Shaggy quilt finished!

I have been working on this quilt for some time. So long in fact that I had almost forgotten about it. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it) Until today when wondering out loud what I should take to the sewing day I had been invited to. (more about that later) My Bradley suggested Miss 18's shaggy quilt. "Good idea!" I thought since Miss 18 is going away this weekend and had expressed a desire to take it with her quite some time ago. Then I finished it and gave it to Miss 18. Even she had forgotten about it! So, here it is. My second finish for this month! The forgotten shaggy quilt.

July's first finish

On track! (Sort of. It is the 8th today!) I finished the breath of Avignon table runner today. I started out this morning by practicing my free motion quilting on a practice sandwich. Off topic - Every morning I have some kid or other telling me about the dreams they had last night. They are always pretty spectacular. Some of them dream about pokemon, others run the world. (We have a wide range of personalities here!) When they are done telling me about their dreams they always ask me about my dreams. I think, but nothing comes to me, so I tell them that I don't actually dream. Not sure if I can never think of what I dream about or if I don't think my dreams are spectacular enough to share..... So, back to the free motion quilting practice. As I practiced I realised that free motion quilting is what I dream about. Only, I'm heaps better at it in my dreams than I was this morning. Disappointing! I had been dreaming about quilting some butterflies onto the table runner. So I practiced butterflies. They were awful!!! I practiced some flowers instead and that's what went on to the table runner. And now it is finished.

On to the next table runner I say! I have been working on the French General table runner too. I put a narrow red border on it because I like red and because so many of you suggested that it needed some more red on it. So far I like it. I have one more border to put on and then I will just need to quilt it. Tomorrow I think.

Tablerunner progress

I'm up to quilting this table runner. I managed to quilt the border today and am planning to free motion the center tomorrow. Or some other day in the future. I always seem to get so busy! Quilting is magical. It always feels so different once you start to quilt. Many years ago I bought a wonderful book by Lee Cleland called "Quilting Makes the Quilt". Great book, brilliant title. Quilting really does make the quilt!

Hopefully I will finish the table runner in the next couple of days. I have been thinking about OPAM. (One Project A Month) It has been really valuable for me to be a part of OPAM. I guess I am someone who needs a shove every now and then! The most finishes I have managed in a month has been three. At the beginning of each month I think I will get more finishes this month. And then I don't. So this new month (July? Can you believe it's July?) I figured I should make more of a plan than thinking in bold italics. (I will.) I figure that I can get four finishes this month (I know, I'm not very ambitious at all!) if I make sure I get one finish a week. So, tomorrow is the 7th and.............. the table runner is almost finished! I have another table runner on the go and a shaggy quilt part done too, so, how hard could it be? And I've just written a blog post about it. More pressure! Good pressure though. Watch this space. I might just finish something. I might just finish four things!

Retrospective

It's hard to believe that June is over. (Well, in an hour or so) Which means that half of the year is over. Time really does fly! I have been pondering this week. Pondering and little more. The photo was taken earlier this year at "Northern Lights". (See more here if you are interested by this snippet.) This projection shows our state's floral emblem - Sturt's desert pea. Beautiful flowers!

I am hoping to get some sewing done this end of the week. I have a couple of table runners I want to finish! I was hoping to finish them in June in order to boost my OPAM finishes! It was not to be, but I am getting excited now thinking that I will be able to add them to my July OPAM score! Lol. I'm a hopeless case! Goodbye June 2010 - Hello July!

Table Runners

I seem to have caught a table runner bug. Just finished the hexie table runner top (above) tonight.

Whilst I was working on the hexie table runner I started thinking about this one. It's using French General's new range "Rural Jardine" This one needs some more. Not sure what yet. I'm thinking about it.

And then whilst working on table runners 1 and 2 this one popped into my head. Blogger prefers it portrait. I however prefer it landscape. (Always seem to be having trouble with blogger and photos!) Off hand I can't remember the name of this Moda range. Something french? This one needs more work on the top too. I have this one all planned out in my head. Just need to get to it! I guess if I was just working on one table runner at a time I would be finished one by now. But that's just not how I work, lol! I am hopeful of finishing one of them this week. The end of the month is nigh and I am thinking about OPAM finishes. Not sure why I wait till this late in the month to think about it, but I do! Not sure just how much time I will have before June 30. We have family from Brisbane staying with us next week and I am trying to get the house clean and straight in preparation. As you can see, it's not going so well! The sewing room keeps winning out to any cleaning. *sigh* Wish me luck! (Not sure if I mean for the table runners or the cleaning. Lol!)

I've joined in.....

.....with Peg and Kris for "One Project a Month 2010". So have 199 others so I guess you will see this logo around the place this year. The idea is to record your finishes which will encourage you to complete projects! It's also a kind of big cheer squad as well, because we will all be encouraging each other! This fits in really well with the goals I have set for myself this year which will also be appearing in my sidebar sometime soon. (Hopefully before February!) We are still quite busy here at Rosemary Hill. Miss 23 and Miss 17 are waiting anxiously for first round university offers which come out later this week. Their thoughts swing from "will I get my first choice" all the way down to "will I be offered anything???????". It's quite a stressful waiting time, as I'm sure lots of you know. Mr 15 and Miss 12 will be changing schools this year too so we have some organising to do for them as well. It is a busy time of year! After five days of extreme heat we have now had a cool change which even came with some rain. It is as if everything has had a huge sigh of relief! Hope your day is as wonderful at your house!