Miss W's Quilt Revealed!

Well today was the day! We gave Miss W her quilt today. I had to do it today as Daz is giving a PD tomorrow at school on Homework Blogs and part of his intro talk is how his wife blogs and he has linked back to my blog which has pictures of the quilt on it! So I had to give it to her before anyone else saw it! Not that it really mattered. I thought it would be nice to be in the classroom for a few days before term ended too. So we asked Miss W to leave the room for a few minutes while we worked out what child was going to say what. Then she came back in and sat, very puzzled and curious. Six kids spoke a sentence each. "Miss W, we are very excited about your wedding." "We wanted to make you something special." (She starts crying about here!) "Miss Helen helped us do some drawings at recess and lunch." "It was top secret, we had to pinky promise not to tell you!" (More crying about here!) "We hope you like your present." "We wish you and Mr H lots of love and hope you live happily ever after." Then she got to open it and because the kids hadn't seen the quilt it was zoom, they all rushed in. Then there was squeals of "Look there is my drawing!" "Look that's mine up there Miss W!" "Look Miss W I drew you holding Mr H's hand!" It was fantastic!

Here's Miss W with Alice. I told Alice her block was my favorite, she got all shy.

And here is Miss W and I in that happy post quilt gift giving glow. I am so looking forward to their wedding in a few weeks. She is such a beautiful lady, has a heart of gold, an amazing teacher, it's going to be a joy to share her day with her.

Here are the amazing kids of Room 12! Their art makes this quilt so special!

Miss W's Quilt Finished!

I have finished sewing down the binding for Miss W's wedding quilt. I went for a white homespun, the same as I used for the kid's white squares. I figured black would have looked too heavy and didn't want to introduce another colour.

I am really pleased with it, except...... I don't like the way the kid's white squares "pop" out. I know its because the red area is quilted and the white squares aren't, so of course they aren't going to lie as flat as the red areas. And I know I can't quilt in the white squares as it that would just look odd. And maybe to a non quilter it isn't even noticeable.

Milly is all ready to give it to her on Tuesday! I just have the label to print and sew on the back and then we are ready for the grand presentation on Tuesday. Less than 2 weeks to the wedding!

AJ's Twisted Cathedral.

I'll admit it's been awhile between blocks in the Around the Block 2 swap. I started out so well too! This lucky last one is for AJ. She wanted a cathedral Window with a twist inside a log cabin! I could do the log cabin bit okay but I did find the cathedral window bit a bit tricky. I hope it's okay AJ!

WIP Wednesday - Miss W's Wedding Quilt Part 3

I have finished sewing all the red borders around Miss W's wedding quilt. I was waiting and waiting for one little girl to come back to school so she could write her name next to her drawing. But she has been a no show and so I got one of the other girls to write "by Eleanor" on her behalf. It's looking great! I just want to sew another 2 inches of red around it and then I'll start quilting it. Better hurry up as school finishes on the 3oth, I'd like the class to give it to her sometime that last week!

This is one of my favorite blocks. Alice is an indigenous girl, a mop of black curls on her head and the shyest smile. She was the wisest eyes of a 6 year old that I know. I think she has seen more than a 6 year old should see.

On a closing note, thank you all for the lovely thoughts and comments about Charlie. It was very touching to read them. And I do apologize not to replying to comments on that post. I usually try too, but..... you know. Thank you though. x

Charlie.

Blogging is about the good times and the bad times, right? Monday was a bad time. Daz and I had to make the choice to put down our dog Charlie. Saturday morning we woke up to him just lying on his bed, awake but unable to get up. Picking him up Daz felt a large lump one side of his belly. We dashed to the vet, they took some needle biopsies. The results were inconclusive, they ruled out an infection or a bite from a snake or cane toad but left a question mark over what the lump was exactly..... He stayed there till Sunday afternoon, we were allowed to bring him home for the night and told to return Monday morning so they could do more tests. He was a little better that night, could walk but wasn't his usual self. On waking up Monday morning, it wasn't good, he couldn't move again, just lying on his bed. We dropped him at the vet and it became pretty obvious that all the tests in the world weren't going to fix him. He was 15 years old and we didn't want him to go through that. Daz and I decided he should go to sleep, hardest phone call I have had to ever make. We were there at the end, well Daz was, I was standing outside watching through the glass doors with tears streaming down my face. His body trembled and then just relaxed and was still. No more pain for him. We told the girls after school amongst more tears. We were allowed to take his body home and buried him in a quiet spot out of town. The back yard seems very quiet without him in it.

Milly's Merit Certificate.

Matilda received a merit certificate at school yesterday. Every Mum thinks their child is smart, but this child of mine, she is switched on! She is reading at a higher level than Grace.... she'll stand behind Grace when she is doing Mathletics on the computer and while Grace is still thinking about the answer, Milly will call out the answer..... its a bit spooky! She's the model student, her work is so neat, her handwriting is lovely. And all this in Grade One! Well done Matilda, we are very proud of you!

WIP Wednesday - Miss W's Wedding Quilt Part 2

Yes, I know technically it is a Thursday so it's not really a WIP Wednesday post. Things are just so busy up here at the moment I snatched 15 minutes of sewing yesterday and thought that was good! I am still working on the kids in Milly's class for Miss W's wedding quilt. There is 21 in the class, 2 little girls don't attend regularly so I was sort of hoping that I could do one block for the both of them, but then they both came to school that day! The above block is what one of them made, love the hair! So I have 21 blocks, not the best number to make a hanging from, so I have added 4 more blocks, one for each corner, to say stuff like "Congratulations Miss W" and "Love from Room 12" so that will frame it nicely into 25 blocks, 5 across and 5 down.

I have started to sew the red Kona around the blocks, 2 inches it will come down too. My camera is making it look pinker than it is. I haven't got enough of these two reds, so I am going to introduce another red and lay it out in sort of a Trip Around The World pattern. Sort of.... it will come together!

Very happy to see my dolls quilt to Sheridan has arrived safely too. Look how she has hung it here! On the same wall as a mini Dresden plate I made her! Perfect. :)

DQS#11 - Recieved from Rita!

It is the exciting time of the DQS#11, the receiving! Mine should arrive at it's new home any day now, but look what arrived at my house yesterday! An absolute beauty from the amazingly talented Rita from Red Pepper Quilts! "Ohhh, that's very you" the husband commented when I showed him excitedly. Yes, bright colours on a crisp white background with a strippy binding, very me! Thank you Rita!

I had to pinch myself. Look at the back!

And wait there is more! She knitted me this sweet little shawl. Even though Grace is modeling it in this photo, she will not be wearing it! We have a fancy school social event on Saturday night, guess what I am wearing over my little black dress?

And I took down a quilt I had made for the last round of the swap and replaced it with Rita's masterpiece for all to see that come in the house. Thanks again Rita. I feel very lucky to have a Red Pepper Quilt in my house.

WIP Wednesday - Miss W's Wedding Quilt

Matilda's beloved teacher is getting married in the upcoming October school holidays. At first I thought I would make her a "normal" quilt for the occasion. But then after seeing the amazing quilt Andi had made with the 5 and 6 year old children in her daughter's class, I changed my mind and thought let's make a quilt for Miss W!

It's top secret from her, I have made each child pinky promise not to tell her and so far, so good! Because I work at the same school as my children go too, I have been able to sneak out at recess and lunch time and sit with 2 or 3 kids and assist them draw their square. I've told them that it's for Miss W and Mr H and they are getting married, what can we draw?

Lots of love hearts, flowers and smiling faces. They are on white homespun but my camera is making it look more cream. I have 6 more kids to get to do their square, then I can start sewing them together. Maybe this will help get my sewing mojo back cause at the moment it has disappeared!

A busy week....

No sewing this week. As usual it has been a flurry of activity this week. Last Thursday we had the school sports carnival. It is a twilight affair running for 7 hours after our normal school day. It is exhausting but we do get the next day off school. Milly enjoyed one of the perks of having a Daddy who works at the same school she attends, getting to have a cuddle while waiting in our faction bay for events to commence!

We were pleasantly amazed to discover that week that Milly could run. I mean run fast. A few days before the carnival they had a morning of running trials. Every grade had to run around the oval, out of about 50 grade 1 girls, Matilda came third! Third?? So on the night of the carnival she came third again in the grade 1 girls first division! And then the grade 1 mixed relay team she was in, came first! We have a runner in the family!!! Very proud.

And this week we have had Book Week. Celebrated a week early for some reason...... We had the Kimberley Writers Festival a few weeks ago and Grace attended a workshop by an illustrator and cartoonist called James Foley who has just illustrated his first book, The Last Viking. She was inspired so we spent Monday after school with some cardboard, paint, brown wrapping paper, lots of staples and sticky tape to transform a beer carton and stack hat into making this costume. And we, oh I mean she won a prize, a book!

WIP Wednesday - Quilting Jewelled Squares.

I finished the backing for my Jewelled Squares quilt on the weekend. I immediately sandwiched it and popped the walking foot on the machine.

Down and then back up. And then down and back up and then down again and back up. You get the idea. To make it more exciting for me I am using two spools of thread, a few lines of green, then some of blue. I haven't marked the lines, I'm just doing it by eye. As you can see some gaps between the lines are bigger than some other gaps. I like that. I am more than happy with that effect!

I love the back as much as I love the front! I hope to finish it on the weekend..... And am already thinking of doing another one. There is something about squares......

DQS#11 Finished!

While watching the finale of a certain reality TV cooking show last night, I finally got around to sewing on the label for mt dolls quilt for DQS#11.

It's all finished! It measures 17 inches square exactly. Lucky, as the rules were 18 inches and under. I used a polka dot binding from some material my sister sent up last month. I know my partner likes polka dots!

The quilting was quite simple in the end. With the smaller tulips just a square around them and then a square around the outer.

And the same with the larger flowers as well as around the largest petal. Thought I would do it in white rather than a red or yellow so it added some contrast. My partner indicated that they do not require a hanger as discussed here. So that solves that problem for me!

WIP Wednesday - Jewelled Squares Backing.

I'm working on sewing down the binding of my tulips dolls quilt at the moment, savoring the hand sewing bit. But the action under the sewing machine has turned to the backing for my jewelled squares quilt. It has been awhile since any WIP Wednesday post, I think it's time to get back in the Wednesday sewing groove. I don't have enough of one fabric to have a solid colour for the backing so I am taking the square theme from the front and making them bigger on the back!

And more random in their placing. Think I have enough blue in the stash to pull it off....

DQS#11 - Top Finished!

I have sewn all the blocks together for the DQS#11. I'm pleased with it. I am going to quilt it simply, around the outer of each block and inside the larger petal in the four bigger blocks. I think that will be enough.

I'm a bit stuck how to sew the hanger in the binding though. From the start I always imagined it would be displayed on point as in the photo at the start of the post. But now I am thinking, how can I sew a pocket in for it to hang that way? It would have to be pinned on the wall. So do I go no hanger or sew one on the side like normal so it hangs like the above photo, which doesn't look that bad I suppose. Any thoughts dear blog reader?

Tulip Progress.

I have made two more tulip blocks for the flickr DQS. With spots this time. This measures 4 inches.

And I have made 5 of these size blocks. The tulip here measure's 2 inches. So that makes a total of 9 blocks meaning I am 3 blocks in front of the swaps minimum of 6! Now too trim them all down and sew them together.

Pink Askew Squares Finished.

I finished sewing the binding down on this little quilt the other night while watching a certain bike race on telly. :) It measures 29 by 37 inches. Grace had to kneel to hide herself in this photo.

I backed it in an old print of ummm, I don't know! I have had this meter of fabric sitting in the backing box for ages! Someone famous like Valori Wells or Anna Maria Horner. I threw the selvage out. The business of the print did seem to match the business of the squares on the front. I looooove the binding! That was one of those prints you see and love but never know what to sew with it.

Just straight up and down quilting here. My favorite quilting technique at the moment.

Grace getting restless now and about to wave the quilt around like a superhero cape. Time for the photo shot to wrap up then!

Around the Block Wrapped Up!

Look what I found lying on my front verge in the sunlight! No, not really, I did place it there! It is time for an Around the Block 2 update.

I recently received my last block back from Rachel. Thanks Rachel! I can't believe its my last one back though....

So I lay them out on the floor very excitedly and very randomly.

Then made two more blocks with the scraps I had been collecting as each block returned home. Block one....

... and block two. And then sewed it all together!

Then I sashed it with a 2.5 inch border. More to hold it all together until it was time to be quilted, but it does frame it nicely. I absolutely love it! I am very pleased with how it turned out. Thanks to all the lovely ladies who sewed a block for me.

DQS#11 - Plan B!

Hello plan B! I love this! Perfect!! It measures just under 5 inches down the sides, 6 inches from right point to left point. I took the inspiration from here. My google searches for "flower paper pieced block", "rose paper pieced block" or "tulip paper pieced block" all drew up blanks. Is there another name for this? It was quicker for me to draw up my own pattern in Quark and wolah, here is the first block. I'm thinking four.....

DSQ#11 - The Doubts!

It is a good idea to do test blocks first isn't it? So then you can see how crap your idea is. How crap you are at lining up points even though its paper pieced and everything is supposed to line up for you?

And if you do three test blocks then you might get better as you go? Maybe?? Maybe not! These are appalling! Being so tiny their faults scream at you, look at me! I'm way out!! So back to the idea board I go.....