Merry Christmas!

I know I'm a week early, but we're heading off on holiday leave on Tuesday night straight after work, so I won't be able to post again until after Christmas.

We are making our annual pilgrimage to Melbourne and Bendigo to visit our families and spend the festive season with the ones we love and who love us. All of the grandparents are very much looking forward to seeing young Romily - she has come along and grown so much since they saw her last in October.


She is becoming a very beautiful person, although she is a real handful. She is the tantrum throwing queen, but then the next minute can be just delightful. It's hard as an adult to remember to not stay mad at littlies! I have to keep reminding myself that I'm the mature one in this relationship, so I'd better start acting like it!


I'm looking forward to showing her off to our families. She won't really 'get' Christmas this year, especially as we don't have our Christmas tree up - we figured since we're going away and she'd only destroy it, there wasn't much point. I will make a big effort next year - and it gives me 12 months to make a tree skirt :)

So Merry Christmas everyone - stay safe, eat too much, drink a bit (but not if you're driving) and enjoy some time away from work and with your loved ones.

What Christmas ornament are you?

You Are an Angel

A truly giving soul, you understand the spirit of Christmas.

What Christmas Ornament Are You?

Merry Christmas!

Who do you think she looks like?

Mummy?


Or daddy?


Just kidding. I find it fascinating how so many little girls look nothing at all like their mothers, and very much like their fathers...but in a good way!

Alexandra's quilt is finished!

Well I must confess I am feeling a little proud of myself - I have finished my first quilt! Thanks to my helper Carl, here it is!


This is the one I have been making for my friend's new little daughter Alexandra. I am very happy with the way it turned out.
My in the ditch machine quilting certainly could have been better, but practise makes perfect, so I'd better practise some more! And, as Joyce pointed out, that's why I should choose meandering or wavy patterns next time LOL!

I hope Di likes it and I hope the bubba thinks it's very cuddly and snuggly - not to mention bright!

She's no angel

For those of you who think Romily is an angel, I give you this, my beautiful sleeping baby...

For those of you who have 'been there, done that', this is the real Romily!!!

Just kidding of course. She is both an angel and a little devil - all at the same time - one of the joys of parenting :) 

And introducing Bashka...

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you the newest addition to our family - Bashka.

Bashka is four weeks old and will be coming to join us in late January or thereabouts. He is a Bengal kitten and will be a most beautiful cat. I think I'm in love all over again :)

Here he is with his mum, who is a brown spotted Bengal.

Baskha is a silver rosetted boy.

And boy he's beautiful! Here he is with his dark silver sister.

Awwwww!

Animal at the zoo

I took Romily to the National Zoo and Aquarium on Sunday - we both needed to get out of the house, it was a glorious day and she's suddenly showing great interest in animals.

She was pretty good, but now that she's a big girl and walks everywhere it was a bit of an effort to convince her to stay in her pram! After a couple of tumbles on uneven ground, she was a little happier to be pushed around by mum. But only a little.

She was very excited watching the monkeys - they were pretty easy to spot as they move so much - and she also couldn't get enough of a turtle that was swimming around in a tank in the aquarium. We had a good time together over a couple of hours. I took some photos, but when I got home I realised the only animal I had photographed was Romily!!


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Thank you everyone for your very encouraging comments on my quilting! I am very happy with how it's turned out. Unfortunately my machine quilting skills are nowhere near as good! When I am finished Alexandra's quilt I'll post some photos and then you'll be convinced I am in fact a first, no, second-timer!! Yegads. I wish I could sew in straight lines when quilting!

Phew! Romy's quilt nearly finished...

Once you see these photos you'll see why it took so long for me to finish hand quilting Romy's quilt. The 'rows' are about a 1/4" apart. I did the first one by mistake too close to the other and then decided I really liked the effect! I stipple quilted around the friendship stars and across the floral fabric and I did a wave pattern in the fat border. I love it!

It was so relaxing and I really got a great sense of satisfaction when I put the last stitch in. I felt like I found a rhythm and didn't miss too many stitches going all the way through to the back. I also discovered that using flannel backing 'swallows' a lot of the back of your stitches so that although the stitches are definately there it sometimes doesn't look like it. But who's going to be looking at the back anyway! You can still see some of the chalk marks - let's hope they all wash out at the end!

All that's left to do now is to trim, bind and attach the 'made by me' label to the back. I am proud of myself getting this far...just in time for summer! Of course, I say just in time for summer, but we're in the middle of a cold snap here and there was actually some snow on the ground yesterday here in Canberra! And it's only two weeks till summer starts. Crazy weather gods!!

(Please excuse the very average photos. I need some tips on how to photograph quilts obviously!)

Four-patches stitched

Slowly but surely I'm getting there. Wherever 'there' may be!

The quilt top is shaping up nicely - I have stitched all the four-patches and feature blocks together. I really like the colour combination. I have bought some yellow homespun for the border (same as the yellow squares), which I hope will help tone down the 'blueness' and bring out the yellow and green a bit more. I've also bought some hot pink homespun for the binding, which I think will bring it all together.

Must get some time this week/weekend to try to get the whole thing assembled, if not finished! Nothing like being ambitious is there? 

Cheeky monkey

Before I finished the quilting, Romily started showing a strong interest in what I was doing. I showed her some of the 'pictures' on the quilt (trees, stars, ladies) and she really wanted to get her hands on it for a proper look. I wouldn't let her, as I am not quite ready for sticky hands to be all over it, so I didn't give it to her. She didn't throw a tantrum to my surprise...then I turned away for a second and put the quilt down on my chair. I turned back to find this --->

I think she likes it!!

Crazy colours!

So here are my four-patch and feature blocks all laid out for sewing. I'm pretty happy with how the colours have worked out together. Boy it's bright though! All the books tell you that babies can only distinguish bright colours and that pastels, while pretty, don't do much for the babies.

My plan is to stich these together and then I'll add quite a wide plain yellow border. Then I'll bind it in hot pink. The backing fabric I've chosen is lime green, so it should all look good. I hope!

I'll try to get the blocks sewn tomorrow night, as we have my father-in-law and his companion arriving Friday afternoon for a four-day visit, so I won't get any quilting done this weekend.

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I do have some news though - I have finished quilting Romily's quilt!!!!!!! Oh my goodness I was beginning to think I'd never finish. I'll trim it and take some photos and post them later in the week. I'm going to have to take the whole thing into the shop so they can help me choose fabric for binding. And help me work out exactly how much I need - I am so hopeless at calculating these things :)

I am really happy with how it's turned out. It's far from perfect but I am happy that a) I finished and b) that I think the way I've quilted it really adds to the texture of the quilt and helps tie all the sample blocks together as a cohesive whole. It's a bit 'bubbly' in places, but only a little so probably only I will notice it's not as smooth as it could/should be. I certainly wasn't going to unpick it! 

A little girl!

How wonderful - it's a girl! Di had a little girl - Alexandra Diane last Thursday and here's a photo of the beautiful little thing - with lots of hair! Her brother was also born with a big mop of dark hair. Hooray and congratulations to the whole family.

I've pieced all the blocks and laid them out. Once I've downloaded the photos onto our other computer and transferred them to this one I'll post some photos. At least I know now that I need some pink binding! 

Computer is broken oh no

Well the computer is stuffed - that's a technical term apparently. I can still get online, but I can't download any photos or get anything on or off the computer other than by email or CD ROM.

So, we'll have to buy a new one shortly, which is an expense we could well do without. Oh well.

On the positive side of things, I am very close to finishing the hand quilting on Romily's quilt. Just two thirds of the border to go and trim and bind and it's done. Yay!

Am desperately waiting to find out how Di and the new baby are - the baby was coming via caesarean yesterday. C'mon, c'mon, where's the email? I am terrible at waiting to hear news like this!!

Hope everyone out there in blogland is doing well and you all have a great weekend.

Offline for a while

Our computer has apparently had the carrot. It had a meltdown early this week and when we got it going again none of the USB ports would work. It's currently in with the technicians, who have no idea what the problem is, so we may end up having to buy a new computer. Bummer.

Until we're back online at home it's going to be quiet around here! I'm posting this from work and I don't think I'll be very popular if I spend all my time blogging :)

A glorious weekend in Canberra

Beautiful, hot, spring weather all weekend. How perfect! Yesterday was hot - 30 degrees celsius - and windy, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We were headed back to Floriade, but diverted when I spotted a petting zoo being set up on the lake foreshore. We made a quick turn and five minutes later this was the scene.



And all for free! Romy didn't quite know what to make of all the animals, but she soon took an interest. She'll love it in another year or so, I'm sure!



A lazy-ish day today. A milder 21 degrees and sunny. Spent a little while outside in our courtyard this morning. So lovely now it's done. Romy in her swing, me pushing and the the sun shining. It really does not get any better than that :)

But now, off to start cutting squares for the baby quilt. My friend's baby is due in two weeks! Better get a wriggle on :)

Busy, busy, busy

Yikes! Where the last week go? It just whizzed by. I didn't get on here all weekend - my parents and brother came up from Melbourne for a visit and we had a great time getting out and about with them and Romily.


Romy was in great form and even showed off her new toddling abilities. She's really starting to get confident about walking and just toddles off when we're not watching - suddenly, she'll be over the other side of the room and still on her feet! Before we know it she'll be running!


On the weekend we made it to Floriade, Canberra's annual flower festival. It's based on a tulip festival in the Netherlands and we go every year. It was my Mum's first time - she's wanted to go for about 10 years - and she just loved it. It was perfect weather and not too many people were there when we arrived - it was just lovely.


It was so good to have some of my family here - even just for a few days. I really do miss them a lot and it's just so wonderful to see them rather than just talking on the phone.


Thanks for all the positive comments on my quilting :) They've been very encouraging. I'm looking forward to getting started on the quilt for the new baby too. I did buy a little more fabric for it last weekend, including the backing, which is a very cool and groovy lime green splatter fabric. Perfect for a baby to snuggle! Now just got to find some time to get cracking!

Pfffft

Well I have been very slow posting on here lately, haven't I? I have been feeling pffffft - Carl and Romily have both had horrible head colds and I finally succumbed on Friday afternoon - just in time for the three-day weekend we just had! Grrrr.

Fortunately I was not nearly as sick as Carl and Romy - they are both still 'enjoying' the water works emanating from their noses, while my symptoms have pretty much disappeared. I think my immune system received a huge kick earlier this year when I had the flu for 8 weeks so I'm getting off lightly this time.

Despite all of us feeling quite under the weather, it was actually a beautiful weekend. The sun shone, it was warmer than it's been for a long time and the birds were out and about. So we decided to head out too and take our minds off feeling blergh.

Carl took this photo of Romily and me on our balcony just before we went out on Sunday. Romily smiling for the camera as usual ... not!


Quite a bit of quilting was done over the weekend. I am very happy with how it's coming along. Not quite half way there, but am nearly finished with the stipple quilting, which has been going slower than a month of Sundays!

That's enough rambling from me. Might go try to catch up on a few blogs before I hit the sack.

A new baby!

It's not me! No, despite being not a little clucky, it's not me that's pregnant, but my good friend Di. She's having her second and it's arriving on 26 October - a month from today! It's very exciting. I say 'arriving on 26 October' because that's when the c/section is planned. Di had a very difficult labour last time and her obstetrician recommended not risking anything this time and going straight to the caesar option. I think that's wise.

And exciting! She doesn't know whether it's a boy or a girl - she's got a lot more willpower than me - I didn't find out with Romily because I wanted a surprise, but with baby #2 I will definitely find out. There's too much to plan!!

Anyway, I have decided to make a quilt for Di's baby #2. And since I don't know whether it's going to be a boy or girl, I chose some beautiful gender-neutral brights: lime. aqua and yellow. I got a mix of plain (with a bit of texture) and patterns - I learnt a good lesson there with Romy's quilt project - you can have too many patterns!

I'm just going to do simple four-patch blocks and no sashing, interspersed with block-sized feature fabrics - especially the cats - I'll bind it in either blue or pink - once I know whether she's had a boy or a girl.


I'm hoping to finish it in about six weeks - I know that's slow compared to some quilters, but I don't get all that much time to quilt!

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And thank you for all your lovely and encouraging comments. I am enjoying quilting Romy's quilt. I just wish that I'd been able to finish it in time for her to use this year. But with the weather heating up, it'll have to go into the cupboard until next year - fortunately she'll still be in her cot next winter!!

Oh my goodness she's so slow!

LOL...the hand quilting is going slowly...but I'm pretty happy with things so far. My stitches aren't as fine as some others' (Finn, Tonya, Judy, Joyce you know who I'm talking about), but I'm learning how to get better as I do it. Nothing like learning on the job!

Here's how it's coming along. I have mostly outline quilted. I think I'm going to stipple quilt the background of the cream coloured blocks, including the applique blocks, which I haven't yet started. And I bought a wavy pattern stencil for the borders. Now just got to work out what to use to mark the fabric!

Any tips on how on earth you go about stipple quilting and marking up the fabric would be greatly appreciated :)

Classic food-faced toddler

Well this blog is turning into 'All about Romy' or 'What Romy did next'!

I have no quilting to show you. It's painfully slow doing only an hour or two each evening - that combined with not really knowing what I'm doing or what pattern(s) to do!!

So here are some more photos of my daughter, who is still learning to feed herself :)

1) Spaghetti



2) Lamb casserole!

Click to enlarge - it's worth it!!

No angel

Just to prove she's no angel - this is her cracking it because I wouldn't give her the camera!

And more cute photos of the pigtails!

Okay, enough indulgence now. Better go have a shower or something at 8.30 on a Sunday morning :)
 

Pig tails!

Yes, I couldn't resist. Romy's first pig tails. Her hair really isn't quite long enough, but she was a willing participant :)

Note the brush she's carrying around - it's almost bigger than her head!