It's a scarf.

It has been chilly here. Thursday night I decided that knitting on the couch with a quilt would be the best activity. With my Bradley being away I also had some knit-friendly activities coming up. (Namely, basketball games which my Bradley normally does.) So, shortly after the third basketball game of the weekend began, I finished this scarf. Well, almost finished. I still have to sew the ends in. And right after I got it off the needles I began knitting another project. It's definitely knitting weather here. Off to knit some more.

Favourite Things Friday

Mr 11 lego building earlier this month

It seems that I posted my FTF post a couple of days ago. Boy has this week flown by. Here it is Friday again! Lego is my favourite thing this week. Homeschooling has given my children the gift of time. They don't spend huge chunks of time away from home, and sometimes they choose to spend some of that time with lego on the floor. It makes me feel that all is right with the world when my floor is covered with lego. It would start with two or three kids getting out the lego, and one by one everyone else would join in until they were all playing. Some together, some separately, but all would help when someone was looking for a specific piece. A cry would go up, "I need a blue twoer!", and everyone would look until it was found. (They had a verbal shorthand for all the pieces that possibly others wouldn't understand, but they all knew.) Those days are gone now. Earlier this month Mr 11 got out the lego and played by himself. He had a wonderful time, but his experience is so different from the other kids! So lego is my favourite this week. We have had so much fun with it. Countless towns have been built and left for weeks to play with (The kids' towns are always interesting. We attend church every week so their town would always include a church! Lolly shops, toy stores and music shops have featured heavily in their towns too.), and there have also been spaceships. Lots of spaceships!

Edit: Ooops! Go here to see everyone else's favourites!

Birthdays

A Lozmade wallhanging.

Earlier this year I had a birthday. (I do it every year, despite the fact that it just makes me older and older!) I received lovely things from Loz and meant to share them here, but never quite got that far. (My birthday was sandwiched in amongst all that packing and moving thing we did earlier this year.) I thought tonight I would show you this lovely Lozmade wallhanging I have hung above my computer in the sewing room. I look at it every day and love to think that here my heart can rest! I hope you are having a lovely week. Mine is being all unexpected with my Bradley having to suddenly go away for work and the sewing thing sort of just not happening. So I have given up on sewing and decided to sit and knit until the sewing bug takes over again. I'm sure it will.

Beginning Vs Finishing

After I had finished the repro quilt yesterday I started pulling out half-done projects which created the mess you see below on my sewing table. I was surprised at how quickly my table got covered and then I had a sudden thought.

Why had I turned immediately to projects on the go? That's not like me! My favourite thing is starting. Could it be that finishing is just as big a buzz as starting? Or have I suddenly become very goal oriented? (That's not like me either!) I'm not sure what it is, but finishing seems to be what I want to do right now. I love these log cabin blocks below and I decided that they will be my next focus.

Until I got up this morning to clear away my mess. Suddenly it all became clear. I have a project that is causing me angst and I just need to finish it so that angst will disappear. This week I will be working on my Some Kind of Wonderful quilt. So I'm off to strew that fabric across my desk. While I'm off doing that, tell me. Do you like beginning or finishing best?

This morning's post.

 The doorbell rang this morning. I didn't get too excited, because that usually just means a package for my Bradley. Today, it was for me. (Actually it was two packages for me. This one and one from Mrs 27. Apparently the reason my suitcase was so light on the journey home was because I left half my stuff at her house! Must be getting old!)

First mailing of QFD's Moda Bella Solids Club!

I received the first month's fabrics from the Quilt Fabric Delights' Moda Bella Solid Club. I chose to get half metres, but there are fat quarters and fat eighths on offer too. I just couldn't resist all this colourful deliciousness. And it's a monthly thing, so there'll be more! And it's colours I haven't picked, which is great because I seem to just pick the same thing over and over again, which is reassuring (I know what I like!) but not that helpful stash-wise.

Subscribing to one of QFD's block of the months or fabric clubs also entitles you a QFD club card. Here's mine. Nice card, but it also means 10% off purchases. Might have to use that in a late night clicky session. (Who am I kidding? I do all my fabric purchasing online during the day! Refer back to the getting old comment earlier. I'm too tired to buy fabric in the middle of the night!) So, off to hug and stroke my new solids.

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.

Binding... and some other things.

I'm up to the binding on that quilt. Not sure if it will get done tonight. I'm a bit tired. I had a busy day at church teaching two classes. The binding is happening though.

the investigator

That's granddaughter number two investigating. Now that she is crawling she has to check everything out. (Of course!) Hard to believe that this time last week I was in Adelaide with this little girl. She is so lovely. A real Mummy's girl, but if you work very hard she will pretend to be your girl for just a moment. (We love to work very hard to get her attention!) Now for the other things. This month (May) saw my fifth blog anniversary. It seems like just the other day (and a hundred years ago) that I started blogging. I remember just how strange it all was and just how uncomputerliterate I was. (Sorry, but that's definitely a word spellcheck. No matter what you think!) I haven't turned into a guru or anything, but I mostly know what I am doing these days. Anyway, in order to celebrate my blogiversary I am going to have a give away. I will have to think about what I can give away. I'll get back to you on that!

Quilting

The view on my enlarged quilting table

I had planned to spend all day today quilting. This was before I woke up and faced the realities of my life! Of course, not everything I did was unenjoyable. We made a visit to our local Farmer's Market our first job for the day, eating breakfast there and enjoying the rain. Then we did the weekly shopping and started running children around to their various activities. I finished up at 4pm and then began quilting. My Bradley carried on running kids around until 6:30pm. Not fair really, but he is a kind soul and knew I wanted to quilt. I have been quilting the reproduction nine patch quilt that I put together this week. It is the first quilt that I have quilted on my new table. So far so good. I am really liking the new table! The quilt is a fair size, about 72" by 45", and it has been quite easy to handle on the big surface of my table. I am planning to get the main part of the quilting finished tonight and then quilt the border and bind it tomorrow. I had best get back to the quilting!

the view from my seat