Imagine

I finally got my butt into gear and finished this quilt; the top had been sitting by my machine for a few too many months.

I used backing leftover from Catch a Falling Star and stippled the centre and the outer border, leaving the inner border unquilted. I also managed to use binding leftover from the larger quilt; I just cut the fabric a bit narrower than usual to get the length needed!

My step-mum is having a big birthday tomorrow, so I thought this would make a nice gift, and it matches a table runner I gave her for christmas 2008 which I know she really likes. She has been out of action since she and my sister were in a bad car accident last year (not their fault), so a lap quilt is something that will get used a lot.

A bit of garden news (for Jodie!); my girl pumpkins are finally flowering. The first few fell off before flowering but it looks like they are finally making progress!

And I'd better get back into the kitchen; I'm making a Cookies and Cream cheesecake for the birthday lunch.

A Little Ray of Sunshine

As the weather warms up, I find myself spending less time at the sewing machine, and more time outside pottering around in the garden. As a result, progress on Imagine has been a bit slow, but the centre is finally done, with only the borders left to do. I have never made such wonky, non-square blocks in my life, but it seems to have come together ok (with a bit of not-so-gentle easing).

My vegie garden has finally started to be a bit more productive; I pulled up my first carrots on the weekend, and I've just picked some peas and broadbeans for dinner. The snow peas have gone nuts, so I've taken to just picking them off and eating them while I potter around the garden.

I've just taken a banana cake from the oven; it smells divine! It's meant to have passionfruit icing, but I think I'm going to make lemon instead, as I've still got plenty of those hanging on the tree!

To make this cake, cream 125g butter with 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs and beat until combined. Then stir in 1 1/2 cups SR flour, 1 tsp mixed spice, 1/2 tsp bi carb soda, 2 mashed bananas, 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/4 cup milk. Pour into a loaf time (15x25cm) and bake at 180 degrees C (160 fan-forced) for 50 min. Cool in tin for 5 min then remove onto cooling rack. Ice as desired.

Today is the first day of a five day break from work...hopefully I can start getting into Simple Abundance in the next few days....only three weeks of work to go!

Madness and Mayhem

It's been a crazy 24 hours here in Melbourne. I got home from work yesterday to find one of my two dogs, Jack, missing. Poor Millie was sitting by the back door wimpering. A frantic dash outside and a bit of yelling for Jack, and my neighbour stuck his head over the fence to say that Jack was with them. He'd dug three holes, got out of the backyard, and was found wandering around the street by the neighbour, so they'd taken him in for the day. This is the third escape this year! At least he is home safe, and I spent some time today filling and and blocking up a lot of holes!

After that was all sorted, I headed to my physio appointment...and got taped up again! I've been forced into good posture, so I can't slump at the moment. It's not going to stop me doing any sewing though. It does stop me from sleeping on my side though, which I'm not too happy about.

Then last night I decided to end the week with a bit of a girls night in; some TV, pizza, a bottle of wine, and the company of a Canadian friend. So, we'd finished eating, and were chilling on the couches, when my chair moved and the door behind be banged. I figured it was just Bella being silly, until the couch continued to shake, then the cabinet next to me (and the glass lamp on top) began to rattle like crazy. My friend and I just looked at each other, both clinging to the arms of our couches, thinking "It's not just me, is it?". It stopped after about 10 seconds, after which we dashed next door to find out if it was something, rather than just a glass of wine too many.

Turns out that it was a proper earthquake (my first), measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale, and was felt about 100km from the epicentre down in Gippsland (yep, near where they've had fires). No damage here, just a minor fright, followed by a bit of excitement. There have apparently been a few after-shocks, but minor (I think I noticed the one during the night...).

And...I finished piecing "Catch a Falling Star" this afternoon. It's too big to hang on the line for a photo, so I've had to drape is across the front lawn. The dappled sunlight makes it a bit hard to see, but you get the idea.

Falling Star Sneak Peek

I've been slowly plodding away on these blocks for the past couple of days, and I've got three of the eight rows assembled. Below is a bit of a peak at a few of the blocks.

I've just finished a session at the physio, so I won't be doing much more, if any, today...but hopefully over the next few days I can get a couple more rows together. I've also almost finished the Sheep quilt; just two borders left to stipple!

Whoops.

I spent the weekend working on the blocks for the falling star quilt, and by last night had all 68 economy blocks pieced and trimmed. Now they just need to be sashed, and they will be ready to assemble, though 12 will be turned into stars.

My whoops was a bit of an accident I had on Thursday; I misjudged my entry into my car, slipped and slammed my back into the door frame. Ive got a lovely bruise on my leg, and a very sore back, to the point where using my arms too much is very painful; mostly through the shouldblade area.

So it took me four days to put all those blocks together, working a little bit at a time. I'm off to the physio tomorrow, so hopefully they can get that sorted, as I use my arms alot for my job. I work in a lab, and there is a lot of repetitive hand work. I'm also hoping to get the Sheep quilt fully quilted Wednesday, so I'll need to be able to use my arms!

Till next time!

926

926...the number of pieces in "Catch a Falling Star"/"Simple City". I've learnt my lesson from 4OT and am now doing my cutting at the kitchen bench; it's higher, thereby reducing the strain on my back when I lean over to check the markings on the quilting ruler. But all the pieces are cut out now, and hopefully I can start sewing this afternoon/evening.

I've also got to get the sheep quilt basted up, as I'm quickly running out of time! C is having her baby shower in two weeks, though I wont be giving the quilt to her then. I'd rather by able to put the bub's name and DOB on it. So I've got to do a bit of shopping before then!

I also have some good news for a change; I've had my thesis bound up properly, and my title of Doctor is now completely official. It's nice to see my thesis sitting in the department alongside all those who have gone before me. I'm very happy with the binding; I found an old Hungarian gentleman who has been book binding for around 40 years, and does it all by hand.

Bossed around...by an iron?

Does anyone else own a bossy iron? Or is everyone reading this thinking I must be crazy? We bought a new iron recently, and if I leave it alone for too long, it beeps at me. And beeps some more, and some more. It beeps until I come and do my ironing. Bossy thing.

Anyway, I've finished off all the Winter blocks for the Boxed In quilt. The pic is of a handful of the blocks; I need to play around with them to work out how to arrange them before I sew them all together.

I want to thank everyone for their thoughts regarding the backing/binding of 4OT. I finally made a decision, blue for the backing, red for the binding.

I've started on my next big project. "Catch a Falling Star", which is a kit put together by The Fat Quarter Shop using Moda's Peace on Earth and Miss Rosie's Simple City pattern. I've had the kit since about April last year, and have been hanging out to work on it, but keep getting distracted by other (smaller) quilts. This afternoon (my day off), I've been cutting out the background fabric...I think I'm up to about 200 squares so far!

I always wonder if Bella gets bored when she is home alone....and I figure she would make the most of me being home for a day, but apparently not, as this is where she spent today, on my bed....

And something that might creep out the non-Aussies....I had a visitor in my room the other night; I was getting ready for bed, and had pulled my doona back as it was a warm night. I went to the kitchen for a glass of water, and when I came back there was a huge huntsman spider sitting right in the middle of my bed, enjoying the breeze from my fan. He was promptly liberated into the front yard.

Tablerunner

The little project that I gave a sneak peak of the other day is now finished. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, though I think it needs a little fiddling so that the ends of the sashing don't end up under the binding...

This was just a practice-run, so now I've got to put together a couple more as christmas presents. This one is all mine!

Sneaky Peak

After a mild panic on the weekend about the lack of christmas shopping/crafting taking place in my house, I did a trial run for some chrissy presents. Just showing off a little sneak peak until I get it finished, probably in the next day or two.