A very busy weekend.

Phew, it's a relief to be sat down quietly at home. As the title says I've had a very busy weekend. 

On Friday I joined Chooky and the ladies for a special extra long Australia day stitching zoom session.  It was a great day.  As it was not a public holiday here in NZ Tony was at work so I had to make my own cups of tea and lunch, but that's OK, I got to sew all day without interruptions.  I worked on three different projects.  I started by closing the bindings on my scrappy batik placemats. You've seen them before, but I didn't show you what I was using for batting. On Thursday when I went hunting for batting I came across a piece of fleece that was trimmed off one of my very early quilts, it's been lying about for years awaiting a purpose. It was just big enough for two mats. 

Then I went digging some more and found a much larger piece of white fleece, it was cut from the piece I used to back my Lucy Blue. 

More than enough to layer the other four mats. Next, backing. I went diving in to the homespun drawer for that, I was sure I had something in just the right colour.

It ended up being two somethings as neither one was big enough. Two and four pieces again.

Once they were layered and pinned I did some simple stitch in the ditch around the scrappy panels and added the binding ready for Friday. 

The binding is another piece of batik, the whole piece had palm trees and a few clouds on, but sliced up for binding it just makes a pretty blue green edge to the place mats.

I love them. So happy with how these have come out.  And truly scrappy as I had used left overs and odds and ends in all stages of their creation. 

It was lovely to sit and chat while I closed the binding, a great job for a zoom sewing session.

Next I got on with some EPP. 

Last time you saw it I had eight flowers joined and had been playing with layout.

After a few hours with Chooky and the girls it now looks like this.

I was able to add eleven more flowers. Oh my goodness I was sooooo happy about that.

I also spent a little time with my crochet and got another round on to that.  I really need to lay it out and see how big it is. It may be time to think about an edge treatment.

That was Friday.

Thank you Chooky for another fabulously productive zooming day. 

*

Saturday the local patchworkers and quilters club had a sewing day. I took along a kit I've had sitting around for about 5 years. LOL

I cut all the fabrics and carefully labelled them last year and took them along to Barradine for Scrub Stitchin' in April, then didn't even look at it. I focused on the anchor quilt. But all that cutting was great it meant I was ready to sit and sew as soon as I arrived and set up on Saturday morning.  It wasn't a long day, starting at 10am and finishing at 3 pm. But I did get all of the blocks sewn together and made a start on the sashing.

Yay!

I had to leave it there as we had guests coming for dinner and I had to make some salads and do a few chores once I got home.

It was a great day though.

This morning son Joe and family arrived. We had some play time, some story book time and some lunch.

Torstien read the fire engine book again.

Then he had a little pavlova with his chocolate sauce.

Grandad was supposed to be supervising that. 

He at it all up then ran off to the bathroom to wash his face.

After he had helped Grandad to load the dish basher we all went outside to play with the bubbles in the sunshine.

This afternoon, once Master Torstein and family had left I went in to my room and continued. I got all of the blocks put together with the sashing pieces and corner stones, then it was time for borders. 

The pattern shows a very dark border.

The model image on the pack shows a medium border.

The kit provides a creamy white border.

Hmmm.

I quick dig in the stash revealed a black from the same fabric collection. Maybe a little thin border between the blocks and the creamy border?

Yep!  That will do for me. 

On it went. 

Then I stopped.  I will add the cream border but not today, it was time to sit down and have a rest.

*

Back to Saturday.

There were eleven of us at the sewing day. We set up in an old school house that is now mostly used by the local arts society.  There were lots of different projects but I didn't get pictures of them all.

I did ask Marieke if I could have a picture of hers though. It is a huge Quilt as you go scrapper. Big enough to fit a queen size spare bed.  The front had been made from crumbs and other small pieces, with a beautiful blue for the sashing.

The back is also scraps, but a little more organised and has white sashing. 

Marieke was hand sewing the white sashing closed on the back. She plans to bind it using the same blue that she used for the front.

Such a beautiful quilt and very striking way to use up lots of little scraps.

Hmmmm.....

Loulee wants one. 

LOL

That was my wonderful but very busy weekend.

I hope yours was good too.