piper's first trip to the ER

A week or so ago, my husband and I were talking about sicknesses and wounds and childhood bumps and bruises, and he mentioned that we were the only people he knew who hadn't taken their kid to the emergency room yet. I countered that it was because I am American (and therefore still have an "insurance might not cover this" mentality) but also that we were fairly sensible. We watch our kid, I reasoned, and he agreed; and besides, it's not like she does much that's too dangerous, anyway.

Oh, the hubris of it. It only takes a second.

Yesterday morning, while eating her breakfast omelet, our little space cadet fell off her toddler chair with her (metal cake-sized) fork* in her mouth and she somehow landed on it hard enough to STICK IT IN HER NOSE. That's right, I had to pull a stuck fork out of my child's nostrils. It was in there good, too, and she bled everywhere. Of course, being nine months pregnant, my first reaction was "oh shit", my second reaction was CALL HUSBAND, and my third reaction was to cry for 45 minutes, completely out of character or rationality for me. (I also apologize to my husband for calling him a nasty name when he didn't pick his phone up immediately. That's hardly fair.)

I caught Mr Poppleton just as he was stepping onto the train platform, and he turned straight back around. I didn't even consider a GP; we live a one-minute drive from a public hospital with an emergency room, and that was where we were going. (Fork. In. Baby.)  I grabbed Piper's pile of clothes (she was still in jim-jams, and bleeding everywhere on them) and we waited for Daddy in the car. I was shaking but I remembered to close the back door, leaving the dog outside. I had left my handbag in the car the night before, so we were all ready.

We got to the ER and I pulled myself together long enough to explain what happened, and then the triage nurse came out and assessed Piper. She didn't want the clip to test her pulse, and had to have the sticker, but (for whatever reason) I had my iPad mini in my handbag, so Peppa Pig kept her sufficiently occupied during the poky assessing parts. We were triaged at a 4, which is good, because it meant our child wasn't dying. (I was still a half-hour into my legendary weeping spree.) Piper was calm, not bleeding much, watching the iPad, and Daddy was calm. Even I was calm, except every time I looked at her little bloody jimjams...and remembered pulling the fork out of her. My tiny baby. Okay, the bloody clothes had to go.

I waddled out to the car, got her change of clothes, then came back, and we changed her in the waiting room. As we were changing her the attending doctor turned up. It was not very much fun trying to get the Tiny Blonde One to sit still while the doctor looked up her nose with the light, but we managed, and finally the doctor said she couldn't see any lasting damage, and judged it "just a bad scratch". Well, okay; I definitely pulled a fork out of some soft tissue, but I'll take quick healing over quibbles any day of the week. Piper was going to be fine, if swollen and sore. I could live with that.

After that I offered to drop Mr Poppleton off at a station nearer the city, and he bought me coffee (which was the only thing I had tp eat or drink all morning, I would later realize). He went on in to work, and Piper and I visited Nanna, who had been kept updated and was relieved to see Piper in the flesh looking a bit sore but not fatally wounded. We played at Nanna's house until midday, and she fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Her top lip is fairly bruised on the inside, as are her gums, which makes me think she hit with the tines straight in (as opposed to angled upward). She has a fat little lip but yesterday she was full of kisses, even though she would kiss us - wince - then kiss us again. But she is mostly the same, and went to school today cheerful and happy. We're still giving her baby Nurofen from time to time, just to make her more comfortable.

Now, I heard from several reliable sources that a traumatic experience can trigger labor, so I fully expected to be typing this one-handed. I'm a pretty calm and action-oriented person; even as I was sobbing into the phone to my husband, yelling for him to get back home right now, we have to go to the emergency room, I was mentally making lists of what needed to be done: back door shut, clothes for the baby, my phone, my keys, water for the dog. I ran to do everything, carrying a 13kg toddler, and managed to get herself and myself in the car in less than four minutes. (Impressed, right? Me too.)

I have, though, been doing this for years. My dad worked out of town, which meant I, as the much-older kid, was the one who had to help my mom when my sisters wounded themselves. For perspective, my mother has five rambunctious girls, and twice I had cuts that nearly required stitches (including the first one, triggered by a slippery bathtub fall, where my mom went searching for my dad and he wasn't fishing where he said he would be and she kept muttering "I will kill him" over and over and here I am holding a towel and an ice pack to my bleeding body and finally I blurt out, "Please don't kill Daddy"). My sister Jillian actually had stitches twice in six weeks - once falling off a lawn chair and catching a BBQ to the face, the second time leaping off a stack of catalogues into a coffee table. She also shut her finger in the car door and lost a thumbnail. Janaka had a cut finger so bad it took a splint and four bandages to fix up, and then she broke her arm at soccer. Whitney fell and knocked her front baby tooth out and sobbed all day because she was convinced the Tooth Fairy wouldn't give her money for a missing tooth. So naturally, I text my mother, expecting sympathy and understanding, and she texts me back, "Welcome to the ER years."

Sigh. :)

I knew I got my relentless pragmatism from someone!

I am very glad for my husband, who didn't even hesitate to cancel his morning meetings and turn on his heel and head back home. I am glad he held the baby (she wanted Daddy!) and didn't care if he got blood on his shirt. I am glad he didn't hassle me too much for the irrational crying, even though it is frankly terrifying for him when I do cry, because it's not that common. (Pregnancy, so much fun for everyone!) And I'm glad that he is always fishing where he says he'll be fishing. Thank you, other half. You are wonderful.

Anyway, Piper is okay, and I am increasingly miserable (so very pregnant, a head cold from the shock, and so over being sick and pregnant). But tomorrow is Friday, which means another appointment. And Saturday means a meeting of the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild! (Come say HI! I should be there unless I am in labor or too sick to leave the house. I'll probably be there. At least for a bit.) 

I am hoping things calm down...and I am hoping that we have this baby soon. I would very much like to have my husband home and my new little baby in my arms and Piper learning how to be a big sister! (Also I would like to be able to vacuum again. And bend over. And tie my own shoes and put underwear on without having to do the maneuver where I hold them in front of me with one hand and randomly stab my feet where I think the leg holes are. Dignity: not optional if you want your butt covered.)

I will leave you with this picture of the Little Miss at the hospital yesterday. Since my family is all in the US, this was all over my social media. It is nice to think that everyone was praying for her as it was happening though. Thanks to everyone who tweeted, facebooked, and texted well wishes for us. We appreciate it.

And yesterday afternoon, feeling a bit better.

And this afternoon, still a bit puffy but feeling much better.

Hopefully we don't have to do that again...fingers crossed!!

*We have always given Piper natural materials where possible - so tiny teaspoons and cake forks for cutlery, dull brie knives for cutting up bananas (we just started those, with supervision, last week), real crockery. She's only broken one dish and one glass in her life. It's a big part of Montessori, having natural materials and using them in practical life, and besides the connection to things that come from the earth, it helps her to know she has child-size implements that are the same as Mama and Daddy use. The actual issue wasn't her using a fork at all--it was the fact that she frequently gets up during meals and dinks around. We will be working on that from here on out!

New Juki Day!

I have been contemplating the next step in my quilty learning lately, and we've been discussing how to make it work. My overall goal would be to invest in a longarm and quilt not just for myself, but for a select group of customers, too. I'd love to do FMQ on a larger scale than I can now, and in discussing what I love and don't love about my sewing machine, the main constraint comes down to space and power.

Don't get my wrong; I think the Bernina 440QE is a fabulous little machine. It's an absolute workhorse, and for piecing/assembling/smaller FMQ projects, it's a dream come true. But I'll be honest. I'm kind of outgrowing it. I make lots of BIG quilts (the last two tops I assembled were 112" square and 96" square) and trying to roll a BIG quilt up into the tiny throat of my Bernina is a struggle. My quilting suffers as the weight of the quilt drags it down, distorting the stitches. I also suffer from tendonitis in my right elbow and every time I quilt, it flares up from the stress of holding a huge pile of fabric steady while I wrench the other half of a quilt around.

If I could go back in time, I'd probably do a bit more research before buying, simply because these are such important investments, and I really went on recommendations without realizing my own needs. I should have asked myself what size quilts was I likely to make? I love making big quilts -- I love the scale and size of massive, useful things that vast people like us can snuggle under -- for me and my husband, that means no less than 85" square.

Now, I don't have room for a longarm (YET), so my dream of buying the most basic Gammill is a far-away dream. But there was a middle-ground solution. I have been intending to replace my backup machine for some time. (Note: Janome 319s for sale, with 1/4" foot and walking foot, in perfect condition, for sale, $200!) I wanted a machine that had more power. Inspired by a few people in the blogosphere (Rita and Elizabeth, namely) I began to do my research. Quietly. About eight months ago, to be exact. And I concluded that I use maybe 10% of my Bernina. Ouch.

What I wanted was a machine that had a lot of power, could zap through complicated piecing/layers, and didn't have any unneccesary frills. I wanted something I could drive, and a straight-stitch semi-industrial machine was my vague ideal. I kept hearing about the Juki TL98P, and research kept pointing me in that direction. As soon as I figured out that you could attach it to a longarm frame, however, I was sold.

It's also less than half the price of a basic Gammill, for frame, freight, and new Juki. Consider me doubly sold.

+

Now, my husband and I really like each other. (I may have mentioned this a few times.) We don't really do flowers and romantic dates, but we save up for big events. Anniversaries are big deals for us - we go a little bit fancy. (Last year we got each other nice leather bags.) Last week my husband came home describing a camera he wanted. Then he turned around and asked me if I still wanted a Juki. As I picked my jaw up off the floor, he suggested we do that for anniversary presents. A camera and a sewing machine. Um, how fast can I say yes? I had my email open and was composing an enquiry to Bob at Capron Carter before he'd even finished the sentence. :)

So today Bob delivered the machine (just specially for me, since I'm so pregnant!), helped me set it up, and got me started.

Immediately I was thrilled by how beefy it sounds. This machine doesn't mess around - it's semi-industrial, so while there are nice touches like the flywheel locking while you load a bobbin (domestic machine regular feature, not common on industrial machines) there are typical industrial touches, too (side-loading bobbin and thread, that amazingly powereful 1500 stitch/minute motor). Another big difference is that it's not much bigger than my Bernina - smaller in footprint, in fact, and skinnier, but certainly taller. Here is a spool of Aurifil in the throat of the Juki...

And in the throat of the Bernina.

It's the difference between a lap quilt and a king sized quilt.

The body of the Juki is also metal, and when you take the top off, it's a few wires and a heap of mechanical parts, as opposed to a computer in a plastic-clad body. I feel like this would be a great machine to take to meetings, on retreats, and out and about generally, because while it's big and heavy, it's not a dominator, and if it tips over in the car, you're not going to be sweating bullets to see if it's okay!

I also really like the thread-cutting feature. Oh man. Yes please. This will make chain piecing an absolute dream. I am forever losing pairs of scissors down the back of my machine, which is beyond frustrating.

One thing I was concerned with about the Juki was whether or not they make a 1/4" piecing foot. I can more or less eye off a scant 1/4" seam, but better safe than sorry, right? Now, they do sell guides though it seems rather fussy, so I investigated further, and it turns out that apparently the compensating foot gives you a perfect scant 1/4" seam allowance. I haven't tried it yet (naturally I went straight into quilting) but I'll keep you posted.

So far, I love it. Of course it's a weird week in terms of Piper care, so I can't get in my sewing room much, and I have to finish the quilt I'm working on with my Bernina (since I already pre-wound all the bobbins, nerrr) but luckily it's only 60" square and straight line stitching anyway. I've got two more quilts to quilt and I can practice on the Juki, and then once I feel confident, I'll send my Bernina in for a service. (It is definitely due!)

I am really excited to get to know this machine better, to learn how to get the most out of it, and eventually, to start quilting on a frame!

And I think, it might be time to make this guy a quilt of his own. He deserves it. xx

The Rainbow Connection

We are one step closer to being finished with our Sydney Modern Quilt Guild group quilt. It is called The Rainbow Connection and it is from Tacha Bruecher's excellent pattern Over the Rainbow in her 2011 book Hexa-Go-Go. The pattern was used with permission and there is even a block from Tacha herself in our quilt! (It's the one with Mendocino mermaids.)

I love this quilt. It will be on display in the Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair in June, and afterward, we are hoping to sell the quilt, and donate the proceeds to charity. If you love this quilt, spread the word. (That said, if it wins any awards, it will have to travel, so it might not be up for sale for a while!)

Sel spent a good six hours quilting it today, which means we are so much closer to the finish line. We only have four things left to do (and I only have to do two of them)!

• Make a hanging sleeve
• Make a label & attach it
• Bind the quilt and attach hanging sleeve
• Send it in to the Quilters' Guild of NSW

Anyway, I made Sel pose with the quilt top. She worked so hard for us today.

And then we took photos of the top...

And the pieced back!

And now it is safely ensconsed in the boot of my car awaiting the hanging sleeve, after which, it will be given to Marilyn, who has offered to bind it for us. WHEW, and thank you Marilyn!

I have to admit, finishing the top was a huge relief for me. After last month's meeting, we had a box of sashed blocks, but I ended up just figuring it would be easier if I spent an afternoon assembling the top (rather than doling out rows and then trying to collect them). Logistically, yes it was easier...but it was more like four afternoons (including making borders) in the end. I am always glad to finish a quilt but I was really glad to see the back of this one! :)

Thank you to everyone who contributed a block, kept up with us on Instagram, or were just a part of the guild and offered moral support. It has really come together so beautifully. I (we) are so thankful to be part of such a lovely community of creative, caring, generous individuals. THANK YOU!!

WIP Wednesday

Howdy everyone! It's Wednesday.Which means it's time to link up with Lee and check out other WIPs!

Now, I love Wednedays. Wednesdays are swimming lessons for Piper, which Nanna does, so I get a few hours to myself on Wednesday mornings. I usually go to the cafe and hang out. Sometimes I take hand-sewing, but today it was just me and my red notebook. I wrote a to-do-list for the week my husband was away and even though I had the best of intentions, I got very little done! So this is a pretty accurate list of my WIPs, in photo form.

But before we get started...look what I found walking outside today. Autumn leaves. WINTER IS COMING. (Miiiight be watching Game of Thrones during naptime...)

FINISHES

This is the Liberty quilt I made for new baby Matilda. The solids are Michael Miller Cotton Couture and I kept the layout deliberately casual.

I kept the quilting simple (on the diagonal) to keep it soft but nicely quilted.

The back is two large pieces of Liberty that was given to me by a family friend. I bound it in Liberty too, machine-stitching, so it would stay nice and secure for baby.

My wee label!

This is not the completed top, but this is the layout for the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild group quilt. I finished the top and handed it off to lovely Sel who will be quilting it this weekend! I am so excited for this one to be out of my sewing room. It is massive (112" square) and it was taking up all my mental and emotional space. So it is a good thing it is on to the next step. :)

You can see Sel and Ruby doing the organization of the blocks as we on the stairs hollered down instructions. Sounded like Battleship: "A1 to E4!"

I made a trivet for my husband to take to work to put his coffee cup on.

And he got one for his desk at home, too.

And - remember this quilt? My show quilt? I finally put the top together a while ago (two weeks? Three weeks?) and have had it folded on my shelf for ages.

Yesterday I added a skinny white border to make the blocks float and today I pressed it and pin basted it. Phew. Getting hard to pin-baste.

And here is the beginning of the quilting. The colors all have corresponding Aurifil colors coming! I swear!

WORKS IN PROGRESS

Me. 34 weeks. I'm so excited for this baby!

And all the other WIPs in my photo at the top of the page. :)

And now for some obligatory Piper photos. This was hanging out on the porch with my iPad...

And this was watching it like a pro. We love Peppa Pig!

That's it for my week. How about you? What are your WIPs? Link up with Lee and be sure to let us know! xx

Home and happy.

The truth is, I really like my husband. He's just the greatest. I mean, he has flaws (as do I) but when it comes to two people who like each other (who really like each other), and who are pretty perfectly suited, well, that's us. So when work takes him Very Far Away for seven days, I get a little blue. That happened on Easter Monday: he got on a plane and went all the way to Austin, TX.

I did not get very much sleep all that week.

Aside from all the (imaginary) robbers trying their best to break into my house (that did not happen), my husband is a professional snorer. I am very used to the sawing of logs starting from about thirty seconds after his head hits the pillow, and I have found that trying to go to sleep without it is more or less futile. He's my white noise machine.

Anyway, Piper was distraught and clingy and I was flat-out mopier than a teenage Rilke fan.

But! It ended! He arrived safely at stupid o'clock in the morning (we were in the car at 545am to pick him up, if that's any indication of his earliness), and even brought his little cowpoke something from Tejas:

And life is back to normal, more or less. We ladies are both grateful to have Daddy back!

This weekend I got some proper time to do Fun and Exciting things - namely, visit Calico & Ivy for a last trip before they close on 4th May. (Please, quilters and fabric people, go forth, the sales are amazing: half off almost all fabric, except Liberty, which is discounted to $45/m.) I am mostly devastated I haven't been stockpiling Liberty for the past year and a half, because now they are going and I won't be able to just drive down and go to Calico & Ivy whenever I want some. So even though today was my "last visit"...well, we'll see. (There are weeks yet.)

This is the Liberty I picked up.

And this is the other fabric I chose. I can't seem to go past those deep blue/greens, and I love that honeycomb orange/white dot. I was also chuffed to grab some of the Sherbert Pips scarf fabric - perfect for a binding or a wee little skirt!

It occurs to me my camera is...well, it's somewhere, so I can't post a professional picture of the finished quilt I made for Aaron & Floss's lovely new baby Matilda, but it was all done in Liberty lawn and Michael Miller Cotton Couture. Piper and I dropped it off last Sunday and I got to hold a teeny little three-week-old. I am so ready to have my own baby. Hurry up, kid! (In 3-7 weeks, that is, once you are cooked.) Baby Matilda is so sweet and so tiny and it always melts me when people have tiny baby girls - having had one myself, I am a sucker for wee lasses, for sure.

I also made a mug rug for my husband's work desk...

And before that, one for his home office.

I was thinking yesterday (looking out over my shamefully neglected garden) about how on my birthday last year I was outside, doing serious gardening, for three hours. I doubt I could do it for three minutes now. It's useful to remember that this pregnancy will end and I will be back to my peppy, energetic self soon enough! This is good, because I'm quite miserable at how LITTLE I can get done in any one sitting.

I miss being productive. I know it seems a little antithetical to say I'd be more productive once the baby comes, but I am hazarding a guess that babywearing is a lot easier than being swollen, pregnant and exhausted. :)

We have been talking about schools for Piper, this one, and the possible third one, and we've settled on what we want to do. Now I just have to decide what grown up occupation I'd like to do that can actually pay school fees. I'm already doing what I want to be doing (writing, and crafting), but it's a decision to pursue monetizing those activities. I need to sell my book. I've had people read it, and honestly critique it, and I believe it's good enough to be sold. Now: to do that. I do have two sequels planned (one sequel's character sorted, and a glimmer of an idea for a third), and the option for an earlier "prequel" set in Scotland, that fully develops the ideas introduced in the current book. In the meantime, we've enrolled Piper in the local Montessori and hoped for the best. The inside baby will be booked in as well. It's something we believe in, can get behind, and appreciate. In fact, when we toured the school, both Mr Poppleton and I were consumed with jealousy over how relaxed, inspiring, and creative the classrooms were. How I wish that had been my education!

I have a pin-basted quilt all ready to go. (The baby quilt for Miss Matilda is the one on the left; the one I have yet to quilt is on the right.)

I have a couple dolly quilts of some orphan blocks to make for Piper's little friends Ava and Ruby (they are dolls). I also have three other quilts to pin-baste and quilt before the end of April. In May, it's time for the Craft Depot sale. If you're in or near Sydney, be sure to stop in. There's heaps there and it's all on sale. I'll be camped out for that roll of batting. No dithering this time - I'm buying two! 

Ooh - I almost forgot. One of my favorite all time novelty fabrics is this sweet little sailor print by Minny Muu for Lecian.

Isn't it cute? It has been impossible to get hold of yardage, until I tried something new - I did a Google Image Search and followed a few of the image links backward. Some were dead Etsy links, some were personal blogs, but one was a link to an Australian fabric shop that had YARDAGE. Suffice to say I was buying a meter before I could blink. That was Apatchy Quilting from somewhere in Brisbane. There was a bit of a kerfuffle getting the order through (of course I ordered when their Internet was down) but she express-posted it to me for no extra cost so I got it straight away once things were up and running. Great customer service and a nice quick turnaround!

I have also discovered The Stitcher's Cupboard, which is Camden based (so near Sydney) and I have gotten all my parcels within two days of placing an order. They are pretty reasonable for Australian fabric prices too, and the sale section is divine.

I have been a lot more judicious in my purchases since I began my big destash on Etsy, but let me tell you, it is worth it to add a bit of the right things back into my recently culled stash. Though considering how much of my stash is low-volume (one whole shelf of yardage and an entire container of FQs or large scraps) I think it's time to start a low-volume quilt. Someone mentioned a spiderweb quilt on Twitter. And a Farmer's Wife quilt. And I am off and running, with a million new projects...where I should be finishing the ones on my list!

(Still haven't made it through the list...am working on it though!)

Anyway hope you all are having a fabulous weekend. Catch you again soon!

xx Penny

New sewing space.

I mentioned the sewing room move a lot last week, and if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you've been undoubtedly inundated with photos of the shift. I started last Friday and we finished Saturday night; so we've been in for just over a week. I have to say, I'm already heaps more productive than I was in the other room, but aside from that, I thought I'd take a few non-iPhone photos and share my fabric storing methods with you all. Here we go!

I set my work area up in an L-shape, so I can get to it all fairly quickly in my swivel chair. Since we had the big wall (and two Ikea Expedit units), I took advantage of the corner and placed my fabric shelving there. This is most of my sewing storage, as you can see.

I use six of the 16 cubbies for straight fabric storage - that means yardage (anything over half a yard). If I have a piece of fabric that isn't selvege-to-selvege it gets put into the FQs/large scraps section, neatly folded to fit. The FQs are in two places: in the wheat-colored basket drawers (right edge, 3rd row down) and in plastic dividing containers (right edge, top row). They are very visible and in color order!

The drawer units are used for small scraps (6" x 6" or smaller) and are also color coded. I have set aside rare and precious scraps, like Mendocino, in a drawer unit, and my precuts live there too. This makes it easy to fossick around for specific projects. Also in the Expedit is a storage box with batting and Insul-bright, and a stack of ready-to-be-pin-basted quilts (batting and backing included).

The top is currently a huge mess - it's part SydMQG group quilt, part Etsy stock, and part random necessary haberdashery and stationery! It should be much tidier at the end of this week, though, when the SydMQG quilt top is finished and my Etsy stock is moved to a different room in the house. :)

Now, on to the other furniture! This is my computer and sewing machine. I leave my machine out and open. Since I am obsessive about cleaning it, I don't worry about a dust cover. You can see how easy it is for me to watch my shows on my computer while I sew!

The opposite corner of the Expedit is the threads & snips corner, or where my cutting tools and thread rack lives. They're in a pretty convenient place for cutting and sewing! I also have my mini-ironing board (which is a converted TV tray) and iron there, for quick pressing.

On the other side of that is my Alex drawer unit, also from Ikea. I love this thing: it's on casters, it's a great height for seated rotary cutting (which I do a lot of these days, at seven months pregnant), and the drawers are great storage for haberdashery.

I keep the rulers I use often out, within easy reach; everything else goes into a drawer. Templates too.

The design wall is just a piece of quilt batting we used sticky-back Velcro (hook side, not loop side) to fix to the wall. It took about five minutes to hang up.

For my fabric, I arrange it in color order, starting with my whites/low volumes. I did try to destash this, but I gave my husband veto power, and every time I put one in the destash stack, he snuck it right back into my stash. I think someone deserves a low-volume scrap quilt. :)

I also have a fondness for blues.

I have been focusing on building up my greys/blacks/purples lately, and combined my stronger pinks into the purple/plums so I had a clearer color scheme.

My medium and light pinks sit alongside reds and oranges.

And the greens and yellows are all by themselves in a stack, so I put my little Ruby Star Shining divided basket (pattern here, by Anna of Noodlehead) in the gap and added a few precut stacks (Sarah Fielke's On the Pond bundles, Notting Hill by Joel Dewberry, purchased from Knotted Threads) to one half. The other half of the basket is devoted to Liberty tana lawn, both yardage and scraps.

Finally, my solids and linens are all separated out. I have Kona on the right, Michael Miller on the top left, and my linen/cotton blends below those. I love having a well-stocked solids stash!

For the smaller yardage, I use two methods. I have these file boxes from Howard's Storage World, recommended to me by Jenna, which I use for my blue and low-volume FQs or similar.

The rest of the rainbow of FQs/larger scraps goes in these baskets, also from Ikea. The idea behind both these systems is that I can pull all my FQs out in their containers and see what I have. This is quick and clever!

I keep bigger yardage (for quilt backs) and special fabrics (oilcloth, laminates, flannels and voiles) here in the big white basket, also from Ikea.

I've committed to getting a LOT done this week, so I'm using a "spare" cubby for quilts that are ready to be pin-basted. These are backs, battings, and tops in order. Can you believe I have four quilts in my queue? Five, if you count the picnic rug that I need to buy batting for?? This should keep me out of trouble!! :)

So this is it, basically: my new space and how I organize it. It works for me pretty well, though time will tell, won't it! How do you organize your sewing space? :)

The Cake.

Confession: I don't make a lot of food from home. I rarely pull out my mom's recipes, and partly this is because we have wildly different tastes, but also because American ingredients (and recipes) often don't mesh well with how I eat here, in Australia. For one, I'd never even heard of Ro-Tel before Pinterest. (Tip: use a few slices of hot chili in tinned tomatoes; it's the same thing.) For another, well...I just don't love the same food I grew up eating. I tend to fill up on all the food I miss when I fly over and visit, and it's invariably stuff I'm rather glad I can't get every day: french fries with ranch dressing, onion rings, biscuits and gravy, Dr Pepper, enormous burritos, PayDay candy bars. I feel like an anomoly for preferring my own cooking to my parents', but there it is. I'm not picky, but I know what I like, and I know how to cook it.

There is one notable exception to this, though. That is The Cake.

Sometimes I find myself craving The Cake. It was her mother's recipe, and her aunt's icing (frosting) recipe. It's fudgy and dark and sweet and moist. The icing is pure nirvana. My mother altered it (though she never revealed how), and she's given me permission to post the recipe here. When I bake The Cake, I feel connected to my mother, and her mother before her, and I imagine my grandmother and her sister cooking side by side into their sixties, only a five minute drive away, in and out of each others' pockets forever. Cooking with my sisters is great. (They take orders! They're so QUICK! They're EFFICIENT! I love you guys.) It's something I miss. So this cake links me. And I put Piper up on the benchtop and let her have a wee teaspoon of icing, because there is nothing better than licking the spoon (even if it's a teeny tiny spoon).

It's not beautiful, like so many cookies and cakes I make. It's homely and lumpy and something you find at a friend's house, not something you see in a shop window. There's no way to smooth the rough icing or make it uniform without taking something important away from the experience. But who cares what it looks like? It tastes fantastic.

Without further ado, the recipe.

Grandma Pearl's Sheet Cake

Grease and set aside either a rectangular cake pan or two smallish round cake tins. Preheat oven to 200ºC.

In a medium saucepan, combine:

• 225g of butter
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup of buttermilk (or 1/2 cup of milk with 1 tsp white vinegar)
• 6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Let this come to a boil; meanwhile in a bowl combine:

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp bicarb (baking soda)

In a ramekin or small bowl mix:

• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, beaten

Pour the hot saucepan mix over the sugar and flour, then stir; afterward a moment, add in the eggs and vanilla mix. Combine well and pour into cake tin(s). Bake for 15-25 minutes, checking frequently. Let it cool completely before icing.

Aunt Erelene's Chocolate Peanut Butter Icing

• 3ish cups icing sugar
• 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1x 250g packet of cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (I honestly just eyeball this step and chuck a wodge into the Kitchen-Aid)
• milk to thin if needed (I've never used this step, but my mom says to add 1 tbsp at a time)

Mix it all in the a stand mixer if you have one. It'll seem quite stiff but if you leave it, it doubles and thickens and gets all fabulous. I usually do the washing up while the icing is mixing. Either a whisk or a paddle attachment are fine!

This is enough to generously ice a two-layer cake with a thin middle layer, or to over-ice a whole sheet cake. Just try not to lick the spoon. I dare you.

I do love this cake. Let me know if you make it and how it turns out! :)

Cheers

Penny x

WIP Wednesday!

Well. I've been busy getting stuff done this week! Hooray for me. And a big thanks to my burly, amazingly patient husband, who helped me get everything (more or less) accomplished. Whew! Let's talk achievements!

I am linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday!

FINISHES:

I am going to put the Rainbow Parterre quilt up to include as a finish since it is actually the only quilt I've managed to FINISH this year! Even though I blogged about it last Monday, I missed last week's WIP, so here it is!

I also managed to swap rooms around in the house and finished converting the baby's room into a new sewing space/study. Man, is it ever awesome! I am loving being IN my sewing space now that it's actually a sewing space...and not a sewing closet. I know people work with less room and do amazing stuff, but I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I am not one of them. I enjoy the space. Now I have more of it. Win!

NEW PROJECTS:

I had a 30-pack of Liberty pieces I bought from Calico & Ivy a long time ago (with the amazing fellow co-curator Jenna) but it wasn't quite enough, so I went to get a few more prints. Calico & Ivy is sadly closing down. Their last day is May 4th, so if you're in Sydney, go in and take advantage of the big sale. Their quilting fabric is all 50% off, and the Liberty is reduced in price, too. That makes stash-building very affordable (she says guiltily). ANYWAY, long story short, I got a few more prints and managed to organize a quick quilt top. I added in a few Michael Miller solids, but I kept it otherwise strictly Liberty.

STALLED WORKS:

Okay, my quilt show quilt is still just strips. I need to finish assembling the top! It'll only take an evening, it's just sitting down and doing it that seems to be the problem...because after that comes the batting, backing, and quilting, which I have not yet decided on. I am a bit nervous. It's a show quilt! My first! It has to be pretty great. So....yikes.

I also haven't done a thing with my Washi Windows top. It is meant to be quilted!

Or either Trade Winds quilt top. These are meant to go up in my Etsy shop in the near future, once a bit of the destash has cleared. I can't find pictures of the tops anywhere, so the stack will have to do! :)

Oh yeah. That Swoon quilt. Urgh. I love this block and I need to just MAKE this quilt already. If I did just one a night it would take me two weeks to get the whole thing done!

What else? My Os quilt is stalled. I doubt I'll go back to it, actually, and it's a shame I've already cut out the pieces. I might put them together another way as a scrap quilt, though. I am thinking of a nice cushion cover out of the existing Os. :)

And I haven't done anything with this though I really want to revisit it soon! I love this stack and the block I drafted (based on this excellent one from Film in the Fridge) is really perfect. Again, it's all cut out, and ready to make a quilt with!

It looks like I have lots of work to do! I better get busy. How about you guys? Link up with Lee and share the linky love! Hopefully next week I'll have a bit more to report!

Penny xx

Moving (in) house

This week I found myself, for the millionth time, in my too-tiny sewing nook trying to find a square foot of space to get some sewing done, and it just...broke me. I was jammed in a corner with no relief. I'd downsized my desk but still had to move two things out of the way to get to my fabric shelves; there were far too many things going missing in the various crannies and cracks behind double-parked shelving units, and I felt hemmed in.

I wanted to sew but I really felt like I couldn't.

Something had to change.

Back when we lived in a tiny apartment, I sewed in the lounge room. It was nice, because I was right in the middle of stuff, but it meant I had to keep my sewing area SUPER tidy (company tidy, which is a whole other thing to normal OCD-level tidiness). And as Piper grew up, and grew mobile, I knew having pins and scissors in the same room as her toys would be a bad idea. So when we bought this house, it was such a blessing: I finally had a sewing room! I nobly took the tiniest corner of the tiniest bedroom, and we have been making do.

We tried, you guys. We really did. We downsized and moved furniture and changed things around. Eventually, I had a whisper of an idea, but I kept ignoring it. I destashed. (By the way, if you bought something this week, THANK YOU! I have really enjoyed posting out all those lovely fabric parcels this week! And more will go up in the store Monday night!) I cleaned. I cleaned again. I threw out a garbage bag full of things. And still, it wasn't working.

The niggling, wiggling thought formed into a fully-fledged thought. And as it happens in my brain, soon it was accompanied by graph paper, measuring tape, and a steely determination. We needed to move the study into Piper's bedroom. I drew it out; everything fit beautifully. I could even have a design wall IN the room!

I sprang this on my poor surprised husband, and he very reluctantly agreed, on the caveat that I was not to move anything by myself. (I am seven months pregnant. I am also very impatient. But more on that later.) Mr Poppleton hates moving furniture, or moving house, or even moving his fountain pen one inch to the left of where it normally goes, so it is essential to have him on board. One time, I moved furniture for him, and it took him four months to go through and put everything where he wanted it. Literally, he did not use that area of the house for FOUR MONTHS. But I suspect he's been feeling the crunch, too. We stayed up late last night and hammered out a plan of attack. It was all set: this weekend we'd bit the bullet, stay inside, and get it sorted.

Well, except...I got started a little bit early.

And by the time Mr Poppleton was home for the evening, I had a fully functional sewing room.

Officially, I am to let Blogland know that I am very, very naughty for moving a sewing cabinet, a drawer unit, a computer desk, and a 16-unit Expedit while seven months pregnant. In my defense, everything had felt pads and we have very smooth wood floors. I really just pushed it around. I used my legs, I promise! But I am never to do that again. Ahem.

(Sorry, dear.)

So here we are, stealing the baby's bedroom. Terrible, isn't it? Except...

...she never uses it as a bedroom.

I'm going to come right out and say it: we co-sleep. We bedshared with Piper until she was a year old, and then spent a miserable two months getting up with her every couple of hours as we tried to get her to sleep in her own bed. (She slept through the night from 8 days old, tucked right in next to me; it was wonderful. So to switch to a suddenly clingy, needy, miserable little girl was like being dashed in the face with cold water.) We gave up one night, and put her mattress on the floor on Daddy's side of the bed and climbs in when she needs to. (About 1 night in 6.) And we don't care. Literally, having her in with us is easier for everyone. And in the mornings, she wakes up, says, "Oh!" grabs Ruby, climbs in with me, and snuggles in for another half hour. It is perfect. When she weaned, she never looked back or missed breastfeeding, but I missed the cuddling and closeness. This is where I get that, now. And I wouldn't, if she were running out the door of her room to get to her toys and Timmy Time. Because she sees us first, she's immediately registered that she is not alone, she is safe, and doesn't have to go all manic to hide her alone-anxiety. And that makes for a much happier little girl, day in and day out.

I feel absolutely no guilt stealing a bedroom she didn't even care about. Firstly, I'm not sure who I was pleasing by pretending Piper needed a bedroom. Society? Family? Some idea of what parenting a toddler is like? Our kid is amazing and totally into us and loves us and wants to be near us (often, sitting right on top of us, with all her pointy elbows and knees finding soft, weak spots to poke). Putting her in a room without us is not the kind of parenting I wanted to be doing. Lying about it to everyone (including myself!) was just making me feel guilty: why isn't she in her own bedroom yet, why is she so clingy, why am I irritated every time I open the door to the room she never uses, etc. So here's the official line: she'll tell us when she's ready to have her own room. And then we'll help that happen.

Until that point, though, there is no reason we shouldn't be able to move ourselves into the front half of the house. The green room (formerly Piper's bedroom, currently becoming the study/sewing room) is right next door to our bedroom. Bonus: we can hear Piper if she gets up. Bonus: I can sneak away for a few minutes here and there to sew. Bonus: no longer will we miss parcels because I'm not near the front door. This is one of those win-win-win-win-win-and-so-on-situations.

Right now, Mr Poppleton is moving his photographic equipment into the second set of shelves. I am typing this up. I'm not entirely done (I figure I've got about two hours of sheer sorting tomorrow morning), but I'm tired. (Something about being pregnant? And being so impatient that I sorta kinda went nuts and moved a  bunch of stuff around? Argh. Silly self.) But I am loving this already. A new space. And so much of it.

And of course, it seems so obvious, now that it's done, but...you'd never believe it took me months to decide this was okay.

Sleep well, chickadees. You are all really pretty.

Penny xx

The Long-Awaited Reveal!

So, um, somehow I let this blog languish for five weeks. FIVE. That is pretty bad, even for a dingbat, baby-brained, ultra-busy person such as myself. Consider this my apology: I feel so sad I have been a bad blogger, I have destashed about half my fabric.

It is in my Etsy shop. Go forth! Browse! Buy! Tell your cashed-up friends!

If you are in Australia, those work out to be below AMERICAN fabric prices per yard (and most of them are actually meters masquerading as yards, which means BONUS FABRIC). Unfortunately I cannot do much about the shipping costs; they are what they are, and I still rounded down, but the bundles are nice and fat and the deals are sweet. Get this stuff out of my house. I have three FQ sets arriving this week. And I missed having space to move around in my sewing room. It was getting cray-cray, y'all.

So.

On to what I did manage to do last month while I was neglecting you, oh blog I love!

I finished up the Rainbow Parterre Quilt. The pattern comes from Homespun 87 which I found on eBay, but I'll level with you: I saw this image on Pinterest and traced it back to the original author of the pattern. Then I couldn't wait for the pattern to arrive, so I drew it up in TouchDraw on my iPad mini myself. (Lynne aka Ms Lily Lalique has some fabulous tutorials here.)

Once it was colored the way I wanted it to be colored, I went to work. Chose my stacks...

And began to cut. And sew. And trim. And cut and sew and trim some more.

Along the way I developed a nifty little system for accurately piecing blocks. Because this quilt was in a block configuration of 24 x 24, I knew I could divide it up into 36 16-patch blocks.Which made the entire 96" plus quilt top into something suddenly extremely manageable. I got so quick I could do a block in 20 minutes, start to finish!

Anyway, long story short, cut the pattern into manageable bits, label the back, use Blu-tac or poster putty or what-have-you to stick it right in front of your face where you can't screw it up, lay it out, then sew. It does make it quicker, and aside from the first mistake I made, it was a perfect quilt top. I literally did not screw up, and I can only thank my system.

Now, I was going to wedge this thing into my Bernina 440QE and try and quilt it myself (!) when my friend Danielle (do you know Danielle? She is amazeballs, go read her blog) suggested I ask Jeannette over at The Quilting Platypus if she could longarm it. I was a bit afraid to ask because, well, I only had a week and a half, but Jeannette messaged me and said "I can do it for you in three days!" AND SHE DID!

It is really nice that she let me queue-jump, just because she loved the quilt. I had never sent a quilt out before (me, the girl who can do it all!) but this was just so easy. I was not relishing trying to squeeze in what would have been about 20 hours of quilting into a toddler- and puppy-filled life. Mr Poppleton chose the pattern (Rosebud, I believe, soft to give the quilt some movement and round to contrast with the sharp geometrics) and I got the binding attached at one of our Sydney Modern Quilt Guild meetings, then sewed it on over six hours. (I was a very bad parent that day. Piper and I watched a LOT of Timmy Time.)

This is us, binding. She thinks she's helping!

We delivered it as soon as I finished the binding. (I couldn't wait!) I know my mother in law pretty well by now and I knew taking a huge elaborate present to her birthday dinner (at a restaurant) would be quite a lot of effort and embarassment, so we took it over a few days early. That suited everyone just fine, except I forgot to take a picture of the whole thing!

Anyway. She loved it. That's the main thing.

And last weekend, I FINALLY remembered to ask her to bring it over, and I FINALLY have a picture of the whole dang thing.

It's 96" square, so amply queen/king sized.I deliberately kept it very heavy on the blues. I put a lot of different textures in there - so Mendocino right up against Hope Valley, for example, which are both quilting-weight cottons but with very different hands - because I know my mother in law is the kind of person who appreciates texture. Some things I kept deliberately symmetrical (the inner orange/brown ring, the outer pinks) and some were happy accidents (a large-ish triangle in the lower right that ended up being all the same fabric in just that quadrant). I played very fast and loose with value. The ONLY thing I wish I'd done better was fussy cut and added more scraps. By the end of my cutting I was so tired (and on my second of FOUR total rotary cutter blades) that I just went "oh, let's use these five colors" when I should have said "thirty colors". But it doesn't matter, because it is done, and beautiful, and loved.

I mean, look, it's a stash quilt (the only thing I bought was the binding because it was perfect), and the colors took a while, and I love all the negative space. It was a big stretch for me, getting away from square patterns, and I'm so proud I managed to wrangle this pattern into something fabulous. I want to make all of the things now. SIGH.

So, Rainbow Parterre quilt. What else has been happening?

Oh yes, we had a rather frantic few weeks at the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild trying to get the top of our group quilt assembled. We managed to get (over two days!) all the blocks sashed with white and the colored strips, and then at last weekend's meeting, we decided on the final layout, and added the white sashing and colored posts. Literally, this baby is ready to be put together. It is my job to trim and square these blocks for assembly. We will probably have another bee at some point, or we might do some work over Easter for those who hide out during public holidays. (Or is that just my family, hehe.)

Anyway, the Dream Team:

That's Jill, Tash, me, and Selina. What gorgeous girls. Thanks for spending nine hours with me. You are all totally the prettiest people I know.

I will endeavor to blog about last weekend over on the SydMQG website. Sometime soon. Before I give birth. Gah.

OH! And I sent off the form to exhibit my own quilt. For my first "big" show quilt I wanted to do something quite simple but striking. I can't seem to get away from HSTs, though...

This photo the quilt top is only laid out. I have the blocks sewn into rows, but haven't put it together yet. I plan on quilting this one myself. I even made up the binding already. :)

Oh! And I also did my bee blocks and sent them off already. They were for Charlotte this month. She sent three fabrics (Konas White, Slate, and Bright Pink) and said "send me back a 12.5" block!" I ended up making these ones:

It was quite hard to let those go, I tell you. Since she just had a baby girl (like two weeks ago!) I indulged myself and sent her a vintage children's pattern and a little bapron as well. I hope she likes them. :)

On the home front...Piper has learned how to climb things. Like her high chair. (She elects to climb OVER her tray, which is both terrifying and...nevermind, I am now remembering how danger-esque my sister Janaka was...there was NO method of near-death she didn't attempt as a small child. Piper is just adventurous.) Piper is eating a lot better, and knows how to slither into and out of her chair when it's time to eat, and sometimes will slither in as a way of TELLING me she's hungry. (Then she just sits there. Staring. Resentfully. I have heard her ask for "eskit" and "lunn" before so I often just stare back at her and ask her if she would like to tell me something. No response.) She can say "up!" and "Daddy" and "Timmy" (um) and "Mwa" which is kisses, and sometimes "Mama" when she is feeling particularly upset. If she hurts herself she unleashes a string of sounds that is a LOT like a sentence, but is basically nonsense, but her tone is spot-on. (She gets angry that she was hurt and she is mad at whatever hurt her and can I just fix it, okay, now put me down.) She can kick a soccer ball and shout "GOAL!" and tells the dog ALL THE TIME that she is a "good girl". She asks for "Ooby" (Ruby, her dolly) sometimes. She constantly says "tickle tickle" when doing anything - taking her shoes off, touching her bellybutton, etc. She always shouts "GADDAD!" when we go down Nanna and Granddad's driveway. She can say Nanna but, like Mama, rarely does. She can say "did it!" and "yay!" as well. She likes to imitate sneezing, snorting (we sometimes watch Peppa Pig too), and coughing when she hears it. And still grins when she sneezes. She climbs up on her bathroom stool to brush her teeth (and play in the sink, actually) and at shower-time, if you hand clothes to her, she will put them in the hamper (and her nappy in the rubbish bin). She has figured out how to change the water pressure from the overhead sprayer to the wand and often steals the water in the shower. Tsk. We recently bought her kid-sized cleaning toys (broom, mop, dust-pan and mini-broom) and she uses them all correctly. In fact, when I mop, she goes around behind me and "mops" too. Precious. She has also discovered textas. Nanna has whiteboard that Piper is allowed to play with, only the textas look exactly the same as my (permanent!) markers, so I had to hide all my markers up high once she figured out they were there. (My poor house. Sigh.) I let her draw on the grey walls with chalk, though, since it just rubs off, and she LOVES the freedom of that. She has also gotten a lot better at concentrating on tasks - she can sit and play blocks for longer periods of time, even up to an hour, and not get bored.

We have engaged our lovely friend Kat to come and look after Piper a few hours a week, so on Mondays and Fridays we have Kat Days, where Mama disappears into the back of the house and Piper gets some one-on-one time with someone who is just there to play with her. I am so grateful for Kat, honestly, because I always slow right down when I am pregnant, and this way I can get a lot done without feeling too neglectful. This also helps Piper adjust to the new baby: Kat Days wll stay the same once the new baby comes, as will swimming and playgroup, so the routine will not alter too drastically.

Pancakes is getting so big. She's still biting a lot, but we finally fenced in the back garden so she has LOTS of room to play and that seems to help a lot. It's really a relief I can just open the back door and let her out in the morning. We are still working on getting her NOT to wee on the dining room floor but she just loves that one spot. It's a tough break. But she is a joy and so cute and wiggly. I try and take pictures but literally they are always blurry. ALWAYS. She is just like Piper, wiggly and crazy and cute and fun. :)

And Mr Poppleton is reading and blogging about fountain pens and doing his usual hyper-intelligent pottering around, putting up with my insufferable questions like "do you think this fabric would go with this" and "what if I just bought TWO yards of Essex Yarn-Dyed Linen from Amanda" and "would you please make me some ice cream?" Because he is the best husband ever, he has also been very patient with poor, pregnant me, as I move slower and slower in these late weeks.

Bean (Bump, Slowy, the "inside" baby) is growing apace. Really, I just can't wait to meet this little one. I want to have a newborn again. I am a little worried about the adjustment for Piper - she is so very routine-oriented that when Mr Poppleton took a week holiday and was at home, she was constipated and her naps disappeared and she threw actual tantrums, and SHE LIKES DADDY - but it was always going to be a change. And I'd rather have a rough start than for her to have no siblings at all. That just sounds lonely. She will be so happy in about a YEAR when there is someone to play with all the time. :)

One last thing before I tuck myself in for the night - we use Reeder on our iPhone, iPad, iMac, and MacBook Air (shhh, we need them all for different things) and have heard that they will be introducing a fix/patch to accommodate Google's VERY POOR DECISION to stop Google Reader. If you haven't tried it before, it's a great little app, and I really like it. (I can use it, and I have zero patience with things that take a while to learn.) So there's a thought. I'm not sure what service they'll connect to, or anything really, because I depend on Mr Poppleton to tell me all of this stuff. He is very good. I'll go by what he recommends.

Anyway, goodnight my lovelies, and hopefully I will see you soon - how about on WIP Wednesday? :)

Cheers

Penny xx