Sea of green and blue.....

Do you ever have good intentions to make a gift and then you run out of time and end up buying something instead? Well this quilt is exactly that.

I started to make this quilt back in October in good time for Christmas. Then other things got in the way (which was totally my doing) so I decided to not fuss, buy a gift and give it to the recipient for her birthday.

Her birthday is tomorrow! I've done it again!

The fabric is all Amy Butler and the design is completely inspired by Faith's Autumn Squares. It's based on disappearing 9 patch blocks however, after cutting they're not reassembled but sashed instead. I finished the last of the borders yesterday afternoon. Made a mad dash to the local quilt shop before it closed to make a new selection for the backing on account of not liking what I'd ordered on-line and managed to baste it last night.

I won't finish it in time for tomorrow due to other weekend commitments but luckily the recipient is my sister who will be away interstate for a few days so I've bought myself a couple of extra days to finish! I just have to make sure I don't squeeze in some other projects before this one.

Speaking of the local quilt shop. For all quilters in Adelaide, Hetties Patch has taken over the shop next door. It's huge and full of even more gorgeous fabrics.

Yum.....

I stumbled across a bargain purchase a few weeks back at our local Spotlight store - a shopping trolley full of 6 1/2" craftwood letters for $1.89 each. Seeing as I have paid a lot more than that for R's room, I found myself rifling the contents, without any real purpose to what I might have unearthed but the $1.89 each had me going. I was kind of hoping to at least put L's name together. Whilst his name is short he has quite few vowels and an 'S' so it was looking slim. Generally speaking a bargain trolley of letters usually means that you're only going to get the ones that no-one else needs.

So after a good 5 minutes of delving, constantly telling myself I didn't need to spend the money, I found 3 little letters. After a spray or five of red paint, they now sit over my cookbooks.

Fig Jam....

Our next door neighbour has a fantastic fig tree that hangs over our driveway.

We lose a lot that fall before we're ready to do anything with them which is a pain to rake up and discard. We also lose some to the laurekeets and the devotees that just love figs who call by for a handful or five.

So before they disappeared completely I picked a few kilos to make some fig jam.

Normally I would have made the 'straight' jam with fruit and sugar that my dad taught me how to make but I decided to do something different. I found a recipe that calls for vanilla pods and cinnamon sticks and lemon. It's a cracker! An absolutely divine brew of 8 jars of fig jam that I don't think will last too long.I also found another recipe that uses granny smith apples, cinnamon sticks and star anise. I think I'll have a go at that one next but given the reaction of the residents I might have an argument on my hands!

Northern Lights

This is the Art Gallery of South Australia lit like an opal as part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts' Northern Lights display along North Terrace in the city. Pretty stunning!

Topsy Turvy.....

It's been a mixed up world around here and that's resulted in one thing.....not enough quilting!

With all the work going on in the hallway and the resulting dust there's little chance of basting anything that has to be spread out on the floor. I'm not complaining (that would be nagging!) but it's just too dusty and rooms are overcrowed with furniture that we've moved from the hall. As a result I have a plethora of flimsies backed up. I often call myself 'the factory' and with all of these tops hanging around on hangers, it sure seems like one! It's nice to spend time piecing but I then start to feel guilty about not finishing things. And more than that, I lose my quilting confidence.

So to alieviate the guilt and to have a bit of practice to get back into the swing of things I threw together this little baby quilt using a cartwheel block of solids, spots, small stars and stripes. (Yes starting yet another project from scratch really did help!) These blocks measure approx. 8" square.

The cartwheel is a great block. Really simple and quite effective. I'm actually working on another larger version that's in the WIP pile. Look into it or squint a bit and you'll see the white background act as a cartwheel shape as well. (Also known as whirlygigs and jumping jacks.)The back is a tiny polka dot that I bought as a remnant for $2 and the binding is a blue and white polka dot. (I'm so pleased with the back - not one pucker! Yee Ha!)Again, it's all out of scraps and stash and measures approx 32" square. Very rewarding. It's going to the mum of one of R's basketball team members who's just had a little boy.

It's lovely to start something on a Saturday night and finish it on Sunday. I just wish the hallway would go as fast!

Who's a lucky girl then?

Me!Thank you family for my lovely, lovely birthday presents.

At least I got a look in....

We've been very lucky....if you can call it luck! R's fiberglass cast only needs to stay on for 10 days and is scheduled to come off this Thursday. I was very privileged and able to sign it tonight. I'm hoping the 'removalist' will be cutting through some of the pseudo celebrity signatures and keeping mine intact.