Mission accomplished....

After what ended up being one of those frightful days at work when an urgent job crops up and you're the only one in the office and you end up working from whoa-to-go sorting out...I doubly couldn't wait to get home. One, for the glass of wine to calm me down and two, to finish off my last block for my Swoon quilt. There's nothing better than putting it all behind you for some creative time behind the pedal of the Bernina! So mission accomplished! The last block is finished (top left)....now onto the sashing and borders. Here is the complete set on the floor. It's already looking rather large....I can't wait for it to be all neatly sashed and better yet....quilted!

And then there was eight....

I have finished my eighth Swoon block! The last two have been sitting around for weeks now whilst I've picked up other projects instead. So last night I got stuck into number eight and managed to add it to the other seven in the complete pile. Now with just one more to go and bashing out a blog post in between getting ready to go to work.....I'm wishing the day to go fast so I can finish off the last one tonight! Funny how that happens! Like the others this block features Denyse Schmidt's Picnic and Fairgrounds (Spotlight). Pattern is Swoon by Camille Roskelly.

Pixels....

There are a few babies on the horizon....and I love that because it gives me a break from working on some of my other bigger works in progress in favour of smaller, quicker and experimental projects. One of the babes is definitely a boy the others are surprises so I can't get too gender specific with quilts made prior to their arrivals. This little quilt is totally inspired by this one and is an experiment in using small scraps of solid fabrics set against a solid background. It's also an experiment in arcs of straight line quilting which I've been itching to try....and now that I have, I can tick it off my list or reserve it for small projects in the future! Let's just say this kind of quilting is impressive but it is also an exercise in quilt wrangling!
T R I C K Y ! The little patches of colour were initially joined as strips and then cross cut to create strips made of smaller squares and rectangles and re-joined to create the blocks. It became quite a challenge to see how many I could create out of my solids collection (otherwise known as the scrappy little bits of fabric in the plastic bag that I couldn't bear to throw away!). I ended up with 6 blocks, 4 square-ish and 2 rectangle and I think they look like pixels! I love how each of these solid colours look so bland on their own but when they've joined a community, they just sing, even the violet! The layout evolved as I joined in the background to make the top....I say evolved because I did make some mistakes in my calculations and cutting and ended up with a sightly different placement to my original plan! But....seeing as I can't remember what that was now, we move on! The backing fabric is more of the Ikea birds from the Cecelia range, this time in the coffee colour. I think I've managed to use all the colours now. The binding is an aqua spotty negative from Spotlight. Here it is sitting on the little stool rescued from the side of the road. It's had a little aqua makeover along with some other bits of furniture but that my friends it the topic of another post.....
Quilt stats:
Measures: approx 40" x 42"
Fabric: selection of solids from Kona and Spotlight Homespun, Ikea Cecelia birds, Spotlight spotty negative in aqua
Quilted: opposing arches of straight lines, filled with arrow head points
Quilted by: me!

Aw shucks.....

The very lovely Michelle sent me a photo of her beautiful little man lying on his Sherbet Pips quilt. Talk about the gift that keeps giving......!

Never work with children and animals.....

It's so true especially the feathered variety! Oh what fun and frustration I've had today as I spent most of it wrangling chickens. Serious....! Let me explain. I've been absent from my blog lately as I've been on a steep learning curve with my latest modules towards my business degree. I've been learning a new language. Not a spoken language but the language of XHTML and CSS (AKA hypertext markup language and cascading style sheets). I tell you, for an old chook like me, that's a serious learning curve. My head spins to say the least. My latest assignment requires the creation of a website design around existing XHTML content. My idea incorporates a 'chicken' theme (the chook look!) and will feature a rusted corrugated iron background, old fence palings and russet coloured hens. If you're a reader of my blog you'll know about our feathered visitor from over the fence. We call her Haighs as in the chocolates, as she first started to vist a few Easters ago (she really is that old!). She's like having a pet without the responsibility....and sometimes the odd benefit or two. Right on cue she obligingly arrived this morning and I quickly grabbed the compost bucket and the camera. ....Hummm...not a performing chicken that's for sure. So I called my friend Kathryn who has three gorgeous birds. I've just returned from an afternoon crouching around her backyard pointing the Nikon this way and that. It's not easy shooting a chook....they're fickle and completely self indulgent preferring to peck and shake their bottom at you rather than posing....as if I hadn't experienced that this morning! Just as we gave up and Kathryn began to put them back in their pen, they jumped up on the old bathtub and posed in a row. I think they were smiling at me, secretly thanking me for allowing them to have a bit of a run in the backyard and urging us to look closer. Inside the bathtub was their gift....eggs galore... a dozen in fact! And now I'm home looking at the fruits of my labour, some of those shots aren't too bad....back to assignment. Thanks chooks!

Semi moment of fame....

Camille Roskelly the designer of my current favourite ranges of fabric, Bliss and Ruby, and the designer of my current favourite quilt pattern, Swoon, is featuring all the Swoon blocks from her Flickr site on her most recent blog post. And guess what? I'm part of the post! How cool is that? I'm mildly chuffed. Thanks Camille.
Here's the link....my blocks are 16th from the bottom....that will force you to look at them all now, won't it!
And seeing how gorgeous everyone else's quilts are, I better get a wriggle on to finish mine....two more blocks to go!

Eighty.....

My mum turned 80 yesterday. If my dad had still been with us, he would have been 80 today. Mum and Dad were just one day apart in age but they were totally in sync. I'm really sad that he's not here but I'm so happy for mum that she can now be classed as an octogenarian. Don't get me wrong, she's had a rough time of it lately having just come out of hospital ten days ago following her second shoulder reconstruction. Mind you, given a couple more complaints that she'd like righted, she could almost aim for bionic status. Needless to say, with her recent surgery and recovery, celebrations for her 80th were pretty much put on hold. So much so, it caught me completely unawares. So just last Monday, a week ago from today, I suddenly realised I didn't even have a present for her (gosh I hope she doesn't read my blog!). What do you buy for an 80 year old? I couldn't think of anything that she didn't already have or couldn't possibly use. How about a quilt? Yeh....a quilt, I can do that. So last Monday I raided the cupboard. Some time back, I had won a Moda Botany charm pack from the lovely Lorraine of Small Quilts. It's the only thing I have ever won online and Lorraine was very gracious awarding me a random prize draw even though I didn't get the answer right! My prize was divine and at the time I set about building on it, gathering 3 more charm packs and enough fabric for the backing and binding. After the recent success of my sister-in-law's charm square quilt, I thought another was in order. So each night this past week I sewed a bit at a time to ensure that it was finished in time. Monday morning, idea, Monday night, selection and join the squares into pairs and fours. Tuesday laid it out on the floor and joined strips and front. Wednesday made backing and basted. Thursday night quilted. Friday night bought chocolate solid binding (because previous selection was soooo not going to work) and attached binding. Saturday night, hand stitched binding. Sunday morning stitched on 'Little Sew & Sews' tag. Voila! Happy birthday mummy! xxx

Quilt specifications:
Fabric: front 4 charm packs of Moda Botany by Lauren & Jessi Jung, backing Botany in Coral Pink, binding chocolate solid homespun from Spotlight
Measures: 62" x 54"
Quilted: free motion by me!
For: mum