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. :)