Lazy Saturday

A lazy day for us enjoying the outdoors, wood carting and having a picnic by the creek.

A nice way to start the holidays in which there are no music lessons and no playgroup.  Next term Possum starts pre-school as well so we will be even busier.  Until then we will relax and take it easy and enjoy being at home.

While wood carting The Mr hurt his finger.  Possum turned to him and said ‘Just be brave and patient and it will get better in a couple of days or three’.  She also said she was glad this bee was busy in the creek paddock making honey for us.  I would love to get some hives.

Medallion Round 1

I only mentioned the medallion quilt along yesterday and an evening home alone has seen me finished round 1 already.  Triangles!  I kept it simple as my maths is never at it's best of an evening (nor is the rest of me if I am honest) when I am tired.

I had fun playing with these fabrics.  The panel is from Prints Charming that I picked up in Sydney in March when I flew down for SIT.  The other fabric is a Moda layer cake (arcadia?) that I picked up on sale at the local fabric shop a long time ago.  They are a great match for each other and I love these colours.  How fun to sew something for me in colours I love!

Each square is 4 inches finished.  More easy maths which should help with future late night sewing sessions.  It really is square too, the photo isn't, but the block itself is!

I wonder what the next round will be?  I have to wait until October to find out...

New Things

I have pinned the small boy's wonky log cabin quilt, but instead of quilting it right away I am thinking about starting a couple of new things.

At the recent craft camp I was given a magazine that contained this scrappy friendship star quilt.  It seems like a good way to use my scraps, of which I have MANY, so I am going to give it a go.  It could be a good way to stash bust and clean out the cupboard too...  I plan on leaving off the buttons, and maybe making it a bit bigger, but will see if I get sick of cutting by then before making a final choice on size!

Some of the scraps and FQ I will use in the quilt.  I need to cut out about 600 different 3" or smaller squares, and that is before I even think about enlarging it!

While I was searching through friend activity on Flickr I stumbled across a medallion quilt-a-long.  I decided that given I already had the medallion from Prints Charming that I bought during Sew it Together in Sydney, and I already had stashed some coordinating fabrics, I should sign up.

Part 1 of the medallion quilt-a-long is triangles so I have to think of what I am going to do and play catch up ready for the next round, but I have time and this should be fun.

9 Patch

This is the project that got me started in quilting.  A 9 patch block swap as organised by Sheridan.  The final mail out for these blocks was 22 months ago so as you can see I have taken my time in finishing this quilt off!

We each picked a feature fabric and sent it out in bundles to the other ladies in the swap.  They each paired it with something from their stash, sewed it into 2 different 9 patch blocks and sent it back.  I learnt so much during this fabric selection process which did add to the fun.

I then arranged the blocks, added a border, quilted it myself (finally) and have sewn the binding on.  The result speaks for itself!

The best part of this swap would have to be some of the friends I have made. 
Thanks Sheridan, Susie, Bronwyn,  Helen, Lynn, Lara, Beth, Donna, Leah, MJ, Lisa, Bec, Bianca and Louise.

Day Care

Today, for the first time, both Possum and Blue went to Day Care.

They were happy to go.  Not even sad when I said I wouldn't be staying.  Possum said it was alright for me to leave 'because Mums always come back for their kids later'.  I am glad I have two happy and confident little people, even if it made me cry a little too.

They had a fun couple of hours and sang songs the whole way home together.  They are already talking about 'next time' and planning 'adventures' with their new back packs.  They are adorable together!

Around the Block R1 ~ Wonky Log Cabins

In my last post I mentioned that I had been working on the wonky log cabin blocks from Around the Block Round 1.  I was going to wait until the quilt was finished, but that might take awhile yet so I thought I would blog the top as it is.  Also, I was too excited to wait!

Each of these 54 wonky log cabin blocks is 10 inches finished so it is a pretty good size quilt for a small boy and his single bed.  I had to stand back to try to get the whole thing in the frame for a photo and the overcast nature of the afternoon did not help show off each fabric, but the overall effect can still be seen.

I will have to get organised and finish this quilt as Blue keeps pulling it off the sewing table to point out another animal or print.  He seems very taken with the rockets and can be heard saying 'whoosh' a lot as he inspects each block.

Special thanks to Sheridan, Helen, Lara, Susie, Donna, Louise, Bronwyn, MJ, Amy, Lynn, Rita, Kate, Rachel, Jan and Annie who made up the members for this bee and collectively made 31 blocks for this quilt during the course of the bee.

Camp Weekend

I just got back from a weekend away at camp with a group of lovely ladies and good friends I met through knitting.  I packed my sewing machine and a heap of quilting supplies and hit the road.  I thought it was ironic that I packed the iron to take away for the weekend when I don't use it here, but given I didn't use it there either it was more typical than ironic.

The camp was held at Lake Keepit and it is a great spot for such a thing.  It was VERY cold on the Friday and Saturday but thankfully Sunday was a lovely day.

I took my 31 blocks that where made during Round 1 of Around the Block.  I love these wonky log cabins but I had not made any myself until this weekend.  I made another 23 blocks to finish the quilt top to size and got it all pieced, photos of that to come later.  Special Thanks to Ellie who made a couple of these blocks for me over the weekend.

I ate so much great food.  Also so much junk food.  There is a melting moment in the photo above as made by Mandy.  They are perfect, it feels wrong to call it a biscuit as it really is baking at it's best.  I also ate 2 packets of Tim Tams, a large bag of chips, M&M's and plenty of coffee.  Today starts my detox I think!

I also took my 9 patch quilt from the Chaletgirl Block Swap.  That really was AGES ago but I am happy to report that it is now quilted and as of last night the binding has been machine sewn on so a few nights in front of the telly hand stitching should see that done.  HURRAH!!

What a great weekend!  I am already looking forward to next year as I had a great time laughing and got a lot done.  It was wonderful all round.

Father's Day

We didn't do anything too exciting for Father's Day this year.  Handmade cards were exchanged and a promise of help to line the workshop was given as a gift.  Nothing fancy, but all welcome.  The Mr didn't waste any time in getting started in the workshop either.  One wall is lined and the shelves are going up already.

We did pack a picnic and went down to the creek for some fun. 

The children LOVE picnics, or pic-a-nics as Blue calls them. 

The children both spent a large amount of time tossing rocks into the water while listening to the frogs croak.  I love the clear water, which is lucky because it is the same water we pump into the house tank. 

It was a lovely way to spend some time together in the quiet of our own paddock.

And special thanks to Gem.  I take back anything bad I may have said about you after you chewed something you shouldn't or dug a new hole in my yard.  This black snake was 10 meters away from our picnic site, but Gem woofed and growled while backing up to let us know it was there and we kept an eye on it until it moved along.  It was a good lesson for the children because you can drill them on what to do if you see a snake but actually seeing one does cement the lesson.