last of all, my Royal Cross quilt went into the mail yesterday, so happily that's another deadline met. I really loved working on that quilt, and I'm looking forward to making something else just as scrappy. I have an idea for a 'Spring' style quilt running around in my head right now, so I need to get it on paper before it runs right on out ... Hope you're having a great week ... x o x
Cameron and Amy went off to school this morning, so suddenly the house is very quiet. It's Cameron's first day at the 'big school', and he looked so adorable in his uniform :-) Sooo ... this means I get days to myself now. I predict plenty of sewing time in my future!
Because the Royal Cross quilt is completed, and all bits and pieces are almost ready to go in the mail, today I thought I'd piece a little on my Carolina Crossroads blocks. I haven't had the chance to work on the mystery for a couple of weeks, and it feels great to get back into it.After seeing Forest Jane's quilt with red sashing strips, I thought I'd like to do the same. I don't have very much red fabric at all, so I popped on over to Z&S to order myself some. Love that shop! I ordered many different reproduction style reds, and a cute background fabric that was on sale too. Given that it's a flat rate for shipping here to Australia, it makes sense to fill up a postal envelope.Marty is away right now - I'm hoping he'll get back tonight. We were on our way to get dinner on Saturday night, and he received a call to let him know that he had a work emergency about a five hour drive away. Normally he'd be back sometime the next day, but here it is Monday afternoon and he's not home yet. All part of the job I guess, but such a shame that we had to cancel plans with friends on Sunday.I'm heading back to the sewing room for a little while before I go pick up the kids. I can't wait to hear how their days have been :-)
Finally I have completed the last six of the Royal Cross blocks. I can now start putting the top together. I was growing weary of the curved seams toward the end, but it's hard to be tired of a block that looks so good put together.Also another accomplishment - I'm up to date with the latest installment of the Carolina Crossroads mystery. I'm loving these blocks, and I'm thrilled with the scrappiness!While I'm posting, I should also make a note of my stash busting for this week. No fabric purchases at all. I haven't darkened the door of any quilt stores, but I will be heading to Quiltaholics tomorrow. I have used I guess around one metre of fabric. Around a fat quarter was used for the back of the placemats, another fat quarter for the binding of the placemats. Approx another half metre was used for the additional pieces for the mystery quilt, and also for the remaining pieces I needed to cut for the Royal Cross blocks. I may have used a little more, or maybe a little less, but it's used just the same. I'll really bust some stash when I add the borders and make up the back for the Royal Cross quilt - that will be a good feeling!
I had a productive day yesterday, I was able to put a further six Royal Cross blocks together, which means I have only six more to make and I can assemble the top! Yay!
And as soon as I saw that the next installment of the Carolina Crossroads mystery was ready, I had to start putting a few blocks together. I've made eight so far - the next eight that I make will have brown centres, and the nine patches will have three brown squares rather than two. Does that make any sense? I hope they'll work out in the big scheme of the quilt. I'll need to do some pressing too - I was way to busy having fun piecing to move over to the ironing station!
A couple of other things ... Deb asked in comments yesterday what model sewing machine I'm working with. I have a Bernina 1080 - it's my faithful friend. Many times I've considered updating to a newer model with BSR, but I just can't do it. I adore my little buddy too much. It's a wonderful, solid machine that has been with me for so many of my favourite quilts. Our dear friend Bonnie has the exact same machine as me :-). Also ... I need to take a guess at which of my Thimbleberries Club students has been stopping by. They left a clue that they like working on big quilts ... so I'm going to choose two names ... either Dena (I hope I spelled that correctly), or Jenny S. If I'm wrong, you'll have to give me some more clues ...
I'm off to the sewing room - I hope I can be productive today too!
Here you have it. A picture of my stitching efforts while the family were away. There are additions to the pile of Royal Cross blocks. I completed parts four and five of the Carolina Crossroads mystery. There are 100 hourglass units there, and forty of the little triangle half nine patch units. I am sooooo looking forward to putting the components of this mystery together now. Super fun!I purchased a companion angle especially for Bonnie's mystery. I had never used one before, and had always used the half square triangle (line diagonally across the back - sew either side of the line and repeat) technique to make hourglass units. These came out just great using the template, and it was wonderful to be able to use stuff from my strip boxes, and not cut squares in a special size. I don't know how much yardage I used, but I'm sure I can nut it out. I got eight hourglass blocks approx from two 2" strips ... I'm feeling lazy right now ... I'll work it out when it's stash report time.
Last of all, just want to say a big HELLO to my wonderful friend Linda from San Jose. We spent 80 minutes on the phone the other day - gosh that few by. Can't wait to see you in September. *big hugs*
I'm heading into the sewing room now ... let's see what I can create today :-) x o x
It has been hot here today 37c (98.6f), so indoor activities have been on the agenda. I've now completed part three of the Carolina Crossroads mystery, and I've got a few of the pieces put together toward part four.I'm taking tentative steps with the new camera, always with Marty hovering close. I can see there is a lot to learn - I've been using a 'point and shoot' cybershot, and now with this beastie there are so many more options. I can see I'm already able to get so much more light in my pictures.
Also today, I've been doing some re-arranging in the hallway. Did you know that I love blue and white china? If you visit my home, you'd be left with absolutely no doubt ... and now you can see it from the front door too!
I treated myself to a new parlour palm. I've managed to keep the one in the lounge room alive for a couple of years now, so I thought I could try for another. If I look closely, maybe there is a tinge of green in my thumb after all!Think cool thoughts for us - the next few days are going to be hot hot hot. On new years eve we're expecting 41c (105.8f). I'm thinking longingly of my buddies in the northern hemisphere with their snow drifts ...
Wow! Bonnie wasn't kidding when she said this step should keep us busy for a bit! Working with these little pieces is definitely time consuming. I guess I'm around half way through Part 2 right now - I'll be done with them by Friday I'm thinking. These little blocks are so cute, and I can't even imagine right now where we're heading with this project :-)
Not quilt related ... a number of you have asked how Holly is getting along with Gracie. I'm amazed and happy to say that after a nervous first couple of days they're actually playing together. Holly was very unsure of her to begin with, and we were a little concerned because she's so much larger than Gracie. We knew things were getting better when Holly wasn't hissing at her, and even went so far to lick her a few times. While I still wouldn't leave them together alone for any great length of time, I feel sure they're going to be snuggle buddies in no time. I'm really glad we didn't leave Holly alone for too long, it could have been a tricky situation.
And most importantly ... tomorrow is Miss Amy's birthday. Can you believe that my little princess is turning 13! Where did all that time go? I have to work at the shop during the day, so she's having the day at a friend's house, and then in the evening we're taking her out to dinner with family at her favourite restaurant. It should be a lovely evening.
I'll check back in with you all on Friday to let you know how things went. Have a good one :-)
I can't believe it's almost Christmas, I just don't feel like I'm ready for the whole festive season yet. Heavens, I have barely started the shopping, and almost no quilted gifts - this is so unusual!! Amy only has two days of school left for the year, and Cameron has five. Soooo ... I thought I'd put together the traditional gift for their teachers - Seasonal mugs with mug mats. I hope they liked them!I should probably put a few more together, you know, as 'justin presents' ... just in case ...
And because I just couldn't resist - I decided to dive into Bonnie's mystery project. I haven't made many projects that use a great number of my 1.5" strips, so I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to start.I decided to go with some brown in with the red and blue, I had to cut up some of the brown and red especially, but there were plenty of blue strings in there to use. I have three customer quilts I need to finish up before I can start working on step two, but hopefully by the end of the week I'll be up to date.This weekend is sure to be a lot of fun, in one hour we're going to pick up the new kitten. Cheryl is going to have one too. The kids will definitely be entertained, and it'll be interesting to see how Holly deals with the new arrival. I'll share pictures as I have them! Have a great weekend! x o x
I'm lagging behind all the other speedy stitchers who have put their Carolina Crossroads quilt tops together, but I'm entirely thrilled to have at last finished up all of the blocks.
