A Quilt for Baby Riggs

My great-nephew and Mum's 14th great-grandchild was born in July and his quilt was finished a little while ago - we finally had the quilt delivered to Riggs last week.

I used Carried Away Quilting's "Next Up" pattern and added his name at the top using the "Spell it With Moda" letters.

During last week I sewed up another bunch of "Sweet Escape" log cabin blocks.

18 blocks to go and then comes the dreaded block layout - my least favourite part of the quilt-making process.

Karen quilted "Christmas Cheer" on Friday.  Hoping to pick it up this week.

It will be lovely to have this quilt on my bed for Christmas.  I now have three quilts to bind.

As soon as Little Sweetheart heard that Jenni and Kurt were coming for the weekend, she wanted to stay over Friday night to help with the painting.  She was pretty disappointed that the whole time she was there not a tin of paint was opened.  We spent all Friday night and Saturday until dinner time scraping, sanding, filling repeat.  The walls in this part of my house would be at least 80 years old and have the old horse hair plaster.

On Saturday afternoon, before Little Sweetheart went home, we did open the paint can of jelly beans.

There was a nice surprise for her inside the tin - Milly the English Sheep Dog puppy (and a bag of jelly beans).

After dinner on Saturday night we starting undercoating and ran out of paint around 10.30 pm.  By the time we finished on Sunday dinner time all the walls and ceiling had been undercoated, there was some cutting in with the coloured topcoat

and the front door had one coat of topcoat gloss.

This is a huge job but we're now over the worst part.  No painting next weekend because it's Kurt's birthday on Saturday, but maybe the weekend after.  The biggest part of cutting in painting will be the double fancy cornice.

No sewing over the weekend.

Tonight we're going to the basketball - hope the Hawks play well.  It's about time they had a win.

A bit of progress ...

I had some free time on Saturday afternoon away from the eisteddfod and was able to add the final borders to the baby's quilt.  The backing is made and hopefully pin basting and quilting will happen over the next month or so.

Another cot quilt I've been working on is "Next Up" designed by Carried Away Quilting.  This is made in "Safari Life" by Stacy Iest Hsu, a brand new fabric and I had to wait a few months for the yardage to be released so that I could buy fabric finish the top of the quilt and for backing.

This one is for Mum's newest great-grandbaby (14th) and was dropped off for quilting yesterday.

"Lemon Meringue" by Coriander Quilts has been cut out and I've made the first block.

"Shining Brightly" by Thimble Blossoms is also cut out.

Both of these quilts are being made using Bonnie and Camille's "Early Bird" range with Moda Bella Solid 200 Porcelain for the background fabric.  200 looks a bit more milky-white compared with 97, and suits the background of the "Early Bird" fabrics.

Monday night I sewed up last month's "Christmas Cheer" row for my Aussie B&C 2019 quilt.

Only a couple more rows to go and the quilt top will be done and, hopefully, quilted and finished to be on my bed for Christmas.

Life is pretty busy with weekends at the eisteddfod but I have lots of fun times coming up later in the month.

Little Sweetheart and I saw "The Lion King" last week.  I wasn't really sure what to expect but was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  Pumbaa and Timone are still the funniest guys around and the opening and closing "Circle of Life" scenes are as majestic as ever.

Running Late

My baby grandson will be 6 months old next Monday and his quilt isn't finished.   I'm making Red Brolly's "Little Chicken Feather" (also made this one for Gulliver but couldn't find a different baby boy quilt that I liked as much to make for our new little one).

The quilt top is together, and two of three borders have been added.  I have one block to embroider/applique before I can start quilting.

The fabric is 'Guess How Much I Love You" designed by the illustrator of the book.  The colours are so beautiful.  I also bought some in the pink colourway to make a couple of baby girl quilts for when friends have baby granddaughters.

I've also been making another "Next Up" (Carried Away Quilting design) cot quilt for Mum's 14th great-grandchild (born last month) in a new fabric line called "Safari Life".

Can't complete the top section of the quilt until the fabric I have on pre-order arrives.

Life is pretty busy at the moment with the eisteddfod taking up most weekend time until mid-September, but we have this weekend off so am looking forward to the family coming for lunch on Saturday and catching up with some friends on Sunday (and perhaps stitching more of "Little Chicken Feather") or cutting out a new quilt.

Last week I won two tickets to our local picture house, Gala Cinema in Warrawong.  Turned out we could only take advantage of the tickets on Monday night "Danger Close" was the only movie at a time that suited us.  The movie is about the Battle of Long Tan.  It's been quite a while since I've seen a war movie and, while not my favourite style of movie, I appreciated the historical value and how terribly young these soldiers were to be thrown into this situation.

I would have loved to see "White Crow" (about Rudolf Nureyev) or "Late Night" with Emma Thompson but they're only on while I'm at work.

And some more ...

Sampler block sewing last week - I think I have enough larger blocks.  I found a little bag containing 19 Dresden plate petals, so only needed to make one more petal, find fabric for the centre and background and a Dresden Plate block was done :)

Dresden Plate

Also had a bunch of left-over half-square triangle blocks:

Sweet Escape

Trip Around the World

Next Up

Seaglass

Last week was big - two days in Sydney for work.  Lovely surprise in my hotel room on Tuesday night:

and then Michael, Peta and Gulliver moved house last Thursday.

Michael and Peta are expert packers and these removal guys are fantastic (Chad's).

Picking up two quilts from Karen last week:

"Dashing"

"Happy Scrappy Baskets"

Next Up

"Next Up" cot quilt was finished late last week.  This is a design from Carried Away Quilting and has been made using a mini charm pack of "Later Alligator" by Sandy Gervais and other fabrics from my stash.  The quilt will be going to its new home shortly.

This is the second "Next Up" quilt I've made - I'd like to make one in pinks if one of my friends has a little girl grandbaby.

Karen used a cloudy star quilting pattern - another favourite for baby quilts.

Karen has also quilted my "Seaglass" Variation quilt - have to make the binding for this one.  Not sure if I'll use the Snowman Gathering cream fabric, a brown FigTree or make it scrappy.  I love Orange Peel quilting and will be using it a lot this year.

Little Sweetheart's 4th birthday party was great fun - she had a ball with her cousins and little friends.  Elizabeth made the birthday cake - pretty spectacular and a big hit.

Today is her first day at pre-school.  It's all happening!

On Saturday night I had a go at making another pineapple block - this is the second pink one I made and it is ok.  This will be the April block to send off for the B&C beehive.

March's block is "Flower Girl" and we were each asked to use fabrics from one fabric range - I chose "Vintage Holiday".

I wanted to get ahead with the beehive blocks with Elizabeth's baby due in less than 6 weeks and Jenni and Kurt's wedding in 3 months.  May is my turn this year, so that will give me another month's grace.

Basketball is on tonight - second-last home game for the season.  I don't hold out much hope for the Hawks to reach the finals this year.

Patchwork Sky

One of last year's Aussie B&C Beehive members chose "Patchwork Sky" for her quilt and we were asked to make one of each block in the quilt.

After making these blocks and two for my sampler quilt, I thought I'd enjoy making the whole quilt.  Was able to use up lots of scraps as well as mini-charm packs and fat quarters.

I started stitching down the binding at Mum's on Sunday night.  Reached the last corner and finished stitching it down on Wednesday night.

The quilt is very pretty with all the aqua fabrics and the limited colour range in the chain blocks.

Karen quilted "Filigree" pattern - this is a design I request a lot because it doesn't overpower the piecing in the quilt top.  I love this backing fabric - have always loved bows and this aqua is so pretty.

I used the sweet white dot fabric from "The Good Life" for the background in this quilt instead of plain white. 

This year's April B&C Beehive block is from Camille Roskelley's "Dwell" quilt in her book "Simply Retro".  Jodie has asked for a 6" filler block to be added to the house and I thought I'd have a go at a pineapple block with my new Marti Michelle pineapple block templates.  I managed to make the centre a bit skew-wiff - am hoping my second attempt will be better, or I'll be making a churn dash or some other simpler block for Jodie :)

Stitched down the binding on the "Next Up" cot quilt last night.  Cot quilts are a great way to try out a new pattern and are always a lovely gift for a friend's new baby/grandbaby.

No 1 Little Sweetheart's 4th birthday today!  She is so entertaining and such wonderful company.  Nothing more precious than the "I love you more" she says when I tuck her in to bed.

Quilt Top

"Seaglass" Variation is now ready for quilting.  Looking forward to being able to finish this off - it's a present for someone very special.

The girls are coming over for stitching tonight so Karen can take "Seaglass" home with her to quilt and she will be bringing back two of my quilts ready for me to bind.  "Patchwork Sky"

and "Next Up"

Long weekend coming up for Australia Day and I have lots of secret sewing to get underway plus Mum and I would like to see a couple of movies.  There's also the tennis grand finals, so that will mean binding time in front of the tv.  Will be an extra-long weekend for me because Sweetheart is coming to stay again on Tuesday - can't believe she will be 4 next week!  She and her little cousin are the light of our lives and we're all super excited to meet No 3 in 6 weeks or so.