Portobello Market Fat Quarters

I've just done a bit of a de-stash and found a pile of fat quarters left over from a bundle of Moda's Portobello Market.

There are 15 fat quarters, mostly brown with a couple of blue/green/red/cream.

$50 including postage within Australia if any one would like them.

Still Here!

I've been a bit quiet this week, but I've been slowly making progress. My back problem from my fall in Feb flared up, so I've been quilting in small lots rather than going for it for hours on end, and working on my scarf when it gets a bit much. However, I have finally finished all the centre blocks of 4OT!

I've still got the borders to go; 24 triangles with feathers, then I need to decide what to put in the other blocks. I'm thinking I might use a larger version of some of the patterns from the centre blocks, but I'm not quite sure yet.

I'm also looking forward to this quilt being done so I can get onto "Catch a Falling Star"; it's been sitting, neatly folded, in the lounge room for months! I want to be able to quilt that one a bit faster than 4OT, so I was thinking maybe a spiral stipple...I've been practicing and it's not looking too bad, just need to get the size a little more consistent.

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.

First Finish of the Year?

OK, so maybe not quite, but the top is finished. I had the house to myself last night, and again today for my day off, and I've been sewing like crazy. And finally, I present 4OT:

It is so big that it almost touched the ground when I hung it on the line. And yes, it's very sunny out, hence the glowy appearance.

I found the quilt fairly easy to put together; my only problem was that the small star blocks were a tad smaller than the alternate blocks, which meant a bit of a rejig of the "1/4" inch seams. All the points and intersections have worked out perfectly though. My only worry is the star points along the border; some might disappear once I bind the quilt...

What I need now is an opinion; what colour backing should I go for? I'd like to quilt it with a neutral coloured thread, but I'm not sure if that should influence the backing. Basically it needs to be one of the fabrics from the front, but which one?

Three days to go...

Is anyone else mildly freaked out that Christmas in only three days away? At least the weather is finally looking more like summer than winter (34 here today!).

I handed in my thesis today; thats one less thing to worry about. Plus I finished quilting Wallflower...just have the binding to go.

And I had some new jelly rolls arrive in the post. The Fat Quarter Shop has been having a fantastic Christmas sale, with 50% off different selected items each day, and I managed to snag the two jellies for $15 each!

Recess:

American Primer:

And Miss Rosie's 4OT quilt pattern which I plan to make next year (among a million other things!)

Now, I recently added a visitor counter to my blog, and I know I'm getting up to 40 hits a day, but very few comments. So to all you lurkers out there, please say hello; I like to know who is visiting here so that I can in turn visit your blog. Plus I'm just greedy, I like getting lots of comments, it makes me feel loved!

Summer!

It's oficially the first day of summer today! The weather has been a bit on and off the last few weeks, but today seems to be ok; warm without being hot.

The fabric for my tablerunner backing only arrived today, so I haven't got them finished yet, sorry. Hopefully in a few days if I've had a bit of time at home. However, I haven't been completely slack! I've been working on a Dilbert for a 3 year old boy I know, who will be getting it for Christmas. I've got all the spikes done too, just need to sew the body together, then finish off...

I've also picked up another Liberty fabric that I need for the Pappilion quilt. I don't plan on making this quilt anytime soon, but I'd like to have all the fabrics for when I do. One more to go!

And I bought a Portobello Market fat 1/4 bundle. My sister turns 21 next year, and I'm already planning on what quilt to make for her. I've chosen the 4OT pattern from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. (Bad photo sorry, all the fat 1/4s are loose in a box).

The lovely weather we've been having has bought a few new visitors to my garden. We have a family of Magpies in the street which like to come to the front door for a feed. One in particular is quite happy to take food from my hand, so it gets more than all the others....

Also, out Feijoa tree is covered in flowers, which is feeding about 6 gorgeous parrots.