Christmas in July

Some friends of ours have a 'Christmas in July' dinner party every year and we went along on Saturday night. There were five couples and Romily came along to entertain and be entertained by our friends' youngest daughter Emily. Romily adores Emily, who is 11, and Emily is quite the little mummy, so enjoys looking after Rom.

We had a lovely night and it was good to catch up with friends - some of whom we haven't seen for a while, being the social recluses we are!

One of the highlights of the night is the Kris Kringle present giving - you bring along a present each of very low dollar value and pick one out of the basket in return. I decided to make them this year, winning me lots of brownie points with our hostess, who is a keen patchworker!

First I made a set of four 'criss-cross coasters' from a tutorial posted long ago on the fabulous Allsorts blog, from some Christmas fabrics I had in my 'stash'.Then I made a casserole mat from my own design - working out setting triangles for the first time in the process. It finished up about 13" square. I was very happy how this one turned out and may make some more for Christmas presents this year.All going well here. Lots of Braxton Hicks (practice) contractions and finding it hard to sleep...all good signs that the pregnancy is finishing up nicely. (I'm not enjoying being so tired all the time, but hey, it's good preparation for all those sleepless nights after the birth!)

Hoot hoot

The babies keep on coming! My cousin Liz recently gave birth to her second son, so I decided that he probably didn't need many clothes and that I should make something else for him - I decided upon an owl softie from Handmade magazine (vol 25 #8), thinking it looked pretty straightforward.Well it was, but my goodness it was fiddly. Silly me ignored a similar comment on Adds' blog and lived to regret it! My owl is a bit wonky - he leans to one side and don't look too closely at the embroidery! Fortunately, I don't think babies care much about that! Of course Romily now wants one...we'll see!

I did a couple of appliquéd onesies as well, so hopefully the parcel will be well received.I am doing well. We're 36 weeks along tomorrow...on the home straight! I finish work in another two weeks and can hardly wait. I felt terrible yesterday morning, so took the day off. I am all well again today, so I think it's just being pregnant!

And yes Mum, I'm taking it easy.

Snow ball

Well we had a ball at the snow anyway! Australia has a couple of smallish snow resorts, so whenever there's a decent dump it's time to get excited. The Snowy Mountains in New South Wales had a reasonable amount of snow fall during the week, so Carl and I made the snap decision to take Romily to the snow for the day - her first time in the snow.
We headed down yesterday morning and decided to go to Perisher - it's a nice, wide open space where there's plenty of room for little tackers to muck about in the snow without being run over by errant skiers or maniac borders!The other fun part of the day is catching the Skitube up to the slopes and back again. It's a very big adventure for someone who will be three in one month's time!

We hired some pants and some apres boots for Rom - she already had her Dora parka and gloves - so she'd be nice and warm and dry, and headed out into a glorious day of blue skies and sunshine and snow, snow, snow. (Okay, for you people in the US and Europe, this looks pretty patchy, but for here it's not too bad!)Romily had a great time, learning how to make snowballs and throw them at mummy and daddy, how to walk in the snow (sometimes easy, sometimes hard, sometimes too hard and daddy had to carry her), and not to eat it!After a couple of hours she was getting pretty tired and so was I! With an extra 10kg on board I kept sinking into the snow - it's hard work when you're nearly 8 months pregnant! We retired to the shops for a hot chocolate and a spot of shopping, before heading back down through the tunnel on the train. A leiusurely drive home, with a comfort stop in Cooma, and we were home by about 7.30pm last night.

A long day, but one that was well worth it :)
I made some fleece 'snow' pants for Rom to wear there and back. I had some pink and white fleece left over from a bunny I made her when she was a newborn, and that did the trick...I made the leg panels out of alternating colours - she liked them!--------------------

Last but not least, here's the applique top I made for Rom, using the strawberry fabric again - I promised to make her something when she spotted this fabric when I was putting Strawberries & Cream together. She liked this too. It's so gratifying when your daughter actually wants to wear the clothes you make her...that should last for another couple of years at least (I hope!).

(Yes that is my 'portable' stash that Romily is sitting on! It doubles as a 'train')

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

(click to enlarge)

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!

Strawberries and cream, pop and fog

Some fab fabric arrived from Quilt Fabric Delights and Hancocks of Paducah during the week, as well as some from my LQS. It's all for the 'summer' quilt I'm making for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap. Here it is all washed and ready to go. The quilt will be called Strawberries & Cream. Yummy!
Also, my slack postie arrived on Wednesday with a whole bunch of mail, including four more FQs from our birthday swap. Well, three FQs and a 30cm strip of divine Amy Butler fabric. Clockwise from top left: Cylie, Helen, Bec and Helen again. Helen you have really spoilt me with an FQ and a 30cm strip! Thanks ladies! Only a few more to come :)
As for pop, here's Romily, who's discovered the joys of popping bubble wrap!
And fog - this is the view we were greeted with this Saturday morning. Hopefully it will be a beautiful day once all that fog burns off!
Have a lovely weekend!

Another year older

And possibly a little wiser. Possibly.

Yes, today is my birthday. Another year older. And what with being more than 7 months pregnant, I am definitely feeling every one of my 37 years!

I had a lovely birthday weekend, with my parents in town and a day of leave today - hey, if you can't take a day of leave on your birthday when can you? Just kidding. But I am taking a couple of days off over the next few weeks before I finish work - yes my friends, I am taking it easy :)

It was my dad's birthday recently, so we had a double celebration, with a birthday lunch for dad yesterday, a joint birthday cake last night, and a birthday lunch for me today.

Yesterday's lunch was at a busy little cafe up on the hill behind our house - it overlooks the whole of Canberra, so the views are spectacular - even upside down!

And I was lucky to receive some lovely presents, including a bunch of fat quarters from some girls in my online quilting group - we're having a birthday FQ swap and it's great fun to open all the parcels on our birthdays! Six have arrived so far - check out the booty below. The others should arrive soon - the mail to and from Canberra is shockingly slow considering it's the national capital!
Top left, clockwise: Leah, Emma, Cass, Mands, AJ, Xena. Thanks ladies! They're delicious :) Also a couple of mags and Mands threw in another couple of cool brights!
This was the cake - Romily helped make it and decorate it. Yes, those are Jaffas :)

Might go get myself another piece right now...there was just a little bit left - just for me!

Oh baby

A friend of mine from my online mother's group had a gorgeous baby boy - Archer - a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd make a little outfit for him and ended up with a simple pair of pants from a Simplicity pattern and a couple of matching appliquéd onesies - all in 3-6 months size. I did French seams for the first time - I didn't want seams rubbing against that precious newborn skin, so it seemed (or is that seamed?) like a good idea. I'm really happy with how the seams turned out. Will do French seams for most new garments I think - also much neater for those who don't have an overlocker. Like me! For a great tutorial, go here.
It's a beautiful winter's day here in Canberra, so it was nice to be able to take a photo of the outfit outside.

Carl's taken Romily out for a bike ride around the lake, so it's time to start on a new project. Do I bite the bullet and start making blocks for Romily and Bub#2's quilts, or do I whip up another pair of pants and some more onesies for yet another cousin who's just had yet another baby boy? Decisions, decisions. I'm definitely procrastinating on starting the Hungry Caterpillar quilts. I'm not 100% happy with the butterfly block and I can't get my head around paper piecing, so I'm worried I'm going to muck it up!

I think I had just better go and make a start or I never will!

Oh, and you might notice a new link on my sidebar - Quilting Bloggers - if you quilt and have a blog why not go and sign up? Michele, aka Mishka, is creating a whole new blog community for quilters. So head on over, have a mooch about - you can search by country - and sign yourself up.