Fiddly

Today's progress was seemingly little, but all these tiny curved are very time consuming. The worst bit is, there are again 18, with another 2 pieces to add to each, and I'm not entirely sure they'll end up the right shape (a 1/4 circle) to be able to even use them.

While I was sewing, Eleanor was browsing some quilt magazines.

And just because, here are a few more of her...

Very girly

After cutting almost a thousand pieces for my next project over the last 2 days, I've finally started piecing it. It's very girly colours, and I'm not sure I'd choose them myself, but it's nice to have a change sometimes.

I made 18 of these foundation-pieced units tonight; 9 in each of the 2 colour sets. That's 198 pieces of fabric (and 23 unpicked and re-sewn seams!) so far!

And updating with some additions and subtractions from a few recent posts, Stash = 796m, with some more on the way. Well, I needed a little more of a few fabrics for this quit, and one of the shops just happened to also be the shop with the best price on one of my new loves, Wintergraphix. It would have been wasteful not to fill the envelope!

Chocolate!

I finally indulged in some of Anna Maria Horner's Chocolate Lollipop range. Delicious! I do have a project in mind for the chocolate and aqua print, but that will depend on whether the little bundle turns out to be a girl or not! I'm so pressed for time, I figure I won't have a chance to start before he or she is born, anyway!

While Eleanor had her nap today, James had another play in the garden while I photographed the Pooh quilt. I've found 3-4 4-inch strips of wide double-sided tape are enough to secure a small quilt to a surface, even uneven ones! By using a few lower on the quilt as well, I can get it beautifully flat for photographing; just a pity I can't get the camera to cooperate and a) stay in foucs at the edges and b) not distort so even my perfectly squared quilts look wonky! While the garden is nice and green, it's great for more creative quilt photos, and I have a few different ideas up my sleeve for next time.

Next!

The Quilt at Pooh Corner is done, ready for photographing properly in the daylight on Friday and sending to a little girl who's very nearly One.

And here is the main palette for my next quilt, a single-bed commission which I need to get a move on with.

Oh, and the background design for my Summer Four Seasons Quilt Swap. It'll also incorporate some photography, raw-edge applique, dimensional applique to be added with the quilting and a few hidden symbols.

I'm just waiting for a batch of brownies to come out of the oven so I can hit the pillow.

Nearly One

It's hard to believe that Eleanor is nearly a year old already (especially as she's such a petite little girl!), but here is the invitation to her first birthday party!

Outline quilting

The centre panel of The Quilt at Pooh Corner is a 10" by 15" print of the map in "Winnie the Pooh". Too big to leave entirely unquilted, it was begging to have the characters (and more) outlined. I decided I'd at least do the characters, so with some trepidation, I threaded the machine with matching cotton and had a go. It's a bit hard to see (and I experimented with several lighting options) but in the end I was relatively happy with my work. And I don't think my skills extend to further outlining just yet, so I'll stop while I'm ahead. Just the binding and the label to do, and this quilt is ready to go!

Just a quiet evening

Dinner at my parents' place is in theory relatively formal. A fully-served, 3-course meal, with tablecloth, the works. But after dinner...

Last night Eleanor and I (James and Simon are at the holiday house for the weekend) went to dinner, along with my sister and her husband, Gran, and some relatives from England; my mother's cousin and her 2 daughters. Somehow the evening ended like this:

Sarah and Peter (below) met doing acrobatics, and were showing a few of the tricks they could do inside (Peter also does stage sword-fighting, juggles flaming clubs and so on, and they're both off to Europe again this winter for a German Wheel camp).

Here is one of the basic starting positions:

And how it finished last night!

Sarah and Peter do one move where she lying on his feet, in this basic position. From there, she turns a full somersault on his feet. Here's a sequence of Mummy's cousin having a go:

Of course Eleanor had to join in:

Funnily enough, that Sarah and I first learned to juggle at the same age as these girls - while staying with their parents in England!

Showing Eleanor the finer points of photography:

Eleanor on my shoulders:

A failure!!!

-5 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

A jumbled selection

There's a bit of everything in here again; 2 completed quilts and some photos I've been meaning to share for a while.


I had Elizabeth's Song in my head while making this, and was even thinking of using some of the lyrics on the label; but it's about a baby girl, and I didn't want to change them. Instead another line came to mind: 'The ageless perfect symmetry of birth to death to birth". And since I didn't want to call my work perfect, and it is (mostly!) symmetrical...

Symmetry

My other urgent project is also complete and is headed for an Express Post bag tomorrow - hopefully after I get the chance to take some outside photos of it flat - the colour is much better.

Sailing with Dolphins

James while I was taking the photo above:

And over a week late, here is Eleanor on her quilt at 11 months. I had hoped to continue this series through her 2nd year, but it's getting so hard to keep her remotely still, I might have to give up at 12 months!

Plus a few family photos for good measure.

My second little climber (and yes, the chair is down near the ground!)

Exhausted!

Inactivity?

Hardly! I've just been working so hard to meet a mound of mostly self-imposed deadlines, I haven't had a chance to photograph or blog my progress!

I'm really happy with the foundation-pieced boat I designed -although it will look better once I've added some detail with the quilting. I was also really happy with the different foundtaion papers (Carol Doak's - easier to remove and much cheaper than the EQ Printables I had been using).This is a surprise which should have been done a week ago. The top was done entirely from my stash, so I've better subtract 2m from the total. From completing the design, this has taken 3 nights up until after 2am (note the time of this post!). It is now mostly quilted. I've designed the label (and a few others ready to print out a full sheet), but for now I think I'll go to bed!