Ticked off.....

No, not my demeanor.

I'm ticking off achievements as my short break during the children's school holidays draws to a close.

Yesterday was a magnificent Spring day. But instead of heading out somewhere to lap up the sunshine, I spent the day doing the washing and that included stripping the beds of all the quilts, putting them through the wash and line drying. They're now all cuddly and smell like fresh air. I opted to keep them off the beds last night as it's getting warmer...although we do have some rain forecast for later in the week, so they may make it back on the beds before too long!

I also made a new cover for the ironing board. The old one was a disaster! With all the ironing that goes with making quilt tops I burn through covers like crazy. I had read a tutorial that involved cutting off the pull cord from the old one and attaching that to the new fabric. It worked like a charm. I've used some doubled over fabric from Ikea.

In between various activities, I managed to finish quilting R's Choc Cherry Milkshake quilt and last night I finished the threads and binding. It's bound in Kona Chocolate and I really love how it frames the quilt. I still dislike the cutting of the large polka dot but overall, I'm really happy with this quilt and R loves it so that's perfect.The back is Amy Butler's honeycomb and there's a strip of coins made up from all the fabric in the quilt running down the side.Choc Cherry Milkshake is roughly square measuring 64"x66". It was a big quilt to quilt. Lots of concentration, manipulation and maneuvering in the machine. After my first session of stippling, I headed out to the hairdresser and as I was turning corners in the car I felt like I should free motion the turns a little. My brain must have been firmly in free motion gear!

It was also Joe's birthday during the week. He's a particularly difficult person to buy presents for as he tends to buy what he needs. I even asked what he wanted and didn't get a response.

However, Joe loves his coffee. So the solution? An espresso machine. He loves it.....and even though I'm not a big coffee drinker, I'm a little partial to what this machine can produce. Joe has even perfected a pretty decent Chai Latte. Yum!