Current WIP

Well, it’s been 6 months (!!!) since I last posted anything. I always said i wouldn’t be one of those people who would let their blog lay idle….how naive of me!

There has certainly been a big project underway in the past 6 months though, and it’s the reason I haven’t posted. We are adding a little Peanut to our family …. yes a new little R will join us sometime around mid-June, and we couldn’t be happier!

It has been very exciting, but challenging, so far. The first 16 weeks were rough! I could barely stay awake (or upright for that matter) let alone sit at a computer and type. Everything appears to be tracking along well though now, so we have been busy trying to prepare (as well as we can) for the new arrival.

To celebrate me re-joining the blogging world I thought I would take a couple of pictures of Bump, as that’s the other thing that has suffered this past 6 months. I have not taken my camera out at all! And, that’s sacrilege!

So, it’s April 1, but this is no joke …. I am back, more inspired and feeling more creative than ever. Thanks for being here too!

Bump Close Up

Me at 29 weeks.

A project of firsts.

I’m so happy to have ticked another quilt top off the list! You may remember a while ago I posted about my All Squared Out quilt? Well today I finally finished all the borders on the quilt!

This quilt has many firsts for me:

• It’s the first quilt I’m making for hubby.
• It’s the first quilt in which I used my 1/4″ foot on my machine (and I haven’t looked back!).
• It’s the first time I used a layer cake.
• It’s the first quilt in which I have used a solid fabric as a significant part of the quilt.
• It was also the first quilt I followed a pattern for.

With still a long way to go, I am also hoping this might be the first quilt that I will do my own machine quilting on. Some people might say it’s a big project to attempt this on…but today I am thinking “go hard, or go home!”. Wish me luck!

Quilt top hanging from makeshift hangers.

Pezzy print close up!

Big squares and small squares.

Crossing something off the list

I’ve had a bit of an unplanned blogging break. No real reason for it although sickness and feeling sorry for myself played a bit of a part (more on that at a later date). BUT, I’m back now with a vengeance! In fact, in the past hour I have 100% finished my very first quilt (which some of you may remember from here) and baked Banana Bread!

After going back over my old posts I realised the last thing I told you about was that I was hand quilting my sampler quilt. Since finishing that in record time (I was enjoying myself so much I think I had it completed before my next class a week later!), it was on to hand sewing the binding. Usually this is the final step in most quilts, but one of the things about our teacher’s sampler quilt is the knitted edging added to it, and this is what I have been working on for the past few weeks, and which today I finally finished.

Here are some pics to give you a bit of an idea on the final product. Enjoy!

Hand stitching the binding

The entire sampler quilt in all its glory!

Backing fabric and knitted edge

A bit more detail

All folded up and ready for use.

Spring is Here!

We have been so lucky to have had beautiful weather this past week or two. Spring has definitely arrived when you look around at the colour that is surrounding us…from the flowers in the garden to the new fashions in the stores…it definitely feels like a happy time of year!

As luck would have it, with the change of season I managed to catch some sort of bug, so I haven’t been well this past week. Today though, I managed a yoga class in the morning and then spent some time in the garden. I should have grabbed the proper camera to capture these photos, but even so I think the iPhone has captured the mood of our backyard at the moment.

I didn’t know the name of this plant until today but the following plant is called a Clivia Miniata or Winter Lily (thanks Jenn for pointing me in the right direction!).

Beautiful don’t you think?

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Native to South Africa, it’s not surprising this plant is doing well in our garden in Sydney. Lucky for me is the fact it’s apparently near impossible to kill this plant!! It certainly is thriving after a little bit of TLC though. It makes me smile every time I look out the window to this burst of colour. Ah Springtime…I’m glad you are here.

Day 31: Challenge Completed!

Last day of August and this will make 31 consecutive posts! It’s such a great feeling of satisfaction knowing I set myself a challenge and I met it. Even better, a habit has been formed so regular posts will continue.

Now to apply the same principles to some other areas of my life….especially as Spring starts tomorrow!

Day 30: It’s always a good day when you learn something new.

I’m getting so much enjoyment from learning to quilt that I want to share every step, every new skill learned! You may recall I completed the top of my sampler quilt last week. Today I basted my quilt top, batting and backing with safety pins in preparation for quilting. This is a perfect job for the perfectionist like me (or so I thought) …smoothing out the quilt top to remove any wrinkles or fullness, making sure all 3 layers are aligned! However, even though I have prided myself on being a perfectionist (despite it frustrating people around me at times) quilting has also taught me to relax on being such a perfectionist at times, and this task did just that. I’m glad my outer border was cut 1/2″ wider than originally planned as it was tough getting the backing and the top to align (as we were tight on the backing material!). Oh well, sometimes you just have to let things go…and that’s OK!

Once the basting was done, it was then on to selecting some Perle thread to use for the hand quilting. As I didn’t have a particular colour theme happening with my quilt, this was the opportunity to try out some different coloured threads in the quilting as well…so this is the selection I went with.

Perle thread

Next it was on to actually quilting…so far only a small amount done, but I’m loving every minute of it, and I have such a big smile on my face!

Close up of my stitching

Not bad so far….

I’ve also been in touch with the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild and am attending their Sit & Sew group tomorrow night which I am so looking forward to. I really am loving meeting new people at the moment and having the chance to share ideas and inspiration…and I will have a few more dedicated hours to hand quilting my first quilt! Yay!

Day 29: I felt like a change

I thought I would try out the new WordPress theme Twenty Twelve on my blog. What do you think?