busy girl
Friday, March 7, 2014 at 12:01PM
Penny Poppleton in instagram, parenting, personal, quilty catch-up, speech, sydmqg

I often remember to blog as soon as I'm tucked up in bed, and by that point it just seems too hard to get out of bed again and find my camera! Ugh at myself. I'll do a quick update and then talk about something that is very dear to my heart which will get me back on track for blogging!

Picture time. :) (These are all from my Instagram which is where you'll find me these days!)

I joined Hive 2 of the Aussie Instabee and this is my test block for my quilt - rainbow brights and low-volume fabrics for the Trellis block. It's a bit fiddly to make but I'm excited about making my 18 and getting 12 more in the post!

I'm extremely pleased with my test block.

On the last day of "summer" (aka neverending overwarm hell season) it was chilly enough I felt I could bust out my winter hat. GLORY BE!

Last day of summer, and it's chilly enough for my favorite hat. Winter is coming. BRING IT.

I cut out a HST quilt I've been dying to make for ages. Now to sew and slice and press and trim and sew again! No big deal or anything. *cries*

These colors can't be real.

AND! The Sydney Modern Quilt Guild group quilt is looking FABULOUS. This is just a corner of it. We used the Kaffe Fassett Pickle Dish pattern from Quilt Romance. Please buy the book if you're after the pattern - it's the easiest pickle dish pattern I've ever seen and totally machine pieced! I'll talk more about the variations we did over on the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild blog in a few days. :)

This is what 25% of our group quilt looks like :)

This is the stack for one of my show quilts. I am loving it. It's all Michael Miller Cotton Couture and very simple with only five colors (including white) and the pattern itself just sings. I designed it myself and I can't wait to show it off. But for now, a teaser!

Finally cutting this one up - it's from my Monday list!!

In the midst of having to get these quilts done to submit to show, I procrastinated and made a bag. This is a 241 Tote (the third one I've ever made) and it's upsized by 150%. This bag is ENORMOUS. I might try a 125% scaled 241 Tote next time! I will properly blog about this soon, too.

My 10 Gallon 241 Tote is finished! Complete with an iPhone & wallet pocket and a sleeve for my iPod too. :)

I'm not sure if I mentioned this but a few weekends ago I made an enormous quilt top by accident. I had the best AMH fabric, and some Pearl Bracelets and some of Tula Pink's meteors (from Birds and Bees) in blue, and they were stacked up waiting to become skirts. And oh they looked SO good together I made just one block...then another...then ten more...voila, quilt! I used the Hand Drawn Garden gold rose print (Social Climber) as a wide border to frame it, and perfection. Anyway I love it so much I decided it's for me. So I'm backing it with my carefully hoarded Mendocino Kelp Stripe in blush.

There are quilts you piece any old backing for, and then there are quilts which deserve nothing but the best: six carefully hoarded meters of perfect, pale pink Mendocino kelp stripe. #treatyoself

Just as I finished that quilt, a roll of batting arrived! That'll do me for a while. :)

My batting arrived... :)

For my second personal show quilt I'm entering in the modern category. I pulled out scraps and yardage and began making piles...sorting of course by color...

Second personal quilt cut out. My shoulder aches, but tomorrow I have help so I can sew these into blocks! :)

And I picked up my copy of the delectable Quilt Improv by Lucie Summers, gritted my teeth, and began doing something very foreign with my sewing: letting it get a bit crazy. No structure. No plan. Just color, and working in at least half of my color piles. I have three blocks to complete today (purple, green, red) and then I can measure, add the borders, and put it up on the design wall to photograph to submit. Whew.

Getting there! Three left. :)

Meanwhile, I have finished quilting my hexagon mini quilt. I love this thing so much. I finished up the straight line quilting last night and thought, hmm, how do I do those centres? I thought of hexagons...honeybees...beautiful flowers! I didn't bother sticking this on the frame, just FMQ on my Bernina. It's only 31" square and was eminently manageable. :)

It's not finished yet but I couldn't resist taking a picture. I love it!

So that's me all caught up! So far in this post I've promised to blog about the Ten Gallon 241 Tote! I must get tidying the house though, and myself...I just rubbed my ear to find it covered in biscuit. That would be my son, whose kisses are often open mouthed and full of food. But he's so lovely I can't help but kiss him back.

Oh and just as an aside, we have put Piper into speech therapy and I will probaby talk about that a bit. She needs weekly therapy to start but even after one day (and a few tips) I've noticed a positive change. Here's hoping we stay on a good trajectory!

Finally, I am hoping to begin a series on sewing notions and starter skills: what I use, why, where to find it, how it works, and ways to expedite the trickier parts of some techniques. It won't be too fancy, but perfect for beginners - stay tuned! I am hoping to have a weekly update!

Cheers,

Penny x

 

Article originally appeared on write / sew / live (http://pennypoppleton.com/).
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