Not enough quilting....

...a little bit of crafting.

Life is pretty hectic at the moment. Work has exploded, I've had one interstate trip a week ago and another coming up for this weekend. It's the last week of school and with that comes the concerts and graduations.

Needless to say my new Bernina hasn't had too many outings however, I did manage to make these market bags for R's teachers. I've used Amy Butler Love in decorator weight and the pattern is Heather Bailey's market bag. I think they turned out rather well. Whilst the pattern was easy to follow it didn't come without challenges what with curves and matching up. There were a few rounds of un-do's and swear words!

I haven't made anything for L's teacher who's a man. I thought about a covered notebook but I didn't have any male fabrics. It'll be nougat for him instead!

Some days are diamonds....

Completely made from scrap strips and quilted with my new Bernina Aurora 440 QE. Some days are just better than others, aren't they!
Quilt measures approx 60" square and will go to my other SIL for her birthday.

Exit stage left.....

....but only having entered from stage right! Which was the order of the day at R's end of semester instrumental recital.

I can't believe a year has rolled around so fast. It only seemed a little while ago when I posted about last year's end of semester recital. And yet, here we are again but this time watching R present two instrumental performances.

The first was guitar accommpanied by her teacher Mr K. and sitting in front of the forthcoming 'Prince of Egypt' backdrop which included the hand-made 'do not touch' sign. Rustic....? Or, garage?

R only took guitar up this year so we were immensly proud of her effort.

And the second, albiet hiding behind the music stand, was solo violin which she's been playing since grade one.

This year she admitted to nervousness which she's never mentioned until now.

It didn't show. She was terrific in our eyes.

A great afternoon followed by a late lunch at the pub up the road from her school and R still hiding behind something! At least she's smiling now!

All my Christmas's...

...have come at once!
But what's in there?
It's Bernina QE 440. I'm halfway through reading the instructions and have promised myself a good look through tonight. Maybe even a bit of a play.
I should be so lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky.....!

Why.....

...does my brain brim over with quilt ideas? It's enough to leave you sleep deprived!
I'm in the throws of piecing an absolutely gorgeous quilt top....I mean seriously gorgeous. It's fabric that is delightful and the pattern is coming together brilliantly. And then in between all of that, I'm turning the key to the cupboard door and pulling out fabric, lining it up and taking photos!I know I look for excuses in my quilt making and whilst I could go on making lovely little girl quilts for R, I think she would eventually feel less that impressed with yet another quilt. Kind of passe about how involved quilts are to create.
My latest idea is for my 'littlest' brother who lives in Melbourne and has done for a long time. We miss him dreadfully, so when he was in Adelaide a few weekends ago and after spending a great night out at our favourite local Thai restaurant, Tongue Thai'd, followed by late night chats and mega red wine consumption, we got to the subject of favourite colours and fabric selection.
JP loved the green bird fabric from Ikea and a whole bunch of solids in grey, green, brown and muted blue. I think I might have a go at one of these or these.
Well, next at least. After the one I'm working on now, and the one I've got to quilt for someone's birthday at the end of the month and the two I have in the wardrobe......and then study starts again on Monday.....
Yeh....it's no wonder I can't sleep! But in a good way....

That sinking feeling....

...really hit when I unravelled my much anticipated Jelly Roll yesterday. It wasn't the 'Bliss' I had anticipated. Oh, no....That jelly roll didn't tumble as I'd predicted. It kind of stayed 'Criovac-ed' in a state of frozen animation. I had to push and prod and pull it apart. And then the unthinkable .....a half formed 2 1/2" strip fell from the collection. I plucked it out. I held it up. It was grotesque. Off-skew and in terms of jelly roll quilt construction...unusable.

I gathered my thoughts. After all, these little wonders of superb marketing wrapped in baking terminology are created from off-cuts and ends of (or starts of) new fabric runs, so surely there are slip ups. (None of that reasoning resolves the amount of cutting I'm faced with and what the !#$ am I supposed to do if there's one short....!)

So what do you do before you frame the letter to United Notions that has just run through your head?

You count the strips.

Yes. Count them.

Because that tragic strip that has just sent your world spinning and the quilt top you were planning running down the drain, just might end up being a bonus.

A wonky bonus. But it's extra fabric nonetheless.

Who said there were no thrills and roller coaster rides when you're a quilter?

Thanks 'jelly roll machine'. Send me your wonky strips anytime you want.

Something pretty this way comes.....

A scrummy jelly roll of Moda's Bliss by Bonnie & Camille ordered from the Fabric Shack along with a few other goodies thanks to the fabulous Australian/US dollar exchange rate. Now to pull that little ribbon and let those 40 pieces of fabric tumble free and a day of cutting and hopefully piecing!

I slightly under estimated.....

....my children's desire to have a Halloween celebration this year!

R argued that seeing as the 31st fell on a Sunday we should have a party. Next thing, there's 20 names on a list and invitations created. It would appear that some of my professional event organising skills have rubbed off with R completely taking charge! Yay!So we got to and picked up a couple of pumpkins, handed out the invites, and set about baking.It was a fabulous party and my only regret is that next year Halloween won't be on a weekend!

R was scary phsyco doll and L was Edward Scissorhands. Looks like the Tim Burton exhibiton really left an impression on both of them!

I ended up making 4 table runners of various proportions, fabric cuts and quilting styles and all of out scrap.
Now the cauldron and spider webbing is packed away....which is a good thing because I'm a little over orange and black!