Strawberries & Cream is done and dusted

(Click to enlarge)

Don't you hate those people who finish their swaps before you've even started yours? Makes you feel guilty doesn't it? Well not any more for this little black duck! I have finished and posted Strawberries and Cream and it's on its way to Europe (ouch to the postage charges!). It was remiss of me not to say how big this quilt is! I managed to confuse a couple of you! It finished up at 19 3/4" square. The QSTs finished up at 1 1/2" - all 81 of them!

I am very happy with it - I ended up going with the diagonal cross-hatching for the quilting, using Gutterman sulky thread. Thanks for the suggestions. Here's a photo of the backing fabric - too cute! It's from the Strawberry Lemonade range by Moda.I love it so much that I used it to applique two onesies and make a bib for a girl in my online mother's group who's just had a baby girl. The bib pattern is from Nested. Of course I changed out the velcro tabs for snaps. Have snap machine, will use it!
I was also very lucky during the week to receive the French quilting magazine I won on Nicolette's blog giveaway recently. The very generous and totally sweet Nicolette also sent a gorgeous onesie for Baby#2 as well as some stickers for Romily from the same artist who did the design on the onesie. Thank you Nicolette!All well here. Had a quiet and relaxing weekend. Took Romily down to the lake again and she and Carl had a great time rambling around the castle playground together.
Then we fed some ravenous ducks and went toadstood hunting. There are lots about at the moment.
It was the most gorgeous day...of course since then the weather has turned and it's been windy, raining and freezing the past couple of days. Winter is here with a vengeance! Good thing we spend most of the time inside with the heater on these days.

We have our final ultrasound scan tomorrow - it will be nice to see the baby again before he comes out in about 6 weeks. And nice to see who's been poking me with his toes!

A strawberry sandwich

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I am on fire! Couldn't sleep this morning, so got up with the birds and sandwiched the quilt after getting the borders on last night. Now I just have to work out how to quilt it! All suggestions appreciated :)
Here's a gratuitous picture of Romily: 'Mummy take a photo of me' - so I did!

Sneak peek - FSQS

As Anne pointed out, my strawberries and cream quilt for the Four Seasons swap is good timing - Wimbledon starts tomorrow :) I've made quite a bit of progress and have now completed the centre of the top. Two borders to go on and it'll be ready for sandwiching.

Here's the sketch I made of it before I began - I knew I'd need a 'map' to ensure those QSTs were all facing the right way and that I'd get the colour placement right. It sure came in handy - only one QST was sewn the wrong way - that's good for me! I'm also pretty pleased with my piecing. Most of my points actually match. Not that I get too carried away about these things, but this is the most intricate piecing I've done, so it was nice that it turned out pretty well.(Sorry about the photo quality - it was late when I snapped this pic. I'll get some proper shots when the quilt is finished.)

We have had a reasonable weekend - after discovering during the week that I actually have five weeks at work left, not the four that I thought *groan*. Carl and I took Romily down to the lake yesterday after lunch out at a cafe and she had a great time chasing ducks (and then being followed by them and a couple of swans hoping she had food) and playing on a 'castle' playground. We were both tuckered out after that and had sleeps - mine for two hours and hers for over three! Last night I got cracking on the QSTs and got all 81 of them pieced.

Unfortunately, my big plans for today fell by the wayside as I woke up feeling dreadful. Hot flushes, feeling faint, just revolting. I took it really easy, spent most of the morning horizontal and came good by about 3 o'clock, so got out the sewing machine and joined all the blocks together.

I'm taking a day of leave on Friday, so another short week at work for me this week. I'm hoping to get the borders on and Strawberries & Cream sandwiched by the weekend. With luck, I might get it quilted and out the door early next week. Here's hoping!

I'm keen to get the Hungry Caterpillar quilts started and I've bitten the bullet and ordered a Carol Doaks book on foundation piecing (it comes with a DVD so you can print out the blocks), as well as bought a box of papers that will go through my printer. While browsing a 2nd hand bookshop yesterday (between lunch and the park), I also found this book. What a bargain at $6! So, I am all hot to trot on foundation piecing. Wish me luck!

What I learned about quilting today: While QSTs look great, there's a lot of bulk with all the abutting seams!