A quilty finish - for Robina

Only six weeks later than I'd hoped! Ah well, I'm sure it will be appreciated by Robina, who has been a professional seamstress for 60 years - fortunately she is no quilter, so I don't feel afraid that my standards won't bear up under her scrutinising!It's a lap quilt (37" x 40") made it to help celebrate her 80th birthday and made to match the table runner I made for her for Christmas. It's a Denyse Schmidt pattern (Hop, Skip and a Jump) from Denyse Schmidt Quilting - you've seen it on my blog before - it's been a favourite! The fabric is mostly Moda Porcelain. I quilted wavy lines in King Tut variegated blue thread and the quilt includes my first attempt at piping in the binding. It is a bit wonky, but I'm hoping that people will think it intentional to meet the wonky strippy piecing! Lesson learned: don't do piping unless you are 100% sure your edges are straight and that you can sew straight. Apparently they weren't/I can't! (Sorry about the appalling photography - it was late in the day and the light levels were not good.)It's nice to get this finished. Uni starts back this week so my crafting time will be reduced, although Romily has two long sessions at playschool this term, which might help my productivity levels!

[Edited with improved photos! They're still not great, but are better.]

Pretty blues

One last Christmas craft post. I managed to put this table runner (using mostly Moda Porcelain range blues) together on Christmas Eve (with Carl, Romily and Granddad out of the house for the morning) and stitched the binding down on Christmas Day. I quilted it with wavy lines across the width - they look very effective with the slightly curved edges of the strippy piecing - and they had the added bonus of not having to tie in any ends! It's for Granddad's companion Robina. He delivered it to her upon his return to Bendigo. I haven't heard whether she liked it yet, but Granddad remarked that the fabrics I'd chosen perfectly matched Robina's fruit bowl - so I'm guessing it's now on display in her home!Granddad seemed to love the one I made him - he commented that it would match his decor perfectly. Hoorah!

And still with my head swelling from my new-found fame (hahahaha), the photo and story about our special Christmas visitor will be published in a forthcoming edition of Talking Birds. What a laugh! I am a micro-celebrity in the world of twitters!

A finish! Marina's Midwest Modern Quilt

I finished sewing on the label of the quilt I made for Romily's old playgroup leader at 9am this morning and we presented it to Marina at 9.30am! Nothing like a deadline to get me moving. She said she was all teary when she opened it because she loved it and the gesture behind it. Isn't it wonderful to have someone who's not a quilter appreciate all the work that goes into it. She said she loved the fabrics and I made my first photo label (after loudly cursing the manufacturers of the printable fabric sheets when the backing would not peel off and I had to scrape it off under water) with a picture of Romily in the play ground at her last playgroup session. Marina was stoked. It was well worth staying up till 1am to get it finished!(For some reason Blogger is uploading this photo on its side...)

I'm quite happy with the quilt, although my machine quilting leaves a lot to be desired. I am truly hopeless at basting and it got a bit bunchy in the middle. Thankfully only fellow quilters scrutinise such things! I am going to have to get better at basting. I think more practice is in order. The finished quilt measures 41" x 44" and was made mostly from Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabrics.

Romily had a great morning at playschool - no tears, no dramas. What a relief! We thought she would be okay, but you never can be sure. Tristan and I had a nice time cruising around at the local shopping centre. I had a lovely, uninterrupted hot chocolate and an apple slice. I am enjoying having a portable, mostly undemanding baby while I can!

Finally something quilty

She crafts! I have made some good progress on the lap quilt I'm making for Romily's playgroup leader - Rom's last session is on Monday and then next term she'll go up to playschool, where we'll drop her off and pick her up - it will be her first time away from us (other than when my mum and a couple of friends have kindly babysat), so it's a pretty big deal!
Marina has been really great with Romily, and she likes pink, so I think she'll like this lap quilt when it's finished. I like how the fabrics are working so far. I still have to sew the blocks together, put two borders on it, as well as sandwich, quilt and bind it, so I don't think it'll be ready for Monday. We'll give it to Marina on the first day of the next term - Rom can pay her a visit - her new class is in the adjacent room :)

The gorgeous pressies for Tristan keep arriving. This one is from ChookyBlue - it's a size 00, so a bit big for Tristan to model for you now, but will be a perfect sleep suit for cool summer nights. Thanks very much Donna :)

And today I bought a couple of new bits of clothing for Romily, who is growing like a weed. She has suddenly grown out of all her pyjamas - the summer ones from last year are all way too small. I discovered In the Night Garden PJs in Target today, so got one set from the girls' section and one from the boys'. I hate it how the clothing is so stereotyped in these shops - I usually buy Rom's PJs from the boys' section, as the girls' ones are just so prissy! She loves her Iggle Piggle pyjamas, as you can see!

It is tough being a baby

Especially when you get your first cold/cough at less than four weeks of age. Poor Tristan. He has come down with the lurgy that we're all suffering with. I have been crook as a dog, and, being a breastfeeding mother, unable to take anything other than paracetamol. My throat's been up for nearly a week now, and I am keeping Butter Menthols in short supply across Canberra. We finally remembered yesterday that we had a jar of Vicks Vaporub in Romily's cupboard, so all of us (except Tristan) got that smeared across our chests and throats last night - it really helped! I am feeling marginally better this afternoon, so let's hope we're all going to improve...and soon.

So, life is tough for Tristan - he has a terrible cough and has been sleeping only in my arms for a good part of the day - he's been very hard to settle between sleeps and I've had to swaddle him for day sleeps as well as night sleeps. He's still feeding quite well, so I'm not too worried about him. He's too young for any medicine - the best I can do for him is keep feeding him whenever he looks like he might take a feed. Thankfully the projectile 'possets' have decreased in number - although I did cop a huge blert right down my top this arvo!

Unfortunately our illness coincided with my father-in-law's visit this past weekend. He was very happy to finally meet his much-longed-for grandson, but we were not exactly scintillating company!
Romily of course loved having him come to visit. She loves all of her grandparents :)
Very little in the way of crafting going on here. I did manage to start cutting up some of this Amy Butler Midwestern Modern fabric for the throw.This Moda Porcelain fabric is destined for throw #2. Hopefully I'll get a bit more done in the next few days. The deadline for throw #1 is Monday, so I have a week!
And last, but definitely not least, look what the postman delivered this week! Helen made this gorgeous miniature wall hanging for Tristan - it is a beautiful as it looks. The stippling is TINY! Helen it's wonderful and Tristan loves looking at it on the wall above his change table while I'm getting down to the business end of things! Thank you very much!

Happy Mother's Day

Okay, so I'm a day late, but hey! Happy Mother's Day to all the mummies out there. I hope you all had a good day. These flowers came to me the week before mother's day - a present from Carl. Isn't he wonderful?

My day on Sunday was just lovely. A card and special Bruno's truffles from Carl and Romily (the card came complete with a smiley face drawing by Rom) was followed by breakfast made by Carl (Rom will no doubt be all over that next year!) and then a trip to the zoo.

Romily helped me make a carrot and walnut cake, which we left cooking while we had a sleep together. Carl took it out of the oven for me while we were still sleeping. Unfortunately the thermostat on our oven is stuffed and no matter how much I reduce the temperature and cooking time by, it burns the tripe out of the top and sides and leaves the middle uncooked! I ended up putting the cake in the microwave to finish it off, but of course that dried it out. I iced it with cream cheese icing anyway and we're eating it over the next few days! No more cakes here - I think I'll stick to muffins and slices! I will post a copy of the muffin recipe I'm using in the next couple of posts...just have to type it up!

Then we went round to our friends' house for a late afternoon tea - I didn't end up taking my poor excuse for a cake - a good thing too, as there was oodles of cake already there!!

Romily was on her best behaviour all day and was an absolute delight. Bub#2 got in on the act with some kicking during a Braxton Hicks contraction. That was not delightful! A reminder of what's to come in three short months!

I quite enjoyed the course last week - it was probably the best leadership course I've been on, as it was run by a couple of really fantastic faciliators and tailored to the Australian Public Service, which is a peculiar beast and has plenty of foibles! They really got us to take a long hard look at our lives and realise that family is far more important than work could ever be...it put what I'm doing at work in perspective and made me realise that I'm devoting way too much energy to things I can't change at work, not leaving me with enough energy for what's most important to me - my family. I am working towards destressing about work and just doing my best every day without taking on everyone else's work! Let's see how long I can keep that up. I finish up work in less than 10 weeks now, so I won't have a choice soon :)

Here are a couple of photos of the table runner I made for my mum for mother's day.
It's also from the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book - in the book it's a full single bed quilt, but I thought it would make a really interesting table runner and it did. I did simple hand quilting on the red fabrics - I think it really works. Might even be tempted to use these blocks again (there are three in this table runner) for a full quilt one day.

Dress for Romily

While Rom was more than happy to help out with drawing a winner for the giveaway on Sunday, the little bugger, er I mean darling, would not, point blank, try on the dress I made for her! Little so and so! Nearly three and full of independence...I just don't know where she gets that from...

So, a photo of the dress on a hanger will just have to do.
And yes, the decorations on the box were Romily's work! She loves 'decorating' things, and talks about when she gets bigger she can have her own 'chine' (sewing machine) and pins and will make quilts for her little brother. Gorgeous! Another quilter in the making :)

We received some more wonderful mail during the week. The very generous Doodlebug Gail sent Romily some more Dora the Explorer books, some stickers and some Dora band-aids! Gail's daughter thought the 'little girl in Australia' might like some - oh yes she did! Thank you so much Gail for thinking of us on the other side of the world. Although it is a bit strange explaining to Romily why some of the words are in Spanish! I love it though, as I would hope that Rom learns a language or two just as I did. I never learnt Spanish, but studied French and Italian at school and at university, so I can understand a lot of Spanish and was able to pick up a bit of conversation on my two visits there. Hopefully one day I can get to South America and learn a bit more!

I'm heading off for a couple of days this week - I'm on a leadership course as part of my professional development with work. I'll miss Rom and Carl terribly, but it will be nice to have some time out!

I am taking with me a table runner/bed dresser that I'm making for my mum for mother's day, which is this coming Sunday. The pattern is another one from the Denyse Schmidt book in my previous post. I have finished it bar the hand quilting. I hope to get some work done on it after the group dinner each night. Mum's away in Tasmania for a couple of weeks, so if the present goes into the post early next week, it'll be waiting for her when she gets home. It's looking good, so I'll post a photo on the weekend when I return from my travels.

And the winner is...

It was all excitement here this morning, as Romily helped oversee the drawing of the winning name for my first ever giveaway!
All the names on little pieces of paper folded up inside the box...
Here comes the winner...
Hey, how does this work? Oh it's upside down - the name is Gabrielle!
And Gabrielle, who has just announced she is pregnant with number two, is the lucky winner of two quilted oven mitts.
These adorable creations are from the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book, made with Denyse Schmidt fabrics. I hope you enjoy using them as much as I did making them Gabrielle. Email me with your address and they'll soon be on their way :)