Grand Illusion progressing

I have a helper with this mystery quilt. It's hard to see but I assure you my blocks for clue 5 are under there. 

Grand Illusion step 2 in progress

Grand Illusion

Bonnie Hunter's 2014 mystery quilt Grand  Illusion starts tomorrow. Excited to see how it will come together with these fabrics. 

A bunch of swap blocks

Look what was in the mail for me on Saturday. I've been taking part in a block swap and these are my blocks from the other members. I sent the yellow floral which I've had in my stash do as long as I can remember and asked for any block for a sampler.

Red, red wine

No red wine for me today as I have a migraine but here are my latest two blocks.    These were all made from scraps, HSTs that were sitting in the scrap box.  I think I just have one more red block to catch up on on.

I see red, I see red, I see red

I went to the beach last week with my good friend and although I was quilting I didn't work on my 6 inch blocks.  Today I thought I had better spend some time on this project.  I had a lot of fun with these two block.  The Wonky Goose Star is made of tiny scraps of fabric that are full of memories so it was a lot of fun to put together.

Just installed sculptures of Godwits which migrate between Foxton Beach of Siberia each year.

On the first day I whipped up this little baby quilt for two colleagues who are due to have a baby soon.  I adapted this pattern at Bloom and Blossom by cutting smaller strips to make better use of the left over pieces I had from an earlier baby quilt. This was the only pattern I could find that didn't involve sewing 1/2 square triangles.

And lastly we decided we needed coffee one day and visited  a cafe where I ordered Banana Cake.  Have you ever had Banana Cake like this? 

A Modern Tradition

Today I went to Wellington with DH to see the Capital Quilters exhibition, entitled A Modern Tradition.  The venue at Sacred Heart College in Lower Hutt was a great setting; a lovely modern venue with 3 different areas to display the quilts.  There was a great variety of quilts, lots of different styles of both piecing and quilting, and lots of fabulous use of colour.

I had lots of favourites,and these are some:

Zebra Crossing by Sheryl Anicich:

Garden for Birds 2 by Adrianne Reid:

Adrianne blogs at The Windy Side and her quilt won merit ribbons

for first time entrant and small bed quilt

Shirt Tail Series No. 23 Back to Square One by Heather Harding:

56 Stars by Jill Nickel:

I loved the quilting on this quilt - 

something different in each area of background

Barbed Wire for Barb Dwyer by Ronnie Rutter: