The weather has been lovely for the most part, mind you we really need rain not so much of this nice sunny weather. The garden is starting to look good, the roses are starting to bud, I have about eight tulips in bud and the iris are starting to bud also. The magnolia is nearly finished but the weeping cherry and the grape hyacinths are flowering.




The past week in the workroom I have quilted Leanne's quilt which had a lovely navy cotton sateen backing, the pattern Springtime showed up lovely on it.



Next I quilted Kim's lovely star sampler with Feather Spray. It's such a pretty quilt I have added a photo to show the quilt and one to show the quilting.






And what have I been working on? Have I finished my pink and brown quilt you ask? NO


Have I finished my Bendigo siggie quilt? NO


Have I finished my Bendigo siggie Bento Box...NO but I have done some work on it. (see below, this is nearly the size of the quilt in the book, only a small wallhanging)





So what HAVE I been doing????
Yes you guessed it, started another project!!!!!
AND not just any old project........but Dear Jane no less!!!!!!!! Yes yes I can hear you all say I am mad and I agree, the queen of WIP's starting DJ..... http://www.dearjane.com/
Well I tell myself I only have to complete a block a week for 163 (?) weeks and maybe a triangle thrown in there somewhere.......anyway I have made two blocks, the block of the week from last

week and this week, B-8 is this weeks, Water Lily. I was pleased with the piecing but the needleturn was a bit wonky as I am very rusty. Last weeks was M-11 Rickshaw, no easy task for my first block, all those little diamonds!





and if thats not bad enough I also started Sylvias Bridal Sampler as in the Elm Creek Quilts. I have done Jacob's Ladder which I think was last weeks Block of the Week Challenge.

http://homepage.mac.com/chiaverini/sylviasbridalsampler/


and then Miss Lissa Jane sent me this site just to totally confuse me!!!!!

http://www.sentimentalstitches.com/ this gorgeous sampler with 4" blocks that are on the website free, one a week, I would only need to catch up on the first 48.........

This week........

This week I caught up with an old friend I had lost touch with so that was lovely. Then I found my old best friend who I had also lost touch with over the years, I googled her as you do!! Lucky enough she had won a National Teachers award for her work at an underprivilged pre-school she teaches at so it was easy to find her.

The Workroom

I have been busy this week, first with Denise's quilt. This quilt has lots of retro fabrics and took quite a while as the pattern I chose Paisley Swirls took quite some time to get across the row. I think it was Paisley Swirls or maybe it was Paisley Plus as I have both??? Anyway I chose orange for the front and a variegated King Tut (hieroglyphs) on the chocolate backing. The quilt does sit nice and flat I just didn't lay it out properly for the photo!!!

Next I have been working on Jackie's Pansy Park type quilt, its not THE quilt but a slightly different version. I have to try and make a dent in my custom quilting list! I am having a mental block at the moment with what to do on the pansy border and of course I made a boo-boo and did the freehand feather motif the wrong way around in one of the side setting triangles...DOH!!! Also I didn't like the colour thread in the tree border so some unpicking to be happening when I take it off to turn it...yuk.

Here is a photo with the offending pansy border.....thinking thinking. All suggestions duly considered!!!

UFO UPDATE

What I have been working on this week.

1. The pink and brown from last week, not as much as I would have liked but it is half finished, well the blocks are I just have to join them.

2. I re-started working on my strip quilt (same as the intended voilet quilt)I have promised myself I won't start the voilet quilt until this one is finished and it's such a quick easy quilt that it really won't take me long. Yes it's in the same civil war/reproduction fabrics well mostly anyway, yes I am boring!!!


Danger danger..........
Things are calling me to tempt me away........
Here is why I end up with so many WIPS....oh no I think I am about to fall off the wagon.....



I saw a message from Julie from WA on the scquilters list through the week that she had finished her signature square quilt from Bendigo, I saw the photos, I was guilty I hadn't done anything so I pulled them out and started playing. I decided chinese lanterns would be just the thing....but I would have to make 132, too many, too time consuming so trying to keep it simple I have based it on Rosalie Quinlan's Rebekah Amy quilt. Very simple 4" squares with black frames, well a few different blacks and charcoals. So that left me with the offcuts which turned out to be just the right size(s) for Bento Box (Judy Turner Successful Scrap quilts)which I have had my eye on making for ages and today I went to the patchwork shop and got some navys.........so much for the other two I can see them going away again for now!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to the new Mum and Dad. I bet they are feeling a bit different tonight than they were one year ago!





Now I have been good and finally done some sewing! I have started putting together a quilt that has a lot of completed components, so it shouldn't take too long to get the quilt together if I keep going with it. I would like to get some WIP's completed before I start on the voilet quilt, I just have sooooo many.

I have seen some blogs which have a list of WIP's or UFO's down the side of the page, I don't think I could fit mine on!!!! I have been compiling a list and so far I have 46 although I keep remembering or coming across more some I had forgotten to add. I was telling someone recently that I had hardly done any quilts this year but when I started going back through my list (I am also compiling lists of finished (31), to be bound (6) and to be quilted(12) I have actually completed four or five this year, this includes one that only needed to be bound but still...

Anyway here are a couple of photos of the quilt I am working on , in the usual civil war/reproduction fabrics but this time a bit stronger difference in colour value so hopefully if I have been good and kept at it by the end of next week I will have a completed top.

September

This time last year this is what we were doing.........

Cocktails at Toucan Tango, views from our balcony down and across to the Reef View's pool and the gardens Holly and Craig were married in, the marina, sitting around the pool with the island bar, viewing Heart Reef from the helicopter and the happy hour sunset at One Tree Hill, yes we were in Hamilton Island for Holly and Craig's wedding....ah the memories! Only another year and we will be back on Hamilton then onto Daydream for Nick and Kylie's wedding...yippee, can't wait.

Now back to reality!

Tomorrow Junior (Menkaure) leaves to start his pre-training. He has been with us for the past four months having a nice rest and holiday(and costing a fortune in feed!)

So now he has to go and try and earn his keep. Here are some photos of him with his mates Mick and Cinnamon, he is finally starting to look like a horse. He has been a very slow maturer, I think he looks a lot like his father, Melbourne Cup winner Kingston Rule.

Fathers Day

Friday night we went to the Phantom of the Opera. I loved it, Anthony Warlow in particular is just brilliant I want to go back again!!!
We have just booked tickets to go and see Elton John with friends in December so that should be fabulous too.

Today was Fathers Day, we had a lovely day with the kids all coming up for a visit to see their Dad. He really loves having all the family here to visit and now that Isabella is getting older he is really starting to enjoy her, he was able to take her down to the horses and she had a ride on Cinnamon the pony but only when her mother had a ride at the same time! Coco is smiling and doesn't take her eyes off her mother. She has developed a strawberry birthmark which her mother is quite concerned about but they seem to be in the family and they do disappear after a few years.

The little girls both looked so cute I don't know what photos to post there were so many nice ones. The first one is one of the mothers and daughters. The next one is Nicks fiancee Kylie and Bella.