Time flies...

The last few days have been pretty crazy; I handed in my PhD thesis last Wednesday, after 3 1/2 years of hard work! Since then I've been celebrating in a few different ways. I started the day with breakfast with a couple of close friends, the followed up the "hand in" with lunch with my lab mates and supervisor. I also suprised my supervisor, Belinda, with a lap quilt that I had made especially for her. She was so overwealmed she burst into tears!

This is the quilt top, before I quilted it on my machine:

After a couple of days R&R, I headed down the beach with a friend for a weekend of chilling out, watching TV, eating way too much and hanging out with my beautiful dog Millie. Then today I've come home, and purchased myself two of those beautiful Moda "Cotton Blossoms" jelly rolls; they are available in two colour-ways, "mother" and "daughter", and I've chosen the latter for those two patterns that I purchased a couple of weeks ago. Now I just need to buy a few bits of yardage, and I've got two more quilts to put together...

Anyway, now that i've got more free time, hopefully I can post a bit more of what I'm up to!

Busy Busy

The last few days have been hectic as anything. I spent Wednesday and Thursday finishing off my PhD thesis; checking references and page numbers, writing my acknowledgements and so forth. Then yesterday was "print day". I reckon it took about 3 hours to get the whole thing printed the way I wanted, and then photocopied for a total of four copies. Today was more about flipping through to make sure everything was where it should be, adding in the last appendix and so forth. So now it just needs to go off for binding (bit like a quilt really), and then I submit during the week!

Isnt it a huge document!

In the mean time, I've been playing around with one of the Flossies designed by Melly &Me. The one Im currently working on is Dilbert, the dinosaur. So far Ive got the body done, he just needs to be flipped inside out and stuffed, then have his eyes and patches stitched on.

Anyway, I've developed a lovely case of RSI in my index finger from all the computer work this week, so I think its time to move onto some sewing.

Life Changes

I got an email yesterday about a job I had applied for, and first thing this morning I was on the phone to the US being interviewed! I'm currently looking for my first "real" job, so this was pretty exciting, and incredibly nerve-wracking at the same time. It seemed to go well, so I guess I just have to wait and see now...

And, just like a well-deserved reward, my postie arrived at the door with another parcel this morning. Inside, two gorgeous jelly rolls that I ordered last week.

Hemming House:

Winter:

I'm not sure yet what to do with either of them, but I'm sure I'll think of something! Any suggestions welcome.

In the meantime, I'm piecing a quilt that I bought a while ago. It's a gorgeous kit from Amitie in Melbourne. I finished the blocks a while ago, as they are simple with large pieces, but I'm in the process of stitching all the sashing on...

Goodies in the post

I love getting things in the post; its probably why I spend so much time on eBay! Tucked away on my doorstop when I got home today was a package from The Fat Quarter Shop. In the parcel was two cute patterns from Thimble Blossoms that I couldn't resist, and 5 yards of plain white fabric.

Both the patterns use the lovely, to-be-released, "Cotton Blossoms" line from Moda. It should hit stores in September, so I'm hanging out for that.

Ive also got grand plans for the white fabric; I love those quilts that use the white to frame lovely charm squares such as this one.

To close, I think an introduction to my gorgeous cat Bella is required. She is a pure white cat, and completely deaf which is common in white cats. She is also an indoor cat, so she is a tad naughty. Her most recent accomplishment has been to remove all the ornaments from our fireplace mantel...and replace them with herself!

Introductions

After reading a number of quilting blogs over the last few months, I thought it was finally time to start my own. It seems the best way to share my work and ideas with people, and get to know others in the quilting community.



I started quilting two years ago, with a fantastic pattern that I found in Homespun magazine (#34, Flower Garden Quilt). With large squares, it was perfect for a beginner, and a reasonable size for hand quilting. I don't have any good photos of the whole quilt, but I do have one of a close-up of some of the quilting.

Anyway, hopefully over the next few days I can upload photos of some of the quilts I've done so far; however, I do only have 10 days of uni left, so I'll do my best!