The process of de-pinking

My little girl R has always been a pink girl. I didn't foist it upon her, it just happened. And as quick as it happened, it un-happened.

Now 12 years old, pink's no longer appropriate. Neither are the plethora of baby dolls, Bratz or Barbies, soft toys, fairies or tutu's. So we're de-pinking. We're re-painting after such a short amount of time (I wish I'd kept the room the original cream!). Worse still, my first quilt will be removed from the room. It's inspired by Candy Shop from Material Obsession and it was the VERY first quilt I finished. It's even hand quilted! AND I made a cushion to match.

Now R's room will be white with red accessories. Here's where the red and white quilt comes in! Oh well, at least with white walls it's a plain canvas for the next time there's a change in the air!

Bye Bye Baby

The scrappy strip baby quilt is finished! It's really rather lovely the way that all those little pieces of material scaps can end up being something substantial. I opted for a backing of yellow and white stars with a red and white polka dot for the binding. It's all left-overs and it's fabulous....if I do say so myself. I just wish I'd known how to do this when my babies were babies! Here's my bigger baby holding it up (graciously!).And I've just remembered that my hairdresser's receptionist is having a baby so here comes another!

Baby scrappy strip quilt

Very few of my circle of friends or family are having babies now so the excuse to make baby quilts is rarely used. This is really annoying when you want to make something small.
Then I suddenly remembered the girl at the other end of our building is having a baby in about 2 weeks. I don't really know her aside from bumping into each other in the kitchen and chatting whilst we prepare our lunch or coffee but her tummy has just become my perfect excuse to finish off the little strip quilt I've had in the work in progess pile. Having heeded the warnings from other quilters in blog land about this style of quilt, I never intended for this one to get too large (too many seams for easy stippling), so a baby quilt with white sashing is perfect. And seeing as this new mum doesn't know if she's having a boy or girl, the mish-mash of colours seems the right way to go. It's currently 81cm x 110cm, completely made from scraps, stash and sewn together batting so I shouldn't have any problems handing it over.....I always get so attached to my quilts, I can't bear to say goodbye to them!

Still celebr-8-ing!

L celebrated his 8th birthday again today with a party with his classmates. We chose the SASMEE Park at Millswood. SASMEE is all about small model engines and that's what you get....rides on the back of miniature steam engines. It's one of Adelaide's best kept secrets and absolutely perfect for 8 years (and older!). Problem is with a mid winter baby is the weather when it comes to an outdoor party. We'd watched the forecast all week and today was supposed to be cloudy but fine.....until last night when rain was predicted for the afternoon! AAARRGH! It started to pour at 11am....but stopped at precisely 1.10pm when we were loading up the car. Thank you rain God! The afternoon was perfect and fun was had by all.

Another party and yet another birthday cake! This time featuring Pokemon's Pikachu!

Ready for Midwinter

Tomorrow is the winter soltice in the southern hemisphere. It's either the shortest day of the year or the longest night (same same!). What better way to celebrate than with the completion of my red and white disappearing 9 patch quilt! Ultimately it will be for R's bedroom make-over.

The quilt is stippled and has red and white striped binding. Love a stripey binding.

And a medium sized white spot on red backing. Love a spotty fabric.

Adds up to one very charming quilt. Just like a bought one....only better!

A fast project....

is a good project I always say!

Sew and Sews was a weekend catch up for this week, so I worked on the cushion covers that my sister had asked me to make for her weeks ago. I was starting to feel guilty every time I saw the fabric in the stash. They're the fabulous, easy-peasy 4 seam covers. Hem the top, hem the bottom, fold them over like an envelope and stitch down the sides. Voila! Covers!

Of course, I won't tell Mags how easy they were!

Turning 8

My baby turns 8 years old today and even though he'll always be 'my baby' and 'my little man', he's grown into a charming, happy little boy who worships all things Pokemon, Star Wars and Super Mario Bros. How could I resist his request for a Luigi birthday cake? Even though I think the colours are a bit off and he's a bit skewy, L said he's perfect! Happy birthday L!

And just to prove we did eat it! (Armless and legless....just like a real party!)

There is a time and a place....

I've never had a problem with having more than one project on the WIP sheet at any one time. Particularly when it comes to quilting. Some things need to be approached when you're either 'in the mood' or you can have a good run at it. Personally, I like to cut out fabric on Friday's because that means you can stitch on the weekend.
Today I was 'lucky' enough to get the day off work to stay home and look after the children whilst they're in 'home isolation' (it sounds so much better than quarantine, don't you think?). They've completed all the homework their teachers had set so for all intents and purposes, that's a quilting day! (R said I was like the substitute teacher that lets the class get away with murder!)
So I sandwiched the red and white disappearing 9 patch before breakfast. Stared at it for a while and contemplated it's size and how much time I'd need to quilt it. To resolve the dilema, I thought I'd cut out some fabric.

Our lounge features the one thing that ever got renovated. (We bought our house because very little had been changed.) The previous owners had removed the original Victorian fireplace and replaced it with a 1930's bungalow style glazed brick number. The terracota colour of the brick is so strong and tends to dictate any colour scheme we choose for that room. So when we were visiting Mt Tamborine, QLD back in April I found these beautiful fat quarters of Wyndham fabrics that are supposed reproductions of Civil War prints (hey, I bought it!) in shades of dark pink, terracotta and brown, I had to have them. I've co-ordinated them with some Denyse Schmidt Country Fair and eventually had enough to make a reasonable sized quilt. Then comes the dilema of what to do with them! I've really enjoyed the construction of the Old Red Barn Co's quilt along quilt so I've decided to do something similar for the 'lounge quilt'. Because I've got fat quarters, I can't go full width which means my blocks can't be as deep so I'll join 5 strips of the 2 1/2" strips instead of the 6 and cut them into smaller 10 1/2" blocks.
Before I knew it, all the cutting was completed by early afternoon and the pieces have been re-packed neatly ready for the moment of construction.
Then in between 'silly sentences', a load of washing and a pot of vichyssoise I went back to the red and white and began stippling. Now it's the end of the day and I'm about 2/3rds done!
Yup.....you just have to be in the mood!

Show us your tops!

I was obviously having withdrawals having been away for the long weekend and unable to do any sewing. So over the past two nights I've managed to finish off both of the flimsies I've had on the go! (I really couldn't possibly start anything else without attending to these two!)

I'm so pleased with both of them, to the point of even venturing out on the coldest morning thus far to take photos of them on the clothes line!

R's red and white disappearing 9 patch.

And the ORB quilt along.

I can't wait to show you my bottoms!

Queen's Birthday Honours....

Go to our fabulous road trip to Melbourne over the long weekend!

After our extremely, but oh so worth it, early start on Saturday morning we arrived at western Victoria's fabric heaven, Ballarat Patchwork, for a bit of this....

Arrived in good time for an evening stroll (perhaps it was a sprint before the shops closed at 6pm!) down Chapel Street. Fell into bed ready for another early start at the Star Wars exhibition at Scienceworks. (Highly recommend on-line pre-purchase of tickets to avoid the VERY long queues. We're so glad we did!)

L and R2D2 in the flesh

L and R mixing with the locals

L making light of the situation!

The next award goes to Billy Elliot The Musical. R and I loved it!

And finally to Brunetti's in Carlton to cap off a wonderful day.

It's just a shame we're now in lock-down with the kids in isolation for a week because of swine flu!

ORB quilt along week 3

Things are progressing quite well for the Old Red Barn quilt along. So far I'm managing to keep up the pace and feeling less guilty about not studying seeing as I've taken this study period off.
I've joined all my strips into families of 6 as per the instructions. Mine ended up being 12" wide, so I've cut my fabric into 12" blocks. All up I have 42 blocks, so I'm guessing we'll go 6 across x 7 deep. I probably won't use the left-overs in this quilt, so I've unpicked them to keep for another project that needs 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" squares....maybe I could come in late for Crazy Mom's 9 patch quilt along?

Tick two things off today....

I finished my red and pink zig zag last night. I opted for the red and white spot from the Sweet range for the binding and I think it packs a punch. Usually I go for a stripe but because the top zig zag is red and white stripe, it would have been too too much at that top end. The backing is bright pink with a tiny red polka dot. The pink is a bit bright compared to the rest of the pinks in the quilt but I figure it's the other side so it has its own personality. I'm really pleased with the whole quilt....it's lovely.

And the other thing I'm ticking off? My exam. The thing I should have been studying for last night when I was stitching on binding. Oh well, who needs Strategic Planning when you could be sitting in front of the telly with a needle and thread. Wish me luck!