Skipping Girl....

I have been working on my Skipping Girl Katie Jump Rope quilt for ages and that's not even counting in the time that I dreamt of owning a quilt with these fabrics and the time it took to acquire the fabrics.

I cut the squares out in October 2009 and pieced the front in January 2010 school holidays. It has been folded over a coat hanger as a flimsie since then.

The reason it stalled again was because I just could not decide on a backing that would do these gorgeous fabrics justice.

I bought fabrics on line only to discard it once it arrived. I bought others from various stores only to decide they were too brazen for these subtle 'working class' prints. It was a dilema.

Then one night, or maybe it was the wee morning hours, as I tossed and turned in one of those wretched half awake sleeps I seem to have these days, I suddenly remembered the batch of solids that I had just purchased for my Munki Munki quilt. By jingo....so many of these colours were very similar to those used in the Katie Jump Rope range. And as solids, they weren't going to compete with the prints.

I had around 15" left of my matching horde so I cut strips of 10" and 5". I thought these widths were mathematically appropriate given the front squares were 5".

So......

Wash the dishes, dry the dishes,

have a cup of tea.

Don't forget the sugar.

A-one, a two, a three......

I'm thrilled! The Skipping Girl quilt is now back on the agenda for a finish!

He's done it again....

L attended a school friend's birthday party yesterday.

When I phoned to RSVP I asked, seeing as it was on a pirate invitation, if the boys had to dress up.

"Yes....has he got any camouflage gear?", replied B's mother.

Huh?

"It's a laser skirmish party....well it's not really because it's outside, so it's not really laser...but they'll be running around with guns doing skirmish......do you think L will be all right with that?"

"Ahh....yes", I said gathering my thoughts, "and if he's not we'll deal with it."

This party had all the hallmarks of being problematic if ever there was one! Not to mention that I have never purchased a gun or weapon for L, apart from the super soaker for the pool and the odd sword for dress ups. He does however have a plethora of video games that involve the odd shoot up, shoot them down action. All that aside, he's never been one to 'play' soldiers etc.

Leading up to the party I tried to explain to L what was going to happen.

This is particularly important because L has a severe receptive and expressive language disorder. Communicating and understanding his surroundings and peers is often extremely difficult. Melt-downs are inevitable. Explaining the day's proceedings was made even more important when one of the mums came up to me at last week's birthday party (must be birthday season!) and said that they'd been discussing whether L would cope whilst they were all standing on the sidelines at football that weekend. Now L's abilities are the subject of mother gossip....and some are brazen enough to repeat it back to me! My jaw dropped open and for once every witty retort I'm very capable of delivering fell silent as I just nodded and agreed rather meekly, "that of course he would be."

We got to the party and had another quiet word. I told L that if he didn't like it, that would be OK but try and have fun.....what else do you say?

The set up was fantastic with inflatable barricades and the guns which operate on infra-red sensors were impressive. The boys were super excited.

He lined up for the briefing with the boys. There were a lot of instructions presented by the gruff co-ordinator in army fatigues. I worried about how much he was absorbing but he was getting the slapstick and keeping up with the jokes.

Teams were assigned. L was in red which was positive as that's his favourite colour.

They played. He played. He contributed. He was involved. There was no melt down. No tears (only from the losing team which was blue!). He had a blast.

I went home a very happy mum, surprised at L's ability to handle the sitations that I think (and other people by all accounts) he won't cope with and left L to tell the tale. Good on you L!

Let's hope the discussion at this week's football game will consist of what a good team player L is!

AQC....8 months and counting....

The girls made an executive decision at last Thursday's Sew & Sews and that was that now that the dates have been released for the 2011 Australasian Quilt Convention, we would take advantage of current low priced airfares and fly over the Melbourne for the day.The dates are 14th to 17th April. Saturday is the 16th. I reckon that's 8 months plus one from now! Whooo hooo!For quilters, this is an exhibition not to be missed....even if it's just to spend the day in Melbourne's beautiful Royal Exhibition Hall. We had a blast earlier this year and vowed to come back. Now we're on our way!
On the production line front....I finished the binding on my Munki Munki Rainbow quilt this morning.It's pretty dismal here today, cold and incredibly windy and obliging quilt holder uppers are in short supply. I've managed a few shots but due to the size (80" x 65"), it's impossible for me to get a complete shot on my own. I've still got threads to tidy up, so that's probably not a bad thing!I've used the last of my Ikea heart fabric on the back and bound the quilt in a white on orange polka dot. Speaking of which. Why is it called 'polka'? Humm....need to wiki that one!

Plodding along....

I managed to squeeze in some time on the weekend to baste my Munki Munki Rainbow quilt only to find that my planned time to quilt was turned upside down. I ended up having to stay with L at a school friend's birthday party....actually I was called back as soon as I'd got home, so that was even worse! But that's another story.

So I've been catching an hour here and there these past two nights to quilt. I have 8 more squares left to go which is just under a third, so I'll probably finish it off by tomorrow night. We have Sew & Sew's tonight...and you can't really travel with your quilting, so I'll be piecing my Hope Valley 1/2 square triangle instead.

I'm really happy with it so far. I've chosen what I would term a medium sized stipple. This is working well and not covering the beautiful munki munki prints beyond recognition! I love so many of these blocks, the images in the centre and the solid colour to frame them. I've managed to mix in some gorgeous aubergine, salmon, tomato, duck egg blue, violet and what's become my staple colour, celery.

I can't wait for this one to be finished!

Half square triangle charm.....

Having successfully finished the little Rainbow Magic 1/2 square triangle quilt, I've braced myself and begun a full sized project.
I've whipped out the notebook, calculator and my collection of Hope Valley fat quarter fabrics and after several calculations and permutations I decided on 5" squares....the same as charm squares. I debated about 6" which gives a convenient cut out of the 18" side of the fat quarter but I don't know....it just seemed too big for what I want to make. (And I can always use the off-cuts in something else!)
The combo is the full suite of Hope Valley (24 colours) and Kona Solid Ash. Quite vintage and already yielding a few 'ooh's and ahhs' from certain members of the family!

Tickling my fancy.....

This is not what I'm currently working on.
It's what's working on me!
A lovely pile of Anna Maria Horner Garden Party prints that I've pulled out of the cupboard, piled up, unfolded, re-folded and re-stacked. Gorgeous!

Rainbow magic finish....

Quite possibly the only chance to see a rainbow in today's dreary sky as I managed to dodge the rain and sneak some shots in of the now completed Rainbow Magic baby quilt.

I'm very pleased with the finished result and am sure that the soon-to-be parents will be as well. Mind you, they're still getting over the 'magic' of having a baby....but that's another story for another time!

The back features a stripey fabric from Ikea which apart from the co-ordinating splashes of colour it provides it's also very wide and meant that there are no joins in the back....kind of a blessing with all the other joins of the 1/2 square triangles! Just a bit of a challenge to make sure that the backing fabric was straight. Mine is slightly skewed!
The binding is tiny white polka dot on orange. Lovely!
Now to package it up and send it off to Surrey in the UK.