I finished this quilt. Finally.

I thought I would never finish this quilt, but today I did it. I started it back in August 2013 and thought it wouldn't take long. Do I always think that? I love it. I love the fabric. I love the circles. I love the flowers. I love the quilting. I quilted circles around (and in some of) the circles, pebbles in all the frames, and a large free motion flower in each of the "empty" circles.

In other news, my friend who I gifted this quilt to two years ago (I was surprised that it was so long ago when I looked back through my blog, it seems like the other day.) passed away last week. She lived across the road from us in Melbourne and it's a little bit heartbreaking that I couldn't just walk next door this week and attend her funeral. (We used to live next door to the church her funeral service was conducted in) The last time I spoke to her was in a paddock here. I missed her a lot. We had lots in common and thought the same way about lots of things despite a 25 year age gap. Just looking at the photo of this quilt reminds me of life two years ago. It was such a good time!

Finished Pouches

I finished off some pouches today. There was lots of making happening and I couldn't resist joining in. Jess is doing a market at the end of July and has been busy designing and making soft toys today. Such creativity is contagious I think. So I dusted off the sewing machine and sewed these up. I love blue and green more than I can say!

It's June, and I finished a quilt.

I finished the binding on this quilt on Saturday. It took me all day, which is not to say that this is a big quilt (it's not) but that I had a very interrupted day of sewing. Asher12 had his very first migraine as well and I was quite busy reassuring him that visual disturbances, numbness, pain and vomiting are quite normal for a migraine. I think I am safe in saying that it was the first time he had experienced such pain and he didn't like it. It was an enlightening experience for him!

It's hard to believe that it is June already. I'm not quite sure what happened to May, but I'm sure it's the same at your house. Even now with all of June stretching before me I'm sure it will pass in a flash and I will be bemoaning it's quick passing in four short weeks! We have the countdown of the last four weeks of term two happening here. Lily16 is in year 12 and is desperate for the year to be over! I have a dress to make for her formal (less than three weeks away now) so that will keep me busy I'm sure. We also have our son Joseph24 visiting us this month. We can't wait to spend some time with him! 

The weightloss progression has been slow of late. I am still concentrating on it and had a mental obstacle to overcome which took ages! I am hoping that now that I am under the 100kg mark that things may be more easy for a time. I have lost 24kg to date (30kg since we moved to Melbourne two years ago) and easily have that much more to go to reach an acceptable BMI. (Body Mass Index) Before I began the great weightloss endeavour my BMI was in the "morbidly obese" category and I have now progressed to the "obese" category, which doesn't sound a whole lot better! My Bradley assures me that it is and is encouraging me to stick with it! So, in June I hope to lose more weight, sew a formal dress (it's going to be red and ruffly!), and finish something else quilty. There. Goals. Better go get started!

A Ziggy Finish

A dreadful photo, but it's finished! (It has been grey here ever since I finished this quilt. Grey and chilly! I am sitting here loving my ducted gas heating as I write this!) I agonised over how to quilt this one. I over-thought it I think. Once I just started on the quilting it worked out quite well. I'm really happy with it. I decided to use a black and white fabric for the binding and really love the look it has given the quilt.

Back to my grey and rainy day. Luckily I have a spring fresh quilt to work on, that will cheer my day up. Progress photos to come!

This week. Gone in a flash, and a finish.

Pebbles, finished.

 October is slipping away! We have three birthdays this month in our family and all have happened which makes October feel done to me. Fortunately it's not November for another week because I have no where near completed my October goals. I'm happy with this finish though. I think I cut the backing and wadding for this baby in 2010, just didn't get it stretched! Pebbles is 41" by 58 1/2" and I'm going to put it in my etsy shop. I finished it up yesterday, but didn't blog it because I wanted to get it into the shop first. This morning I realised that probably wasn't going to happen today so figured I would blog it. (It doesn't really feel finished until I've blogged it!) So here it is!

And the back!

It's Finished! (She said with glee!)

My Bradley, right before holding it up

 I thought I was never going to be able to say that this quilt is finished. Hooray! So glad it's done because I was so done! Here it is, with it's Denyse Schmidt clearance special fabrics I bought from Spotlight.

Here you can see the quilting. Straight lines on the stripey fabric and pebbles in the border.

The squares were made by a bunch of teenagers as an activity at a birthday party. (Oh look! There's one my kid made!)  I am glad to be done. I did choose fabrics I really like thinking that it would be easier to finish if I liked the quilt. I think that worked! Phew! Now on to something else! (I have a list for October!)

A finish...

 I finished this quilt today. I am pleased with it. It is lovely. There's something magical about a quilt with many different fabrics in it. This has over a hundred different fabrics.

Reproduction nine patch swap quilt, in my front garden.

My Bradley held it up for me in the garden. I think he must have ape arms too! (See this post for the ape arm discussion.) I love the back of this quilt too. A fabric I have had for simply squillions of years. "Holly Hill" by Thimbleberries. I had exactly the right amount. It was like I had purchased it for this quilt.

The back isn't wonderful (the quilting I mean) but it is ok, and I'm still happy with it.

I love this quilt so much, and the bit I love best now is that it is no longer here. I have given it to a friend this afternoon who has been so kind to me. We have been so fortunate since moving to Melbourne. We seem to have been in contact with the kindest people here. My friend wasn't in when I dropped it off, so I hope she likes it!

My favourite photo of this quilt.

A closer view. The most interesting thing about finishing a quilt is the emotions you go through. Relief and happiness when it is finished, through to a strange emptiness and then a sudden need to begin something else. (Or finish something else!) I guess tonight I will be wandering around aimlessly in my sewing room until I settle on the next project.

Shhhhh! Finished, one quilt.

The colours are much pinker in real life I think.

A blue with white spot back.

Lucky Mr 18 is 6' 5" tall with ape arms. (Those are his fingers in the photo above) Well, it's finished. I thought the binding would be quick (I machine bound it) but it seemed not to be so quick today. I will be posting it off tonight, it is a secret gift!  Glad to be finished it, and glad to have an old project dealt with! Must get something up on my sidebar to record my finished projects and remind me of my goals for this  year.

Finished!

Funny colours! Those pink squares are not so pink in real life.

I finished the snipping on Mr 11's quilt yesterday, which was a very good thing because he had already been using it, he was so keen to have it! I spent yesterday evening stitching some more Christmas dekkies. One of Miss 25's friends popped in and sewed with us, making a star to take home to make her place more Christmassy. (You can see her star in the photo below.) I can't show you exactly what I was stitching last night, because some things just have to be secret! (Especially when you are involved in Chookyblue's Secret Santa Christmas Swap!) There is quite a bit of secret sewing going on here at the moment! Christmas is a wonderful time! I was going to start decorating for Christmas yesterday, but just didn't get that far. Then in conversations with two of my Adelaide kids discovered that they had both begun Christmas decorating already! I felt proud. I have taught them well! Don't know if I will get to the decorating today or not. I have lots of chauffeuring to do today. (Some days are like that when you have kids.) And some secret sewing. (Shhhhhh!)

Another star!

PS Don't forget to check out picklesticks' giveaway!

I finished a quilt today, how was your day? -blogtober

the back

second Tis the Season quilt

closeup of quilting

more, because I like it so

Yes, I finally finished my second Tis the Season quilt this morning. I like it. After finishing it I started writing my "This Week" list. That's because it was on last week's "This Week" list. It doesn't do to mix your weeks up you know. Are you a list maker? I have been writing lists of late. I'm not sure whether I get more done or not, but it feels like I do. I very bravely put a more than three year old quilt on this week's list this morning. I know how old the quilt is because it was intended for a grandchild. I have dragged it out previously and that ended in tears, so I feel brave today. I unpicked some quilting-gone-wrong on it last week and am hoping that I will be able to finish it and send it to a young man. We'll see if the list works!

Did it!

Yay! I finished one of the bags. (If you are related to me, look away now! Lol! I always wanted to say something like that. Let's face it. Such a statement is obsolete if you are me. I am related to soooo many people that no-one could possibly guess if this is for them. Something to do with having a thousand or so children I think!) How cute is it? It is a very clever pattern and went together so easily. I am so glad I have another six to put together. Maybe this week is looking better after all!

Gypsy Rose Finish

Finished! This one was harder to finish. Just couldn't get the quilting right. Three attempts and unpickings later...... I put it aside for a day, then finished it today. Everything was better today. What was the difference? I don't know! Anyway, it is finished now and I like it. These latest two quilts are just small quilts. (32ish x 42ish?) Quite achievable, if you don't throw them across the room and lose them or stash them in a box because the quilting just doesn't seem to be happening. (This is my latest helpful hint for quilters. If you want to finish a quilt, you have to work on it. Obvious to some, but a helpful hint for others!) This was the second quilt I basted last week and now I need to baste some more. (I have two waiting next to my basting table) I want some other finishes to happen this week too. Aprons? Softies? Dresses? Bags? Hmm.......

Brown quilt finished

I finished this quilt this afternoon and my Bradley was kind enough to hold it up for me while I photographed it. The patterned fabrics are an old Moda range. I bought a jelly roll (It was my first ever!) and used it, and used it, and used it. And I still had strips left. I had no idea what I was going to do with the leftovers. Fast forward three years. Mrs 26 (picklesticks) was making small quilts for a good cause (check hers out here) and I thought I would make one too. I searched through my fabrics, came across these strips and thought they would make a great small quilt. (80cmx80cm-ish) And it's not bad. I will take it round to Mrs 26's house tomorrow so we can send our quilts off. Sewing day tomorrow! Can't wait.

Camera bag

I have had a week of unpicking. Sew, unpick. Sew, unpick. Not sure if it is because I just didn't have it this week, or if the headaches I have had this week just made me too spacey to do any thing successfully. I did manage to finish the new camera bag today. That was this morning and then Miss 24 and I went to sit and sew at the patchwork apple this arvo. Much fun there! And I'm off there tomorrow as well for a Civil War Class!

Hexie table runner finished!

Finished! And I love it. It looks pretty good on my table outside, but is destined for a sewing table. Which is a tad messy at the moment, because I have been sewing table runners. You know how sewing rooms go! So here it is outside. This afternoon has been very sunshiney, which is nice after the cold, grey, wet morning we had. I am very happy with this finish. Now for the other two table runners I started whilst dreaming about this one!

Friday I stitched with Marg Low

It's been a big weekend. I am all stitched out. Let's start with Friday. I spent the day at the Patchwork Apple. A wonderful day in fact! I took dozens of photos, blurry photos, but this is the one I chose to show you. This is the bookmark I made. (AND finished!!!) I hardly ever finish something in a class so was really thrilled to have this finish. In fact I think we all had a finish. Joanna, Rhonda, Shontelle, Vicki, Pru and I. Marg Low is such a nice lady. We had a lovely time with her. She did a trunk show first (gosh her designs are just so beautiful!) and we all just ooooooohed and ahhhhhhhhed at her work. Then we sewed, ate lunch at the bakery, and sewed some more. The perfect day. Then I drove down the hill to Inspired Stitches. More on that later.

OPAM Finish

So I actually finished this quilt. I finished the sewing this morning and completed the snipping at the Patchwork Apple's sit n sew this arvo. I quite like the finished feeling. Maybe this is the new feeling for 2010. I might just finish something else.

Stitching Angel Swap Completed!

Hard to believe, I know! I'm finished!!! I figured the best place for me to photograph my Angel swap was in the garden because where else do you find butterflies? I finished off the swap with a Tilda bag. I have been wanting to make one of these "make-up" bags for ages and thought this would be a good time to make one. It went together wonderfully and I think I will make a bunch more of these! So fun!

I finished this quilted bag today too. Yes, I know I have made lots of bags, but I have been watching my partner's blog and I think that bags are what she wants! This is what the front looks like.

And this is the back. I had great fun practising my quilting on this bag. I am not very good at quilting and need all the practise I can get!. I hope she doesn't mind my freemotion practise!

Another butterfly in the hollyhocks. Hollyhocks are one of my favourite plants, because if you have some rain they just keep coming back! Plants that self-sow are my best!

Now, here's the whole collection in the daisies. I will take it to the post office tomorrow and send it on it's way! Will I be sending it to you????? You'll have to wait and see!!!