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.


13 comments:

  1. I think your quilt is lovely. I love blue and yellow together and this pattern is so striking, a great combination I think. I am glad you are enjoying your beautiful chunk of paradise, I love seeing the photos, so I hope you will keep sharing them.

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  2. Love your Red Letter Day! The depth of colours gives it such richness. I'm very jealous of your cool weather.

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  3. I really like your RLD top...well done...the hand quilting looks great and I am envious of your beautiful days!

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  4. Love your Red Letter Day, the colours really dance against the grey background. It's great to see progess on your hexie stars too, your handquilting looks perfect, and so do your photos so keep them coming :)

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  5. Damn you and your sunshine! Keep this shit up and we simply cant be friends anymore...

    Having seen the individual blocks for Red Letter Day while they were in progress – Im loving seeing them all at once. That’s one mighty gorgeous quilt top ( seriously !) and kudos to you for not running out to buy yet more fabric to make it That’s almost miraculous for you .

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  6. I love how you solved the dilemma of running out of grey fabric- the centre block is a great focus point for the rest of the quilt! Will the Starflowers be taking a little trip or not?

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  7. Yay, you finished it! Now the big question - how are you going to quilt it? Decisions, decisions!

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  8. Congrats on the flimsy finish! It looks great even if it didn't turn out like you expected. Enjoy your quilting time.

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  9. Shocked and pleased to see you posting again so soon! The finished top is a thumbs up all the way. I think the center block looks great--those look like buttons and not measles. Glad your weather has been pleasant. Gorgeous last photo, agreed!

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  10. Marg I love your Red Letter Day quilt! The dark background is fabulous with your stash-found fabrics...shows you what can come from a little stash shopping...and doesn't that feel so good :o) I'd love to follow you on IG I'm off to the link on the top of your blog to discover your username :o)

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  11. Love the red letter day quilt. nice to hear from you again so soon! I know what you mean about getting out and about more. It's so much easier for me to stay at home and just do what I need to do...

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  12. I swear you only pop up to rub it in on the weather ;o) Actually it's been nice here, although last night we got terrific torrential rain for hours.

    Loving the red letter day quilt, even if it wasn't what you had imagined. Giggling a bit at the measles, I can't unsee that now lol

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