The week gone

A small amount of regular sewing time during the week has produced a finished quilt top!  Woohoo!!

There's a square in there, finished size 75" x 75"

Unfortunately this will now be added to the "ready to quilt at a later date" pile, but, I am really happy to have spent the time getting this one done - sometimes you just need some mindless sewing, and I was super happy with the way this pattern enhanced the Eiko fabric bundle.

Saturday was my August stitching with the girls day... other committments meant it was just me and Charlotte this time, but we always have heaps to catch up on :o).  Luckily our combined kids are close enough in age that they play together *mostly* wonderfully, as long as there are ample baking supplies!

I decided to knuckle down and get something achieved on the Tillies Lane BOM.  My stack of hourglass type blocks has grown slowly and erratically, and I knew that I just had to move onto another stage, if the project was ever going to achieve any momentum.  So Block One of the central panel was created.  This is my latest scrap project, so everything except for the background cream on creams, is leftovers from other projects.

My next focus project is getting the Bluebirds and Berries quilt quilted.  First things first, deciding on the backing and getting it basted.  I knew I had extra backing fabric set aside for my huge applique quilt (all ready for the day it is finally finished), so to work out what the excess was (and whether there was enough for the B&B quilt) - I had to lay it all out.  It's been a while since this one has been out of the bag... enjoy the eye candy!

Approx 93" x 93" of pieced and appliqued loveliness

A closeup of the border fabric - this guided the choice of all the other fabrics in the quilt

A section of the applique with hand blanket stitch

 I started this quilt over 5yrs ago when we were in the initial stages of buying our house.  It was so stressful, and my husband suggested going to Paihia to "destress" at my then LQS (which has since unfortunately closed down) while he took the kids for very big ice-creams.  I took along the magazine that had the pattern for this quilt, and bought all the bits and pieces I needed.  After completing the construction of the quilt per the pattern, I worked out it was a touch small to fit on the bed comfortably, so designed and added the corner sections, to make the whole thing bigger.  Both the decision to make it bigger, as well as deciding to hand blanket stitch around the applique, turned this project into a mammoth task.  I still have quite a bit of the blanket stitch to do, and one day I will get serious again, and get this finished.

So that's me all caught up for the week, what have you been up to?