Catching up!

Geez, I didn't mean to leave it this long between posts. I sure got swallowed up by a few tasks in the interim!

Our charity quilt raffle was a resounding success! We made over $1000 to donate to the YWCA and the quilt is very happily situated with its new owner Laura! Congratulations Laura and thanks to everyone who bought a ticket. (Soon there will be an official SydMQG blog post and then I will hang up my official guild blogging hat and pass it on to Sel!)

I am so proud of what we've achieved. Our little guild does great things.

On to what I've been working on! Nearly two years ago, we bought our house, and knowing that we'd be soon pouring all our extra money into mortgages, renovations, etc, we planned a Final Big Trip to see my family. I took over a suitcase full of quilts but I didn't have time to make quilts for two of my sisters (Whitney and Jillian, though Jillian's kids all got their quilts!) I decided to start Whitney's quilt over there, so I ordered a fat quarter bundle of Aneela Hoey's Walk in the Woods fabric, bought a Swoon paper pattern, and in the US I started cutting it out.

And it stayed cut out for two years.

I made a total of three blocks in 22 months. It was ridiculous.

It's so unfair because I really love my sister and think she is great, and I have been avoiding mentioning that I have a quilt totally cut out and ready for her...but I was too busy to make it! HORRIBLE SISTER ALERT. Anyway, a week after pulling it out again, it was done. And a week later, it has been sent to my longarm quilter, quilted in a gorgeous baptist fan pattern, and sent back. This weekend is for binding it and I want to walk it up to the post office on Monday morning!

Here is a picture of it still in the design wall phase but as soon as it's bound I'll get a proper picture taken!

It was Piper's last day of school today too. She's been attending a local Montessori toddler community and she's really enjoyed it. Though she's still not much of a talker, "scoo!" is one of her words and last week, when I had to pull out of the carpark and pull in a second time, she cried because she thought we were leaving before she could get out and go have fun. Big, huge tears. Lip trembling, heart broken, please let me go to "scoo"! I thought I would give her directress, Geraldine, a little thank you gift. Of course, knowing me, it got out of hand and ended up being rather large. Like 85" square.

I sent the camera with my husband on his journeys hunting for hobbits, so there is no picture of this finish, just what I put on Instagram. I must make another one of these - the blocks are dead easy. I scaled up Film in the Fridge's block with a neutral sashing - the last yard of which Sel was kind enough to share from her stash of Kona Stone! Thank you for sharing Sel. Mr Poppleton suggested using Kona Stone for the binding as well so the blocks would float - he was brilliant of course. It looked great!

I was very happy to hand it to our wonderful Geraldine today and she was so very happy. (I like this quilt a lot, but I worry about orange! It's one of those divisive colors. Luckily she liked it.) :)

I am still working on the Spool Quilt for Kim's. I need to unquilt several puckery patches and that has greatly discouraged me. Here's the top finished - I absolutely love it.

I did this the whole way down but some of the corners got puckery. I'm super bummed out. I love this top and my ability to wrench a top through my Juki is not as good as my vision!! I need a quilting frame, that's for sure.

Sigh. I need to get on this. I love this quilt and can't wait to get it finished!

Not sure if Sydney folks knew this, but Greta's Handcraft Centre moved a few shops down the road, and she decided against keeping up the patchwork side of things. Viv and I are friendly and she casually mentioned that she had these gorgeous shelving units for sale. When she told me how much, I'm pretty sure I panted a little. Real timber, tall enough for bolts of fabric, beautifully constructed... YES PLEASE. I told her I'd take four, and she ended up throwing the fifth one in for free.

Look how great they look in my sewing room. I love them. I do need more shelves in each bookcase, so I'm asking my good friend Clark the Builder to fit me some new shelves. I am decided whether or not to paint them white. What do you think?

I made a few more of Kat's blocks! I am so proud of those cars all going the proper direction. YES. Only 60 of these left...yikes haha. Good thing I have a month and a half to finish this one! I have already decided to send this one out to be quilted, so the top is my focus. It's a relief to be able to plan just to assemble blocks!

Finally, my bee blocks have been trickling in. I've only got three people that I'm waiting on and then I can put the quilt together. I just had to put it up on my design wall to give it a test drive. I scaled this block smaller for my bee mates (and did all the cutting, more or less, and threw them right in the deep end so I wasn't giving away any pattern details!) but you can find the original pattern here. The fabric choices are Constellations, the white backrgound fabric is Pearl Bracelet white on white (both by Lizzy House), and the blue fabric is Breeze in Michael Miller Cotton Couture. I am going for a 5x6 configuration and I'll probably float it on a fat border to make it sufficiently single-bed sized!

And of course, I've been watching TV while I sew... GILMORE GIRLS!! I am giving the series a second chance. I watched two seasons and it just frustrated me - I am finding it much better the second time around. Though I still wish Lorelei wasn't so twee. She's like a Manic Pixie Dream Mom. And I still want to wring Jess/Dean/Tristan/Paris's neck. (Be nice to Rory, okay?!) And Emily, oh man, I really ache when she and Lorelei fight because it's so obvious that they both want to communicate and they just don't know how.

Anyway after I am done with Gilmore Girls I will rewatch Veronica Mars with my friend Lewix. That should be fun! I have a few quilts to bash out before then, and there are 7 whole seasons of Gilmore Girls...so I should be all caught up on my WIPs by then!

Okay, phew, all caught up - now time for sleep. Zzzzzz

Night!

Penny xx