Saturday, July 12, 2014

Surprise! It's me again and it's not three months later or 2015.

We have another finish at Chez Sunshine. 

Speaking of sunshine, we have had THE most amazing weather here. We have had days and days of beautiful sunshine, although some of the days and a lot of the nights have been freezing cold.  Down to 3 or 4 deg C at night. That's cold, really cold.  It has been good for my sewing productivity though. Cold enough for me to be quite happy to hand quilt with a quilt on my lap. None of that horrible humid, sweaty OMG I'm going to die from heat exhaustion stuff happening here at this time of year. Yay.


I digress, I was talking about a finish. I've finally finished the Red Letter Day quilt top. Unfortunately it's not exactly an award winning photo, but I've realised that if I wait for the perfect light etc to take a photo, the photo never happens. Then the blog post never happens either. So for the rest of this year, you get to see photos, good or bad, and I. will. be. blogging, even if it kills me!

 All 9 blocks completed. Like I said, not a great photo, but you get the idea.  If you follow me on Instagram you know I had a bit of a problem with the lack of grey background fabric. Fortunately with a bit of creative unpicking and re sewing, I had enough to finish the middle block. It is supposed to be the reverse of the rest of the blocks but as usual, I had to do my own thing, so I played around with the fabric in the middle block, and came up with something  a little different. I just noticed the middle block looks like it has measles or chicken pox. Great!  At least it doesn't (I hope) look like that in real life.  I used a variety of fabrics from lots of different lines. Not one piece of fabric was bought for this quilt, it all came from my stash. 

I'm pretty happy with this quilt top even though it hasn't exactly turned out how it was in my mind. Don't you hate that! I always have these visions of amazing quilts, but when I start putting it together, it's often not quite as awesome as I thought it would be.

Here's a close up of the centre block, with some AMH Innocent Crush.
Not my finest sewing skills, but I'm pretty happy with how it's come together.  Don't hold your breath for a complete finish on this one any time soon, as I have a lot of WIP's that I really want to finish first, including the one below.  Gee, hand quilting takes a looooong time, so I'm very slowly quilting Starflowers.


The hand quilting thread is a variegated perle 12 cotton. I love the subtle colours and they work really well with the colours in the blocks. I'm slowly perfecting, ha ha, or at least improving, my stitch length and the ability to quilt in a straight line. Who knew that could be so difficult on such a short distance.

A lot of socialising and enjoying the Noosa weather has been on the agenda too.

This steak was as good as it looks, from Little Humid, Noosaville

We spent a couple of hours at Hasting St in Noosa last week and had lunch in the Sheraton bar. I love the decor in this bar. Even though it was cold enough to be wearing boots, and a cardigan, it was nice to soak up the tropical ambience.

BP and I went to Lake Weyba in the late afternoon last week, just before sunset. How beautiful is this view?  I sometimes take this piece of paradise for granted, I need to get out and about more.


Thursday, July 3, 2014

181 days left of 2014

Yes, I'm still alive.

Yes, I have been sewing, not a lot, but at least I'm back in my sewing room a couple of times a week.

Yes, I have been away.....again!

My last post was in April, it seems like years ago.

So here's what I've been up to since my last blog post.

Lots of photos, not too many words.

Went to Melbourne with my best buddy Shay for the AQC, look, blue sky and sunshine, seriously awesome.

It's winter here now, look, blue sky and sunshine, as always in paradise.

Flew to another paradise.

Fiji for BP's 21st birthday.

It involved cocktails as always.

Beautiful views and weather.

Sunsets over the water.

I even caught up on some appliqué, although I still have lots more to do.

Back at home, and it's been cold enough to hand quilt.

Karma had a haircut.

I attempted paper pieced arcs for a pickle dish quilt, loving these. Definitely want to make lots of them.

I finished the Dresden quilt top. A four patch border, now I need to make the back.

I started playing with this block.

Made quite a few.

I've even quilted it, now just need to find the time and the motivation to do the binding.

All this sewing and not one finish!

Finally I was lucky enough to go to both Camille's trunk show and Red Letter Day class in Brisbane last month. A really fantastic experience.


Camille's trunk show

Holly, who accompanied Camille for the Red Letter Day classes and trunk shows.

Camille


One of my Red Letter Day blocks.
Hoping I can manage at least one more post before the end of the year.