Nothing like being outdone by your Mum!

My mum, who is a crafty crafter from way back, decided she'd give quilting a try after seeing me muck around with fabric. Look at this. This is her FIRST EVER QUILT. She chose the design and colours and the lovely ladies at Amitie helped her choose the fabric. Mum's basting it by hand and plans to handquilt it. It's queen size and destined for one of the spare beds in the house she and Dad are currently building on Bruny Island in Tasmania. *Sigh*Do I quit now? Just kidding. But gosh it's good. Years of sewing and crafting and a great eye for colour. Well done Mum!!!

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Meanwhile, we continue our horrible run of sickness. It's Romily's turn again, with a horrible tummy bug yesterday and today (and a night in between that I'd rather forget). Meanwhile, my major essay was due today, but my very understanding lecturer has given me a week's grace. Thank goodness. That means no crafting is going on here until I get it finished. But then - boy do I have plans! My exam is on 25 June and then I have several weeks' break until studies resume. Better make a list!

Fabric Shopper giveaway - good lord!

Who wouldn't want to win this????? Crikey! Count me IN!!

Daniel's quilt all wrapped up

After a three-month delay, I also finally finished the quilt for my friend's baby who was born in January - I posted a pic of the finished top way back in February, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get it finished until last week. I'm sure Jo and baby Daniel will understand! Daniel is Jo's second baby too.
I am very happy with this quilt. I am sure Jo will like it too. It's just in time for winter anyway!

I'm not the only one who loved the Tula Pink Full Moon Forest fabric. Check out AJ's and Nicolette's (4th photo down) work - more examples of how fabric can be used in such totally different ways to make beautiful quilts!

9 months

While our PC was on the fritz, Tristan clocked up nine months on the planet. As much time out as he had in :)

He's a beautiful bubba, but I'm finding it quite hard to believe that he's going to be one in less than three months time! Here he is, trying to pull himself up on furniture. Slow down, Tristy - you can't even crawl yet!

And here's one of him with his cheeky big sister.And one of Romily feeding the birds down by the lake.Check out a very rugged up boy (in his fabulous EB Quilters quilt).

Plum Cobbler

Finally! Our computer is back. My files are back, and, after a bit more twiddling and tweaking and new software (ouch $$$), my emails are back. Phew. Enough said!

Anyhoo, I can finally show you the 'secret surprise' that's on its way to Margaret. It's a miniature quilt, about 20" x 20" and I'm calling it 'Plum Cobbler'. I am really into purple and white at the moment and I had quite a few lovely purples in my stash calling my name. I love how this little quilt turned out and I hope Margaret likes it too. It looks like it could be quite at home in the monochromatic challenge round of the Four Seasons Quilt Swap, of which Margaret is the swap mama.The border fabric is a lovely, dark, plummy purple from the Jinny Beyer Palette range. Yum.

And here's the label - more of my learner's embroidery!

Computers grrr

Apologies for this break in transmission. I won't bore you with the details, other than to say we've had two computer techs try to fix it and we are still unable to use our PC. Of course, we're many $$$ poorer for the experience and still don't have a working computer! Therefore, I can't show you any of my crafty progress and there has actually been some quilting going on. I'll post some pictures as soon as I can.

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Romily continues to sleep like an angel, with the operation being a resounding success. It was Tristan's turn yesterday. He also underwent day surgery (secret boys business) and was a bit sad for the rest of the day. He's pulled up really well today and is almost back to his usual happy self. Thank goodness for infant paracetamol and ibuprofen and the natural wonder of breast milk. It's making his recovery much easier (and therefore mine!).

It's been a rough month healthwise, but the end of May is nearly here and we have all come out safely on the other side.

We have a winner!

Congratulations Margaret! You have been chosen as the lucky winner of my giveaway, being commenter number 18 out of 27. Please email me your postal address. I know you have mine! It's funny that Margaret is going to receive the doll quilt - she's the hostess with the mostest for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap :)

Sorry I can't upload a picture of the doll quilt Margaret's receiving, but our computer has had a complete meltdown, aka "Blue Screen". A tech is coming this afternoon - let's hope he can fix it. I have an assignment I need to get cracking on, not to mention that the computer is my lifeline to the outside world! Hopefully I'll be able to load a pic over the weekend. (I am currently working on our old and very dodgy laptop that's missing a shift key and has no USB capability, so I can't download my photos, etc.)

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Apart from the PC malfunction all is okay here. Tristan has another cold and had conjunctivitis (gone now), but that's par for the course at this time of the year. Romily is doing extremely well. You'd never know she's had an operation this week. It's really hard to keep her quiet, because she feels normal. I'll let her off the leash a little next week :)

Something for Kate...finally

Happy days. I have finally finished Kate's patchwork cushion. It's based around her favourite photo of Pete, and has one simple word embroidered beneath the picture: Smile. We discussed the design together, so it won't be a shock to her when she opens her parcel once it makes its way across Bass Strait. I hope it brings a little bit of comfort and joy, as it's a reminder of what a beautiful man Pete really was. They were such a beautiful couple and made the most of the time they had together. I hope she likes it.

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And a belated happy Mothers Day for Sunday to all those mums out there celebrating last Sunday. I had a superb day, with beautiful cards made at Playschool by Romily (she made three and kept them well hidden during the week - I had a whole week of not being able to look 'in certain places'!!), and an over-the-top present from Carl on behalf of the kids - a Kenwood K-Mix! I was over the moon. I had mentioned to him that I'd love a new mixer one day, as my old mixer, which my mum bought for me nearly 20 years ago, just couldn't cut the mustard any more...actually it couldn't cut butter, but that would be a mixed metaphor. ANYWAY, here is a pic of the K-Mix. New York Cheesecake, here we come (it came complete with recipe cards!).After breakfast we headed out into the countryside south of Canberra, where there's a great adventure playground at the Cotter Reserve. Romily had a great time and found lots of other kids to play with. Tristan played on his mat and managed to find several leaves to try to eat. It was a gorgeous day and lovely to all be together outside in the fresh autumn air. Then we headed to the space tracking station at Tidbinbilla for lunch. Just past the tracking station we spotted a mob of kangaroos and a flock (?) of emus grazing in a large grassy area - we stopped for a couple of photos before Romily worked out the fence in these photos actually had a charge running through it. Poor thing got a zap off the fence - thank god it was low voltage. We couldn't belive there were no safety signs on the fence, but as we drove off down the road we spotted some. We had managed to pull up at the only section of fencing that had none...

Both kids fell asleep on the way home, which made a perfect end to the day. Well almost, for dinner I had my all-time favourite: roast chicken with roasted root vegetables and gravy. See, I'm a simple girl at heart!

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Don't forget! My 400 posts giveaway finishes on Thursday.

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One more thing. Romily had surgery yesterday to have her adenoids removed. She was such a little trooper, did everything the nurses and doctors asked her to do, climbed up on the operating table without any fuss, breathed in the gas without any fear and recovered quietly and peacefully over the next couple of hours. Poor thing had a chuck in the car on the way home, but immediately felt right as rain. Of course, I was the one who shed a quiet couple of tears at seeing my beautiful girl unconscious in theatre, but that's completely normal :)

I'm so proud of her. She listened and understood everything that was going on and accepted it all with grace.

She, now, of course, is getting a bit frustrated at not being able to run, hop or skip for the next week or so, but we have lots of 'slow activities' to keep us going. First cab off the rank is to make 'Huppa' (my Dad) a birthday card for next week out of some beautiful autumn leaves that we collected and pressed last week.

400th post giveaway!

I can't quite believe that I've made 400 posts to this little blog of mine. To celebrate, I'm having a giveaway. Leave a comment before 5pm Australian Eastern Standard Time on 14 May and you'll be in the running for a secret surprise!

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Good news: hard work pays off. I received 90% for my paper. Too bad it is only worth 20% of the overall mark! Now for the second paper, due in three weeks - this one's worth 40%. Let's hope I can do as well.

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And in crafty news, I've finally made a start on a long-promised cushion cover for my friend Kate, whose beloved husband died in November 2007. It's a photo cushion and I've found it very hard to get started. I keep putting it off for some reason - it's very confronting having his face staring up at me from my table, now that it's printed out on fabric. I need to get this finished and sent down to Kate. She has forgiven me so far for being so tardy in making it, but I feel terrible for not making it sooner. I had better go and get it finished then, instead rambling on in here!

Like brother, like sister

Yep, you can tell they're related!

And here's one of Tristan, who managed to get himself lodged in Romily's pool ring. He thought it was pretty funny...until he couldn't get out! He has started getting up on his hands and knees and rocking - I think we're going to have a baby who can move forwards any day now. He also tried to clap his hands for the first time today. It's such a cute age!

Precious little crafting going on here, although I am selecting fabrics for a special cushion cover long promised to my dear friend Kate. Hope to get it made by the weekend. A couple of other projects on the boil too - it's good to be crafting again!

Tristan is 8 months old

I know, I can hardly believe it either. How does eight months disappear so quickly? Here's my little guy. He's such a cutie. He's rolling around everywhere, trying desperately to sit up (even managed it once by pulling himself up using the edge of the rug) and wanting to get his hands on everything his sister has, as well as my cups of coffee.And here's his big sister getting in on the act. They're great buddies! (Even down to Romily requesting me to make the matching pants some of you spotted in my previous post!)

Easter hols

Boo. We disappeared down south before I had the chance to post. I managed to get my essay submitted one day late, but I had an extension, so all was okay. I think I did a pretty good job, but only time (and my lecturer) will tell.
I managed a spot of sewing before we left - a folding padded playmat for Tristan. I pieced the top using Kokka's range of canvas hippos and elephants, used 4 2.5cm cushion foam pieces for the padding and backed it with thermal-lined curtain fabric. I designed it myself after being inspired by something similar at Amitie and was pretty happy that I thought to make two ties and insert them in the seams before I stitched it all up. I used the playmat on floors at my father-in-law's and sister-in-law's houses and also in various playgrounds. It is great, although Tristan is already pretty good at rolling off it and into tan bark, etc.
The playmat got quite a workout while we were on our travels throughout Victoria and on the trip home via Adelong, Tumut and Adaminaby. (Check out Adaminaby's 'Big Trout'!!!)We had a pretty good time in Bendigo and Melbourne seeing our family. I say 'pretty good' because we were all sick - Carl and I especially. Just a nasty chest cold, but still not fun! It meant that we didn't get out and about as much as we would have liked, although we did manage to take in the Strath Quilters biennial show in Bendigo (great quilts, but I was too busy managing two kids to take any pix), as well as the Easter Parade on Easter Monday. Rom had a great time hunting in Granddad's garden for all the very many eggs left for her by the Easter Bunny!
Lots of fun was had by all despite us being sick. I really enjoyed seeing both kids interact with their grandparents. I wish we lived closer. It's such a precious time.

Made for playing

I whipped up another pair of Candy Pants from Ottobre 1/2008 for Romily. As you can see from the action shots, they're also good for scootering!I also had a go at my very first raglan sleeves - from another Ottobre 1/2008 pattern (#16 Polka Dot Blouse). I've been a bit hesitant to try them, because I didn't know how they worked. Duh! They are so easy! Much easier than setting in cap sleeves, for example! Well, it would have been easier, if I hadn't made a stupid beginner's mistake - I sewed up the front and back panels as sleeves and then wondered why the body looked so narrow and the sleeves so full! I soon realised what I'd done and unsewed the wrong seams (including the finished edges...) and resewed the panels - correctly this time.
I used some giant floral cotton fabric I had in my dressmaking stash and voila. Another great play top for Rom. She likes it a lot - especially when people compliment her on her lovely top!! I was pleased as punch when she said to the Donut King lady: "My mummy made it for me"!
But, that's it for sewing at the moment. Must get this essay done. It's due Monday, but we've all managed to come down with our second cold in as many weeks, so I've asked for and received a two-day extension. I'm feeling lousy, and so are the kids, so I hope it passes soon. I'm really enjoying this course and want to put in my best effort. I hope to get really stuck into it tomorrow. Once it's done I'll reward myself with a spot of sewing before we head south to Victoria for Easter.

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And a big PHEW! Julia, for whom I made the 'Winter Blues' table runner as part of the Four Seasons Monochromatic Challenge Swap, received and loved it! I'm doing my little happy dance, as we've both had our faith in quilting swaps restored :)